he's my hero → t . stark ( ON HOLD )

Chapter 6

In the middle of the room, balloons were thrown about, all in different colors. Steve, Bruce, and Clint came out from the kitchen, and she turned to face them. After them, Cynthia and Natasha entered, both wearing warm smiles.

"What's all this?" Zoza asked, picking up a balloon and playing with it.

"Think of it as a 'Welcome to the Family' type of thing." Clint smiled at her. She hadn't really gotten to know him yet, but she ran over and hugged each of them tightly.

"Thank you all so much." she whispered, and Pepper smiled a bit.

"Your mom sent a few things over as well." Steve said, extending his hand for her to take. She slipped her hand into his, and he brought her to her room. On her bed were her favorite stuffed animals, and plenty balloons. She picked up one balloon and motioned for Steve to come down to her level, which he did. When she could reach his head, she rubbed the balloon over his hair and stuck it to the wall.

"The magic of static!" she giggled. Steve laughed, grabbed a balloon, and reached for Zoza. She ducked out of his reach and ran out of her room, with him following. She ran into the living room and hid behind Clint, who was chuckling softly.

"Come on Zoza, it's only fair." Steve laughed, and she shook her head, her bangs falling onto her face. Clint looked from Steve to Zoza, and he grinned.

"You want her, you gotta go through me, Rogers." he laughed, and Steve half-smirked. 

"Alright, you better be a good guard then." he chuckled, and Zoza giggled. Clint grinned and kept the little girl behind him, but she wormed away from him and took off running. She heard footsteps behind her, and she was suddenly swept up into someone's arms. She felt a balloon on her hair, and she laughed.

"Uncle Steve!" she squealed, making him laugh. Her hair was sticking up in various directions,, and Steve stuck the balloon to the wall. 

"I guess you're lucky I'm small." Zoza giggled, looking at him.

"Why am I lucky?" Steve asked, setting her down.

"If I wasn't so small, you wouldn't be able to pick me up and trap me." she grinned, fixing her hair. Steve chuckled, and they walked back to the others.

"Uncle Clint, you are a terrible child bodyguard." Zoza teased him, and he laughed.

"Not my fault you ran away. Now come on, let's get some lunch." Clint smiled, and everyone agreed.

***

"Uncle Bruce, can I ask you something?" Zoza asked a few hours later. She was sitting on the couch, tossing a balloon up and catching it as it floated back down. 

"Sure, what's up?" he shifted to face her, and she kepy playing with the balloon.

"What's the school arrangement going to be?" she held the balloon, and Bruce smiled.

"I'm sure we'll work something out with Tony. Spending all of your time here with a bunch of adults must be getting tiresome, huh?" he chuckled, and she shrugged.

"It's actually not that bad. But I wanna make friends that are my age, y'know? That is, if I'm brave enough to put myself out there." Zoza smiled, and she began to toss the balloon around again.

"I'm sure you can do it. If you've been able to put up with us for almost a week, you can make friends." Bruce smiled, and she blushed lightly.

"I guess you're right. It's still scary though." she said, her voice soft. She was silent for a while, still playing with the balloon and glancing out of the window.

"Wasn't it sunny, like, five minutes ago?" Zoza asked, dropping the balloon beside her and kneeling on the couch to look outside. Steve came into the room, followed by Natasha, and Bruce stood.

"Well, one of two things could happen. One, a Norse God could be paying us a visit, or two, it's your average, run-of-the-mill thunderstorm." Natasha crossed her arms, and Zoza picked up her balloon, standing up.

"I'm hoping for the thunderstorm." she mumbled, holding the balloon close to her chest. 

"I think you're getting what you want." Bruce muttered, checking outside. A sudden clap of thunder shook the room, and Zoza jumped, startled. 

"Yup, it's just a storm." Steve nodded, and Zoza let out a sigh of relief, her body slouching again. 

"You alright?" Steve asked, smiling a bit.

"Just peachy!" Zoza shouted and a flash of lighting lit up the room. They all froze for a second, until Zoza's bright laughter rang out, causing everyone else to laugh with her. 

"What'd I miss?" Clint asked, walking in and looking at everyone.

"Oh, nothing." Zoza smiled, playing with her balloon. Another clap of thunder sounded, and the rain came pouring down seconds later. Zoza went off to her room, set the balloon down, and climbed onto her bed to watch the rain fall. She heard a knock on her doorframe, and she turned to see Steve, smiling at her.

"Want to make some popcorn and watch a movie?" he asked.

"Sure, why not?" she hopped down from her bed and left the room, folloing Steve.

***

"Tony, you can't stay this way forever, you know that." Pepper sighed as she watched Tony pace his lab.

"Pep, please. I'm not fit to handle kids, let alone teenagers." Tony argued, stopping to look at her.

"You won't know until you actually try to get to know her. You've met my sister, you know your niece was raised well." Pepper tried to reason, but Tony wouldn't listen.

"Pepper, the reason we haven't had kids yet is because I don't think I'd be a good father. She was just thrust into this life, and we have no idea how she's gonna take it. I don't want to screw her up. It's best if we just stay out of each other's way, and everything will be much better, for her." Tony sighed.

"For her Tont, or for you?" Pepper asked, turning on her heel, and leaving the room.

XxxA/NxxX

Eep, I left this story alone for 2 weeks, and it had a cliffhanger I'm sorry don't muderlize my face. Do anyof you know of a young actress I could use for Zoza? I can't find one anywhere :(