Scars

Alice was shy, sneaky, quiet, and hard to get to. Natasha had been trying to get to her or corner her, but she rarely, if ever, left her room. The girl was just gone.

"I can't get to her," Natasha said, flopping next to Clint on the couch. "She's like a ghost. She's gone with the wind, invisible, was never here, she's a spy and doesn't know it, she's-"

"You could just leave her alone," Clint said. "Did you not hear what she said the other night? She is a child who has been isolated for the majority of her life, just now being reintroduced to society at 17 years old. She's not well, and you chasing her isn't helping. Just leave her alone she'll come whenever she's ready. You need to stop bombarding her with questions. Remember, the only one she knows is Tony. " he continued casually to flip through the tv channels while glancing at the ceiling occasionally.

Natasha knew that Clint was right. Running around stalking the girl wasn't going to get her to talk. She was usually more collected than this, but having something or someone so close and not knowing a thing about them was something Natasha didn't like. Especially when everyone else was so nonchalant about it; she was a spy, for crying out loud.

On Christmas, she gave everyone scrapbooks filled with blackmail, yet she couldn't find anything about this girl. Natasha had literally gone through every database possible to man, even databases people weren't supposed to know about. She couldn't find anything on Alice Stark. She even called Professor X, The well-known telepath and Headmaster of a Mutant/gifted only School, to help; he did find out who she was; he confessed to knowing and keeping tabs on her for a very long time but wouldn't tell Natasha anything else, but he did say something along the lines of "The child was put in a bubble for a reason Ms. Romanoff please  ..... don't pop it "  now Natasha was even more interested in the girl.

Why am I the only one wondering, Natasha thought to herself

"Because you're always used to knowing everything or pretending to know everything. And this one time, you know nothing, and everyone knows you know nothing, and you don't like it." Clint answered casually as if she actually spoke out loud to him. He knew she wasn't. And she knew he knew she wasn't. "Plus, I went through Tony's stuff and found out that the first rule on her long list of rules to stay here was not to use her abilities. She isn't going to tell you if it risks her getting sent back. This is her first taste of freedom, her only taste of freedom.

"Shit," Natasha cursed, finally realizing the effect she was having on the poor girl.

"you just lost your cool for a moment. Next time you see her, apologize," Clint said, then picked a bowl off the coffee table. "I've given you advice and knowledge. Please make me more popcorn". Natasha rolled her eyes, but never the less made the man popcorn.

-

Alice had a new hobby/habit, people-watching. Or, more accurately, watching people through surveillance cameras. She'd often watch the team do mundane things such as training, eating, cleaning, playing games, and just being domestic. It made her feel much better than actually sitting in the room with them and made her less anxious.

Due to this habit, Alice accidentally caught part of Clint and Natasha's conversation. She listened to Clint defend her as she realized how desperate Natasha was to find her secrets. She was really working herself, trying to find out her abilities.

Would it really be bad if she showed them? They were the Avengers, after all. It's not like they would tell anyone else. And she didn't want them to not like her. She had really been putting Natasha through the wringer. 

These were the only people she knew the only people communicated with she couldn't lose them over the trust or a petty rule, right?

Her Father wasn't home, he had gone to a company meeting with Pepper he was in California and they were in New York. He'd never know, right?

Alice paced the gym floor heavily she had finally given into Natasha and decided to show her what she was asking, for now, she was waiting. Too busy pacing, Alice didn't notice Natasha and the rest of the team.

"Alice" Finally, she noticed the team that had gathered for her. "You wanted to show up something?" Steve said 

She nods, taking a few steps back " I- I...powers?"

"Uh yeah, no shit- I mean, yes, we'd like to see "An elbow from Natasha set Clint straight.

"Dad....don't-" Everyone nodded before she could finish completely understanding.

"Listen, Alice, if you don't want to tell us, that's okay. We're okay with that. We don't want you to get in trouble or anything -"

"Shut up, Rogers." Sam scolded Steve.

Taking a deep breath stepping forward to a punching bag, she bites down on her index finger until she bleeds, "she's hurting herself" Clint made the obvious observation, letting the blood drip from her finger blood spill on to the floor taking another breath shaky breath she flicked the blood off her finger into the direction of the punching bag. The team didn't know what they expected but what happened surely wasn't it. As soon as the blood drop hit the punching bag it ripped off the chain bursting open, hitting the back wall and leaving a massive dent.

"That was... AWESOME," Clint said, running up to Alice before remembering boundaries. Everyone bombards her with questions. Alice didn't really answer any questions, more or less just stood there and smiled. 

They liked her,

-

"Tony, are you paying ?" Pepper asked, frustrated she had been talking to air for the last 20 minutes. "No, sorry. Watching Alice," Tony said as he watched the footage of his daughter breaking the #1 rule he said not to. "she's in trouble"