❛ Help me understand something ❜ 

Melisande Dubois knew too much. She always had. She knew everything about everyone, she knew hidden secrets the Avengers had kept secret from the world, she knew about Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D.. She knew Maya was Thunderbird.

She knew Peter was Spider-Man.

He had texted her dozens of times in the few days and she hadn't dared to open any of them. Some were about their project, and some were about her and why she hadn't responded.

She skipped school on Monday so she wouldn't have to see him and she just told Steve she wasn't feeling well so she could stay home.

She was sitting at the counter that afternoon with her journal in front of her and two colored pens next to her. Wanda stood in front of her, chopping onions a bit more violently than she could have. Andy looked up and watched her slice the onion on the cutting board and the knife made a loud sound each and every time it hit the wood. Andy shook her head to get herself out of her trance and went back to writing hard, her hand scribbling words faster than she could think them.

Steve entered the room as she was writing and walked over to Andy, lightly kissing her forehead, and opening the fridge after dodging behind Wanda. Nat looked up from her corner at the counter where she was reading her newspaper and put the paper on the counter while leaning on her hand. "Did you go on a run yet?" Nat wondered, holding out her hand for Steve to toss her a water bottle that he held in his hand. He threw it and she caught it skillfully before he should his head, "Haven't gotten around to it yet," he explained before standing next to Wanda and watching her chop the onion as if it had killed her dog. "Wan," Steve called out, the girl immediately jolting upright as if she hadn't known he was standing next to him. "You scared me, Steve," she said softly, nudging him out of her way.

"Are you alright?" he wondered, raising an eyebrow as she washed her knife under the kitchen faucet. She nodded, "Yes, I was just thinking," she admitted before putting the knife down on a towel. "About?" Steve urged on.

"We can't read your mind, Wanda. If you need something you have to tell us," Natasha added, now intrigued in the conversation. "I don't need anything," the adult shrugged, "I just want to make dinner."

Steve eyed the girl before backing off, "Okay, I won't stop you."

Wanda smiled and grabbed another knife to start cutting the tomatoes and Steve leaned over the counter, "What's that? Your big project?" he asked, his attention now on Andy. The teen looked up and sighed. "Nope, just filling in more of my mission log." Steve pursed his lips, "I thought you were taking a break from the mission for a little while."

"Yeah well I found out that the guy I was dating is Spider-Man so I guess I had some new information," she said before closing the book and rubbing her forehead.

At this point, Wanda looked up and nearly chopped her finger off, but all her attention was focused on Andy and the new topic of conversation that had arisen. "What?" Wanda blurt in. "I found out on Friday, kinda been avoiding him ever since," Andy responded.

"Why?" Nat asked, not being very skilled in relationships. "I don't want to be in a relationship where I can lose the person because of their stupid job. That's a reason I left here, I-I can't go down that road again," she admits while looking at the counter.

"You're not going to lose us," Steve tells her, watching as she scoffed in respons, "You don't know that, okay? There could be a universal war or something. Or maybe everyone splits up and I'm left choosing sides. We'll never know until we get hurt," she argued, pushing the book away and standing up. "Peter Parker is Spider-Man. I have to deal with that now," she added.

No one said a word and Andy hopped onto the counter, pulling her legs in as she looked at her hands, "You were right, Nat. You told me not to let my emotions become involved in whatever Peter and I had and I ignored you because I thought I could handle it on my own. Okay? You were right. Peter was a waste of my time. I understand that. I've learned my lesson."

Andy finished her discussion and grabbed her book before sliding off the counter and tramping off, probably to her room. No one called out for her because she wouldn't have responded or turned around, but they really understood.

She was afraid of losing people.

She reached her room and looked at her bed where her computer sat, almost seeming to mock her. She saw her dozens of files on her screen and she sighed, slamming the laptop shut so she wouldn't be tempted to open the files and see her parents giving her advice on life. She didn't need that right now, she had already watched a video of When You Get A Boyfriend and When They Break Your Heart. It just reminded her that she had been played by the innocent science kid who didn't have but two friends. She was ashamed of herself for letting her guard down. She got hurt, like she knew she would, but she went ahead and did it anyway.

Andy looked down at the ground beneath her feet as she sat on her comforter and an idea came to her mind. She instantly shot up and grabbed her backpack, shoving her laptop and keys inside. Quickly, she ran down the stairs and into the living room, the three Avengers looking up at her rushing. "I'm going to Brooklyn," she said in a rush, looking at the adults as they appeared shocked. "What? You can't just leave and-" Steve began, Andy immediately cutting him off.

"I need to visit my parents, I think it will be good for me, maybe help me understand something, anything. I'll be back by day's end, okay? I promise," she said, slowly backing toward the stairs.

"Let one of us go-" Nat started, Andy shaking her head as she gripped the railing, "This is something I need to do by myself. But if I want to go I have to go now."

Steve sighed, "Day's end."

Andy nodded, "Day's end." With those two words, Andy was gone, and she quickly rushed out of the compound to see her parents. She needed answers, anything that could just help her understand Peter and her parents and everything going on in her life. She wasn't getting those in Albany. She had to go to Brooklyn.

•••

The graveyard in Brooklyn was empty that night. Not a living soul was around except for Andy as she kneeled in front of the two graves, tears leaking down her face. She had such a heartfelt conversation with two people that weren't even there. Andy remembered like it was yesterday that she was holed up on the corner of a street in Brooklyn when an envelope dropped in front of her, one with 5000 dollars and a note that said 'For your parents.' 

Andy never questioned the gift, but she used it to give them a commemorative headstone each. Though there were no bodies, it was a way for her just to let all her feelings out. 

But as she sat there, she thought that maybe, just somehow, there was a chance her parents were alive. They could be hiding, or in some prison in another country. Maybe they were alive and she just needed to find them. Perhaps, she thought. Just perhaps.

Andy reached into her backpocket and pulled out her cellphone, looking at the screen as the moonlight reflected onto it. She sighed and turned it on, typing in her very complicated password, and calling someone she wished she wouldn't have to talk to.

The phone rang, then again, and again. Andy lost hope that he would answer, but at the last moment she heard the chippy voice of Peter Parker come through. "Andy! So glad you called, am I in trouble? Are we okay?"

"Peter, are you Spider-Man?" Andy blurted out, her heart racing in anticipation for his answer. The other line was silent. "Uh, n-no! W-Why would you ask that?" He denied, stuttering so badly because he was taken aback by her question and because someone had figured out his poorly hidden secret. "I just-" Andy started, trying to come up with an excuse when a person approached her from behind and she whipped around, lifting her head to look at him.

"I have to go," she whispered into the phone, her eyes still trained on the person in front of her. "Andy, wa--"

Andy shoved her phone into her back pocket again before standing up, still staring at the person with an annoyed look on his face. "Did you think they wouldn't call me?" he asked as they walked away from the graves, Andy glancing back to whisper a goodbye to her parents. "I didn't really think so, no. Why is it a big deal?"

"Well, first you skip school to avoid talking to Peter - "

"You got me into the mess with Peter in the first place, Tony!"

"Ah ah, don't interrupt," Tony reprimanded shaking his finger at the teenager as she huffed and folded her arms grumpily. "And second, you race to Brooklyn to visit what, two empty graves? What if something happened to you, huh? The idiots back there just let you leave because they think you can handle yourself, Melisande. But what about the people that want you dead? You are interfering with an illegal weapons cartel," Tony argued, ignoring the 'That's not a thing,' from Andy as she whispered it under her breath.

"This place has nothing for you," he concluded, shaking his head as they neared the town car that Happy was sitting in. "This place is my home!" she shouted angrily, throwing her hands out to the side. "The compound is your home, Queens is your home! This is a place you used to live!"

"My parents may not be in that grave but that is still the one way I can talk to my parents!" she yelled, the tears that were on her face before now becoming much more apparent under the moonlight. "Mel..." Tony trailed off. "No! Don't do that! This city is my home, this is where I grew up! The compound is my prison! Don't ever dare to tell me this place has nothing for me! You were an adult when they died! An adult! I wasn't even a teenager, yet!"

At this point, Happy was standing outside of the car and rolled his eyes at the bickering between the two. "Come on, Melly. Get in the car, I'll take you back upstate," he called out, standing with the door open for the girl. "I'll take the bus," she called back in a snippy way, then snapping to glare at Tony. "My ass you will," he scoffed. "Get in the car, Mel. You can yell at me on the way upstate."

"Screw you, Tony. Really, screw you," she hissed as she sat down in the car, pulling her knees to her chest and wiping her tears with the back of her hand. She threw her backpack onto the seat beside her, forcing Tony to sit on the opposite side to the window. "I know you're just saying that because you're mad at me so I'll let it go," he hummed happily, a smile gracing his lips as he thought to himself that he had won the battle.

Andy bit her lip and rested her cheek on her knee, turning to look out the window as she drove away from her city, her home, her place.