Ariana watches her new parental figure as he reaches for the bottle to pour himself another drink. The blond man leaves James' side and marches over to the billionaire. James walks up to Ariana, deciding he should at least try to make her feel a little welcomed. He knows what it's like to feel like an outsider; like he doesn't belong. He can see it in her face, she thinks she doesn't deserve to be here; he knows that face all too well because it's the one he always hides.
She watches the man with a metal arm walk up to her and as soon as he notices her glance at it, he hides it behind his back; interesting. Perhaps he's embarrassed or ashamed of it. He breaks the silence, "it's nice to meet you, Miss Lynch."
"Ariana," she corrects, her voice barely louder than a whisper.
"Pardon?"
"Ariana," she repeats, a bit louder.
"Ah, right," he nods, not looking at the teenager, but instead to the New York skyline, trying to think of what they can talk about. He hadn't really thought this through, he just didn't want her to feel as left out as he did when he came to the tower. "Got any hobbies?"
"I don't know," she shrugs. "I guess I like to bake. How about you?" She doesn't want to talk about herself too much so that is where she decides to stop.
She notices him pause, it seems as though he doesn't want to talk about himself. Shit, mistake number one. She was getting ready to apologise for asking him but before she got the chance to, he answers, "I like to work out." Letting out a breath of relief, she nods; it makes a lot of sense.
She looks at his eyes and follows his gaze that is now looking at the bar where Steve and Tony are. She can tell they are having a heated discussion. She grimaces and turns away from the scene, trying to be discreet. She has seen her fair share of drunken fights. "You okay?" James asks, turning to her with concern lacing his lips.
"Yeah," she shrugs. He frowns at her. She can tell he is trying to figure out what she's thinking. She believes he is trying to read her for any hint that she was lying. But Bucky already knows she was lying; what he can't figure out was why she had grimaced and turned, why she had gone from appearing perfectly fine to looking pained in a matter of seconds, why she was lying to him.
She shifts the backpack that is on her back, it is starting to get uncomfortable, but she doesn't want to set it down somewhere wrong. She's exhausted and wants to go to bed. Wait, where would I sleep? Surely since everyone is staying the guest rooms and couches will be taken up. She pushes the thought of where she might end up with a shake of her head as she grimaces, closing her eyes tightly. This doesn't go unnoticed by Barnes, but he decides to stay quiet.
After a few minutes of silence he asks, "are you hungry? We have a bunch of snacks." She shakes her head, smiling politely. "Okay, well I am going to grab something, you can come and hang out with me if you'd like."
He leaves, giving her a warm smile, something he didn't often do. She decides to follow him to the kitchen area, not wanting to be completely alone. She stops at the island counter where Sam and Thor are conversing. She doesn't want to impede on their conversation, so she stands at the other end of the counter with her head down.
"Lady Lynch, it is a pleasure to meet you!" Thor beams.
Looking up she gives him a hesitant smile, "nice to meet you too."
Barnes walks over to the group with a bag of chips and sits near the end that Ariana was standing at. "Why don't you take a seat and set your bag down?" Sam suggests. She nods and takes a seat across from Barnes, putting her backpack in front of her stool.
"What do you like to do for fun?" Sam asks, taking a sip of water from a clear glass.
"Oh, I guess I like to bake," she shrugs.
"You must have more interests than that, am I correct?" Thor inquires.
She hesitates, "well yeah."
"Might we ask what they are?" the god asks, leaning against the counter.
"I like to sew and build things as well. I also like to learn; I catch on to things pretty fast. I like to sing, but I'm not good at it," she explains with a chuckle at the end. They nod with smiles.
Before any of them are able to continue, Natasha cuts off the conversation, "would you like to be taken to your room Ariana, it's probably been a long day for you."
She stands up and grabs her backpack, pulling it over her shoulder, "yeah, thanks for hanging out with me." She waves to the men and follows Natasha down a corridor. She can tell as she passes by the bar that both Steve and Tony are on edge, but she does her best to ignore it.
Natasha leads her down a corridor with many doors and opens one of the doors, ushering her inside. When she steps in the room her eyes grow wide, and she freezes. Is this my room? Do I get this place all to myself?
"You like it?" Natasha asks, standing behind her in the doorway. She almost smirks when she sees the kid's eyes bug out at the sight of her new room, almost.
Ariana nods her head and continues into the room. She sets her bag down by the light-stained wooden desk. She admires the white spinning chair that sits at it. On the desk there is a white laptop, she doesn't know who it belongs to.
"Need anything else?" Natasha questions.
"No, thank you."
"Alright, feel free to use whatever you see. It's all yours," she says before walking out.
It's all mine? She turns back to look at the laptop. She opens it, certainly, there must be something about this Stark guy. He is very rich, he seems like an important person, and she wouldn't be surprised if he ended up on the news a few times. She shakes off the thought that it is kinda creepy to just search people up, but she couldn't help herself.
Scrolling down she sees a post about an 'Iron Man' and clicks on the link. She scans over the page and her jaw drops. What the hell is a famous, rich superhero doing fostering some random nobody? Scrolling down to the end, she finds another article: 'Captain Steve Rogers: A man out of his time'. Steve was the one guy that was with Tony at the bar. He also was near James before he left to speak with Tony. She opens the new article and reads it over. Her mind is confused and mind-boggled with all of this new information. She reads about his friend, James Buchanan Barnes; the guy that had struck up a conversation with her earlier.
Scrolling down to the bottom, she sees another few articles that interest her: 'The Winter Soldier' and 'The Superheroes'. She opens the first article in a new tab and clicks on the second one. Reading through it, she notices that every person she met in this penthouse-apartment thing is a superhero. All of them are important people. So what the hell are they doing wasting their time with some teenager that isn't special at all? She closes that tab and moves on to the article about the Winter Soldier.
Ariana pushes away her exhaustion; she is way too interested in learning about these people to even think about sleep. She reads through the article and her once amazed feeling is replaced with an uneasy feeling. This man was a murderer. He was evil. But this isn't the same man that she met, the man that showed her kindness. It couldn't be. There must be some kind of mistake. Scrolling down to the bottom she sees another article that piques her interest: 'The Winter Soldier; Hydra's Ultimate Weapon'.
She clicks on the link and is informed of how the organisation Hydra made the Winter Soldier. Her heart breaks for him as she takes in more information. How horrible. Her mind is spinning and she has no words for what she just read. Ariana decides that she should probably stop snooping and get some rest. She closes out of the window and closes the laptop gently. Digging through her backpack, she finds a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to wear to bed. They are both pretty worn out. She finishes getting ready for bed and climbs into the white bed; the most comfortable bed she has ever slept on.