Another Avenger: The Controller

Chapter 1. 'Your father is a scientist'

     “You’re a waste of space!”. She flinched at those words that came out of the ‘devil’s’ mouth. Tears continue to stream down her already-wet cheeks, slowly dripping drops by drops at the point of her chin. “Run along”, she gave the brunette one last look of disgust before returning to her paperwork. Eve took a few steps back, only to bump into Mr Barnacle, her mother’s new boyfriend. Her hands clenched up, resisting the urge to punch both her mother and her man. She swiftly turn to her back and wobbled out the office, eyes settled on the door.

     “Hey, alright?” a certain dark-haired, middle-aged man walked towards her as she closes the door behind her, “Evie?”. “I feel- Brilliant!” she tried hard to not waste anymore of her tears but only to end up falling on her bum, back to back to the door, eyeing the floor with glassy eyes. “Come on, let’s go to my place, Pepper makes awesome coffee”, he grabbed hold of her shoulder, pulling her closer to balance her weight. “Chocolate…”. “Chocolate, it shall be!”, he barked.

     “What happened there, Tony?” Pepper eyed the middle-aged man warily as she continues to make hot cocoa. He heaved a sigh before turning his head around to check on the younger lady, watching the huge TV while snuggling to a pillow, “Not entirely sure, heard the crazy woman yelling something ‘bout her being a ‘waste of space’. She’s nuts!”. Pepper sighed, pouring the hot cocoa into a mug. “Here, Evie”, Pepper hands the brunette the mug of hot cocoa and took a seat beside her, “You can stay here for the meanwhile”, she patted lightly on the hand-rest of the couch. “Sure, why not? Good idea!” Tony walked over to them, taking a seat on the massage-chair and mouthing ‘My house’. “I saw that…” Eve mumbled, holding the mug of cocoa closer to her mouth, slowly blowing to cool the drink. Pepper shot a glare at Tony’s direction and mouthed a ‘shut up’. He raised both his hands in defeat before giving the two ladies a puppy face. Eve chuckled at his attempt while Pepper groaned and rubbed her temples.

Lights from rooms in the Stark Tower turn itself off one by one as the clock strike 12 A.M., only a few were still on.

     “Hey, Pep?” Eve started, staring up to the older woman, reaching for some clothing on the top shelf, “I think I want to go back to my dad’s”. Pepper turned to face the brunette, looking right back at her, “What!? Your father’s?”.

     “Yup”, she popped the ‘p’.

     “Why would you-“.

     “He is my father”, Eve furrowed her brows, emphasizing the ‘is’, “I don’t understand why do you people keep keeping me away from him, why?”.

     “Love, I thought we went through these two years ago!” Tony came bursting into the room I’m sleeping over in, “End of discussions!” he held his hand up, signalling us to stop our talk. “What? The discussions haven’t even started!” Eve pouted, half glaring at the older man while holding a pillow threateningly. “Get out, Tony! Evie could have been changing!” Pepper threw a cushion at him before he had a chance to escape. “3-0!!” Eve hopped up, feet on the ground, pretending to be speaking into a microphone. “Come on, you should get change”, she chuckled, handing Eve a pair of clean pyjama, “Don’t think too much now, night darling”, she gave Eve a quick motherly-peck on the forehead before walking out, closing the door behind her. Eve quickly slipped into the nightwear and hopped onto bed, “Oh yeah…”.

Pepper walked over to the couch and pointed to the seat opposite of her, “We need to talk, Tony”. Tony sighed and lazily made his way towards the pointed seat.

     “I don’t mind her staying over, it’s your house anyway, but if SHIELD finds out about this-“.

     “I know, I know,” he sighed again, “Maybe we should get her back to her father- or grandpa”.