TW! Mentions of traumatic pasts.

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"Um, Frey, darlin'?"

Groaning, the mentioned woman pulls the covers further over her head.

"Yes, Ma?"

"Th-the Avengers are here?"

"Sorry?"

"The, erm, Avengers are here."

"In the country?"

"No, here."

"London?"

"Freya Zahid Bulsanya-Mercury, the Avengers are in our home, politely sipping their mugs of tea."

The singer whips her head up, rolling straight out of the bed and landing with a harsh thud on the cold ground.

"Oof," she groans, clutching at her bruised ribcage.

"Everything alright up there?" The worried voice of her father calls up the staircase.

"She's fine, Micheal. She's just rolled out of bed like a sausage escapin' the roll."

Freya gets up, pulling a face of annoyance after hearing her father's booming laughter.

"Seriously though, Missy, you've got to get your arse downstairs. These heroes have probably got some business to discuss-Lord knows they're not here to answer your mother's fan mail."

"MICHAEL, THEY CAN ALL HEAR US."

"Annie, they can hear us when we talk at a moderate volume too."

"Don't you argue with me, Micheal Bulsanya-"

"Would you two stop -my morning brain needs time to wake up, reboot, function, and then process. Please and thank you."

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Walking downstairs- Freya behind her mother- the young woman can do nothing but bite her lip in fear.

She isn't ready for this.

Not yet.

"That's okay. No one would ever pressure you into something you don't want, Lovely."

Freya turns her head to see Wanda bloody Maximoff sitting on her mother's sofa, a cup of tea in hand and a small but nervous smile decorating her features.

"What's going to be -can you read my mind?!"

"Yes," Loki and Wanda admit at the same time, one more hesitant than the other.

"Why are you here," the superstar blurts out, trying to calm herself down.

"FREYALINDALY BULSANYA!" Annie scolds.

"Freyalindaly," Tony snorts, clasping a hand to his mouth as soon as his soulmates give him a glare.

Strangely, that sentence draws the first real smile out of their scared first soulmate.

"I know. Might as well have called me Lilylalala."

Her soulmates' laughter brings a slight fuzz to her heart.

Steve recovers from his fit of giggles and answers her rather direct question.

"We came because we heard some fake news articles about you. We were concerned about your safety after a few of them. Especially when we found out the Paparazzi have photographed you in your own home...numerous times."

"Oh," is all Freya manages to respond.

"Yes, that and you're our soulmate," Sam smirks.

Michael chokes on his tea, greatly worrying his wife who is currently violently slamming his back.

"I-I'm alright. SOULMATES?" 

"Indeed, sir. We are your daughter's fourteen out of fifteen soulmates."

"Well, you better treat her right. Soulmate number fifteen was a real arse."

"DAD!"

"What? Am I lyin'?"

Freya falls into a chair next to her mother.

"No," she grumbles.

"What number soulmate is our daughter?"

"One," everyone replies in sync.

The singer frowns. "Before you ask, I don't have any numbers. Only Li- my previous soulmate had a number. Fifteen."

"Ah, so to us you're our most treasured mate, and to you, they were the least."

"I suppose so," Freya whispers, scratching at her burning soul marks and rubbing her bruised ribcage.

"Mmm, well...It was nice meeting you. The Bulsanya-Mercury family is obviously doing fine, so I believe you can get right back on a plane to America."

Annie picks up a cushion and whacks her daughter in the face with it.

"We didn't raise you to-"

Letting the stress get to her, Freya interrupts her mother with a rather rude statement. 

"You didn't raise me most of my life. You're not my mother. No matter how much you try to be, or how much I try to make you."

The Avengers wince at her cold and brutally honest tone.

Michael tries to bite back his tears.

"We did the best we could, darlin'. Annie lost your mother... She decided as her sister to take you in. She has supported you your whole life, even when you were with Blyton and Enid."

Pietro speaks up. 

"So, you are saying, sir..."

"That officially, I am not in any way related to Freya. I am her uncle, only because I married her mother's sister. We are not her parents."

"And we'll leave it at that. Enjoy your tea," the singer states, still fiercely scratching at her soul marks as she runs up the stairs.

Silence ensues.

"She doesn't mean to hurt you," Annie whispers. "Something you have to understand is that Freya has been let down by many people in her life. Her father- Blyton Bulsanya - was a troubled man. He worked hard for his family, but never quite found his way in life. Alcohol became his saving grace... and he overdosed and died when Frey was only thirteen-years-old. It killed her to know he'd never managed to defeat his demons..."

Tony gulps at the information, hoping from personal experience that his soulmate hadn't inherited the drinking gene.

"...And her mother?" Natasha asks, spooking the Mercurys as she hadn't previously announced her presence.

"Her mother was my twin sister- Enid Mercury. She was...Well, she was more troubled than even her husband was. Her soulmate died before Freya was born, so she married Blyton to try and patch up some of her wounds..."

"Should I continue for you?" Michael asks.

Annie nods.

"It was an abusive marriage from the start. Freya grew up watching her mother be beaten, then continue loving him...crying herself to sleep and letting him do whatever he pleased with her. Sometimes, Enid would join him in his drinking habits-A few times she ended up hospitalized."

Michael tried his best to explain, though some of his words didn't make complete sense.

 "We tried to take Freya away, but the court denied us custody of her as Enid was a kind woman at heart and Blyton had a paying job. Eventually, after her second husband had died, Enid became manic. It was later found out that she had bipolar disorder- which is not always a violent thing-but in her case, it was. She would constantly hurt herself, and sometimes even Freya. She lost her battle with inner demons two years later when Frey was sixteen- almost seventeen...She killed herself."

"Shit, that's a lot of emotional baggage to carry around," Clint whispered, teary-eyed as he worried about his first soulmate.

"Who else let her down?" Shuri asked. "You mentioned it like there were a few people...who else let her down?"

Michael sighs.

"It wasn't my place to even tell you this, it certainly isn't my place to explain the rest. All I can say is that it's number fifteen's fault. "

The Avengers nod in understanding.

Annie gets herself together again.

"Our girl, she's ready for you...I think she just wants to sort some things out before she accepts you all. Go home, give her time-she'll come to you on her own terms."

The Avengers look at each other in emotional turmoil.

"Okay then. Thanks for the tea, Miss Mercury."

Annie smiles.

"It's Mama Mercury to you."

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June 2022

Edited:  June 2023.

A/N: Did I lay enough hints in her behavior? Stuff like her panic/anxiety attacks, constant change of emotions and so on..."