ADORE ↠ b. barnes [III]

twenty eight

AS ALLURA CAUGHT UP TO THOR, SHE took a deep breath. She felt her hands shaking, and her heart beating out of her chest.

Why? Becasue talking to him about their shared experiences would have to make her share about her past. And if there was nothing messier to Allura than her past:

how she had left her planet, feeling like a coward as she descended into the stars, feeling like a useless princess since she hadn't stopped her planet's certain destruction, and feeling like a failure to everything she ever stood for.

The strawberry blonde approached him and put her hand on his shoulder, the man turning to her with a jump.

"I'm sorry. I just- I need a drink. I -"

"Don't apologize." She interrupted him, with a soft smile. "Don't apologize for the way you act, it's understandable." She spoke, the man leaning against the wall as he listened with interest. "We've all been through something, but just because we've all been through something doesn't make that less important.

"You know? I'm not going to pretend you're alright. And you shouldn't either. You haven't been discreet about your lack of stability, and you shouldn't. But perhaps drinking isn't the way to go about this." Thor looked down slightly.

"Let me put it in perspective. We've all got coping mechanisms. Mine was to drown myself in solutions, plans, escapes, and isolating myself from the people who cared about me, while trying to make the people from my planet trust me.

"Because, I had the great luck of being their princess." She laughed at the end, her eyes filling with tears slightly.

"You took care of- you're a royal? Your people are also on Earth?" Thor asked, his blue eyes wide as his chest tightened.

"And now there's this plan and all that there is for the two of us is a series of facts and statements: that you lost your parents. I lost my parents. You lost your bother. I lost my brother. You lost your home, I lost my home. You lost the person you romantically loved, I lost mine too." She felt like she was ranting, but at this point she didn't care.

All she wanted was for both of them to be in the right state of mind for this.

"But you've got your powers and I've got my daughter, and that keeps us going, am I right? Because we failed at everything else." There was a moment of silence, as a tear fell from both their faces, and Thor reached out to grab her hand.

It wasn't a romantic moment. But perhaps they'd both seen themselves, and accepted what had happened in that very moment.

"So, even though we're not from earth, most of our family is, and we owe them to save the universe. We owe it to ourselves." She continued, Thor nodding along at this point.

"Let people help you. Let people understand you. You're seen as a hero, I've been seen as a villain for more than seventy years, just on Earth. You can do this, and you will do this because right now, it's what matters.

"Our emotional issues will be solved, eventually, as a team.... as a family. You don't have to hide them. Use them to your advantage.

"That pain, that anger, that frustration. Thanos won't see what's coming his way." Thor flinched at the name, but Allura only squeezed his hand in reassurance.

"We can do this, alright?"

"Alright."

Thor and Allura shared a smile, before a voice came from behind them. The two turned around to see Thor's mother, staring at them in confusion.