Chapter 11
They guide my dad to lay on the couch. My mom desperately rips his shirt only to reveal a big bruise already forming all over his arc reactor. Tiny fragments of glass encrusted around his chest. He comes like this all the way from Siberia?
My dad winces in pain "Happy, in my office ugh... there's a suitcase beside a leafblower. Please bring it... take your time"
Happy rapidly nods and walks to the hall but spins to us "Why you have a leafblower in your office, Tony... that's weird" after his statement he runs away
I kneel beside him trying to comfort him if that's even possible.
"Tony... what happened?" my mom removes his hair from his forehead
he closes his eyes at the touch of my mom's hand "umm, let's just say that Captain America and Iron Man have big differences"
"Steve did this?" I whisper pointing my eyes to his bloody chest
He nods avoiding my stare. Steve.... did this? Why? What truly happened in Siberia?
My eyes start filling with tears. I rapidly blink trying not to even sniff. When Happy returns my dad manages to stand upright still a little hunches forward. My mom and Happy perch on the couch next to him and I don't move from the floor analyzing how he starts fixing the broken arc reactor, its glow fading but then glimmering.
"What happened Tony?" A plummy voice appears from nowhere and Vision's body passes through the wall to us
"Cap went a little too far" he clears his throat not looking at him "care to help Vis?"
"Oh no, I think I already helped enough with James..." his synthetic pupils contracting
"Don't...just don't" my dad huffs pushing the screwdriver aside "that stone you have there has power enough to help initiate my arc reactor"
"You saw what happened Tony" Vision argues
"You told me you were distracted I get it, but now you re all alone here and I need you... T... please" he signals me to help him stand
I hurriedly support his weight in my body and I spin to look at Vision
"Vision... please..." his synthetic pupils now expand and he sighs
We stumble until the middle of the living room. My mom quickly supporting him from the other side while Happy holds his back. Vision flies in front of us. A loud noise erupts from his forehead and the stone emits blinding yellow beam that quickly hits his arc reactor. My dad squeals but all of us support his body. It's only seconds until the room is dim again and my dad sighs patting his chest.
"Fresh as a Daisy" He smiles striding to shake hands with Vision who nods at us and flies away "Now I'm going to work" - he tries to walk to the lab but my mom stops him-
My mom jumps to block his way "Uh-uh Tony, you almost die, again! you need to rest!" her piercing eyes burning in his face
He stretches his arms to his feet "But I'm fine! see?"
My mom grunts and rubs her head "You are so much like your daughter"
My dad turns to me and smiles "Should we tell her that there's a book of genetics in the library?" he spins to her "You should give it a try!"
My mom slaps his chest and he chuckles running to his lab. Happy hugs us goodbye and I check the time. It's late so I kiss her goodnight and stroll to my room. Already at my bed, I do a final scroll at the recent news. I gnaw my lip staring at the contact name, debating if he's still awake or not but I tap it anyway.
"Hey Tannie" He says between gasps "...sorry, I almost fall" he catches his breath
I manage to hear the background noise that is becoming sharper
"Where are you?"
"I just climbed to my apartment roof, can't sleep so I think patrolling the neighborhood is the best thing to do right now, hold on I'm gonna put you on speaker... ready"
I curl my legs to my chest under the blankets "so... what's up with your neighborhood? any bad guys?"
"I saw someone throwing trash at the street but no, no one"
"well... bad people will find a way to go around the laws... you'll find plenty at some point" I assure him
I hear him snort "... where did you get that? you were not kidding about the advising thing, huh?"
"You know... I pay attention to ethics... Plato said that..." I laugh "See you tomorrow ok? oh! I almost forgot... when I visited you, I saw a lovely navy blue shirt, it was on the floor..."
He clears his throat "What about it?" he asks confused
"Wear it tomorrow, ok?" I instruct him"
"Why? are you my fashion guru?"
I roll my eyes "Tomorrow we have algebra...with Liz?" I explain in a matter-of-fact- voice
"Oh! yeah, yeah... I forgot about it"
"uhumm... Trust me on this one... and get a shower, ok? I'm going to sleep now, goodnight Peter"
"Night!"
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The clock in my nightstand starts ringing too loud. My ears ache at the raucous beeping. I roll to my left and cover my head with the soft blankets in an attempt to mute the noise but it's useless. One thing, one thing that actually makes me angry is the horrible penetrating sound of an alarm exactly when I'm dreaming. I groan and a sudden wave of annoyance floods my chest. I hurriedly throw my arm out of the warm mattress and smash my hand against the beeping clock. It stops. Good.
Five minutes later, I do my normal routine. When I'm ready to leave my room I turn on my heels to grab my phone in the nightstand. I stop when I then do my normal routine when I'm ready to leave my room I go back to my nightstand to grab my phone but I stop when I spot a little pile of dust on top of the furniture. I poke it with my finger and wonder how that got there. I swear I do dust off my room.
I walk to the kitchen where I see my dad drinking coffee.
"Morning sunshine!" He chirps reading something on his phone
"Morning! How are you feeling?" I ask walking to grab a bowl and milk
"Good, my neurons are intact"
I slump beside him "and emotionally?"
He lifts his eyes and then darts them to his screen "A little blue, a little green like hulk..." he smirks "I'm not great but I know I'll be" he slurps his coffee "By the way... I know I've been super busy... and I also know that I'm the cool parent right?"
"What you mean?" I ask between mouthfuls of cereal
"Yeah! you know, in every family there's a kinda 'bad cop' parent, the one that is overprotective and angry... and there's this cool parent, the one you trust the most, the best one..."-
I quirk a brow at him "and you're the cool one?"
"aNd YoUr'E ThE cOoL oNe?... Well of course! I am the cool one! I'm offended! but I need to turn the cards a little..."
I raise my head "huh?"
"You are grounded" he quickly says without blinking
"okay" I answer nodding and standing up to place the dish in the sink
"okay? that's all you have to say?"
"Well yeah, I went to Germany without your consent, I put my life at risk..."
He stays silent for a while "Are you even from this planet, T? normally teenagers when they hear the word "grounded" they go and lock themselves in their cave and slam the door"
I spin and lean against the counter "not my case... I know what I did was wrong, so..."
He jerks his head back and snorts "Who told me that raising a daughter would be my breaking point?.... I'm going to start working on something special"
"What is it?"
"I'm going to build some tech for Rhodey's legs..." he purses his lips and walks to the stair that leads to the working wing
"wait!" I yell and he spins to me "you never told me what are the terms of my punishment.."
Are you stupid, Tannie Stark?
"Oh yeah! mmm, two weeks? Yeah, two weeks and you just go to school and come back here" He nods proud of his parenting skills and jogs away
With a sigh, I stride to my room. Passing across the hall I peek Vision inside his room doing a suitcase. Great, he's leaving too. I take my stuff and reach the entrance. Happy talking feverishly about the Crawley's blah, blah, blah. As soon as I hop off the car I notice Harley waiting for me absentmindedly staring at the school.
"It's the end of times, right? it's quite early for you to be here!" I yell and his body spins to look at me
"it's worth it" a long silence follows until he reaches my side "I uh, made this for you" he hands me a little green box
I grab it and snort "Didn't know Origami was your thing... Yeih A little box! I think I can put my earrings inside it"
He glares at me "Open it you dipwad..."
I stick my tongue at him and do as he says. A shiny metal bracelet, made of iron "you made this?"
I lift my eyes and he scratches his neck "ehhh, yeah, I did, I used the left bolts of our robot"
I nudge him "Look at you! being so thoughtful... some help here?"
"Sure, yeah" he opens the lock and holds it "there... looks good huh?"
"Totally, I really like it, Harley, I feel it represents my personality... just a little" I snort looking at it and walking inside the school
"Definitely, cold and boring," he remarks and I spin to punch him on his back
"No! Shiny and unique!" a strident laugh escapes my lips and steps later we arrive at our locker
Quickly I organize the pile of books inside and the ones in my backpack. The bell starts buzzing and people start striding to the classrooms. I slam the door and walk beside Harley who is holding a bunch of papers and books.
"Thank you so much for this Harley" I stare at the bracelet debating what to do next
"I... I just wanted to give you something" he shrugs pushing some books inside
Maybe just a kiss in his cheek
I step closer to him, bringing my lips to kiss his cheek as a ¿thank you¿ but while trying to do it, his books inside his locker fall to the ground. He grunts and jerks his head in annoyance and my lips instead of kissing his cheek... I kissed his lips. I jump back startled of what just happened.
Harley's eyes are wide open. He looks to his books on the ground and then at me. A tint of pink instantly forming in his cheeks and neck.
"I... I was... I was aiming for your cheek..." My tremulous voice slips from my lips and a wave of heat runs across my body
"Yeah, yeah I umm..."
"-as a thank you..." I finish in a whisper and he shuts his locker door
"Sure! Yeah, totally get it... but my books fell and I... you know... tried to grab them"
I gulp harder and motion my numb legs to walk away "Yeah, yeah, I saw what happened... I should probably go to uh, economics..."
He blinks at me bouncing in his feer "go, go, I have History... see you later then?"
I rapidly nod and turn around to start walking, my steps long to escape the scene. I t was an accident. An unintentional accident. A good one? I step into the classroom and make my way to the reserved seat Peter saved for me.
"You seem like you saw a ghost" His silvery voice wakes me from the trance and I dart my eyes to his face
"I-I'm surprised that you uh, actually put the shirt, uh I told you..."
He tugs down his shirt letting a soft breathy laugh "Oh yeah, you seem like you know what you're doing. I mean, no. You always know what you're doing so... yeah"
My eyes analyze the wrinkled lines of his shirt "Wait... Peter... did you seriously didn't iron it?"
He gasps "Barely noticeable wrinkles," he says
"The wrinkles are all over your chest! Did you seriously just took the shirt from your floor and put it on?"
he shakes his head "NO!"
I roll my eyes at him "okay..."
I tried my best to listen to the teacher. I was. But Peter wasn't. Fidgeting, jittering his foot against the floor, obsessively watching the clock on the wall. The next period arrived and Peter's self-criticism too. Him questioning me about 'Do you think I brushed my hair properly? What if my clothing choices are not what she likes? Why I don't play football?'
As we enter the classroom I saw the scene. Both of us walking to our usuals seats. I quietly greet Liz and hand her notebook, she lifts her eyes at me and kindly greets me, I catch how her eyes travel from me to Peter's figure behind me. Her stare lasting a little more until she looks down and starts writing in her notebook.
"So that was it?!" Peter whispers as soon as he slumps in his seat
"What you mean?"
"This thing about wearing a shirt for her...? What now?" He bites his lip
"Parker... you can't go from zero to ten... Baby steps... Give it a little time!"
he huffs "So what? I should just stare at her for eternity?!"
I point to her figure three seats in front of us "Ok, go on, talk to her!"
Peter quickly shakes his reddening face and turns to his book hiding in the pages. I grunt and start working. At the end of the class, Liz grabs her things and before exiting the classroom she spins to us and mutters to Peter 'Looking good today, Peter'.
I suppress a smile and look at his dazzled face, he bumps on some desks making his way beside me. Third period went by fast. When recess begins I waved goodbye at him and search for Harley at the usual benches. The grass damp and the air crisp against my cheek.
"What are you doing?" I ask sitting beside him and taking my food
"Eating, genius"
"I thought you maybe wanted to sit with your other friends?"
"I thought you will sit with Peter and his other friend..." he adds not meeting my eyes
"And miss the opportunity of pestering you? pfff, please"
He loudly snorts, his eyes wrinkling for the sudden laugh "You can't pester them? that sounds incredibly sad..."
With a playful punch on his arm, we begin eating. The tension I thought it will be around us wasn't there at all. No awkwardness about that accidental peck. That's good. Who made me believe that social relationships were that hard?
At P.E. I was again, killing it. Running for about 30 minutes, stretching and now doing some crunches. Wilson proudly giving me thumbs up while eating a chocolate bar.
"hey!" a high pitch voice calls me from behind and I lay against the mat lifting my eyes to Peter
"Parker..." I wheeze trying to even my breathing
"So you back there... you're good at working out"
I grunt and sit upright, the muscle of my stomach tensing "well, I eat a lot, I need some balance in my life"
He snorts and jerks his head "I dare you to do something..."
I quirk my brow at him, a lopsided grin in his sweaty face "depends..." I stand up and brush my clothes down
"Climbing that rope, I can do it, it's easy"
" Oh please! it's easy because you are sticky Peter, that's cheating!" I exclaim and he winces "but ok, I accept"
We stroll to the mats and hanging ropes. Peter stops behind me, I take a deep breath and jump as high as I can. My arms stretch and my hands grip the scratchy material. I swing my legs and successfully start climbing but I slide down the rope. I grunt in annoyance, my jaw tensing each time I try to climb that rope again. Probably four times now. The frustration growing in my chest. How on earth I can't fucking climb a rope?
"You almost reached it!" Peter cheers while I rub my raw red palms
"Liar...." I huff and spin to him, his arms are crossed and he kindly smiles at me "down came the rain and washed the spider out..." I sing-song and he gasps letting out a giggle
"stop!"
"Well, I can't do it... happy?"
While saying it I grab the rope beside us and exactly when my hand touches it, the piece of rope below my hand falls to the mat. My hand full of dust and an orange-ish glow rapidly beams all over my hand. My jaw falls and I look at Peter who jumps to me and grabs my hand hiding it from the others.
"Tannie....! your hand is glow-glowing!!"