Chapter 24
Christmas was an exciting and eventful affair for Ashley and it was like nothing else she had ever experienced before. Between all the presents, the games and the sheer mountainous volume of food, Ashley barely had time to herself to think. However, in the odd few seconds here and there that weren’t being consumed by the Avengers team or spent watching a movie with Tony and Pepper, she couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. There was a twinge in her chest, almost like the dull echo of an ache from heartburn or indigestion. But it wasn’t until she went to bed Boxing Day evening, that she realised what she was missing.
After a long day of food and games, Ashley headed to bed with Wanda. That night, her dreams consisted of memories from previous winters. Ashley used to spend the holidays making Christmas dinner, cleaning and watching her parents get drunk, and at the end of the night, she would put her little brother, Lucas to bed. She cuddled up with him in the small bed, underneath Hulk bedsheets as he shared some of his selection box chocolates with her.
When Ashley woke up early the following morning to her arms wrapped tightly around Wanda’s middle and not her brother’s, she couldn’t help the pang of disappointment. She took a quick look at her watch, which read five forty-seven am, before disentangling herself from Wanda. She tip-toed out of the room, to be met with a silent penthouse. Pepper and Tony were clearly still asleep, so Ashley took the elevator down a few floors to the Avenger’s gym. After her dreams, Ashley had a lot of nervous energy to let out and seeing as she had been out of the game for a few weeks, a training session seemed like a good idea.
She found some gym clothes that had been left for her in the changing rooms and headed out into the gym. Impossibly, it seemed even bigger than the last time she had stepped foot in there. There were several varying lengths of rope hanging from the ceiling and small platforms jutting out from the walls. These were no doubt installed specifically for Peter but would also allow the other Avengers to practice their parkour skills. As she continued to scan the room, Ashley’s eyes fell on the punching bags tucked away in the corner. Subconsciously, she squeezed her hand into a fist before turning away and heading to the treadmills.
She jogged on the treadmill for around half an hour, building up to a steady run for the last ten minutes. As she stepped off, wiping away her sweat and grabbing a drink of water, her gaze wandered back to the punching bags. With a sigh, she walked off to the changing rooms to wrap her hands before coming back to work on one of the bags. The first thump of her fist colliding with the bag sent a wave of adrenaline through Ashley. Before long, the gym echoed with the sounds of flesh smacking against the bag, which rattled the chains suspending it. As her pace increased, so did the noise, successfully distracting her when someone else entered the room.
Bucky and Steve had just returned from a morning run (which had totally wiped out Sam, who was now back in his room) and were looking to spar while the rest of the tower’s residents were still sleeping – or so they thought. But when they entered the gym to find Ashley going to town on a punching bag, any plans they had quickly went out the window. Bucky quickly took the lead, walking over to the far side and perching against a stack of weights a couple of metres from where Ashley was stood.
“Hey doll, did the bag make fun of you or something?”
Ashley jumped in surprise at the voice and barely avoided being smacked in the face by the swinging bag. “S-Sorry Bucky, I didn’t hear you come in.” Ashley turned around and noticed that Steve was standing behind Bucky in the corner of the room. She took in the image of the two men, covered in a thin layer of sweat, suggesting they had just returned from a ten mile or so sprint and had clearly come to the gym to finish off their workout.
“Everything okay, doll?” Bucky asked, moving to stand next to the punching bag to keep it still.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Bucky didn’t believe her for a minute. “You’re up awfully early, don’t you think? No-one else is normally up before half seven...”
“I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d come down here and get rid of some of my energy.”
“Uh-huh...” Neither Steve nor Bucky looked convinced. “You know if you ever want to talk, you can come to me. Or any of the avengers really,” he added as an afterthought. “Except Clint maybe... He's pretty useless with the touchy-feely stuff. So is Vision... and we thought Tony was too until you came along.” Ashley only chuckled weakly in response, so Bucky decided to switch up tactics. “We were gonna spar for a bit, but you’re welcome to join us if you feel up to it. We could teach you a few bits if you want.”
“Sounds like fun. I might be a bit rusty.”
Bucky chuckled and started towards the boxing ring in the middle. “We’ll go easy on you.”
Ashley and Bucky started off with a simple sparring match, taking turns to deliver blows and dancing around each other lithely. After a while, Ashley began to tire, her footwork becoming sloppy, which allowed Bucky to land a light, open-handed hit to her side. She stumbled a few steps before falling over completely, at which point Steve decided to tag in. Ashley stood just outside the ring, taking a long drink as she watched the two super soldiers. Neither of them held back their fists or feet. Steve landed a hard punch to Bucky’s face, but the soldier just laughed, before paying him in kind with a swift kick to the stomach. When Steve finally managed to pin Bucky, the Winter Soldier tapped out before wrestling his best friend off him.
“Okay, enough warm up,” Steve spoke once he had finally escaped Bucky’s grasp. The two were panting lightly with large grins on their faces. “Anything in particular you want to practice, Ash?”
“Actually, yeah there is....” She quickly stalked off to the corner of the room where Wanda kept some of her training gear and found a thick, cotton hair band, which was often used as a blindfold. “I want to start my training again with Matt soon, but I need to make sure I’m ready.” As she entered the ring again, Ashley tied the hair band securely over her eyes, making sure she couldn’t see anything through the material. She entered a stance, feet wide apart and knees bent, ready to strike. “Okay, I’m ready.”
“Are you sure about this?” Steve asked, his tone unsure. Ashley simply nodded before launching in to strike him. Steve easily deflected the punch that was coming straight for his left side and moved back out of the way. He let out a small huff of laughter before aiming a strike of his own at Ashley. She easily ducked out of the way of Steve’s arm coming towards her and landed a swift kick to the super soldier’s shin. The pair carried on like that for a good twenty minutes until Ashley called time. She had successfully dodged and deflected every punch and kick Steve had aimed in her direction, and even landed a few hits of her own, although they were a lot sloppier than she would have liked.
“I gotta say doll, I’m impressed.” Bucky was grinning widely as he passed her water bottle to her. “Did Daredevil teach you all of that?” Ashley just nodded as she took a large gulp of water and tried to catch her breath.
“I’m surprised.” Steve interjected. “The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen doesn’t seem like the type to take on a student, and definitely not a high schooler.”
Ashley chuckled at his words. “Well, I didn’t give him a lot of choice. I pestered him until he finally gave in. At some point he actually started to like me, so he taught me all sorts of tricks and not just the ‘basics to keep me alive’.”
After tidying up the gym, the three of them made there way upstairs to the penthouse, where Pepper had already started preparing breakfast. The smell of sizzling bacon and pancake batter was enough to have the super soldiers’ mouths water, and even had Ashley’s stomach rumbling in mild protest to her workout on an empty stomach. As she stepped into the kitchenette to help Pepper out, she was quickly swept up in a hug by the older woman.
“Hey, I got worried when you weren’t in your room. FRIDAY said you’d been awake since five-thirty. Is everything okay?” Pepper asked her, running a hand through Ashley’s hair as she checked her over for signs of injury.
“I’m fine, Pepper.” Ashley pulled away from Pepper’s fussing and started pulling plates out of the cupboard. “I just couldn’t sleep. So I went downstairs to train.”
Ashley didn’t miss the disapproving frown on Pepper’s face before she turned back to finish cooking breakfast. The look was only on her face for a second before she schooled it back into a neutral expression. Ashley hovered for a second, wondering if she should say anything to Pepper about wanting to up her training in preparation for going back out into the city, but thought better of it and turned away to start setting the table.
Just as the last plates had been placed on the table, a barely awake Tony Stark had appeared, joining Ashley, Pepper, Wanda, Steve and Bucky at the table. The table was silent for a couple of minutes as Tony downed his first cup of coffee for the day before he spoke. “Morning, kiddo. Sleep okay?” When Ashley shrugged in answer, Tony’s expression settled into a frown. He decided not to press on the issue, hoping that Ashley would come to him if she needed to. “What have you got planned for today?”
“I thought I’d work on Pete’s web-shooters this morning and Nat asked me to look at her widow bites – I was going to add a variance device so she can control the level of shock.”
Tony grinned proudly in her direction before accepting a second mug of coffee from Pepper. “Sounds productive kid. Don’t forget you are still on school holidays though – you are entitled to kick back and have some fun.”
Ashley appeared to be deep in thought for a moment, before she replied. “If I don’t keep busy, I’ll keep tinkering with EMMA and start worrying about the expo next week.”
Tony nodded in understanding. Both he and Pepper had lots to do in order to prepare for the expo that was happening just after the New Year. Ashley still had some work to do with Peter on their prosthetics work, which would be presented alongside Ashley’s watches and EMMA. As Ashley headed down to the lab, she mentally planned a schedule in her head for what she could do that morning before the spider-hero in question joined her later that afternoon.
Tony and Pepper had both watched Ashley leave for the lab before turning their attention to Wanda, who just sighed expectantly. She knew Tony and Pepper were going to ask her something about what might have happened the previous night. “There’s really nothing to worry about,” Wanda answered their questioning glazes. “And I don’t think you can do anything about it either.”
“What do you mean?” Tony asked.
“She misses her brother. Lucas, was it?” Wanda asked rhetorically. “I don’t think you can do much about that, seeing as no-one knows where his parents whisked him off to.”
Humming under his breath, Tony took out his phone and started tapping the screen, muttering quietly. “I’ll show you what I can do.”
Pepper was just about to ask Tony what he was planning when FRIDAY alerted them to an incoming call. “Call for you Boss, from Iron Lad.”
“Who - ?” He started to ask before shaking his head with a roll of his eyes. “Don’t answer it! I’m not in.”
“He’s calling your mobile, Boss...”
Tony growled. “Do. Not. Answer.”
A moment later, his phone started ringing in his hand. Tony was quick to silence the AC/DC ringtone, before it could disturb the silence any longer. Barely a minute after he had declined the call, his phone vibrated, signalling he had a text.
Devil Spawn: Hey, Iron Dad! My Mom said I could spend the semester in New York. I’m coming just after New Year. Bet you’re psyched :D 8:54am.
“Oh, God!” Tony exclaimed dramatically. “Now there’s two of them!”
***
New Year’s celebrations were spent much like Christmas and saw all of the Avengers together. The media had been surprised to hear that Tony wasn’t going to throw a large party like he did every other year. Tony’s New Years parties were often dubbed THE event of the social calendar, mostly because people had a chance at seeing Black Widow in a tight evening gown. But this year saw Natasha in a pair of jeans, a black tank top and an off-the-shoulder khaki sweater, looking rather comfortable as she curled up on one of Tony’s sofas with her feet pressed into Clint’s lap. Clint had of course put up a fight, but he quickly backed down once Natasha ad sent him one of her more threatening looks.
The pair of them were snacking on cheese and crackers as they watched a rather intense game of Mario Kart between Ashley, Peter, Ned and MJ. Both Peter and Ashley had begged Tony and Pepper to let their friends stay in the tower overnight to see in the New Year together. Once Ashley had pulled out a particularly soft, begging expression, with glassy emerald eyes, both Tony and Pepper were quick to agree. A selection of sleeping bags, pillows and blankets had been laid out behind the sofas, ready for the four of them once midnight had struck.
Peter suddenly jumped up from his spot on the floor, cheering loudly as he swung his arms about, narrowly missing MJ. He celebrated his Mario Kart victory, with Ned cheering softly when he finished in second. MJ simply put her controller down with a bored expression whilst Ashley sighed in defeat when she drove off the edge of the Rainbow Road track for the fifth time... and it was only her first lap. Despite the crushing defeat, she still had a smile on her face as she reached for some of the sweet snacks Pepper had put out on the coffee table earlier that evening.
The Avengers present were either gathered in the kitchen talking, or were watching the four play games from the comfort of the sofas. Pepper was sat on one of the sofas, trying not to watch the teens too closely, while Bruce sat next to her telling her about his latest research. On the other sofa, Bucky and Steve were snacking on a large bowl of popcorn each while they watched the games on the TV and even adding their own commentary. In the kitchen, Tony was recounting some old New Years’ memories with Rhodey, whilst Sam and Wanda tried to explain the fuss about New Years’ celebrations to Vision.
At half past eleven, the four teens were barely able to stay awake. They had arranged themselves on and around the middle sofa, with Ashley tucked under Pepper’s arm, head settled on MJ’s shoulder, eyes closed while she tried to maintain a conversation with her friends. MJ was leaning against Peter, who was tiredly slumped against the corner of the sofa. Ned was sat by Peter’s feet, head leaning back against the arm of the sofa, snoring lightly.
Tony came to sit beside Pepper on the sofa with a large mug of coffee in hand. There was a small, fond smile on his face as he surveyed the room, first looking at Pepper beside him, and then looking at Ashley dozing lightly beside her. The smile stayed on his face when he and Pepper went to wake up Ashley, Peter and their friends at five minutes to midnight.
“Come on kiddo,” Tony spoke softly as he shook Peter’s shoulder, mirroring Pepper’s actions with Ashley. “You don’t wanna miss the fireworks.” When Peter mumbled unintelligibly, Tony couldn’t hold back his bark of laughter, startling Peter out of his half-conscious state.
“Is it midnight?” Peter asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“Almost,” Tony answered leading Peter across to the window-lined wall overlooking Manhattan. He stood close to Pepper, with just enough space for Ashley to slot in between them while Peter, Ned and MJ gathered on his other side. Ashley huddled in close to Pepper as the group overlooked the New York skyline. “You kids better think about what wish you’re going to make when the clock strikes midnight.”
Barely a moment later, the buildings surrounding them were lit up with a countdown, and everyone gathered in the tower penthouse began chanting in time with it. Ashley closed her eyes tightly as she thought very carefully about her wish before the occupants of the penthouse erupted with a chorus of ‘Happy New Year!’. The sky lit up with a shower of brightly coloured fireworks.
As the group watched the fireworks, Tony leaned down to speak quietly to Ashley. “What did you wish for kiddo?”
Ashley smiled softly before making a zipping motion with her fingers against her lips. “If I tell you, it won’t come true.” Tony just laughed and dragged Ashley to his side for a one-armed hug with Peter on his other side.
I only wish to see Lucas again and for someone to watch out for my new family. I want them all to be happy and healthy.