𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃, steve rogers

19. SMALL PROMISES

2016 | AVENGERS COMPOUND — After training together with Natasha & Wanda (to combine the fight training with the scream training) the girls decided to spend some time together in the compound after they had freshened up again. The three of them sat laughing in the kitchen and ate something to recharge their batteries.

Natasha made one of her special peanut butter sandwiches for herself and Ariel, while Wanda made some popcorn in the microwave in the meantime. The trio eventually went over to the living room with their snacks, where they sat down on the couch. They talked about everything they could think of at that moment. Ariel loved these moments, this new experience. She felt so different with Nat and Wanda ... almost normal. It was a nice feeling to be among girls for once. The Avengers were already like having a family to her, even if she may not have realized it consciously.

There are friends. There is family.
And then there are friends who become family ...

Natasha looked at Ariel, who sat in the middle of the two and shared the popcorn bowl with Wanda. "The training went well today, don't you think so?" She asked the two confidently. Wanda affirmed her answer, but Ariel remained rather calm and only slightly shrugged her shoulders. Uncertainly, she avoided the looks of the witch and the assassin. The training actually pretty went well.

But to Ariel, it was just not good enough. Initially, Natasha practiced a few attack techniques with her and Wanda helped her as the next step to incorporate her screams in order to increase her impact force. Of course, Natasha had to wear noise protection headphones, who knows what her screams could do, but it just didn't work out optimally, something was holding back Ariel.

"Listen." Natasha began, putting on her most reassuring voice. "You don't get perfect overnight." She looked into the insecure face of her friend and forced her to look up at her. "And that's perfectly fine." she continued, before Wanda, who was sitting next to Ariel finally said something too. "You think you are not good enough ... You think you don't deserve all this ... you doubt yourself." Wanda spoke in her heavy accent, while her legs were on top of Ariel's lap. "That's exactly how I felt when I was here for the first few weeks too." The compassion could be seen in her green eyes. "Just because you're scared, doesn't mean you should stop." Maybe they were just simple words. But simple words could have a big effect on someone.

Wanda and Natasha saw the good in Ariel. And when you see the good in someone, you don't give up on them ... especially not if they don't see it in themselves.

Here were the three. A witch, an assassin and a mermaid.  Each of them different, but also the same somewhere. Each of them was once on the wrong side, hoping to make up for their mistakes.

After a short silence, Natasha spoke once again. "Steve told me about your nightmares." Ariel looked from Wanda to Nat for a moment before throwing her embarrassed look at her hands that were sitting in her lap, on top of Wanda's legs. "You're scared of HYDRA and of course they're still out there. But-" Natasha paused and breathed deeply in and out. "It doesn't matter if you are here or miles away. Deep in a forest, in a storm or even underwater. I'm your friend." She explained and looked at Wanda with a smile. "Just like Wanda." Maximoff nodded with a smile and continued to listen to the redhead. "You scream? ... we're all coming." It was a small promise she made to her. Should she really be in trouble, she would help her, and so would Ariel, she'd do the same for her.

After a lot of encouragement from Nat and Wanda, luckily the mood of the three was uplifted once again and they continued their random conversations. But shortly afterwards they were interrupted by a rather excited and cheerful Tony. "Hey little Ariel, you have a moment for me?"

Nodding, she got up shakily from her place between Nat and Wanda and joined the genius. Tony noticed her staggering and offered her to pull his arm around her. On the way he told her he'd been working on a new invention especially made for her, which is why he needed her for a few tests. He led her into his lab at the compound, where she sat anxiously on a cold metal table. She hated cold metal tables, they reminded her of old times. But Tony assured her, that the last thing he ever would want from her was her to be scared. Ariel trusted Tony though, he was a good person, just like the other Avengers, which is why she just agreed to helping him, where she can.

Carefully Tony proudly held up a shiny necklace, to the the girl, that he had been secretly working on for the past few weeks. Ariel's eyes widened excitedly at the closer look at the charming blue chain. Tony smiled brightly, when he noticed her interest for his special invention.

He explained to her that the necklace was made of nano-particles that could attach themselves to her in seconds and form a mermaid tail. The only problem was that Tony had never tried it on anyone in action. With a little confidence, Ariel carefully reached for the necklace with a shaky hand. However, startled she jerked her hand back before she came into contact with the necklace when she heard someone kick in the door. "Can't you knock?" Tony rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Are you serious?" Steve said angrily and turned his gaze to Tony. "We said we weren't going to treat her like some kind of guinea pig!"

"How do you even know she's here? That is called stalking, Rogers." Tony grumbled and defended himself. Although Tony only wanted to help Ariel and had meant well, he really did broke the agreement of the others on the team. Natasha and Wanda were the ones who snitched out on Tony, to Cap after he asked where Ariel went. "Besides, she can make her own decisions. I didn't force her to do anything." Arielle felt torn between the two and was a bit insecure. Steve meant well, but so did Tony. She had no idea what to do anymore. "You know what, Ariel?" Tony exhaled, whereupon her head shot in his direction. "You'd better go back to Romanoff and Maximoff."

„But-" she wanted tell Tony she wasn't mad at him. And she really wasn't, after all he just wanted to help her.

„Nah don't worry kiddo, we'll sort it out another time. Give your vocal cords a good rest, you did great." He smiled reassuring, he didn't want her to feel guilty.

And so with a slight nod, she just left it at that, agreed to Tony and avoided Steve's eyes. She felt guilty and terrible for having just caused an argument between the two of them. And with that, she walked quietly out of the laboratory, leaving the two men alone.