Detka ✧･ ROMANOFF-BARTON 1

five ➴

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."

Mama had disappeared somewhere. No one knew too much about where she ended up, but no one seemed to care, either. We all knew that she was smart and we all knew that she could hold her own, but I still felt like I was the only person who was actually concerned.

There was a long, heavy metal crate in the middle of the room. I climbed o top of it, trying to pretend that I could see through the metal and find what was inside. I'm sure they knew what was inside, but Papa, Bruce, and Tony kept their eyes on it and stood around it as if they didn't. They all looked like they were investigating it or guarding it in some way.

"Any chance Natasha might send you a message outside the internet? You know, old school spy stuff." Tony suggests. Maybe they were all standing around in here because they were thinking about what they would do to find Mama. I lift my head and my hair falls into my eyes as I look over toward the adults. 

"Yeah, I'll find out. Come on Vess." Papa responds, heading toward the staircase in the back of the room. I put my eyes back down toward the interesting case and pretended that I didn't hear that he'd called me. I wasn't trying to be rude or anything, I was just curious as to what was inside of the human-sized container. I heard my dad pause in his steps when he didn't see me following after him. 

"Come on kid, go with your dad and find your mom," Tony says. He was always so quick to rush me out of places. Maybe he wanted to be alone. Or maybe he just didn't really like kids.

 Usually, they didn't have me help out with things like this. I just nodded and slid off of the large metal case, following after papa downstairs. 

"Hey, Vessa," Papa says hurriedly as he rushed down each step. I tried to match his quick pace and soon as I arrived at his side. 

"Papa where are we going?" I question, wondering what we were going to use to find my mom. I knew we had plenty of cool devices here, but I wasn't sure which one would help to find mama.

He kept his eyes ahead of him and his expression did not change. "We are gonna use a cool thingy to help us find your mom and your sister," he responds as he leads me into a large room with various types of computers. There were those transparent screens, there were headphones, TVs, and other gadgets I knew I wasn't supposed to touch.

"Don't-"

"Touch anything. I got it." I finish for him. I've heard those words only a thousand times before. That's what happens when you're seven and surrounded by superheroes and spies. 

He took a seat at a desk in the middle of the room, surrounded by computers and screens of different sizes. I followed by his side, trying to sit on his muscular lap because I was too lazy to stand. 

"What is all this for?" I ask. He lifted a pair of headphones off of the table and attached them to a machine. 

"Hopefully your mom was smart enough to use a language that I can track from here." He said, tapping the big box lightly. I lifted an eyebrow.