Stark's Little Stardust

7: The Secret Keepers

After spilling your time-travel secret to Bruce, you both barely had a moment to breathe before the door creaked open and Steve walked in. Bruce's shoulders tensed immediately as he shot you a worried glance.

"Can this get any worse?" he whispered under his breath.

"Tell me about it, Uncle Banner..." you muttered back, eyes widening as Steve looked between the two of you suspiciously.

"Are you two going to talk or what?" Steve asked, his frown deepening.

You glanced at Bruce. "Is he good at keeping secrets?" you whispered.

"Well, kind of," Bruce murmured. "He is a soldier, after all."

Steve narrowed his eyes, sensing he was being talked about. "Bruce? If you're not going to tell me, I have my own ways."

Sighing, you braced yourself for yet another exhausting explanation. "Ugh... Alright, fine," you muttered, then pointed at Steve with a serious look. "But you better keep this a secret."

Steve nodded, still looking skeptical. "I'll keep it a secret, unless it involves innocent people dying."

Taking a deep breath, you launched into the whole story once again, detailing your accidental time travel, your mission, and everything you knew about what lay in store for them and the Avengers. Steve's expression shifted dramatically as you spoke, his face going from confused to shocked, to horrified, to resigned, and back to shock again. Beside you, Bruce watched Steve's reaction with an almost sympathetic look.

"Welcome to another stage of trauma, Cap," Bruce said, patting Steve on the shoulder.

When you finally finished, Steve took a long, deep breath, staring at you like he'd just seen a ghost. "So you're from the future," he began slowly, processing everything, "Bucky's alive... and Thanos—"

"Take a breather, Uncle Rogers," you said, trying to lighten his shock with a small smile.

"Oh, I don't think I can," Steve said with a grim look, "not after what you just told me."

Bruce interjected, snapping Steve back to the task at hand. "Cap, you might want to focus on how we're going to help her complete her mission and send her back to her original timeline."

Steve nodded, his face serious as he turned from Bruce to look at you, his gaze softening. "Alright, kid," he said with a reassuring smile, "we'll help you out, no matter how crazy it gets."

Hearing this, you felt a surge of relief. In both timelines, these two would always have your back. You smiled, looking from Steve to Bruce. "It's funny," you said, "even in my original timeline, you two were the ones who found out first about my time-travel."

Bruce chuckled nervously, eyes widening as he realized the full scope of his trust in you. "Then I must be a fool for letting a teenager anywhere near a time machine. You're... what, 14 in 2019? Or 13?"

Steve crossed his arms, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "This conversation just keeps getting more interesting. Bruce, we were indeed fools."

You nodded with a sheepish grin. "Yeah, I'm 14 in 2019. Here, I'm only six. Though my seventh birthday is probably around the corner..." You gave them both a grateful look. "And you're not fools. I was just really, really stubborn... and you two agreed to help me."

Steve and Bruce exchanged a glance, sharing a silent understanding, before they turned back to you with warm smiles.

Bruce reached out, resting a hand on your shoulder. "Well, kid, we're with you on this. But we have to make sure no one else finds out. We can't risk the timeline any more than we already have."

You chuckled, giving Bruce a mock salute. "Understood, Uncle Banner."

Just then, a soft chime sounded from the lab's computer, and all three of you turned your heads. The screen displayed a series of files about the Tesseract's energy readings.

Bruce gave you a quick nod. "Let's get to work on finding a way to send you back. No one else can know... except, of course, Tony when the time comes." He grinned, shaking his head as he added, "This is going to be one heck of a team effort."

Steve, who had been silent for a moment, chuckled softly, glancing down at you with a wink. "Alright, kid. We're going to make sure this plan of yours works. But in the meantime... welcome to our little group of troublemakers."