Shadows and Secrets (A MCU FanFic)

Chapter 10: Birthdays

trigger warning: dark themes and references to self-harm and depression that may be offensive or upsetting to some readers

Marjorie's POV

Marjorie sighed and marked yesterday off the calendar.

Today was Wednesday, June 18th.
Another day closer to my birthday, Marjorie dreaded.

Her birthday, June 22nd, was the worst day ever, in Marjorie's opinion.

She usually spent in by locking herself in her room, eating ice cream, listening to sad music, and hating her existence. Last year had been different, mostly because her friend Wade insited on going out and partaking in normal birthday activities.

The year might be different too. It would be her first birthday with the Avengers.

And Wade knew that.

Hopefully he didn't show up.

The Avengers didn't know when her birthday was, and she intended to keep it that way.

If Wade came, it would be so awkward.

Hopefully she could go through the day with no birthday-related thoughts.

She had promised she would try no to get too sad, and her birthday was always depressing.

Come to think of it, she kind of missed Wade.

Odd.

Marjorie still texted and called him all the time, but she hadn't seen him in at least two months.

Sure, he was as annoying as hell, but she missed her best friend.

Marjorie and Wade had met at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, and had become friends because they had both skipped grades. It was hard being younger than everyone else.

And shorter.

But anyway, Marjorie thought, I have stuff to do. I have to focus!

Marjorie had always suspected that she had a less extreme form of ADHD, but whenever she googled it, almost none of the symptoms matched. Maybe she just got distracted easily.

And she got distracted all the time.

Anyway, today was one of the Wednesdays that Fury came to check if they were actually training, and not just sitting around playing video games.

Fury had low expectations.

Like, seriously low expectations.

He normally came at 11:00 am, and stayed anywhere from 20 minutes to all day. It was currently 7:47, so Marjorie figured that she had some time to chill before grabbing breakfast.

She normally woke up at around 7:30, unless she had a nightmare.

It didn't sound late, until you comapred it to the rest of the Avengers.

They all had some form of PTSD, and most of them never slept through the night.

Marjorie knew that Bucky had never slept without waking up from a nightmare since moving to the tower. He was so sleep deprived all the time, that once he had almost fallen asleep while they were sparing. Marjorie had made him take a break, and seriously considered adjusting his shadowvaper to make him fall into a dreamless sleep.

She didn't want anyone to know that she could do that, though.

Or that she—

Best not to think about it.

Marjorie could do more dark stuff with her power than she wanted anyone to know. Wade didn't even know the full extent, and she had told him everything.

About her parents.

About running away.

Marjorie added one final flick of green makeup to her face. Today she had thorny vines arond her eyes. It matched her marbled sage sweatshirt that she had pared with a white Taylor Swift shirt (offical Fearless Taylor's Version merch) and soft black leggings. Her curly hair hung loose, still wet from her shower. Confident in her appearence, Marjorie headed downstairs for breakfast.

"Hey, Marjorie." Bruce had been going downstairs from the floor above, where Tony's lab was.

"Hi," Marjorie said. "What's up?"

"I was just helping Tony with a thing. He's trying to make a force-field projector."

"Sound cool. Was Tony working on it all night?"

Tony did that often. Everyone was alway trying to remind him that he needed sleep and food.

Bruce ran his hand through his hair. "I managed to convince him to go to bed at 11:00 last night, but when I woke up, he was back in his lab. He seemed really stressed about something."

Marjorie suppressed a sigh. She suspected his "stress" had something to do with the prank Nat played on them yesterday.

"Fury will convince him to sleep," Marjorie said. Bruce still looked worried, though.

He was always doing sweet things like worrying about his teammates.

Marjorie and Bruce entered the kichen, to see Steve and Bucky immediately stop talking, like they had been discusing some big secret. Steve looked very uncomfortable. Bucky looked exasperated.

Marjorie ignored this and went to go toast a pop tart, while Bruce hesitated at the doorway.

"What were you guys talking about?" Bruce asked innocently.

Marjorie watched for what was sure to be melodramatic. Eight teenagers living together was always intresting.

Steve looked at the table and pressed his lips together. "Nothing important."

Bucky and Bruce both looked less than satifsfyed with this answer, but Bruce dropped it.

Probably a good call. Steve's shadowvaper was of the charts in negativity.

Or it would have been, if the supersoilder serum didn't amplify everything.

And if she didn't compare it to Bucky's.

Especially in those first weeks...

Marjorie got her pop tart and sat down next to Bucky.

The room was so silent and awkward.

Ugh.

"Do you have a knife?" Marjorie randomly asked Bucky, who look startled.

"What? Yes, why?"

"Because someone needs to cut the tension," Marjorie said, grinning.

Bucky opened his mouth like he was going to say something, and then thought better of it.

Marjorie didn't know what was funnier: the cute, exasperated expression he was making, or the fact that he actually said he had a knife.

Bruce smiled, and Steve looked like he was trying to keep himself from laughing.

Success.