A/N- Hey, sorry again for the late update. I can't promise to be better but i can try! I have prelims coming up after christmas so revision is key... in other words please be patient with me! i hope you enjoy it! Remember to leave a review!

Minerva is nothing if not thorough.

Under a concealment charm, Minerva silently apparates into the so called "Avenger's Facility." it's a rather plain looking series of oddly angled, boxy buildings and large, open, concrete spaces with lines in between. Albus said it was something like a military compound, but it's unlike the underground wizarding army bases she has visited herself.

All in all, it's not the sort of place she'd expect to find a Lovegood. Although, she frowns, who knows that the girl is like now. After all, Minerva herself has only visited the child once and that was when she was only about two and a half. Sneaking behind one of those muggle flying things (plaits? Heli-poppies?), Minerva quickly takes on her feline persona.

The must be an entrance somewhere.

Padding about the compound, Minerva allows her sense of smell to take over. She doesn't notice the small, hanging on the wall, metal boxes silently following her.

….

Wanda's enjoying this immensely. Who knew that watching a cat on camera would be so entertaining? At first, FRIDAY had notified the group that there was an unauthorised person (that as in someone without a lanyard, thus without a tracker) near the quinjet pads, but upon further inspection… A striped grey cat stalks the concrete, sometimes dashing along, sometimes just ambling.

How amusing.

"Wanda," Vision drifts in. She isn't really doing anything at the moment, just sitting down in the lounge and drinking coffee, "What are you doing."

She smiles to herself, "Oh, nothing."

"I don't understand how this is nothing?" Vision replies, quirking his head.

"Its an expression. I'm still watching the cat from earlier."

"Ah."

He turns silent so Wanda's attention drifts back to the cat. It's gone. She frowns.

"I'm going outside to look for it. Would you like to come with me?" She asks his, holding out her hand. He takes it.

"Of course. "

...

Minerva knows it would be so much easier to transform back and get in via spell-work. But she knows she'd be detected immediately (muggle technology has truly come a long way). Futilely, she gently paws against the door which looks the most normal.

It opens and a two people step out, but one looks more alien than human, with red skin, a glowing gem plastered to his head; the other is a girl, pale skinned and dark haired. Minerva jumps as they step outside.

"Oh look, there it is." the girl says, there's thick accent in her voice. "Should we bring her inside?"

Just to add a little emphasis, Minerva actually purrs and rubs her face with her paw.

"I am not aware if Tony has added any security detail regarding a animals. So I'm sure it will be fine, Wanda."

The girl (Wanda) smiles in triumph and scoops her up.

So far, the people that Luna are apparently living with seem nice.

...

Luna's just packing up her lessons for the day now. She doesn't really feel up to eating with the others today, they've been dancing around her all morning and since yesterday.

She scurries to the kitchen knowing everyone else is usually busy at this time. Bringing food to her room seems like a good option right now. Humming, she skips in (she might ask for some dance shoes actually) and freezes mid-step. Steve's sitting at the breakfast bar eating what smells like a cheese toastie.

"Hi." She smiles.

He gives her an odd look but says it back all the same.

Hurriedly, Lune prepares just a simple ham and salad sandwich and tries to take it back to her quarters. Tried being the keyword.

"Where're you going?" Steve asks, turing around as if making a point.

"To my room to eat lunch." Luna widens her eyes, tilting her head innocently. He isn't fooled.

"You always eat lunch in here."

Instead of replying, Luna simply shrugs, makes a small noise of disagreement and escapes, allowing him to draw his own conclusions.

"Luna-" Steve starts, just as the door behind her is closing.

It shuts. She breathes. Perhaps it would be easier if she just told them.

"Oh shush!" She scowls when she spots a Nargles shaking it's head disapprovingly.

No. She can't tell them. This is her problem and she needs to figure this out on her own before she drags anyone into this.

She takes the back stairway to her room- too many people use the elevator.

And there's also that other thing.

It's common knowledge why the Avengers hate him but... She just can't see it. Well she can... But how could he have changed so much?

Voices interrupt her musings and she rushes the rest of the way.

She stares at her letter and it stares back. She can't really tell but the tiny deformed lion on the wax seal seems to roar silently.

She squints her eyes at it.

She'll give it another week. If she can't figure anything our by then, she'll tell them.

...

For the most part the Avengers are quite kind. She's escaped the grasp of Wanda Maximoff and she's just prowling around now. They're good people, if a little broken. But Minerva knows a little about that having lived through a war.

She freezes when she hears the quiet mutterings of a child.

Could that be...? Carelessly, the door has been left open so Minerva slowly wanders inside. The room is brightly lit with a light that projects a rainbow across the room, the bed is made with bright yellow sheets and there's two simple white book cases and a desk.

The girl that swivels on her chair certainly looks like a Lovegood.

Getting inter her role, Minerva lets out a small, uncertain meow. Luna -or at least she think's it's Luna- jumps and whips her head round, position tense.

"Oh." She says, her posture relaxing into something a little less closed. "Hello there." She pats her lap, "You can sit with me if you'd like. I'm doing something important but I don't mind."

She feigns ignorance for a minute, before taking Luna up on that offer, because it wouldn't do for Luna to realise a cat understands her.

She's looking at that letter, she realises.

Next to it is a pad of lined paper and neatly presented notes which Minerva cannot make sense of. There is a brightly muggle frame lamp which Luna seems to be using to get information. Watching fascinatedly, she observes Luna tap away at plastic buttons and words slowly forming on the frame. Minerva squints her eyes a little. The words "Hogwarts" "Lovegood" "United Kingdom" come up in separate quotations. Once again, Minerva has to remind herself that Luna must not know of her heritage.

Oh she wishes so dearly to transform and just tell her!

But she won't. Minerva's a wise old bird, she knows better than that.

She hops off Luna's lap and slinks her way out the door- she's seen enough.

….

Currently, Minerva is lying curled up on Wanda's lap when she sees Luna enter the room with Vision- who is an Andoot? Andrio? She doesn't quite understand it- in tow, giving her the perfect time to escape. She picks herself up, but at Wanda's words she hesitates to leave.

"Are you ready to begin, Luna?"

"Of course I am."

Minerva's curious now. And when Wanda and Vision get a glass of water and place it in the center of the room four feet away from Luna, she watches intently for what happens next.

"Okay Luna, we've got a new challenge for you." the older girl says, "You must try and remove the water from the glass without breaking the glass." She smiles fondly, "Or touching it!"

Luna smirks back but doesn't speak. Instead she closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths before opening them again. Minerva watches avidly. When the glass begins to shake a little, Luna stops, a bead of sweat forming.

"It's alright, I've got this… I just need to think of a better-" Her eyes are lit up and she forces her attention back onto the water. One by one, tiny droplets begin to form above the water, hard to tell except for the faint shimmer in the air. The process takes about five minutes, and by the end, Luna is exhausted.

Minerva however, is awestruck. Such control for such a young age, without a wand or proper education no less! She can't wait to tell Albus. It's also a relief that she already knows of her magic; as exciting as it is to explain the concept, it also grows tiring.

But it also makes her a little uneasy. Who knows if they will even want to accept Hogwarts, surely they'd prefer Ilvermorny. Who even knows if that practice was safe? Sure she'd seen people do wandless and nonverbal magic before, done it herself too, but she had extensive magical training!

"I'm a bit tired now, could we do something a little easier?"

"Sure," Wanda replies, "but first tell me what you were attempting the first time?" Luna nods, explaining that she had been trying to levitate all the water at once but it had been to uncontrollable. "Maybe we could work on that tomorrow?"

"Alright."

Soon, Minerva zones out, it just looks like they're just meditating so she takes the time to escape, the andood(?) has already left.

….

They're arguing again. There's also a fucking cat in the room but that's not important at the moment. "Alright," Natasha says. "I agree, she's a kid, she needs to be treated like one and so she can't stay in here for the rest of her life. But we can't just send her away, they're still looking for her remember! Pepper said there was almost a hack into the Stark industries Archives. I know it might not be connected but even so they're still looking! Unless we sent her off to Africa or something. And even then it isn't safe! She can't control her powers fully yet. I know it may seem like she can but her outburst was only a few weeks ago!"

Tony grits his teeth at her, hands fidgeting, pacing the room. "Well what do you want, huh? One moment you think she should leave and as soon as I start to agree you want her to stay… and then I agree and you suddenly disagree! There are no solutions. We both know that I don't trust her cos she could still be freaking hydra and she's dangerous. And we know that there is nothing that will benefit anyone without any consequences! So what do you want?"

She shrugs, biting her lip and looking down. Honestly, she has no clue, everything feels out of her hands right now and she doesn't like that. She just wants things to be in order but she can't figure out how.

"I know. And I'm sorry. I just- thing don't seem… right at the moment. I want to fix it."

"Well, so do I." Tony retorts back after an uncomfortable silence.

"I'm gonna go train." She says back quietly. She'd rather not deal with this just yet. He doesn't say anything but she does hear him muttering about Wanda and cats as heads for the training rooms.

It isn't like she doesn't think Luna can survive on her own, out in the real world. She knows that Luna can, easily. But she knows that Luna can't truly live out in the real world. Because Natasha's been trying for years and she still doesn't know how.

She hears a small meow and the cat's light padding, following her.

….

The others, Natasha notes, are already in the training room, even Luna who's practicing with daggers. Training is the one time she can become Natalia again, in a controlled environment. Because, underneath all these layers, she still feels like her. Not cold blooded killer Natalia or Black Widow; Scared but slightly smug Natalia- who she was born as, literally. And no. It's not as though she's proud of what she did back then(she isn't, hating is an understatement), but she values what she learned, even if she doesn't like (again, understatement) how she was taught.

"Luna! What happened with lunch?" she says with narrowed eyes, "Steve said you were in you room?"

Luna nods slowly, which Natasha recognizes is to buy her a little time. "Yeah. I was doing a little more studying." she smiles back.

It's not the full truth, Natasha knows, but she won't push.

"Anyways," Natasha hums, fiddling with the objects behind her back, "I bought you something from the city."

As always, Luna nods as though all knowing. "I've already seen the cat."

"It's not that." She chuckles a bit before bringing the unwrapped gift in front of her. "Figured you might appreciate these?" she begins unsure. A few years worth of SHIELD Secret Santas and birthdays under her belt and she still feels awkward giving presents. Luna just stares at them and she can't tell if it's good or bad. "I-I mean," okay, she never stammers, "I knew this might have been too soon or-" She's stopped because Luna's hugging her. It only lasts a brief second because the pulls away with a peck in the cheek and saying "Thank you."

It's a relief.

"I was getting a bit out of practice, you're right!" She beams.

"Yeah well I wasn't sure if they were still doing ballet or if they'd moved onto contemporary or tap or something."

The point-shoes are placed at the corner of the room and Natasha suggests they just begin sparring. Luna's been getting better everyday.

"So, FRIDAY teach you anything new today?" She begins as she blocks a punch.

She doesn't need to warm up.

….

Out of the two, Minerva can't figure out what's worse. That the Avengers have been experimenting with her magic, or that she can hold her own against highly trained combatants without magic and that she's one herself. It's as though they've bee trying to turn her into one of them, and Minerva won't stand for that.

As she leaves the compound to apparate back to the American inn (sneaking out is easier than getting in it seems) she feels herself getting a bit fond of the girl. She can't help but feel sorry for her. Frowning furiously, Minerva knows she has a lot to tell Albus. A lot she can't seem to make sense of herself.

A/N-Hope you liked it and again... i must beg you to review... Pretty please?

-Mercia xx