Irya Aillie Stark - D. M. (Harry Potter x Marvel)

FACING KILLIAN

"I owe him my life." He is looking at the cables in his hand but I know by the look in his eyes his mind is somewhere else. "He was being kidnapped there too. He gave me hope, and I managed to trick the kidnappers into thinking I was cooperating but instead I was building an armour, something that would help us escape."

"How long did that take?"

"Three months. Yinsen didn't make it out alive, he knew he wouldn't, but he made me realize things. He made me see I had been wasting my life away- "He cut himself off, shaking his head before continuing. "What I mean, kiddo, is I had a lot of time to think, to remember. And though most choices I had made seemed stupid there was the one thing I will always regret."

"Me." I say, lowering my face. "My parents made sure I knew how much you regretted me. That you hated me, that that's why you turned my mother away."

"I was scared, but I didn't regret anything at all. I never could regret having you." He reached one hand to me and pulled some hair away from my face, and I looked at him not being able to hide away my glossed over eyes. "But I made the stupidest choice of my life by turning your mom away, yes. The guilt was eating me alive and I hadn't even realized how much until I was in that cave. It's the one choice I will always regret the most."

We've been over this before, but it still hurts. Every time I think about it, I can't help but wonder how different my life would have been, how I wouldn't have had to go through all the things I did. That hurts, and I'm not sure it'll ever not hurt.

"So I promised myself something. I promised that I was going to get out of there, and when I did I was going to find you. My search started from the very day I got back home, after Rhodey found me in the desert. And I never stopped looking, even though I had no clue where to start from, until I found you."

"Or more like I found you." The tears remaining in my eyes flowed down my cheeks as he lightly laughed.

"Yeah, you found me first." His gaze settles in my eyes, and he dries the fallen tears from my face with his thumb. "And I'm never letting you go again. That's why I'm so keen on finding the Mandarin, because he threathens the people I love, and no one threathens my little girl."

"We're going to find him." I say, my voice reflecting the determination I was feeling.

"We are."

"And we'll make him pay for Happy."

"We will." He confirms once again. "It's time we show him who's boss."

_____

We spent the rest of the night talking as we worked making the small little things like bombs and tasers. He told me of how he'd piss off Happy by racing with him in a sort of competition of who could go from the mansion to the Stark Industries building, or how Rhodey always had his back when Tony was way too drunk to give an acceptance speech. I, on the other hand, told him about countless times when my friends and I would mess with the first years and would always get away with it, or how we'd spend all year getting points (mostly given to us by Snape) just to have the house cup getting stolen from us by Dumbledore giving it away to Gryffindor.

Anyway, we were back on the road before the sun even started to rise, and after a couple cups of coffee and a seemingly endless road we had finally arrived at the mansion in Miami, the Mandarin's headquarters.

I raised my hand up to Tony, signalling the number three, to tell him how many guards I'd seen when casting the revelio charm.

"You go left, I'll go right." He mouthed, and we climbed off the tree. We climb over the wall, and as I fall I take a last glance to see him as he quickly walks to the stairs on the right.