Akrasia

Chapter 11

Third Person Point of View

    All of the Avengers who retrieved Lainey we're sitting at the kitchen counter waiting. Waiting for Lainey to come up and eat. Although, they doubted it would happen considering she doesn't even know where they are. But some people found a way to persuade them all to let her find out herself.
     Most of them were fiddling with their food and silverware. Bucky was just about to leave and find Lainey. Tony was just about to leave period. That is until the elevator dinged.
     Everyone's head snapped towards the door as they watched it open. Lainey came tumbling out of it and fell flat on her face after tripping over her feet. Quickly she stood up from her knees and brushed off her hands. Her head rose slowly and she froze once she realized who were in front of her.
All of them were silently staring at Lainey, and she was staring back. Lainey blushes ferociously and looks back down towards her feet. There was an awkward silence until Steve piped up,
     "Do you want some breakfast? We've got plenty." Lainey scans the room first, specifically looking for a chair to sit in before she made her move.
     "Sure." She said shyly, still embarrassed from the last scene. Slowly she made her way towards the chair at the counter and sat down.
     "Here ya go." Steve slides a plate full of eggs and bacon over to Lainey. This was going to be the most she's eaten in days.
    "Thanks." She murmurs. Once the Avengers see her eating and the tension settles everyone falls into a comfortable conversation in spurts.
      Lainey didn't want to admit it but she was starved and was very thankful for the food. It took her less than 5 minutes to almost get rid of her whole plate.
      "Jeez kid, didn't know your body could fit that much food." Tony exclaims sarcastically earning a quick glare from Lainey.
     "When was the last time you ate?" Bruce questions analyzing her.
     "Oh, I don't know. It's not like I don't remember anything that's happened to me since Tuesday." Lainey snaps glaring at both Tony and Bruce who shamefully look down at their hands, well Tony not so much. Lainey was sick of their pity, even though they don't portray it as much, she's still aware that it's here.
    All of a sudden Lainey remembers what happened when she snapped back at her dad. It only happened when he was drunk, but it was enough to make her regret her decisions and quickly apologize.
     "Sorry, That was really rude of me." She said, almost pleaded. Steve reached his hand out to grab her plate, but Lainey flinched in response expecting him to slap her. Everyone sees it, but dismiss it not wanting to push her limits.
     "It's okay." Bruce replies sympathetically.
Quickly the room fell into an awkward silence again and the super soldier had to break it up.
"So, seeing as you're going to be with us for a while, we might as well get to know each other. Tell us about yourself."
"There's not much to say." Lainey replies timidly.
"How about you tell us about your normal day so we could try and recreate it in a sense." Clint spoke up wanting to encourage the girl. Not only was his curiosity about her edging him towards helping, but also the mere fact that he wants her to feel safe.
"Um." Lainey whispers under her breath before gulping some air and saying, "I'd normally wake up at 5am and do chores until I rode my bike to school. After school I'd come home and decompress. Then I'd start my homework, throw my homework at a wall, and finally work myself up to getting food. I'd bring my food back upstairs with me and start up my homework again. Once I finished, I'd sit in my windowsill listening to music until I went to bed." Taking another breath in, "I highly doubt you'd be able to recreate that life. I don't even have a phone to listen music on now that I'm here."
     Everyone's shocked at what her life was, but no one comments because they don't know what to say or simply don't want to say anything. Except Tony who picked up on her not having a phone anymore.
"I can change that. What kind of phone would you like?" Tony remarks. He already knew what he'd get her. He just wanted the dramatic affect of a question.
"I don't need one." Lainey replies.
"Sure ya do." He says fully determined to get her one.
"Even if you got me a new phone, I wouldn't have my Spotify account on it." She argues.
"It's called getting a new one."
"It's called not having my old playlists."
"It's called signing in with your password."
"It's called not remembering my Password" they banter back and forth for ages.
"We all know, maybe except you Lainey, that he's getting you a phone. We're all tired of hearing you guys argue, so just give it a rest." Clint huffs, but he's still releasing a light, airy chuckle.
     The day went on and they all slowly fell comfortable along side each other. Of course, Lainey wasn't completely sold on them. She doesn't even know entirely why she's here, and the reason she's given is very vague and just plain stupid in her mind. She does admit to herself that she grew more comfortable with them than she would've liked in a day. I mean, she grew enough courage to be her persnickety self in an argument against Tony.
    All of the other Avengers found themselves growing more comfortable with the girl too. Some have grown to like her a lot. Although, Tony found himself happy that he has someone to buy stuff for.
    They watched T.V, yes, and surprisingly everyone. Lainey got a tour of the entire tower, by none other than Stark, which was boring but she plastered a smile on her face of be nice anyways. And, like everyone predicted, by the time supper was over Lainey had a new phone. Tony even went through the effort to hack her old account and find out her password. That was probably the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her, so she put on a real smile and said an actual genuine thank you.
After supper Lainey found a quiet spot with a window to relax. She put her new headphones in and played Spotify on her new phone, courtesy to Tony.
About 30 minutes later her relaxation was disturbed. Wanda and Natasha decided to talk to Lainey separately considering they're the only girls on the team. Both of them realize that Lainey hasn't heard their presence so they decide to speak up.
"Lainey?" Wanda says while tapping her shoulder once. Immediately Lainey jumps and lets out a squeak. She didn't hear anyone come up behind her and thought she was being murdered in the sudden moment. Realizing it was just Wanda and Natasha she slows her labored breaths.
"Sorry." Wanda sends her a sympathetic look.
"It's okay, really." Lainey replies still regaining her composure. "What do you want?" Lainey trusted Wanda, she seemed nice enough. But it was still hard for her to trust Nat, mainly because she was always so serious. Or at least she appeared to be.
"We thought we'd talk to you considering we're the only girls here." Nat cocks her head to look at Lainey as she sits in-front of her on the floor. Wanda sits in between them both looking out the window
"That'd be nice." Lainey replies looking out the window too.
"We tend to lose our girl side you could say by being around all these 'men'. And considering you haven't gotten anything for living here, we'd be more than welcome to take you shopping." Nat explains. She wasn't sold on the idea of going out in public, but Wanda was able to persuade her. And if Natasha was being honest to herself, it did sound fun.
"I'd love to take you shopping. Not only for toiletries and stuff, but for clothes! It would be really fun! Girls with girls." Exclaims Wanda looking at Lainey with sparkling eyes.
"That would be fun. I'd love to do that with you guys. You'd have to help me though I've never really gone shopping all that much or have money to buy stuff." Lainey blushes admitting to the fact that she was, or I guess still is poor, or at least not as wealthy as these guys.
"Nonsense! We'd love to pay for your stuff and help." Wanda beams.
"What she means by that is Tony would love to waste his money." Nat throws with a grin. Both Wanda and Lainey agree and smile back with a laugh under their breath.
"I guess I'm always free, so I'd do it whenever." Lainey says.
"What are you going to do now?" Nat questions standing up to leave.
"I think I'm going to bed soon. I almost never go to bed this early but I'm getting a mad headache." Lainey responds.
"Okay, see you tomorrow." Nat says walking away.
"Goodnight Lainey." Wanda trods after Nat and out of the room.
Lainey sat there for a while before getting up and heading towards her room. Although, she heard the team talking and was curious enough to eves-drop on the way to her room. Once she was close enough she heard Steve say,
"Do you think she believed us when we told her, her mom died?"
"I doubt it. Other than the moment with Fury she didn't bring it up or show any emotion." Clint responded.
"Considering how hard she took it that night I don't think she'd get over it that quickly." Nat concludes.
"She's going to have to find out that we're not lying so then she understands-" She didn't want to hear what else Steve had to say. She was sick to her stomach with the situation about her mom. She doesn't want it to be true and nor does she believe it.
It was easy for her to forget what they were saying as her headache grew stronger. Once she found herself in her room she immediately threw off her clothes, put PJs on, and jumped into bed welcoming the softness of the mattress.
Sleep quickly overcame her and the world went dark.

Sorry I've been late posting. I've been busy all weekend reading a series *cough* Throne of Glass series *cough* highly recommend it *cough* Hopefully this satisfies your cravings and the next chapter has some drama coming up!