Prelude Two
"Alayna, I think you've got enough m&m's." Peter chuckled, looking at the medium sized plastic bag the girl was carrying.
If there was one thing Lainey knew for sure that she liked, it was m&m's.
Brownie m&m's, peanut butter, pretzel, dark chocolate, peppermint, you know name it, Lainey ate it.
"Are you sure?" Lainey smiled very mischievously. "I don't think that's possible."
She didn't get to eat them very often, but when she did, she made the most of it.
Sometimes she was lucky and her mother would give her money for lunch at school, and she'd buy half a sandwich everyday and save the change.
By the end of the week, she'd have enough to buy herself any kind of m&m's she wanted and a drink.
"I'm sure. If you eat too much, you're gonna get a stomachache."
"You're no fun." She pouted, but stopped eating from the bag and tied it up.
Just like they planned, Lainey, Peter, and Ned met up in Times Square and demolished their favorite candy store.
Peter filled his bag with red and blue m&m's, while Ned filled his bag up with green ones.
Of course, Lainey couldn't help but start eating as soon as they were paid for. There was something about blue colored M&M's that just tasted better than all the rest.
And she knew that that wasn't logical, but it's what she believed.
Blue was superior.
"You'll thank me one day." Peter said as a matter of factly.
"You always say that."
And it was true, he did.
But he was always right.
Peter, being the older one of the two, was always doing his best to look out for Lainey. He liked to make sure she was feeling alright, or if she was doing well at school.
And he also liked to make sure she wasn't overdoing it with the sweets.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah."
"What time do you have to get back, Lainey?" Ned asked, glancing at his watch.
"Soon, so I should probably start heading back." She sighed.
She had been having a really good day, and she really didn't want it to end just yet.
But her mother didn't even know she had left the house, so she was truly cutting it close.
"Are you sure you don't wanna stop by the house and play some video games?"
"Maybe some other time. My mom's gonna be home soon and I can't be late."
"Tell her I said 'hi'." Peter smiled and brought the girl in for a hug.
"I will. See you guys later."
Today of all days, it took much longer for Lainey to get home. There were so many tourists on the streets, it made it nearly impossible to walk, and the trains were delayed.
Just her luck.
It was a good thing she had some chocolate to keep herself occupied, because without it, she would've lost it.
Why couldn't they learn to move out of the way?
She finally made it home after a couple of hours and stepped into the apartment, setting her keys down on the counter and her bag of m&m's on the couch.
If no one was home, that meant she had a little time to sit and watch a movie or something.
Lainey enjoyed watching television while lounging on the couch, she thought it was the perfect way to relax her tired muscles from the hardships of her day.
But after turning the television on, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up straight.
So, she turned the volume down to listen for anything suspicious.
She didn't hear anything, but her gut was telling her that something was out of the ordinary.
Creeping into the kitchen, she went through one of the drawers and pulled out a knife, holding it safely by the handle.
Someone was in the house.
Who? She didn't know.
But she could feel that she wasn't alone.
The child's steps were stealthy and quiet as she scoured the area for any intruders.
And once she heard something move, she reeled her hand back and let the knife fly through the air, cutting through the wall.
Narrowly missing Captain America's ear.
What was he doing in her house?
She hadn't even heard when he came in!
"What's going on in here, Cap?" A woman's voice grew louder as she entered the room, stopping short once she saw Lainey. "Great."
Steve, who had been looking completely bewildered, snapped out of his shock and pulled the knife out of the wall.
"She threw that?"
"Sure did…...and I don't think she missed."
"Next time, it won't be the wall." Lainey glared steadily at them.
She didn't care that these people were Avengers. They were breaking and entering, and Lainey wanted them out.
"Kid, we're not the enemy." The redheaded woman raised her hands. "We're just here to help."
"To help what?" Lainey questioned, keeping the couch between them. "I don't need help."
"Do you know who we are?" Steve asked gently, hoping that if they could introduce themselves, tensions wouldn't rise as high.
He was counting on his history of being really good with kids.
His best friend had three little sisters and he would help him babysit whenever he could.
"I know exactly who you are." She nodded. "You're Captain America…..and she's the Black Widow."
"I'm Steve, that's Natasha." Steve formally introduced. "That was a pretty cool thing you did with that knife there. I'm impressed."
"Thanks." Lainey was beginning to see that he viewed her as a cute little kid and was going to use that to her advantage. "Why are you here?"
Now, Steve may have been falling for the innocent act, but Natasha sure wasn't.
She was studying the girl carefully, watching her rigid body language and preparing herself for the worst.
This kid couldn't be anything older than nine, but just because she was young, didn't mean she wasn't a threat.
Natasha knew that better than most, after all, she came right out of the Red Room.
"Your mom's Allison Serrano, right?"
"Serrano." Lainey corrected him, rolling her 'r's and her eyes. "Yes...but she doesn't go by that anymore. She goes by Allison Taylor. How did you know that?"
"We need to ask her a few questions."
"What kind of questions?"
"That's classified." Natasha answered before Steve could put his foot in his mouth.
"Okay."
"You like m&m's?" Steve asked her, taking notice of the bag.
"I love m&m's." Her face lit up before she even realized what she was doing. And when she did, she quickly schooled her features. "I like the blue ones."
"They all taste the same." Steve chuckled. "You know, I had a friend who ate m&m's as often as he could…...he'd save the blue ones for last and eat 'em all at once." He could see that the small conversation was helping in calming her down successfully.
Every kid had something they were passionate about or interested in. You just had to keep prying to find it.
"They didn't sell 'em like this?"
"No, not back then."
"Wow."
"What's this?"
Lainey's eyes went wide as her mother stormed in with an angry look on her face.
"You." She pointed at the small girl. "Vete a tu cuarto. Ahora." She glared, successfully killing the mood.
She didn't have to tell her twice, because as soon as the words left her lips, Lainey was on her way to her room.
She didn't argue.
She didn't say anything.
And Steve noticed she didn't even bring her bag of candy with her.
There was something off about the entire exchange and it put Steve on edge. It looked like Lainey might have been afraid of her mother, but he didn't want to jump to any conclusions.
They had to complete this mission.
"Allison Serrano, we're with S.H.I.E.L.D. and we have reason to be believe you've been engaging in confidential criminal activities for several years." Natasha cut right to the chase now that the kid was out of sight.
"And I suppose you're here to arrest me." Allison smirked.
"Nothing gets by you." Natasha rolled her eyes. "We'll take you over to the Avenger's Tower for questioning and if you're innocent, we'll let you go."
"I don't think so." Allison sighed and reached for the knife she always had on her person, but Natasha had already been anticipating her every move.
The Russian kicked her wrist, making the knife fly out of her hand and sent a solid punch her way.
But it seemed Allison was well trained and could hold her own.
"Romanoff? You said this would be a simple op." Tony Stark's voice rang through her and Steve's ears as they both fought Allison. "What's the hold up?"
"Unforeseen circumstances, Stark." Natasha huffed, sending a roundhouse kick right to Allison's stomach, making her fly over the couch. "Hawkeye, I'm gonna need some backup. There's a kid."
"A kid?" Clint furrowed his eyebrows, already making his way up the fire escape to Lainey's window.
"And she's good with knives." Steve grunted, using the shield to block a hammer that had been haphazardly laying around.
Lainey had had her ear to the door the entire time, and she knew Clint was coming, so she hid inside of her closet, watching through a crack in the door as he opened the window and came in.
And like a nimble cat, she watched as he looked around for her, even going as far as to expand his search under her bed.
"No sign of her, Nat." He sighed. "She isn't here. I'm coming to you."
Lainey furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as he jogged over to the door and left the room.
Was it really that easy?
If he was such a great spy, then why hadn't he bothered to check the closet?
It was such an obvious place to hide. In fact, it should've been the first place he looked.
Maybe the Avengers just weren't as good as they thought they were.
So much for Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Lainey let out a breath she hadn't been holding and crawled out of her closet with the notion of helping her mother get rid of these people.
"There you are."
She had been fooled.
Clint had been in the doorway and out of sight the entire time.
Lainey couldn't help but do one thing.
Attack.
But Clint was good.
Too good.
For every punch she threw, he blocked.
She was usually better than this, but for some reason, she felt winded and tired.
And a little fuzzy to top it all off.
So, she decided to wrap this whole thing up.
Once she found the opening (which Clint had given her, though she didn't know that at the time), she stepped up onto his thigh and attempted to sit up on his shoulders to knock him over.
But the quick motion must've been far too much for her body to take.
All she could remember from that night, was falling forward.
She didn't even know if she had hit the ground or not, because everything went black.