Sparks Fly; K. Bishop² ✓

Thirteen.

➶ ｡˚ ° ➶ ｡˚➶ ｡˚ ➶ ｡˚ ➶ ｡˚
(𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐒 𝐅𝐋𝐘)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN——>

Iskra woke up to several missed calls from Kate, she was nowhere near ready to talk to the brunette. Still incredibly upset by what Kate had kept from her, Iskra continued to ignore the calls...but today she listened to one of the voicemails.

"Hey Iskra...it's Kate, You know that obviously but- uh- I know you said you needed space and stuff but like- I really need to talk to you. I know you're still probably incredibly upset with me, and you have the right to be...just know that I miss you and hope to formally apologize soon."

Iskra sighed, switching her phone off, she was not in the mood for this today. Without getting out of bed, she caused a textbook to float its way over to her, dropping it on the empty space of her bed. 

She had decided to continue her way in the path of bio-med throughout her college experience and was currently doing some pre-studying in a way- trying the refresh her memory on everything that she had learned in the past.

Color-coded notes filled the pages of her notebook, for the next hour before, Yelena dragged her out of her room. "You've got to do something besides study, Iskra."

"But I need to study." Iskra whined, "You've got months to do that, and then you'll probably spend years doing that."

Yelena stopped at the bottom of the steps, "Right now, you have better things to do, like be absolutely crushed in a game of Uno."

Game night with a family that mostly consisted of highly trained Russian assassins/spies was always eventful as ever. At least a couple of death threats would be exchanged, as well as several arguments on who's winning.

"Give me your money." Iskra held out her hand, "That is not your property!" Yelena exclaimed, "Mama Melina, tell her."

"It's her property, Yelena." Melina stated, "Wha- You're supposed to be on my side."

"Rules are rules." Melina took money from Yelena's pile handing it over to Iskra, "You weren't saying that when you landed on Dad's property." the blonde grumbled.

Iskra did a little dance of victory, but it fell short when she noticed the chair that sat empty. Natasha's seat.

"Is it my turn yet?" Jessica asked, her newly short hair falling into her face, "Yes, it is darling." Maria stated, trying to interrupt the argument that was going on between Melina and Yelena.

"Ha! Jail." Yelena stated when Iskra landed on the space, "Хуй тебе" (fuck you)

"There's a child here, Iskra." Maria warned, "Like she hasn't heard worse. Plus it was in Russian, Mom."

Maria narrowed her eyes at Iskra but let the game continue without question, despite everyone's arguments Melina ended up crushing them all in Monopoly.   

Later that night Iskra was laying awake on her bed, and she impulsively decided to message Kate, just to let the brunette know that she was ok. 

Even though she wasn't.

Maria knocked on her door, before stepping inside, "Hi," 

"Hi Mom," Iskra replied switching off her phone.

The older woman sat on the edge of Iskra's bed, "I know you want to stop doing anything superhero-ish, and I want to help you with that...How do you feel about therapy?"

Iskra groaned, "Do you really think that's going to help?"

"I do if you're willing to give it a chance." Maria nodded.

The redhead looked at her mother, contemplating the idea, "I guess, I could try...but I have to be able to stop whenever I'm tired of it or it gets to be too much."

"Deal," Maria smiled, "I love you, Iz."

"I love you too, Mom." Maria kissed Iskra's forehead, before turning to leave the room, "We'll talk more in the morning."

--

"I don't have nightmares." Iskra crossed her arms over her chest, "I have no idea what my mother was talking about."

Iskra tried to go into the session with an open mind, but none of the questions were helping with that. How many times does she have to say she doesn't have nightmares to talk them out of existence, was her main question.

"So you don't have any nightmares...not about your mother's death, or almost dying yourself?" Iskra blinked away the purple hue that probably formed in her eyes, "Nope."

"Ok," the other woman nodded.

"That's it?" Iskra's face was contorted in confusion.

"Yep, that's it."

"No pressing for the truth or some shit?"

Iskra's new therapist shook her head, "None of that."

"Strange."

Iskra studied her therapist, looking for any sort of clues, "Very strange."

"I'm assuming you haven't done much therapy in the past?"

"Not since I was a kid," Iskra answered truthfully.

"Well therapy, usually goes at the patient's pace." 

"Interesting." Iskra spoke dryly. 

"Okay, well I'm done here. Goodbye." Iskra stood up from the sofa and literally walked out, "I think that went well," she informed Maria, who in return rolled her eyes.

"Iskra Maren Romanoff-Hill," Maria started and Iskra froze in her tracks, "Yes Mom?"

"You can not just run out of therapy." The blue-eyed woman stated, "That's what I do with everything else?"

"Yes, and that's why we both need to try and form so better habits. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you during the blip...or after your Mama died." Maria apologized.

"But I'm here now, and I want to help you." Iskra shook her head, "You were dust, and then you were grieving the loss of the literal love of your life, Mom. I don't blame you...I never did." 

"Damn- Us Romanoff-Hill's chose self-blame and running as the default." Iskra half-joked, "That we do,"

"Can we get ice cream? I feel like gaslighting myself into thinking nightmares are fake deserves ice cream."

"That was definitely not funny." Maria shook her head, but the next thing she knew both she and Iskra were laughing.

"But seriously can we get ice cream?" Iskra pleaded, "We might as well."