El's POV

Fresh air. I needed fresh air. Now.

I was in a cold sweat from the nightmare I just had. Tony sat there, trying to comfort me.

"Excuse me," I quietly muttered before standing up and pushing past him. Steve was outside of my door, eavesdropping. We made awkward eye contact for a second before I pushed past him too. I was walking fast and I didn't plan on stopping.

There was a large sliding glass door that led out to a cement balcony. I rushed out, shutting the door behind me. It was a little chilly, but I didn't mind.

The cool air woke me up. I took a deep breath and sighed, trying to forget my nightmare. The air cleared my mind. It was surprising when nobody followed me outside. I was glad they didn't. Alone time was nice.

Time flew by as I stood out there, just thinking to myself about everything, yet nothing. A cold breeze went by and I shivered. It was getting cold out. A jacket sounds good right about now.

I turned to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. I swallowed. It was locked. I put my foot against the wall and planted my other foot firmly on the ground. My hands wrapped around the handle, and I pulled, using all of my strength.

It still wouldn't budge. My teeth began chattering and I was shivering even more now. I read about people dying miserably from bad frostbite, or Pneumonia. I didn't want to chance it.

I banged on the door loudly and waited for about ten minutes. Nobody came, and it hasn't warmed up, either. It cooled down even more. Mother Nature is not on my side. Alone time didn't sound so sweet anymore.

I looked over to the balcony that was next to the balcony I was on. I can climb over there, right? I am pretty sure that that balcony was connected to Steve's room.

I walked over to the edge of the balcony and threw my leg over. When I looked down, I realized how high up I was. There were layers of balconies below me, too.

I threw my other leg over the edge of the balcony and gripped onto the railing as tight as I could. My knuckles were white because of how hard I was gripping it. The balcony next to me was farther away than I thought it was. About three feet.

I reached my hand out to the railing and grabbed it. My breathing hitched as I looked down. I leaned over and placed my other hand on the railing. Time seemed to freeze as my feet slipped off the balcony. I knew for a fact that impact with the ground would kill me. My heart was pounding, the ground wasn't slowing down. Suddenly, something in my gut started telling me I needed to stick my arm out. I complied and caught a railing, it nearly slipped my hand but thankfully I managed to tighten my grip just in time.

I'm sure my expression was one of bewilderment, considering the fact that I just caught myself with one hand on a balcony. Ignoring the lack of logic, I pulled myself up onto the balcony.

Relief filled me when I saw Steve lying in his bed. I began to bang on his window, my hands were going numb as well as my bare feet. It felt like I'd been pounding on the glass forever. There even seemed to be cracks forming.

I've already ruined one of Tony's paintings, I don't need to ruin any more of his property. Instead, I sat down outside of Steve's window, curling in on myself in hopes to warm up.

Probably an hour later, I heard the sliding door open, but my mind had been fogged by the cold, "Oh, gosh, What the heck happened?"

"Locked myself out, fell off the balcony..."

"Um... I need to get you inside," Steve said, before scooping me up and walking inside. I felt myself be carried, I knew we went upstairs, and then I was set on a couch.

"What happened?" I heard a voice, it sounded like Tony. Steve spread a blanket out over top of me and I held it tight against my body. 

"She was sitting on my balcony. She says she locked herself out and then fell off her balcony. She must have gotten lucky, a fall from that height could have killed her..."

"Oh, gosh, she's been out there for nearly three hours without shoes! Or any fucking protection!"

"She'll be okay, right?" Steve argued.

"I'm sorry. It... it's my fault. I wasn't paying attention." I reasoned, trying to stop a fight from breaking out between the two.

"Well... you're not wrong," Tony muttered. Steve glared at him. He was mad, I could tell. I tensed up and began to fidget with my hands.

"And did you try to get in before you jumped off the balcony?" Tony asked, his voice gradually getting louder.

"I didn't jump off the bal-"

"Answer the question." Tony interrupted. I tensed at his harsh voice but remembered that Steve was there. He wouldn't let anything happen, right?

"Yes," I breathed.

"How?!"

"I... I tried to pry the door open... And I banged on it a little bit..." Tony was just staring into my soul.

"I uh... I bet she's hungry... she was out there for a long time," Steve reasoned, trying to get me out of this awkward situation.

"Yep. I sure am, Commander 'Merica," I said with a light smile before standing up and following Steve to the kitchen.

"Chicken stir fry?" He asked.

"What?" I asked, genuinely confused. What is a 'stir fry'? Are we going to stir a bowl of fries?

Steve smiled, "It's like chicken and vegetables cooked in a pan with rice," Oh. I was way off.

"What vegetables?" I questioned. I must know everything about this strange food that earthlings call 'stir fry'. Wait... I'm an earthling!

"Peppers, onions, carrots, stuff like that," Steve explained. I nodded and he smiled at me in return. He bent down to get a pan from a lower cabinet. 'America's ass' were the first words to pop into my head.

He gently placed the pan on the stove and poured some yellowish liquid into it. The bottle read 'Olive Oil'. I watched in awe as he threw all sorts of stuff into the pan and began to toss it around with a spatula.

In just minutes, he was piling some of the food onto plates. He came around the corner and sat on a bar stool, setting two plates down. He motioned for me to sit next to him, and I did.

I chomped silently on my food, still shivering slightly.

"So..." Steve said awkwardly.

"Yeah?"

"Uh, how did you manage to land on my balcony?"

"I don't really know... I just had this feeling that I needed to stick my hand out and then I did and I caught the railing.."

"Like spidey senses?" Peter said from the stairway. I jumped, not having any idea he was there, "What's that?"

"It's hard to describe it. It is just a feeling you get at the back of your mind that tells you "Hey, look out!" and helps keep you alive. It's like enhanced instincts." He explained.

I simply nodded my head and acted like I understood. Steve looked at me and quickly looked away once I realized. I continued to awkwardly eat my food.

I heard more footsteps come up behind me.

"What smells so good?" Tony asked.

"Nothing, Stark." Steve spat coldly. Tony glared at him for a second before walking into the kitchen to see for himself. There was about one serving of the stir fry left.

"I knew I smelled stir fry," Tony whispered to himself. I quietly sat there, eyeing Tony.

"Tony, you can't act like nothing happened," Steve stated.

"Yeah, I can," Tony responded. We both glared at him. I quickly shoveled the rest of the food into my mouth and got up to leave. I wanted to hang out with Peter, but he was no longer at the stairway.

"Kiddos!" I heard Peter yell as he opened the door. I heard several young voices and I ran to the door in a full sprint as fast as I could.

"El!" I heard voices yell. I saw all of my siblings standing next to a tall man who looked close to Tony's age. He was carefully cradling Hazel in his arms.

I hugged the triplets and took Hazel from the man's arms. He looked very nice and calm.

"I'm Rhodes," He introduced as he held his hand out for me to shake.

"El," I replied as I took his hand and firmly shook it.

"It's nice to meet you, El. Tony has told me a lot about you," He kindly smiled.

"I see. Well, I thought your name was Rodney." I joked as I smiled at him and then focused my attention on Hazel again. I heard him lightly snicker.

"Bye Rhodes!" All of the triplets yelled in unison before running into the house with Peter by their side.

"See ya, boys," He laughed with a wave.

"Thank you," I Thanked.

"No problem. They are quite the characters," He laughed.

"Rhodes!" Tony yelled as he approached us.

"Tony, cap." He greeted. I figured that they wanted to have a conversation, so I decided to go and find all of my siblings and Peter. I followed the sounds of laughs and playful screams throughout the house until I was standing outside of my room door.

What were they doing in my room? I slowly opened the door and peaked in. They were all working together to web up my whole room. I saw how happy they were and wasn't even mad. Peter saw me and froze in his tracks. His jaw was slightly open.

"Web her up!!" He yelled as he pointed towards me.

"Wait!" I yelled, "Hazel!" I pointed to Hazel who was still in my arms. Before I had a chance to do anything, Peter snatched her out of my hands and gently laid her in a crib.

"Now!" He demanded as he pointed at me. All of them turned towards me with web shooters full of silly string.

"NO!" I shrieked as I tried to block their not-hostile attacks. Peter started laughing as some got in my mouth and I desperately tried to spit it out.

They all began to run out of silly string. I shut the door behind me and locked us all in on purpose. They were done for.

I tackled Peter to the ground and we were both smiling. Shawn threw himself on top of me and began to playfully hit me. James and Morris attacked me as well. We were all laughing and playfully screaming and squealing.

Pete pretended to punch me and I played along, acting as if he just punched me. I pulled a wad of silly string off of me and shoved it in Pete's face, causing him to have trouble seeing.

"That's not fair!!" Peter whined as I pried off his web shooter and put it on. I immediately held it in front of me and pointed it towards my siblings. They all shrieked and I started laughing again.

I put my hands up when I thought it was safe just to be tackled to the ground by Peter. He stole back his web shooter. I yelped in 'pain' and he immediately stood up.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry, El!" He apologized as he helped me stand up. Once I was on my feet, I kicked Pete in the shins, but not too hard. He let out a surprised scream and I turned around to bolt to the other side of the room, but he refused to let go of my hand and pulled me back towards him. Hazel started crying from all the commotion.

"Hold on," I said as I tried to walk towards Hazel.

"Oh no you don't," Peter denied.

"Pete!" I exclaimed.

"I will check on Hazel. If you do, you will trick me." He smirked. He wasn't wrong, I probably would've. I gave him a disappointed look. He let go of me and went to check on Hazel.

"If she moves, don't hesitate to drown her in silly string," Peter laughed. The triplets all nodded and pointed their web shooters at me. I was so screwed now. 

Peter calmed Hazel down and turned around. He bolted towards me and before I knew it, I was back on the floor. I grinned as I pulled a huge chunk of silly string off the wall and shoved it down the back of his shirt.

We were interrupted by a knock on the door. Peter unlocked the door and opened it. Steve was leaning against the door frame.

"Hey, Commander 'Merica!" I greeted with a goofy smile.

"I heard a ton of screaming and laughing. I couldn't help it, I had to know what was going on," He smirked.

"They attacked me!" I playfully accused.

"I can see that," Steve laughed.

"Let's go attack Rhodes!" Morris suggested. They all let out war cries before running into the hallway and down the stairs. We heard mischievous laughs from downstairs before a surprised Rhodes yelled.

We all snickered to ourselves.

"T.V.?" Pete suggested, still smiling. I nodded in agreement and all headed downstairs.

Peter and I collapsed on the couch next to each other and he turned on the T.V. It was on the news channel and I heard my name mentioned. My eyes widened and I snatched the remote from Pete's hand.

I fumbled with the remote as I tried to turn it up and rewind it. I re-winded it about 2 minutes.

"The missing, and assumed dead children, Electra Bay, Morris Bay, Shawn Bay, James Bay, and Hazel Bay have been spotted. Their father would like to say a few words." A reporter explained. I leaned forward in my seat, not able to believe what I was hearing.

Peter tried to take the remote from me and change the channel, but I moved away.

"They were amazing kids. I just hope they come home safe. I was so scared they were hurt. Please come home," Someone said through the TV.