Avengers: Jr. Stark (Avengersxteen)

Chapter 10

I woke up unusually early for a Sunday morning. Despite my efforts I was unable to fall back asleep so I resorted to stealing Thor's pop tarts...again. I groggily stumble down the to the kitchen to find Steve and Bucky already up and ready. I roll my eyes. How the hell are they already ready.

"Good morning Jr." Steve greets me with his usual chipper voice.
"Hey Steve." I respond, my voice still laced with drowsiness.
"You okay there Jr?"
"Well Steve not everyone is a fucking morning person like you." Bucky grumbles angrily.
"Well one LANGUAGE, and two getting up early isn't going to kill you."
Bucky just grumbles in response. "Where the hell is Wilson? I wanna get this run over with."

"I'm right here robo-cop calm down." Sam says strolling into the kitchen. They all said goodbye and left for their run. I sit on the counter picking at the pop tarts lost in my own head. 

"Доброе утро маленький уьийца." Nat says from the doorway. (Good morning little assassin.)
"Утро Нэт." (Morning Nat.)
"Ты в порядке?" (Are you okay?)
"Прекрасно." (Fine)
"Ты Уверен?" (Are you sure)
" Да я уверен." (Yes I'm sure.)
"Хорошо Просто Проверка." (Okay just checking.)

"Normal mid guardian language please." Thor asks as he strolls into the kitchen.

"Do you mean English Thor?" Nat asks.
"Umm yes I believe it is English you are speaking of. Whatever language you're using right now."
"That would be English Thor." I say.
"Okay, just please stick to it." He begs. Nat and I just laugh.
"Lady Stark are you eating my pop tarts?"
"Well maybe."
"You're lucky I'm quite fond of you Stark," he lowers his voice so Nat can't hear, "I'm also scared of Lady Romanoff. She would beat me if I ever took back my pop tarts."
I just laugh causing Thor to frown disappointedly. "Don't steal my pop tarts again." He says crossing his arms and sticking his tongue out.
"I don't see your name on them." I say and almost instantly regret my choice of words. Thor proceeds to grab every last box of pop tarts and put them on the kitchen table. He they opens each box and very carefully writes his name on every single foil wrapper. He sat there with laser focus and his tongue sticking out ever so slightly while concentrating.

I turn back to my half eaten pop tarts and start to pick at them.
"You're gonna need more than that to eat if you're gonna be my training partner later." Nat says.
"Hehe yeah. I'll be fine. What time were you thinking?"
"1:45?"
"Deal I'll be there."
"До встреча." (See you then)

I absentmindedly continue to eat when I suddenly here "DONE!" From behind me.
"Lady Stark come here!" Thor shouts excitedly.
"Thor you know I hate being called that."
"Fine, Jr come here."
I get up and head over to Thor.
"There now my name is on ALL of the pop tarts. They are mine." He says proudly.
"But Thooooor. You easily have over 30 boxes of pop tarts here. Can we share?"
"No."
"Pleeeease?" I ask with puppy eyes.
"Alright alright I guess it wouldn't hurt to let my niece have a few pop tarts." He says smiling.
"Thanks Thor!" I say hugging him.
"Speaking of pop tarts are you going to finish yours?"
"Thor you have 30 boxes right here you're not finishing mine."
"No no I meant aren't you still hungry?"
"No really I'm good. I usually don't go overboard on breakfast anyway."
"Okay if you say so."
I give Thor a weak smile, clean up my breakfast and head back to my room. I got to lie down and not even 10 seconds later I hear a knock on my door.
"Come in." I call.
"Hey Jr." dad says sitting on my bed.
"Oh hey dad."
"How are you? And I don't want to hear I'm fine because I know that's anything but true."
"I'm good dad how are you." I say smiling.
"I know that's not true."
"Well you told me I just couldn't say the words I'm fine. Tell me what it is you want to hear so I can just say it please."
"Jr. I just want the truth. Honest."
"I've been better I've been worse, can we just leave it at that?"
"Well it's better than I'm fine so it's improvement."
"Hey are you guys hungry I'm making breakfast." Pepper says sweetly from the door.
"Oh honey that sounds wonderful, don't you think Jr?"
"I actually already ate breakfast but maybe next time. Thanks for the offer Pepper."
"Well I'm going to have breakfast, you should come join us Jr."
"I'll be down in a few dad."
Dad gets up and leaves to go get breakfast. Instead of heading to breakfast I go to the lab to tinker. I'm just like my dad in the sense that I heavily rely on the lab as an escape from reality. I could easily sit in there for hours just tinkering with the delicate pieces of metal. I sit down in my chair and just start randomly assembling something. I don't even know what I'm doing, just whatever feels right in the moment.

I spend a few hours in the lab before I run to change into training gear. I meet Nat in the gym at 1:40.

"You ready?" She asks excitedly.
"So ready." I say even though it was a total lie. I had on long sleeves to cover my cuts, my head was pounding and my mind was somewhere else completely. We start with sparring, something we both excel in....usually. It takes me a few minutes to fully loosen up but eventually I get in the zone and end up taking Nat down...almost. Every time I would get close to pinning her or moved too quickly sharp pain shot throughout my head. This headache was killing me.
"Are you okay Jr? You seem distracted." Nat asks concerned.
"Yeah yeah I'm okay, I just should've gotten more sleep that's all."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes Nat I'm sure."
"Okay, at least have a drink." She says handing me my water bottle. I gulp it down graciously before wiping my mouth and waving Nat over to the mats.
"Jr you don't look so good, maybe we should take a break."
"Nonsense. Cmon, scared I'm gonna pin ya?"
"Well you've yet to do so today so." Nat retorts smirking. I just roll my eyes. As soon as Nat steps onto the mat I pin her down. We continue for another 10 or so minutes and I end up pinning her multiple times despite my distractions. It was now 3, we had been sparring for over an hour and I was exhausted. We were on our final match when Bucky walked into the gym holding Bear.

"Hey Bear." I say smiling. In my moment of distraction Nat pins me down and I slam my head onto the mat. I bite my lip to stifle a scream. The whimper was so quiet Nat didn't hear it but rest assured Bucky and his heightened hearing heard it.

"You okay?" She asks.
"Never better." I lie. She helps me up off the mats and we start to run instead. I was exhausted and decided to let Bear run in my place instead. Normally Nat would push me to train but she could tell something was off.
"You okay doll?" Bucky asks approaching me.
"Yeah I'm good. I think I'm just gonna grab a drink and then shower and probably crash for a bit." Bucky just nods. I head to my room and step into the hot shower in attempt to relax my muscles. When that didn't work I resorted to cold water to try and cool myself off. After my shower I flopped on my bed and was passed out until dinner.

"Jr come on dinner is ready." Nat calls from the other side of my door.
"Go 'way I'm sleeping."
"Jr come on you've barely eaten anything all day."
"Nat I'm tired." I basically whine.
Nat opens the door and walks over to my bed.
"Come on jr, just at least come downstairs. Everyone's worried about you."
"Tell them they don't need to be."
"You know it's not that simple. C'mon."
I reluctantly follow Nat to the kitchen with the whole team sitting around the table. I sit next to Sam knowing he will be too engrossed in the conversation to notice me slipping my food to Bear.
Everyone starts talking and laughing but I couldn't help but feel disconnected. Even though I was right there with them. I swirl my food around my plate pretending to eat and when nobody's looking I slip a few pieces to Bear. He accepts them happily and licks his lips in anticipation of more. After everyone finished dinner and went their separate ways I took Bear for a walk with Peter. He and I always loved watching the New York sunset. After heading back I immediately went upstairs and fell asleep not bothering to talk to anyone.

This continued for the next couple of weeks. I only ate when I absolutely had to, most of the time that was in front of the team. What I couldn't feed to Bear I would throw up in the gym bathroom. Since I've always worn hoodies and sweats it was easy to cover the fact that I was slowly fading away.

One Friday morning upon waking up early and not being able to go back to bed I silently crept down to the gym. I turned on the treadmill and started running as fast as my legs would let me. I saw Sam and Steve enter the gym out of the corner of my eye but I paid no attention to it.
"Morning Jr." Steve calls from the boxing ring. I just give a weak smile in response and continue sprinting. My vision starts to go blurry from the lack of food and I can tell I'm going to trip up shortly. Steve and Sam ask me something but I'm too out of it to hear their questions. I tried to stop for a millisecond but because the treadmill was going so fast I ended up flying off the back of it and slamming my head on the wall. I fail to keep in a groan of pain as my vision goes in and out with black dots dancing in my line of sight. I see the fuzzy figures of Steve and Sam rushing towards me before I pass out.