washed away ; a marvel avengers au (1)

two.

Later that night, I distract myself from the possibility of being mentally insane by doing some typical, day-to-day, boring studying. And the jokes on you if you think that after today our teachers wouldn't assign us more homework. Because they did. I sigh and take a sip of water, my brain overheating as I stare at the blinking cursor at the end of my poetry analysis essay. I almost expect to see steam pouring out of my ears.

Right as I'm putting my bottle back down, my door slams open, crashing against the wall. I jump and it drops to the wooden floor, sending water splashing everywhere. "Shit!" I scramble to pick it up, and when I take a moment to look at the person who had opened the door, I see my dad. My mouth slams shut as my cheeks turn vivid red, but he doesn't yell.

"Come outside." He turns around, not bothering to say anymore, let alone scold me, and I hear his heavy footsteps descend the staircase. For a few seconds, I just sit there, completely confused by my dad's lack of words, and especially at the lack of butt whooping. Leaving behind the spilled water, with only a thought that I should probably clean it up before it warps the floorboards, I head downstairs.

My mom's rummaging around in the kitchen, mouth frozen in a grim line as she starts the coffee maker. My brother's on the sofa, hands clasped in his lap as he leans forward. His eyes, normally darting all over the place thanks to his short attention span, are glued to the TV that's playing the nightly news. It doesn't seem like anything is too wrong until I catch a glimpse of the story that they're covering. My vision tilts at an angle and I brace myself against the back of the sofa.

Queen Emma Hospital is burning, with Amanda and Andrew in it. I don't cry a lot, especially not at something as typical as the news, but the shock still hits like a punch to the gut.

"More reports are coming in as the authorities release more information on the fire at Queen Emma Hospital. According to HFD, this is in fact a case of arson. However, there have been no confirmed casualties at this time, and only a few of the patients were reported missing. Among those patients, only two have been named: Amanda Kamashiro and her one year old son, Andrew Kamashiro. First responders are working as we speak to make their way into what remains of this wing of the hospital to find them. Stay tuned for more updates."

No one speaks. Hell, I don't even think I breathed through that announcement until I collapse onto the other couch.

"Everyone stay calm. I'm sure there's a logical explanation for this," my dad finally murmurs, breaking the dead silence. Always the calmest of the household, my engineering professor dad uses his immense amount of patience to keep our emotions in check. How he's not emotionally drained and confused by all of this, I'm not sure. Or maybe he is, but knowing my dad, he would rather not show it. I'm almost too scared to look at him because of this, afraid to see the truth in his emotions that aren't in his words.

My mom steps into the living room carrying a tray with three mugs of green tea. "I know none of us prefer coffee, so I made tea." Unlike her calm, retired-high-school-teacher voice, her hands shake. The mugs rattle, and at this moment I know I could care less about tea or coffee or anything trivial like that. My sister's life is at risk. No one knows where she is. Both she and my nephew are in danger. First responders haven't found them. Why haven't we been contacted? When is that contact supposed to come-

One of the mugs explodes, the tea inside instantly evaporating into steam, and I yelp, throwing my hands over my head as the ceramic shards fly everywhere.

I think I'm going insane, because there is no way that could have just happened. Who the hell put an explosive in one of the mugs-

"I can't believe-" Ethan stops, tugging absently at his dyed black hair, "We have the resources we need to fix this, we could have stopped it, but we're sitting here drinking tea??" I would have agreed with him entirely if the swiftly dropping temperature wasn't a thing. I've never heard my older brother scream, but the unnaturally dropping temperature is somehow scarier than that. I get up nearly in sync with him, but not to confront anyone as he's doing.

If the situation escalates, I'm getting out of here. I'm not sure where I would go, and that combined with the gravity of what I'd just seen on the news makes me want to break down and cry instead of run.

"Resources?" I want to yell like my brother did, to let out all my pent-up emotions kept in from the events of the school day, but instead my voice comes out as a whisper.

"Ethan, son, listen to me-" My dad begs, and even as I try to take in the entire situation at once, I still notice the way his eyes dart to me over and over again. As if I'm the outlier in this weird, weird graph. Fuck, I can't believe I'm making math metaphors.

"No, I'm done listening. You haven't even bothered to tell your own daughter about what we are and now you think you can stop me from going to find my wife and son?" My brother, my big brother, scoffs and turns his back on us.

On me.

"Fine, have it your way. I'm going." No one says anything even as he grabs his belongings and rushes out to the garage, the door slamming behind him creating an echo that I know I'll be able to hear for long after this is done.

"Kara," My mom begins, and I shake my head. My hand falls from my mouth, only to clasp at my chest. I'm confused, so confused that my head is starting to ache as my vision blurs with unshed tears and my heart tightens. Who are these people? "I know you're confused."

"I'm going to sleep." When I step into my room, the first thing I notice is that the puddle of water is gone, considering I should have stepped in it just now. The cool night breeze that's wafting through my now open window alerts me to the other fact that the same person who wiped the spill probably broke into my house. Great, on top of everything else, there's a burglar inside my house. But then, my phone rings, and I startle at the ringtone.

Snow Fairy by Funkist. Fairy Tail's first opening, the opening to Jake's favorite anime out of the many we've both watched. Not sure what the hell else to do, I pick up the phone and answer it.