Hey, guys! I hope everyone (if you live in the USA) had an amazing Fourth of July! Lots of fireworks were fun... and they gave me a chapter idea, hehe. ;) If you aren't in the USA, I hope you had a spectacular Saturday!
Per regulations, a big thanks to MissMarvelousFanfic, Saint of the Sinners, and my Guest for their reviews! You guys are great! Thanks for your comments!
And of course, THANK YOU to all my readers, followers, and favoriters. You keep the story going, so thank you so much!
Some of you probably know of the poll on my profile asking me what to post next... I'd like to make sure everyone who wants to vote has done so! So here's your reminder: I'd like to write something that people will enjoy; your opinions are important! Vote on that poll! *insert thumbs up emoji here*
And that's all I've got for today, you lot. Have a MARVELous day! :)
Although life in Stark Tower remained normal for a few months, one day, Clint had to catch a flight to the farm where his family lived. His wife was in labor; once the baby was born—a healthy boy named Nathaniel Pietro Barton—he announced that he would become more of a guest at the Tower as opposed to a permanent resident, though he promised to visit.
Although Stark Tower wasn't exactly the same without Clint, Esca still felt right at home. She and Pietro were officially dating, and Tony was certainly giving them a hard time about it, even though he meant it in the most loving way. Or so he said.
Throughout the winter, Esca's relationships with everyone grew deeper. She loved each and every person in the Tower, and she had finally told them all about herself, as she was no longer afraid of losing any of them.
Pietro had been right upon saying that they only respected her more. Steve and Thor especially seemed to hold Esca in higher regard after she relayed her tale.
At long last, winter was over. Soon, it was April 7th, Esca's twenty-first birthday. On that day, she woke up surrounded by Tony, James, Pietro, Steve, Bruce, and Thor as they sang a horribly out of tune "Happy Birthday" song.
At first, Esca thought she was dreaming—but when it was apparent she was not, she burst out laughing before leaping out of bed to give them all giant hugs.
"This is only part one of a many part surprise," explained James, grinning. "Here comes part two."
Right on cue, Zelda, Pepper, Natasha, and Wanda entered the room, wheeling in a giant box. Esca's eyes widened seeing how huge it was. "Oh, you guys," she sighed. "You didn't have to do anything…"
"Nonsense," said Steve, pulling her forward for a big hug. "We wanted to." With that, he kissed her hand and said, "Now go open the box."
Esca grinned and tiptoed toward the package. It was beautifully wrapped, complete with the stereotypical big, red bow. She carefully undid that, but the moment she grabbed the lid of the box, it positively flew off.
Esca shrieked and jumped backward into Pietro's awaiting arms as Clint emerged from the box, shouting, "SURPRISE!" He had a cake in one hand and a huge grin on his face as he jumped forward and enveloped Esca in a hug.
Immediately, Esca forgave him for the terrible fright he'd given her. She was glad to see Clint again, as he'd been away for three months now. "Clint Barton!" she gasped, throwing her arms around him. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"
"Sorry blondie, but I wanted to make a dramatic entrance," he laughed. "I wouldn't miss your twenty-first birthday! You're like my little sister; I wanted to be here for you."
She grinned, tears of joy welling up in her eyes. Before she could say anything, however, Clint exclaimed, "Now someone cut this cake. Let's have Esca taste what we made for once."
Steve, however, just chuckled and said, "Only a few of us worked on the cake. The rest of us—"
"SHHHHH!" came a resounding chorus from Tony, Pietro, and Natasha.
"Capsicle, you'll ruin the rest of the surprise!" exclaimed Tony, although he didn't seem very bothered.
Esca raised an eyebrow, but she didn't say anything for the sake of said surprise. She watched as Thor attempted to cut the cake—unfortunately, his godly strength accidentally caused him to cut through the entire plate.
Everyone laughed good-naturedly as the god shrugged and handed the knife to Pepper.
None of the Avengers tasted the cake until Esca had the first bite; she was astounded by how delicious it was. It was her favorite: strawberry with vanilla icing.
"You guys," she sighed, gazing up at them with a humongous grin on her face. "You may be the strongest agents of the entire world, but I am certain you have the biggest hearts."
This made everyone smile—Clint picked her up and sat her on his back as if she were getting a piggyback ride. "Yeah, well, you're worth going the extra mile for, blondie," he said, to which James and Pietro raised their plates of cake and shouted, "Hear, hear!"
Tony did the same. "I think everyone agrees—after all, you make us food. And it's delicious." Tony's eyes glazed over, reminiscing about all the dishes she'd made.
Wanda put a hand on Esca's shoulder and exclaimed, "You'd better get dressed. We have a big day planned for you!"
Esca nodded and told everyone she'd be ready in ten minutes. Satisfied, the Avengers tromped out save Pietro, who kissed her lightly and said, "Happy birthday, Esca Rarity."
She didn't get a chance to respond before he zoomed out, as always.
With a small grin, Esca quickly changed into the dress she had worn on her first "date" with Pietro—pink with white stripes.
In ten minutes, Esca was downstairs, she was so excited. As it was, the others must have been too, because Esca could only grab her sunhat before she was ushered out the door.
The day proceeded perfectly—she was brought to one of the tour boats where she got to closely see the Statue of Liberty, which was something Esca had been dying to do. They had a good time simply eating and laughing and talking; Esca couldn't keep a ginormous grin off her face when she saw Bruce wrap an arm around Natasha's waist. As it was, she nodded contently. It was about darn time something happened with those two, she thought.
Afterwards, everyone brought her to the bookstore, where Steve insisted that she let him buy her a book, because he really wanted to get her a present but he didn't know what kind of books were her favorite.
At this, Esca laughed and exclaimed, "Any book is my favorite," and at Steve's thoughtfulness, she planted a kiss on his cheek.
The day went on, and apparently the group had to organize something back at Stark Tower, because it was established that Esca would be with a few people at a time. Clint insisted that he and Natasha would take the first shift; they wanted to bring her around Times Square. She had a wonderful time marveling at the splendor of the place.
Next, Steve, James, Zelda, and Tony brought Esca to go see a bit of a Yankees game. They were playing the Texas Rangers—Tony bought Esca a Chris Young jersey; despite the fact that she was wearing a dress, Esca put the jersey on over it. Zelda then bought a giant wad of cotton candy for them to share, and Steve and James teamed up and eventually managed to catch a foul ball for her.
"You guys are going to spoil me," she giggled, trying to juggle the cotton candy, the baseball, and a Yankees hat that Tony had just purchased.
"You deserve it, Esca," said another voice. "After all, you have made the twelve of us breakfast and dinner each day, without fail." Esca whirled around to see Bruce and Thor coming towards them. Seeing her happy shock, Bruce explained, "We're it. The rest of you are being summoned back to Stark Tower."
Another three hours progressed; Esca spent half of that time with Bruce and Thor at a gorgeous art museum, and the other half with Wanda and Pepper, shopping around the Big Apple. But at last, it appeared everyone was ready for her to return.
With her shopping bags in hand, the three women returned to Stark Tower. Instead of letting Esca meet everyone in the common area, however, Wanda insisted that Esca change into a formal dress.
Esca hurried to change into the dress, seeing as she wanted to know what was going on. She quickly tied her hair into a somewhat elegant knot before rushing downstairs.
When she arrived, her mouth dropped open. The common area had been transformed from a casual lounge to a club—colorful lights shone restlessly around the room, the bar was sufficiently stocked, music was playing from some speakers in the ceiling, and a wonderful home-style dinner was on the table… but no one was there.
"Hello?" she called, wondering where everyone was.
She heard something move, and Esca turned around—"ACK! PIETRO!"
He just laughed and dipped her close to the ground; although Esca knew he wouldn't let her go, she scrambled to be upright again. "Pi—Pietro!" she gasped. "I have two perfectly functional legs! Please let me use them!"
There was more laughter at this comment, and Esca realized that everyone had been hiding somewhere in the room. They finally emerged, however, upon hearing that Pietro had successfully pulled his ridiculous prank, and they gestured for Esca to sit down.
Bruce, Thor, Vision, and Steve all grinned and exclaimed, "We did most of the cooking for dinner. The others contributed to the ambiance or the cake."
"We almost blew up the kitchen," interjected Vision with a smirk as he gazed at Bruce and Thor. "It took time to convince these two that Steven and I knew what we were doing."
Esca laughed at that—then they began to eat. There was roast beef, baked macaroni and cheese, mixed vegetables, and country-style foods that Esca had had limited exposure to in the past. She delighted in the opportunity to experience it, however, and repetitively expressed her thanks to everyone in the room.
"Enough gratitude, already, blondie!" exclaimed Tony after a while, throwing his hands to his head as if she was physically hurting him. "We wanted to do this for you! Right, guys?"
There was resounding agreement throughout the room.
Once dinner was over, the Avengers all guided Esca to a corner of the room, where a few wrapped packages sat. She stared at them for a minute, bemused. "What's… going on?"
Zelda looked dazed. "They're presents, Esca! Haven't you ever gotten presents before?"
Esca blinked. "No. No, I haven't…"
Steve, seeing how moved she was, immediately threw an arm around her shoulder. "We wanted to make this the closest to a real birthday celebration that we could, so we got you presents, Miss Esca. It's an honor to treat you the way you deserve."
She smiled and shakily brushed her hair behind her ear. "You guys are… seriously the best people in the entire world."
Bruce smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. He was quite fatherly as he handed her one of the gifts and smiled, "Go ahead, don't be shy, Esca."
It took a while for Esca to open the gifts, because she didn't want to ruin the beautiful ribbons or completely tear through the paper. She was extremely touched to see that these were for her… Natasha and Clint had given her a pocketknife, Bruce and Tony gifted her a miniature robotics kit, Steve bought her the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings, James and Zelda presented her with an old vintage record of the Beatles, Thor gave her a recording of Asgardian music, and Wanda, Pepper, and Vision promised to take her to the Central Park Zoo—they knew Esca loved animals.
When Esca stood up to thank everyone, she felt something cold slip around her neck. She gasped and shivered, but heard Pietro murmur, "Hold on—one moment—stupid clasp—there. Got it."
She blinked and lightly touched the necklace she now wore. It was a small, silver book, but as she took it in her hands, she realized it was a locket.
Esca opened it; inside was a picture of her and the same people who were in the room with her now. She blinked and noticed, on the back of the locket, an inscription: Family.
She stared at Pietro for a moment, overcome with shock. She honestly had no idea what to say, because she knew that a simple "thank you" wouldn't be enough.
As it was, he just brushed a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear and said, "I know."
She nodded, tears spiking her eyes, and threw her arms around him, burying her face into his shoulder.
Once she retreated, Esca began to give everyone hugs—but suddenly, Tony gasped in recollection and rushed over to the bar. He returned with a glass of red wine and handed it to her. "Now that you're twenty-one, you can't use the lame excuse that you aren't of age!"
He quickly served some more glasses of red wine to everyone else; even Vision, who had no special liking for the beverage. But he took it anyway at Tony's insistence. Then the billionaire turned to Pietro. "Maximoff, would you care to do the honors?"
Pietro grinned and swung an arm around Esca's waist. "I'd be honored to." He glanced over everyone assembled, shrugged, and said, "What is there to say about Esca Rarity that you don't already know? She's one of the greatest people we've been fortunate enough to meet. She's strong, smart, and sweet. I think it's safe to say that we all love her a great deal more than we sometimes admit. But that's why we're here tonight, isn't it? To Esca Rarity—without whom, I might add, I wouldn't be alive."
And he raised his glass; the rest of the Avengers quickly followed suit. Esca was staring at Pietro, trying to refrain from letting happy tears spark her eyes. As it was, when he looked at her, she quickly kissed his cheek before wiping her eyes and drinking from her glass, if only to get Tony off her back.
Satisfied that she had drunk the wine, Tony bellowed, "Now let's get this party started!"
The Avengers laughed as he cranked up the music, the lights, and rocked the dance floor, a martini in his hand. Seeing Esca, he rushed forward, seized her hand, and shouted, "I get first dibs on the birthday girl! Sorry, Maximoff!"
Pietro shook a fist at him, but Esca could tell he wasn't actually mad. She was glad for that, as she was busy laughing as Tony swung her around like the madman he was deep inside.
Seeing this, the others followed his lead, demanding their own dances with Esca, one after the other. Meanwhile, Esca herself had never been happier, as she was with her friends.