"A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead."
- Graham Greene

*two weeks later*

  "Someone's here to see you !"

  Happy didn't have to say more to get Harper to run to the lounge of the Avengers facility. When he saw her basically flying before him, Steve Rogers almost dropped his sandwich. 

  "Sorry, Steve !"

  She finally got to the lounge where, as she expected, she found Peter Parker. At the plain sight of her boyfriend, Harper's face lit up and a huge smile spread across her lips. Peter was only happy to see she'd come back to her old self. He squeezed her against him and soaked up with the characteristic smell of mango that came from her hair. He held her tight for a few seconds, eyes closed : he'd missed her.

  "So how's school ? You don't miss me too much ?"

  "Hell yes, we do," he complained as he followed her to her bedroom. "Ned says my stories are never as good as yours and M.J. admitted that she needed her favourite sidekick. Flash got on her nerves more than usual this week and she wished she could set fire to his clothes."

  Harper let out a genuine laugh that filled Peter with happiness. Once in the bedroom, the lied on the couch, in front of the television. Even if Harper hadn't took the idea of leaving Midtown High School that well, at first, she had to admit she was more than comfortable now. She had much more space here than in their own manor and she even had her own bathroom. The bedrooms were very simple but she'd thrown her heart into decorating hers. She'd sticked to her simple style, but all the pictures of people she loved were hanging here and there on the walls, just like her posters and some of her favourite drawings. She had even found a poster of Steve as Captain America on which she'd written 'Language !' in bright red letters. Tony found it hilarious, whereas Steve was tired of this joke. Harper could never stop laughing about this.

  In addition to all the advantages she had from living in the headquarters, she had one of the most valuable teacher : Tony was teaching her everything he knew in a mood that made it impossible to miss school. She could also spend time with Wanda and Natasha, which she was absolutely thrilled about. The only thing she didn't like was how Steve didn't seem to get off her back.

  "Harper, you've left this lying around again."

  Harper had heard this sentence over and over, at least once a day. However, she really didn't have anything to complain about. Even though she couldn't see Peter every day anymore, they'd agreed to meet every Wednesday and weekend. Happy drove her discreetly to Queens every Wednesday and on Saterdays, Peter spent the night in the headquarters.

  "So, what do you wanna do tonight ?" she asked. "We're taking out Chinese food and we'll probably eat together so don't let Steve and the other intimidate you. Whenever we gather to eat, they get...noisy."

  "Yeah, no kidding. I don't know, you wanna watch a movie ?"

  "We're gonna end up like two lazy adults on this very couch if we keep doing this. I mean, I'm absolutely fine with that."

  "So am I," he nodded seriously. "What do you wanna see ?"

  "It's your turn to choose since I made you watch The Hunger Games last week."

  "Yeah, right. Hmmm, let's see... As if you weren't expecting this one."

  Without a hesitation, Peter played Evil Dead.

  "You said I hadn't seen rom-com classics, so it's my turn to improve your cinematographic culture."

  "You've been telling me about this movie for far too long and you know I hate it when it's scary," she mumbled.

  "It's not scary."

  Liar. Harper spent the whole movie covering her eyes and curling up next to Peter (not that any of them wasn't happy about that). When they finally came to eating, she wasn't sure about wanting those noodles anymore. When she thought that nothing worse than a loss of appetite could possibly happen, a sparkling circle started growing in the middle of the dining room. Everyone got up to their feet and started watching out for any sign of danger. Tony and Pepper, who had left to go jogging and weren't supposed to be home before the end of dinner, came through the circle. They were immediately followed by a man in a red cape and...Bruce Banner.

  "Bruce ?"

  "Nat."

  Everyone looked somewhere else, slightly awkward, before giving in to the joy of having their friend back. Harper could tell something was wrong. She thought she recognised that cape man : he was the one who'd brought Steve and the others to Queens when they'd fought Smith.

  "What going on, Dad ?" she asked, concerned.

  "Bruce, tell them."

  Doctor Banner took a step further and cleared his throat.

  "We have a problem, and it's not a small one. It's... It's an alien, Thanos. He wants the Infinity Stones."

  "To do what ?" Harper asked again, as she seemed to be the only one who hadn't lost her tongue.

  "He wants to wipe out half of life in the Universe."

  The Avengers who were in the room exchanged meaningful looks : they had to act and they had to do it fast if they wanted to save billions of innocents. They had to face it : there's no such thing as rest for heroes.

***

Just because this part says 'Epilogue' doesn't mean it's the end... You can still follow Harper's story in the next tome, 'Girl of Ashes'. Thank you for reading this story.