A Shield from the Spectrum

Ch. 3

K I T T Y
Kitty let Steve hold her there for awhile. Her head was throbbing and her heart pounding. Michael was gone. He wasn't coming back. These thoughts raced quickly through her mind.

She pulled reluctantly away from Steve and started towards the door. She pulled a chunk of hair over her shoulder and started stressfully braiding it. She made her way to the open lawn outside the Mansion. Wishing Steve would follow her, she sat down against a tree near the outskirts and stared into nothing, her soul feeling empty and numb.

She leaned her pounding head against the tree trunk and found her mind slipping away into sleep.

When she woke next, a few hours later, she was surprised to see that she had gone unnoticed. Maybe she had hidden better than she intended to...

As she slowly pulled herself out of sleep, Kitty looked around the visible lawn in front of her. She looked up to a tall tree that had big, leafy branches. Crawling over to it so as to stay unseen, she scaled the tree and hoisted herself on to one of the branches. She could see the whole back yard of the Mansion, including a barely visible Aztec-like pattern partly singed into the grass.

She noticed Tony throwing a frisbee to Clint and Nat in a triangle. They had happy expressions on their laughing faces. Thor must have left at some point, because he wasn't present. She looked towards Steve and Bucky sitting off to the side laughing merrily about something. Their pure joy made her both happy and sad. Almost jealous.

Then her eyes were drawn to the Vision and Wanda. (A/N: okay, honestly, Maxivision is one of my favourite ships. I'm not sure why but I LOVE them, so they'll play important roles in this story!)
Both Wanda and Vision were levitating. She had her hand laced with his and they were taking happily about who-knows-what. She occasionally would throw a rock towards the forest outskirts with her red powers. Sometimes, when she seemed to say something amusing, the Vision would laugh his silly laughter and give her hair a small pull. This would set her off, and she would laugh again and they would power-play. He would display his green tendril stuff and she her red powers.

They were the definition of happiness, Kitty thought, and it made her heart both joyful and saddened.

How beautiful it was to watch them be so happy. Yet it pained her to see it. Kitty wanted it so badly, but that was something that couldn't happen. She was too shattered to be loved by anyone.

That's what had happened all her life. For 6 years since she was 13, she had been rejected by the guys she dated. Not immediately, but after a while. No more than 6 months.

Kitty had tried to keep them. Tried to control her breakdowns. Tried to suppress her powers from them. But it never worked. They didn't like her. Plus, Thanos wouldn't have allowed more than 6 months anyways.

Kitty felt tears falling from her eyes and on to the bark on which she was perched. She sniffed and listen a finger to her eyes. This wasn't fair. She hated Thanos for taking over her life and making it crappy. She hated how she would never be able to love anyone until he was dead. She leaned her head against the trunk and cried even more. She stayed that way for a few minutes.

Then she heard someone, no, it sounded like two someones, scaling the tree. She sucked in a breath, dabbed at her eyes, and looked away from the trunk.

There, sitting not 5 feet away from her, were Steve and Bucky.

Oh shit...

"Kitty! What's up?" Steve gave an awkward smile while Bucky stared her down. Steve's smile again made her entire essence feel weak.

"Oh... I was just being a quiet observer!" Kitty lied, quickly trying to blink back any stray tears.

Bucky and Steve exchanged a glance that meant who-knows-what. "Even if Steve was dumb enough to believe that, I definitely am not," Bucky snorted at her.