LABYRINTH ― avengers multi

PROLOGUE

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MELAINE QUILL had always been alone.

The first time she realized, Melanie was five.

A cold hand gripped hers, the same eyes in her head staring back at her from a hospital bed, weak and exhausted.

Despite not completely understanding what was happening, she knew something was wrong when her brother started crying.

Her strong, reliable, perfect older brother.

To five-year-old Melanie, Peter Quill put the stars in the sky and kept them lit through cold dark nights.

His laugh was brighter than the moon and better than a day under the sun.

And so when Peter started crying, Melanie did too.

And when he ran out of the hospital, Melanie followed.

But she wasn't quick enough to follow him into space on the alien ship.

Crumpled into the ground, Melanie had lost not just one person — but the two most important people in her life.

And with only an alcoholic grandfather to keep an eye out for her, Melanie found herself more alone than anything else.

Word spread about the missing Quill, and bullying followed Melanie throughout her years of school.

In her loneliness and solitude, Melanie found solace in things that distracted her and occupied her mind.

First, she tried painting.

She wasn't very good at it, but it helped her de-stress, so she promised to come back to it later.

Then, she tried knitting.

Only, she ended up losing the needles and then finding them in a drawer three months later after one landed straight into her palm. (That left a nasty scar.)

In a safer bet, she leaned into poetry.

She liked that, but always found herself distracted. And Melanie had dyslexia anyway, so words jumbled together, and she grew more frustrated the harder she focused.

But then one day, she met Lucy.

Lucy was her grandfather's neighbor, older than him — if that were even possible — and she had a little king cavalier dog with a pink bow in its hair.

And Lucy loved two things: dancing and baking.

Lucy first started keeping an eye on Melanie when her grandfather picked up extra shifts at work, but the more Melanie spent time with Lucy, the more she just enjoyed her company.

Lucy taught Melanie everything she knew.

The best technique to whisk desserts, the easiest way to knead bread, the most delicate way to add lettering to a birthday cake.

And nothing beat Lucy's apple pie.

Melanie loved Lucy more than anyone on the planet and it was obvious in how much she idolized the older woman.

But, of course, that was frowned upon at school — to have your best friend be a seventy-three-year-old woman who lived next door to your grandfather.

So, Melanie joined clubs in high school to draw attention away from that fact.

First, she joined Chess Club.

She liked Chess and she was good at it.

But she quickly realized it was social suicide.

Then she found a passion for theatre — on the crew, her stage fright in no way let her be in front of more than three people at a time — and helped design sets and sound cues.

And, as luck would have it, Melanie nailed her cheerleading audition when she used Lucy's tips and tricks from when she was a cheerleader. (And her daughter and granddaughter after that.)

Melanie didn't exactly get along with the cheer squad, but they stopped her from being bullied. Once a cheerleader, always a cheerleader. A sort of salt line protecting Melanie from everyone else with a girth of at least six feet.

Only the squad could make fun of her. Everyone else wasn't good enough to.

And that was enough for Melanie.

Four years passed quickly before Melanie was accepted into the Culinary Institute of America in New York City.

Melanie didn't want to leave her grandfather or Missouri, but it was her passion, and she wouldn't let the small town and Midwest stigmatization hold her back.

And then Lucy died.

Melanie found out the morning of her graduation and swapped her floral dress for one of mourning.

She handled the funeral affairs, grieved with Lucy's distant daughter, and then packed up her things and moved to New York.

Life had always been strained with her grandfather, but it only increased after she left.

They both faced abandonment issues.

They both lost Peter.

By twenty-one years old, Melanie faced another graduation.

Which, of course, was post-poned because some antler-wearing lunatic decided he wanted to dominate the world and started with New York City.

Melanie was beginning to think she was doomed to have every major life event ruined by some catastrophe.

But then she met Natasha.

And then everything changed.