Fragments of Decay

4. Okay Time To Be Serious

August 16 2005

Fighting a Kree army, Carol decides, is infinitely easier than wrangling a toddler. Alice does not want to keep her shoes on and is taking great delight in running across the hoopty bare foot, giggling wildly as she once again escapes her mom's clutches.

If it was any other day, Carol would've left it. She'd have given into the little girls playful antics and procrastinated her responsibilities just until tomorrow.

Today, however, she is already running very late for a very important meeting with some very high ranking skrull. They had already been very lenient, accepting it without too many questions when one day she'd shown up with an infant, indulging Alice's many questions - and requests to turn into her -

She does not want to take advantage of their kindness too much, doesn't want them to have something to potentially hold over her head later.

"Isa," she calls out once the giggling dies down. "We're already late, sweetheart." She sounds exasperated, which she doesn't doubt is not making her sound even a little like the authoritative figure she's trying to display.

"Why don't you want to put on your shoes?" It's something that has been their daily fight for nearly a month now. Alice is not a difficult kid. She is generally pretty happy and puts up minimal fuss. For her to suddenly start fighting one of the most basic tasks is as frustrating as it is confusing.

Brown eyes peek up at her from one of the kitchen cabinets. "Hurts." Carol looks down at the pair of tiny shoes she's holding. Ofcourse, over the past few months she'd slowly started switching out all of Alice's wardrobe for a larger size. It hadn't even occurred to her to switch her shoes.

"How about we try a different pair, huh? One that shouldn't hurt." She says, putting the shoes down with an air of finality to make it clear she's serious. She makes her way over to the storage closet, trying to locate the pair of toddler shoes she knows she has lying around somewhere. They were among the piles upon piles of children's supplies in steadily growing sizes Tony gets anytime she visits earth.

She had given up on trying to reject it well over a year ago. She wasn't dependent on it - couldn't afford to be - but the look on her little girl's face as she triumphantly pulls out a pair of light up skechers makes it seem like such a logical choice.

Alice can barely contain herself as they're walking towards the building. She dutifully keeps her little hand in her moms but she jumps instead of walks, seemingly never tiring of the flickering lights at her feet.

They're late to the meeting, as Carol had predicted, but as she listens to Tarol's explanation, her daughter having tired herself out and thus fast asleep in her lap, she can't say she minds. She's content, she realises. Drawing out the plans to help the skrull rebuild their empire, Alice softly snoring against her stomach, she's happy.

--------------------------------------------------------

She jinxed it.

Alice, by some miracle, had continued napping as Carol said her goodbye's. Shifting the girl so her cheek was resting against her shoulder instead. She had been so close, the door - and with it, her little cosy home, filled with laughter and absolutely no politics- only a few feet away, when she was stopped by a young skrull.

Kirit, her mind supplies, had been steadily coming to more of these diplomacy meetings but they'd never spoken directly. Carol kind of wants to escape the interaction before it happens. For the sake of peace and her image, she takes a deep breath and smiles kindly at the young woman instead.

"Captain Marvel," she says and Carol has to stop herself from cringing at the formality. "I- I figured you'd like to know," she chooses that moment to pause, Carol's brows knit together as she subconsciously shifts Alice to tighten her hold on the girl.