From The Ice || a Marvel Studios Fanfic

22 - The Telling

Liberty's P.O.V

The three of us were waking in silence for a while, until Ned decided to ask us about what he missed whilst me and Peter were studying the previous night. Peter and I gave each other a glance and decided to try and explain that we didn't really do much studying, just mainly catching up a bit with each other as well as just generally chatting. Ned nodded, understanding that a break is needed sometimes, and that we have all be working a bit too hard already and hadn't really had much of a pleasant break just yet. Little did he know that tonight was probably going to be another instalment of one of those much needed work breaks.

As we turned the corner to the street lived on with dad, Peter gave me a look that said 'are you sure you want to do this?' I nodded without thinking. I was ready, I think. I just needed to get this information out there especially to the two people who I would genuinely trust my life. A sense of deja vu washed over me as I took the deepest of breaths and pushed the handle down, opening the door.

"Dad? Don't be angry with me, but Peter's here, and my friend Ned," I started, opening the door, taking my shoes off and dropping my bag on the sofa to the side of me, "we're studying here again and-" I was cut off by a familiar squealing sound coming from Ned behind me.

"Was this what I was like?" I heard Peter chucked behind me,

"Yes," Me and Dad breathed in unison, causing us to look at each other and laugh.

"Oh my god, you even sound the same!" Ned fangirled, I smiled, chuckled a bit and guided him into my room along with Peter, telling my dad that we were going to go study now, closing the door behind me and awaiting Ned to come back from his world of the clouds in his head so that we could actually talk. I turned around from closing the door to see that his mouth was as wide as his eyes were in surprise.

"Liberty... so that's... that's your DAD?!" Ned exclaimed, causing both me and Peter to laugh again.

I then explained to him about everything, also telling Peter about my past at the same time, since I hadn't really felt like I was in the right place to yesterday. They listened intently whilst I told them about my family, my past, the ice, and asked questions where I was glad they did. Both of them were pretty much flabbergasted by the time I had put a stopper on the words from falling out from between my lips.

"So... you aren't actually 15 years old?" Ned questioned,

"Nope," I said, both of the boys stepping backwards slightly, being taken aback by my reply.

"You're actually..." Peter started,

"I'm 73 years old." I replied, just silence following in the midst of my words. The silence was piercing. Unbearable. Trying to think of a million different ways to start up a conversation after dropping the age bomb on the two of them, I kept quiet out of fear that I'd say something worse. I hoped that telling them all of this wouldn't change the relationship and friendship we had already built. But, to be honest, all of the view changes were inevitable.

For days afterwards, Ned talked to me as if I was some sort of authority, as if I was a completely different person. I knew that he didn't mean to do it and everything, he wouldn't do anything like that out of spite or to just be plain rude, but in some ways it did hurt. Peter had known for a day longer than Ned, but I could genuinely tell he was trying to not change how he thought about me, he acted as he usually would most of the time. But, sometimes, there were glimpses of a different person. Apart from that, everything carried on as normal, we continued with our little study group, going for ice cream in the summer months and then going for coffee (or hot chocolate in my case since I'd never really been a fan of the warm caffeinated beverage) during the colder winter months. Eventually, the whole 'Liberty-is-the-daughter-of-a-super-soldier' thing died down and it almost went back to normal. Almost.