Disclaimer: Do not own anything
Warnings for child abuse and implied possible eventual rape and dubious consent.
Here's the deal
"Alright, here's the deal," Clarke said, her lack of patience immensely apparent, "I don't want to be here, okay? But because I'm homeless and have nowhere else to go, and because you're all vampires, who can restrain me in seconds? Guess what? I know better than to run for it. So, I'm just going to make do with my situation here." Clarke glared at the vampires as she spoke, after they were done showing her the game room and were in the hallway now.
The vampires all listened, all at attention.
Clarke snapped, still glaring at all the vampires, "You might be hoping I'll be your mate, but right now? I have nothing but disrespect, distrust and repulsion for all of you." Okay, that last part was a lie. She disrespected them, yes. Distrusted them without question. But was she repulsed by them?
She wished she was. But that couldn't be further from the truth.
She didn't know why, but something about them pulled her in. She wished it didn't. But it did.
Clarke ignored how she felt a pang in her chest when she saw the flinches on several of the vampires' faces at her words. Several of them frowned, but said nothing. Others were silent, but Clarke saw the pain in their eyes.
She forced herself to continue talking, "So, here's the deal. You guys keep me here and feed me if you want. But you keep your damn hands to yourself if you want me to remain here and not scream at you and call you every type of insult and cruel comment you can think of. And if you're going to keep me here, then I want every single thing I could ever want to eat brought to me."
This time, she got a few chuckles.
"I think we can arrange that," Pepper said, smiling.
"All the food you could ever want," Tony practically beamed, appearing prideful.
Clarke wondered what that was about, then Tony couldn't hold the words back anymore as he said, "After all, who do you think you're talking to? We've accumulated a lot of wealth over the centuries. We could get you anything you want in the world."
Clarke was startled by this. But she figured, maybe she shouldn't have been. After all, vampires were commonly portrayed in movies as very aristocratic and wealthy, right? At least, that was what she saw on the Internet. Which was whenever she got to Internet cafes, after putting some deodorant and soap on herself that she had bought with the money she'd either gotten from stealing or begging and looked up what she could about movies, since her knowledge of movies was somewhat limited. It more or less stopped at the age of fourteen. So what knowledge she had of the movies, including movies about vampires, were all from things she'd looked up on the Internet.
Steve, Natasha, Pepper, Frank, Maria and Jessica all looked like they sort of wanted to slap Tony for his words. Like Tony wasn't supposed to say something like that.
"What?" Clarke asked, confused, as she looked at the vampires in front of her, and gestured to the six aggravated vampires in question, "Why do you look like you wished Tony hadn't said that?"
Pepper and Natasha both chuckled. Pepper was the one that answered. She said, "We wish that Tony was more discreet about how much money we have. But out of all of us, Tony is the most verbal about it."
Clarke snorted. Sounded like privileged, self-entitled trash, to her, personally.
She might have felt a pull of some type to these vampires, but she distrusted them. But she suspected she was beginning to heavily dislike Tony.
Clarke eyed Tony and clearly he and the others noticed her displeasure.
"Shit," Tony grumbled, "I know that look."
"Yeah," Clint grumbled, "It's the 'I have way more money than almost anyone else in the world, but I probably should keep my mouth shut about that' look."
Tony scoffed as Natasha, Pepper, Maria, Clint, Jessica and Steve all smirked.
"What?" Tony grumbled, not looking like he understood, "She's had a tough life. Now we can buy her whatever she wants."
Clarke tried not to show her distaste. Even if he was trying to be nice, it wasn't appreciated by her.
Because after all the months she'd spent alone and often hungry? The last thing she wanted to see, was seeing someone gloating about how rich they were.
Because that was just tasteless.
It was shallow. And insensitive.
"Tony," Natasha said, reading Clarke's expression easily, "You might want to stop talking right about now."
Tony opened his mouth to protest, but Pepper and Natasha both gave him a look and he shut his mouth quickly.
Thankfully, Carol stepped in, she said, smiling with what Clarke could only assume was her most charming smile, "Sorry about him. He still hasn't gotten the 'it's not cool to talk about how rich I am' thing yet. What he means is, if you need anything or want anything, we'll try to get it for you."
Clarke tried not to snort out a laugh. Carol could try to smooth over what Tony had said all she wanted, Clarke understood Tony's words well enough.
While as far as she could remember, she had never run into the likes of Tony before, men or women who had oodles of money and were happy to display it to the world. Oh, she'd seen those embarrassingly long limousines-embarrassing, because again, a terrible cost of wealth, and she'd seen men walk around in what she presumed, were far too expensive suits than they could afford.
But she never actually believed for a second, that whoever was in those limousines or whoever was in those suits, would be able to afford more than one or two suits or be able to be in a limousine more than one time.
And if they could, they sure as hell didn't display it for the entire world to hear.
The fact that Tony did? Was sort of disturbing for Clarke.
Seeing how Clarke was staring in unease at Tony, Steve sighed and broke the silence, "How about this? We don't have to talk about money or anything like that. Those are all the terms you're setting? If you have more, I'm sure we'll agree to them."
Clarke looked back to Steve, knowing better than to trust that far too innocent looking boy scout face.
But she nodded. She needed to escape soon. But till then, she could bide her time. And during that time, she could make sure that they kept their hands to themselves and that she had the things she wanted.
"Yes," she said, "That's more or less it. You don't touch me. You get me what I want and need. As far as I know, there's not much else," she added, "Except this. You want me to stay where you can find me? Fine. But I need my space. This is all too much. Twenty-one people wanting to be around me, after I've been on my own for six years? You're asking me to adjust to a lot. I need my own space for a while and not have you guys crowd me."
Okay, that part, as well as demanding they keep their hands to themselves, was genuine. Honestly, she wasn't sure how they expected her to adjust, when she'd been isolated on the streets for six whole years.
To her surprise, Natasha, Jessica, Pepper, Carol, Bruce, Steve, Wanda, Sylvie, Maria, Frank, Clint and Laura all smiled, understanding.
"Sure," Carol said, "We understand."
Pepper nodded. "Don't worry, Clarke, we understand that," she said, "And we agree to those terms, right?" She looked at the others for confirmation.
The other vampires all nodded and answered yes. Some of them more hesitantly than others, Clarke noticed.
Hela, Thor, Loki, Tony, Pietro and Wanda, most notably.
Clarke wasn't sure what she was to take away from that. That they didn't want to keep their hands to themselves or that they wanted to share the same space with her and didn't like that she was asking for her own space? She didn't know. But she made a mental note to keep an eye on them.
"There is," Pepper said, "One thing we'd like to know, though." She turned to Clarke as she said, "We agree to these terms. But we'd also like to know something. The people that threw you out onto the streets. What are their names? Where do they live?"
Clarke froze. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.
Clarke sucked in a breath. She didn't want to tell them.
Had she held hate for her mother and the others that had thrown her out, inside her, for years?
Yes. Without any hesitation, yes. Did some part of her want them dead? Yes. But she didn't know if she could deal with knowing that she would have a part in their deaths.
Clarke almost stepped back, seeing how all the vampires stared at her expectantly.
She shook her head. "I'm not telling you that," she answered.
"Oh, no?" Wanda asked, and before Clarke could do anything, she suddenly felt something press against her mind. It was like something was trying to push into her brain.
She gasped, right hand going to her head.
"Wanda, stop," Natasha ordered, looking at the dark-haired vampire sharply, "You do this, and it will be even harder to get her to trust us."
Wanda hesitated, glancing at Clarke, but then nodded and Clarke felt that pressure against her mind, instantly stop.
Clarke gasped, shaking, her eyes wide as she stared at Wanda. "What the hell were you doing to me?" She demanded.
Natasha sighed, "Wanda and Hela are both Draugr. They can invade a person's mind with magic if they want, and pull the information they want, from that person's mind. Or convince a person to do what they want."
Clarke gasped, shuddering as she backed away from the group. And hadn't they told her that not just Hela, but Sylvie, Loki and Thor, were the same type of vampire as Hela?
"It's alright, Clarke," Laura said, trying to reassure the young woman, "We won't allow them to enter your mind against your will."
"No?" Clarke asked, voice bitter, "But you'll force yourselves on me if I don't consent eventually? How the hell is the mind any different?"
She watched them wince and hesitate in any next words, which honestly made her more satisfied than it should have.
Clarke decided to derail them before they could come up with an answer, "Look, I get it, alright? I'm your prisoner. This is a nice prison. But it's still a prison, so, I'm your prisoner. Fine. But those are my terms. And I'm not going to tell you who threw me out on the street. Now, can you tell me where I'm going to be sleeping for…..an indeterminant amount of time."
Clarke avoided saying the word, "forever." But she strongly suspected that that was what the reality was.
"Of course we can, swe-Clarke," Pepper said, and Clarke heard Pepper correcting herself, before she said the full word, "sweetie," and the orange-haired vampire began to walk over slowly, "Let Natasha and me take you to your room. Follow us."
Pepper and Natasha began walking away from the rest of the vampires and Clarke grabbed her things and hesitantly followed them. She occasionally threw cautious glances over her shoulder at the other vampires, but they stayed where they were.
Clarke cautiously followed both older women.
They led her to the room where she'd be staying.
Clarke put her things down and in no way missed that there were a couple of windows in her room. Windows that were part of her room which was on the second floor. But windows, nonetheless.
Clarke eyed Natasha and Pepper, both of them smirking. "What?" Pepper asked, "You think just because there are windows, we'll let you escape? I'm afraid not. There being windows? Won't make a difference."
Clarke glared at them. "You really know how to turn on the charm, don't you?" She asked dryly.
Natasha smirked. "We try," she answered, "But we will bring you anything you want or need."
Clarke nodded. She said, deciding to be polite for now, "Thank you."
"Of course, love," Natasha said, smiling at Clarke's harsh glare.
"We'll leave you now," Pepper said, nodding to the door to Clarke's room, "If that's what you want?"
"It is, thanks," Clarke said quietly, deciding she needed time to think and plan for her escape.
Pepper and Natasha both nodded and left, closing the door. Clarke didn't hear a lock being used on the door, but she had no doubt, whatsoever, that any escape she made right now, would immediately be stopped.
She sighed, dropping down onto the bed, sitting at its edge. She didn't know what to do. She knew that the vampires wanted her sexually.
She wasn't sure how to deal with all of them wanting her. It had been a long time since she'd actually had sex.
Yes, she'd had sex before. What small pieces of information she discovered about sex, before she had been thrown out of her home, was through Internet information. However, two years after she'd been thrown out, when she was sixteen, she had met another street kid. Finn Collins, who was just a year older than her.
Finn Collins hadn't been thrown out of his home, however, he had been a runaway.
He claimed that his father was abusive and that his mother was neglectful. Clarke had no idea if this was true, but she supposed that Finn had to have run away for a reason. So, she believed him.
She and Finn, both street kids, had been very careful when beginning to have sex. They both knew enough about sex to know there was a risk of pregnancy without protection, and Clarke wouldn't risk bringing a helpless baby into this cruel, harsh world.
So, she more or less had threatened to kick Finn in the lower region between his legs if he even tried to get her to have sex with her without protection. Besides, she had no idea where he had been before meeting her and her life was hard enough, without having to worry about picking any possible infections up from him by sex.
With the money they either stole or begged for, they'd buy condoms and birth control pills, ignoring the dirty looks they got from people that clearly were disgusted with Clarke having sex. And yes, strictly Clarke. She hadn't seen any of those dirty looks being cast Finn's way. They were fine with boys and men having sex, but the idea of women and girls enjoying sex, was repulsive to them.
Clarke and Finn would fine as clean a place as any, around some of the areas they stayed, keeping away from prying eyes, and would have sex.
Clarke admittedly had enjoyed sex with Finn. It was fun. Sweet. But that was it.
She had enjoyed it, but some part of her wondered, 'is that it? That's what sex is all about? It just feels 'nice?''
While she had liked sex with Finn, it never had felt special. Not "mind-blowing" like all the stuff she had read on the Internet, either from descriptions or from porn.
She had just figured that it was fabricated. That sex wasn't "all that" like people kept claiming. It was just something people fabricated to sell stuff, and that was why the phrase, "sex sells" existed.
She had assumed that sex wasn't all that pleasurable. Just nice.
That was, until she had begun to masturbate, just out of curiosity. She had pictured the things she looked up on the Internet, before she'd been cast out of her home. She pictured men and women alike fucking her hard, using their fingers, their tongues, their thighs, the men using their cocks, the women using toys.
And it had gotten Clarke off harder than anything she and Finn had done.
Which told her that there were two possibilities. Either one; people didn't consider their partner's pleasure, and didn't care, so, said partners would have to get themselves off. This, from what she had heard, was often the case, if the said partner was a woman and they were involved sexually with a man. Or two; Finn just wasn't that good at sex.
Either way, she was glad they weren't together any longer. Finn wasn't a bad person, but she had been able to tell, even at sixteen, that their relationship wasn't going to last. Finn was just too all over the place. She knew he'd move on. Either to some other young homeless girl, or to some girl who had a home and he might try to win the heart of.
She did, however, hope that he was safe and happy.
Clarke huffed and looked around the room. She didn't doubt that these vampires would know it if she tried to escape. So, she knew she couldn't try anything yet.
Clarke glared at the door, knowing that in the same house as her, there were multiple vampires that were holding her prisoner.
She might not be able to do anything as of yet, but she knew that she had to try to escape. Soon.
Her falling in love with any of these vampires, was not an option.
Back on the ground floor, where the vampires were, and where Natasha and Pepper went back to, they all listened closely to what Clarke did, as they went about the day, getting some food from the fridge so they could make it for dinner later for her and discussing how to go about getting Clarke to listen to them.
And they knew they'd also need to try to eventually, get the names of those that had thrown her out onto the street.
Natasha sighed at some point, "You know, she's going to try to escape eventually."
Tony groaned and nodded, looking put out, both by Natasha's words and by Clarke's apparent rejection of him.
And Laura nodded, face neutral, but the look in her eyes determined and in control, "Oh, I think we could have guessed that."