Between Entrance and Exit: An Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 1: God and Dogs

I ducked just in time as my mother's phone sailed over my head and stuck solidly into the opposite wall. A spiderweb of cracks in the plaster splintered from the epicenter, nearly reaching the floor and the ceiling. I stared at the wall, then back at my mother. The fury on her face had turned to shock that mirrored mine.

"Siri..." she said, her voice full of remorse.

I ran.

Bilbo, my neurotic, ginger-colored cocker spaniel poodle mix, followed closely at my heels, tail between his legs. He was bonkers around other dogs and most people, but I wanted his company. I grabbed his leash on the way out the front door, winding it tightly around my hand and we headed aimlessly towards the center of town.

My mother had always had a temper, but it had gotten much worse since I had come home from New York. Talking to her on the phone in Stark Tower, was just a preview of her fury. I knew that my temporary disappearance wasn't the only reason she was so out of sorts.

Thor had been on Earth, and Loki. It was all over the news. My Asgardian brothers had been here, so close to her hiding spot.

She didn't know that I knew the truth that she was hiding. She didn't know that I knew that she had lied to me for almost twenty years. She didn't know I knew that she was keeping the fact that she kidnapped me, after stabbing me as a child, then exiled us on Earth, used magic to conceal our location.

I had come home to keep her happy, though that didn't seem to be working. Still, I tried. Because despite everything, the lies, what she had done, and her temper, I still loved her. It was down to my bones that I loved her. It was my very being, and there was nothing I could do to stop loving her. She was my mother.

It was a little bit of disbelief, too, on my part. S.H.I.E.L.D. was convinced she was this insanely powerful enchantress. Ok, so maybe she was Asgardian and had magic to hide us from Odin. Maybe she could live longer and heal herself if she got hurt. I could believe that. But Coulson's list was hilariously over the top: Spellcasting, energy projection and shields, teleportation, levitation, illusions, transmutation, life force absorption, time disruption, telepathy, telekinesis. Oh, and supernatural seduction. Of course, I laughed in his face.

I shivered despite the warmth of the late afternoon sunlight. I had wandered down to the rugby field. A huge man with huge hair and huge calf muscles wearing a polka-dotted uniform grabbed one of Aspen's rugby team members by the back of the neck and threw him down with little effort. The whistle blew. Right. It was Ruggerfest.

I sat down in the damp grass and pulled Pogo into my chest. He licked my chin gratefully. Gabe, dressed in the red and black stripes of the Aspen Gents was hunched over, hands on knees, breathing hard at the other end of the field. He'd gone to Australia for one week and then had turned around after finding out how cold it was during our summer months.

I hadn't watched any of his games this summer, and I had promised him I would watch at least one. The yearly tournament Aspen hosted called Ruggerfest seemed as good as time as any.

Golden aspen leaves fell on me when the wind rustled the trees overhead. The mountains towering over town were mottled with changing colors—reds, yellows, and oranges mixed in with the shades of greens. The sky was blue like only a Colorado sky could be. I breathed deeply, glad to be out of the house, away from my mother. I wished it felt good to be outside on such a nice autumn day. But I hadn't felt good, or warm, for months.

My leg had healed quicker than humanly possible, but my mind hadn't. Every time I tried to dance, I had a panic attack. I'd go to rehearsal or class, and as soon as the music started playing, I would find myself crippled with anxiety. It left me filled with shame to know that the other dancers, choreographers, and the director of the company had seen me multiple times, run out of the studio for seemingly no reason.