Sokovian Bastard

51

Lyla has spent a month and two weeks in the house without contact from the Avengers other than the usual Wednesdays. Pietro doesn't count. He's there every two days and sometimes secretly stays the night to get rid of her nightmares, just to leave early the next morning as to not cause any suspicion with Wanda being the only one who knows.

Today is one of the days that he'd be coming over. But, usually, he'd be there by now, confusing her a bit as to why he hasn't shown up yet. She decides to shrug it off and stay patient and wait for him to show.

- 

Lyla's sitting on the couch in the living room with nothing on and a book in her hands.

She sees a blue blur out of the corner of her eye and looks up with a smile before that slowly disappears at the sight of a drained, expressionless, teary, Pietro out of breath. She sets the book down and stands.

"Pietro?" She worries. "What's wrong?"

He goes to say something but is stopped by more tears spilling out. She lands in front of him in less than a second and he throws his arms around her waist. She quickly hugs his neck with her hand on the back of his head while confusedly calling his name with furrowed brows.

"Hey, hey, woah, what's going on?" She coos but he isn't able to say anything. "Pietro, baby, what happened?"

They slowly lower to the floor with her on her knees while he lays his body on her, half curled into a ball. She keeps her one hand on the back of his neck while the other rubs up and down his back with fright and concern running through her mind.

She moves them to her bed and has him relax his body while trying her best to calm his horrified-self. She puts him under the blanket with his legs stretched out, arms around her waist, and head on her abdomen. She starts running her fingers through his hair, pushing it back while also playing with the hair on the nape of his neck. His crying stops while the tears still stain his face and she wipes them away as his body finally fully relaxes, eventually calming him to sleep.

She stays where she is with watery eyes, terrified of his sudden behavior that can't mean anything good for anyone.

-  

Lyla makes it out of her room about an hour later with him still laying on his front but hugging a pillow. She gets to the living room and hurries to the remote to turn the TV to a video chat with the team.

They pick up right away and she sees the tired and scarred looks on their faces.

"What the hell happened?"

"Where's Pietro?" Nat asks.

"He's in my room." She points with a sigh. "What happened?"

"Mad Titan named Thanos." Steve crosses his arms. "He came in search of the last of the Infinity Stones."

"The things Thor was talking about with Vision?" She furrows her brows and he nods.

"He got them all and with the snap of his fingers, half the population of the universe disappeared." He states as her eyes get teary. "Wanda along with the many others."

"Oh, God." She sighs as a tear slips out. "He's asleep right now but, he was a complete mess when he showed up."

"She disappeared in his arms." Bruce nods. "He'll be a mess for a while."

"Okay." She sniffles while running her fingers through her hair. "And... My dad?"

"We don't know." Steve shrugs.

"He and Peter went up in a space ship to help Dr. Strange and we haven't heard a thing from them since." Nat explains.

"Damnit." She quietly hisses. "Okay. I'll be there soon. It'll be a minute. I'm gonna go talk to Pietro."

"Take your time." Rhodey nods.

The call ends and she sits on the couch with her head in her hands while lightly crying into her palms.

She eventually gets back up and heads to her room where Pietro lays in the same spot but awake, staring at the wall in front of him. She slowly crawls in bed beside him and runs her hand across his back to stop at his shoulder.

"They told me what happened." She softly whispers while pushing his hair behind his ear. "I'm so sorry." She shakes her head with watery eyes. "I'm so sorry."

She lays her forehead to his temple and he squeezes his eyes shut for a second before opening them as a tear rolls down the bridge of his nose. 

"I'm gonna go over there. Did you want to come with or stay here?" She rubs his back.

"Stay."

"Okay. I'll be back soon, just stay here. I love you."

"I love you, too."

She sighs sadly and gives him a long kiss on the temple before disappearing to the common room.

Rhodey steps out of his suit and she smiles a bit before going to hug the man she's seen maybe three times since being back from her very long visit to Hydra.

"I'm gonna look for my dad." She lets go of him and they nod hopefully.

She lands on a whole new planet and sees Tony sitting with his head in his hand and a blue girl standing close behind him.

"Oh, thank God." Lyla sighs.

They're heads pop up and Nebula instantly gets in defensive mode while Tony breathes a sigh of relief. He stands as best he can and she hurries over to pull each other into a grateful hug.

They let go after a minute and she takes him and Nebula to the common room where Pepper forces Tony into a hug and Rocket goes to Nebula.

"I lost the kid." Tony turns to Steve.

"Tony, we lost." He corrects and he tries to say something. "We lost."