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ELENORA ROGERS WAS THREE DAYS into school and already swamped with homework.
It seemed that the academic attacks were coming from every possible angle - she had math packets topped with physics assignments and an English essay.
And those are only by noon.
Already exhausted, Elenora plopped down in a heap at her lunch table, letting her healing focus in on the movement of the table and her cheek rest against her arms.
"Are you alright?" Peter asked, his voice laced with concern.
Elenora didn't need to look up to know that his face would scrunch together and his hands would clutch on to each other in a nervous manner.
She really didn't need to look, but Elenora did anyway; shifting her head so her cheek was on her arm that allowed her to see Peter, El said, "I'm tired."
Peter opened his mouth, but Ned was quicker. "Drink some coffee."
In a quick second, Elenora's head snapped up, and she narrowed her eyes at Ned viciously. "I want to sleep, not prolong my consciousness."
Peter and Ned exchanged a look and Ned raised his hands in defeat.
"Aren't you a little ball of sunshine," Jade said as she stood across from Elenora at the table, placing down her lunch tray. "What crawled into your Cheerios this morning?"
"I'm tired," Elenora stressed, disappointed with the lack of support she was met with. Her head fell back to the table.
Jade looked up at the two boys, who were both equally confused; Ned knew Elenora just as long as Peter had, and it was safe to say that neither of them had ever seen Elenora in such a mood. Usually when she got tired she got angry, which, for the most part, was the reason she was no longer allowed to stay at training past 10:30.
(Because Peter did not deserve a medicine ball thrown at his head.)
"Well," Ned tested, his eyes nervously darting between Peter and El as began to test the waters. "Are you going to eat those Gushers?"
Without even raising her head to look, Elenora's hand grasped the gummy's wrapper, lifted her arm and retracted.
Before she could actually throw it, Peter's palm clamped around her wrist and held her steady; his other hand pried the packaged out of her grip. His hand around her wrist intertwined so they were holding hands.
(Elenora, as tired as she was, though that was smooth. Real smooth.)
"We're going to the library," Peter told Ned and Jade, who were both staring at their friend with very wide eyes. Tugging her up from her spot, Peter added, "See you guys next period, yeah?"
Both still staring at sleepy Elenora stand up and pry her eyes open, they nodded.
Jade muttered, "So this is why we've never had a sleepover."
Ned just continued nodded.
Peter knew the library pretty well. Sure, he had done countless class projects and reading assignments here, but he knew it better than anyone. When he had first joined Tony, his sleep intake plummeted quickly. Every free period he had, he found asleep in the library; he knew every comfortable nook and every quiet cranny, and for the first time, he was about to share that information with someone else.
"Come here," he said softly, pulling Elenora into a comfortable chair, and making sure she didn't fall out of it before he sat down in the once next to her.
Peter assumed that she must have knocked out pretty quickly, because she said nothing after he pulled away, and she stayed silent as he tugged out his book.
About half a minute into reading, Elenora made some sort of noise that prompted Peter to look back at her; unlike her usual way of sleeping, Elenora was curled into a ball like formation, her head tucked in and her feet up on the cushion.
And her hand was outstretched for Peter's, and he sucked in a breath before placing his hand in hers.
Peter stayed that way the entire period: one hand on his book, one in Elenora's hand.
It took Elenora a minute to fall asleep, and catch up on all the rest she'd been missing out at during the night.
***
Surprisingly, Bridgit was handling everything well.
"Everything" as in the SHIELD wide announcement that a fifteen-year-old girl can't swim, video footage of her drowning going, what felt like her, viral, and the betrayal of one of her own teammates as they stood aside as she struggled to breathe.
Finding herself early to practice, Bridgit decided she might as well roam around the towers; she figured that even if she did get lost and was late for training, no one was going to blame her. Not after she almost died, anyway.
As much as she used it to her reasoning, Bridgit hated pity. That's why she hates crying. That's why she hated not being able to swim - because it made her cry which got her pity. Her lack of ability had never bothered her before; when there were lake days at the institute, she'd stay at the shallow end. Connor never really participated in any of that, so Bridgit never had any reason to feel stressed out.
But now, as she messed around with loose bolts and screws in a spare lab, Bridgit felt stressed out. Because now, she was probably the weakest of all of her team; she was used as bait during the first simulation.
The easiest simulation and she was a damsel in distress.
That phrase aggravated her, and even though it came from her own mind, Bridgit slammed the handle full of metal against the lab table, barely noticing the sharp intake of breath from behind her.
Barely, but she wasn't completely a damsel in distress.
Her head spun around as quickly as it could, her hair hitting her face before she tugged it away to get a better view of the person in the doorway.
Lo and behold, in all of his brooding and dark aura, Harley.
"I didn't know anyone was in here," he stated bluntly, and Bridgit turned back around, assuming her previous position, not wanting to show that she was in any way going to change anything she was doing just because he showed up.
"There are plenty of labs elsewhere," she said, a smirk growing on her lips as she internally praised, good one, Bri. She was certainly getting better with confidence, even if it was just fake confidence, around the Avengers. And then, just for emphasis, she added, "I'm sure you can find another."
Before Harley could stop it, a "Yeah" escaped his lips, and the advice Tony gave him on a large banner in his head: don't rock the boat.
He really didn't want to rock the boat, and especially with the girl he almost killed.
But something in Harley stopped him from heading down the hall into his second favorite lab.
She wasn't even doing anything. Really. It wasn't like Bridgit was using the computer's database or trying to access some program. She wasn't building anything, either, despite what the materials on the table were suggesting.
Bridgit Landon was just messing around and hogging his favorite lab.
But he wasn't going to get mad at that, no, because Harley Keener could not possibly afford to piss off anyone else in the Avengers Towers.
Then, something happened. Something that literally no one in the towers, not even Harley himself, could have predicted.
The boy apologized.
"Look," he said, which was half statement, half a cough, and Bridgit barely lifted her head from the table when she heard it, but the motion with her hands paused instantly. "I- I'm sorry, okay? About what happened at the pool."
"Don't be sorry," Bridgit told him, her hand slamming on the ends of the table, the crease of the metal pressing into her palms. "It's my fault I can't - I couldn't figure it out myself. No one should feel guilty for not saving me. I'm not some damsel in distress," she told him firmly, turning around so her back would lean against the table, and she faced the boy.
He could see the look in her eyes - the fire. Millions of books he'd read referenced that fire - the flame of determination or something cheesy like that - but he never believed it was a real thing.
Not until he saw Bridgit Landon defend herself.
And for a second, he just wanted to leave it be. Let her believe that she was the only one with that fault and she'd have to figure it out herself.
But then Bridgit added, "It's not your fault that you felt you needed to keep up your dick attitude."
Then Harley couldn't really stop himself.
"It's not that I didn't want to save you, alright?" he told her, his tone gets darker and his teeth gritting. Bridgit raised her eyebrows in surprise. "It's that I couldn't. I - I don't know either, okay?"
Taking a moment to process, Bridgit finally concluded, "You can't sw-"
Harley cut her off before she couldn't finish the sentence; he hated to hear something like that. Absolutely despise it. Instead, he restated, "I can't. So if it was me falling in that pool, I wouldn't blame you for staying away."
Bridgit rolled her eyes at his harsh tone and inability to express that he had an inability. "I already told you I don't blame you."
Harley stared at her for a second, then looked away. "Right."
Figuring he did enough to ensure that he wouldn't be attacked by her at practice or kicked out of the team, Harley drew a deep breath, then started his way to a lab way far away. Even if Bridgit was just hogging one for no reason.
"Wait-" Bridgit called when she saw him turn to leave. For once, the boy followed instructions. Swallowing before she did, Bridgit asked, "do you think it's hard? God, this is stupid, but whatever. It can't be, right? If everyone else knows how it can't be too hard?"
Harley thought for a moment, then answered, "No. I guess not."
He left after that.
Bridgit continued to occupy the lab for no reason. She knew it was his favorite. She just wanted to tick him off.
***
Elenora and Peter were both near dreading practice, and the only thing that kept a smile on either of their faces was the fact that they both got to walk alone to practice, hand in hand.
They were always hand in hand now, Elenora noticed, her smile growing a little. Even with the mess forming around them, they didn't falter.
Peter must have noticed the change in the mood because he glanced at Elenora's wide smile with a funny face. "What?" he asked, his own smile growing wider because of Elenora.
She just shrugged, not feeling like getting all sappy. Peter nodded, and they just kept walking.
Elenora's attention drifted off to the buildings around her - stores and restaurants - but a squeeze on her hand brought her back to the present, looking back to Peter.
His face was different, now. He wasn't upset, not really, but his face was more serious. El could tell he had something to say.
Squeezing his hand back, El urged him to go on.
"I need to ask a favor," he said slowly as if he was worried about her reaction.
Elenora furrowed her eyebrows; Peter had never asked her for a favor before, and she was almost excited to agree to whatever it was. Was he going to ask to copy her math homework? Done.
(She used to finish it first just in case he needed help so that they could fall in love during a tutoring session. Now, it was just a habit.)
"It's going to sound weird," he continued, squinting his eyes in the distance - he wouldn't make eye contact with Elnora, and she stared at him harder because of it. "May is having dinner, like a dinner party. That sounds like a murder mystery," he mumbled to himself, shaking his head and reminding himself to continue. "Anyway, there's this dinner party, and she's bringing a friend-"
"The guy in your apartment," Elenora recalled with a nod, thinking back to the moment they snuck in on.
"Right!" Peter said, finally turning to Elenora, stopping both of their walkings in the middle of the sidewalk. Elenora checked both sides to make sure no one was coming; they were in the clear. "Anyway, I was hoping you could come so I didn't have to face all -"
"I'll come," Elenora agreed immediately, loving the way Peter's eyes lit up.
"Really? Because if it's-"
"Peter," Elenora called, grabbing his other hand with eyebrows raised. "I promise to attend your painfully awkward double date so you don't have to deal with it alone."
He opened his mouth like he was about to thank her or say she really didn't have to, but he must have thought it over and decided against it, because in a split second, Elenora was against the building's wall, with Peter leaning in to kiss her.
She smiled against his lips.
She could really get used to that.
***
Elenora knew that sneaking around the towers, especially when she was team captain, was risky, but she knew it was something they had to be done; absolutely no one was allowing her anywhere near Marley, who was still in SHIELD custody.
So when Bucky released her from the day's practice, she was racing past Peter, who was the only one left and swinging a sharp left into the locker room. Slipping into day clothes, Elenora was on her way to do something completely stupid and immature.
But she felt pretty powerful doing it; a smile was on her face the whole time.
Marley was being held on the fourth level of the towers, which was usually off-limits to Elenora, but Peter had managed to hack into it. A favor for a favor, Elenora argued, but Peter mentioned that his favor had nothing to do with national security.
He did it, anyway, and in less than five minutes, Elenora was slipping out of the locker rooms, and into the restricted containments centers of the Avengers towers.
There weren't many people there, and as far as Elenora could tell, Marley was the only one. After a few freak accidents, SHIELD protocol ordered that detainments could only last up to two weeks.
Which was another reason that Elenora needed to do this; she was running out of time. Time that could save Marley from being locked up and that could bring back Pietro.
It took her about seven minutes of walking down the isles of the cells - because Elenora didn't feel like yelling and getting caught- to find the only occupied one.
The figure of a blonde girl with choppy hair leaning against the wall closest to Elenora.
Not to excite her, Elenora's first hit against an empty cell, and in a second, the girl was spinning around, and staring at the younger girl.
"Oh. You."
"Hello to you too," Elenora said calmly because she expected this animosity. After all, she did get Marley here - in her defense, she thought she'd break down in a few hours and call Pietro.
It'd been a week and a half since them, so apparently, that was wishful thinking.
"I'm not in the mood for visitors," Marley said bluntly, leaning her head against the wall and closing her eyes.
"Unless it was Pietro," Elenora mused, noticing how quickly the girl turned back to her. Really, it was puppy love. Elenora wondered if she and Peter were that whipped for each other.
Seriously. Marley could try to act a little less desperate.
Then again, she was three days down to being sent to alien jail. Elenora couldn't blame her much.
"Did he come here?" she asked, a little panicked. Pietro had spent most of their time together avoiding SHIELD, and Marley couldn't imagine if she was the reason he came back.
She'd never hear the answer.
"He can," Elenora said, and Marley looked at her cautiously. The SHIELD agents stopped asking her to contact him on the first day after she made a big scene of screaming and spitting. "If you call him."
"What's it to you?"
"First off, it's kinda my fault you're in this mess," she admitted, sitting down outside of her cell, and adding, "Believe it or not, we're his family, too."
Too. Marley swallowed hard but said nothing.
"Okay, so I don't mean to push you," Elenora said, brushing a piece of hair behind her ear. "But we're in a bit of a time crunch."
A week and a half of not breaking, but at this moment, she caved, "Fine."
A grin plastered itself on Elenora's face as she pulled out her phone, pressing on Peter's contact then holding her phone up to her ear.
"What are you doing?"
"Opening the cell," Elenora explained. "My friend is going to hack the system."
Marley nodded, sort of impressed. "The friend at the theaters with you?"
"Yeah."
"He's cute," Merely said, and a smile appeared on Elenora's face.
"Isn't he?" she exclaimed, letting her emotions get the best of her before her phone call was answered. All she said was "now" and hung up, just in case Tony was tracking their calls. Which she hoped he wasn't. "Give it a second," she told Marley, and the girl just nodded, biting her lip.
A buzz went off, and then Elenora opened the door.
And Marley knew she only had a second, so she leaped at Elenora, who, thanks to her training and super serum, was able to quickly dodge the attack and shove the girl against the cell wall.
"Are you going to make a phone call," she asked, pressing the girl's arm against her back harder, "Or should I lock the two of us in here together?"
Marley muttered something about doing it, so Elenora let her go, and pulled out a phone.
Narrowing her eyes, Marley mentioned, "That's not the same phone as before."
That's another reason it had to be done today - Bridgit only had so many opportunities to steal phones from Tony Stark, and this happened to be one of those special days.
Elenora decided that Tony would be so proud of Bridgit if they weren't messing around with SHIELD hostages.
"Like I was going to get in trouble for this," Elenora said, tossing the girl the phone. "They can't track it off of that." Merely stared at her skeptically. "Go ahead. Call him."
And so hesitant, she typed in the number, making sure Elenora couldn't see it and pressed the phone to her ear.
"Pietro? I - I'm in trouble."
Suddenly, a door was opening, and Elenora never thought she'd run out of a room faster than that day.
Thankfully, Bridgit and Peter were making sure that all the cameras were off.
Tony was totally suspecting something.
When Elenora was out of the clear - like three floors out of the clear - she called Peter again, just to find out where he was. Apparently, after training, the mentors rounded up all of the initiates and dragged them into one room. Said they were to "hang out" there because there was a possible threat in the towers.
Clearly, Peter hadn't disarmed all the alarms. Which wasn't his fault, Elenora told herself as she sprinted back to the commons room, he had tried his best.
She hoped, in the least, that her friends attempted to cover for her.
She smiled awfully wide when she heard Bridgit Landon's loud voice exclaim, "Mr.Barton, Elenora said she had to go to the bathroom. I'm sure you're aware, but Elenora is a girl and girls often take-"
"Cool it, Hot Shot. It doesn't take anyone, boy or girl, thirty minutes to use the bathroom."
And then, like the hero he was (would be), Connor came to Elenora's rescue with, "Actually, Sir, it's only been seventeen minutes."
Scouting out the situation, Elenora stood outside the door, holding her breath as silence draped the room. She thought that maybe it'd be better if she went and hid in one of the labs - at least then she'd have a better alibi than the bathroom.
(Like serious, guys? Superheroes in training and the bathroom was the best lie?)
Then, even though he promised the others he would not get involved in any of the mess, Cooper said, "He's right, Dad. Only been seventeen minutes."
With a deep breath and an internal "you've got this" Elenora stepped into the room, casually, and met the group with wide eyes as if she was surprised to see them there.
"I just got the text," she said, holding her phone up as proof. She was so calm that she had to remind herself to be a little more on edge; her face scrunched together. "What's going on?"
"What's going on?" Clint repeated in a tone of disbelief. "Alarms were triggered. Alarms that shouldn't have been. Where were you?"
"Bathroom," she answered, purposely making her face very unbelievable.
Peter, Connor, Bridgit and even Cooper sent her an incredulous look - the lie they had spent the last sixteen minutes (one minute to round them all up) concocting was done for nothing because Elenora couldn't act.
Clint didn't buy it, either. "Lying," he accused, crossing his arms over his chest.
Elenora shifted her feet, her lip tugging between her teeth as her eyes darted away. Man, she was glad she watched that video on body language with Peter while they both tried to find the best ways to sneak out of practice early.
"Tell me where you really were."
"Fine," Elenora said, then lifted her eyes to Clint. They only stayed there for a second thought, before looking at the others, and then going right back down to the floor. "It's embarrassing," she mumbled, shrinking into herself.
As much as she sold him on the existence of the alibi, Clint wasn't having anyone move. "Spill it."
"I was trying to reprogram FRIDAY so she'd do my math homework," Elenora stated, her teeth gritting as she let it out. Now everyone was going to think she was an idiot - even though she was lying. At least, Harley would. "I heard the alarm, but I was almost done, and so I-"
'Save it," Clint told her, rolling his eyes dramatically before turning back to the others. "All of you, stay here." He looked back at Elenora one last time. "I'll be checking your story out, soon."
The second the door closed behind him, peter was whipping out his laptop, his mind already racing with ideas of how to back Elenora's lie.
Bridgit's voice boomed, "So tell us what happened?"
That must have gotten Harley's attention, who was sulking in the back of the room, flipping through magazines. He peered up but tried not to seem engaged.
Before she would speak, Elenora glanced down at Peter's work, and placed a hand on his shoulder; he gave her a nod, signaling "I've got it", and the girl smiled, but left her hand there.
"She made the call," Elenora told them, cocking her head as she added, "after trying to beat me up. But she made the call."
"On the spare phone?" Bridgit asked excitedly, somewhat thrilled that she had helped on an actual mission. She coughed to bring down her happiness because not everyone needed to know that she was proud.
Harley's eyes flickered to her, stayed there for a while, then moved on to Elenora while she spoke.
"Yes," she told her, sending her friend a warm smile. "And now you all can meet Pietro."
"Met him once," Cooper said as he slid from the top of the couch into a sitting position next to Connor. He looked over to brunette as he confirmed, "Funny guy."
Connor just nodded along because wow, he wished he was a funny guy.
"Done," Peter said, his eyes meeting Elenora's whose face was very pleasant. Without his consent, they looked to her lips, and he instinctively bit his because now was not a good time to think about kissing Elenora.
But Elenora was thinking about kissing him.
And Bridgit was taking that as her opportunity to walk away.
The night only lasted so much longer before the teens started filing out, slowly but surely.
Bridgit was first. Natasha had come in as soon as possible, as she said, but never let out anything about if they'd caught Elenora or Pietro. She even went as far as zipping her lips as she directed the young redhead out of the room.
Elenora scowled at her.
Connor saw her and shoved her.
Clint was taking Cooper next, and they were off with a wave from Cooper. Clint stared at Elenora suspiciously but said nothing.
Next was Steve and Bucky, who grabbed the kids' backpacks for them, directing them out of the room, with a small 'goodnight' to the boy who was left alone in the room, still flipping through magazines.
He half expected Tony to come to get him. He didn't. After fifteen more minutes, hr though himself as stupid when he realized the door was unlocked, and no one was coming for him.
He wasn't a kid, really. He didn't need anyone to call him back.
***
Home felt so nice. In fact, Elenora couldn't remember a time when it had felt nicer - maybe it was the adrenaline fading into sleepiness and the comfort of knowing she was not caught for anything yet, but Elenora was happy and nearly half asleep on the couch.
She was about to doze off but was awakened by a nudge on her shoulder.
Bucky.
"Go to bed," he told her, not even pulling his eyes off of the TV as he did.
Elenora shook her head, letting her cheek fall back against his arm. "Don't wanna," she mumbled, falling more and more against him, nearly fully asleep this time.
"You've got to go to school in the morning, doll, get up."
"'M good, really."
Steve, from the other side of the couch, was watching the brunette boy carefully.
His eyes were trained on the TV like he was genuinely interested in the game, but every so often, his eyes would flicker over to Bucky and Elenora, and his stomach would drop like a million floors.
It was on his face, and it wasn't hard to miss.
Oblivious to the interaction, Bucky bargained, "What if Connor goes to bed, too?"
The use of his name made the boy's head spin over, and he watched the two's interaction guiltlessly.
He met Steve's eyes then offered a weak smile.
"Not tired, Pa."
"You just called me 'pa', I think you're pretty outta it."
Elenora shuffled a little, embracing Bucky a little more. Connor had to smile; Elenora was rarely this affectionate when she was awake. Something about the sleepiness and the lack of defended let out what Connor would assume were her instinctive actions: to be close to others.
He wondered if he was like that.
Then in a sudden pang of emotion, Connor missed Charles. Like really missed him. The two had their differences, the ideas of how to handle pain and grief always clashing, but when Connor first had nightmares, it wasn't Devon that was there. It wasn't Steve or Bucky.
His knees pressed further in his chest as he started to miss home a lot more than he thought he would.