little piece of heaven (tony stark's daughter)

5

rosie's p.o.v

dad stares at me as we walk down the street. there's snow covering the ground that we're trekking through, the air bitter and the sky dark. i'm wearing black leggings, light grey converse, and a cropped green t-shirt. that's it. "i don't understand how you can wear that" he shakes his head at me. i suppose he has a point, any normal person would be freezing to death right now.

"i know i know, but i'm not actually cold" i shrug "i guess it's a powers thing". it's the only plausible explanation really, because i probably should be dying of hypothermia. "besides" i grin "you're wearing a little girl's watch so if we're talking about anybody's attire it should be yours".

he rolls his eyes but pulls his sleeve up to reveal the pink plastic "i have to say, when you said your sister had a watch, i was kinda hoping for something a little more adult than this".

harley, which i learnt is the boy's name, looks slightly offended and for a moment i feel bad. he's clearly trying his best to become dad's new best friend or whatever and my billionaire father is ruthless sometimes. "She's six! Anyway, it's limited edition" he stays quiet for a moment before opening his mouth again "when can we talk about new york?".

dad tenses again, i can almost see the violent flashbacks in his eyes, almost hear myself crying onto both him and pepper for hours afterwards. "maybe never" he states coldly "relax about it".

i'm pretty sure he's dying to tell the boy to fuck off and never come back, so i'm proud of him for managing to keep himself contained for the time being. "what about the avengers? can you talk about them?" harley presses and i wince when i see a vein pop out on the side of dad's head.

"give him some space" i tell him with a small smile, trying to prevent disaster. i silently thank the gods as we reach the explosion site.

"what's the offical story here?" dad inquires as he scans the area "what happened?".

harley shrugs and sits down in the crater that disrupts the smooth tarmac "i guess this guy called chad davis used to live roundabouts. he won a bunch of medals in the army, and one day folks say he went crazy and made, you know, a bomb". dads hand brushes against the wall and i stare at the shadows as the kid continues "then he blew himself up, right here".

as my dad walks around, observing the memorials, i let my powers do some work. focusing on the shadows, i try to look further into them. flashes shoot through my head, a sickening orange glow taking over the man, chad, and then he just.. kind of burst. as the image comes to an end i lose my balance completely and almost fall over backwards, caught by a single hand "easy cub" dad pushes me back to a standing position and places his hand on my shoulder "you good?".

"yeah i just.. just saw something" i mumble.

"saw something?" he prompts me to elaborate.

"well.. there's only five shadows.. and i saw six people.. and it was kind of like chad was the bomb" i try to explain but i'm not quite sure how to convey exactly what i just saw. it was kind of haunting.

"that doesn't make sense" dad observes, sitting down next to harley in the crater. "think about it, six dead, only five shadows".

"yeah, people said these shadows are like the mark of souls gone to heaven. except the bomb guy, he went to hell on account of he didn't get a shadow. that's why there's only five".

i roll my eyes at harley's explanation and apparently dad reads my mind "do you buy that?".

"that's what everyone says" harley responds, further proving his naivety "you know what this crater reminds me of?".

dad rolls his eyes "no idea im not.. i don't care".

"that giant wormhole in um.. in new york. does it remind you?".

"that's manipulative, i don't want to talk about it".

"are they coming back? the aliens?".

"harley would you drop it!" i exclaim, jumping down into the crater and kneeling in front of dad who's started to look slightly in pain.

"maybe. can you stop? remember what i told you? that i have anxiety issues?".

harley stares at him "does this subject make you.. make you edgy?".

"yeah a little bit" dad seems to struggle for air as he tries to answer "can i just catch my breath for a second?".

harley seems to panic almost as much as dad as i grab his hands and try to get him to focus on his breathing like he does for me when i get panicky "are there bad guys in rose hills?" he turns to me "does he.. does he need a plastic bag to breathe into? does he have medication?".

"no" dad chokes out before i can respond.

"do you need to be?".

"i would say so, yeah" i interject, rubbing my small thumbs on his hands in circular motions.

"does he have ptsd?".

i shrug helplessly, starting to feel a little useless "i have an anxiety thing i guess it could be genetic".

"are you...are you going completely mental? i can stop, do you want me to stop? do you want me to stop?" the boy starts to seem to regret opening his mouth in the first place.

"yes harley, i think you should probably stop" i take a deep breath to try and restrain from smacking him.

"remember when i said to stop doing that? i swear to god, you're going to freak me out!" he shouts at harley and jumps to his feet suddenly "ah man. you did it, didn't you? you happy now?".

"what did i say?!" harley yells back as dad starts to run away, as if he couldn't be any more clueless.

"dad!" i call after his, my own heart thumping. harley gets to him before i do because i stop to take one last look at the memorial. i catch up just in time to see dad throw some snow at the boy. "play nice" i scold him and wipe some of the slush off harley's jacket.

"his fault, he spazzed me out. okay back to business, where were we? the guy who died.. relatives? mom, mrs davis, where's she?".

"where she always is" harley provides nonchalantly.

"see now you're being helpful".