Avengers/X-Men One Shots - The Blood/White Phoenix Saga

ONE-SHOT XV: Burnt Food, Grumbling Avengers

Set in between Blood Phoenix 5 and Blood Phoenix 6

Adelaide Lehnsherr

That was how all the fuss started. That was how my trademark nickname as 'the-girl-who-can't-cook' was given. And it all began with burnt food. More specifically, the Avengers Tower incident that forced me to buy pizza for five very hungry, grumbling Avengers, including myself. Between myself, a blonde super soldier with a massive metabolism, two smart people, one a rage monster and the other a mildly sleep-deprived billionaire, an ex-assassin and a current SHIELD agent and family man, the situation was not good. If we had added Thor, the large, blonde, muscular hunk of a Norse god with a liking for Pop Tarts, I would say that the 'hungry-hungry-Avengers' situation I had on my hands was going to be even worse. Thank God that wasn't the case.

Here's how it all started.

There was the smell of smoke. I was in the kitchen, trying out the new phone one Tony Stark had bought me as a birthday present. It was time I adjusted to the new century, okay? But the smell of burnt food was what got me out of my phone-induced idling. I growled and cursed under my breath.

'Verdamnt (Damn),' I cursed in German, then opened the oven to be met with the smell of more burnt food. After finally cleaning up the mess, I sat there, across from the almost destroyed oven, burnt food smell lingering in the air, as I contemplated my mistake. HYDRA had no tolerance for mistakes, and I knew that well. With mistakes came punishment. I had no idea why that thought came to me in that moment, it just came. Just then I heard Steve yell out.

'Adelaide! You okay?' His voice was more concerned than angry. He came into the kitchen.

'I failed,' I said bitterly. He knelt down. He opened his mouth to comfort me, but then I heard the voices of four more hungry, grumbling Avengers filling the room.

'You burnt the food!' I heard Tony thunder through the room. I stood up, dusting off my dirty hands on my pants with an angry sigh.

'There we go. Here comes the punishment.'

'Adelaide, you're not going to-'

'It's fine, Steve. I can take whatever shit they throw at me.' I stepped out from behind the kitchen island. 'Hey guys. Sorry. Like, a lot.' Clint stepped forward to say something, but before Steve could get a word in edgewise, Clint stopped him and started to speak.

'The food's burnt, kid. Come on. What were you doing?' I backed up, but into Steve's arms and then stumbled forward. I stopped, placing my hand on the bench for support, breathing hard. Everything got rather blurry as I fought for breath, trying to get over my ensuing panic. I felt Steve's hand on my shoulder and then he spoke, but it seemed fuzzy and far away.

'Come on, guys. Give her a break. Back up; give her some room.' Natasha came forward. Out of everyone, she seemed quite sympathetic of my current state of mind.

'Steve's right, guys. Just back off. She's having a panic attack.'

'What does she think we'll do to her?' Tony asked, seeing but clearly having a hard time believing. Just then, the temperature in the room began to heat up and right beneath my hand, the bench started to disintegrate. The marble and strips of metal on the edges, began to melt under my ever-increasing fiery touch.

'Is it just me, or is it hot in here?' Banner spoke up, clearly not at all happy with the situation. My rising nerves added to everyone else's nerves. My knees buckled all of a sudden as my hold loosened on the bench and I collapsed into Steve's arms, the temperature changing from hot to cold as ice came under my knees and nearly made Natasha and Steve slip. I heard Natasha yell.

'Snap out of it, Adelaide!' I looked up, my eyes glowing blue now. I reached an icy hand towards Natasha.

'Please. Help. Take this away from me.' Banner took a step back, and I could see his veins turning green on his neck. Taking a few deep breaths, I calmed down. The ice receded into water and the temperature in the room rose to normal again. I looked directly at Natasha, my eye colour receding to their normal steel blue colour. She put a hand on my cheek.

'Hey. Hey. Look at me. It's okay,' she said, attempting to soothe me. 'It's okay. We weren't going to hurt you. It's alright. You're not going to be punished for something as little as burning our dinner.' She collected me into her arms and at this, I let the flood of emotions loose as I cried in her embrace.

'So....' Tony began to say, but I noticed Steve shooting him a look. Clint knelt down, and I looked up at him. He put a hand on my shoulder compassionately, and his eyes filled with the look of a caring big brother figure.

'I'm so sorry, kid. I really am.'

'Please... don't ever say that again,' I replied, my voice breaking.

'I won't. I won't. I'm really sorry. We were all being insensitive.' I sniffled and I saw Steve holding a cup of water out to me. I took it and began to drink it slowly, still laying in Natasha's arms. After a while, I began to calm down.

'What can I do?' I asked, looking around at my fellow Avengers, Banner having since calmed down. I looked at Clint, and he was smirking at me. 'What, Barton?' I snapped, rather childishly. His smirk only grew bigger as he uttered three words.

'Get us pizza.'