shards - pietro maximoff

chapter seven ; arguments and apologies

Dahlia smiled down at her. "I'm fine, Liles. Thank you."

She tried to knock herself out of her trance, listening to Lila's vivid storytelling as best she could, trying to act normal.

"And so then, Momma said I couldn't go down the slide unless I apologized to Cooper for punching him in the face, but I didn't do it cause he said white chocolate is better than dark chocolate, and I couldn't let that slide, you know?" Lila's eyes lit up as she told her stories.

Dahlia chuckled as Laura shook her head in amusement. "Maybe you've been spending too much time with me, Lila."

The small girl shook her head fervently before returning to the mashed potatoes on her place excitedly.

Just then, Tony entered the house and she felt herself stiffen at his presence.

He sat down gruffly across from her, a cold expression on his face.

"Would you hand me the mashed potatoes, Dahlia?" Tony's harsh tone made her flinch and made everyone turn their heads and look at the two.

"Is there anything you'd like to tell me about the potatoes before I eat them, Dahlia?"

The room went silent.

"I wouldn't want to you lie to me about them, or betray my trust because we don't do that to each other, now do we?" Tony stared straight at her.

"Tony, please don't do this now." Dahlia said quietly, keeping her gaze on her plate.

Everyone was extremely confused about what was happening, and no one knew what to say. Dahlia simply wanted him to stop.

"What are you talking about Tony?" Steve said cautiously.

Dahlia shut her eyes tightly, hoping that if she did so, this whole situation might go away. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

"Well, Cap, if you must know, I was fixing the jet when I noticed something... interesting on the surveillance tapes."

"Tony." Her voice was barely above a whisper, but the amount of pain in it made it audible to everyone at the table.

Natasha's eyes narrowed in his direction, not knowing what was happening but automatically wanting to protect Dahlia.

"What was it?" Clint asked, confused.

Tony didn't seem to notice the hurt in her voice or the glares from Nat. "Oh, nothing, just Dahlia on the ship right before we got on."

She didn't dare breathe, hoping Tony would stop there. Of course, he didn't.

"She was helping the Maximoff's."

Clint's fork dropped onto his plate, making a loud noise.

"Helping them? What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"Oh nothing much, just stitching up the girl's knife wound and bandaging up the boy's arm."

More silence. Dahlia didn't know whether defending herself would make this worse or not. With one look at Tony's sneers, she decided it couldn't get worse.