Tattered Wings

Pancakes

Max woke up shivering, in a room she didn't recognise. Where was she? She bounded off the bed and went to open the door, but she didn't. Her hand hovered in the air above the handle. She closed her eyes as she fought off a wave of nausea, remembering the last scene she saw when she opened a door. She slowly stepped backwards, away from the door, and sat down on the edge of the bed in the room she was in. She looked around, taking in her surroundings for the first time. The room was quite elegant, in it's own way. There was a set of white drawers in the far corner with a flatscreen TV on top of them. The curtain's were a crimson red, and Max cringed at the memory she had of Fang's curtains stained red and the reason why. She was so distracted by her flashbacks, that when someone opened the door, she jumped about a foot into the air. Tony walked into her room and smiled at her. “JARVIS told me you were going to leave the room, but then chose not to. Want to to tell me why?”

“Because I’m afraid that when I open the door, I'll see my Flock dead again, like when I found them.”

Tony's smile faded for a second before he composed himself. “Well breakfast is ready, if you would like to follow me,” Tony left the room, so Max pushed herself up off the bed and followed him into the kitchen.

“Who's JARVIS?” she asked Tony, as she sat down and watched him and Steve make pancakes.

“He's my best friend that I built when I was in high school.”

“You built him?!” Max asked in awe. “How?”

“He's a genius, that's how.” Steve joined in the conversation by answering her question and placing a pile of Pancakes in front of Max. “I'll go get Peter up. If he's late for school one more time all hell's going to break lose.” Steve walked out of the room and Max stared blankly after him.

“Who's Peter?” She asked Tony, who was making another batch of pancakes.

“He's our son. We adopted him when he was nine.” Tony took a sip from his cup of coffee and flipped the pancakes. “If you don't mind me asking, Max, how old are you?”

“Fifteen, give or take. I don't know my actual birthday as I was created in a test tube. Me and my...” She took in a deep breath, “Flock” she forced out the word, trying not to cry again, “We had a joint birthday on the 1st of March. Me...Fang, and Iggy, turned fifteen, Nudge turned thirteen, Gazzy turned nine and Angel turned seven.” Max gulped, trying to hold back her tears. Tony patted her hand reassuringly before he went back to flipping the pancakes. Max was about to change the topic of conversation when Steve and a sleepy looking lad wearing nothing but crumpled jeans walked into the kitchen. “Dad, what's for-” The lad, who must have been Peter, stopped dead as he saw Max sitting at the table.

“Uh.... hi?” Max said awkwardly. She held out her hand to him. “I'm Max”

“Peter” he shook her hand once before sitting down next to her. “So you were the one I could hear screaming last night.”

Max blushed and looked away. Of course, every one in the building would have been able to hear her. “Sorry”

“Hey, it's okay. I didn't mind. I usually stay up most of the night anyway doing homework or whatever I have to.” Tony placed a pile of pancakes in front of Peter who devoured them. He ate them so quickly, he would have given Gazzy a run for his money. Max smiled at the happy memory of the nine year old. She gave a small laugh, remembering the time he threw bread rolls at the waiter.

Peter looked at her with a frown. “What's so funny?”

“You remind me of Gazzy. He could eat pancakes just as fast as you can.”

“You'll have to introduce us. We could have an eating competition.”

“Peter” Tony warned.

“What?” he asked innocently. Of course, he didn't know what happened, he wasn't in the room when she was crying her eyes out. Steve put a finger to his lips, obviously meaning that he shouldn't say any-more.

“It's okay Steve. I can't introduce you to Gazzy, Peter.”

“Why not?”

Max breathed in deeply, getting a hold of her emotions before answering. “Because he and the rest of my family were murdered yesterday.” Peter looked shocked and embarrassed that he had made Max tell him something which was obviously still quite raw in her mind.

“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-”

“It's fine, honestly. You didn't know.” Max rubbed her eyes and yawned.

“You tired?” Peter asked getting up from his seat.

“Yeah, a bit.”

“Well at least you don't have to go to school for six hours today.” Max flinched at the word school, but Peter didn't notice. “Well, I’m going to get ready. See you later.”

“See ya.”