ADORE ↠ b. barnes [III]

twenty

ARRIVING AT THE STARK HOUSEHOLD was yet another thing Allura had been dreading. Her green eyes were locked on the road as she drove, following Steve, Pietro, Scott and Natasha who were in a black Audi in front of her own; where she was with Nadenka.

       The two were quiet, the younger red head's arms crossed against her chest as she leaned back against the seat, her foot tapping the carpet anxiously.

       She knew of the story between Tony Stark and her parents. She knew of the terrible things HYDRA made them do from her uncle Steve's stories and the multiple conversations she had with her mamma in the last five years; which normally started with a couple of beers.

       Allura's younger self would've laughed if she saw her older self drinking beer: the disgusting drink her body couldn't process, the weird flavored drink that she hadn't like until she was dancing with the earthlings to a beautiful song she still couldn't bring herself to listen to.

       She could now drink it and enjoy it. It was something so simple, but it brought her back from dark days when all she could think about was how James wasn't with her, and he wasn't with his daughter.

       But well, at least one out of them had managed to explain what they went through to Nadenka. Allura would've loved if it had been the two of them, but she also knew that her little girl couldn't be kept in the dark for so long about something so important.

And, to be honest, the strawberry blonde wanted to hear about Nadenka's own experience in HYDRA.

       "Are you sure you want to do this, mamma?" Nadenka asked quietly, her blue eyes looking at her mother's side profile. "We could've gone to the base and waited." Allura shook her head with a soft smile, her right hand going to her daughter's knee.

       "He would be angry if he didn't know I was part of the plan. And if we're doing this, we're doing it right." Nadenka let out a breath, nodding her head and placing her hand on top of Allura's.

       "You're right, mamma. I'm sorry." The girl said, Allura frowning when she heard her apologize,  before she chuckled. Nadenka had been walking on thin ice, and that meant that she was nervous. Both James and Allura had the tendency to apologize when they thought too much, and explained too little or couldn't properly explain what was going through their mind.

       "Don't be sorry, Nad. We're all nervous about this." She reassured, Nadenka nodding and gulping when the car in front of them parked in front of a small lake, and a beautiful type of forest.

       The two women saw Steve's black jacket when he got down from the car, Natasha's khaki one, Scott's grey one and Pietro's white one.

       They looked at each other for a moment before parking next to them and stepping out from the car.

       Allura was wearing a black jacket with cargo pants and boots, her strawberry blonde hair picked up on a lazy French braid on the back of her head.

       Nadenka was wearing a silver jacket with blue jeans and white boots, her red hair loose and on top of her head a braided diadem to keep it out of her face.

       Everyone observed the man carefully as he picked up a little girl in his arms, the two talking a bit. Allura felt a small smile appear on her face, glad to see that he had at least formed a family of his own. But as soon as it appeared, it faded, because him having a family meant less chance of him helping— which, she could completely understand.

       The man the turned around, his eyes widening for a couple of seconds before he turned back around with his daughter, and then back again to face all of them. Then he nodded briefly, his eyes going over to Nadenka and Allura as he let out a sigh, and kept walking.

       Steve nodded at the group and they all approached the house, ready to tell Anthony Stark of their plan.

       "NO- WE KNOW WHAT IT sounds like." Scott stammered.

       Indeed, they had just told Tony their plan and after hearing all of it, he was serving drinks for everyone— Allura had to admit, his reaction was far better than she expected.

       She thought he'd immediately lash out at her, or make some witty remark. But now that she truly thought about it, she realized that he was now a parent. And being a parent changes people, positively or negatively; she knew that from experience.

       "Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve asked, trying to defend their point.

       "Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale, which triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" Tony replied, handing Steve a drink.

       "Thank you." The man said quietly.

       "In layman's terms, it means you're not coming home."

       "I did." Scott interfered.

       "No. You accidentally survived." Tony sighed. "It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull a... what do you call it?" He handed Scott a drink and then Nadenka, the man feeling goosebumps rise up his arms at the sight of the girl who looked exactly like her father.

       "Thanks." She said, knowing exactly what was going though his head. Tony then handed Allura a drink, her green eyes meeting his brown ones as she nodded slightly.

       "Thank you."

       "A time heist?" Scott asked with a small smile, making Allura raise an eyebrow. Creative name, wrong time.

       "Yeah, a time heist. Of course. Why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable. Because it's a pipe dream-"

       "The stones are in the past. We could go back, we could get them." Steve tried to argue, hoping to get his point across as a serious matter.

       "We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everybody back." Natasha said.

       "Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?" Tony asked them, Pietro sighing.

       "At this point, anything is worth a try." The black haired boy spoke, his blue eyes going to the lake slightly and then looked at Tony.

       The two had become acquaintances over the small amount of time when Pietro was on his side. It had surprised Tony, to be honest, how the Sokovian boy joined him after everything his company put him through.

       But in the end, all Pietro wanted was a bit of peace. He just didn't know how to get it at the moment and he went with the option that seemed the least chaotic.

       "I don't think we would." Steve said, talking about Tony's remark.

       "Gotta say it. I sometimes miss that giddy optimism. However, high hopes won't help, if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist." Tony spoke, sitting down on the couch and looking at them with an expression of disbelief, before he continued.

       "I believe the most likely outcome will be our collective demise."

       "Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. Alright? That means, no talking to our past selves, not betting on sporting events-" Allura's green eyes widened and her eyebrows furrowed as she stared at Scott in disbelief.

       She could hear her breathing become altered and her fists closing as she huffed. The piece of paper in the pocket of her jacket became heavy to carry, and she almost glared at Scott.

       "I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott." "Which time traveling are you talking about?" Tony and Allura said at the same time, respectively, the woman gesturing at him to continue while she got lost in her own thoughts.

They were doomed.

Allura is such a soft mother! And Morgan is so adorable!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Things are going slowly, but once the pace is picked up I hope it will get more interesting!

Stay safe!

- evanescence2016