The next morning, after waking from for her usual nightmare, Hope decided to go downstairs. It was still early so she wasn't expecting to see anyone in the kitchen. But, much to her surprise, Natasha was stood leaning against the counter drinking a freshly made cup of coffee.
"Morning, Nat," Hope whispered, so as not to wake the others.
"Jesus!" Came the quiet reply as Nat jerked, spilling her coffee. "Sorry, hey, Hope, you scared me." She placed her mug down beside her and wiped at the coffee stains on her clothes with a wet cloth. "I'm normally the only one up at this hour."
"I'm so sorry, let me help you with that!" She quickly grabbed some paper towels and started wiping up the mess. "Did you want me to make you another one?"
Nat laughed at the panicked girl. "It's fine, you don't have to apologise for everything. This place is 90% testosterone so you're going to have to learn to stand up for yourself."
"I feel like I've already proved that I can. You know, when I smashed Captain America's head into the floor about five minutes after I got here. Talk about good first impressions!" She laughed nervously.
"Trust me, you made a great first impression on all of us. Well, except for Steve," Nat smiled. "It was about time somebody knocked him of his pedestal."
"Speaking of Steve, did he come back after I'd gone to bed last night?"
"Kiddo, we talked about this!" A coarse voice cut in, as Tony made his way down the stairs. "You are not to go near him!" He made a point to accentuate the 'not'.
"Tony, I was just asking if he'd come back or not, don't worry." She sighed; it was sweet of him to care but in her opinion, this was over-kill. "It's just that it would be nice to know that he didn't crash his bike because he was angry and not paying attention, ultimately making it my fault."
"I'm sorry, what's going on?" Natasha asked. "Why is she not allowed near Steve? What happened after the meeting yesterday?"
"It was nothing, Nat, Tony is being overprotective!" Hope answered quickly before Stark got the chance.
"You call that bruise on your wrist nothing, Hope?" He pointed to her wrist and she immediately pulled her sleeve down, hoping that Natasha hadn't had a chance to see it, "You don't go near him until I say so!"
"Steve did what!?" Nat exclaimed. "Tony, let me talk to him."
"No, Nat, it's fine, honestly. Just a bit of a misunderstanding." Hope smiled at her before shifting her focus back to the man beside her. "Tony, I would rather you didn't go around telling everyone what happened yesterday. This stays between us, Sam and Steve. The others don't need to know!" Hope said, clearly annoyed by his actions. He nodded and let out a distinct smile, it was his 'I'm sorry' smile. "Now, what are the plans for today?"
"Training, testing out your skills. We'll head down after breakfast once everyone is up. Tony mentioned that you didn't have much in the way of clothes with you, if you want you can borrow some of my sports gear for today."
"Thanks, mate, that would be great!" The two women smiled at each other.
"You and the girls can go shopping this afternoon and get everything you need to get settled in here. Clothes and anything you need for your room." Tony said kindly, not wanting to annoy Hope any more that morning.
"I'll just buy some clothes; I don't really need anything for my room. Money is a bit tight at the moment," she said.
"Don't worry about money, it's on me, I pay for everything around here. You're part of the team, so those privileges now apply to you."
أنت تقرأ
Once Upon an Avenger
قصص الهواةPart princess, part pirate, and now... part of the Avengers. Daughter of the Saviour and Captain Hook, Hope's life is far from normal. Not only is her family made up of heroes and villains from what are believed to be children's stories; there is...
