Wrong Number, Kid

🪺Chapter 13🪺

Three weeks later:

Arabella's pov:

"Hey, Ara!" Peter yelled from outside my bedroom door. "Yeah?" I opened the door and saw him waiting outside for me. "My dad's not gonna be home for a while, and nobody has anything planned for dinner, so I was wondering if you wanted to help me cook!" He asked excitedly. "Hell yeah! It's been a while since I've cooked food!" I ran to the kitchen with Peter. 

Recently, I've been building up a relationship with Peter, and honestly, he's become a brother to me. We barely talk in school, because we have our own friend groups, but at the Tower, we had gotten much closer. 

"So, I'm up for suggestions. We're not picky here." He shrugged. I had a great idea. "Well, when I was younger, my dad would make this one dish from Thailand that he ate as a kid. I think I remember the recipe." I said. "Oh cool, let's do that. You positive that you know the recipe?" he asked. "I remember it like it was yesterday. We need to do a tiny bit of shopping though." I didn't feel the need to mention that I only remembered it because it was one of the only good memories I have of my parents. 

We went to a store that specialized in asian foods, then hurried back to the Tower to cook. 

"Peter, you have sauce all over your face." I laughed as I handed him a wet paper towel to wipe it off. "Well I'm sorry miss clean face freak." He giggled. "Well. At least I'm wearing an apron." I said in a fake snobby voice. "Well. I think we're done." I stepped back to admire our creation. "And perfect timing, too. He's here." Peter said as Tony walked into the kitchen. "Woah, what did you guys cook?" He asked, smelling the air. "A surprise." Was my only response. 

When all the other Avengers sat down, me and Peter revealed the food. "This is Khao Soi, a traditional Thai dish that I grew up eating. It has boiled egg noodles, deep fried egg noodles, pork, shallots, and pickled cabbage." I announced as Peter carried it to the table. Everyone took portions of it, and soon after, they all gasped. Complements immediately began flying in. I blushed and slowly took a spoonful of my own. They were right, it was delicious. Not as good as my dad and my grandma's, but it was definitely good. "Woah. This is good." Peter whispered. 

"Oh, we have a little surprise too. We made dessert!" Peter announced. "This is Khao Niaow Ma Muang, also known as sticky rice and mangoes." I explained. "How much shopping did you two have to do for this?" Nat asked. "Not too much. But now you guys have a ton of new ingredients." I smiled. "Good, I need you to teach me how to make this." Tony said. Good, they weren't mad that I just stocked their fridge with new foods. 

"So, Arabella, I think we need to talk, genius to genius." Tony said when everyone was done eating. "Hey!" Peter and Bruce said at the same time. "You know what I mean. And does include you two actually." He said to Bruce and Peter. "Ohhhh..." Peter nodded. "Real subtle there, Pete." Tony muttered. "So, you've been living here for about a month now." Tony pointed out. "...Yeah." I nodded. "I was out getting you something important. Here." He handed me a small stack of papers. It took my brain a moment to register what they were, but when I did, my eyes filled with tears.

Adoption papers. 

Tony just handed me adoption papers.

He wanted me to be his and Bruce's daughter.

He wanted me to be Peter's sister. 

And I wanted all of that for myself too.

"Alright." I said after a minute. "I'll sign." I smiled at them, trying not to cry. "So, I can have a sister now?" Peter asked. I nodded. "I'll be your sister." "If a boy breaks your heart, I'll break his knees. Older brother stuff." Peter said. "Actually, I'm older than you." I told him. "WHAT?" He shrieked. "Yeah, I was born in April. You were born in August." I smirked. "Wow. Arabella just upstaged you." Bruce commented. "Bring it in here, kid." Tony said, pulling us all into a group hug. "Now, about your last name, what do you want to do with that?" Bruce asked after the hug had ended. "Well, I want both of your last names, but I want to keep mine too." I said after giving it some thought. "That's fine, but you'll be like Peter over here with a long ass last name. Peter Stark-Banner-Parker." Tony laughed. "Language!" Steve scolded. I giggled as I thought about my decision. "I like Arabella Saetang-Banner-Stark." I said. "Why does his name get to come first?" Tony whined. "Because, it's my original last name, then Banner because B comes before S." I explained. 

I went to bed that night thinking about what would happen when I became a public figure. Little did I know, my journey was just beginning here.