ADORE ↠ b. barnes [III]

twenty one

       "ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TELLING ME THAT YOUR plan to save the universe is based on Back to the Future?" Scott chuckled, but Tony did not look amused. As a matter of fact, he looked completely unamused, compared to Allura. "Is it?"

       "No."

       "Good. You had me worried there. Because that would be horseshit."

       "Back to the future?" Allura asked Nadenka, the girl nodding and moving a bit closer to her mom.

       "A boy travels through time with a car. But he can't change the future or the present. No confidential information, no telling people your identity, not making crucial events not happen or happen too early,— why does it look like you wanna punch something, mamma?" Nadenka stopped rambling, her interested smile as she thought about the movie she loved, becoming a frown.

       "Because that movie isn't a representation of quantum physics."

       "Of what?"

       "Ljós is right. That's not how quantum physics works." Tony spoke, having heard their conversation and almost releasing a chuckle at Nadenka's rant.

        "Tony." Natasha's hesitant voice interrupted his scolding, Allura feeling her heart clench at how broken and strained it was. "We have to take a stand."

       "We did stand. And yet, here we are." Allura crossed her arms, her green eyes analyzing the now older man.

       "I know you got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did. And now, we have a chance to bring her back, to bring everyone back." Scott's voice was raising as he spoke, his gaze pleading for a solution. Allura gulped, twiddling with her thumbs and avoiding to think of them.

       But, how could she not?

       "And you're telling me that you won't even-"

       "That's right, Scott. I won't even." Tony said nonchalantly, making Scott stare at him, dumbfounded. "I can't." The door opened and soft footsteps approached, the beautiful young brunette coming back and hugging Tony immediately.

       "Mommy told me to come and save you." She said, wrapping her arms around him. Allura took a deep breath, her green eyes going momentarily to her own daughter, who was now taller than her.

       She understands why he won't do it. She knows what it's like to lose the most important people on her life, to miss their best moments and to watch them fade as only the echoes of their voices are heard in the dirty, ash covered wind.

       She wouldn't wish that upon anyone.

       "Good job. I'm saved." He leaned his chin on her shoulder. "I wish you were coming her to ask me something else. Anything else. I'm honestly happy to see you guys, I just- look, the table is set for nine."

       "Tony, I get it. And I'm happy for you I really am. But this is a second chance." Steve tried to convince him, but Tony's expression didn't change.

       "I got my second chance right here, Cap. Can't roll the dice on it. If you don't talk shop you can stay for lunch."

       But obviously, they wouldn't be staying for lunch.

       Steve, Nadenka, Pietro, Scott and Natasha headed to the cars. However, Allura stayed in front of Tony, an expression in her eyes that the man had never seen before. He held his daughter tighter, instinctively. And of course, that didn't go unnoticed by Allura as his painful and angry words banged against her mind.

       "They killed my parents, I don't care if it dies!"

       "I would never hurt her, Stark." She told him calmly, Morgan getting loose from her father's embrace and her brown eyes widening when she saw Nadenka grabbing her bags from Steve's car and putting them in Allura's with her abilities, sapphire light lingering in the air.

       "Wow!" She exclaimed, running towards the older woman.

       "Morgan-"

       "And Nadenka? She wouldn't hurt her either." Tony observed how the Barnes-Ljòs daughter created a dog with her abilities, and it flew around his own daughter as she laughed.

       "I'm sorry if I have trust issues. They're based on experience."

       "I don't blame you. But you only know what you think happened. In truth, though, you know the first second of an entire day. And I can't say I hold it against you. If you think you're afraid of us, you don't know how much we fear ourselves." Allura told him, her eyes not leaving her daughter as she and Morgan played.

       "We regret- I regret everyday what they made us do. And I'm sure, wherever he is, James does as well. We were monsters by force, even when our choices would've never lead us down that path." Her green eyes closed as her voice broke in the slightest, and she turned to Tony who seemed to be analyzing her.

       "You're lucky to have this second chance. James and I lost multiple ones, and just when we had it, it all turned into ashes." She stopped, her mind going to the younger boy in the airport, who had gotten impressed by Sam's wings, her abilities and her love's metal arm. "And I know for a fact you lost a lot too."

       "We don't ask you to put yourself on the line. You've done that plenty of times, I'm sure." Tony's arms were covered in goosebumps as he listened. He only then realized now how incoherent his argument was. Everyone who had just left in one of the two cars was there because they had put their lives on the line, over and over again—just like he had.

       "Just help us start, I'll research as much as I can to avoid you of any trouble. I actually already have an idea." She grabbed the piece of paper from her jacket's pocket and handed it to him; it was everything she had written down on the flight from Iceland to the US, on how to make the time heist work. "After that, I assure you we won't be a bother." She sent him a hesitant smile, a smile that he found so familiar but so far away.

       The Stark man looked at the Ljós woman and recognized for the first time in years how much she and Ezekyel were alike. Their mannerisms, their serious expressions, their reactions when angry, and their perseverance and infuriating stubbornness that Tony learned from his jupiterian godfather.

       And as he watched her walk away, ruffling her daughter's hair delicately and giving her a motherly smile that she couldn't give her own daughter when she was Morgan's age, the same thought he had back in Siberia came back like a wrecking ball; with no anger but true understanding of the situation.

       It didn't mean that he liked them, but they weren't villains.

       They were victims.

Tony and Allura are characters that I've wanted to understand each other so bad for so long! Hopefully I'm doing it right and it's enjoyable!

I hope you liked this chapter! Thank you so, so much for reading, voting and for the amazing comments that I've read on the other two books!

I appreciate it so much and it really inspires me to write and follow through with the story! You guys' comments make me very, very happy!

Stay safe!

- evanescence2016