Secrets in the Stars

I stayed in the guest room at the Tower for another full day, trying to wrap my brain around everything I had been told. My powers, my mother, Xavier… Everything was too hard to believe, but I felt like an idiot for not seeing it before. Signs were there, especially after I had moved to Seattle. Looking back on it all made me feel like an idiot.

I wasn’t angry with Uncle X anymore. I understood why he had kept everything from me; he wanted me to live a normal life so it could be a long one. But now that I knew, would I get the chance to make the choice for myself? My twenty-first birthday was in a matter of days, and according to everything Xavier knew I was supposed to be kept from the truth indefinitely leading up to it right? Sort of, anyway.

*
“You’re family’s history is a bit… Misleading in certain places. It’s a bit of a legend now, you could say. And the problem with legends are that sometimes there are multiple versions of the same story.” He explained to me the night before. “Some of the women had the power skip them but still died in childbirth with their first-born daughters, some it was the other way around. Finding the whole story, I’m afraid, is impossible.” A lot like figuring out exactly what I could do, apparently.

“Couldn’t you just go into my memories and try to access something, anything, from my ancestors? You’ve done stranger things with your mind reading.”

“That’s another thing I should have told you, Star; I can’t read your mind. I’ve never been able to, ever. Jean can’t, either. No one can.”

That only made things more complicated.
*

My powers so far seemed to only work when I was an emotional wreck; I spent that day in the guest room trying my best to figure out how to do anything at all, from changing the weather again to just moving a glass of water. Nothing happened until I became frustrated and the glass of water flew far across the large room and into a wall, shattering everywhere. By the time I went back to bed that night I was weak and exhausted from spending the whole day trying to figure out my “gifts”. Now I was waking up thinking everything had been a dream… Maybe because my dream itself had been so surreal.

I was standing in a field of wild red roses, watching a beautiful woman sing as she picked them. She never pricked her finger on a thorn, and I had never heard the song before. Her dress was exquisite; a black, gray and purple lace ball gown from the sixteen or seventeen hundreds. The woman’s luscious black hair was all pined up with curls. She was one of the most stunning people I had ever seen.

Waking up was weird. Part of me felt like I knew her, and another part of me couldn’t stand not knowing who she was. But as I came back to reality, the dream about her faded while the weight of the world came crashing back down on me. I climbed out of the incredible bed and went over to the wall of windows, looking at the amazing view of New York City in front of me.

The room Stark had me in was breath-taking. The bed and the two end tables beside it sat on a giant platform about six feet off the ground, with a flight of stairs leading down to the rest of the room. The windows went from floor to ceiling, just like in the main part of the apartment I had seen the night I arrived.

I walked down the stairs and found a set of clean clothes waiting for me on the couch. Someone must have slipped them in while I was asleep, I thought. I put them on, then my shoes, and walked out of the door for the first time. As I did, I immediately bumped into Captain America again, this time though my head went face first into his chest. “Whoa!” My nose began to sting—it was like he was made of rock and I had just bashed my face into the stone.

“Oh my Gosh! I’m so sorry!” He exclaimed, bending over to my level and putting his hands on my shoulders. “Did I hurt you? I didn’t mean—“

I took my hand off my nose, shaking my head. “It’s fine, I’ll be okay.” And as I said it, the pain almost instantaneously went away; but my embarrassment didn’t. My skin was burning because I was blushing so hard.

“I was just coming in to check up on you… You never came out of your room yesterday and I—“

“My room?” I asked curiously.

“Yes, uh, Stark said that’s your room. You can come and go as you please.”

I gripped the key around my neck. “Where is Tony, anyway?”

I noticed the Captain noticing the key. “He’s around here somewhere… Last I saw him he was in the lab.”

“Okay,” I felt even more embarrassed and folded my arms across my chest casually. “Could you show me where that is?”

The Captain nodded. He stuck out a strong hand and said, “I’m Steve, by the way. Steve Rogers.”

I smiled and took his hand, shaking it. “I’m Star. I really like your name, Steve. I was worried I was going to have to call you Captain.”

Steve smiled back and I felt as though a train had knocked me over—his smile was incredible. “Nah, that’s a little too formal when I’m not in uniform.” He gestured for me to come to his side. “Well, right this way.”

As I walked with him, I saw him looking at the key out of the corner of my key. “It’s just a key, Steve.” I said. I looked to him and he was blushed a bit. It was adorable.

“Oh well, I’ve noticed that you grab it every time Tony’s around, or when someone talks about him,” He said, and he was right. “So, you two have known each other for how long?”

“Five years,” I said. “I stayed with him here once when I was fifteen, before it was the Tower. I ran away from home and Tony gave me a place to stay.”

“…Did anything happen?” Steve asked.

My eyes widened and I stopped in my tracks, staring at him. “Excuse me?”

“I’m sorry,” Steve said. “I know that was rude. It’s just that you to seem to be…”

I shook my head, “No, Captain Rogers, nothing happened between me and Tony Stark. He doesn’t look his age, but I’m well aware of the fact that he’s likely old enough to be my father. And Tony isn’t so stupid that he would sleep with a teenage girl, believe it or not. And my godfather would have killed him.”

Steve and I continued to walk together. He was quiet for awhile, but did manage to tell me where certain things were if I needed to find them. He showed me the kitchen, the dining room, and the main living area (where we had met).

“And Tony and Bruce’s labs…” He said, guiding me around a corner and to a set of stairs. “Are right down this way.” We walked down the stairs together.

“So, tell me,” I asked him. “Is Bruce Banner nice in person?”

Steve nodded. “Bruce is great. Very level headed and kind, you know, unless you make him—“

“Angry, I got it.” I said. “I wish there was something we could do to help him with that issue. I always feel so bad for him when I see people freaking out about the Hulk on the news.”

Steve lowered his head, “Yeah, but there’s no way to help him until—“ He stopped. “Nevermind, sorry. I was about to give classified information to a civilian. I don’t know where my head is at right now.”

“Probably up your—“ Tony noticed I was standing next to Steve and he kept himself from finished his sentence. “Hey Star.” He took off his glasses and stared at me for a moment.

Part of me felt like hiding behind Steve or even running back to “my room”. Tony was looking at me hard, like I was a puzzle that needed solving. It was terrifying. “Hi Tony.”

He walked over to me as he cleaned his hands with a red hand towel. I was trembling just a bit, and felt my hand shoot down to Steve’s. I held it for a moment, until I realized what I was doing and pulled it away; Steve looked disappointed that I had stopped. That was when Tony hugged me.

It was surprising… Why did Tony remember me? And why did I get the feeling he wanted something from me now? But I could tell that the hug was genuine, so I hugged him back.

“It’s great to see you again, kid.” Tony whispered.

I felt tears building up in my eyes but I refused to shed a single one. “I can’t believe you remember me.” I replied softly.

Tony pulled back and gazed at me seriously again. “A face like yours is impossible to forget.”

I changed the subject before I could blush again. “So, I have my own room here?”

Tony’s grin went from ear to ear. “Yup. That whole room and the on-suite are there for you, whenever you need them. Your godfather and his body guards took off late last night while you were sleeping. He said that he figured you might want some time to yourself after everything that happened…” His voice trailed off as his eyes studied me.

“What?” I asked him, now wanting to know why he continued to stare at me.

Tony shrugged his shoulders, “Did he tell you everything? Xavier?”

Steve took a step closer to me and I said, “Yeah, he did, finally.” Steve seemed rather protective.

“Good… Well, what do you know about yourself then?” He asked me.

“That I’m not supposed to exist, if that’s what you’re getting at, Mr. Science Guy.” I was started to get annoyed now.

“Do you know how to handle yourself yet?” Tony was amused with my irritation, I could tell.

“No. Not unless I get pissed, anyway.”

“Great,” said Clint Barton in passing. “We’ve got another Dr. Banner.” Clint disappeared into another room.

I sighed and Tony chuckled, “Alright, well, you’ll start training tomorrow, then.” Tony turned his back to me but continued to speak. “First thing’s first though, we need Romanoff to take you shopping. That godfather of yours didn’t bother to drop anything for you off. You’re going to need some clothes while you’re here.”

“I can buy my own clothes, Tony—“ I tried to protest.

“Yeah, but now that we know what’s up with you we can’t exactly let you go about on your own. You’re going to need someone to watch you, and I’m not sure the Witch is the right choice for that.”

“Her name is Wanda, Stark.” Steve sounded as annoyed as I did.

“Too nice of a name for her, I think.” Tony said.

“Why don’t I just go with her?” Steve suggested.

I looked at him curiously and so did Tony.

“What?” Steve asked. “She needs someone to protect her and I’m willing to do it.” He shrugged looked over at me. “Plus, Natasha has today off.”

“Well, we all kind of have the day off right now, Cap.” Tony retorted. “We haven’t been called to save the world in a bit. Things are quiet right now.”

“Natasha is still working through some things, Tony, I think baby-sitting is the last thing she wants to do.”

“Um, I’m going to be twenty-one in a couple of days. I’m not a kid, not even a teenager—I don’t need a babysitter!” I glared at Steve, then over to Tony.

“No, not a babysitter—Thanks, Cap,” Tony spoke to Steve sarcastically then ran to me as I tried to walk out the door. “Star, that’s not what he meant. The guy was frozen in ice for seventy years, his brain is a little behind sometimes—“

“Hey!” interrupted Steve.

“—And the comment about babysitting was more aimed at me than you. The Captain and I do this thing where we bicker; it’s pretty standard and sometimes amusing.” Tony guided me back to where I was standing with Steve and stood in front of us. “When he decided that he wanted you to stay here for awhile, Xavier asked that you be watched at all times; he’s got some enemies and so do we. Someone is going to figure out what you are eventually, so we might as well be extremely careful to not let you fall into the wrong hands.”

“Jesus…” I rolled my eyes. “You make me sound like a weapon.”

“Well, Miss,” a man with an eye patch revealed himself from around a corner. Tony sighed and rubbed his eye’s at the sound of the man’s voice. “That’s what you’re going to be seen as.”

“Who invited you here?” Tony asked, aggravated.

“Are you going to introduce me or not, Stark?” The man wasn’t kidding around with Tony. I was highly amused and so was Steve.

Steve introduced me to the man in the eyepatch. “Star, this is Nick Fury, commander of the new and improved S.H.I.E.L.D. organization. Fury, this is Star. She’s—“

“Oh,” said Fury, holding out a hand for me to shake. “I know who she is, thank you. I’m sorry that you were kept from the truth for so long.”

My eyes softened and I felt relieved. “Thank you.” Nick Fury didn’t seem like someone I had to be too afraid of.

“Stark, I’m sure that Captain Rogers can handling guarding the young lady. No need to call Romanoff out of her spa day.” Fury smiled at us and looked over at Tony with a stern face.

Tony looked and Steve and I and said nothing. He waved us out and Steve and I left together. Steve held out his arm for me to take. I did and smirked; it was hard not to smile around Captain America, even while feeling nervous around him.

“So where do you want to go?” He asked me.

“I’m not sure,” I replied. “With my curves it’s hard to find clothes that fit right. I don’t really like to shop.”

“Well, we’ve got time to figure it out.” He laughed lightly and then asked, “How about we take the motorcycle?”

Notes