Chapter Twenty-Nine
It took a lot of bribery, tugging, pulling, kicking and screaming to get Alya on the plane back to New York. Eventually, she was seated on a Delta Airways flight to said destination, but she had made sure that Steve and Natasha knew just how unhappy she was with their decision. Especially since she had only been informed at the very last minute.
Her ears popped for what felt like the fiftieth time in the eight hour flight from Italy to New York City. The only thing she learned from this experience was, she hated flying alone and if she was going to fly like this again, she needed to get some gum. The licorice Natasha bribed her with was only succeeding in making her sick to her stomach.
The worst part about the entire flight, was she couldn't have Mischief with her. She was in a separate space for animals. Alya couldn't help but think about how frightened she must've been amongst other animals, never seeing a friendly face.
It was a good thing the plane was landing. The first thing Alya was doing, was looking for her special companion. No one was stopping her from finding that cat.
The landing was smooth, and as soon as Alya stepped out of the plane, smoggy city air hit her like a ton of bricks. She literally coughed trying to get her lungs to adjust to the change. The flight attendant just smiled and handed her a bottle of water, telling her that it happened to her all the time.
Alya was used to the crowdedness of airports, so she wasn't particularly nervous to find herself in one. She did end up finding Mischief in record speeds, but what she couldn't find, was whoever was supposed to be picking her up to take her back to the Compound.
She waited for a while, but after her stomach growled a few times, she decided to leave and catch a train to Manhattan. She had a bit of pocket money that her mother gave her for the trip and she knew a good sandwich place right there in Queens.
Delmar's. She and Peter used to go together all the time.
She wondered if she'd run into him. Maybe she'd be able to explain everything to him. He was really upset the last time they saw each other, but that was because he didn't know the whole story.
The cool, late September breeze caught the flyaways of hair that weren't tucked into her dutch braid. The chill made her stop to zip up her jacket, tucking Mischief in there as well.
Alya figured that if she was cold, then her cat could be, too. Mischief did meow at the new position, but it looked like she wasn't opposed to it.
"Lainey?"
The Russian girl furrowed her eyebrows and turned around, finding Pepper of all people just standing next to a black car, waiting for her.
Delmar's would have to wait.
"C'mon, Mischief." She sighed. "We're doing this to help Mama, remember?" At least, that's what Alya kept telling herself in order to make the situation easier.
"Hi, sweetie. How was your flight?" The redhead smiled in greeting.
Alya hadn't seen Pepper since Tony and Bruce created Ultron. Her guess was, the woman put up with a lot, too much, and that was the final straw. She didn't blame her. The superhero life was stressful, too stressful. Sometimes, breaks were needed.
"Fine." She didn't mean to be rude. She just didn't really want to be there. Her life was changing so often, that she was pretty unwilling to be nice and put down roots knowing she'd just have to rip them up again in a few weeks time.
She could thank General Ross and his sycophants for that one.
"Good. Are you hungry?"
"No."
"Are you sure?" Pepper knew Alya all too well. Anytime she was hungry, she'd get a little agitated and snippy. "Because I could use a Happy Meal."
"I'm eleven."
"Oh, my mistake." As much as Alya was pushing her away, Pepper wasn't being scared off by the girl's attitude. She just saw it as a sign that she had to work harder to break through those walls Alya set up. "I didn't realize just how much you've grown. You're practically a young woman now. I don't know why I thought you'd care about some silly toy in a box."
The corners of Alya's mouth tugged upwards, revealing that she thought Pepper had been just a little bit funny with her words, putting the woman a little more at ease.
"How about we head home and order a bunch of Chinese food, sit on the couch and watch tv?"
"Do you have time for that?"
Pepper was the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, that was a fair question.
"Of course I have time for that." Pepper opened the back door of the car, allowing Alya to climb in before she hopped in the driver's seat. "Ready to go?"
"Ready."
Pepper sent the girl a wink before they took off, leaving the airport behind them.
"So, tell me." Pepper scooped some chicken up with the chopsticks Alya was trying to teach her how to use. "What have you been up to these past several months?"
True to her word, the two ordered Chinese and had a movie marathon, even going as far as to eat everything right out of the containers while sitting at the coffee table.
Pepper's goal was to try to make Alya feel comfortable during her stay. She wasn't sure of the exact details of what happened with the Accords and General Ross, but she was certain that Alya, being only a child, had gotten caught right in the middle of it.
It was like when a couple gets divorced, the child is always the one who ends up being hurt. The Avengers were the most stable thing in Alya's life. Now they've split up and she had to find a way to deal with that.
"Keeping busy." Alya wasn't about to tell Pepper anything about where she and her mother have been or what they've been doing.
Tony had cameras and mics everywhere. He might have been informed of the fact that Natasha and Steve were breaking everyone out of the Raft, but he certainly didn't need to know anything else.
Honestly, these days, Alya couldn't quite figure out whether or not she was angry with Tony or in agreement with him.
Or maybe it was both.
She was angry with the way he handled things. Especially with the way he recruited Peter, who had no business being involved in something he didn't understand. She knew Peter didn't have a passport and she knew that Aunt May didn't know about his vigilante activities, so that meant Tony brought him to Germany illegally. Then, he told him half the story, if he even told him that much, and had him fight for something that he had no clue would come back to bite him.
She was angry that he wouldn't listen. She was angry at him for trying to kill her father. That's what really made her blood boil. Her father was an innocent man that had been used and tormented for over seventy years. He didn't deserve any of that.
Alya wasn't as angry with what Tony had screamed at her back in Siberia, but it didn't feel very good to hear it. Now, after having found out she was born in the Red Room and how her childhood was just some mission because she had always been the Red Room's property, she didn't need his words rattling around in her head. The worst part of it was, he probably didn't even remember saying them.
But she couldn't forget.
"How's Rhodey?" Was what she finally asked, after a long period of silence.
"Rhodey? He's recovering."
Rhodey got the short end of the stick in terms of that fight at the airport in Germany. He gave Vision the order to shoot at Sam's jetpack, but Vision apparently didn't account for Sam dodging that hit. The beam he fired hit Rhodey and sent him hurtling towards the ground.
"You know, Tony feels really bad about what happened."
"Oh, I'll bet." Alya chuckled sarcastically.
Tony felt bad.
Alya supposed that that was supposed to magically make everything better. Tony felt bad about what happened, so she should just forget about Siberia and she should forget about him practically calling her a murderer in training.
With all the kills she had racked up in the Red Room, that comment was really messing with her mind.
But Tony felt bad, so it was all okay.
"I don't know what happened between you two, but you were so close. I hate to see you like this."
"I'm going to bed." Alya had heard enough and put the container she had been eating from, on the coffee table, hugged Pepper, and retreated towards her room.
She didn't want to have that particular discussion. She was going through enough without thinking about how Tony felt. Her place of birth had been destroyed and with it, her biological mother. His feelings were the least of her worries.
Brutal, but true.
As time went on, she could feel herself hardening. She wasn't as open and forgiving as she had been after getting comfortable with the Avengers. Now, she was more like she was when she had first arrived; cold, driven, untrusting.
She was growing, changing. Too much had happened for her to stay the same person she had been before.
What she was growing up to be? She didn't know.
But if she headed down this route, it wouldn't be anything good.
Bonus Scene:
Alya stared at the burner phone her mother had given her just in case of an emergency. She wanted to call just to hear the woman's voice, but she knew that wasn't what the phone was for.
She missed her mother dearly. She didn't like being apart for such an indefinite amount of time. Why couldn't she have just stayed in Russia with Melina? It wasn't like she was a stranger.
A sigh escaped her lips as she stared up at the ceiling of what used to be her room. Well, it was technically still her room, but the Compound just wasn't home anymore. Everything was so cold and impersonal now. She just wanted to leave and never come back.
Staring at the screen of the flip phone, Alya looked through the contacts before finally shutting it off. There was nothing she could do about her current situation except to be patient to make things easier on everyone else.
"Time to go to sleep, Mischief." She ran a hand through the feline's beautiful, dark fur before reaching down to rummage through her bag. It took a while, but she finally found what she was looking for, unwrapping it from the numerous rags it was buried in.
Mischief looked on with curiosity and watched as her partner in crime did something she'd never seen her do before.
Alya had pulled a pair of handcuffs out of her bag. Right after she sparred Irina, Madame B had given her those cuffs. She wasn't unfamiliar with the way they worked or what they were used for.
She didn't know exactly why she held onto them. It must've been because she felt she'd need them at one point or another.
She was right.
Unlocking the cuffs, she attached one side to her bed frame and clamped the other around her wrist, tightening it with a twist.
As soon as the metal touched her skin, she visibly relaxed and felt herself growing sleepy. It was almost like she were a toddler who had just found their security blanket and could now go to sleep.
The feeling of the snug cuff was enough to keep her worries at bay and allow her eyes to flutter shut, allowing her to drift into a dreamless sleep.