What Belongs in a Home? | MCU Oneshot

What Belongs in a Home?

— What Belongs in a Home? —

Lila knew she was dead for too long.

It was one thing to disappear for what felt like hours and have five years whirl by in real life, and then come back to see her dad with a mohawk and a tonne of tattoos etched on his arms, but the Snap had hit her right in the feels when she realised that she had missed out on the opening day of Trolls: World Tour.

That was good stuff – and to think that she missed the day it was released was truly gut-wrenching.

And not only that – her friend Adrianna had seen it. And she was sixteen now. Lila's best friend was already going through high school, while Lila still had to finish up her math homework. But now, the school curriculum is all whack and she's learning stuff she shouldn't need to learn until tenth grade.

Everything had turned...so wrong. So weird. So strange, unwelcoming, even.

And as said before, Lila knew she was dead for way too long.

Because she knew that sleepovers were generally loud and crazy with only two or three people present.

But this – this – this was chaotic. This wasn't a sleepover – it was a party, full of kids, in some warm and cosy cottage in the middle of the chilly woods that reminded of her of her home but at the same time looked alien to her.

In that moment, Lila could only hold her younger brother Nathaniel close to her as she stared up at her father with despair.

Her father, Clint Barton, looked down at her, smiling. 'It's okay, Hawkeye,' he told her, eyes crinkling in using his own superhero name as Lila's nickname. 'It's just for one night. This place belonged to Tony, and me and my buds are going to hang out here with you.' He cocked his head, making his hair tilt in an odd direction. 'Think of this as a...family reunion of sorts.'

'But dad,' Lila started, 'we've been to all the family reunions. And they were boring. And...and how can you possibly enjoy being with them?' At the last word, she gestured to the cottage, and the people who were inside.

The people who were enemies of her father. The ones who aimed and shot and fired at him for doing what he thought was right. The ones who tried to kill him.

Her dad shrugged. 'Sure, we've had our disagreements...but that's what friends do. We disagree on things, and we always come back together, even if we don't like those things at first.'

Friends don't dump each other in jail, Lila thought heatedly, but she stayed quiet. She watched as her other brother Cooper weaved in between the trees down the track, whooping as he tried to chase the birds alongside another little girl with locks of brown hair, and another taller girl yelling out directions. She watched as two other boys sat beside one another on the docks of the lake that spread out beside the cottage, waving hands and babbling non-stop.

Nathaniel let out a giggle as he saw Cooper run into a tree.

Her father patted Lila on the shoulder. 'Come on, Hawkeye, you've got friends to make. Don't worry, these guys don't bite.'

With that, her dad steered Lila and Nathaniel towards the open entry to the cottage, Lila's mother following not too far behind. The woman who stood at the front waved greetings to them, her strawberry blonde hair glittering like gold in the warm light from inside. Lila had seen her on TV a few times – Pepper Potts, the CEO of Stark Industries.

Except, now she was married. Tony Stark was her husband, and they had a kid. Lila guessed that Ms. Potts was now Mrs. Stark. Could you call widowed women by their married names?