Author's note: Thought I'd post the first two chapters together again, I'm feeling kind ;) Some more things: I cannot for the life of me think of a half decent title for this fic, please send help I'm open to all suggestions. The beautiful, amazing, gorgeous cover for this work was drawn for me by heatthom, literally just because I asked, so felt I needed to mention how brilliant and talented she is <3 Now, on with the story, hope you enjoy, please leave a comment! :)
...
You walked alongside Thor to the end of your street, bursting with questions.
"I'm sure you have lots of questions, but I think it best that Stark talks to you first."
He stopped suddenly underneath a streetlight and turned to look at you.
"I assume you have never flown before? And I'm not talking about those strange metal cans Midgardians use to fly."
You fought back a smile at that description of a plane.
"No, I haven't." you replied.
"Hold on tight then." he suggested, holding out an arm to gesture you should wrap your arms around him. This was awkward. You wrapped your arms around the God of Thunder, reluctant to hold on too tightly. This changed rapidly as Thor wielded Mjolnir above his head and you rocketed into the sky.
You gave a surprised shriek and tightened your grip considerably, holding on for dear life and squeezing your eyes shut as the ground fell away from beneath your feet. Thankfully it was over fairly quickly, and your feet touched down on solid ground again.
"Apologies, I know that can be quite an overwhelming experience, but it saves us walking." Thor told you. "Are you alright?"
"Y-yep." you confirmed shakily, releasing your death grip and opening your eyes. And then your mouth.
Whoa.
You were on top of the Avengers Tower, stood on the giant H painted on the helipad, looking out over the whole of New York city. The sun was just beginning to set, painting the sky with hues of orange, pink and purple. The lights of the city were just starting to appear, spread out far below you and Thor. It was the most gorgeous thing you'd ever seen.
"Come inside Lady Y/N, it is cold."
You reluctantly tore your eyes away and followed Thor inside, down some stairs.
"Don't look so nervous, we just want to help you." Thor told you with a kind smile, which eased your nerves slightly.
"I'm not scared, just... this is all happening very quickly. Ten minutes ago I was lying on my bed questioning my life and now I'm in the Avengers Tower with you about to have a conversation with Tony Stark."
"Stark isn't so bad, he may be rich and famous but he's just a simple Midgardian, like everyone else."
You weren't sure whether to be reassured or offended by this comment, even though you knew he'd meant no offense.
At the bottom of the stairs you walked down a long corridor, staying slightly behind Thor. At the end, in front of two large doors he put his hand on your shoulder and squeezed reassuringly.
"You will be fine."
"What? I'm meant to go in there on my own?"
This was Tony Stark's penthouse he was talking about, you couldn't just stroll on in by yourself! You felt like this was some sort of test you had to pass, and it was making you incredibly nervous.
"I shall see you very soon." Thor replied, and turned to stroll back down the corridor.
Right. Well, you didn't need him anyway. You'd looked out for yourself your whole life; you could do this on your own too.
...
Why were you not opening the door? Come on Y/N.
Gritting your teeth, you pushed the door open and stepped inside. You looked around at the huge room, which was a sort of kitchen, bar, dining room and lounge all in one. It was empty.
You let out a shaky breath you hadn't realised you'd been holding and relaxed considerably. Tony Stark was only human, as Thor had told you. He was late. You walked over to the floor to ceiling window which stretched across most of the room to watch the rest of the sunset grace the sky over New York. It truly was gorgeous. You caught sight of your reflection in the glass and remembered your purple eyes from earlier, feeling a swell of anxiety rise in your chest. Pushing it down immediately, you told yourself that you'd work it out later on – now wasn't the time. You stared out of the window and watched the sun disappear behind the horizon, and then watched as the sky began to lose its colour and get slowly darker.
"Not a bad view, huh?"
You turned around abruptly to see Tony Stark stood at the bar, watching you. You hadn't heard him come in. He smiled.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. I'm Tony, Tony Stark."
"I know." you replied weakly, trying to return his smile as he walked over to join you by the window. Then you realised how rude that probably sounded.
"Nice to meet you Mr Stark." you said, holding your hand out. He shook it firmly.
"Tony, please. Good handshake by the way." he replied, and then gestured to the sofa behind you.
"Shall we sit?"
Once you were both sat on the sofa, he turned to face you with a serious expression.
"So, Y/N, I heard you've been through quite an ordeal today? First Thor managed to drop a bus on you, sorry about that by the way."
You laughed and shrugged.
"Happens to the best of us." you said. He really laughed at that, and you felt something almost like pride at being able to make him laugh.
"Yes, but you don't seem to have been seriously injured by that, which I needn't say is quite abnormal. Do you know what happened? Thor said he thought you used some sort of magic?"
"Is that why I'm here?"
"Yes."
At least he was honest. If they knew you had some sort of magical ability... maybe they would be able to help you. Maybe they wanted you... no, don't get ahead of yourself. You struggled not to feel relieved, you needed to talk everything through with Tony first.
"We just want to find out a bit more about you, that's all. And you don't seem like a dangerous criminal, so that's a start." Tony said with a wink. You laughed.
"No, not a criminal... I'm not so sure about the dangerous part." you finished quietly.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I don't exactly know how to use... whatever is it yet. I've been calling it the purple mist."
"But you managed to protect yourself today when you were in danger?"
"That wasn't me, it was like the mist wanted to protect me. I just stood there, and then I was in a purple bubble inside of a bus."
Tony stroked his chin, frowning at you.
"That's interesting. So you've never used it before today?"
You felt yourself grow hot.
"Not... not intentionally."
"What does that mean?"
You exhaled heavily. May as well tell him, he'd probably find anyway if you didn't.
"Ages ago when I was younger, seven years old, my foster dad was... he used to hurt me. He'd get drunk and yell at me for a bit, then if he was really angry he'd hit me. It happened a few times, but this one time it was... I -" you struggled to find the words.
"The mist? Did it...?"
You nodded.
"Sheesh. Was he okay?"
"Yeah, eventually. He was too proud to tell anyone that a seven-year-old had bettered him though, and he never spoke of it. He didn't try and hurt me again after that."
Tony was giving you a sympathetic look. You hated that look. You'd seen so many of those looks over the course of your life.
"Well, you can't go back there then, can you?" he said eventually.
Your heart stopped momentarily; you hardly dared to believe it. Had you heard him right?
"JARVIS, tell the others they can come in. And turn the lights up would you?"
"Yes Sir."
Your mouth fell open as the lights turned up, and stared at Tony.
"That's JARVIS, you can talk to him any time to ask for anything, within reason."
Was that creepy or cool? Definitely cool.
"Wow... okay." you grinned.
In the next five minutes you were introduced to the Avengers. Captain America arrived first (wearing not his suit but jeans and a shirt, which was possibly the weirdest thing you'd ever seen), along with Bucky Barnes. Then came Pepper, Tony's girlfriend, and then Black Widow, Bruce Banner and Hawkeye. Thor reappeared last greeting you with a huge smile, as though you'd known each other for considerably longer than half an hour.
"Okay!" Tony announced, clapping his hands. "Now that we're all introduced, I can tell you that Y/N will be staying with us for the foreseeable future as we believe she might have, well, magic basically." Here he paused, and you went red as everyone stared at you.
"Cool." Bucky eventually said, and you smiled at him in relief when he grinned at you.
"And also her foster parents weren't exactly the best, so we're looking after her now. Not that you need looking after." he added quickly, as you opened your mouth in protest.
"Nat, I also think it would be a good idea for her to have some training, just so that we can assess the situation." he addressed Natasha, who nodded amiably and gave you a glimpse of a smile. Or her lip might have just twitched. You'd take the first one.
"Where's she gonna sleep Tony?" Bruce asked.
"That's what I was about to mention, Y/N, let's go find you a room." Tony said, standing up abruptly and gesturing for you to do the same.
"Where's your stuff?"
"Here." you said, holding up the small bag.
There was another split second of silence in which the sympathy looks were strong, before Tony thankfully started talking again and you followed him from the room and back down the corridor you had come in. You went past the stairs and into an elevator, which took you down several levels, and then along another corridor.
"So here are everyone's rooms, Thor's, Natasha's, Steve's..." he pointed at different doors as you walked past them. "We only have three left up here, Pep and I sleep further downstairs... this one is free."
He pushed open a door to reveal an empty room with nothing more than a bed, a chest of drawers and a cupboard. It was four times the size of your old room. And the view was amazing.
"It's not that big, but there's an en-suite through there." Tony told you, and you stuck your head through the door to see a bathroom which was also bigger than the one back at the house.
"This is good." you told him, hardly able to believe that this was yours.
"You haven't seen the other two yet! Come on." Tony laughed, and you followed him further down the corridor.
Eventually you chose the first room, not because you liked it more than the others (they were all great) but because it was nearest to everyone else. And you fell in love with the view the second you saw it. Tony left you to unpack and told you to be in the kitchen-diner down the corridor in ten minutes to eat.
You 'unpacked' the small bundle of clothes and belongings you had bought, which consisted of your favourite book, some toiletries and a photo. The photo was of your birth parents. Apparently. You hoped it was your parents, and that you hadn't been carrying a picture of two random people around your whole life. You couldn't remember where you had got it from, nor did you know when it had been taken, or where. You'd given up on that a long time ago, reluctant to put too much effort into finding out about it in case they weren't really your parents.
You were done in less than five minutes, and sat down on the floor in front of the far wall of your room, which was actually a floor to ceiling window which stretched from wall to wall. Lucky you weren't scared of heights, you thought, looking down at the tiny people walking along the street far below. You must be at least fifty stories up, if not more.
You felt more like you were in a hotel than your own room... there was an en-suite for the love of god! And you were about to have tea with the Avengers. No big deal. This was your life for the time being, so you were going to need to stop freaking out every time you thought about speaking to an Avenger.
"Y/N, will you be joining the others for dinner?" JARVIS' voice sounded in your room, making you jump.
"Yeah, I'll be down now." you replied, still unsure about talking to the AI.
Time to go have dinner with the Avengers.