Broken Lullaby ▷ Tony Stark | ✓

5 - HIDDEN PROMISES

REMY HAD BEEN HIDING UP IN HIS ROOM FOR THE BETTER PART OF THE AFTERNOON. After his mother had driven them home, she had confiscated his plan, sending it to herself and taking all his physical copies as well, her son putting up a good fight up until dinner where she was able to take it from him. Then she called Jayne and left the house, not speaking to her son again.

So that left Jayne to sit in the kitchen and make herself a drink while the eleven year old cried upstairs in his room. She didn't know he was crying, however, as Remy never threw tantrums when he was sad. He threw tantrums when something wrong and he had no control of it, but if his mother grounded him he would just sit and pout.

Remy didn't just cry. Jayne, who had known him his whole life, knew that the boy didn't just cry. Even when Mark left, he didn't cry unless he got upset. He didn't cry when he was simply sad.

It was a surprise, however, that he wasn't throwing a tantrum at his mother taking his plans. Perhaps it was because he had planned for this, making sure not to write the name of the man he was sure was his father; his mother thought he was smart, just not that smart.

"Honey," Jayne called, knocking on the boy's door, "Can I come in?"

"No," he called out, face buried in his pillow, his body sprawled out on his twin bed mattress.

The only sign that his mother's actions had affected him in any way was the fact that the contents of his backpack had been tossed around haphazardly across his room, the only fit of anger he would allow himself to experience.

With a sigh, Jayne tried the door knob, surprised to see it unlocked. Opening it, she stepped in carefully, waiting for her godson to send her out. But he didn't react, simply lying with his face in his pillow, looking very small.

"Your mom isn't mad," she tried, sitting at the foot of his bed, placing a hand on his back, "She's just...scared. I don't think even she knew Mark wasn't your dad."

"But you knew," he said, sitting up quickly to look at her, "You told me that the only other person you knew she slept with was Tony Stark at a New Year's Eve party in 2006. It coincides perfectly, I was born in September. And-and mom tells you everything!"

"I know, sweetie, but I don't think your mom really remembers," she confessed, pulling him to her side, "She's been through a lot, more than you can ever imagine and more than she will ever want to tell you, at least when you're this young. So you can't blame her for reacting badly, I bet she even forgot."

Remy sighed. "How can she forget who my dad is?"

Jayne stared across at the wall, mumbling softly to herself. "The mind hides a lot of things to protect us, Remy."

He groaned and fell back against his pillow, staring at his ceiling. "Well, if she doesn't remember, then I can keep up with the plan, I just have to go down the other path. Have to make some adjustments, though, I planned on him being unwilling, but not in the way he is..."

Jayne watched as the boy jumped to his feet, making his way to his closet and shifting through some drawers, pulling out a box. Her jaw dropped as he undid some pieces of the box, revealing another physical copy of his plan which he set out along his floor.

Catching her look, he gave her a sly smile. "You think I didn't plan on mom finding out? You won't tell, right?"

Jayne worried on her bottom lip as she watched the boy begin to write over some of his notes, mumbling to himself as he grabbed sticky notes, his work meticulous yet chaotic, an order that he found easiest to understand without it becoming a hassle. She had never seen such determination in someone so small before.