My Doctor Strange Story set in another verse, where Tony and Pepper are married, but I am suddenly totally wanting Elice and Claire to meet. They'd be awesome friends!

Warnings for familial abuse (physiological) and some heavy talking.

Tony is sort of making light of the fact that Steve was punched, but it is because Steve is fine, he's not saying Steve deserved to be hurt.

I do not own the Avengers.

TapTap

"Could she have been abused somehow? I mean..." Pepper closed her eyes for a moment, as if gathering her thoughts; a hand unconsciously resting on her stomach, shielding the baby from the mere thought of anyone harming this little girl.

"She could." Natasha's voice was calm, but there was a slight hint of something darker underneath the surface, as if she was actively struggling to stay that way. "There is no manual, after all. Making a completely accurate guess is not possible. People are different. However, her behaviour isn't typical for that of a violent assault for some kind, or for that matter, that of a forgotten child who grew up lost, perhaps in the system. Those usually don't grow up to be engineers, either, but, again, she could be."

"I think she lost her mother a long time ago." It was Tony who spoke, surprising everybody with his words. "She loved Claire a lot, clearly, and Claire still misses her. I don't think she knows herself that she uses the past tense, but she doesn't speak like there's a new wound. And she's young, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was in her pre-teens, doing the maths."

When no one answered, just looking at Tony in surprise at his apparently delicate handling of something sensitive; not calling someone out on a painful matter, he continued instead. "She can be jumpy, too, and at first, I just figured I take some time to get used to, so... Then, while she still didn't like unexpected sounds or movement, she would relax when she realised it was just me, so I knew she didn't have trouble with me being, you know," he shrugged, "me. And you know me - it isn't exactly against my character or anything to be sorta loud, so I started loudly announcing my presence by just saying my internal monologue out loud, as I usually do when alone in my workshop. It helps me think, and Claire sometimes has at least as useful input as Jarvis, and far less snark. So I sort of forgot why I started doing it..."

"Forgot why you were doing what? Have you been soldiering while half asleep again, because you know what we said about that!" Naturally, that was Claire's cue to enter, stepping into the room with her hand bandaged and splinted so that the bone could heal in peace.

"Spoke aloud. So that you'd know where I was." No one else in the room would have said as much aloud, but Tony did. "You can be a bit jumpy. Which I can be too, fine, after a four-days-inventing-stay-up sort of deal, but you know. When you're awake. And not on caffeine." The last sentence was uttered with the complete befuddlement of someone who couldn't do anything while not on caffeine.

Claire snorted in response. "I figured that out on my own, you know. No sneaking up on you when you're tired or working. It is sort of obvious. Speaking about working..." She grimaced. "Will I get fired? I sort of assaulted somebody, and I cannot do my work for weeks!"

Again, Tony cut everybody more nuanced off before they could even open their mouths. "He had it coming for sneaking about the workshop, come on, you just explained yourself why that isn't allowed! And of course you're not fired. You can work just fine. Your main task is to keep me from driving Pepper insane, remember? You'll do great. And don't change the subject. You're jumpy and now I wanna know why!"

"Thanks." Claire moved to the fridge, only to grimace as she realised she couldn't make sandwiches with one hand. Bucky and Steve immediately came to her rescue, making her blush and step out of their way. "Thanks," she repeated, and when she then caught the expression on Tony's face, she shrugged. "I have a phobia for men. It's not complicated."

"I am a man," Tony objected, somewhat less nonsensically than he sounded, it must be admitted.

Claire rolled her eyes as she poured her milk into a glass Bucky had already sat down on the counter. "Yes, but I know you! You're not scary. Well, to me, anyway," she allowed. "If I was a rival inventor or a supervillain, I might have another perspective. I don't like having men I am not really sure of around, it is just... look, it isn't anything traumatic or anything, I just didn't have any male role-models when I was a kid. Not any good ones, anyway, my father's family is the kind which still thinks women should stay at home and care for kids and grandmothers. My tech obsession wasn't very welcome, either."

"Wait, wait, wait," Steve was frowning over by the counter, making enough sandwiches for all of them. "I carry you to bed all the time. I did that before you'd even properly met me!"

"Yeah," Claire responded, still staring at the opened cocoa packet. "I was so freaked out when I woke up in bed that first time after falling asleep in the workshop on Tony's couch. But my clothes were all untouched and everything and it was so obvious neither one of you had done anything or..."

"We'd never!" this time it was Bucky who spoke, and he was obviously shaken.

"I know," Claire promised. "I realised that really fast, don't worry. It helped that I just sort of assumed you two were already a thing, too."

"You've let me carry you to bed after that, though," Steve pressed.

"Yeah, but you're 'my' guys now," Claire argued, finally looking up, making rabbit ears with her functional hand around the word as she spoke. "I am not scared of you! I know you!" she said again. "That in the lab was instinct. I was startled, and besides none of my guys sneak!" They were all silent and listening to her now, slightly puzzled but also curious.

"Steve knocks on the door frame and waits until both Tony and I have seen him, and usually until Tony invites him in. Dumm-E beeps when he is near me ever since I shrieked at him that one time, Tony speaks engineering talk at full volume or sings nonsense for himself - just because he can, I think - Bruce mumble-hums for himself wherever he is when he is thinking - or working or cooking - and Bucky taps his metal arm into the work benches as he passes them to make sure we hear him coming. I guess he knows how silently he walks. So when I just suddenly felt a hand at my shoulder, I panicked!"

In the resulting silence, everyone being quite baffled after that, Clint suddenly noted blankly, "I sneak."

"Yes, but you're not one of my guys. You're scary." Clarie didn't sound disturbed, even less so scared, as she turned back to making chocolate milk, finding that Tony had already added the chocolate for her, and was now grinning victoriously at Clint.

"You're scared of Clint?" Bruce was frowning. Possibly he was not used to being the less scary person in a room. Any room, really.

Claire shrugged again. "Usually not very, he is always high up as well so it is really easy to make sure Steve or Bucky is between us two..."

Clint's, "You know I'd never hurt..." was interrupted by a thundering, "Has he ever done anything to you?!" from Steve who was suddently glaring daggers at Clint.

"A phobia is an irrational fear...!" Claire said loudly, effectively silencing all the crossing remarks in the kitchen, which had suddenly grown quite loud, making them all fall silent again.

"Clint hasn't done anything. He is male, that's all." The young engineer's voice was decidedly firm. "And I don't know him as well as I do the rest of you. It is just unintentional sexism on my part, don't hold that against him. That is utterly unfair."

"We're not holding it against you, either." Bucky handed a sandwich to Claire, and gave his next one to Clint. "Just let us know if we need to do something to help you, and we will make sure not to sneak about and scare you again."

With that, the discussion seemed closed, and Pepper and Natasha sat down by the counter to speak about the colour scheme of their new shared suite, keeping an eye on the guys fussing over Claire. Not because they thought that it was wrong or strange or worrying or anything, but because they knew how that lot could overwhelm just about anybody, not that it seemed to be needed. Claire was leaning on Steve and Tony, eating with one hand and answering Bruce's questions in between the bites. They still wanted to talk more about this - they had to - but for now, things were alright. She was fine.