Shadowplay | Tony Stark

TWENTY FOUR - A STORMY NIGHT

Two days later and Mila found herself back at the lake house bathed in the perfect serenity provided by an endless surrounding of empty fields and clear skies.

She'd loved spending time in New York City and had grown attached to the place, falling in love with the tall skyline and culture on every corner. It was unlike anywhere she'd ever been before and it excited her to explore somewhere new with her son, holding onto the warm thought that they'd experienced it together.

Mila and Tristan had left New York earlier that day, leaving Tony behind to finish up some work. Rather foolishly, Mila had imagined leaving the Stark Tower to be an easy task, however getting Tristan to stop crying and clinging onto Peter's legs proved to be a lot more difficult than she'd initially thought.

As upset as the child was, there was also upset clear in Peter's eyes, too. The two of them had bonded like brothers and while the teenager was able to understand that they wouldn't be apart for too long, explaining that to a two-and-a-half year old wasn't easy.

After plenty of hugs and a painful goodbye, promises were exchanged between the boys that they'd see each other again soon, Peter vowing to give Tristan a call at some point over the next few days so they could talk.

When Mila and Tristan eventually arrived back at the lake house, they spent the rest of the day unpacking their belongings before having dinner together and playing outside until sunset.

The weather was abnormally hot that day and the two of them made the most of the warmth, basking in a bright sunlight while playing soccer on the grass or games of hide and seek.

It wasn't until around seven o'clock that the clouds started to roll in from over the horizon, bringing with them a heavy rainstorm that rattled the walls of the home and echoed around the place.

The sound had frightened Tristan, disrupting his slumber at just shy of eight o'clock. Mila had tried her best to soothe her son back to sleep, reading him his favourite books and singing lullabies that almost always worked at helping him drift off. That night, however, nothing seemed to work.

With a defeated sigh, Mila wrapped Tristan in a blanket and carried him downstairs, walking outside onto the porch and sitting down on the swing on the deck, cradling the boy against her chest.

"It's just the rain, see? Look at the lake."

The sky was darker than black, illuminated only by a silver crescent moon and it's millions of stars. There were strings of yellow fairy lights around the lake house and the paths to the fields, all of them swinging in the light breeze that rolled with the rain.

Mila sat with Tristan on her lap for another hour, both of them watching the rain hammer down against the surface of the otherwise still lake before them. The moment felt drastically different to the bright lights and sounds of New York City, but it felt like the closest to home that they'd been since having to leave Chicago.

The headlights of Tony's car eventually broke through the darkness a little before ten. Mila was still sitting outside on the porch, swinging back and forth with a now sleeping Tristan bundled against her chest. He'd fallen asleep a while ago but she didn't dare move for fear of waking him, and also because she wasn't quite ready to turn in for the night yet, enjoying watching the rain on the lake and feeling the warmth of the late night air against her skin.

"What's going on?" Tony whispered, his duffel bag slung over a shoulder as he shook his head free of rain water once he reached the porch.

"He couldn't sleep because of the rain," Mila said quietly, "I came out here to show him it wasn't scary."