could you do one where reader is the kid they forgot grew up? the avengers saved reader from hydra at a young age and since then, that’s all they’ve seen them as. they forget that what she went through wasn’t something a normal kid would go through and mentally she’s not just some small innocent kid.
Just a Kid
Avengers & Teen!Reader [A/N] Literally how is it Monday again already though? Does anyone have any fun plans coming up this week? ❤️ Thank you so much for the request my lovely anon, hope you enjoy this one 😘
Maria smiles as you climb into the passenger’s seat of her car, “Hey kid. Good day at school?”
You glare at her, putting your headphones into your ears and staring straight ahead sulkily. Maria simply smiles to herself again as she pulls away from the kerb, having not expected anything more. She’d teased Tony a few times that she’d been put on ‘babysitting duty’, but she didn’t mind picking you up really. It was one of the few areas of her job where she felt she could truly relax. Besides, your grumpiness didn’t bother her. She liked you.
Maria does the school run for you most days but if she’s not available for any reason the Avengers take turns. There isn’t one of them that you aren’t sullen with, not one of them that you seem to be closer to than the rest. Steve had been hopeful, used to having a laid-back way with teenagers but you’d ignored all his efforts to try and relate to you. Tony had tried too, hoping his more playful method would bring you out of your shell but that had been rejected too. He’d even tried to bribe you with a candy bar, and you’d simply rolled your eyes, turning your music up louder.
Maria talks steadily to you as she drives back towards the Avengers compound, assuming that your music is too loud to hear her but trying anyway just in case. You’ve been living at the compound for three months now, ever since the Avengers saved you from Hydra. Everyone else they’d rescued from that facility had been an adult, and had been rehabilitated into the community but as you were younger it was proving more difficult. None of them wanted you to go into a group home but finding a prospective family for a traumatised teenager was proving almost impossible. In the meantime, you were to remain in the Avengers custody.
“Nat fell out with Stark again, not that I blame her. He loves to wind people up, something I’m sure you’ve noticed. Sometimes he goes just a little bit too far. Anyway, he’s going out of town for a few days so hopefully everything will blow over by the time he gets back, and everyone can breathe a little easier. It’s not that people even dislike Stark, it’s just that… Well, he can be a lot sometimes. Clash of personalities.”
You glance over at her and that’s when Maria realises that you’re taking in every word, even with your headphones in. So she continues, “I try not to get involved. Stark’s annoying sure but his hearts always in the right place so what else can you ask for? I can see why it irritates Natasha though. She’s normally so unflappable but somethings been bothering her lately.”
You hesitate before offering quietly, “What do you think it is?”
Maria raises her eyebrows, surprised that you’ve asked her a question. “I don’t know,” She admits. “Maybe you could investigate for me.”
You shrug, “No one tells me anything.”
“Huh,” Maria says. “Well, how’s about we look at your homework when we get back? I could make you a snack and-”
She hears you scoff and that’s when she hears the faint music starting to come from your headphones, signalling you’ve turned it up louder to tune her out again, blocking her out just as quickly as you’d let her in. Maria sighs, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel before putting the radio on low. If you weren’t going to talk to her…
Once you’re back at the compound Maria tries to direct you to the kitchen to have a look at your homework, but you ignore her, slinking off to your bedroom and slamming the door behind you. Wanda raises her eyebrows as Maria sits down, running a hand through her hair but they all leave you to it, appreciating you might need some time to decompress after a full-on day at school.
As suspected you do appear in the kitchen at dinnertime. No matter how bad of a mood you’re in, they can count on you to appear in the kitchen at mealtimes, and they’ve been careful to serve them at the same time every day. Food can make you anxious, probably because you didn’t get much of it in Hydra and if any meal is late you start to stress. At seven o’clock on the dot the evening meal is served, and you sit down at the far end of the table, opening the book you’ve been reading and holding that in one hand whilst you use the other to carefully eat.
Clint takes a seat opposite you, nudging your foot with his, “Hey kid. Whatcha reading?” You glare at him over the top of your book before turning your gaze back to the printed words, not responding. Clint tilts his head so he can peer at the cover, “Looks good. Are you enjoying it?”
You sigh like this conversation is painful to you before nodding, keeping your gaze on the words. “I like reading,” Clint says. “Don’t always get much time to do it though between work and family.”
Slowly, you begin to lower the book, and you ask in a small, tentative voice, “What kinds of books do you like?”
“Action and Sci-Fi mostly. You can never go wrong with Jurassic Park.” He looks at your book cover again then grins, teasing, “This might be a bit ahead of you though. Wouldn’t you rather read… I don’t know, ‘The Hunger Games’ or something?”
Your guard is instantly back up, and so is your book as you fix him a fierce glare before turning back to your reading. Clint raises his eyebrows so Wanda takes a seat next to you, “Hey! Did anything fun happen at school today?”
“If you have any homework, we’d be happy to look at it with you,” Clint perseveres when you don’t reply. “Can’t honestly say we’ll be able to help with everything, but we can try. I’ve got three kids, all of them-”
“For fucks’ sake, I’m not a kid so will you please stop treating me like one?” You snap, your voice raising louder than any of them have ever heard it. Clint is about to apologise when you suddenly stand and pick up your plate before throwing it at the wall with a ferocious scream, the food splattering against the surface, the plate breaking with a loud bang.
“Wow, Y/N,” Steve says, standing up. “Calm down.”
“I’m sick of you all talking down to me all the time! It’s so annoying! I’m not an innocent little kid!” You burst into tears as you grab your book and run out of the room.
Everyone looks at each other, not sure what to do. Steve is about to offer to go after you when Wanda stands up, giving him a small smile, “I’ll go. It’s okay.”
Wanda finds you in your bedroom, a room that you hadn’t bothered to decorate. “What’s the point?” You’d snarled when Tony had suggested getting you some posters. “You’re only going to ship me off the second you can find someone to palm me off to anyway.”
Your book has been left abandoned on your desk and you’re lying on your bed, face down in your pillow as you sob. Wanda hesitates in the doorway for a moment before crossing the room and sitting tentatively on the edge of your bed. You feel the bed dip beneath her weight, but you don’t say a word which Wanda takes as a positive. She doesn’t try to touch you yet, she simply talks instead, her voice soft. “I moved here after the mess that happened with Ultron in Sokova. Did you hear about that?”
You nod, sniffling, “Yeah, they let me watch it on the news.”
“It was really hard finding my place in the Avengers,” Wanda says. “I have these amazing powers. I’m arguably the most powerful Avenger… Well, I was until Carol came along but… Well, it was difficult sometimes. I’d lived so long fending for myself. Yes, I always had my brother by my side, but I wasn’t some clueless kid. The moment I arrived here I might as well have been though, as far as everyone else was concerned. The American culture was different, I was mourning my brother, I was so homesick. People misunderstood that for weakness, and they treated me like I didn’t know what I was doing. It was really frustrating sometimes.”
“I don’t have any powers,” You mumble tearfully.
“No,” Wanda says. “But you know a thing or two about looking after yourself.”
You let out a small sob and Wanda waits patiently, not pressuring you to talk immediately. After a moment she puts a hand on your shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. You don’t push her away. Wanda sighs, “Can you try and tell me what’s bothering you?”
You swallow hard, trying to keep your voice from cracking as you speak, “Everything.”
“I see. Can you give me some examples?”
You take a deep breath, sitting up so you can face her, tears still trickling down your cheeks. “I’m not… Dumb. I know I’m only twelve. I know that technically I’m a kid but I’m also… Not.”
Wanda nods thoughtfully, “And it bothers you when we treat you like one?”
“I don’t like being called ‘kid’, it’s so patronising. And I don’t like constantly being asked about school and homework and all these… Normal things because… How am I supposed to be normal? It’s like… None of you have any idea what I went through but now I’m free, I’ve been shipped off to public school and I’m expected to just know what to do, and I don’t.”
Wanda nods again, reaching out to take your hand in hers, “Can you tell me? About your days in Hydra?” You hesitate and Wanda squeezes your hand, “Maybe you don’t know this but I actually volunteered to be part of a Hydra experiment. I had a choice and I made the wrong one. I sided with the bad guys. But you didn’t have a choice Y/N. So whatever you tell me, I won’t be judging. I’m just listening.”
You take a shaky breath and tell her, “I… They never sent me out on missions. They said I was too young; I was working up towards them but they… I had to practice. They brought people in, people that they said were enemies and I…” Your voice drops to a whisper as you admit in the quietest voice Wanda’s ever heard, “I killed them. But that’s not even the worst thing. I did so many bad things because they told me to and if I didn’t, bad things happened to me, bad things that I don’t like thinking about because they make me feel sick and like the walls are closing in on me…”
Wanda can see that for all the teams babying of you, you’ve mostly been left to fend for yourself, to navigate what had happened to you without any guidance. As if rescuing you was the end of your recovery journey, rather than the beginning. As if school, hot meals and a warm bed were all you needed. “Did anyone talk to you about therapy?”
You sniffle, “I’m not… They said I could have it but better to do it after I’ve moved.”
And when would you move? Next week, next month, next year? How long were you supposed to put your life on hold before you could start to move on from the terrible things that had happened to you? You were in limbo but expected to act like you were perfectly fine. “I’ll talk to the others,” Wanda offers. “Get them to stop calling you ‘kid’.”
You nod, quickly wiping the tears on your face with your free hand. Wanda gives you a small smile, “How is school? Have you made any friends?” You swallow hard again before shaking your head. “Is it difficult?”
“I don’t know what they’re all talking about,” You admit tearfully. “They keep making these jokes like… And I don’t get them, and they all want to talk about things I’ve never heard of and- They think I’m weird, but I just can’t… I can’t relate to them. I’m a kid who isn’t a kid anymore.”
Wanda moves across the bed to sit next to you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders. You don’t resist, leaning your head on her and letting out another sob. “I’m kind of limited on what I can do,” Wanda says. “But I’ll speak to Stark about your school too. Y/N… I know you went through a lot and you probably can’t play or relax like other kids you age but… It’s okay to still need us. It’s okay to still need some adult guidance.”
“It just makes my blood boil when I try to talk to people and I get shot down then all they talk to me about is stupid kids’ stuff. Or how they don’t let me in on their precious adult conversations when I’ve heard far worse than whatever mundane shit they’re talking about and it’s like… I can tell they’re thinking I’m just being a broody teen and that’s not fair.”
“I get it,” Wanda says. “Trust me, I get it.”
That night Wanda stays with you. At first she tries to resist the urge to tuck you into bed but you don’t seem to mind her physical comforts so she gives in, smoothing out the blankets and then lying down next to you, one arm around you as you continue to cry quietly until you fall asleep. You didn’t finish all of your dinner last night, so Wanda makes sure you have a good breakfast before setting off to school that morning.
Afterwards it’s Maria who picks you up again. This time when you slide into the passengers seat you don’t put your headphones on straight away but you glance at her, offering quietly, “Is Natasha still mad at Tony?”
Maria smiles as she begins driving, “I think so but Tony hasn’t been here to irritate her, he left late last night. He’ll be in Copenhagen for a couple of weeks.”
“That’s probably for the best.”
“Definitely,” Maria says. “Hey, I never meant… I never meant to irritate you when I went on about homework. I guess I just thought I was looking out for you.”
“I get it,” You say quietly. “And I appreciate it.”
“And I know you don’t like being called ‘kid’, Wanda told me. Not that I can blame you, I wouldn’t want to be called a baby goat either.” You can’t help but give a small laugh at that and Maria smiles, “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. Like I said, I appreciate it. Having someone to look out for me.” You look out the window thoughtfully. “For however long I’m with the Avengers anyway.”
“I wanted to talk to you about that actually,” Maria says, keeping her own gaze out the window in front of her. “So um… There aren’t a lot of prospective adopters out there looking for a teenager and it… Well… I like you. And I thought that we got on okay, maybe not always but- God, this is a lot of words when all I really want to ask is, what do you think about coming to live with me?”
You glance at her, surprised. Maria mistakes your hesitation and continues talking, “I know I haven’t always said the right thing and I probably will be painfully dull, moaning at you about homework and… Whatever. But I do care about you. And you can still see the Avengers whenever you want, I know that Wanda, Steve, Sam, they all care about you and… Maybe you don’t want to and if you don’t that’s fine, I won’t be offended, I just thought-”
“No, I want to,” You say quietly, your voice thick with emotion.
Maria smiles and nods, having to swallow hard herself before speaking, “Well then… That’d be great. I’ll… I’ll see what I can do. Leave it with me ki- Leave it with me. I’ll get it sorted.”
The world turns blurry behind your tears as you turn to gaze out the window again. You’re not sure what Maria knows about your time with Hydra, and whether she would still be so keen to adopt you if she knew everything that you’d done. But she’s nice. Better than nice. And if it means you can keep in touch with the other Avengers whilst still having somewhere to call home… Well, even better.
School is still hard. You can’t relate to the other kids and you’re not sure you’ll ever be able to. Too much has happened to you, and you had to grow up too fast. But maybe the Avengers could be your friends. Or… Maybe even your family.
