•Night Angel•

CHAPTER VII - THE DEPARTURE

After Sophia and Tony make up, they went back into the house to keep from freezing outside. Once they were in, Sophia was taken by Juliette to change her clothes that had gone wet from the snow. In the meantime, Tony went back to his uncles and told them that he had made up with Sophia, after all. They told them it was great news, but something else slipped from his uncle's mouth.

-What do you mean she is leaving?.- Antoine had let slip the fact that Sophia was leaving on monday for the academy. Tony was not supposed to find out this way, but well, here we are.

-Tony, calm down, listen to— He didn't even let his uncle finish when he spoke again.

-No, tell me. What do you mean she's leaving? Where? Why?.- He didn't understand why or what made them make that decision. He just got her back, he couldn't lose her again.

-Tony, sit down. We'll explain everything to you before Sophie comes back.- Victoire's soothing and soft voice calmed him a little. So he took a seat on the sofa and listened to what his uncles had to say.

They explained everything to him. Since the moment of the kidnapping and what happened, to the moment they agreed to take her to Pierre's organisation. They also explained everything about Daylight. How it worked, what it was for, what you did in there, when, how, everything. To say he was perplexed was an understatement. He had no idea. He didn't really like it either, to be honest. But also there was nothing he could do. He hated the idea. He didn't want Sophia to leave. But a part of him, a non-selfish part, knew, just like his uncles, that maybe this was okay.

They heard footsteps coming from the stairs, so they stopped talking about what was going on. Once Sophia reached the living room, she ran straight to Tony.

-Oh! Hey there, what's up?.- Tony held her in his arms and put her in one of his legs so she could be seated.

-Are you going to stay for dinner? Laurie can make your favourite food if you ask him.- Sophia wanted to spend as much time as she could with Tony before she left.

-Of course I'll stay. That's an obvious answer. And not only that, I'm going to be staying here, with you, until monday, when you leave, so I can say goodbye.- Just thinking about the fact that she was going to leave in less than 72 hours made his heart feel heavy in his chest.

He missed so much time doing his stupid shenannigans and dissapearing again and again, that just when he thought he could make up for the lost time, he didn't realized that his time was actually up. According to what his uncles told him, he was going to be able to visit her once in a while where she was going to be, but not so much, because she needed to focus and be attentive to her tasks.

His little sister was going to grow up so fast, and he was not going to be there to see it. Again.

After they talked a little bit, dinner time came, so Antoine, Victoire, Sophia and Tony sat at the table and started talking once again, about anything and everything. Tony told them about how the business was going, how everything was running at Stark Industries, about their partnership also.

Dumont Industries and Stark Industries were intended to be partners since Antoine and Howard started with them. They were going to work on their own but also together as a whole industry. While Howard's approach was more of weapons, Antoine's was more of creating machines for big manufacturing industries, new technological equipment, and together they created technological inventions that would be a new step for society in the engineering market.

After they all had dinner and chatted for a few hours, Sophia's eyes were fighting to stay open. Tony realized this and offered himself to take her to her room. Carrying her in his arms all the way through the stairs, Sophia was hanging from Tony's arms like it was her life line. She loved the fact that her brother was back. Even if it was just for a little while.