Being Sneaky

Disclaimer: Don't own Avengers or any of the characters mentioned here that you may recognise.

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HER LIFE, Charlie Parker was hiding from her dads and being sneaky.

The sneaky part, in itself, was totally unheard of. If there was one thing that her Pops had taught her, it was that facing things head on was usually best for all involved (this, of course, was meant for when there was an emotional problem that included the family, and was not advisable when, say, dealing with evil super-villains). She typically followed Pops’ example; that was mostly due to Peter, her older brother, who had gotten bitten by a radioactive spider a few months back because he didn’t listen to Pops’ warnings to leave Dad’s lab immediately.

In Dad’s defence, he wouldn’t have let the spiders out if he knew Peter was there.

And if the sneaky part was unheard of, then the ‘hiding from her dads’ part was something of an anomaly as well. Hiding was Peter’s gig, not hers, for Thor’s sake! Charlotte Ann Stark-Rogers didn’t hide, and never from two of her most favourite people in the whole entire universe.

Yet, there she was, without permission, in her school’s gym (which she,MódiFoster – more commonly known by his middle name, William, and, by extension, the nickname Will – and Sammy Maxwell had broken into), running laps at the speed of light while Sammy stitched a superhero costume together and Will timed her. She was only present at her current location because she knew that her dads wouldn’t agree to her getting into the Other Family Business – which was not to be confused with the Family Business, which Dad would probably approve of her getting into and Pops would protest just as much (albeit, without as much enthusiasm).

Wait – is the speed of light comment confusing? Yeah … Charlie can – sort of – explain that one…

~SNEAKY~

You see, Charlie was a runner.

It was pretty unexpected to her family. Just look at her examples.

Firstly, there’s Tony Stark (aka, Dad), who owns a green energy company and flies around in a super-suit that he built himself. He is the basic definition of ‘genius’. Seriously, if you checked out the dictionary, you’d see a picture of Tony Stark next to the word. And, not to mention, Charlie was like his little evil apprentice. It was fully expected that she follow in his metal footsteps and become a genius, like him (despite the fact that she wasn’t biologically his).

And then there’s the guy who is her biological father, who she calls Pops (but is really named Steve Rogers). He grew up being really bad at sports, apparently; at least, that was according to Dad, who wasn’t all too reliable at telling things like it is. But still, that hate for sports (and, more importantly, coordination) was slightly ingrained in Pops’ DNA – pretty much proven by the way he preferred to throw around weights rather than take Peter out for football or something. So it was obvious she didn’t get her running talent there.

The last possible example that was close to home was her older brother, Peter. If you had ever met Peter, you’d understand why she called him a short-arse dweeb. Honestly, he’d not gotten his height from Tony (his biological father), nor his and Charlie’s mother, Ebony Parker, who were both reasonably tall. He was most definitely not the sporty, running type, having taken more after Pops than was healthy. At least, when Charlie had gotten into running, he was like this. Of course, that was before he’d gotten bitten by a radioactive spider that gifted him with the power of being able to shoot webs from his wrists and climb buildings like a pro.

But even though she was really smart like Dad and sort of lazy like Pops (again, this was according to Dad) and loved to read and all those things, ultimately, she was a better runner than anything.