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

One Step Forward

Tony debates whether or not he should share this information with everyone. Sure, it's an invasion of privacy, but the subject of her past seems to be even worse than anyone thought. Eventually, he sends the notebook around to each team member. He warns Bruce that he might need to take some deep breaths. If Tony's pissed, he can only imagine that the Hulk would come out.

The room is silent as it gets passed around. No one has anything to say. What could there possibly be to say? The worst part is that they don't even know half of the torture her life has been.

A small groan snaps their attention to the girl lying on the hospital bed. Tony wants to question her about the book, the diary entries, the cuts, but he knows that right now wouldn't be the best time.

Ariana's head spins. She feels slightly nauseous. Her allergic reactions have never been this bad. Why now? Once she gains enough of her consciousness, she notices Tony holding her book...her book.

My book! Oh no, this isn't good.

She sits up rapidly, making her vision spin. Panic takes over her body as she realises they pulled up her sleeves as well. If anything could go wrong, this—Ariana thinks—is the worst. What they'll do to her or with her after learning all this stuff is beyond her. They'll probably get rid of me for good this time, she thinks. I just got back...

"Hey, calm down, everything's okay. You're here, we're here with you. You're safe," Bruce tries to calm her. It doesn't really work, but she appreciates the effort; though, there's no doubt he's lying. She isn't safe, nothing is okay, they aren't going to stay. Everything is ruined.

Tears form in her eyes when she remembers that just hours before Tony had actually called her his daughter. He probably wants to take it back now...

"I'm sorry," she quietly murmurs. The team stops and looks at each other. What on earth is she sorry for? How could she be sorry for anything? They believe that they're the ones who should be sorry. How could they not have noticed something like that? It upset each one of them deeply that they didn't help her in her times of need. 

Tony sets the books down and treads carefully over to his daughter. "Ari, look at me," Tony's voice is stern, yet gentle. "You have nothing to be sorry about."

She closes her eyes and shakes her head. Lies, lies, lies! No one will want me!

"We do have some questions, sweetie, but I think we can wait on some of them."

Tony sighs. His daughter won't even look at him. "Why didn't you tell anyone about your allergy?"

Sniffling, she murmurs, "it's never been that serious."

Tony looks at her, dumbfounded. She can't be serious. "Not that serious?" Bucky questions, slightly raising his voice. In a way, Ariana kind of reminds Bucky of little Steve when he would disregard his health. Always refusing help and not telling people stuff like that. Bucky hated it when small Steve did it, so he sure as hell hates that Ariana did it. "Ari, you passed out! I thought you were dying!"

Wincing, she mumbles, "I'm fine, though..."

"But what if you weren't? What if I didn't get there in time? What if I didn't notice you were breaking out during the movie? What if you were alone and no one could help you? What if you weren't able to tell us where your EpiPen was? What then? Huh?"

Tony sends a glare at Barnes, silently telling him to shut up. Guilt floods over Bucky immediately after seeing her trembling figure. He never meant to scare her. He was just so damn terrified. What if they lost her? That's the last thing he would want. It would've been on him. He should have noticed. He is an ex-assassin after all. He should have noticed, god dammit!

Steve wraps an arm around Bucky, trying to comfort him. Steve understands he wasn't trying to terrify Ariana and probably felt horrible for doing so. He knows that Bucky is shaken up by this. With everything that's happened, they all are.

Ariana sends out an apology, her voice quivering and nearly silent. Tears drip down her face. He's right. She knows it. Why must she be such a burden to everyone? They'd be better off if she never called Tony to rescue her. She should have just accepted death.

"Ariana?" Natasha starts, wanting to ameliorate the situation. "No one is mad at you. We're all just worried. This situation could have been so much worse."

"Yeah, none of us were prepared. We were all so confused," Bruce chimes in.

"Sweetheart, we all just really care about you. We don't want anything bad to happen to you," Pepper concludes.

She honestly doesn't know how to react. A small part of her is telling her that they're all lying. That they will hurt her now because they found out she isn't normal; that she's a messed up, broken kid. No one wants those. Especially not superheroes, she thinks. They're so perfect and amazing. She's nothing when put up against them–a measly speck of dust that goes unnoticed and uncared for.

The rational part of her, surprisingly, is taking over her fears. She trusts them more than she cares to admit. After all, giving people chances had always been one of her faults. It's not like she could help to entrust them with her life. They have all been so kind and wonderful to her. No one had even so much as made a move to hurt her. Not even when she desperately deserved it.

"I'm sorry for worrying you all. Thanks for helping me," she says, embarrassed for having been so vulnerable.

The team send each other a mixture of pained, confused, and shocked looks. They had literally done the bare minimum. Yet she's acting like they had moved the mountains for her. Like their actions were so unbelievingly terrific. As if they were godsends just for doing what was necessary to ensure her safety—and even at that, they failed. Guilt rages inside of each member like a wildfire, only fuelled by the fact that she was so grateful. The fire of guilt is out of control and spreading rapidly.

Ariana shouldn't be grateful.

They had stupidly missed all of the warning signs that were screaming in their faces. They could have done better—no, they should have done better.

"Ariana? I need something from you okay, sweetie?" Pepper implores, kneeling in front of her daughter. Ariana looks up and furrows her brows, she isn't sure what she could possibly need from her now. "We all need to work on this-" she sends a pointed look to everyone in the room (especially Tony)- "but I think we should all try to be a lot more open with each other, okay? We need to communicate better so we can avoid situations like this."

Ariana lowers her head in embarrassment. She hates that things had to get this extreme. All she can think about is all the things she could have done better to avoid having this problem.

"We promise to be more communicative with you if you can promise us the same, yeah?" Pepper asks, glaring at Tony to drill it into his head. He's the worst with communicating. The amount of times the Avengers have got into fights because of his unwillingness to be open and honest is a problem. They don't need it interfering with their own daughter too.

"Okay," Ariana quietly agrees. This is going much better than she thought it would. In fact, she doesn't sense any anger or disgust towards her at all. She just hopes it stays that way. 

"Would it be okay if we talk about the notebook?" Tony cautiously asks, needing to understand. All the questions burning through his mind can't stop. He needs to know. Pepper sends him another glare. Damn his incessant need for answers.

Ariana nods, fiddling with her fingers. Might as well get it over with.