Hello, wonderful readers! I finished this chapter a bit earlier than expected and wanted to waste no time posting it. Therefore, voila! New chapter! :)
So... 130 reviews, 175 favorites, and 250 followers. Like. Wow. Thank you all so much for your support. You're the coolest cats. This is amazing! A special shoutout to all of you who've favorited and followed, and of course, a big thank you to Saint of the Sinners, dorkycorky88. and WriterandDaydreamer4218 for their reviews! Thanks again for being so amazing, everyone. Love ya, mean it!
Also, Ant-Man was amazing. EVERYONE GO SEE IT! I might have a little tribute to it in my next chapter... Not much, just a little...
Countdown to end: 3 chapters.
Have a MARVELous day, everyone!
"I am never letting you out of my sight again, Esca Rarity."
Esca just laughed at Pietro's exasperation. Sure, her left arm and wrist needed a cast and her stomach had a giant purple soccer-ball sized bruise on it, but she wasn't dead.
"You are overreacting," she replied, rolling her eyes. "Calm down, mom."
Pietro groaned and slapped another hand to his forehead as the others all laughed.
It was a single day after the incident in the street; upon hearing what had happened, almost everyone was either impressed, shocked, worried, or a combination of the three. Pietro had even gone so far as to message Clint about what happened, and the archer insisted on having a video chat with Esca to be certain she was okay.
Steve, meanwhile, was incessantly smothering her with blankets despite Esca insisting that she was perfectly fine, but thank you Steve. The captain apparently felt guilty for her stunt, as he believed that she had been his responsibility whilst out on the walk.
It was at that moment when Bruce walked back into the common area. He had done an X-ray of Esca's arm earlier in the morning in order to determine if she had any fractures or breaks. The cast had been a precaution beforehand, but now came the real verdict.
"Well," declared the doctor, clapping his hands together. "The good news is: nothing's broken or fractured."
"What's the bad news?" asked Pietro.
"The bad news is she'll have to keep that cast on for a few days or so. Her left wrist is sprained. Not torn, luckily, but the sprain isn't something to wave off."
Esca nodded and sighed. "Drat. I want to get back to my cooking."
That made James and Bruce laugh. The doctor shrugged helplessly. "Sorry, Esca, but you'll have to wait for a while, unless you want to get back to cooking with only one arm."
"That sounds okay with me," she murmured, raising an eyebrow. "Anyway, I want French Toast. I never got some yesterday. Who wants to come with me to get that cinnamon? And coffee?"
"No," declared both Steve and Pietro at the same time. The two exchanged looks before smirking at one another. It was Pietro who took over next. "I don't care who goes to get the damn cinnamon, but it won't be you. You're under house arrest."
Esca sighed and narrowed her eyes. "Maybe I'll just go anyway."
"I'll stop you."
Esca grumbled under her breath about how irritatingly overprotective he was and guess what, Pietro, I still haven't quite forgiven you for getting super drunk even if you were super sweet yesterday and by the way we still need to talk.
Steve laughed at her malcontent expression and volunteered, "I'll get some. Does anyone need anything else?"
There weren't many suggestions, as Esca was the one who knew what the Tower needed, more so than Tony or even Pepper. With a short list in hand, Steve said farewell and left to grab the groceries for the Tower.
Once he was gone, there was a short silence. The Avengers simply glanced at one another, as no one was quite sure what to do. Unnerved by the silence, Esca rose and gathered the ingredients for French Toast before asking if anyone else wanted anything.
This, luckily, got the ball somewhat rolling; Esca soon had a request for scrambled eggs, bacon, and apple waffles. Since she had all the ingredients necessary for these three things, Esca quickly began making the breakfast foods, never mind the fact that it was actually lunchtime.
As Esca was cooking and awaiting the cinnamon for the French Toast, the others began chatting. Wanda was talking to Vision and Thor about showing them the Harry Potter movies, Natasha and Bruce were sitting next to each other on the couch, his arm around her shoulder, James and Zelda and Pepper and Tony were all laughing about something…
And Pietro was walking toward her.
"Anything I can do to help?" he questioned.
Esca glanced across everything she was making and shook her head. "I don't think so, but thank you for your offer, Pietro."
He glanced at her for a moment before finally nodding. His gaze lowered to the counter he was leaning on before exhaling and murmuring, "Esca Rarity, I—would like to apologize. For what happened the night before last. I know there is no excuse; it was my choice to drink as much as I did. What I said was rather heartless, and I understand if you are still upset. I just thought I'd ask for forgiveness, even if I don't deserve it."
Hearing this, Esca sighed and couldn't help but smile halfheartedly. "I thought about being mad at you for a while, but honestly, I cannot stay mad at you for too long. Consider yourself quite lucky," she added with a short chuckle.
"Don't worry, I do," mumbled Pietro. His tone of voice made Esca laugh—a question then popped into her head.
"Pietro?" she asked. "I just realized something… how did you know I was hurt yesterday morning? How did you find me and Steve?"
Pietro blinked and glanced back down at the counter. "Natasha told me you two had gone to grab some groceries. I wanted to try and use the opportunity to talk to you."
Esca looked at him sideways; the explanation was certainly sound enough, but there was something in his voice that bothered her…
She never got around to it, however, because at that moment, Steve returned, looking thoroughly disgruntled.
Esca immediately thanked him for helping out with buying the items, but he uncharacteristically ignored it. Instead, he glared at something in his hand—before Esca could ask what it was, he tossed it toward Tony and grumbled, "Your mail's here, Stark."
Tony caught the rolled up paper easily and glanced at what it was. He blinked once or twice before opening the paper—it was a magazine, Esca recognized it now—and promptly bursting into laughter.
"What is it?" inquired Esca, peering over to get a good look. She caught a glimpse of the title page and froze.
It was a picture of her, sprawled against the ground, slumped up against Pietro and Steve. Her eyes were open, and there was blood pooled around her.
Esca frowned. "I wasn't bleeding," she declared.
"No, you weren't," agreed Steve, still grumpy. "But apparently these journalists decided to take some liberty with the story. And of course, the actual story isn't what they focused on…"
"Then what did they focus on?" questioned Esca.
Before she could ask more questions, Tony handed the magazine to Esca. "Here you are, blondie. Knock yourself out."
Frowning still, she opened the paper. The main picture jumped out at her—Esca wondered if she'd really looked like that, so small and beaten up. Then she remembered it was probably Photoshop… She skimmed the article below.
At first, it didn't look misleading at all. There was an accurate summary of the events the previous morning: the boy's puppy running into the street, the boy following, Esca helping stop the car. There was even some correct speculation that she was part of the Avengers, and that she had powers along with some of the others in the group.
But after that was where everything went sour.
"They're really just going to skip to who I'm dating?!" she burst out, her face red.
"What?" exclaimed Pietro, budging over to read the article as well. A frown appeared on his face as he read the paper; he soon looked as sour as Tony did whenever the Tower was fresh out of Moscato.
Esca put a hand to her head and read one of the paragraphs out loud: "Concern for the newest addition to the superhuman group, the Avengers, runs rampant throughout New York. Many are taking a great interest in the girl: where she came from, who she is, and who holds her heart. Some speculation has been made saying that the patriotic figurehead, Captain America, is a close friend of hers. Arguments have been made, however, that another of the Avengers' newer additions, Quicksilver, is even closer than Captain America."
At the end of her reading, Esca shoved the paper away from her in disgust. "It's like personality doesn't matter anymore. Nowadays it's just about who's dating who. Ridiculous."
"Quicksilver?" repeated Pietro, looking confused.
Tony laughed. "I may or may not have helped spread that around a bit."
Pietro groaned and slapped a hand to his forehead.
"How did the press find out about me only now?" pondered Esca aloud. "I've been here for a year, give or take. They're a bit behind the times."
"That's because when we helped the people of Sokovia, we kept those matters quiet," replied Tony, shrugging. "Pepper kept the matter under the radar, so that meant no press, no fans, and peace and quiet. It was rather nice… We just leaked out a little information about three kids from Sokovia joining us as a group. We didn't let them know much about you three, or else the press would've been all over you."
"Well, they're certainly having a field day now," sighed Pietro, rolling his eyes. "It's annoying."
Thor chuckled. "Worry not, my friend. I am sure they shall leave you alone before too much longer. Do not give them a reason to bother you, and they shall grow tired quickly."
Esca grinned. "That's exactly what I plan to do, Thor."
"That means no missions," declared Steve, raising an eyebrow.
Esca froze before glancing back at the captain. "Drat," she exhaled, slumping in defeat. "Does it really?"
The captain nodded. "You get a choice: the press, or the simple life."
It took a couple seconds for Esca to figure out what she'd rather do. "I'll take the press," she declared with a final nod.
Steve looked shocked. "Is that really the case, Miss Esca? Why?"
"I'd rather help you guys with your missions, help people, and be interrogated than sit in this Tower, waiting for word of what's going on, who you're fighting, and how. All my life, I've wished for a simple life. Now, I realize I'd rather have a meaningful one. And the way I'll achieve that is if I truly earn my stripes and become an Avenger… that is, if you'll have me," she added meekly, gazing up at the rest of her friends.
Each of them gazed at the others; small smiles began being passed around. Until finally, everyone automatically turned to Pietro.
Seeing everyone's attention on him, Pietro raised an eyebrow. "What, am I the deciding factor for this?" he asked.
"You'd certainly be the first to protest if you were against it," remarked Bruce mildly.
Pietro sighed and looked at Esca, who was gazing at him eagerly. Finally, he seemed to succumb. "All right. Fine. You can be an Avenger. But I'm training you myself too."
Esca grinned and threw her good arm around him for a hug. "Thank you!" she gasped. "I wouldn't have taken no for an answer anyway, but it's good to know you're okay with it!"
Pietro glared at her for a moment before his gaze softened, and he wrapped an arm around her. "I'm still not letting you out of my sight," he added, if only for good measure.
With this, Esca grinned and pulled away before lightly grasping his pinkie finger with hers. Almost instantly after she did this, however, she remembered that she had food cooking on the stove, and she rushed to finish it before the food burned.
Once it was all rectified, Tony sauntered over and, giggling incessantly, plopped down three more magazines that all had the same exaggerated cover picture. With a childish grin on his face, he declared, "Look at these."
Esca frowned. "I don't have to. They're all speculating about whom I am dating."
"Yep," answered Tony complacently. He looked over his shoulder at Pietro and exclaimed, "Better step up your game, Maximoff! Most of these people think she and Cap are a thing!"
Pietro narrowed his eyes and cracked his knuckles in a mock threat.
Steve saw this and chuckled. "Pistols at dawn?"
"You bet your ass."
Esca burst into laughter and almost dropped the plate of bacon on the counter, knowing that they would never do anything of the sort. They were a bunch of jokers, after all—with this in mind, she served everyone their food.
And of course, by mid-afternoon, the tabloids were completely forgotten.