Just a bunch of fluff tbh next chapter is gonna have more content
Please Read and vote and comment cuties!!
"DADS, I CANNOT believe you're making me do this."
"You are going to have to learn eventually, Sweetheart."
"Plus, Doll, if you didn't want us to freak out, you shouldn't have mentioned it."
With a groan, Elenora ran her fingers through her hair- something she only did when she was extremely stressed. And she was extremely stressed. "I didn't think mentioning the fact that I didn't know how to ride a bike would lead to this!"
'This' was truly a very interesting scene, you see - 'this' was a two hour session of "I cannot believe you!" And "no, it's not a foster home if they didn't teacher her the basics of life itself!" followed by a 30 minute trip to the nearest Walmart, where Bucky and Steve not only bought a bike, but a helmet and knee pads and elbow pads, and then back home, out on driveway, with Elenora nervous as all hell and secured in basically bubble wrap.
Steve wasn't as phased by her fear as he used to be. He was supposed to be calm and comforting. He was gonna help his kid through this irrational thing and then she was gonna trust him more. And everything was gonna be okay.
Steve pressed a hand to the middle of the two handle bars. "You've got this, El. And Buck and I are here the whole time."
Bucky chimed in from behind, "the whole time."
Elenora had a sharp intake of breathe. Two superheroes with super senses were there to catch her if she fell. She had protection of her body.
And if she rode into oncoming traffic and got hit, hat just meant she'd miss a day of training with Aunt Tasha, and she could really use that.
Dads are not gonna let you get run over, Elenora told herself, was equally relieving as it was dissapointing.
Bucky prompted, "Are you ready?"
The palms of her hands rolled on the handle bars and she squeezed them so hard that her hands burned.
She had fought a terrorist organization at the age of 14 (remember that time she got held at gun point? Yeah, confirmed terrorists- she "overheard" Steve and Bucky talking), but for some reason this stupid bike with no train wheels made her want to cry.
Elenora sucked it up. "Yeah, I'm ready."
And with that, Bucky grinned wide and Steve gave her a big push, and she was heading down the drive way, her bike wiggling and threatening to fall as Steve trailed behind her.
Bucky videotaped the whole thing.
***
It was June 12th, School had already ended and everything that had to do with Jade had been cleared up.
"You guys really thought I died? That's cute."
"It's not cute," Ned insisted, but Jade just ruffled his hair. Elenora and Peter exchanged a look. "Go away! God, maybe it'd be better if you were kidnapped."
Jade scoffed. "That was your theory?"
Finals week was a mess in and of itself, and Peter and Elenora spent loads of time "studying" in the Avengers compound. (By "studying", Elenora and Peter just talked through most of it and theorized what Pietro's girlfriend would look like.) Despite their not so intense efforts, Elenora and Peter got As and Bs.
Steve hung the report card on the fridge and took Elenora and Bucky out for dinner at Elenora's favorite Chinese restaurant.
Tony scanned it over then let Peter work on the secret project with him- Elenora's suit. Yeah, the super-secret-Elenora-and-Peter-Can't-Know suit. Sure, Steve and Bucky didn't know either, but Peter didn't know that as he worked on code for the suit's protocols and helped Tony set up all physical defense mechanisms. He was focused on making the perfect suit for the most perfe-
"Quit daydreaming, Kid, and finish up that sequence. We've got these rocket shoes to work on."
"Rocket shoes?"
So while Peter indulged himself in that between every practice, during every break and after dinner every night, Elenora thought all about Charles Xavier. More importantly, her visit. Most importantly, her telling Peter that she was going to be gone just about the whole summer.
Elenora had four main things floating in her head about this subject:
1. How much clothes was she supposed to pack? Did they have laundry rooms? What was she supposed to do if she just ran out of clothes? (She'd probably freak out and run home, or she'd wash them in the sink. Depends on the type of day Elenora had).
2. Should she pack snacks? Elenora had a feeling she should pack snacks. (She ended up packing loads of snacks.)
3. Was she supposed to call Charles 'uncle'? Sure, she was cool with it- it wasn't like the whole "dad' thing with Bucky and Steve. This was easier. Simpler. For some reason, this dilemma seemed like a breeze after she had gone through everything with her dads.
4. How on earth was Elenora supposed to tell Peter that she was going to be gone the entire summer?
He was nervous the second he saw that letter on the table, so how was he going to get along with the idea of no partner for training for more than just a week? But Peter had Ned, you see, and at that school, Elenora was not sure she'd have anyone- how was she supposed to last without Peter? She knew it was a little bit dramatic, but Elenora wasn't sure she could do it. Peter was her best friend, not Ned or Jade, and she wouldn't have any connection. Except through letters. Or maybe if he was around Steve and Bucky for the 6 PM phone calls, but even that was limited to half an hour. It wasn't going to be the same.
It'll be better, Elenora told her self as she followed Steve and Bucky into the Avengers Compound. You'll come back with tons of new skills to show off and you'll be a four on the training scale. You and Parker will be equals and everything would be so much easier.
She had four days to tell Peter Parker about her trip. Steve wasn't kidding when he said procrastination was in the family.
Bucky and Steve knew that she hadn't mentioned it to him- she admitted it at dinner a week back.
"I'll get to it. It's just that letter made him upset. I want to give him some time to settle into summer first."
"We get it, Doll."
"Don't wait too long, Kiddo, or he might not take it well, okay?"
So they stayed silent in agreement to a promise she made them hold, and it was clear to them exactly what was bothering her on her way to practice six days before she left- she still hadn't spilled. Her lip stayed tucked between her teeth as she slipped quietly through the door Bucky was holding open for her and Steve. She said nothing the entire ride of the elevator.
Steve and Bucky knew what was going on- she was practicing. She knew she had to say something today. There were two days of training and one day of tests and then she the morning of June 16th. Elenora didn't have any time left.
Knowing that she was going to have a hard time, both Steve and Bucky pressed kiss to her head and Steve rubbed her shoulder calmingly when an announcement came from FRIDAY, saying that she was to meet Mr.Stark in the main lab as soon as possible.
"See ya, El," Bucky said readjusting his gym bag and heading away with his arm slung lazy over Steve's shoulder, before the dad could protest or say anything more. Elenora had to handle this herself. And she could. Would.
The walk to the lab was sort of long, but it gave time Elenora to realize how used to these halls she was- she never thought she'd end up here, nevertheless happy here. She was afraid of the Avengers for a long time, and now they were her family. Now, she was almost one of them.
Tony was standing at a desktop when Elenora knocked shyly on the glass door, slipping in before Tony even looked up.
"What's up, kid?" he asked, reaching behind him, and sliding her a spinning chair. "Come here."
Elenora shrugged in response, and she almost thought that Tony wouldn't notice or wouldn't care enough to reply, but she forgot an important fact- Tony loved to critique people.
He mocked her shrug, and as nervous about Peter as she was, a little giggle escaped her mouth. "I love you're description, Elenora. It's equal to Shakespeare." Smiling a little, Elenora let her bag slip to the floor as she took the seat relaxed into it. "So we never talked about that trip that all the Avengers went on."
Elenora cocked her head at him. "What about it?" Was she about to get Tony Stark to confess where the Avengers went? Who they fought? Was this part of Stark's plans to get Peter back on the team? Elenora didn't know, but she was eager to find out.
"How was it? With Peter?"
Oh. How dissappointing. "It was good, " Elenora shrugged.
"Get into any trouble?"
Her breath stilled- Elenora knew adults pretty well. And she knew that Tony knew something that she probably didn't want him to know. Now she just had to find out whatever it was, and get him to keep quiet about it.
She figured she'd go with a lie at first, but the second after she opened her mouth, she knew it was a mistake. "No?"
Aunt Tasha would be so dissapointed in my skill set, Elenora reprimanded herself, taking a breath before raising her head to meet Tony's skeptical expression. She'd just wait till he said something.
And oh, said something he did.
"So I know you and Parker came here when we were out trying to save the world and stuff- totally understandable. You guys have those teenage hormones and you probably wanted to-"
"Oh, gross!"
"Or something. And I know you found out that I turned off FRIDAY after we left. But here's the thing," Tony prompted, shifting his weight so his chin was lying in his hand and he was peering right at Elenora who suddenly was having trouble maintaining eye contact. "I decided to turn off FRIDAY after a few false alarms of a break in we're set off by Peter coming in here while we were gone. But, just to be safe, I set up a few backup protocols for any possible intrusions."
So far, this isn't too bad.
"Well, you and Peter managed to trigger one of the many, many alarms. Which wouldn't have been too bad. You see, this specific alarm attached a micro-camera to the surface of any out of place object or person."
Oh. Oh no.
Tony went on, even though he had Elenora warmed up for a confession- he liked playing it out. He'd do the same thing with Peter when he got back from previous missions. "The reason why I'm talking to you, and not you dads, is that after an incident with Peter and an awful game of karaoke, I disabled the microphone."
Elenora was barely processing his tone, taking in chunks of messages at a time. Did he really come to me to ask what happened just so he can tell on me? What do I even say? I don't want to tell them. I don't want to have to explain everything.
Tony met her eyes, and forced her to maintain eye contact. "So I'm wondering what exactly happened that made you punch a random guy on the street."
"How much did you see?" Elenora demanded, not even bothering to test the waters. She was going to lie if she had to, but first, she wanted to know how much he knew.
Tony figured Elenora was going to start making up a lie, and nipped the seed at the bud. "Just answer, Kid."
She was trapped. Cornered. Screwed. Elenora had absolutely no way out so she did what Steve always prompted her to do : Explain. Be truthful.
"He was a guy I used to know," she stated, then reminding herself of her father's words and he trust in Tony, she went deeper. "He was foster brother. He was awful. And I saw him with this little girl and I just knew something was wrong so what you saw was me confronting him."
Elenora waited for a "what?" or at least a sound of confusion or concern, but all she got was a nod and Tony staring turning away from her.
"Alright," he said, his voice perfectly stable, which was incredibly hard for him right then because hell, that kid was not okay, "you're good to go."
Cautiously, as though waiting for Tony to change his mind, Elenora bent down and scooped up her backpack, and slid it over her arm. She stood there for a second, facing Tony who wasn't even looking at her, before asking the question that was burning in her mind. "Are you going to tell? My dads?"
Tony turns away from the computer to meet her eyes, prompting up his chin with his fist. "Are you?"
Elenora shook her head. "No."
Switching his attention back to the computer, Tony promised, "Then I won't, either."
Shocked with relief, Elenora let out a small exclaim, tugging on her backpack strap and pulling out her phone. "Thanks, Uncle Tony."
That made Tony stop in his tracks. Not realizing what she had let slip, Elenora waited for a "sure, kid" or "won't happen again", but when nothing came, Elenora replayed what she said in her head.
Haven't I called him that before? she wondered, but with one glance at his expression, Elenora knew the answer.She he referred to him like that all the time -mostly to Natasha- and in her head, but it never really came out in front of Peter, and its common knowledge that Elenora was always with Pete.
Tony coughed. "What?"
Elenora decided she wasn't going to be awkward about it. She'd known Tony for months now, almost a year, and she was fully capable of holding a conversation, as weird as it may seem.
"Oh, sorry," she apologized. "It's just, I call Aunt Tasha aunt and Uncle Clint uncle, and I just figured you'd be my uncle, too. I'll stop, if you want me to."
HE grasped his words as quick as he could. "Doesn't bother me at all, kid," he told her, before looking back at hims computer. Come on, idiot, don't just leave her at that. "And since I figure I'm the cool uncle, you should know that I've arranged a movie night. It's at about seven, the the main lounge." Elenora nodded, giving a little wave before moving to find Peter.
Elenora and Peter had ended training, and were sitting in the commons, waiting for the other avengers to appear. It was time, and Elenora knew it.
"Peter? we have to talk."
His head snapped up from his phone almost immediately. As he tucked it in his pocket, he rushed out, "What happened?"
Say it. Say it!
"Do you remember my uncle? Like, my bio uncle, Charles?" Peter nodded, and Elenora explained. "I'm going to see him. Over the summer. To uh, train."
Peter froze. Elenora knew the second she saw his muscles and jaw tense up that she had made a huge mistake waiting so long to be honest, but she couldn't imagine telling him any sooner. He'd be different if he knew before. He'd act like he needed to distant himself before he got too close.
"How long?" he asked.
"Three weeks," she told him, and swallowing back her pride, she continued, trying to explain to him why she had to go. She had to, and it had nothing to do with him. "Please don't be upset,Peter. I'm going there because I'm not like you guys, you gained your powers while I've always been this."
Peter wasn't getting it, in fact, he couldn't even wrap his head around it. "But you were getting so good with your powers here, a-and-"
"I know, and I'll get even better there with people who know exactly what's going on. I'll come back so much better, Peter- that's the point."
"But you're already amazing," he muttered, just loud enough for Elenora's heart to skip a beat and beg her to admit her crush. I will not be admitting two things at once, she corrected her subconscious. Get it together.
"Peter, by the time I get back, I'll be able to do patrol with you. And Tony won't pull you back from missions. And everything will go back to being normal."
Peter wanted to tell her that truly nothing was ever normal with her, and that's exactly why he liked everything about her, but he knew this wasn't just about him. She needed to prove her worth. He felt the same when he first joined the Avengers. "You'll come back?"
Elenora felt a twinge in her heart, but laughed in off. "They're not kidnapping me, Peter."
"Well-"
"I am not hearing your theory about how my uncle is an Martian again, Peter!" she exclaimed with a laugh, leaning on him slightly has she took in deep breaths, and he began to mimic her laughter. When it died down, Elenora promised, "We can write letters, Parker. My dads are paying for express mail so my letters go faster. And it'll only be three weeks, and then we will be-"
"Back to me kicking your butt," Peter finalized, earning a shove from Elenora.
"I won twice, Peter!"
"That's only because you play dirty, El!"
As if nothing ever happened, Elenora and Peter playing a not-so-friendly game of Mario Cart and as they waited for the rest of the Avengers to pile in (who, all happened to be peering in through the door while Elenora broke the news (Steve had told Natasha and Natasha told Clint who's a blabber mouth). They waited twenty minutes before shuffling in, and Elenora was estatic to see her aunt and uncle after such a long duo mission.
"How was Cairo?"
"Was all kind of a blur. Literally. I had so many hulliciegens in my system."
"Romanoff," Steve warned from across the room, verbally begging Natasha to not share any details with his daughter. She sighed and wrapped her arm around the young girl, whispering in her ear that she'd fill her in later. Steve, who picked up on it, sent her another look to which Natasha shrugged. There was only so much you could to about family, right?
In celebration of Clint and Natasha's return, Tony decided to call all the resident Avengers in for a movie night, something that they hadn't really done before. But Steve knew that Tony had this thing about making sure they stayed a group, even if it took the stupidest methods of bonding, and one look at Bucky, and he knew he was in. And were the twins and Vision, and Natasha and Clint.
Natasha and Pietro were put in charge of picking the movie, and though both Steve and Tony had certain requirements, they mostly had free reign over any age appropriate movie for the two youngest viewers. Banner had to set up the movie to play on the screen properly, because Pietro couldn't figure it out and all Natasha did was snicker at him.
Clint was in charge of snacks with his handy dandy pal Vision, and Wanda who tagged along. Steve and Bucky had the job of locking down the compound, because believe or not, Tony became a little paranoid after the attack and added as many defenses as he could.
And that left Peter and Elenora in charge of comfort- which included blankets and pillows and extra socks (Elenora swore her feet were always colder in the compound). The journey was longer and farther than the other groups- they had to go all the was down to the fourth level, gather the stuff from linen closets and lug them all the way back up.
For the most part, they were quiet, and for the first time in forever, Elenora didn't know what to say to Peter. She wasn't about to admit her feelings, even though she promised herself she would, and she certainly wasn't going to go ahead and talk all about how she was so nervous and just rub it in his face that she was so gif-
"Will I be able to visit you?"
Peter's question knocked Elenora right out of her freak out session. She hadn't even fully processed the question before Peter was following it up.
"I mean, if your dads go I was hoping it'd be okay if I just tagged along, y'know?"
Elenora swallowed, and hard. She'd been doing that a lot lately in conversations with Peter. Hesitant words kept getting stuck in her throat, begging to retreat. "No one can visit, Pete," she said in a super small voice, and Peter wondered if she wished the rules were different. Of course she did, he corrected himself, why wouldn't she want to see her dads? But there was a lingered thought in his head- why would she want to see me anyway?
Sensing his pondering, Elenora went on. "It's a rule. For everyone in the school. Though, it doesn't really bother most of them because they ran away from their families. And besides, Charles thinks it's best in the school stays undercover, and if the news gets one whiff of Steve Rogers heading to a kids school? There goes the whole undercover thing."
Peter nodded, he understood. It was a rule. (not that he was going to follow it, but more on that later.)
"But I can get calls," she told him, outstretching her hand to the closet door they had just come infant of. "If you want to, uh, call me. Which you might not. Which I'd totally get."
Peter was going to answer, but Elenora had already tried to avoid her own embarrassment my throwing herself in the closet, and emerging with ten blankets piled up, covering her red face.
Gosh, why would he ever want to call me? He'll be fine with Ned. It's not even like we'll have anything to relate about.
So they went back upstairs, again, in silence, because Peter thought it was too late to say that, yes, he did want to call her, and he figured he'd be less nervous and embarrassed to tell Steve and Bucky than he would his best friend. (which, by the way, is a tell tale sign someone has a crush on someone else).
All the avengers were bunched up on the couch; Steve and Bucky sharing the chaise lounge, Natasha sitting cross legged next to Bruce, Wanda and Vision were cuddling (much to Pietro and Tony's dismay, who sat scowling together), and Clint sitting on the floor right under Natasha.
Making their rounds, the two youngest avengers handed out the blankets to all couples (and lone Clint, who was off to his home the next morning). Bucky and Steve knew by the tension that Elenora had told him, and offered her a smile when she handed them a fleece blanket.
Peter and Elenora both unspokenly decided to sit together on the floor, to the right of Bucky and Steve's seat. Elenora tucked herself in the little corner, pressing her knees against her chest. Peter kept a distance of a few inches, and did the same with his legs, letting the ankles cross and wrapping his arms around his legs.
The movie was something that Elenora wouldve never guessed they Avengers would ever watch- it was Big Hero Six.
Both Tony and Steve had their requirements and this is what Pietro and Natasha managed to find as a compromise, and Natasha explicitly said "If you don't like it Stark, find your own movie." But Tony was lazy so he settled for a Disney movie.
The promos began and everyone was chatting, but everyone knew to quiet down before it started.
Five minutes in, Peter and Elenora were smiling. Peter was making comments on nano bot technology and how it was very feasible. Steve kept elbowing Bucky everytime he muttered "damn nerd" under his breathe. It was about 7 times.
Fifteen minutes in, Elenora had big round eyes and was trying, but failing to hide her tears from the people around her. She never cried at movies. She certainly didn't cry at animated movies, but this was an exception. Maybe it was everything in general that was piling up- going away from her fathers for more than she had been since she met them, her stupid crush on Peter, or meeting Charles. Whatever it was, it had Elenora sniffling loud enough for Peter to pick up. (Bucky and Steve heard it too, but Bucky motioned for Steve to let it play out. They didn't want to embarrass her).
(Or ruin her chances.)
At first Peter didn't know what to do- her fathers were right there and he wasn't sure how close he could get. But then Elenora made the first move, completely ignoring the fact her dads were there.
Elenora dared to place her head against Peter's shoulders.
Maybe she knew Steve and Bucky wouldn't mind, or maybe she thought it was just discreet enough. Innocent. Platonic. Or maybe she was just tired.
But whatever was racing through her mind, Elenora knew three things.
1.Peter was comfy.
2.She was tired.
3.Summer was going to suck without the boy she liked.
Or loved. Same thing, right?