Steel Meets Iron

Chapter 10

"Yoda," Raven whispered to the sleepy bearded dragon, "Yoda. I can't sleep." She tapped the glass.

It was deep in the night, downstairs was dark and the city glowed with the night owls. Pepper had gone to sleep two hours after she was supposed to be asleep, she saw no point in pacing around waiting for Tony. Raven had the same thought, if she went to bed he would come back by morning, she would wake up and find the apartment breathing with life but she couldn't sleep. Not from the excitement but the uncertainty, the fear. What if he didn't come back? What if something happened? What would happen to her?

Auntie Irene had been her godmother, the person to take of her if anything bad happened to her parents. When it did she seemed to turn away from her, scaring Raven with her grief, unable to comfort herself so she could comfort Raven. She had no choice but to go to Marshall Helms, she had regarded him as a favorite uncle but she never demanded anything of him, yet he was the one to comfort her. He picked her up and told her all the things she needed to hear, distracted her but never sugarcoated anything. Her mother had been killed by the man she had called daddy, and it's okay to cry he told her, cry now and never cry again.

Her mommy had told her that Auntie Irene was supposed to take of her, but she didn't. She left for days on end, without notice and came back as she pleased, Auntie Irene was supposed to take care of her but she handed her over to Marshall. She didn't understand properly then but she felt that Marshall was the person she had to go to for relief from her grief. She clung to Marshall and felt such joy to get a new daddy that loved her as a daddy should. However he got taken away from her too, not by her doing but his work, and like a ghost Auntie Irene returned.

Raven had expected that she would have her auntie again, the auntie that her mommy had chosen to love her. Auntie Irene had gave her away to someone else, she had no intention of keeping her, she gave her away to a man that was her real father. Raven drove herself to tears thinking about Auntie Irene, she wanted to hate that woman, hate her for leaving her then coming back only to give Ms. O'Shaughnessy her next destination. But how could she? Her mommy had picked her to look after her, out of all her friends. Why her? Why Auntie Irene? The woman who sent her away.

She never even visited. Lara visited her and her mommy never knew her. Why couldn't Lara have been her godmother? She would have kept her and loved, she wouldn't have given her away. But if she was Raven would have never met Tony, and Tony was her real daddy, not just someone pretending. She loved Tony and liked having somebody as smart as her. She liked Tony a lot. And Pepper too. But why did all her daddies have to come with troubles? She knew that if anything happened to Tony something horrible was going to come right afterward. Whenever anyone left terrible things followed like storm clouds. She prayed through tears that a storm would not come.

But now she downright restless. She couldn't stay in bed any longer or she would go mad. Luckily since Pepper was all the way downstairs, across the floor. She had no way to see her as she read by her toy torch, or made shadow puppets. Yoda had sensed her distress and was roused so she took him out and let him nuzzle against her. She read him a chapter of Harry Potter which made him sleepy but with her jittery self the poor lizard now seemed restless himself. He crawled along her arms nibbling at her messy hair resting in between journeys along her body. She was used to the sensation and began to stare at her paintings unsure of what to do next. She didn't want to stay in bed, she didn't want to cuddle with Pepper, she didn't want to sleep and she was bored. Unimaginably bored.

"Do you need to go under your lamp Yoda?" She asked the lizard. "You'll get sick if you get too cold." She stared at the lizard who seemed to talk with his passive blinking and head turning. "Just so you'll get warm," she agreed putting him back.

Restless he paced for a moment before settling on a branch. He basked under the bright light but showed no signs of wanting to sleep either. He soon began to scratch on the glass as she began waving her torch around, pretending that they were pixies and fairies dancing.