Chapter Text
Espoir looked through the windows that whooshed past her as she ascended the elevator. It was still snowing, as if it were Christmas. A few small tears fell from her eyes as she thought of her mother. Christmas was always something good, warm and kind in her family.
William was either working overtime or nursing alcohol in whichever pub or colleague’s house. This meant Alicia, Espoir, and whoever came to visit, like Benjamine or the extended family, could hang out at home, in the city or even in France if they wanted. It felt good. The warm glow of the lights, the smell of tinsel, the cosy warmth, the little statues of Father Christmas, reindeer, and what have you…the joy that Espoir thought of as a child. It just felt good.
She wiped her eyes quickly with her hands and sniffled, trying to remain…not stoic, but professional, somehow. If this Anthony were anything like her father, then he would expect poise and politeness.
“It’s not like we’re going to be staying long, anyway, is it?” Espoir said, talking to Jet.
“Probably not here at least, Miss.” JARVIS’ voice said, and Espoir realised he must have thought she was talking to him.
The elevator doors opened, and Espoir shuffled out, placing her suitcase to the side and dropping the bags, except her backpack, onto the floor.
She looked at the flooring, the walls and heard the electronics whirring just quiet enough to be slightly annoying if she focused on it enough. She noticed a noticeable number of people at computers, typing away, with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on their uniforms. “Hm.” she said quietly.
“So are you ‘little orphan Annie’?” Tony asked, looking at Espoir standing around awkwardly. “I hope you’re not about to start a music and dance number.”
“I’m not an-” Espoir began, turning to look at Tony but stopping in her tracks. Needing a minute to blink a few times to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. ‘They were not fucking kidding about him being like my Dad…’
This man in front of her was identical to her father, except with a beard and slightly shorter. He looked more muscular and seemed to dress more casually than William. The bright light underneath his shirt on his chest caught her eye, but she was more focused on the fact that this ‘Anthony’ was literally William’s identical twin. Throw a beard on William, and there was Tony.
She remembered the level of decorum she had been taught to use. Sure, it had been forced with threats, but at least she knew respect, right?
Tony’s eyebrow raised at the stare she was unknowingly giving him. He wasn’t at all how he expected, although…what should he have expected? He supposed a tanned girl with chocolate eyes and a penchant for alcohol would be expected of someone like him, but who knows? Maybe this sibling of his was more blonde, like his mother? But no. That dark brown hair of hers was definitely like his. Some of the facial features were very similar too. She was most definitely related to Tony, even if she hadn’t had a basic DNA test to prove ‘yes, this girl has his bloodline’. There were some other details that needed to be confirmed, but that’d happen at a later time, probably…
He took in her outfit. Some type of school uniform, for sure. Mary Jane shoes, probably some tights, (pantyhose, he would call them) a knee-length black pleated skirt, most of which was covered by a black blazer with a blue stripe on the bottom, up the folds and across the wrists. A white shirt was underneath, either long or short sleeved, he couldn’t tell and a blue tie with black stripes across it. The gold badge on the blazer, ‘Wetherby Newton Private School’ with a blue lion on it screamed to Tony that her family had money. Not that money or no money bothered him, the kid could be poor for all he cared. He just knew some child would be staying with him, or visiting him. Whatever it was.
“-orphan…Anthony right? Anthony Stark?” she stuck out her right hand, wishing to greet him properly.
“Uh, yeah, but I prefer Tony.” he replied, awkwardly. He looked to her hand, noticing the burn marks. ‘Youch.’ he thought. “I didn’t know of your existence until now.” he said, looking back at her face and shaking her hand, ignoring the slight concern and confusion he had in regards to the injury. “Sit down if you’d like, I don’t expect you to stand all day.” Espoir sat down on a nearby chair. It was pleather and curved in shape.
“Neither did I. Little awkward the family reunion-slash-meetup had to be this way, right?” Espoir laughed awkwardly. “Elena wanted me to let you know about the email or something, by the way.”
“Yeah, I’ll check the rest of it later.” he waved his hand and turned to grab a glass of scotch which was conveniently on a table nearby. Espoir frowned briefly, being reminded of her father. “So, tell me about yourself. What the hell’s a mutant, anyways? You can mutate into stuff?”
“How much did you even read of my file?” Espoir asked, a little irritated. “Did you just see something akin to being a freak and wanted to ogle at me and question my bloodline? I’m not about to question why you have brown eyes, or why your bloody chest is glowing.”
“My chest? Wait, you don’t know who I am?” Tony asked, now more confused and a little offended, forgetting momentarily about why she was there. “This kid came all the way here and she has no idea who I am.” he said, aloud, signalling to a nearby agent who was walking past where they were.
Espoir frowned again, getting angrier. “And clearly you have no idea about me!” she stomped her foot in frustration, the sound of her heeled shoe making a clack against the floor. “I didn’t ask to be sent here! You’re the only bloody person in the family who’s left! My Grandparents are too old, my aunt is in hiding, my uncle is in prison, my Mum is an amnesiac thanks to said uncle and your bastard of a brother has forced the government or whoever the fuck S.H.I.E.L.D are to send me here by getting rid of me! Now you could be the fucking President for all I care, I just want to find out where I’m living.” she looked to him and gritted her teeth. “Please.”
“Perhaps you ought to show Espoir the upstairs, sir?” JARVIS’ voice piped up, reminding Tony of where he is and who he was talking to. A young, clearly traumatised by something girl who had never heard of Tony or would understand his humour yet.
Tony blinked. “Yeah, fair enough. Why don’t you follow me upstairs to the ‘living room’-” he said, doing air quotations. “-and I’ll read up on your file while I have time and the more important agents get you situated.”
Espoir grabbed her suitcase and dragged it along, following Tony who had quickly walked on ahead to some stairs.
“I was joking by the way.” he said, feeling weird about the situation.
“It’s fine.” she mumbled in response, cursing to herself as the suitcase occasionally knocked her legs and ankles behind her. ‘This guy has my Dad’s affinity for being a dick, I see…’
Walking into the main room, Tony held his arm out as if he were presenting something. “These…are Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” he announced as The Avengers looked on in confusion - all but Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanov, for they weren’t there. “As you can see, there are also many agents presently situated in and around the tower. If something happens, chances are I’ll know. Not because of them, though, because I have something special known as JARVIS, my butler. JARVIS has eyes and ears everywhere, so if you say some bad shit about me, I’ll probably find out about it.”
“Long-lost relative of yours, Tony? Or an awkward conversation with Pepper?” Clint asked, nudging Steve with his elbow, who looked on in slight confusion.
“Yes, actually. She’s my niece. I know, crazy, right? Apparently, I have a brother. And that brother also has businesses and a wife! Then, they had her.”
“She has a name, you know.” Espoir frowned angrily. “I was named Espoir Rosa Alicia Carmen Susanna Lucia Jane Stark by my mother!”
“That’s not going to be a nightmare to awkwardly place on documents and credit cards.” Tony joked, as Espoir rolled her eyes.
“I’m sure that we can accommodate you somewhere.” Steve smiled. “I’m Steve Rogers. Or Captain America when we’re fighting the bad guys.”
“Uh, I’m Clint. Or Hawkeye. Is it really necessary to give out our hero names?”
“The kid’s gonna be living here for a short while and she’s something interesting that I’m gonna need Bruce and the team to check out, so you may as well.” Tony explained. “I go by Iron Man anyway. Not sure if you knew about that.”
“I am Thor Odinson, the God of Thunder, prince of Asgard.” Thor introduced; he grabbed Loki’s shoulder, to which Espoir and he and the God of Mischief accidentally locked eyes for a few seconds. “And this is my brother, Prince Loki.”
Espoir felt her heart skip a little, but she couldn’t tell why. The way he dressed, the way he looked, the way she was able to look at somebody for the first time in a long time and think: “Damn, I kinda fancy this person.”
But, she realised she had probably been staring at this person for quite a while and she didn’t overly trust anyone at this moment.
She was more interested in finding out more about The Avengers. She needed to focus. Loki noticed her eyes seemingly change colour to pink briefly before turning back to blue. His eyebrow raised in intrigue, though he continued back to his book.
Surely this Thor and Loki couldn’t be from her mother’s old books, though, right? This Loki here didn’t look ginger at all. Nor did he have a beard. This Loki looked dark and mysterious, like some character from a romance novel. Black, wavy, slightly long hair, fascination of gold and green. Plus, the two didn’t really dress like traditional Vikings either.
‘That dark one is trouble. You can see it in his eyes, the way he is…’ Jet’s voice boomed, startling Espoir. She wasn’t sure if she believed Jet, but she took note of it anyway.
‘So Clint and Steve are the blond guys. Hawkeye and Captain America respectively. I’ve heard somewhat about these guys now that I think about it and supposedly this captain is from World War II. And yet the guy is right here and fine. Interesting. Thor and Loki…they’re from Asgard. So they must be the ones from my Mum’s old Norse books. Why do they look so different?’’
“Okay, cool. Uh, should I introduce myself now? Or?” Espoir suggested.
“Sorry, we’re late.” Bruce Banner said, rushing into the room, with Natasha Romanov in tow. “Tasha wanted to talk to me about the…oh.” he noticed Espoir.
“You read her file yet, Banner?” Tony asked, turning to him.
“Uh, I had to do some research on the nation, and then Natasha wanted to discuss any future missions and potential-”
“Yeah, yeah, tell me in a minute. You were saying, Ess?”
“Sorry.” Espoir said, worried she was interrupting Bruce. “Nice to meet you, I’m Espoir.”
“Natasha Romanov. Black Widow.”
“I’m Dr Bruce Banner.”
“Wait, did you say you were talking about the nation? As in where my masters are from?” Espoir asked, confused and began to get nervous. “It’s an impossible feat, you know. It’s hidden for a damn reason! How are you or those S.H.I.E.L.D people able to do that?”
“It’s so we can better understand your powers.” Bruce tried to explain, but he could see Espoir was either offended or anxious about this. He couldn’t read her face very well. “Director Fury-”
“-Well, I’ll fucking speak to him about it!” she frowned, interrupting, crossing her arms. Steve pulled a face at her swearing, and she rolled her eyes. “Now before any more anger or frustration, do you guys wanna know about me or not?”
Loki looked and laughed to himself at her frustration.
“I wanna know why your eyes changed colour first.” Tony said. “Because I swear they were blue before.”
“Uh, they usually are. But they change colour depending on how I feel.” Espoir said, nervously. “Like, uh, they kinda go like this when I’m nervous I guess?” She noticed Bruce writing down in a notepad. “But, anyways. So, obviously you know my name. Basics are that I’m a half-mutant and half French. Half parts are my Mum’s side. Her name’s Alicia. Her and her whole family are French. She moved to England one day and eventually met up with my Dad, Tony’s brother.” she pointed towards Tony. “And then, eventually one day she found out she was pregnant. I mean she was already married at that point mind you, at least. I have one aunt - technically two - and one uncle on that side. My Grandparents are quite old so they can’t manage me by myself anymore.”
“Technically? And why can’t they handle you?” Steve asked, interested.
“Well, my aunt got married to her girlfriend, and then through them I have three cousins: Victor, Jean and Anaïs. Anaïs is younger than me, and Jean’s about my age. Victor’s way older. He’s like, my friend Benny’s age, she’s 23, 24.” she explained. “And my grandparents can’t handle me because I’ve kinda got this, uh...thing inside me. He’s a fire demon from another realm.”
“Muspelheim?” Thor interrupted.
“Mus-what? I’ve never heard of that, so I doubt it. I’ve had my powers since I was little, which I wasn’t supposed to get til I was 13 or so.”
“Powers, huh? What can you do then?” Tony asked.
Espoir set a flame in her hands, before dismissing it and sped from one end of the room to the other, which startled most of The Avengers, given they had barely just blinked before she appeared across from them. “I can go faster, but to ignore the risk of launching myself through the window by accident, I’d rather just go this fast.” she laughed. “I also have telekinesis and mind reading.” Objects briefly floated into the air and then landed again. “Then I suppose there’s also the flying I can do.”
“Through fire or flame propulsion?” Bruce was about to ask as Tony watched on astounded. Before their eyes, it was as if there were no gravity around Espoir as she floated up into the air. “Oh, wow.”
“Now, this is what I was just supposed to have been stuck with.” she explained, floating back down to the floor. “But the fire demon gave me extra powers. I’d demonstrate but the damn tower would melt. My fire is super hot. Roughy 3 or 4,000 Kelvin at its maximum.”
“K-Kelvin?! Jesus.” Tony said, shocked.
“Yeah. Anyway, uh…I dunno what else I should talk about, so that’s mainly the gist of stuff.”
“Well, I think we should do some tests. Right Banner?” Tony asked, getting up from his seat.
“If that’s what we’ve been tasked to do, then I suppose so.” Bruce said. Espoir squinted slightly.
‘Black Widow. Badass name…and Doctor Banner. Not in the medical side, I presume. He has this…aura. Do you feel it too, Jet?’
Jet made a low growl in response.
‘Facinating.’ she responded.
Bruce suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. He could feel himself being read, somehow. Espoir grinned.
“Mind reading too, huh?” Tony asked.
“Uncontrollable, I might add.” Espoir said. “I just hear any and all thoughts. Just as we all can hear any and all things we say out loud. But, I can choose not to do it, if somebody doesn’t want me to.”
“Okay, Miss Stark? I presume?” Bruce began. “If you’d like to follow me and Tony to the elevator and down the corridor to the medbay and labs, we’re gonna need to do a full set of obs and checks.”
“Well, looks like they get to see how fucked up things are…” she muttered to herself.