Flowergirl |L. Laufeyson|

Chapter Nine

Zoë admired the almost finished painting of her beloved, a small smile on her lips. The only thing she had to do was colour his hair, and then, the painting would be completed.

The woman placed her paintbrush aside next to her colours, and without paying attention to her hands that were covered in colours, she left the room and headed straight to the kitchen. She would not admit it to anyone else, but she had grown hungry.

Hoping that she would not find anyone else in the kitchen, she walked to the room. As soon as she stepped inside, she peered around, to her relief, noticing that she was alone. Her eyes rested on the table, and she noticed that her plate was still there, her almost untouched toast seemingly waiting for her.

Zoë grabbed the toast and started eating, trying to ignore the fact that it was cold and somewhat hard for her to swallow. She ate as quickly as she could, not wishing for anyone to catch her out of her room. As soon as she had eaten her toast, she grabbed the plate and after placing it along with all the other dirty plates in the sink, she made her way as quickly and quietly as she could to her room.

Halfway there, though, she heard voices. Extremely curious, the woman started walking a little slower than before.

"Do you think we can trust her?"

With a start, she realised that this was Natasha speaking. The voice came from a closed door on her left, so she could not see who were the people with her. Zoë stopped next to the door, knowing that she was eavesdropping and that things would be difficult for her if she got caught, but she could not help it. She was too curious to let this go.

"Natasha, Tony trusted her," Bruce replied, and with a start, the Asgardian realised that they were talking about her.

"He did not know who she really was, did he?" the woman countered.

"None of us knew." The blonde was sure, this was Rhodey speaking. "She seemed normal, she did not act strangely at all. She was nothing like Thor, and we could have never made a connection between her and Loki, they seem too different. She has not displayed any kind of powers or any distaste for technology, the only mark we had that something was not quite normal with her, was the fact that she did not seem to age. But Tony and I could never guess what was behind it."

"That does not mean that she is a different person now," Bruce spoke again, and Zoë smiled slightly. She really liked that doctor. "Just because we know something more about her past, it does not mean that we can judge either. We are not saints."

"I don't know, Bruce," Steve's voice cut in, "we don't really know her anyway."

"But she seems nice."

"Is that because she is pretty?" Natasha countered, and immediately, a scoff was heard in response.

"I don't understand what she has done to you. We all have a troubled past!"

"None of us has killed their father!"

"We've killed plenty of other people," Steve cut in, and Zoë thought she heard someone let out a huff. "But that does not matter. What we have to focus on, is getting her to speak up. We have to know what the full story is."

"Let's make Pepper ask her," Rhodey suggested, and immediately, Zoë pursed her lips. Not wishing to know anything else, believing that she had heard enough, she made her way back to her room. She closed the door behind her and let out a sigh.

They were clearly not trusting her. She did not mind that Natasha and Steve had no faith in her, but she was bothered that Rhodey did not believe in her. He knew her longer than the others, yet, he was not doing anything to help her. Only Bruce was trying to make up excuses for her, and he really did not know her at all.