Worth It

Twenty Eight

"You're kidding!" I laughed.

"I'm not, he really said that." Pietro nodded.

"Clearly you didn't listen."

"How was I supposed to just walk it off? That man needs to work on his inspirational speeches."

"What are you laughing at?" Bucky asks, I notice him and Loki walking into the common room, sweaty from training.

"Your boyfriend." I reply.

"What did he do this time?" He sighs.

"Pietro was telling me about what he told the team in Sokovia," I clear my throat before impersonating cap. "'If you get hurt, hurt 'em back. If you get killed, walk it off.'"

"Are you guys making fun of me?" Steve appears out of nowhere.

"I would never." I reply with a hand on my chest.

"I would." Loki says with a smile.

I hear Steve mumble something about being sick of this shit before wandering off to do old people shit.

"I'm gonna go see if my dad needs help in the lab." I bid my goodbyes and walk to the lab.

I see dad hunched over project, muttering to himself per usual.

"Shit!" He exclaimed after burning himself with a soldering gun.

"Language." I say with a smile, causing him to spin around with wide eyes.

"Don't ever do that again."

"No promises." I laugh and sit next to him. "That wire's in the wrong place." I point to a twisted wire.

"I appreciate your help."

"I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not so I will choose to ignore that comment."

"Good idea."

I feel my phone buzz and I look to see Peter requesting to FaceTime.

"Peter wants to FaceTime."

"Please, no."

"Too late! Hi Peter, what's up?" I ask and laugh as dad glares at me.

"Not much, we're at lunch and I got bored so here you are. What's up with you?" He asks.

"I'm just helping my dad with some lab stuff."

"Helping is not the word I would use." Dad says under his breath but I catch it and apparently so does Peter.

"Hi Mr. Stark!" Peter waves as I turn the camera on dad.

"Hi Peter." He says begrudgingly and I turn the camera back to me.

"So who's with you?" I ask, he answers by moving his phone to show Ned, Ophelia, and MJ.

"Hi!" The others greet me.

"Do you guys want to come over to the tower after school?"

"I can." Ophelia says.

The other three had prior arrangements so around four, it's just Ophelia and I lazily hanging out in the tower.

"Are you hungry?" I ask Ophelia.

"Is that a rhetorical question? Of course I am."

We go to the communal kitchen and see Sam with a trash bag.

"Sam, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Shhh, I'm throwing away Bucky's plums."

"You're wasting food?" Ophelia asked.

"No, I'll give them to some homeless people or something. I'm not a monster."

"That's debatable." I mumbled hut he heard it and threw a plum at me which was just narrowly avoided.

Ophelia and I were sitting in my living room, she did her homework while I read a book, both of us snacking on sliced vegetables.

"I hate school." Ophelia leaned back on the couch, facing the ceiling.

"Drop out." I suggested.

"I can't just drop out of school."

"Technically, you can." I countered.

"Technically, my grandma would kill me if I did."

"That's fair." I shrugged. "I guess you'll just have to suffer until you graduate. Then you'll be free to do as you please."

"I can't wait, school is so tedious." She groaned.

"I certainly don't miss it."

Ophelia and I went back to my room to watch a movie. We decided on What We Do in the Shadows, we've seen it countless times but it's too good to get sick of.

After the movie was finished, we made our way to the common room where almost everyone else was gathered.

When Ophelia and I walked in, they all stopped talking. Everyone had serious expressions and there was an uncomfortable silence.

"Are we interrupting something?" I asked the group.

"Um, can I talk to you?" My dad asked me.

I looked at Ophelia before tentatively walking away from the group with him.

"What's up?" I ask once we're out of earshot.

"Were moving."

"What do you mean we're moving?" I demand.

"I mean, we can't keep going back and forth between here and the compound. It would be easier to just move there."

I look at him, shocked by what he was telling me.

"You're kidding. Right?"

"Unfortunately not."

"I finally find somewhere where I'm happy and you want to ruin that! Just because it's too hard do travel for work, I have to move over an hour away from my friends. How is that fair?"

"I understand that you're upset but this has to happen. We have to put our personal lives on hold sometimes."

I don't respond. Instead I walk back to the common room in a huff.

"(Y/N)..." Dad calls after me.

"Don't." I say before grabbing Ophelia's hand and leaving the tower.

It was late and starting to get dark out. I explained the situation to her and we were now just walking the streets of New York.

"When is it happening?" She asked.

"I don't know." I shook my head. "I didn't ask."

"It'll be fine, we can visit each other. We'll work this out."

"I know. I shouldn't have yelled at him."

"You're entitled to be have feelings. This is a big change and it wouldn't make sense if you were perfectly ok with it." She smiled at me.

"Thanks. I still feel bad for yelling though."

"You can apologize when you get home."

We walked for a little while longer before we started to walk back to the tower.

We were about three quarters of the way home when a black black van pulled up behind us, tires screeching against the asphalt. Men clad in black uniforms spilled out. Before I had a moment to register the situation, a shot rang out and darkness clouded my vision.