"Goddammit, Pietro." I said loudly.

"What did I do? I haven't even done anything in the past ten minutes that would possibly irritate you!" Pietro exclaimed, closing the refrigerator.

"Your. Lip. Stop biting it!" I said, throwing a small black box at his face. He caught it by snatching it out of the air.

For a few heartbeats, heavy, deafening silence spread over our apartment.

Then: "what is this, Alita?"

"You know what that is, Pietro. You aren't stupid." I say, stalking out of the apartment after grabbing my pistol and putting it in my jacket. "Just give me your answer when I come home."

When Nick Fury died, I was there. He had told me to take over SHIELD for him and to say hello to his dear friend Carol Danvers. I swore that I would do it without asking why because he was fucking dying and I thought of him like a father figure. He told me that he was so proud of me for being brave, even when facing the jackass called Jarnagin in his brilliant scheme to steal me and Pietro from the college, force me into having sex with him, and make Pietro watch us have sex. I, luckily, had my blackjack with me and beat him to death with it before he had the chance to get more than my shirt off. I had freed Pietro and he carried me as he ran away from the old warehouse. Fury was right. I am brave.

I entered the Avengers base to see Tony hiding in the garbage can of his workplace while Bruce cradled his firstborn son in his arms and had Vi draped over him. Bucky was banging around in the kitchen, bruises formed on his jawbone in weird little circular shapes. Steve was chatting with Peter and watching a spider that was on the table. Wanda was reading her Harry Potter fanfics out loud to Jamie while Natasha taught Fang how to use a machine gun. Thor was cuddling with Loki who looked pleased to be cuddling with the person he's loved his whole life. Stephen was back to looking upset while Shuri dropped pop culture references too fast for him. T'Challa was meowing every five minutes while wearing cat ears and staring at Bucky's ass.

I am just gonna go out on a limb and say that my family is fucking weird.

A/N: Happy birthday, Alita Brown.