Marvel What If?- An Autism Story

Special crackers

By early evening, most of the team were wondering around doing the jobs that had been neglected during recent events. Such as tidying, laundry and for some, showers.

Mary hadn't moved from beside the tv cabinet and continued to trace over the irregular grooves, clearly satisfied with the feeling it gave.

Steve watched her from the sofa. He lay on the soft cushions with his blonde hair messily splayed out and a small smile on his face.

He noticed the small girl appeared completely different to Bucky. He had a strong, dark, scruffy aura but she wasn't anything like that. She was small and delicate looking, with bright blonde hair and soft features. Steve would have compared her to a princess.
But as he thought about it, wasn't James all those things in the 40s?

Not a princess, but certainly prince material. He had the charisma and the looks (though if he had to admit it, the looks stayed with him) but he was also more approachable back then and radiated happiness.

Of course Steve knew those things were still with Bucky, he saw them sometimes.
But they now hid behind walls of anger, fear and anxiety.

At some point Mary stood up and starting wondering around the living room, opening all the cupboards and investigating everything.
She pulled boxes of games out without a care as they broke apart when hitting the floor.

Steve sat up when a small piece of plastic shaped like a house hit his foot. It wasn't the first time the monopoly set had been thrown across the room and, knowing the people in the building, it wouldn't be the last.

He debated stopping her but then she moved onto the DVDs which they never used anymore, so thought anything that kept her occupied was good.
After scattering them over all the open games boxes she picked one up and walked to the other side of the room before carefully placing it on the floor.
She spent some time adjusting it in a way only she could understand before walking back and choosing another DVD.

Steve watched, slightly confused, as she placed the second one next to the first. She took even more care into making sure this one looked right.
Over and over again, until there was a long line of DVD cases across the room.

There was no special pattern or reason that he could see, they were just in a plain-old line.

During his wonderings, Mary had stood up again, this time walking past all the mess she'd made on the floor and entering the hallway, clutching her blanket.
Her small hand skimmed over the wall as she leisurely strolled further down.

When it seemed she wouldn't stop, Steve reluctantly got up from his comfortable position and followed from a distance.
Watching her small frame amble down the large, empty hall.
Despite her dirty clothes, she was a bright contrast to the dark surroundings which somehow gave out an eery feeling.

The building could use some light to pull everyone out of the recent darkness.

The blonde continued to walk curiously after the child and followed her into the kitchen where Wanda busied around, opening and closing cupboards.

"Oh, hi sweetie", she smiled at the girl before happily going back to what she was doing when she didn't get an answer.

Instead of replying, Mary opened the same cupboards that had just been closed and began pulling its contents out.
First, bags of flour, that luckily didn't spill, and then tins of soups and beans.

Wanda knelt to her level and spoke, "hunny, could you please stop. I don't want you to hurt your little toes, maybe we can go and look for some toys?"
She made sure not to touch her this time, and to her surprise, things stopped falling.