S U P E R N O V A - MARVEL

Chapter 54: Don't be a stranger

"If you wanna break my cold cold heart, say you loved me."

A few weeks had passed since Nova saw Steve last. At the compound, Tony  was helping Rhodey walk between parallel bars with the help of some kind of tech on his legs.

Rhodey stopped in the middle, "So, you're back here?" he asked.

"For a while, I didn't want Vision and Nova to be alone up here." Tony answered. "They both...lost things." he said.

"How are they?" Rhodey asked.

"Vision is — vision. Nova, yeah she's been-"

"Still not out of her room?" Rhodey finished.

"Nope. Only for food." Tony turned his head to the side, sighed, and looked back at Rhodey. "I mean, she doesn't have her friends, she doesn't have any aim, no reason to crawl out of bed in the morning." his gaze trailed off, "Also — there's the case of the 90 year old who broke her heart."

"Ah." Rhodey nodded.

"Which by the way, did you know about?" he asked.

"I mean..." Rhodey dragged, suggesting something, Tony rolled his eyes and put his hand on his head, feeling stupid. Rhodey laughed, "I mean, there was always something." he continued laughing.

"God." he shook his head lightly, "Anyway, if anything, she's just going through a bad breakup, which I don't know how to deal with, I don't understand girls, she's stuck with two grown men and a robot, she has no one to talk to. I could really use Pepper right now — or always." he looked away.

Rhodey lightly put his hand on Tony's shoulder, comforting him.

Suddenly they heard a banging on the window, they turned to look. It was an old delivery man, with parcels in his hand.

"Delivery for one...Nova Adler! and..." he paused to read the box. "Tony Stank! Are you Tony Stank?"

Rhodey laughed loudly "Yes, This is Tony Stank! You're in the right place. Thank you for that!" Rhodey limped away, "Never dropping that by the way."

Tony laughed.

-

Tony opened the door to Nova's bedroom, and flicked open the lights. She groaned in annoyance. "Rise and shine." he said, Nova turned over and was immediately hit in the head with a parcel box thrown by Tony, "Some sort of parcel for you — must be all the online shopping you haven't been doing."

Play: Scott Street - Phoebe Bridgers

He closed the door and left. Nova frowned and sat up, opening the parcel box. Inside she found an old phone, and a letter. She opened the letter and read it.

Tears welded up in Nova's eyes and started falling down her face. She was avoiding thinking about everything, sleeping all day, hoping it would just go away. The letter brought everything back. Nova wasn't fond of crying, always stopped herself, but she couldn't help it. She picked up the old phone, and opened it. There was one number on it, named Steve. She lingered her thumb above the button for a moment, but shut it off and kept it in a drawer next to her bed.

Nova lightly held onto her necklace, the one Steve gave her and flopped back down onto the pillow, pulling the bedsheets over herself.

-

Steve stood on a railway, in the middle of nowhere. He had glasses and a hat on. Sam walked up to him from behind, "Come on, Cap. The jet's ready." he held Steve's shoulder. Steve just nodded and didn't move.

Sam peaked over to see Steve fiddling around with an old phone, similar to the one he gave Nova. Sam sighed. "She just needs time, Steve."

Steve nodded slowly, "I know." he almost whispered.

Sam shook him lightly, "Come on."

They both walked away together.

-

Rhodey, Tony and Vision were on the couch, watching TV and eating pizza. It was Tony's attempt to lighten up the mood, make Vision feel less lonely.

Nova leaned on the door frame, "Hey," she said, the three looked back to see her, "Any more room on that couch?"

Tony smiled, "Yeah," he turned to look at Rhodey and Vision, "We can scoot over." the two nodded.

Nova walked over and sat next to Tony, grabbing a slice of pizza for herself. He put his arm over her and smiled.