Flowers In America | T.Stark

⎊ CHAPTER EIGHT ⎊

"God, Keep my head, above water, don't let me drown, it gets harder"
༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒༒

Chapter 8: Attack on Malibu.

Tony landed on the floor with a groan of pain, eyes opening as he looked around frantically trying to make sense of the whole situation. He slowly sat up, grunting with the effort as the pain of being thrown across the room set it. A grim look overcame his facial features when he say Maya lying down away from him, unconscious.

He didn't like her, not since she came into his home and everything went wrong from there, but the woman was not a threat to him, so he knew his duty, as an Avenger, to get her out, if she was still alive.

A cracking noise began from above him, and Tony watched in horror as a large crack appeared on the roof above him, and the ceiling began to fall. He braced himself for the impact, but it never came.

Pepper was suddenly atop him, protecting Tony from the falling concrete, and her mask lifted to show her face, slightly smug despite the crumbling home.

"I got you." She breathed, smiling slightly at Tony after taking the brunt of the slabs that continued to fall.

"I got you first." Tony argued, though Pepper could see the very sheepish look in his eyes as he realised Pepper had been right the whole time-like she always was.

"Like I said," Tony began, the two standing up, "We can't stay here."

"Where is Lilly?" Pepper asked Tony, unable to see the girl herself.

Tony's heart hammered.

He looked around in the wrecked home, scanning for the young girl, hoping against hope that she wasn't the fuel to one of the many fires, or crushed beyond repair under some wall-

He let out a long, relieved breathe he didn't know he was holding when he finally saw her, though his relief was short lived when she looked as still as Maya did. Her back was facing him as she lay on her side, the impact from being knocked into the wall bouncing her on to the floor where she lay.

He couldn't see to tell if she was breathing-if she was alive- and a soft, pained noise escaped him when he saw a the floor around her head slightly darker with red. She wasn't moving, and Tony moved towards her, not being able to get close enough to help as she still lay there, but suddenly she did, arm moving slightly over to her side, rolling her body over so she was lying flat on her stomach, a dazed look on her dirty face.

Tony felt like he could breathe again when he saw her move as she did, lifting herself up as she blinked rapidly to get rid of all the dust and debris from her eyes. She looked around shakily, not knowing what to do in such a situation-needing help-

Tony caught her eye, and began shouting over at her to 'Get up! Get up now Lilly!', but she could only stare back at him with panic as his shouts fell onto deaf ears, head still ringing from the explosions.

Her ears cleared out in time for her to hear him yell at her to 'move!', but he was drowned out by another explosion, and cut off as he was thrown over the sofa from the impact.

Lilly screamed at him, scared for him. She was crying when he got up, shaking off the dizziness from being tossed about. He began to walk to her, still slightly dizzy, and Lilly hoisted herself up, fighting her own nausea as she ran towards him, nearly falling through the holes, and tripping multiple times.

"It's okay Honey, move away!" Tony continued to yell, trying desperately to get her out of the way and out of the once peaceful, and now ruined house. He turned to where Pepper was trying to get over to him and Lilly, worry evident on her face.