Nothing For Me

Part 2

2012
You were turning 11 this year. Natasha, as you learned she went by, was always a phone call away if you ever wanted to talk--since your sperm donor was obviously no help. You had recently had to call her due to your period starting, which you weren't expecting to happen for at least another 2 to 3 years. Needless to say, it freaked you out and regardless of your smarts, nothing could have prepared you for that.
Nat took you shopping for what she called, 'lady items'; bras, pads, tampons, anything a girl could possibly need. She also taught you how to shave if you ever wanted to. She specified that you should never feel forced to do it because 'people need to normalize women having body hair. It grows there for a reason.' And you totally agreed with her on that by the way.
There were a few times when she'd let you in on minor S.H.I.E.L.D secrets even though it was quite unnecessary seeing as you could hack your way through it all no problem. That's how you found out about the Avengers Initiative. You couldn't agree more with what was said about Tony.
Through your hacking and research of the initiative, you 'met' Clint. It was through a video call. He had invaded your girl-talk with Natasha. The three of you were practically best buds now. You'd go to Nat for advice or just when you needed a sister to talk to. You'd go to Clint when you just wanted to let loose and talk about absolute nonsense.
-
It was another lovely night in Stark Tower for you--please note the sarcasm. You were bored out of your mind. Natasha had been on an undercover mission and Clint was busy at the base; something about the Tesseract. You thought they should've just left the thing alone; let fate take its course. Some bad things were going to come with them messing with something they had no knowledge about. They're joining a game without knowing any rules and are pretty much destined to lose. But, hey. What did you know?
Pepper and Tony were probably in the common area, sucking each other's faces off. Despite how much you disliked Tony, based on your experiences, you couldn't deny the fact that they're pining was absolutely annoying, disgusting, and cute all at the same time. You were just glad it was over honestly.
Pepper was an okay person to you. There was nothing you found super nice or mean about her that was prominent to you. She'd greet you on the quite rare occasion the two of you would cross paths and would start the casual small talk ("how are you?" "I'm fine, what about you" "Good, thanks for asking."). She probably thought you were a live-in intern or something like that. With how much she tries to doctor Tony's life, you'd think she would try to fix whatever nonexistent relationship between the pair of you, but nope. That just added to your intern theory.
You were reading a book on quantum physics, when your personal AI, M.I.A(miraculous intelligence assistant)--that you did in fact create yourself--notified you that someone had overridden Stark's systems and gotten into the elevator. Just because you didn't leave the room doesn't mean you weren't nosy.
"Who is it, M?"
"Agent Phil Coulson, from S.H.I.E.L.D.," M.I.A. spoke in her smooth voice. "Would you like to listen in on what they are saying?"
"Is that even a question?"
Jumping out of your beanbag, you went to the center of your room, where M.I.A had pulled up footage of what was happening in the common room.
"Security breach," Tony turns to Pepper. "That's on you."
"Mr. Stark."
"Phil! Come in," Pepper greeted. Since when were she and Agent Coulson on a first-name basis. You'd have to look into that.
"Phil? Uh, his first name is Agent."
"Come on in, we're celebrating," the red head invites. This was getting more interesting to you by the second!
"I can't stay."
"Which is why he can't stay."
Phil ignores Tony and starts to hand him a file.
"He doesn't like being handed things," you muttered.
"I don't like being handed things." Called it.
"That's alright, 'cause I love being handed things, So, let's trade," Pepper says. She hands Coulson her glass of champagne, takes the file, hands Tony the file, in return taking his drink.
"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday," the billionaire said.
It was quite obvious Phil was over his jokes and that he was here for a much important matter.
"Is this about the Avengers? Which I...I know nothing about."
Both men ignored Pepper. "The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify."
That was a nice day. Finding out what they said about Tony had been nothing less than amusing in your opinion.
"I didn't know that either," the CEO said. She sure does have the best cover-ups, doesn't she?
"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others."
"That I did know."
This whole thing was odd to you. Why were they trying to put together the Avengers when the whole idea was tossed?
"M, pull up the most recent S.H.I.E.L.D files on the tesseract and the Avengers Initiative."
The AI did as told, and you scrolled through all of them. You saw things on Thor, Clint, Natasha, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, and lastly your sperm donor. Looking at Thor's file, you found something about his brother Loki. And looking at his name, you saw his connections to the tesseract and everything had clicked. Loki had the thing and was definitely going to do something evil with it.
-
Both adults in the house were gone. Such responsible ones they are. Tony left earlier the next day and you honestly couldn't remember when Pepper left. Now, here you were in your safe haven, trying to figure out what in the world Loki would want with the tesseract. There's probably no way for you to figure it out since you weren't where all the info was, actively investigating. But what you didn't understand is why would they leave you here when such a threat was hanging in the air.
You knew Tony didn't necessarily care for you, but he couldn't forget about you, right? Natasha wouldn't forget about you. Clint wouldn't forget you. Right?
-
It's been two days. Two fucking days, and no one had come in or out of this building.
You were currently pacing in your room, while your AI--not even a fucking person--was trying to comfort you.
"Does no one answer their fucking phone anymore?"
"I'm pretty sure there is a reasonable explanation as to why no one is answering."
Out of nowhere, you heard commotion from outside. Rushing over to the window and moving the curtains, you saw these alien things coming out of the sky. You ran out of your room and made your way to the nearest set of stairs as quickly as you could.
"Ah, the little Stark."
His voice sent chills up your spine. It was deep and quite terrifying.
"Come over, no need to be scared."
You followed his orders, having a feeling that if you didn't things would end up ten times worse for you. He looked at you before basically yeeting you out of the window. It hurt; it felt like every bone in your body screamed for peace and anything in the background just became white noise.
You landed on the roof, writhing in pain and groaning. Everything hurt.
Attempting to get up was hard and painful, but you knew that you had to leave or you'd die.
Looking up, you see that doctor. He was mentioned in the files but everything was just so fuzzy, you couldn't remember properly. Finally being able to get up after numerous attempts, you limp your way down the stairs and out to the streets in the middle of all the chaos.
You were so scared. You knew you probably wouldn't be able to contact Nat or Clint unless you somehow hacked into their coms system. You continued to walk down the streets, hoping to find some type of shelter, but it felt like you were about to collapse at any second. Sitting down in the nearest alley, you looked around. Looking left, there was a face right in front of yours.
"Fuck! What the hell man?"
The other person wasn't fazed. Looking them over, you saw their frizzy, somewhat curly hair pulled back in a low ponytail. Her brown skin was covered in dirt and a little blood.
"Hey, you're (y/n) Stark, right?" She asked a little breathlessly.
"I refuse to be acknowledged as such."
"I'm Michelle. But don't call me that or I'll have to hurt you."
"Are you really trying to converse with me in the middle of an alien invasion? And acting like we're both not hurt?"
Michelle shrugs her shoulders when you both look over due to some yelling that you heard.
"MJ! Michelle where are you? Michelle Jones!"
MJ looks back over and starts to get up but she trips and falls. You decide to help her up and take her over to the people calling her name. You both struggle but eventually get over to the adults with some time.
Before you could get away from the Jones family, the mother gripped your shoulder.
"C'mon, stay with us. We'll find somewhere to lay low."
You were too tired and in too much pain to argue, so you let Michelle's mother help you keep your balance while the young girl's father did the same for her.
It was at least a good ten minutes until the four of you found a decent place to take a break. It looked like a gas station, but you really couldn't tell due to how much damage there was. You and the Jones' took cover behind a somewhat stable looking wall and tried to stay as quiet as possible.
It was quiet besides the distant screams of people and the yells of the aliens. You wondered if Nat and Clint were okay. You wondered if Tony was okay. You wondered if anyone was safe from this. This seemed like something no one could recover from.
"What's your name, sweetheart?" The older woman asked.
"(Y/n)."
"Where are your parents?"
"My sperm donor is fighting I guess."
To say the adults were appalled by your bluntness was an understatement. You've had a potty mouth for quite a while. There was no one to really correct you on what to and not to say--not that you really needed help with that being a genius and all; well a genius with common sense because your father didn't have any of that. Without anyone to really monitor what you did, you kind of just roamed free in a sense.
-
The fight had died down eventually. The aliens were still coming, but a substantial amount of them had been killed. How a group of 6 people/gods/supersoldiers/or whatever amazed you. Maybe you could work behind the scenes one day; even though you already do. Just without anyone knowing.
Before you knew it, there was a nuke flying across the sky. 'Leave it to the government to find an excuse to hurt civilians,' you thought. But before it could hit anything, you saw a red and gold figure carry it to the portal.
You knew who it was. He was going to sacrifice himself for the safety of these people. If he didn't make it, you would miss him even though there wouldn't be much to miss.When that portal closed, your heart dropped to your stomach. You would never be able to make amends with him. You would never have a single conversation with him. Yeah he was a total douche bag for forgetting all about you, but you had at least expected to be able to see and maybe talk to him. Sort things out.
Without thinking, you ran as fast as you could towards where the newly assembled Avengers were; well at least where you last saw them. You ignored the calls of the Jones family, telling you to come back. Their protests telling you not to go so you can stay safe. You ignored the pain. The aching of your ribs. The dull throbbing in your head and on your lips. There was no doubt that your steps were uneven; limping down the street at your speed probably made you look like a crackhead.
You kept running; not stopping. Not when your breaths got shorter and turned into wheezes. Not when you heard rattling in your chest. Not when you felt like you were going to collapse. Not when your joints popped and begged for rest. You didn't stop. You couldn't. Not until you found someone; anyone you knew.
You stopped after what felt like hours. It most likely was considering the sun was going down. You heard a little commotion inside a surprisingly intact building which turned out to be a Shawarma. Tony always talked about this place for some reason.
When you looked inside, the Avengers were there. At least, you guessed they were still called that. But that didn't matter. They were relaxing after the battle. They looked quite relaxed considering they had just fought aliens.
But that was what kind of hurt. They weren't worried about you. At all. Of course only 3--well not really 3. Only two really knew you and knew you were in that tower when the attack happened. Sure you weren't expecting Clint or Nat to be running around the streets of this huge city, but a little effort or at least the thought of it would've been nice. You could've been dead and they sure as hell didn't seem super worried about it. Maybe you were overthinking it. Or maybe you were just as forgettable and insignificant as you thought.
-
You limped away from the establishment, trying to find somewhere to stay, seeing as your home--if you could even call it that--was most likely destroyed. And you were in your feelings and nothing was a better cure than isolating yourself even more. You also wanted to see if you could get M.I.A running on a computer or something. Maybe update yourself on what was going on over the world at the moment. Or look up your frizzy-haired friend you met while you were running for your life.
You managed to find a computer near a dumpster. You leaned back against the wall and slid down slowly, not wanting to aggravate your injuries too much. You were able to get M.I.A running on the laptop and then looked up any news. The headlines were crazy. All you saw was the fight that just happened and the death count rising and rising...
You didn't want to be focused on anything dealing with your father, S.H.I.E.L.D., or any current events, so you decided to give M.I.A. the task of figuring out who Michelle and her family was. It sounded very creepy, but you were her age. What harm could you do with her info. Well you could cause harm to her and her family with any info you found but that was besides the point. The most you were going to do was send them a message or something like that.
-
You ended up sleeping in that alley. Deciding that you should head back to your place of residence, you got up and started walking back much to the process of your bones and joints. The tower seemed like it was so far away. Especially with your injuries and supposedly no one around to tend to them. After what felt like hours, you made it to the entrance of the establishment and, surprise surprise, it's already being rebuilt. You honestly didn't know what time it was. You just wanted to get in your bed and sleep forever.
-
It had been about a month since the Battle of New York. Your injuries weren't treated until about a week after the fact. Not because someone noticed you were hurt, but because it was getting hard to breathe and that didn't seem like a fun way to go to you.
You'd been healing nicely so far, but your emotions and mental health were on the opposite side of the spectrum. Every time you close your eyes, you had this dream, vision, whatever it was, that when Loki threw you out the window, there was no balcony or landing area to stop on. You just kept falling, and falling until you hit the ground. Then you woke up.
You had been isolating yourself as well. There had been plenty of missed calls from the pair, but you just couldn't find the energy to move and pick up the phone. They were probably just doing it out of obligation anyway.
Seeing everyone, especially Nat and Clint, just made you rethink anything you've ever done. Were you too clingy when it came to Natasha? Did she really like you or did she just feel bad? You were probably just overreacting, but you can't help but think these thoughts. Everything was just spiralling out of control for you. And you couldn't get help;well you at least felt like you couldn't. If you told Tony--not that you would, but hypothetically-- he'd probably wave you off and laugh. If you tried to get a therapist, someone would probably leak that shit to the press; confidentiality be damned.
You felt like you were drowning and you didn't know how much longer it would be until you fully sank.