Parasite *•.¸♡ 𝙏𝙤𝙣𝙮 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙠'𝙨 𝘿𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙧 ♡¸.•*

Goodbye for Now

When they got back to the tower, almost everyone went to take a nap in their room because they stayed up all night watching Disney movies and singing along. 

Another week or so passes just like usual. And by usual, I mean that Ariana has basically done her best to avoid all human interaction.

Sure, she had a great time and got to know these people, but she just couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen.

She didn't know whether it would be one of them hurting her or someone finally getting fed up with her and sending her away like everyone always does.

Tony is sitting at the bar, his head lying in one of his hands. He doesn't know what to do. This amazing kid that he had been forced to take in hates living with him. He knew he'd be a terrible father. Hell, Ariana still calls him Mr. Stark.

And that is why he has put in a form to return her. He's been thinking about doing it for a few weeks now. She deserves a good family. One that she will be able to love. One that could give her everything she wants and more. She should be with a better parent. He doesn't deserve such a great kid.

It doesn't matter how much he'd love to adopt her. That would just be selfish on his part.

In addition to not looking forward to letting her go, he wasn't ready to deal with the reactions from the others. Especially Pepper. He isn't 100% sure that he'll still be alive if he tells her; the one thing he does know is that her reaction will be worse if he doesn't tell her until someone else gets it out to her. 

He's still trying to convince himself that this is what's right for Ari when the door opens. Pepper walks in, ready to try and convince him to adopt Ariana again.

"Tony, why don't you just adopt her already? I know you want to," Pepper pleads.

Tony sighs and rubs his face with his hands, "she doesn't want that. She hates me, and she hates being here."

"But–"

"No. There is no 'but'. You and I both know that she doesn't like it here. Why should I force her to stay if she doesn't want to?" he cuts her off angrily.

"Maybe if we just give her more time..." she bargains.

"No. I'm sending her back," he informs Pepper, taking another swig of alcohol.

Pepper is taken aback, "no you're not! You can't mean that!"

"I do," he glares at her. Pepper's heart grows heavy. What if they could just get more time with her? Surely she'd come around eventually, right?

"She's been here for what?" Tony pauses to think. "About five months? You think she would have made up her mind by now. She obviously doesn't like it here and so I am going to send her back. I already called the system to pick her up tomorrow."

"You didn't even discuss this with me!" Pepper exclaims, hurt that he would just make a decision like that.

"Because she isn't your responsibility! She is mine! And she isn't happy; therefore, I am responsible to return her so she can have a good rest of her life!" Tony yells. Tears are beginning to form in his eyes. He can't take any more of this conversation.

He grabs the bottle of alcohol and stumbles to the elevator to go to his room leaving Pepper heartbroken, sitting on a stool at the bar.

Ariana sits on the cold bathroom floor with her back against the door. Her legs are pulled to her chest and her head rests against her knees.

I knew he never wanted me. I'm not surprised he is getting rid of me. I am a lost cause. They didn't even have to see my episodes to decide that I wasn't worth keeping. I just want to be enough for one person. Is that too much to ask?

Tears begin to form in her eyes as she curses the cruel world. After all, who would want a daughter like her? She always wanted to make her guardians proud of her. And, now, she was about to lose them again.

Another set of guardians to leave an empty place where her heart should be.

Ariana gets ready to leave. She is heartbroken because she thought that she might actually have a chance.

Tony doesn't see her away. He doesn't want to watch her go. Instead of dropping her off or instead of watching her leave with the system, he decides to drink his sorrow away.

After getting everything gathered up to leave, Ariana makes her way back to where she met everyone that first time. It seems like so long since that day.

Seeing Pepper there, she blankly asks, "is Mr. Stark going to see me off?"

Frowning, Pepper shakes her head with a frown as she says, "he's busy drinking or something like that."

Ariana is crushed. She thought that maybe he cared just a tiny bit, but she sees that he obviously doesn't—and never did—give a shit about her. She doesn't let it show, however. Ariana should have known this was coming. She let her guard down like a fool and it only led to her being hurt again.

She should know better than to hope.

At least she got to stay with a non-abusive household for a bit before she has to go back to risk her chances.

Climbing in the car, she waves back to Pepper whose doing her best to not cry.
Ariana adds one final tally to her book of mistakes for being kicked out. Well, that's settled. A grand total of 93 tallies for her stay with Mr. Stark. She wishes she could have at least apologised to him for all of her mistakes. He never punished her for any of them. That makes her feel incredibly guilty.

The car pulls into a strange place that she doesn't recognise. Her panic mode is automatically turned on as her eyes dart around the dark place she's been taken to.

Her heart race increases when one of the large guys gets out of the passenger seat. One opens her door and grunts at her to get out.

Scrambling to comply, she curses her luck. He leads her into a room where an older man, probably in his fifties sits at a desk. He smiles upon seeing her. Standing up, he walks over to her to examine her.

"So this is the pretty little thing Stark fostered?"

"Yes, sir," the man who led her in there says.

Glancing her over, he smiles, "she'll do wonderfully."

She cringes, thinking it's going to end up like one of her previous owners. She doesn't want to be sold again. If only she tried harder to get Mr. Stark to like her. Maybe then she'd be safe.

The man snaps his fingers. A person she didn't even notice was there comes out of the corner with a dark brown wooden box. She notes the man is also dressed in a suit, but he has white gloves as well. For some reason, this unsettles her even more.

Opening the box, his movements are stiff and rigid. It's like he's a butler from some old-fashioned rich people's mansion.

The man in charge takes out a syringe. She backs away but is caught by the man behind her. She kicks and screams, trying to get free. She doesn't know what's in there. She doesn't want them to do anything to her.

Unfortunately for Ariana, it doesn't matter what she wants the majority of the time.

The last thing she sees before falling into unconsciousness is the man and the syringe.

Waking up in a car, her head jolts up. She's in the same car. The one that took her to that place.

What did they do to her? She doesn't really feel any different. It's not like they used her or injected her with something painful. If that's the case, why did they even bother?

She sees that they're pulling into the place she was supposed to be taken to in the first place. Ariana is very confused.

A/N:
Hey everyone, thanks for being patient with me. Performances are over, and I have a lot of homework to catch up on–but on the bright side, I have had time to think of ideas!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, though it's probably confusing. I promise all will be explained in a future chapter—don't worry. I'm not trying to get out a chapter for the sake of getting one out; this is going somewhere. I love each and every one of you. Until next time!