Chasing the tesseract

Chapter 22

Darkness envelopes the forest as me and Stephen push our way into the bushes not far from where the rest of the team sit. Our hands are still laced together, our shoulders brushing against each other as we stroll through the silence of the trees. Coming to a stop outside the clearing where a small fire lights up the teams faces, I pull Stephen into the shadows, looking directly into his eyes.

"I'm sorry for what I'm about to do." I mumble, Stephen's eyes narrowing as I pull my hand free from his and take a deep breath. Closing my eyes, I clench my muscles, my hand forming a fist as I let my anger flow through my body.

"Sorry for what?" he asks before my hand collides with his jaw, silencing his questions as he grabs his now red jaw. "Ow." he shouts, looking up at me though confused eyes as I clench my jaw and swallow my emotions., shaking my hand which now burns. His face is hard.

"Stay away from me Stephen." I scream, my voice louder than it needs to be as I take deep heavy breaths. Behind me, I hear shuffling come from the clearing as I peek through the bushes to find the team have silenced their talking, hushing each other as they try to listen. Good, it's working.

"What's going on Abi?" whispers Stephen, reaching out to me as my other hand collides with his cheek bone, my ring making a small cut just below his eye. Clearly I have more force than I thought. "Hey." he yells, his voice expressing his clear annoyance at my lack of explanation. After checking that the team can't see us, I place my hand gently against his cheek, wiping the blood away with my sleeve as I smile at him apologetically.

"You douchebag!" I scream, four octaves higher than before, removing my hand from his cheek as he nods, clearly understanding what I'm doing. "How dare you!"

"What did he do?" whispers Rue from the other side of the bush, her voice gentle and innocent as the rest of the group remain in silence. Peeking through a small gap in the bush, I see Tony shuffle in his chair, the others turning to him expectantly.

"Well..." he scratches the back of his head as his eyes fix on a patch of grass on the floor at his feet. "Stephen may have said some things a few days ago and I may have brought them back up when Abi was stood listening." he confesses, a gasp coming from Wanda as Loki narrows his eyes at Tony.

"What things?" asks Loki, curiosity lurking in his eyes as he looks towards the bush we stand behind causing us both to move. We've been quiet for too long, we need to say something. Elbowing Stephen in the ribs hard, he turns to me as I smile at him apologetically again before raising my hand thats now glowing softly.

"Oh god no." he mumbles as I send a burst of power at him, the whole forest around us glowing white as his back hits a tree. Slowly, his body hits the floor as a groan escapes his throat and he pulls himself up.

"Oof, looks like Abi's pretty pissed off." whispers Thor, clearly amused by mine and Stephen's fighting.

"Well, what do you have to say?" I hiss, my voice more bitter than I expected causing Stephen to look at me through narrowed eyes. "You told me I was heartless. That I was manipulative and crazy." Multiple gasps come from the other side of the bushes as Stephen steps towards me, the glow from my hands fading away.

"I'm going to kill him." grunts Loki as shuffling comes from where he's sat causing me to rush towards the small gap in the bush again, Stephen following me with wide eyes, each step of his cautious. "How dare he call my sister those things!" Standing up, Loki begins walking towards the bush we hide behind but before he can reach us, Tony stands up, stepping in his way.

"Never thought I'd say this but I'm thankful Tony's there." whispers Stephen beside me, his shoulders relaxing as a small chuckle escapes my lips. Wrapping my arm around his shoulders, I pull him closer to me.