Robin let out a frustrated huff, shoveling another forkful of tortellini into her mouth.

     She had taken two extra servings at dinner only an hour earlier, and yet she couldn't recall ever feeling so hungry before.

     She looked down at her bowl and groaned upon realizing that it was empty. Her stomach grumbled despite the abundance of pasta she had fed it, as though it were mocking her. The girl couldn't fathom a reason for her seemingly insatiable hunger, but now all she could think about was pizza.

     Her expression lit up as she remembered that this was the twenty-first century and she was capable of ordering one right to her door.

     She scrolled through her contacts and down to the one simply labeled 'Pizza Gods' that contained the number for her favorite pizza place in New York City, but her thumb hovered over the contact directly above it.

     Robin swallowed a lump in her throat as she looked down at the number she had been dutifully avoiding – the one labeled 'Peter Pan'.

     She grew frustrated at her own absurdity. In the past twenty-four hours the girl had interacted with two avengers, fallen from a building, and discovered that an evil organization had kidnapped her and turned her into Tweety Bird but somehow the most daunting aspect of her day was the idea of calling Peter Parker.

     Being a teenage girl was hard.

     Self-doubt began to creep into her mind as she recalled his harsh words from earlier that day. She knew the boy's attitude stemmed from pain and grief, but she couldn't help but feel that she may still be the last person Peter wanted to hear from.

     The girl let out an overdramatic groan and flung her phone unceremoniously onto the opposite end of her bed.

     Robin had all the tools to accomplish most of her goals, but she was a notorious overthinker. She could talk herself out of doing almost anything that even toed the line outside of her comfort zone.

     It often led to her living out wild fantasies in her own head, but they would never extend beyond that because she was far too cautious. She'd bite her tongue when people walked all over her and later daydream about all the things she could have said to defend herself. She'd write elaborate proposals for various projects or research opportunities but never submit them. She'd practice confessing feelings for crushes in her bedroom mirror and then avoid them in the halls.

     It was why the past week was so difficult to wrap her head around. She couldn't explain where she found the courage to go to Stark tower, couldn't describe it as any other way but a compulsive need she had to fulfill. Instinct had – for the first time – overrode her cautious nature.

     Her internal monologue was cut off by a piercing pain in her head that had her curling up from the sheer force of it.

     It was as though she could feel the nerves in her brain severing at the synapses and sending tiny stabs of pain through her head and into her body.

     It left her incapacitated for at least a few minutes and then left as soon as it came, leaving the girl wondering if she imagined the whole thing.

     Confusion and panic coursed through her system in place of pain, and she glared at her reflection in the mirror across from her bed.

     "Oh, I am so not dealing with this today," she said to herself.

➶

     As Robin got ready for school the next day, she was actually humming Chopin's Nocturnes under her breath while she ran the brush through her hair.

     Not only was it a classical music kind of day, but it was also a skirt-and-tights kind of day.

     Her excellent mood was spurred on by the fact that she had gotten a full nights sleep and only dreamed about a cartoon bird flitting from tree to tree and going on adventures with a squirrel.

     Perhaps she should have been more eager to gain back her memories, but at her core Robin wanted nothing more than to be a normal teenage girl.

     Though, she lamented as she slipped a thin, high-necked burgundy sweater over the scars on her back, that wasn't exactly a viable option at the moment.

     Determined not to let that fact ruin her good day, she completed the look with a camel button-down skirt and black semi-sheer tights and gathered her books for the day.

     A buzzing coming from her phone gave her pause, and she hesitantly looked down at the contact that lit up her screen.

     Confusion turned to worry as Wanda's name showed up, and she quickly answered the call.

      "Wanda?" she asked tentatively, "Is everything okay?"

     "It's Pietro," the young woman's Sokovian accent was thicker than usual as panic intercut her tone, "He's gone missing."

     "Wh- missing?" Robin asked in alarm, "What happened? How do you misplace a guy in a coma?"

     "He started seizing again," Wanda explained, "It was like he was blinking in and out of existence. Then a nurse tried to grab onto him and his hand- it went through her stomach."

     "Through it?" Robin blinked, "Is- is she okay?"

     "She has a large wound, the doctors are trying to treat it now," Wanda sighed, "They aren't sure if she's going to make it, the incident happened last night and we didn't find her until this morning. And Pietro was gone."

     "He woke up last night?" Robin frowned, her mind whirring with thought.

     "According to the security cameras," Wanda confirmed.

     "Well then I think he may have come to my house," Robin admitted, looking down at the book that had been left at her house the night before.

     Wanda fell silent, and Robin could faintly hear garbled arguing in the background.

     "Could you come to the tower?" Wanda let out another sigh, worry and exhaustion clear in her voice.

     Robin paused, glancing at the clock and letting out a sigh of her own.

     "Yeah, of course," she relented, "Give me twenty minutes."

     "Tony is sending a car," Wanda sounded relieved, "Thank you, Robin."

     With that, the two said their goodbyes and Robin groaned, running a hand through her hair.

     "Moms are gonna kill me."

➶

     Robin stood awkwardly in Stark tower's elevator next to the stoic man who had picked her up from his house, her counterpart wearing a dark suit and stern expression.

     He had yet to say a single word to her.

     "So," she tried to make conversation, "Is picking up random teenage girls, like, your regular gig or do you have a day job?"

     "I don't believe you are authorized to know that information," the man spoke for the first time, his voice deep and gravelly.

     Robin looked at him in surprise, but the man's gaze remained fixedly on the elevator doors in front of them. He had a scar that ran from his temple to the corner of his lip that added to his general badassery and scariness.

     "Anyone ever tell you that you look like a villain from a comic book series?" Robin babbled, "Or maybe like an antihero who has survived unspeakable horrors and now works at a security firm to try and make amends for all the tragedy he's been a part of. Oh! Or a hitman that works for the bad guy but everyone kinda likes him because he's really cool and refuses to go after kids, and he ends up switching sides and becoming a good guy after the main villain does something really bad."

     "No one that's still alive," he informed her.

     Robin blinked, looking over his face for any sign he was joking. His expression remained firm and unchanging.

     "Oh, alright. Well, what's your name?" she rambled on, "My name's Robin. I bet you already knew that but it's only polite to introduce myself anyways. After the bird, not the comic character. Did you know that statistically more British-ringed robins die from cat attacks than natural causes? I like cats, though. My family has one named Frankie and he's never tried to eat me. Also I'm not British, I'm actually Ashkenazi Jewish, but my moms are-,"

     "My name is Cedric," he interrupted her.

     Robin suspected that he mostly told her to get her to shut up, but she was going to take the win anyways.

     "Cool! Like the Harry Potter character?" she inquired.

     Poor Cedric was saved from answering as the doors opened into the private medical wing and the two were greeted by the sight of much more commotion than last time she had been here.

     Doctors and nurses were bustling around hectically, their voices talking over each other as they gathered around a hospital bed. Wanda stood off to the side, twisting her rings in worry. Alongside her was Steve with his arms crossed solemnly, and Tony Stark who seemed to be monitoring a virtual map projecting from his watch.

     Wanda breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw Robin, quickly rushing over and tugging her to the small group of Avengers.

     Robin waved goodbye to Cedric as he looked at her with no expression while the elevator doors closed in front of him again.

     "Nice guy," she commented, though it didn't seem like Wanda heard her.

     "Oh, great," Tony glanced at her, "Bird girl's here."

     "Don't call me that," Robin snapped at him.

     "What would you prefer?" he didn't look up from his map, "Tweety Bird? Daisy Duck? Pidgeotto?"

     "You said you think Pietro came to your house?" Steve interjected, trying to redirect the conversation.

     "Right," Robin nodded, "I was in my room and then there was a blast of wind and my window was opened. It hadn't been before, and someone left this on my bed."

     She held up the copy of Alice in Wonderland that had been left in her room, and Wanda took it from her gingerly, like it was made of glass.

     "Didn't you say you used to read that to her?" Steve questioned Wanda.

     Wanda nodded, flitting through the pages as though they held answers of some kind.

     "That's all very warm and sentimental," Tony huffed out, "But it doesn't help figure out where he is now. I'm more focused on the fact that he somehow shoved a hand into one of my staff members."

     "No, but it might give us an idea as to the kind of headspace he was in," Steve gritted out.

     It was obvious that they were all on edge, not knowing if they should approach Pietro as a friend or an enemy.

     "Wanda said his arm went through her?" Robin glanced over at the hospital bed, "Did she mean that literally?"

     Tony switched his virtual monitor to security footage from the previous night and spun the screen around to show her.

     Pietro seemed to be blinking in and out of visibility- the same way he had when she first saw him. He was thrashing around, and a nurse rushed over to check on him.

     His hand shot forward, still flickering as though the camera was glitching. The nurse let out a scream as it shot through her. Within another second, the speedster was gone and the nurse had collapsed onto the ground, her stomach bloody and gaping.

     Robin cringed in horror at the footage, trying her best not to look away. When she couldn't handle the gore anymore, she turned to face Steve instead.

     "It's almost as though his body is moving so quickly that molecules are vibrating on an atomic level," she mused, her voice shaky, "and it's allowing him to pass through solid objects."

     Steve blinked at her in confusion, but Tony nodded along with her words.

     The genius gave her a once over before deciding to treat her more as a peer than a dumb kid, seeing as how her words made more sense than anything his fellow superheroes had been able to contribute to the conversation. He wished Banner was here to help, but he seemed to be on his own at the moment.

     "My thoughts exactly," he informed her, switching back to the map and allowing her to see, "I've tapped into various feeds around New York to see if I can pick up a heat signature that matches his."

     "You're assuming that the city's tax dollars allowed for a system advanced enough to pick up on a speedster capable of phasing in and out of existence?" Robin asked doubtfully.

     Tony pinched the bridge of his nose, his own doubts coming to the surface.

     "I also have a tracker in his arm, but he's moving too fast for it to triangulate a location," he explained.

     "You put a tracker in my brother?" Wanda asked indignantly.

     "Your brother put a hole in my employee," Tony countered.

     "Can I see her?" Robin asked, her heart clenching as she recalled the footage.

     "The doctors are going to try and bring her into surgery once she's stabilized, but I'm sure you have a little time," Steve nodded.

     He led her through the throng of medical staff and to a bed where the nurse laid, passed out from blood loss and hooked up to countless machines.

     Steve ushered the employees out of the room and into a different part of the wing before returning, leaving only Robin and the three Avengers.

     Robin swallowed nervously. She wasn't sure how to use her powers on command, or even if she could.

     Tentatively, she took the unconscious woman's hand and let out a shaky breath. She tried to imagine the woman as healed in order to manifest it happening, but the hand remained cold and limp in her own.

     She stared at the wound fixedly, putting all her focus on it. Still, nothing happened.

     Steve looked at the girl in concern as frustration made itself evident on her face.

     "Just relax," he told her, "No one will be mad if you can't-,"

     "I can do it," she interrupted him with determination, "Just- just give me a minute."

     Instead of focusing on the wound, she instead brought her gaze to the woman's face. She humanized the patient in her mind, and empathy filled her.

     "What's her name?" she asked quietly.

     "Charlotte," Steve replied, "Charlotte Adams."

     Robin nodded, her eyes scanning Charlotte's face.

     Her veins glowed gold as compassion consumed the girl and coursed through her, the brilliant light transferring from her own body to the nurse's. Slowly, the wound began to stitch itself back together.

     Charlotte's vitals began to stabilize as the hole in her stomach closed itself completely.

     "Oh shit," Tony raised his eyebrows in surprise, earning him a glare from Steve.

     The outside problem was fixed, but it was as if Robin could sense that her injuries were still present internally. She kept her hand on the nurse's and didn't let go until it had warmed up again and she felt all the internal bleeding fix itself.

     The woman's eyes shot open and she gasped for air, her gaze meeting Robin's in confusion.

     "Hey, Charlotte," Robin's eyes widened in surprise, "Uh, I'm Robin, nice to meet you."

     Wanda rushed forward to get the woman some water, and they all watched as she gulped it down.

     "How you feeling, Adams?" Steve asked tentatively, as Tony looked over the machines monitoring her, "You scared us there for a second."

    The woman blinked tiredly, but her expression was blissful.

     "I feel warm," she said dreamily, "So warm. And tired."

     "You should get some rest," Wanda insisted, "You've had a long day."

     "We need to run some tests," Tony protested, but the woman had already fallen back asleep.

     With a huff, Stark turned his focus to Robin.

     "I thought you said she had wings," he accused of Steve, who merely shrugged.

➶

     Steve, Wanda, and Tony watched as Robin rummaged through the fridge on the floor of their living quarters.

     Under normal circumstances, Robin would have never even dreamed of doing something so impolite, but the insatiable hunger she felt from the night before returned in full force. She couldn't think of anything besides getting some food in her grumbling stomach.

     "I had those imported from Japan, you know," Tony informed her when she began munching on some expensive looking grapes.

     "You can afford it," she grumbled, before wincing at her own rudeness, "Sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me."

     "Are you always this... hungry?" Steve questioned with a frown.

     "Not at all," she shook her head, "Only last night and today. I don't really know what's going on."

     "Could be a symptom of using your healing powers," Tony mused, "It must take a lot of energy. Your body is probably trying to replenish itself."

     Robin shrugged, not really caring at the moment as she moved from the fridge to the cabinets and began rifling through those.

     "I'll order a pizza," Tony nodded to himself, and watched as she began tearing through Clint's trail mix, "Or maybe a few pizzas."

     He whipped out his phone and began typing away.

     "You want pepperoni?" he asked Robin, who wrinkled her nose in disgust.

     "I'm a vegetarian," she denied him.

     "Cheese it is," he shrugged, looking at her, "That's weird, though. Most birds are omnivores."

     "I'm not a bird," she rolled her eyes.

     "Capsicle says you have wings," Tony argued, placing his order and crossing his arms.

     "Tony," Steve warned, exasperation on his features.

     "Apparently they ripped them out," Robin fished around in the trail mix for an M&M and tried to keep the emotion off her face.

     Tony had the decency to look a little horrified before his curiosity won out again.

     "Will they grow back?" he rambled, "Have you tried jumping off a tall building and seeing if the fear will make them come out?"

     "Please don't listen to him," Wanda looked at Tony admonishingly.

     "I will if it gets me out of this conversation," Robin sassed, smiling saccharinely at the billionaire.

     The attitude she displayed towards Tony Stark was completely uncharacteristic of the usually mild-mannered girl, but the man had a way of bringing out all the sharp edges she so carefully concealed.

     Tony snorted in amusement but was cut off from responding by a ping coming from his watch.

     "FRIDAY triangulated his location," he informed his peers.

     Steve nodded, taking in the address that appeared on Tony's projected screen.

     "On it," he offered, "Hopefully he'll be in a more stable mood when I get there. Wanda, you should stay with Robin."

     "No, I'm coming," Wanda denied, "It will be good for him to see a familiar face."

     "I'll stay with the kid," Tony offered, "I'm in the mood for pizza. Come on, Dodo, I'll show you my lab."

     "Your lab?" Steve asked incredulously, "I'm not even allowed in your lab."

     The hero didn't allow anyone in his lab besides Banner, so the offer was incredibly uncharacteristic.

     "Don't worry your pretty little head, Cap," Tony waved him off, "I just have some stuff I need to work on. Nothing nefarious."

     Steve seemed reluctant but decided that his priority was with Pietro and refrained from further argument.

      He and Wanda made their way out of the tower, leaving Tony and Robin to stare awkwardly at each other.

     "Can't I just go to school?" she asked him.

     "School's for nerds," Tony shrugged, "Besides, if Pietro visited you last night he might try to do it again, have fun explaining that to your classmates."

     Robin groaned, munching on a handful of mixed nuts.

     "Let's go, Road Runner," Tony took the trail mix from her, "Don't have all day."

     "If you keep using up all your bird references so fast, you're going to run out. Then where will we be? Absolute chaos."

➶

     Robin's eyes flitted over the dozens of half-finished projects that cluttered up Tony's lab. Spare parts and various tools were scattered around in disarray and in the corner a robot was trying to water a potted plant but poured out so much that murky water began spilling over the rim of the pot.

     "Damn it Dum-E," Tony sighed, "Do I have to get the dunce cap again? I'll do it. Don't test me."

     The robot twittered sadly and put the watering can away.

     "Awe, it's okay buddy," Robin felt sympathy for the machine, going over to pat its 'head', "Don't listen to the bad man."

     Dum-E whirred joyfully and knocked into her torso like an excited puppy, sending the girl crashing to the floor.

     "See?" Tony rolled his eyes, "Can't give him any praise, it goes to his head."

     He walked over to the sprawling girl, but instead of helping her up he ran a metal stick up and down her frame, a small light on the end beeping but remaining green.

     "What, are you checking to see if HYDRA put a tracker in me or something?" she asked dryly, getting to her feet and brushing off her skirt.

     "Can't be too careful," Tony shrugged, replacing the machine and going over to a project on one of his worktables.

     "No, it's smart actually," Robin agreed, crossing her arms as she looked over the machinery he was fiddling with, "What's that?"

     Tony eyed her suspiciously for a moment before letting out an indignant huff.

     "Disintegrator ray," he relented, "Or it should be. Will be."

     "Should be?" she pressed, her eyes scanning over the machine analytically.

     "I can get it to produce enough heat to turn most organic and inorganic matter into ash, but now I'm trying to remove fire from the equation altogether," he explained, "Less hazardous that way, apparently most governments aren't too fond of guns that shoot dicyanoacetylene. A bunch of babies, if you ask me."

     "What about sonically?" Robin countered.

     Tony tilted his head to the side, looking at her.

     "Sonically?" he parroted.

     "Yeah, have you tried to find a frequency that could attack molecularly?" she asked, "I mean, as long as you could figure out how to concentrate the waves in a consolidated formation you could vibrate and break down the molecules on an atomic level. Not as flashy as flames, but much more effective."

     Tony's mind was already racing with the possibilities as he pulled up the Holotable to begin working on components.

     "Thought your thing was biochemistry," he accused distractedly.

     "You don't know my life," Robin defended, inching away from him.

     Tony faltered at her tone. Wanda had told him the reason for Robin's unwarranted and instinctual distrust of the man, but Tony wasn't used to having to get people to like him.

     They liked him or they didn't- simple as that. Most of the people who didn't like him were reluctantly fond, or at least respected the man for his talents. The situation was completely new territory for him.

     "What's your IQ?" he asked instead.

     "Never been tested," she shrugged, her gaze drawn to a prototype for new gauntlets on another table.

     "Why not?" he demanded.

     "Placing a numerical value on intelligence implies that the human mind is a linear entity with a singular way to add to the progression of society," she rambled, "IQ simply measures your capacity to be useful to society in a traditional sense, but it's treated as the keystone of measuring intellect."

     He narrowed his eyes at her, suspecting that her winded statement wasn't the only reason she had never taken the test.

     "Why are you still in high school?" he pried further.

     "What kind of question is that?" she sighed, "I'm fourteen, why wouldn't I be in high school."

     "I've read your file. Your test scores are high, but nowhere near as high as they should be." Tony argued, "Not with your brain."

     "I didn't start going to school when I was ten," Robin defended herself, "Plus I switch schools a lot in the middle of the semester, the material changes depending on where I am."

     "Bullshit," Tony accused, pointing at her, "I was the most self-destructive slacker around and I got expelled from twelve schools growing up. I still made it to MIT by fifteen."

     "Maybe I'm just not as smart as you," Robin spoke coolly, looking away from the man with an annoyed expression.

     "No one's as smart as me," Tony countered.

     "Bruce Banner is," Robin argued, "In fact he's probably smarter."

     Robin was a big fan of Dr. Banner's work and had many of his lectures on DVD. She wished she was standing in the brilliant physicist's lab and discussing his work with biochemical engineering instead of arguing with antagonistic man in front of her.

     "That's never been proven," Tony protested indignantly, "And besides the point. I know intelligence when I see it, no IQ test needed. You're holding yourself back on purpose. Why?"

     Robin was saved from answering as FRIDAY's soothing voice sounded out in the lab.

     "Sir, Agent Twenty-Seven has arrived with your food."

     "Send him down," Tony ordered, "I want to get started on this disintegrator ray."

     "Right away, boss."

     Robin let out a sigh of relief when Tony seemed to be suitably distracted.

     "Can I take a sample of your blood?" he asked.

     Apparently, not distracted enough.

     "What?" Robin blanched, "No, dude."

     "Doesn't hurt to ask," Tony shrugged.

     "Hurts a little bit," Robin eyed him suspiciously.

     A familiar looking agent entered the lab carrying three boxes of pizza from a restaurant Robin didn't recognize.

     "Cedric, you deliver pizzas too?" Robin grinned at him, "Wow, you really do it all."

     Cedric didn't acknowledge her but seemed to be fighting off a smile. The stoic man deposited the pizzas on one of the few clear workspaces and made to leave.

     "Oh, come on," Robin protested, "Don't you want to join us for pizza? I know Stark's not great company, but we can pretend he isn't here."

     "I'm busy," Cedric said with the same serious inflection as always, "Life as a hitman doesn't allow for pizza breaks."

     Robin gasped, watching the man as he exited the lab.

     "Did you just make a joke?" she called after him, "I'm proud of you Cedric, that's real progress."

     "Huh," Tony mused as he retrieved a slice of pizza, "I didn't know his name was Cedric."

     Robin scoffed, grabbing a whole pizza for herself and sitting on one of his custom work stools.

     "Yeah, and he's gonna kill you if you try to steal my blood," Robin warned, "So don't try any funny business."

     "First of all, he works for me," Tony glowered, "and B, I wasn't trying to steal your blood."

     "That's what they all say," Robin said ominously.

     "Who said that?" Tony demanded, "Who wants your blood?"

     "I don't know man," the young girl shrugged, "The government, probably."

     Robin let out a sudden cry of pain as a piercing ache shot through her stomach, and the pizza box fell to the floor as she clutched her torso.

     "What is it? What's wrong?" Tony panicked, holding his hands out awkwardly as he rushed towards her, "Is it cramps?"

     "No, you idiot," Robin gritted out, arms wrapped protectively around her stomach as tears threatened to come to her eyes, "It feels like- like I've been stabbed."

     Tony gingerly removed her arms from around the area and inspected her stomach but found no wound where the pain was coming from.

     "Isn't that where the nurse was hurt when you healed her?" Tony furrowed his eyebrows in thought.

     "I don't- ow," Robin whimpered as another stab of pain ran through her.

     "Okay, okay, what can I do?" Tony was incredibly uncomfortable and panicking, "What do you need from me? Do you need ice? I'll get you ice."

     He rushed off to the fridge on the other side of the lab and began shoveling ice out of the freezer.

     "Oh, shit," he rambled when the ice fell out of his hands and onto the floor, "A bag, I need a bag."

     Robin didn't respond, curling into herself as the pain got worse.

     When he couldn't find a bag, Tony resorted to gathering a bunch of cold beer bottles in his arms and rushing back over to the girl.

     "If it doesn't work you can just drink them," he muttered, more to himself, "That'll numb the pain."

     The pain evaporated just as Iron Man was hastily shoving bottles of alcohol at her.

     She let out a shaky breath, feeling over stomach in confusion.

     "What just happened?" she asked, as if Tony would have answers.

     "Are you good now?" Tony asked, "Oh, thank God. Cap would kill me if you died on my watch."

     "You drink Samuel Adams?" she was distracted by the glass bottles in his hands.

     "I drink scotch," Tony defended with an affronted look, "These are for Rogers."

     "Thought he wasn't allowed in the lab," Robin inquired.

     "Exactly, I'm hiding them because he dumped a bottle of my Balvenie down the drain," he explained.

     "Why'd he do that?" she asked.

     "I got a little out of control during karaoke night," Tony said distractedly, "Can we talk about your issues instead of mine?"

     "I don't know, it happened last night too," Robin shrugged, "Only it was my head instead of my stomach."

     "After you healed Maximoff's brain?" Tony asked.

     "Yeah, I guess so," she admitted.

     "Probably another side effect of your powers," Tony said thoughtfully, "If Banner was here he'd be able to run some tests."

     The man sounded mournful as he spoke about his friend.

     "Where is Dr. Banner, by the way?" she asked curiously, thrown off by his dramatic tone.

     "Vacationing in Bali," Tony rolled his eyes, "Can you believe that guy? When he's back he can run some tests so we can figure out the full extent of your powers."

     Robin paused. The chance to meet Bruce Banner was almost too good to pass up, but she didn't want to become a lab rat.

     "I'm good," she declined, "I'm a glorified first aid kit that used to have wings. Mystery solved."

     Tony let out a noise of disagreement but didn't press the issue.

     During the commotion Robin had fallen off the stool and onto the ground, and she leaned against the leg of one of the workbenches and picked up the pizza box she dropped.

     Tony sat next to her on the floor and took another slice. The two sat in silence. The air between them was still awkward, but at least they weren't arguing anymore.

     He offered one of the beers to her again.

     "I'm fourteen," she told him incredulously.

     "You'll be fifteen soon," he shrugged.

     No one was sure of Robin's exact birthday, so her moms had deemed it to be the day they found her: January twenty-third.

     "That doesn't really make a-,"

     Robins chastisement was cut off as one of the frosted glass panes that encased Tony's lab shattered and she was picked up from the floor and carried to the opposite end of the room at an inhuman speed.

     In the blink of an eye, Robin found herself pushed behind a furious looking Pietro Maximoff as he took a protective stance in front of her.

     Tony leapt from the ground and willed one of his repulsors to encase his hand. He aimed the weapon at the speedster but refrained from shooting it after he glanced at Robin's positioning.

     "Stark," Pietro glared at the man with utter contempt.

     "Easy, Sonic," Tony placated, trying to figure out how to incapacitate the young man without harming Robin.

     "Pietro?" Robin asked in confusion, "What are you-,"

     "Stay behind me Сонгбирд," Pietro insisted, "It isn't safe."

     Robin narrowed her eyes in thought before a realization dawned on her.

     "Pietro, what year do you think it is?" she inquired.

     "What?" Pietro glanced back at her before returning to scowling at Tony, "2014, what kind of question is that?"

     Robin and Tony shared a look of understanding.

     "I don't think I healed his brain all the way," she told the Avenger, "He's still missing memories and I can- it's like I can sense it."

     "How do we fix that?" Tony called out to her, ignoring Pietro's indignant protests when he addressed Robin.

     "Pietro, can I take your hand?" Robin asked carefully.

     The speedster looked at her like she was odd, but gave her his hand anyways.

     She took it and closed her eyes, focusing all her energy on Pietro. She tried to remember the feeling she got when she healed Charlotte Adams and recreate it.

     Pietro's entire body relaxed, the tension seeping out of his muscles, as Robin's golden energy coursed through him.

     "Why is it that they always look like they just tried crack for the first time when you heal them?" Tony mumbled.

     A look of confusion replaced Pietro's blissful expression as the synapses in his brain fully healed.

     "Robin?" he asked incredulously, "What are you doing here? You're older. Are we in America?"

     The girl in question let out a sigh of relief, dropping his hand and running her own through her long hair.

     Tony lowered his repulsor but didn't remove it completely.

     "You back with us, buddy?" he asked skeptically.

     "Stark," Pietro jumped in surprise, "What happened? Did we defeat Ultron? Where is my sister?"

     As if on cue, a panicking Steve and Wanda raced into the room.

     "Pietro escaped-," Steve started, but cut himself off when they took in the scene in front of them.

    "Little late on that one, Cap," Tony sighed.

➶

     Robin thanked Cedric as he drove away and looked at the entrance of Midtown School of Science and Technology. In her hands she held a bouquet of orange and pink flowers.

     After an afternoon full of tear-filled hugs and filling Pietro in on everything he had missed, the team had insisted that Robin get home. She suspected they needed to plan some top secret mission she wasn't authorized to know about but she didn't have proof.

     Tony and Steve originally wanted to have an agent drive her everywhere until they figured out if HYDRA was tracking her, but she had negotiated them down to having Cedric drive her to the school today only when she promised to consider letting them help her explore her powers.

     School had ended an hour ago, but she needed to pick up the work she had missed from the last two days if she was going to get caught up before returning the next day.

     Thankfully she had thought to text Harry that morning to inform him that she was missing another day, leading to a reluctant agreement that he'd cover for her with her teachers. She wasn't sure what excuse he'd given, but he assured her that there would be no questions asked.

     She knew that decathlon met on Tuesdays, so they'd be finishing up soon. She was hoping to catch Peter.

     Robin had rambled to Cedric for twenty minutes in the flower shop, debating whether it would be too much to get the boy flowers when she couldn't even bring herself to call. Apparently, the stoic man had had enough, because he grabbed the bouquet from her and paid for it himself.

     Her posture straightened at the sight of the team exiting the building, chattering to each other. Her eyes spotted Ned and she made her way over.

     "Ned, hey," she smiled at him softly.

     "Robin!" Ned beamed at her, "How have you been? You missed a few days, I was a little worried."

     "Oh, I'm good," she assured him, "I, uh, caught a bug but I'm getting better now."

     Ned smiled at her sympathetically, like he knew she was lying. Technically, she was, but it wasn't to avoid his best friend like the boy obviously thought.

     "Don't miss practice again," Michelle paused next to them, "It sucks without you."

     "Don't worry, I won't," Robin laughed.

     Michelle gave her a single nod and continued on her way, leaving Robin to bring her attention back to Ned.

     "Was Peter at practice?" she asked hesitantly.

     "Uh, no," Ned frowned, "He quit. Robotics, too."

     "Seriously?" Robin looked at him in surprise, knowing that the Parker boy really enjoyed Robotics club.

     "Yeah, but listen," Ned insisted, "He's really sorry about what he said to you, he didn't mean it. He just doesn't want to call because he's afraid you hate him or something, but I swear he really is sorry."

     "It's okay, Ned," she smiled at him, "I have to get my makeup work, but will you give these to him for me?"

     She handed over the bouquet, and Ned took it with a look of surprise.

     "They're for his aunt, too," she explained, "I know they're probably getting tons of flowers and stuff, but these are Stargazers and Tiger Lilies."

     Ned nodded, a smile lighting up his features.

     "He'll know what they mean," she rambled on, "Or maybe he won't, which would be fine too. They can just be pretty flowers. Oh, if he has cats make sure they don't eat them. Super poisonous. I don't know if they're toxic to dogs but if he has one of those, they probably shouldn't eat them either. Just to be safe. You never know."

     "I'm actually heading to his house now," Ned told her, "Do you wanna come with me?"

     "No, that's okay," Robin denied, "Thanks, though. I should head inside."

     Ned's smile fell a little, but he nodded in understanding. She was still a little scared to talk to him.

     "Will you be at school tomorrow?" he asked.

     "Not even the Avengers could drag me away," she told him, speaking a little loudly in case they were secretly listening.

➶

     A crash sounded out from the alley next to where Robin was walking, causing the girl to pause in suspicion.

     Writing it off as an alley cat, she continued on her way. She flitted through the large stack of papers detailing the work she had missed with contempt.

     It would all be relatively easy, but ridiculously tedious. She was in for a long night and, if Stark was right about hunger following the use of her powers, a ravenous one.

     Mentally taking stock of all the food in her fridge, she paused as another crash sounded out from the next alley she walked past, followed by a voice cursing in annoyance.

     "Hello?" she called out nervously, "Is someone there? I have a taser and I'm not afraid to use it."

     "Awe, please don't tase me," a voice called out, "We're just getting to know each other."

     The familiar form of Spider-Man came out of the shadowed alley with his hands raised in the air teasingly.

     "Oh, thank Gods," Robin breathed a sigh of relief, "I don't have a taser and I'd definitely be afraid to use it."

     "All the more reason for you to let me walk you home," the vigilante spoke smoothly.

     Any defining characteristics of his voice were muffled by the fabric that covered his face, but she thought she could detect a hint of a Queens accent.

     "Are you stalking me?" she asked, mostly joking, "Do I have a spider-stalker?"

     "Can't a guy lurk in the shadows and watch a girl from afar without being accused of stalking anymore?" Spider-Man placed a gloved hand against his chest dramatically.

     Robin laughed slightly, before letting out a prolonged sigh.

     "I guess I could use the company," she relented.

     "Great!" the webslinger bounced towards her excitedly, "Let's cut through Central Park. It's a beautiful day."

     "It's forty-two degrees and partly cloudy," she pointed out as they began to walk.

     "Are you cold?" he asked, looking down at her, "I mean, you look real nice but those tights can't be keeping you too warm."

     "The cold doesn't really affect me," she shrugged nonchalantly, "I've recently learned I'm from a pretty cold country."

     "Recently?" her masked friend asked curiously.

     "It's a long story," she dismissed him, "and I'm afraid you have to be at least a level four friend to unlock my tragic backstory."

     "Yeah?" he laughed, "What level are we at?"

     "I'll let you know when I figure it out," she smiled up at him.

     The two made their way through Central Park, Spider-Man's unusual outfit garnering a few glances but not many. New York City was familiar enough with the absurd not to raise any red flags about his attire.

     "So, uh, did you end up calling that friend of yours?" he asked in an overly casual tone.

     "No, I chickened out," she admitted sheepishly.

     He turned to look at her with his goggled eyes.

     "Oh, don't look at me like that, it's scary!" she rolled her eyes at him, "I did send him flowers, though."

     "Yeah?" he asked, his tone brightening.

     "Yeah," she parroted, nodding, "You're the spider-stalker, is that stalkerish? Is he gonna be creeped out? Should I be expecting a restraining order soon?"

     "I think it's sweet," he shook his head, "He'd be an idiot not to be happy getting flowers from a pretty girl like you. In fact, people should be getting you flowers."

     He spotted a yellow wildflower in the grass ahead of them and plucked it from the ground, bowing exaggeratedly and presenting it to her like a gift.

     "Not only are you a stalker, you're a giant dork, too," Robin laughed, but she took the flower from him anyways.

     Her face flushed a beautiful pink, the kind that made the masked boy's heart beat faster.

     She tucked the flower into the small pocket in her skirt, reminding herself to press it when she got home.

     The unlikely duo exited the park and approached her apartment building, amicable banter flying between them.

     It wasn't a huge difference, but Robin found herself feeling a bit more courageous alongside the young hero. She felt free to say what she wanted without judgement, and for once her ramblings were from excitement instead of nerves.

     They stopped in front of her building's doors just as she finished telling him all about the migration patters of Bar-headed geese. He allowed her to speak without interruption, listening intently to everything she said.

     "I'd like to walk you home again sometime," he informed her matter-of-factly, before running a nervous hand over his masked head, "I mean, uh, if that's alright with you."

     "Apparently you know where to find me," Robin shrugged, her voice halfway between accusatory and teasing.

     "Hey, I'm just trying to make sure you don't fall off of anymore rooftops," Spider-Man defended himself.

     "That was one time!" Robin looked at him with wide eyes but was fighting off a grin.

     "Once feels like more than enough," he shook his head chastisingly, "So I'll see you soon?"

     "I hope so," she agreed, opening the door to let herself in.

     "Great," he sounded like he was smiling beneath the mask, and she watched as he started to walk away.

     "Hey Spidey?" she called out.

     He paused, turning around to look at her questioningly.

     Robin shot him finger guns.

     Spider-Man groaned, slapping a hand to his forehead as he watched the laughing girl in front of him.

     It was nice to see her smile.

➶➶➶   

i'm gonna be messing with canon so much lol, but mostly just slight tweaks until civil war. i might get rid of the sokovian accords altogether and work around it to keep parts of the plot. i already have tons of plans for infinity war so whatever happens in endgame?? nonexistent.

also the timeline of the movies in the mcu are so confusing??? it doesn't matter that much but it bother my dumb anxiety brain lol

happy new year babies!!! was hoping to post this on the first but instead i'm posting it at 5:44 am on the fifth, but what can you do? sleep is what i should do! won't though!

love you all more than your sweet little hearts can take and stay hydrated,

-belle xx