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

In His Arms

It's been a few days now that Ariana has been at her new home. The woman and man have been decent enough. She can't help but get the creeps from her new foster father, though.

He always looks at her too much. Like way too much. Not to mention the constant feeling of her being watched–like at night...

Her intuition is, yet again, proven correct the night he is left home alone with her. And so, yet another man takes advantage of her despite every protest she puts up.

She wishes she could be with Mr. Stark. He never hurt her. He never showed her any intentions of harm like this.

But she knows she screwed up her chance with him. Mr. Stark is just another figure that she'll never see again. Another person left her like the piece of trash she is.

Cleaning the kitchen counter after having cleaned up breakfast the next day, Ariana us startled by the door opening suddenly. Her new foster mother storms into the room with a look of fury raging in her eyes.

Gripping the wet washcloth tighter, Ariana backs as far into the counter as she can. The woman slams the front door shut before making her way to the kitchen. "You stupid little good for nothing whore!"

Ariana cringes, ready to be beaten. The woman stalks closer to Ariana as she screams profanities at her.

"I-I didn't want to," Ariana cries, backing further away from the madwoman. "Please, he forced me–"

"Shut up! Maybe if you weren't so provocative he would've kept his hands to himself! It's all your fault! You asked for it you little slut!"

Tears pour down her face as she accepts what the woman says as truth. This isn't the first time she's heard something like this. She assumes it probably won't be the last either.

Eyes growing wide, she watches as the woman pulls out a sharp knife from the block in a jealous rage. Ariana just barely escapes the knife barrelling towards her body. The knife, instead, plunges into the wall behind her.

Her adrenaline-filled body stumbles to race to the room she was given.

Slamming the door shut, she drags over the dresser nearest to the door. After that, she grabs the bookshelf, a nightstand, and a couple of other large furniture pieces to blockade the door.

Once she is satisfied enough with that, she races into her bathroom and locks the door. Placing her back against the door, Ariana slides down it, her heart racing fast.

Shaking, she pulls her knees to her chest as she begins to sob. Ariana is terrified.

Her feelings of terror aren't helped by the banging on the bedroom door. The woman is trying to break in.

She needs help.

For some reason unknown to Ariana, the first person she thinks about is her former owner, Mr. Stark. Not in a state to question it, she shakily takes out the phone he had told her to keep, she touches his contact to call him.

She only hopes he isn't too busy. Though, of course, she'd understand of something he was doing took precedence over her situation.

Tony had been drinking coffee whilst conversing with Bruce when his phone began to ring. Rolling his eyes, Tony goes to ignore it until he sees it.

Ariana Lynch

The last person he expected a call from was his daughter–no, former foster kid.

Breath catching in his throat, he turns away from Bruce to privately answer. He accepts the call and casually questions, "Ariana? What's up, kiddo?" —as if seeing her name didn't cause a hole to form in his heart.

Her voice comes out quiet and shaken, "she's trying to kill me... she's gonna kill me.."

Tony freezes as Ariana keeps muttering phrases like that. Concern and horror immediately set in his bones. "W-who? Who's trying to kill you? What-What's going on?"

"I-I didn't want to... I didn't wanna.." she mutters, tears streaming down her face. She feels so guilty. Perhaps she deserves what the woman wants to do to her. She's a horrible kid. Twice now she caused a man to cheat on his wife. It's all her fault.

The banging on the door to her room causes her to jump. Trembling, her heart picks up its pace.

Confused, Tony frantically calls out, "Friday, get her location for me."

Ariana pulls the phone away from her face as she sobs. The incessant pounding on the door fuels her terrified state.  

The suit forms around Tony as he takes off. "Ariana? Ariana, stay with me. It's gonna be okay, I'm on my way, just hang on. I'll be right there."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... I didn't wanna do it..."

"Hey, it's okay, you're going to be okay," Tony reassures her, not understanding what she's going on about.

Rage, guilt, and pain fuel him right now. How could anyone want to hurt his precious Ariana? How dare they put her through something like this!

He should have never let her leave. Then she wouldn't have had to go through this.

Once Tony reaches Ariana's temporary bedroom, he finds the door open, a barricade pushed back from the woman getting into the room. There is screaming and he can hear the pounding on the door. The things the madwoman is calling his precious little Ariana boil his blood. Storming into the room, he finds the woman, butcher knife in hand, trying to break down the door.

Trying to get the woman to back down proved to be a mistake as the woman panicked because she got caught and ended up plunging the knife into her chest.

Tony grimaces as he moves past the dead body. This situation is so unsettling. He can't imagine what Ariana is feeling like. Gently knocking on the door, Tony takes in a breath.

Hearing the silence followed by soft knocking, Ariana is confused.
"Ariana, are you in there?"

Hearing Tony's voice is all it takes to send her back into her sobbing. She stumbles to the door and opens it. Throwing caution to the wind, she clings to Tony as if her life depended on it. Taken off guard, he takes a few seconds before returning the hug. Tears form in his eyes. He could have lost her forever. But here she is, safe in his arms at long last. He never wants to let her go again. Not ever.

Ariana goes to leave the bathroom, and Tony tries to stop her but is too late. She sucks in a breath as she sees the blood pooling out of the wound in the woman's chest.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Tony apologises, worried about the trauma she is bound to have from it. "I tried to stop her, but I was too late."

Ariana nods with a blank stare. This is all her fault. If she didn't provoke her husband, she wouldn't be dead. If Ariana just would have run away she'd be alive. But no, she is dead. And it is all her fault.

Tony gently guides her out of the apartment, not wanting her to stare at the bloody body any longer.