Dislcaimer: Not mine!1
A/N: I hope you like this chapter, I just finished writing it at 2:13 a.m. so appreciate that fact. Smooches darlings.
Chapter Thirty-two
It was later that same day that Niki, Rora and David were in the game room of the tower playing video games and whatnot that Tony had laying around the room – some of which were not even out of the packages yet. Niki wanted a chance to talk alone with her sister or get to know the new version of her but she didn't want to seem too pushy or desperate, besides her sister had her own life to live which included a boyfriend (Pietro), a new father figure (Tony), and a whole bunch of friends and people that she saw as family. Niki felt a bit jealous over the fact that she could have those relationships with them and that she could interact with them with ease; she wanted to have time with her sister and to be able to talk to her like they once did but she didn't want to interrupt the life that Norah was living now. She wanted Norah to want her to be in her life, she wanted Norah to want to include Niki in her life and her new family and circle of friends.
David looked sideways at Niki and knew the look that was on her face and gave a sigh while he helped his daughter play one of the more kid-friendly video games that Tony Stark had, "Why don't you just go find her and talk for a while, without your mother. It's obvious that you want to." David said to Niki quietly so that their six year old daughter couldn't really hear what they were talking about, she was mostly distracted by the game she was playing anyways at this point thankfully. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind. It looked like she missed you just as much as you missed her." He pointed out to her.
"I know, I know I should but I don't want to barge in on whatever she's doing." Niki said with a heavy sigh and then gave a grimace when she saw the knowing look that was on her husband's face at the moment. "Okay, okay I know she won't care if I go and barge in on whatever she's doing unless she's doing bedroom stuff with Pietro," she said with a slightly disgusted look on her face (Norah would always be her baby sister as far as she was concerned). "But, I just don't know how to talk to her anymore. She's definitely not fifteen years old anymore whose all into skulls and death metal music and is goth. I just feel so awkward and weird now trying to talk to her, at times it feels so painful and weird to talk to her and almost like the conversation is forced. I just don't know." She said with a frown, biting at her bottom lip.
Looking at his wife, David gave her a look of understanding and reached over and grasped her hand and lightly kissing the top of it. David understood more than anyone how much it meant for Niki to be able to reunite with her sister after being separated for so long and after searching for her for so many years without any clues to where she may have gone; that phone call inviting them all to New York was one of the best days of Niki's life and David was happy for her to have this chance. He knew how desperate Niki was to have a relationship with Norah, not just a friendship but a sisterly relationship like the two used to have before Norah ran off after her Mutant powers were revealed.
"Niki, you just need to talk to her, spend time with her or go and do something with her." David said to his wife. "I'm betting she's feeling like you are, not sure what to say or how to act."
Hearing that Niki knew that David was right, that Norah was more than likely nervous and feeling weird about talking to her once again after not seeing one and another n so many years but she just couldn't force herself into getting off her ass and finding Norah and asking her to go do something. Maybe have a girl's day with her, Rora, and a few of the other females that were in the tower. Something, anything to ease the weirdness that they had at the moment.
Just as Niki was about to open her mouth to reply to David the door to the game room opened, and speak of the devil, Norah walked in with a wide smile on her face as she greeted them. "Hey family!" she said, a playful glint in her eyes as she took in Niki, David and Rora.
When Rora heard her aunt's voice she shot up from the couch she was sitting on with her parents and ran over to Norah with an excited, "Auntie Norah!" she said and without hesitation threw herself into her long-lost aunt's arms who deftly caught her with only a small grunt of surprise.
"If it isn't Aurora the great!" Norah said playfully as she swung Rora around for a moment before putting her back down on the ground and bent down and kissed Rora on the forehead. "Having fun?" she questioned.
At that Rora nodded enthusiastically, a wide ear splitting grin on her face. "Mhmm. I've never seen so many games in my life that wasn't at a store!" she said. "There's so many!" she said.
"What?! How many is so many?" Norah questioned her niece with a dead serious look on her face, as if she was asking what the meaning of life was.
While Norah and Rora were talking Niki couldn't help but feel her heart soar at seeing her daughter and her sister interact with one and another, it was a sight that she thought she would never have the chance to see. Rora reminded Niki so much of Norah at times, how imaginative and stubborn she was, how plain old weird her daughter could get which she blamed on channeling her aunt Norah (even though Niki and David both were odd individuals themselves).
"So," Norah said as she looked between Rora and Niki, a secretive smile on her face. "I was wondering if you guys wanted to join me for a girls day out," she said and then sent David an apologetic look. "No offense David, I mean I'm sure you'd be awesome at doing the girls day thing but I figured it wasn't your thing." She said to him.
David shook his head, "No, no. I am more than fine not joining in on that particular outing." He said to her.
Norah gave a small amused laugh, "You can probably go see Tony and play with his computers and shi….stuff." she said catching herself from swearing in front of her niece. "So if that's something you guys want to do, I'd love it if you'd come. I mean who doesn't like the Zoo, everyone loves the zoo no matter what age they are. I go there at least a few times a month, sometimes I make Tony go or my friends from upstate New York come and we have a day hanging out." She said and then looked at her niece with puppy dog eyes as she crouched down to her level. "So what do you say Rora? You, me, your mom and Wanda all go out on a girls day to the Zoo?"
"No mom?" Niki asked as she looked at her sister curiously.
Shaking her head, Norah stood back up, "No. She wanted to talk to Tom." She said flatly, not very particular about talking about the man who donated half her genetics to her. "Is that a yes? For both of you?" Norah asked as she looked at Rora and then at Niki, a hopeful look in her eyes.
David looked at his wife with a knowing look that said 'told you so' and then nudged her in the shoulder, "Go on. I'll be fine here and like Norah said, I'll go and see Tony in his lab or something. Talk computers and technology, geek stuff." He said making Niki give a small snort of amusement at that statement.
"So, is that a yes?" Norah asked looking at her older sister hopefully as she bounced on her feet, looking very much like a little kid.
Rora stuck out her lip and clasped her hands together in a pleading fashion, "Please, please, please, please can we go? Pleeeaaassse!" she begged.
Unable to help herself Niki gave a laugh at how similar both Norah and Rora looked at the moment, both sticking their lips out at Niki and looking very much like little kids which Rora was so she had an excuse to look like that but Norah was a twenty-two year old adult who was six months away from turning twenty-three. It was nice to see that some of Norah's personality didn't completely disappear. She may have been goth and anti-social but Norah had always been a bit playful and childish at times.
"Okay, yes we'll go." Niki said, a genuine smile directed at her younger sister and at her daughter. "I just need to go get my purse and mine and Rora's coat's and then we're ready to go." She directed towards Norah.
"Awesome," Norah said to her. "I'm gonna go get Wanda and we'll meet you down in the common room in like fifteen minutes? Is that okay?" she asked.
Niki nodded, "Yeah, fifteen minutes is fine." She told her.
"Cool beans!" Norah said and with a wave goodbye she ran off to go find wherever Wanda was at the moment.
Once Norah was gone Dave looked at Niki with a knowing look on his face to which Niki just rolled her eyes and shoved him in the shoulder a bit.
~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Common Room/ Kitchen : Norah, Wanda, Niki & Rora ~_~_~_~_~_~_
"No."
Norah shrugged into her green leather, asymmetrical moto-jacket and then turned to Tony with a raised brow, crossing her arms under her chest. "No?" she questioned unhappily at him.
At the moment Norah, Rora, Niki and Wanda were getting ready to leave the tower but the second Tony realized what was going on he tried to put his foot down on Norah leaving considering Cho still said she needed a week to heal up to going back to her usual routine. Basically, Tony was acting like an overreacting and overprotective father and was taking things way out of proportions.
"No. N.O. No. It's an easy word to understand Norah, I'm sure you've heard it a few times." Tony said to her as he crossed his arms in a similar fashion to Norah and faced her challengingly.
"No, you don't understand Tony." Norah said, a smirk spreading across her face. "I repeated what you said to give you time to reconsider what you said and change what you said to something less stupid and idiotic." She said to him with a pointed look, showing that she was not amused by him telling her that she wasn't going to be going out to the city with her family and Wanda.
While this was going on Clint and Steve were watching from the kitchen Island with rapt attention and Pietro was lounging on the couch watching some American sport but now was watching the standoff between Norah and Tony with a smirk, it was the most interesting thing to happen all day.
"Mmmm, yeah, not gonna happen. Not changing my mind on the subject Norah." Tony said to her stubbornly, planting his feet in place. "So you better turn your butt around go and do something else because you aren't leaving." He said to her stubbornly.
Rora looked between her aunt and Tony and then looked at her mom, "We're not going to the zoo?" she whispered sadly, her lip quivering a bit and a look of disappointment taking over her face.
Niki wiped at the tears that were trying to form in her daughter's eyes, "Trust me, your aunt will win this argument. We're still going to the zoo. Trust me." She said with an encouraging smile.
"Yes," Wanda said as she looked down at Rora. "I will make Tony let us go if your aunt is unable to convince him. I make you that promise." She said to her.
Sniffling a bit, Rora nodded at Wanda and then looked back at Norah.
"Tony!" Norah said loudly as she stepped forward threateningly. "I'm going to go out in the city, I'm going with my family and Wanda to have a girls day – sorry Clint, you were't invited this time –" she said off hand to the archer who gave her a sarcastic look. "And," Norah said looking at Tony again. "We are going to have a great time and you will not complain about us doing it. I have been stuck in this tower for a month straight and I am so sick and tired of being here. I need to get out of here before I start to get violent." She said to him and crossed her arms with a huff.
At that Tony raised a brow back, "You aren't already violent?" he asked with a joking smile on his face.
Norah narrowed her eyes, "Fine. More violent." She amended. "But I am leaving Tony. I need to get out of here, I mean being stuck inside for so long was bad enough and not to mention that I missed Halloween. My favorite holiday!" she exclaimed as if it was the worst thing possible to happen in her twenty some years. "So I am going and I am going to have fun damn it. No one will be able to stop me." She said to him and then turned to her sister, niece and Wanda and gestured towards the hallway that led to the elevator that would take them to the bottom level.
"Uhh, no." Tony responded.
Giving a look of annoyance Norah turned towards Tony once again, "Don't make me threaten you with the hover board incident Anthony. What would Pepper say?" she asked to him sweetly, a smirk on her face as she looked at him.
He looked at her appalled, "You wouldn't." he said, shaking his head at her.
Norah gave him a pointed look, "Wouldn't I? I mean things get forgotten when a person ends up being locked indoors for such a long time, promises broken when they feel like they're being caged like a criminal." She said to him with a shrug, an expectant look on her face as she waited for him to respond to what she just said.
"What's the hover board incident?" Clint asked, genuinely curious about this at the moment.
"Nothing!" Tony said immediately before Norah could open her mouth and explain it, he looked at Norah and then made a shooing motion. "Fine, go. Go and do whatever it is you girls do on girls day. You little demon." He grumbled and looked at her unhappily.
"Love you too dad!" Norah said to him as she gave him a quick hug. "Bye!" she said and then quickly went to give Pietro a quick kiss which she didn't give him time to respond to and then grabbed Niki, Wanda and Rora and basically dragged them down the hallway towards the elevator.
While they were heading down to the lower level so they could walk to the particular street that Norah said they needed to go to that had a bus that would get them and take them right to the entrance of the zoo in the Bronx, Niki recalled that while arguing with Tony that Norah had called him dad. She knew that Norah thought of Tony as a father, she may have not said it right out but it was obvious from the way that Norah talked about that man that she cared deeply for him but she didn't think that her sister would actually call Tony Stark dad. It was…weird. Something else that Niki needed to get used to, she loved that Norah had someone that was like a father to her but it was just weird, odd, unusual to hear her referring to someone like that that wasn't their sad excuse of a father.
"How exactly are we paying for the bus?" Niki asked, never having been in such a big city before. "Is it like Minneapolis with a transit card thing?" she asked.
At that Norah nodded, "Yeah, metrotransit card. Now come on, let's get to it!"
"ZOO!" Rora said in excitement, happy that she gets to spend time with her mother and aunt, and Wanda seems pretty interesting too.
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Once the girls had left Pietro leaned back into the couch once again and looked over at Tony with a raised brow, a shit eating grin on his face over what had just transpired. "Did you think saying no would have worked on her, Norah too stubborn for that. She would not be afraid of kicking ass for say that to her." He said as he looked at him.
"Shut up speedy." Tony grumbled as he meandered over to a chair and plopped himself ungracefully into it.
"Technically he did get a verbal ass kicking." Clint pipped in as he continued eating the sandwich he had made for himself before Norah and Tony went toe to toe.
All Tony did in response to that was grumble unhappily and cross his arms over his chest like a petulant child would when he didn't get his way, which Tony was definitely a petulant child a good portion of the time.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Tony said with a flippant wave of his hand at Clint.
Steve shook his head at Tony, the man was definitely overly arrogant and could definitely be an asshole at times but Steve would say without skipping a beat that Tony was loyal to those he cared about and was protective of those that he loved unconditionally. He may not have been all that fond of Tony Stark when he had first met him and still butted heads with him once in a while still, but he was a good man underneath all of his arrogance and his needing to flaunt his money. From what he's heard, Norah and Pepper have calmed him down and made him better that what he used to be which was a downright arrogant ass who was an alcoholic. Thankfully that's mostly untrue now, especially the alcoholic part.
Deciding a change of subject was in order, Steve looked at Pietro. "When are you going to take that Norah on a date?" he questioned which gained the Sokovian's attention. "She's one hell of a gal you gotta admit and she deserves to go on a date by you, don't you think?"
At that Tony groaned helplessly, "From one horrible subject to the next." He said but Steve, Clint and Pietro ignored his snide comments.
Pietro furrowed his brow at what Steve had said and thought deeply for a moment before he responded to him, "Norah is very….different girl from any I meet before, she deserves to go on what you call date. But I have problem doing that." Pietro admitted, a bit ashamed.
Seeing his hesitance Clint urged the kid, "What? What's the problem?" he asked.
"I do not have money to take her on one." Pietro said as he got a dark look in his eyes and crossed his arms, wishing that he had some form of money, even if it was just enough to take Norah to get a coffee down the street, anything like that.
Clint gave a small smile, "I'm sure she doesn't care about you spending money on her but spending time with her, besides," he said with a cheeky grin. "A charmer like you, I'm sure you'll be able to think of something date worthy to do with her." He said to him encouragingly.
Tony looked over and glared, "Nowhere near her bedroom." He iterated.
When Tony said that Pietro glared at him; he and Norah have not been dating for that long and both agreed to take things slow and at their own pace. Pietro truly cared deeply for Norah and wanted time to get to know her as a person before he and Norah had sex, he would wait for however long Norah needed him to. That didn't mean that they couldn't explore each other in other ways, just no having sex until they were certain that they were at that point in their relationship.
"What should I do?" Pietro asked. "I do wish to take on date, but cannot do many thing without money." He said as he looked between Clint and Steve curiously, he knew that Tony wouldn't really be much help in that department.
"Pietro," Steve said as he looked at the young man. "I don't think she cares about having money spent on her, she never has and I really doubt she ever will. She wants someone who pays attention to what she says and what she likes, someone who will put effort into the date rather than spending a lot of money on it." He said to him.
Clint looked at the kid with an amused smile. He may have sort of/kinda hated the kid and his sister for a while because of what Wanda had done to Natasha but he's gotta admit that the twins were pretty decent people and were just put into a bad situation. He thought that both Wanda and Pietro were good for Norah, it was good for her to hang out with kids who were around her own age and yes, she did have friends who were her own age but the ones from Xavier's were busy with X-Men stuff so didn't have too much time to visit, her friend Francheska 'Frankie' was working in Europe and the others she wasn't too close to really.
"All right kid, here's a few tips but you gotta come up with your own idea…." Clint said and began to help Pietro think of something to do for a date with Norah while he had no money at the moment.
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Bronx Zoo : Norah, Wanda, Rora & Niki ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~
They have been wandering around the zoo for about an hour and a half already and Rora was having the time of her life looking at all of the animals in the Zoo, some of which the Zoo's in Minnesota didn't have or at least the one's in the twin cities. They had animals but they didn't have many one's that were from Africa like the Bronx Zoo had. While Rora was looking at every single animal that they went past and pointing them out, Niki, Norah and Wanda made small talk with one and another and commented on the animals to Rora when she said something to them.
Wanda could tell that both Norah and Niki were still feeling awkward and uncomfortable around one and another which was not surprising; the two have been separated for many years and had only been reunited the previous day. It would take time to get accustomed to one and another once again.
"This was good idea, coming to zoo. We do not have animals like this back in Sokovia." Wanda said trying to make the conversation flow more easily.
Hearing that Niki looked at Wanda in shock at that bit of information, "What? You've never been to a zoo before?" she questioned.
Giving a small smile Wanda shook her head, "None like this, ours have local animals, animals from Europe and Eastern Europe and the Middle-East if lucky. We were poor country, there was war and fighting. We did not have time for many luxuries or money for it." Wanda explained with a sad smile before shaking the melancholy mood away. "I am here now in America, with my brother. I am happy for that and thankful. I can experience many things now." She said.
Finding out about that small tidbit of information about Wanda and her twin kind of made Niki a bit depressed and made her thankful for the life she had, made her realize that she and Norah did not have that bad of a life compared to some other people who grew up in countries that were fighting and at war all of the time. Perspective.
"I'm sorry." Niki said to her apologetically.
At that Wanda gave a shrug, "It is fine. That is life that we were meant to lead, we turned out fine in the end." She said with a small grimace, helping Ultron did not count as fine but she was not going to reveal that to her newest friend's older sister.
Looking at Norah, who Wanda noticed was being pulled along by her niece she gave a laugh. Norah may be new to the whole aunt thing but she is taking to it well and letting Rora drag her all over the place and pointing out all of the animals and the ones that she liked the most and that looked the fluffiest and cutest ever as Rora said. But Wanda decided to interrupt the two and walk with Rora so that Norah and Niki could talk a bit, even without using her power she could tell that the two still had something or another to work out with one and another.
"Norah," Wanda said as she walked towards the blonde haired woman. "I will walk with Rora, I wish for her to tell me about all these animals I do not know." She said as she looked down at the six year old. "If that is all right with you? I do not know much about these animals, they look so strange to me." She said to her, she knew what the animals were but just wanted to give the sister's time to bond.
Rora just nodded and took Wanda by the hand and began to drag her along like she had previously been doing with her aunt who now was walking besides her sister instead at a much slower pace than Wanda and Rora were at the moment. For a while the two just walked in silence with one and another, sure they had talked and reconnected yesterday and talked about how much they missed one and another but that did not mean that there wasn't going to be weirdness for a while.
"This shouldn't be weird." Niki said suddenly to her sister after a while of it being quiet between the two of them. "We're sister's, we knew each other for fifteen years before you….ran away." She said in frustration and ran her hands through her hair. "I love you, you're my baby sister and I will always love you and god have I missed you, yet things aren't exactly like they used to be and I hate it. I want to talk easily like we used to, to talk about anything and everything but it's just not happening."
Norah gave a tight smile and sighed quietly, "It can't be like it once was Nic, at least not right away. Things happened to me that you guys won't be able to understand and that I can't even begin to explain." She said without elaborating too much. "I've seen things and been through a lot, it's been almost eight years which is closer to ten years than five. That's a long time to be separated from family. It's a decent amount of time for someone to change and I have changed Niki. This is weird for me too, it's weird and awkward and just all around ugh." She said to her.
"I know, I know things are different now. I get that after everything that went down that it's hard to let us back in. And I feel horrible as a sister for not defending you or protecting you or hell, offering to let you stay at my place when mom said all of those things about Mutants. But I didn't." Niki said, angry at herself for what she made her sister go through alone because she didn't want their mother angry at her all those years ago.
"No, no you didn't." Norah responded back sadly.
Looking at Norah, Niki could see how much her not doing anything back then hurt her and that hurt Niki in return. "I'm sorry I didn't do anything, I can't change it and I wish I could. I hate that things are awkward and that we can't talk as easily as we could before, I wish I would have been there for you during the hard times, I wish I could have let you know that I still loved you no matter what. I want to be sisters like we used to, I want to talk and gossip and watch really bad horror movies and eat cheap pizza and make root beer floats. I want that all again Norah." She said to her, looking at Norah hopefully.
Smiling, Norah leaned into her sister and pulled her into a side hug, "Niki, I miss that too and we'll get there but it's gonna take time like I said. I don't blame you for everything or the fact that I felt like I had to run away but you didn't say anything and that hurt."
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry about that." Niki said in return to that information.
"I know," Norah said to her. "I know and I do forgive you, but we need to build back up to our sister relationship. I want to do things with you and talk with you like we used to do too, but we need to hang out and do day trips like this to get back into the swing of things."
Niki grinned at that, "I'm more than okay going on day trips in New York, going to foodie places and Museums." She said as she bumped her hip against Norah's and walked a bit faster so she could keep her eyes on where Rora and Wanda were, she trusted Wanda with her daughter but New York was a big city after all.
Norah gave a laugh in response, "I'll keep that in mind." She said with a shake of her head and went on to enjoy the rest of the day with her sister, niece and newest friend.
~_~_~_~_~_~_~~_ Author's Note ~_~_~_~_~_~~_~_~~_
So, what did you think? I wanted some more interaction with Norah and her sister so there ya go!