A While Coming
Finally, finally, they had found a child. Her name was Sage. According to Jean, she’d been in the foster system for quite a while, even before the outbreak of powered people. She went to a fairly nearby school, but there was a closer one that Jean was recommending they move her to. Tony just wanted to move her in.
Tony and Loki had met with Sage several times over the past two months or so, and she was a very introverted young girl. She tended to dress mostly in sweaters and didn’t seem to be particularly interested in making friends. She did seem to like them, though, which was an improvement from the last family she’d been placed with, which hadn’t been a great fit. They were bringing her to the tower today to move some of her things in and just sort of… get acclimated before she moved in full time. Tony was ecstatic.
“Okay, so here’s your room. You’ve got an en suite bathroom, walk-in closet, I think there’s a mini fridge in here somewhere…” Tony spun around, trying to locate the piece of equipment that he could have sworn he put in here. “Aha!” he pointed to the side of the bed not occupied by a nightstand. “Mini fridge. If you don’t like the layout the way it is now, we can totally fix that. Just lemme know, and we’ll make any changes you want. Or… not! If you’re fine with the way it is. Whatever you want. It’s your room.” He let out a vaguely nervous chuckle.
Loki chuckled, placing a gentle hand on the small of Tony’s back. “Love, let her explore, hmm?” He turned to Sage, expression soft. “I would say he’s not usually this excitable, but that would be a lie.”
She giggled softly, green eyes sparkling. “I don’t mind.”
“Okay, you said you liked Mountain Dew, right? I put Mountain Dew in the mini fridge. I hope that’s okay. Shit. I probably should have asked. Anyway, you can do whatever with your stuff. It’s your room. I said that already. Um.” Tony spun back to her with a sheepish grin. “Sorry. You probably wanna. Um. Okay. We will be on the common floor with everyone else. You can join when you’re ready, or you can just stay up here, or you could… yeah. Great. Okay. You have my number right? Just in case you, like, fall and can’t get up?”
Sage snickered. “I don’t need Life Alert, Mister Stark.”
“I thought we agreed on Tony.”
She shrugged, soft smirk playing on her lips.
Tony groaned good naturedly. “I like you, kid. You do have my phone number though, right?”
“Yep.” She popped the ‘p’ and pulled out her utter tragedy of a cell phone, bringing up his contact and showing it to him. “Don’t let me keep you from your team.”
“Oh, darling, when Anthony puts his mind to something, no force on heaven or earth could stop him.” Loki winked at her, giving Tony an innocent look when he turned around again.
“Are you saying I’m stubborn, Reindeer Games?”
“I believe that is exactly what I am saying, my love.” Loki pressed a gentle kiss to Tony’s cheek, then turned back to Sage. “We shall leave you to settle in for a while. If you need anything, feel free to ask JARVIS, or call either Anthony or myself. Will you be alright if we venture to the communal floor?”
“Yeah, I think I’ll be good. Thanks for asking, though.” She smiled at them, and sighed softly as they exited the room. She collapsed backward on the humongous bed, and just laid there for a moment, staring at the ceiling. “Fuck.” she muttered, sitting up and grasping for her knapsack which she’d dropped by the side of the bed. “This is definitely going in the bullet journal.”