Teen!reader

"Aunt Nat?"

"Hold on!" you heard from the other side of her door, followed by a few banging sounds and then her running quickly in your direction. When the door opened she looked all disheveled, sweaty and her face was flushed.

"Am I interrupting something?" you smirked.

She reached out and solidly smacked your arm, her mouth open in shock, "shut it, kid! I was getting in a workout."

"Same thing," you mumbled, pushing past her and into the room. "So, if you have a minute, I need some advice."

Natasha grabbed an elastic from her dresser and pulled her hair up into a messy, sweaty ponytail and sat on the edge of the bed, tapping her hand next to her for you to join. "Let's have it. I assume this isn't exactly a dad-appropriate topic?"

"Not even close," you scoffed, "I have a date to prom, and I don't know how to tell them." You closed your eyes and shook your head thinking about it, "Nat, they're gonna want to come along to babysit. You know they are."

"Honey, you're sixteen now, I think they'll trust you."

You laughed out loud at this, looking at her as if she had lost her mind completely. "That's exactly why they'll want to come along! Because I'm sixteen! They were boys that age once, and you know they think that I can't handle myself without them."

"You're practically an Avenger, (Y/N)" she said with a furrowed brow, "how can they not think you can handle yourself? Don't they think I'm training you well enough?" Now she began to worry that she wasn't doing her job as your trainer, momentarily forgetting that you were there for a whole different reason.

"Hello? Earth to Nat?"

"Hmm?" she murmured absentmindedly, quickly apologizing when she realized what she had done. "Okay, well, do you want me to be there when you tell them?"

"Actually, I was thinking of maybe not telling them at all."

~~~

After leaving your aunt to return to her workout, you found your uncles Tony and Clint in the gym, throwing each other from one end of the mat to the other. When you told him that you wanted to join the team someday, Steve had assigned Nat as your trainer and now you could see why; these two were big on dirty fighting and usually came out injured in some way.

"Hey, sweetheart," Clint said, walking over and giving you a quick kiss on the cheek. "what's going on?" Tony grabbed his bag and joined you, pulling you in for a tight hug.

"Don't you need to get on your way to school?"

"Yep, I'm on my out the door, but I was wondering if maybe you would help me out with some shopping after? I need to find a dress for prom. But I don't want to tell my dads that I'm even going. You know how they get."

"Come on, you know I've got this. How much do you need?" Tony asked as he reached into his bag, looking for his wallet amongst his gear that he had shoved into it without any care. He was quickly growing frustrated and turned the bag over to spill the contents out onto the bench.

"Um," you paused, "how about, like five?"

"Hundred?" Clint gasped at the request, but Tony only smirked and handed you a card from his wallet. "Here, get whatever you want, honey. I don't even need to know."

"Uncle Tony..." you took the card, but paused to look at it, feeling completely unsure about your plan, "are you sure? This feels like a lot."

"It's done. Off to school now." Tony pulled you in for another hug and pushed you towards the door, "just promise I get to see you all dolled up. We all know how rare that is."

You nodded silently and quickly left, beginning to feel extremely guilty that you were getting help from everyone and keeping an important event secret from Steve and Bucky. You were also asking everyone to keep it a secret with you, putting them in a very difficult spot if it all blew up.

"Hey, Stark," Clint called out as he followed Tony down the hall, "if you're just throwing cash around, I have a few things that I'd like to grab too..."

~~~

As you stood in the dressing room, you stared at your reflection and felt like you didn't know who was looking back. This was the first time you had ever lied to your dads; they were always fair and they taught you to be honest no matter what you had done.

'You'll get in less trouble if you tell the truth now, rather than lying and we find out later.'

You shook Steve's voice out of your mind and spun around to look at the first dress, but it was very pink and very puffy. It wasn't you at all, so it was quickly cast aside. The second dress was better, but it was black and you had told yourself to stretch out of your comfort zone for this since it was a one-time event. You slipped on the third dress and thought you had maybe found the one.

"Aunt Wanda?"

"Yes, my love?"

You stepped through the door and to the three-way mirror, turning in front of it as she watched. You thought you saw her eyes start to glisten with tears, but she looked away before you could tell. "What do you think of this one? I think this is it."

"It's perfect," she sighed, looking back and running her hand gently over the teal silk wrap that hugged your figure. "This is definitely the one, (Y/N). I will help you with your hair." Wanda stepped behind you and took your hair in her hands and began to weave it through her fingers, talking about ideas for how she might style it for you.

You watched her in the mirror, and heard her voice, but your thoughts were still consumed with your parents and the guilt that was beginning to take the joy out of this event for you.

~~~

The plan to get you out of the tower without either of your fathers noticing went off perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that you should've realized that it was just too easy, and now only two hours later, you sat alone in the garage of the tower after walking out on your date. The tears had finally stopped, so you grabbed the keys and started towards the elevator, but only made it a few feet before they started again. You had to calm down before you tried to sneak back in, but that felt hopeless and all you wanted was your parents.

You sat on the hard floor and dialed your phone through your hazy vision and waited nervously for your father to answer. It felt like the world was moving in slow motion, knowing that you were about to get into the most trouble that you had ever seen.

"Hey, baby. What's up?"

The sound of Steve's voice was too much, and you began to sob uncontrollably with ragged breaths and close to hyperventilating.

"(Y/N)? What's going on?" he asked frantically, "where are you?"

"The...garage..." you managed to say between gasps.

"I'm on the way, stay right there."

"Dad...I..."

"I said, stay there."

It felt like only seconds before he and Bucky appeared from the stairs and were immediately on the ground next to you. Seeing them made you feel like you could finally catch your breath; you threw yourself into Bucky's arms and closed your eyes when you felt Steve's hand on your back. "I'm sorry," you whispered.

"Honey, what happened?" Bucky looked at Steve and down at your dress with a confused expression but waited for you to tell them rather than submit you to questioning. After a few minutes you pulled back and wiped your eyes and your nose on your thousand-dollar dress that you had worn for such a short time.

"I screwed up," you said with a sniffle, "I went to prom. It totally sucked and boys are stupid."

Now Steve's interest was heightened and his demeanor completely changed from concerned parent to authoritarian. "You went to prom and didn't tell us? You were out all evening and we didn't know you were gone? Where did you get this dress? Did you ask Tony for one of his cars?"

"Steve..." Bucky groaned, "stop it. Now isn't the time."

"Now is exactly the time! She snuck out with some guy that we've never met! Anything could've happened, Buck! And they helped her!" Steve put his hand under your chin and lifted your face to force you to look at him. "Young lady, you tell me right now, who helped you?"

"Dad..."

"Now."

The tears began again before you could start, but the way Steve was looking at you almost scared them away again. "Nat, Tony, Clint and Wanda." He started to stand, but you grabbed his hand, "I was only gone for a couple of hours, and I never even got there. Don't take this out on them, dad, it was all me. I'm the only one that you should yell at."

"That's for me to decide, (Y/N)." He pulled his hand away and stood, looking down at you and Bucky, "what did this boy do? Why didn't you make it to the dance?"

"He only invited me to get to meet you guys, and when I figured it out..." you paused and squeezed your eyes shut, "I kinda knocked him out cold."

"That's my girl!" Bucky laughed, but immediately quieted when Steve's expression remained angry. "I mean, maybe that wasn't the best way to handle that, (Y/N)." He gave your hand a small squeeze, and you knew your punishment wouldn't be coming from that half of the duo.

"Buck, take her upstairs and wait for me."

~~~

Steve burst through the doors of the elevator and into the common room, finding his teammates waiting for your return. Tony stood and opened his mouth to speak but he was never given the chance.

"Sit your ass down, Stark. How much cash did you give her for that dress?"

The shift in the atmosphere was immediate and each of them began to cower slightly at Steve's tone; even Tony looked intimidated by the Captain. "Does it matter? She asked for my help, so I gave it. We all did." Tony said, still standing and taking a few steps towards Steve.

"You are unbelievable. All of you," he snapped. "Yes, it definitely matters, because she was out without telling us where she was, and you helped her hide it from us. It matters because anything could have happened, and now she's sitting up there with a broken heart, and guess who has to put it back together? We do."

"Wait, what happened?" Clint asked.

"Don't worry about it. We're going to handle it." Steve turned to walk to the elevator, and stopped just inside, looking back. "We're going to handle it because we are her parents. Not you. It's getting damn near past time for you all to get that through your heads."

The doors were just about to close but Tony called out to him, "hey, Rogers! Maybe you need to think about why she didn't want to tell you!"

~~~

When Steve got to your room, he was ready to take the role of disciplinarian again, a role that Bucky had yet to take during your sixteen years. It made him feel like the bad guy and like he would always be seen that way by you. Maybe Tony was right, that he needed to look at why you felt the need to sneak out without telling them that you had a date. Letting you grow up and start to live your own life just wasn't something that he was ready for yet, but now he thought maybe that wasn't really up to him to decide.

He put his hand on the door and calmed himself, pausing when he heard music coming from inside. Quietly pushing it open, he took a deep breath when he saw you with Bucky, still in your dress and dancing slowly in the middle of your room. Steve stood there for a moment and watched, feeling a warmth spread through his chest at the sight.

"May I?" he asked, reaching his hand out towards you.

Bucky looked down at you and you nodded, reaching out to take Steve's hand. You could feel tears threaten your eyes again when he put his arms around you, but you held them back and rested your head against him as you began to dance.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," he whispered into your hair, "This whole thing is my fault. I think I'm just scared of you growing up already."

His words rang true inside of you, and you squeezed him just a little tighter to hold onto the moment. "Me too, dad. Me too."