Chapter Text
The Avengers Compound was filled with teenagers. This wasn’t exactly abnormal for the facility. In fact, there were two teenagers who called it home each day. It wasn’t used to housing more than that, though. There was the occasional teenage hero that stopped by for some training or the friend from school coming over for a study date, but that was the maximum capacity for anyone younger than twenty-one inside the superhero base.
Unfortunately for the older heroes, the local schools had closed that afternoon and would remain so for the rest of the week. This meant that the Avengers Compound was now going to be paradise for a bored Westchester teenager. No one was quite prepared for that reality yet, and they were mentally preparing themselves for the eventual influx of attention brought to them by the younger generation. But for now, it was the calm before the storm. After all, it was only the first day. Nothing was going to happen yet. But for the kids, the fun was just getting started.
The door to one of the Compound’s upper stairwells flew open, smacking into the adjacent wall with a bang . Carolyn Stark did well in announcing her presence, as she stepped out of the doorway with her head held high. She closed her eyes while she moved in a proud stride, her arms pumping beside her while she sighed.
“Finally! Spring Break. Doesn’t freedom smell delicious?” she asked her sister beside her.
Marcie Banner wrinkled her nose and tucked her hands into her pockets. “It smells like pollen to me. But it is nice to be out of school.”
“Exactly! We have an entire week to ourselves now. Just think of everything we could accomplish in that time. We could go to the beach, we could do a double date at Coney Island, we can even watch an entire season of The Power !”
Marcie made a quiet chuckle. “Do you have your entire break planned out to the minute?”
“No. I’m just saying we could do all of that. The possibilities are endless, Marcie. We’re dogs off the leash. We can do whatever we want, and no one can stop us.”
Marcie turned to the side and shrugged, her lip quirking up in curiosity. “The beach would be kind of fun.”
“See? I knew I’d get through to you.”
“I-I don’t know about the double date, though. Franklin’s still being really careful when he comes out to see me. I just think being out with you and Patsy will be a lot for him.”
“Well, we do have that effect on people.” Carolyn smirked while making a dramatic toss of her ponytail. “But are you going to see him at all this week?”
“Probably not. He said they’re visiting his uncle for Spring Break, so it’ll be hard for him to sneak out to see me.” Marcie crossed her arms and awkwardly shrugged. “It’s going to be weird.”
Carolyn noticed the shift in her sister’s demeanor instantly. She knew an oncoming heartbreak when she saw one. However, she wasn’t going to let Marcie’s fun be ruined by a boy. They were supposed to be having fun, not anxiously staring at the phone for a sign. She had to help her see that she wasn’t going to be alone.
Carolyn wrapped her arm around her sister and pulled her in tight. “Hey, it doesn’t have to be weird. You still have me. We don’t need boyfriends and girlfriends to watch The Power together.”
“You really want me to watch that, don’t you?”
“Oh, come on! You said you would!”
“Alright, alright. Maybe we can start the first episode tonight.”
“Yes!” Carolyn triumphantly threw up her arms. “You rock, Marcie. By the time Break is over, we’ll probably be all caught up.”
Marcie playfully rolled her eyes. “The things I do for you.”
“Hey, guys!”
The girls stopped as a new voice rang out beside them in the hallway. They looked over to find Peter Parker’s bedroom door wide open, its owner waving at them while seated on top of his bed. His presence in the Compound was always welcomed, and he tended to stop by in between college classes or Spider-Man duties. The girls couldn’t get enough of his friendliness towards them or his shared enthusiasm in what they had going on. He was like the big brother they never had. To them, he was just part of the family.
“Hey, Peter!” Carolyn said as she waved back. “Taking a break from being the big man on campus?”
“For now, yeah. I’ll probably stop by during the week to say hi since campus is closed.”
Carolyn’s eyes lit up in an instant. “Wait, you’re on Spring Break too?”
“Carolyn, Spring Break’s at the same time for everyone.”
Silence hung in the air between them as she registered what he said. As the words came together, she sheepishly turned her eyes down to the floor.
“Oh, yeah. Right.”
However, she was quick to recover and shook her head to face him. “Well, Marcie and I are going to watch The Power if you want to join us.”
“Aw, I wish I could. Maybe once we’re done in here, I can come in for an episode.”
Marcie furrowed her brows and peered around the room, finding it empty save for Peter’s shelves covered in textbooks, unfinished inventions, and nerd memorabilia.
“‘We?’” she repeated.
Her question was answered by a loud boom that caused the room to shake. The girls clung to each other as they jolted while Peter slipped off the bed, slowly seeing a cloud of smoke begin to fill the room. The group coughed once it reached them, desperately waving it away as they tried to squint through it.
As it cleared up, a new figure emerged from within that was doing the same. A young Black girl around Peter’s age with boxed braids and deep purple clothes held tightly onto a bubbling beaker.
“Damn,” she said as she moved to the bed. “The nitrogen containment is still not operating at the right temperature.”
“Really?” Peter asked as he stood back up. “But I did the math! 400 is supposed to power up the boron rubidium spore-housing.”
“Clearly, your math is not correct. Maybe next time, you will think about actually taking my advice and letting me look over your work.”
“Hey, it’s a learning process!”
“And that is why you are still in school. Speak to me again when you have your own lab.”
Peter looked down at his lap and pouted, quietly saying to himself, “I do have my own lab.”
The two turned back to the doorway once Carolyn cleared her throat at them. The girls politely waved at Peter’s guest, bringing him back into focus.
“Oh, yeah! Guys, this is Princess Shuri of Wakanda. Shuri, you remember Carolyn, right?”
Shuri pointed at her. “Are you the one that put peppermint in Peter’s milkshake a few years ago?”
Carolyn held out her arms with a proud smirk. “The one and only.”
Shuri made a deep laugh and moved to high five her. “I knew it! That was epic! I had never seen Peter look so red from that rash. It was so funny.”
“It wasn’t that funny,” Peter said under his breath.
Turning to Marcie, Shuri felt her smile fall and morph into confusion. She guffawed between the two girls before her eyes went wide in wonder.
“Whoaaaaa. There are two of you now?” She turned to Peter and added, “Did Tony Stark clone them?”
“Nope. I’m just the secret twin that came with the remarriage.” Marcie made a friendly wave. “I’m Marcie.”
“It is nice to meet you, Marcie. You are very lucky to be a twin. I always thought it would be like the American sitcom from the 90s.”
“She’s an inventor too,” Peter chimed in.
Marcie tried to hide her pride in a shrug. “I dabble. I’m not really making nitrogen containments, though.”
Shuri scoffed. “Neither are we thanks to this white boy’s miscalculations.”
“Well, you have it connected to the chroniton destabilizer, right?”
Shuri furrowed her brows. “Huh?”
“The chroniton destabilizer. If you connect that to the nitrogen containment at the right temperature, it should create a vacuum to power up the boron rubidium.”
Shuri was fully engaged by her hypothesis, her eyes growing wide with each step she brought forward. A look of enlightenment crossed onto her face, and she turned back to find Peter smirking at her as if to say, “See?”
Returning to Marcie, she said, “We do have a destabilizer, but it is not...Show me.”
Marcie stepped inside and moved to take the beaker from Shuri when she heard Carolyn speak up from the doorway.
“Wait, Marcie.”
She looked over at her sister to find her slightly dismayed, a nervous chuckle leaving her lips.
“Don’t we have our own plans?”
“Oh. Right.” Marcie looked down at the beaker and tapped her fingers against the glass. “Well, this shouldn’t take long. You can get everything set up, and I’ll be right there.”
Carolyn couldn’t fight off her stunned expression, forcing her to slowly nod and take a step back. “Okay. Sure. I’ll get it ready.”
“Thanks.”
Carolyn nodded again then left the room, hearing her sister’s excited chatter grow quieter from behind. She knew Marcie well. Once she got involved in a project, there was no taking her out of it. Their binge watching would have to wait for another day.
Instead, Carolyn moved into her own bedroom she shared with Marcie, stepping over discarded clothes on her side. She flopped onto her bed and pulled out her phone, dialing the first number she could think of. If Marcie couldn’t hang out with her, there was someone else who could do the trick.
Carolyn held her phone back and waited for the FaceTime projection to emerge from the screen of her second favorite person. Patsy Walker seemed to be sitting against her own bedroom wall, various piles of clothes sprawled out on her bed.
Wagging her fingers at her girlfriend, she said, “Hey, Carolyn.”
“Hey, you. How’s the best girlfriend ever doing?”
Patsy tossed her head back to moan. “So much better now that we’re off.”
“Ugh, I know! Now, we have an entire week to be together. It’s going to be perfect.”
“Oh. Did I not tell you?”
Carolyn furrowed her brows. “Tell me what?”
“I’m going away for Break. You caught me in the middle of packing, actually.”
The projection shifted to showcase Patsy’s full bed, giving her a full view of the open suitcase as well as the clothes that were already stuffed inside of it.
Once the image returned to showing her girlfriend, Carolyn quietly said, “Oh. That’s fun. I mean, Spring Break’s all about big vacations, you know?”
“Yeah, you would think. Not when my mom’s involved. She’s already planning good publicity spots we can visit for me while we’re there.” Patsy scoffed. “I thought she was going to stop with all this once I quit acting, you know? Now, it’s almost worse than before.” She let out a tired sigh. “But I can’t complain too much. At least we’re not going anywhere terrible.”
“Wh-Where are you going anyway? It’s not Miami, is it?”
“God, I wish. We’re going to see an old family friend in Wakanda. He works at the research center there. And according to Mom, I’ll be doing some ‘charity checkpoints’ along the way. You know, making sure the press knows that the former child star still cares.”
Carolyn hummed. “I’ve been hearing about Wakanda a lot lately. You know we have the princess here at the Compound right now, right?”
Patsy shook her head with wide eyes. “Wait, Princess Shuri is with you guys right now? And you’re choosing to talk to me ?”
“Believe me, she’s more interested in Marcie than me. We were supposed to hang out, but she totally left me in the dust to go do science things with her.”
“That’s so cool!”
Patsy recovered once she saw the glare on Carolyn’s face, forcing her to clear her throat.
“I mean, that...sucks, Carolyn. I’m sorry. I’d come over if I could, but we have an early flight tomorrow. But hey, you can always FaceTime me while I’m away. I’m sure I’ll love a moment to steal away and talk to you.”
Carolyn felt a small blush fall over her cheeks at the proposal. She was always enamored by just how down-to-earth Patsy truly was and how lucky she was to have it for herself. She still couldn’t believe that such a big name like hers was her girlfriend. It looked like celebrity relationships did come out of the strangest pairs after all.
She told Patsy, “I’d like that too. But wait, what’s the time difference again?”
“Actually, let me get back to you on that. I’m nowhere near done packing, and I really should get moving on that. But remember, I’m here if you need me!”
Carolyn made a shy smile, quietly saying, “Right.”
“See ya!”
“See ya.”
Carolyn hung up the call and tossed her phone aside, heaving a large sigh as she sunk deeper into her bed. This wasn’t exactly how she wanted her Spring Break to start. She was sure she could make do without both her sister and her girlfriend for now, but loneliness had never been her friend. It always left her in a debilitating state of boredom, giving her no other option but to lay around and wallow.
She was about to fall into it once more, but she managed to turn her head to the side when she heard a knock. Tony Stark leaned through the open doorway, his head peering throughout the room.
“Hey, kid. Where’s your sister? Aren’t you two supposed to be joined at the hip or something? I don’t really know how twins work.”
Carolyn scrunched up her lips. “You would think. She’s busy being a scientist with Peter and Shuri.”
“Oh. Well, then I guess she can’t call dibs on the first breadstick Dad made with the spaghetti tonight.”
That was enough to break her out of her slump. Carolyn shot up on the bed and felt her smile return at once.
“Is dinner ready?”
“It is, but I’m going to Marcie next. So if you don’t get to the kitchen in time, someone else could beat you and I don’t want to hear you complaining when I gave you a heads up.”
Carolyn pushed herself off the bed and rushed past her father, making a beeline for the elevator at the end of the hall.
“Thanks, Dad!”
She hadn’t felt so invigorated all day. Leave it to her dad to know just how big of a motivator—and mood booster—food could be.