The Avengers Weakness

Chapter Sixteen

Penny woke up before Nat, she knew she had a nightmare from how she felt like she was suffocating when she woke up. She rubbed her face with her hands, trying her best to remember the nightmare that shook her from her sleep. She hated waking up for no reason, feeling like she couldn't breathe; it happened more often than not, waking up from nightmares and not remembering anything other than the fear she felt from them. She looked over to the alarm clock on Nat's nightstand and saw it read 4:30am; she knew that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again; she never could. So she wouldn't wake up the redhead who was asleep next to her, she quietly got up and left the room. She carefully walked downstairs and went into the living room where Pepper was sitting at the large desk working on something. Penny quietly tried to walk to the kitchen, she didn't want to disturb the strawberry-blonde and past experiences had taught her that it was a bad idea to do so. She lost concentration while looking at Pepper, trying her best to avoid the woman's gaze was an easy task, but she always managed to mess up easy things at her old home. She noticed how peaceful the woman looked while she worked; she was humming softly to herself while she worked, it was a soft lullaby that Penny remembered hearing her father or May sing her that lullaby before life took an ever crueler turn. While she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings, she loudly hit her leg on the coffee table by the couch, causing a wave of pain to travel up the limb.

"Ouch!" she whispered loudly, crouching down to try and rub out the pain.

Pepper quickly turned around when she heard the noise and looked at Penny, "Are you okay Sweetpea?" she asked, turning around a bit more in her chair.

Penny stood up straight and swallowed thickly, "Y-yes ma'am I-I'm okay.....Sorry to disturb you Ms. Potts." Penny apologized quickly, hoping that the usual consequences weren't going to come.

The woman's gaze softened while she looked at the thirteen year old, she smiled at the girl, "It's okay, Did you need something sweetie?" she asked.

Penny felt a small rush of relief wash over her, when the woman didn't do anything, "N-no ma'am.... I just couldn't sleep. I was going to get some water, I was trying not to interrupt you...I-I'm really sorry...pl-please don't be angry with me." she replied, almost whispering the last part of her response.

"Okay," the strawberry-blonde replied; she stood up and took a glass out of the cabinet in the kitchen; Penny followed her slowly and watched her fill it with water, the woman started talking to her again, "I'm not angry with you sweetie," she replied, "I accept your apology." she replied, smiling softly at the younger girl. She turned around to face her, holding out the glass of water to the younger girl, "Here you go sweetie."

"T-thank you Miss Potts." Penny replied as she gingerly took the glass from the blue-eyed woman.

"It's no problem sweetpea."

"W-what are you working on?" she asked after a few seconds.

"Oh, it's just some paperwork for the company." Pepper told her.

"That sounds interesting."

"It is a little but, Stark Industries is putting out a new product soon and we are preparing marketing for it."

There was a short pause between the two of them; Pepper not wanting to press conversation from the younger teen who was obviously on edge and Penny who was nervous to push the boundaries. Pepper looked at the teenager in front and noticed Penny shifting back and forth on the balls of her feet.

"Did you need anything else sweetpea?" she asked.

"N-no ma'am." the girl replied, shaking her head quickly.