A/N: whew, it has officially been ten chapters since peter died...
also, i did some estimates for you guys and it's looking like this book is gonna be about 130ish chapters long, so about 20 chapters less than the last one. given that, we are about 45% of the way through it so far! which is crazy to think about, i literally feel like i started it a few months ago when in reality it's already been a year. yikes
anyway, this is a birthday chapter so normally i would say enjoy but we all know how this song goes now...
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"I love you, baby.
See you soon."
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It had been a few weeks without any more big crimes and that made her nervous.
That meant something bigger might happen soon. She had been all over it, using TADASHI for help. She wanted to tell Tony, but...she couldn't ask him to get involved with this kind of stuff now that he had Morgan. It was too risky. Besides, she was confident she could deal with this on her own. Sort of.
She turned eighteen today. That had to count for something.
Eighteen.
It seemed like such a big number. Especially to someone who wanted to stop growing. It was like the more she tried to slow down her age, the faster it went.
She was on her bed, staring at the framed picture of her and Peter in her hand, running her fingers over his smiling face. It was taken at the Winter Dance years ago before they started dating. They were standing in front of a blue sheet they used as a backdrop and some of the paper snowflakes that she and Vivian had cut out were hanging from it to make it seem like they were standing outside in the snow if snow crystals were the size of her head.
In the picture, Peter was laughing at the camera with his arm wrapped around her waist while she was also laughing and looking up at him. His eyes were crinkled by their corners and she couldn't put her finger on what exactly it was but something about him made him seem so happy. She couldn't even remember what they were laughing so hard about, but just seeing the picture made her smile. That had been a good night...for the most part.
God, eighteen. She put the frame down somewhere on her bed. It had been over a year since his death. She was eighteen now. She was an adult. It felt unreal. If only she could control time. Controlling reality felt like a waste when she couldn't learn how to use it. And even more of a waste when she knew she couldn't bring people back from the dead.
There was a knock on her bedroom door, making her look up. Tony poked his head inside and then fully stepped into the room. She gave him a forced smile. It was her birthday. She should have been happy. But happiness was something she hadn't felt since Titan, since Thanos. He might as well have snapped that away too with half of the population. Tony glanced at what she was wearing — Peter's old t-shirt. She needed that today so he bit back any remarks about it.
"Tony," she sighed when she realized he was hiding something behind his back. He smiled, sitting down by her feet on her bed.
"I know you said no presents but just open it," he said, holding out a small, wrapped gift for her. She looked at him for a moment before taking the gift from his hands and tearing off the wrapping paper.
It was his phone. Peter's old phone. She looked up at him.
"How did you...?"
"His password is your birthday," Tony said quietly, "Not the strongest password in my opinion, but...happy birthday, sweetheart." She smiled, feeling the familiar ache in her heart.
"Thank you," she mumbled. He squeezed her hand.
"Unlock the phone," he said and she put in her birthday. Immediately a video of Peter began playing. It was an older video, obviously. She remembered him sending this video to her on the last birthday of hers that they celebrated together when she had turned sixteen. It was the first thing she had seen that morning.
"Happy birthday, Ada! You're officially old enough to drive, but please do all of us a favor and don't," he joked, "Just kidding...kind of. Anyway, today's your special day and I'm taking you out tonight so be ready. I love you, baby. See you soon."
She hadn't realized just how badly she needed to hear his voice say those words again until now. They washed over her with a level of comfort nothing had been able to bring, not even his clothes. And if this was the closest thing she had to him, then it would have to be enough. She stared at his smiling face on the paused video. His sweet brown eyes crinkled by their corners as they always did when he smiled and the one curl that always fell into his forehead.
I love you, baby. See you soon.
I wish I could, Pete.
—————
"I know you said no presents so I just made you your favorite for dinner," Pepper said as soon as the teenager walked into the family room. The smell of the freshly-cooked food from the kitchen hit her nose and she inhaled deeply to take it all in.
"Lasagna?" she guessed, sitting down on the sofa next to Pepper who had been reading a book until now. Morgan was quietly playing with her toys on the carpet, by her mother's feet.
"It's in the oven, but should be done in a few," the woman said, "Meanwhile, you relax. Go for a swim lake in the lake, take a sunbath— I have some scented oils and candles if you want to take a regular bath. Just...relax, okay?"
Adelaide smiled. "Pep, I'm fine, I promise. A little sad, but fine."
"I know," Pepper said with a gentle smile. She put down the book in her hands to reach over and rub the teenager's arm comfortingly. "It's your eighteenth birthday. I just want you to enjoy it."
Before Adelaide could reply to that, there was a knock on the front door.
She glanced at Pepper and then at the clock. The only person they had been expecting was Happy and that wasn't for at least another hour. Besides, no one ever really "knocked" on their door. They only ever had two visitors, Happy and Rhodey and they rarely showed up unannounced.
"I'll get it," Pepper said, putting her book down on the sofa cushion next to her and standing up. Adelaide could hear Tony's footsteps coming down the hall until he appeared in the family room. He caught her eye and she shrugged, shaking her head.
It wasn't until Pepper opened the door that Adelaide froze.
It was Griffin.
Her brother. Her brother was at her house.
Here. In New York. Griffin, in New York. She blinked a couple of times to make sure he was real, that she wasn't just seeing things.
"Hi," he said quietly, not exactly warmed to his heart by Pepper's glare. "I'm..."
"Yeah, I remember you," Pepper said. He nodded awkwardly. Tony stepped up behind Pepper, glaring at the man.
"What hell do you think you're doing here?" Tony snapped.
"Look, I really am sorry about that. I just came here because it's her birthday and...I just thought I should wish her a happy birthday," he said.
"I'm gonna give you one min—"
"Tony," Adelaide said quietly, stepping into the foyer with them, "It's okay." Tony didn't stop glaring at the man on his doorstep, even when Adelaide stepped in front of him with a small smile on her face. He looked different, better. His beard was gone, for one. Griffin looked at her unsurely.
"You're here," she said quietly.
"I'm here," he said as if he was only just now realizing this himself, "Happy birthday." He handed her something. It was a rectangular box about a foot long and a few inches wide, messily wrapped in some Christmas wrapping paper with small, mismatched pieces of duct tape.
"...Thanks," she said unsurely.
Not only did he remember her birthday, but he came all the way here to wish her and give her a gift? Maybe he really had changed in the last few weeks she'd seen him. Maybe those words they exchanged on the dock that night in New Orleans had actually gotten through to him. She stared at the gift in her hand. Before this, she had known exactly where they were. They hated each other's guts. Simple as that. Now...Now one sentence wasn't enough to describe what they were. And she couldn't say she knew too surely herself.
There was a bit of uncomfortably long and awkward silence between the four adults. Adelaide didn't really know what to say or to do. This was the first time she'd ever had a brother before. Avoiding awkward silences would be as impossible as Tony not complimenting himself at least once a day. Tony and Pepper shared a look and stepped back into their home, walking back to play with Morgan and give their teenager a little privacy to talk to her brother.
"Did you, um, drive...here?" she asked in a small voice eventually, noticing an old, red pickup truck with peeling paint parked a few feet from the house. It was missing a side-view mirror.
"Yeah...not my best idea, I'll admit," he admitted, glancing over at his car, "She broke down twice on the highway. I've...kind of been on the road for a couple of days now."
"Are you staying anywhere?" she asked tentatively.
"No? I haven't looked for inns yet. Either way, they're way out of a bartender's price range," he said with a chuckle, "I'll probably just start driving back home tonight and sleep in my car again."
Tony knew what his teenager was about to say and the words were spilling out of her mouth before he could even stop her.
"You should stay here," she said. Behind her, all the way in the living room, she could hear Tony sighing loudly, not even bothering to hide his disappointment. Griffin definitely noticed.
"Uh...I'm not so sure that's a good idea," he said, "I don't think your...um, parents like me too much." Adelaide rolled her eyes.
"In their defense, you did give me a black eye the last time I saw you," she told him, "Anyway, it doesn't matter. It's my birthday today. If they kick you out tomorrow, though, I can't do anything about that."
"I thought rich people celebrated their birthdays for a week," he said with a hint of a smile on his lips. She mirrored his expression.
"Not sure I like you enough to live with you for a week," she said.
"Likewise," he grinned and she stepped aside to let him into their house.
He looked around curiously. He'd never really been inside a lakeside cabin before. Or really any cabin for that matter. Adelaide stood in the foyer for a moment as she watched him. Her eyes seemed to refuse to adjust to the visual of her brother standing in her home. She briefly wondered what their parents would have said if they were still here. The whole situation was too weird to even imagine the words their parents would utter.
She stepped forward into the living room where Tony and Pepper were on the rug, playing with Morgan and her toys. They paused for a moment, looking up at her expectantly.
"Griffin's staying here for tonight. He can take the guest bedroom," she told them. Tony didn't bother with politeness. His face had an unmistakable frown on it at the news.
"One wrong move, buddy," Tony said pointedly as he looked at the man.
Adelaide sighed. She didn't exactly trust Griffin with her life either, but she doubted he was stupid enough to try something in their own house. Still, she let Tony threaten him all he wanted.
Just in case her brother was that stupid.
—————
Dinner was just as awkward, if not worse.
All that could be heard was the sound of utensils clinking against the other dinnerware and the occasional sound of someone biting into a crispy slice of garlic bread. Happy had joined them for dinner. He brought her some of her favorite dark chocolate as a gift even though she had specifically told him she didn't want anything. She hadn't eaten dark chocolate in a long time. It wasn't appetizing anymore.
Adelaide had been the last one to say anything at the dinner table and that was only to tell Pepper that the food was great. For every minute after that, the teenager had been praying for Morgan to wake up crying or make any sort of noise just to fill the awkward silence in the room.
As far as birthdays went, she was pretty sure she'd had better birthdays back in the bunker in Siberia. This just made her want to lock herself in her room and stare at the clock on the wall until the day was over.
"So, Griffin," Pepper finally mumbled between bites, "what do you do?"
"I bartend. The owner lets me stay in the apartment over the bar for half the rent," he said.
"Do you enjoy it?" Happy asked him.
"It's not bad. Plus, the bar is right next to a strip club which is perfect, am I right?" Griffin grinned.
No one said anything. Adelaide coughed.
Griffin looked between the four of them, realizing that this was the wrong audience. To be completely honest, in this past year, all he'd really done was bartend, over-drink, and a bunch of hookers. Kiki was his favorite but she didn't have a fixed schedule so he took her when he got the chance.
He'd never been one for love and for settling down. That had been Gamora's department. She never admitted it to him, but he knew she fantasized about falling in love someday and settling down on a planet far away enough from her past. She had found that in Quill, apparently. Though, Griffin really didn't see what all the hype was over him. The man was just so annoying. He honestly wasn't too upset over his death.
So even now, he couldn't understand why Adelaide was so hung up over a boy who, in his opinion, didn't look that special. Sure, grieving over his sister and father, he could understand. But grieving over a boy you weren't even married to? It sounded like a waste of energy to him.
"So," he said, clearing his throat, "You're eighteen now?"
"Yeah," Adelaide answered.
And then they were thrust back into their awkward silence. Griffin wondered if it would honestly be worse to stab himself with one of his forks instead of simmer in silence.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, dinner was over. He didn't care too much for lasagna. He disliked fancy food and preferred anything that he could eat with his hands. That's how he had grown up. Having three different forks and spoons was just an excuse to show off your money, another way of saying you were rich.
There was a planet. Gnardia. All they ate there was metal. They ate a part of his ship once when he was there. They would probably love to eat all these forks and spoons.
"We'll be outside if you need us," she told Tony later after she had finished helping him load up the dishwasher. He gave her a look.
"Yeah, I need you," he said, "I need you to stay away from him. Strip clubs? Seriously?"
"And how did you spend your money before you met Pepper?" she asked. He said nothing, his face settling into an annoyed expression. "Look, he's not my favorite person in the world, but he's my brother and I think he deserves a second chance. I mean, he drove all the way from New Orleans in a death car. You saw the truck. It barely looks like it could drive me two feet in any direction."
"I think this counts as this third chance. And remind me to make him move the truck before it spontaneously explodes and swallows our house," he mumbled.
"We'll just be outside," she said with a small smile, gently squeezing his arm. He didn't look that convinced at all.
"Christmas wrapping paper," he argued and her smile grew a bit bigger.
"Death truck," she replied before leaving the kitchen. Griffin was sitting on the sofa, messing with the tv remote when she walked in. She cleared her throat quietly to catch his attention.
"Come on," she said, "Let's go outside."
He stood up and followed her outside, closing the door behind himself. It was already dark outside, but Adelaide seemed to know exactly where they were going. He listened to the noise of the nightlife in the trees. They never had anything like this back home. There were no animals left on his planet, but he was always fond of them when he visited planets that had them. Gamora's favorite had been the wild butterflies whose wings glowed an incandescent blue in the dark. She would catch them in the palm of her hand to marvel at them before letting them back into the woods.
Out here, he could see little flying bugs that flashed a golden yellow color briefly before turning dark again. They were all around. Like stars twinkling on the ground.
"You're not taking me to kill me, are you?" he asked as they waded into the dark woods.
"Not today," she replied without turning back towards him.
He continued to follow her as she weaved through the trees and it was a relatively short walk to the lake. It was dark, but he could hear the soft sound of the water flowing. She stopped at the bank of the lake, looking out at the dark water. He stepped down beside her.
"It's nice," he nodded.
She smiled briefly for a moment before situating herself onto the ground. He copied her movements and sat down on the cool grass next to her. They sat in silence for a few minutes.
He couldn't sense her movements in the dark until she held out her hands for him. They were cupped together with one flipped over the other, making a sort of sealed bowl with them. His dark eyes watched her curiously as she slowly opened up a small crack between her fingers to show him the little lightning bug in her palm.
He realized he was smiling when he looked up at her in surprise. She returned his smile. He hadn't expected her to remind him so much of Gamora.
It was...nice, actually.
She opened up her palm and let the bug back into the woods, watching it as it flew off. She leaned back on the palms of her hands and breathed in the fresh air with closed eyes. This was one of the only places where she felt comfortable. Where her thoughts felt distant and she could feel a sliver of her old self again, before the Blip.
"So I think your dad loves me," Griffin said after a while.
At that, she laughed. A real, genuine laugh that spilled out without her thinking about it. She hadn't laughed this way in a while and to think it was because of her brother who wanted to kill her just a few weeks ago. She caught his smiling eyes.
"Strip club? Seriously, Griffin?" she asked as her laughter died down.
"It's a great conversation starter in New Orleans," he defended. She grinned at him, her bright blue eyes sparkling in the dark. It reminded him of how his eyes used to be the same color. Before Lukov gave him his powers. Powers that sucked out any light inside of him, including the light in his own eyes. Now, all he saw when he looked in the mirror were eyes as dark as a black hole, solely created for reeling in prey.
"Yeah? And just how many conversations have you started in New Orleans?" she asked. He moved into the same position she was in, leaning back on his elbows. The soft, unbothered grass felt cold against his skin.
"I bartend. I've seen hundreds of people start conversations at the Rose and most of them include the strip club next door. They have great service," he said and her nose wrinkled in disgust as she reached over to shove his shoulder.
"Ew, gross," she said, making him laugh.
"Right, I forgot you're still just a kid," he chuckled. She frowned.
"I turned eighteen today," she argued.
"And I'm thirty-five," he said. Her eyebrows drew together. She knew he was older than her but she'd never really calculated just how much.
"I was born before you," she said.
"But you're still a kid," he said and she realized this was like Nat and Steve all over again and it would never end unless she acted like an adult and ended it now.
"Whatever," she grumbled, looking back out at the lake again, now with a frown on her face.
Griffin had heard Gamora mumble that to him every time she lost a fight against him and didn't want to admit it. Which was a lot. He found himself studying Adelaide, studying his sister. She was...different than he had pegged her to be in his mind. Who knew she'd be a whole lot nicer when they weren't in a screaming match against each other?
"Did you open your gift?" he asked. She turned her head to look over at him.
"You mean the one in Christmas wrapping paper?" she asked, holding up the box she had grabbed on her way out the door earlier.
"The old tenet left the paper in my apartment," he shrugged, "I found it wrapped around an old underwear box under the bed and repurposed it." She cringed and he smiled. "Kidding. It was a boxer's box. Just open it."
Sighing, she tore off the paper, fighting the urge to wash her hands in the lake immediately. When she finally got it all off, she stared at the cover of the box, blinking.
"It's...a bottle."
"It's a bottle of Fireball," he said, "It sells like crazy at the bar and since you just turned eighteen, I thought I'd bring you some." She blinked at the bottle in her hands some more.
"You have to be twenty-one to drink alcohol," she told him, "You should know that. That's, like, bartending 101." She wasn't a stranger to drinking, but she was betting Tony wouldn't exactly be overjoyed if she stumbled back into the house later reeking of alcohol with Griffin trailing behind her. That was a bloodbath waiting to happen.
"No, it's eighteen. I asked that kid who shows up— damn it. That little fucker lied to me," he cursed.
"How many underage people have you sold alcohol to?" she asked.
"Better to ask how many have I not sold it to," he mumbled.
"You could get arrested," she argued. He was unbelievable. He rolled his eyes, pushing himself off of the ground into a sitting position again. He dusted his hands together.
"Yeah, I'd like to see them try," he muttered and, briefly, she saw a flicker of darkness swirl around him before it disappeared. Even here in the dark of the woods, his darkness was darker. It was the opposite of her. His darkness seemed to be where all the world's light came to die. She studied him for a moment.
"How did you get your powers?" she asked quietly. His face immediately stiffened at the question. Any joking mood or warmth on his face was gone in an instant. She'd definitely hit a nerve.
"Lukov ran experiments on me every single day since I was old enough. He tried to replicate your powers in me, but your parents had already destroyed all of their research so he was going in blind. It didn't really matter if he messed up. I was just a lab rat to him, I was expendable. He tried everything he knew to replicate your powers in me. I spent years in his lab until one night, when we were running tests, they failed again. He was furious. He said I had one last chance to prove to him that I was worth his time and so he set me up to fight you.
"To him, it was just a circus show. Two kids who don't know they're related fighting against each other. When I lost, he told Graves to get rid of me like he had with all the others you won against. But he smuggled me into a cargo truck trailer instead and the rest is history. I didn't even realize I had powers until I met Thanos. He taught me how to use them, how to control them to defeat my enemies."
Adelaide didn't know what to say. That sounded awful. Just when she thought she knew the depths Lukov's greed would go to, she uncovered another level. That man was haunting her from hell. He had destroyed her family. Killed her parents and took away her brother and her own self-identity. She wished she could bring him back just to kill him again.
"Lukov...He..." she said, not really sure how to express the amount of anger she was feeling towards him.
"Yeah, I know," Griffin said quietly.
Hatred toward Lukov was one thing he'd always have in common with her.
"Griffin...I...I loved Peter. And Thanos is the reason that he's gone. The reason that almost everyone I cared about is gone. I'll never forgive him for that and if he was still alive, I would kill him again. I know you see him as your father so if you can't understand that, then...I don't want to waste our time," she said quietly, "You can spend the night, but, after that, we can go back to being strangers again."
She couldn't stand to think that she would let herself get close to someone who looked up to a person like Thanos. Even if that someone was her brother. She couldn't do that to Peter and the trillions of others that he had murdered. It just felt wrong. And as much as she wanted to get closer to her brother, if they never agreed on this one thing, they would never agree on anything. Their relationship wouldn't stand a chance and it would just be a waste of everyone's time.
"Thanos killed Gamora," he said quietly, staring at the water, "He killed my sister for a Stone. I always supported him, but..." He dropped his head, closing his eyes.
He hoped he sounded believable enough for Adelaide to trust him. He was so close now. She herself had invited him to spend the night. Tomorrow, she could take him to the compound. Last time he was there, things had been a blur. He needed a better layout of the place before he infiltrated it. The Avengers were smart so he needed to be smarter.
In less than a week, he would be able to have his revenge if things continued to go his way.
"But?" she asked, holding her breath.
"I draw the line at Gamora," he finally said, "I can never forgive him for what he did either."
Her bright, hopeful blue eyes looked just like the butterflies Gamora used to catch in her hands when they were kids.
He frowned, getting swept away in nostalgia for a moment. Too much about her reminded him of his dead sister. He absolutely hated it. He missed Gamora so much and seeing Adelaide only made him want to forget everything else and make amends with her. It almost made him feel like there was something wrong in the way he was tricking her.
She looked up at the glimpses of the sky through the limbs of the tall trees. She could see the glowing wings of the butterflies as they floated around the trees. He lied down beside her, looking up at the sky too. The vastness of existence outside the planet comforted him.
"You do not need my powers," he said.
"Father looks at you differently," she said quietly, "He treats you differently."
"He loves us both the same," he said, frowning. The girl smiled sadly.
"He loves you more, Griffin. Far more," she whispered.
He felt the familiar tightening in his throat at the memory. If he had only one wish, he would wish that Thanos had loved him more. That he had sacrificed him for the Stone at Vormir and not her.
Despite the nostalgia she brought to him, Griffin had to force himself to remember that Adelaide wasn't Gamora.
Gamora was gone and Adelaide was nobody.
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A/N: i know griffin isn't like your favorite person in the world right now, but just wait and give him a chance. you'll see. you know i have a knack for making you guys like characters you initially hated so just give him a chance
anyway, i can't believe it's actually august right now. this might be the first time that it's the same month in this story and irl lol.
the next few chapters are gonna be very griffin-heavy seeing as this part of the story is dedicated to his relationship with adie so be prepared to see lots him around
question: do you think griffin's plans will succeed?
see you guys next wednesday!