| sparks + butterflies | a peter parker fanfiction |

-31-

1206 words :)

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'Stark?' Ross asked, his eyebrows twisted into something indescribable.

'General Ross,' Stark nodded. 'I would say it's nice to see you again but it's really not,'

From behind the bars, Thea struggled to stifle a laugh as the General pelted Stark with questions, Stark deflecting all of them in a manner that caused Ross to turn the colour of a tomato.

'Look, I'm sure you've all missed me,' Tony smirked, 'But there will be plenty of time to bask in my glory later. I need to speak to the kid, so you-' He motioned for Ross and the agent to leave. 'Out,'

Ross tried to protest but was dragged away by the shaking agent, and as the door slammed shut behind them Thea's brain finally comprehended what happened. Her mother was standing right in front of her, Tony Stark was walking towards her right now.

They must have injected you with something- a hallucinogen of some sort, maybe olanzapine?

'Theo?' The voice pulled Thea out of her analysis. The woman was crouched outside of Thea's cell, her eyebrows furrowed and blue eyes worried. 'Is that you?'

Despite all the logic and voices telling her that this wasn't her mum, it was a trap or a hallucination or a trick, for the first time, Theo didn't listen. This was her mother. She believed that more than she believed her name was Theo.

'Mama?'

'Gosh- I can't believe I've found you-' Sofia gasped, rushing towards the bars, her nimble fingers quickly unlocking the door as it swung open. Thea was quickly swallowed by her mother's embrace. 'It took me so long and I'm so sorry but I'm here now-'

Thea choked on a sob, tears she didn't remember crying ran down her cheeks. She tried to wrap her arms around Sofia, but the chains clanked, the cuffs tightening as Thea cried out in pain.

'Gosh- what did they do to you- STARK!' Sofia yelled, examining the cuffs.

'What?' The man replied, stepping into the cell. 'Oh, these are nasty.' He crouched down next to Thea and she shied away instinctively. Stark didn't notice, looking over the cuffs before whispering 'fuck it' and blasting them to pieces with a repulsor ray from a metal glove that covered his fist.

The cuffs fell to the floor, and a flame burst to life in both her fists. Sofia gasped, stepping back slightly, as Tony raised an eyebrow. 'Okay, so the kid lights up. Noted,'

Sofia shot him a glare. 'Are you okay, медовый?'

Thea nodded, slowly regaining her breath as the suffocating silence lifted from her shoulders. 'I'm okay- but how- your both dead!'

'Clearly, we aren't,' Tony stated, brushing off his blazer and walking out of the cell, motioning for the other to follow him.

Thea raised an eyebrow. "No shit. But how?'

Tony paused. 'I like her,' he said to no one, pointing at Thea and looking into a nearby security camera like he was in The Office. 'Anyway- I'm not entirely sure how I got here- According to your lovely mother-' He shot Sofia a look that could kill. 'I am dead in this timeline, I sacrificed myself to save the universe and all that. In mine, we killed Thanos on Titan- it never got to that point.' he shrugged. "You can't kill me for long."

Thea nodded. "That makes sense- but how did you get here?"

"Well, that I'm not entirely sure about. One thing I know, I'm jamming to AC/DC in my lab and the next my hand is glitching and I crash land into your mother's apartment,' He frowns. 'After we stopped trying to kill each other, I hacked some databases to check on my loved ones and saw that you, a HYDRA experiment, was making out with my kid,'