•Night Angel•

CHAPTER XLIII - WORTH IT

17th May 2008. 20:10. Malibu, Los Angeles, CA.

Third person POV

After spending the whole day together, Sophia and Michael were finally arriving at the Stark residency. Michael parked the car in Tony's driveway and got out, he was about to open his girlfriend's door, when someone rushed in front of him and beat him to it.

-Gotta speed up, boy.- Happy said as he opened Sophia's door and threw a wink at Michael, trying to annoy him. The young man just laughed and shook his head. Sophia smiled and got out of the car, taking the hand Happy was offering her.

-Well, boys. No need to fight for me, I can take both helps.- She said as she gave Happy a hug and walked towards Michael, grabbing his hand.

-Tony's waiting for you in the dining room.- Happy said as he closed the car door and walked behind the pair.

-Thanks, Happy.- Sophia said as she and Michael walked to where her brother was waiting.

When they were walking towards there, Sophia heard not only Tony's voice, but Rhodey's and Pepper's. Suddenly she prayed to every god in the world, universe, heaven, underworld and everything that the big bald wannabe santa claus was not there. She would hate this evening if Obadiah was here.

To her surprise, when they arrived, they just saw Tony, Pepper and Rhodey, with a glass of wine in their hands and chatting between them. Sophia quickly eyed the table and counted the places. 6 places. 6 plates. She saw no trace of Obadiah and just as she was about to ask who was going to be the sixth person joining them, she saw Happy walking towards the table and setting his glass down in one of the places.

She sighed happily.

-Well, look who actually decided to come.- Tony said as he stood up to greet his little sister. He wrapped her in a hug and rocked her side to side. They had seen each other the day before, but after Tony's incident, he had started to value the time he had with his little sister and the people he cared about a lot more. After they pulled apart, Sophia moved to greet her other friends while Michael stayed back, greeting Tony.

-Hey man.- Tony said as they hugged briefly, patting his back a few times. Michael returned the gesture.

-Hey, thanks for this, you didn't have to.- Michael said as they pulled apart. Tony waved his hand dismissively and shook his head.

-Nah, it's nothing. I wanted to throw a big farewell party, but I remembered you also work for the government so I guessed it was not a good idea, so I just went for this small gathering.- Tony said as he turned to look at his friends and his sister.

That night, the billionaire, just like Michael, had realized something. Tony, on one hand, realized that he didn't need all of those people and things to have a good time. He just needed his friends, and his sister.

On the other hand, Michael realized for the millionth time, that what he was doing was not worth it. He knew that this was more worth that everything else. And he also knew that he was throwing all of this away with his actions.

And if he was going to blame someone for the outcome of this and the things he would lose, apart from blaming Nick, he was going to blame himself forever, for not fixing it and resigning when he could've done it.

-It's okay. I appreciate it, man. Really, thanks.- The young man said as he gave Tony's shoulder a gentle squeeze. Tony smiled and patted his friend's back.

-I love to see Star happy, and she is happy with you, so yeah. Enjoy it. Plus, you are family. Everything for the fam. - Tony said and in that moment, Michael felt another pang of pain spread through his chest.