marvel oneshots

wandanat | new york city streets ( a )

summary - maybe they were a bit too hard on you, or maybe these cold new york city streets shaped the three of you into shadows afraid of the dark

word count - 3.5k

There were very few similarities with the streets of New York City and the Avengers tower. Though, that was probably the point when Tony Stark and Pepper Potts were designing such a high-end building. The streets were always cold somehow, even in the dead of summer when just walking down a few blocks to the best pizza parlor in Queens provoked pools of sweat to cling to soft skin despite how little or how many clothes you wore. The streets were always loud, even at three in the morning on a Wednesday or at one in the afternoon on the Sunday after a holiday. The streets were always busy. New York City was the city that never slept for a reason, but Avengers tower couldn't meet the bustling atmosphere with any amount of help or social gathering Tony Stark hosted.

You were given the hundredth floor when Tony Stark had personally recruited you after clashing on the battlefield dressed in a sheer ski mask and fraying black zip-up hoodie. Your personal disguise hadn't been much of a disguise with its many holes and thin fabric, but nobody really paid enough attention to your vigilante persona to figure you out. That was before you'd met Natasha Romanoff and her shadow of a girlfriend, Wanda Maximoff. The pair was as equally enthralled with you as they were unamused, and it seemed at every corner one or both of them was working out a way to deconstruct everything you built.

Avengers tower was always warm, even with the windows open welcoming the breeze of winter and the air conditioner dialed down to sixty-five on the second setting from highest. You supposed it was your subconscious way of making luxury feel cheap, connecting you to the streets that you'd grown up on. If nobody had walked in your shoes, they wouldn't be able to comprehend how you ached for the uncomfortable sidewalks beneath your head at night or the scent of trash lingering around you, particularly pungent toward the end of the week before trash collection when discarded ingredients had marinated in themselves for days. You'd traded homelessness for lavish living in minutes, but still you felt empty, like you didn't belong here nor there. Wanda and Natasha saw your feelings for what they weren't. They noticed your every weakness and somehow decided that instead of being homesick to a place that wasn't really your own anyway, you were working them. That you were the enemy. Not a teenage girl who'd crossed paths with the wrong people at the wrong time and it had left you a mutant with healing powers and the ability to absorb the strength from people around you rather than an orphan with pale skin and no family. You could be both of those things at the same time, and for three years you had been, but to them, in their eyes, you had to pick a path. Your identity couldn't be one or the other.

Pepper had pulled you away from the solidarity of your floor for a team meeting. It had been weeks since Tony had recruited you, and for the most part, you stuck to yourself. The team had seen you on various occasions, but for nothing longer than a few minutes before the judgemental stares became too invalidating and you surrendered to your quarters for quiet. Quiet that you despised. Quiet that let you sit in all of the wrongdoings that had been imparted on you without your consent. You supposed, that in a way, Avengers tower was just like the streets of New York City. You were judged and outcast all the same, with high-quality satin sheets and water pressure that could melt your skin off with enough time beneath the shower head, or with just the night sky above your head as a ceiling. The people weren't different, the places were.

"It's mandatory." Pepper had told you when you'd first declined her offer at joining the team in the common area for a relaxed evening. You'd heard through the grapevine that every so often the Avengers gathered together for dinner and conversation, admittedly a way to reground them. Remind them that although they're earth's mightiest heroes, they're still human.