𝐈𝐕𝐘 𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐃 || 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐤

☰10- WE DON'T HAVE A HOUSE

[ROSE HILL, TENNESSEE]

   I started waking up, a cold rush of wind on my back. I opened my eyes and saw that I was being held by the Iron Man suit and we were flying. I quickly wrapped my arms and legs around it because of the sudden fear that filled my body. I slammed my eyes shut and tried focusing my attention on other things.
   I was surprised to be warm and not dying of frostbite or hypothermia. My clothes were completely dry, the last thing I remember was alomst drowning in the ocean, almost being crushed to death out of pure panic. That doesn't help.

   I allowed myself to calm down and slowly opened my eyes, looking up to see it was snowing. As I tried to look around I could see that we definitely weren't in Malibu.

'Ah, good... it's nice that you woke up, Miss Amelia.' JARVIS spoke.

"I'd rather be passed out again." I say. "Tony. Where are we?"

   'Mr. Stark is currently unconscious.' JARVIS replies. Then an alarm started to go off. 'Oh dear. Sir. Sir? Sir!'

   "All right, kill the alarm. I got it." We heard him wake up.

   'That's the emergency alert triggered by the power dropping below 5%.' JARVIS says. 'I suggest you move now, miss Amelia.'

   We started falling due to the power of the suit finally running out. Tony wrapped his arms around me tightly and we screamed louder until I teleported out of his hands, falling into the light snow. I ducked as he came down past me, still flying forward with the juice left in the suit.
   I got up and ran after him as he crashed, teleporting to keep up. He stopped and I ran over as he turned on his back, breathing in and taking off his mask.

   "Ew." I say this because his face is covered in blood.

   "It's snowing, right?" Tony asks and I look up at the snow falling from the sky. "Where are we? Upstate?"

  'We are 5 miles outside of Rose Hill, Tennessee.' JARVIS answers.

   Tony and I share a confused and slightly worried look. "Why?! JARVIS! Not my idea! What are we doing here? This is thousands of miles away! I gotta get Pepper! I gotta..."

   'I prepared a flight plan. This was the location.'

   "Who asked you?" Tony asked and sighed. "Open the suit."

   I hug myself, feeling the cold seep through my clothes.

  'I- I might be malfunctioning, Sir.'

   "Open it, J."

   JARVIS opened the suit and Tony sat up breathing heavily at the cold brisk air.

   "That's brisk!" He breathed on his hands and looked at me. "You okay? Nothing broken? Nothing hurts?"

   "I'm okay, Tony." I tell him even though my body slightly ached but I start walking around. "The road is that way."

   "Maybe I'll just cosy back up now."

   'I actually think I need to sleep now, Sir.' He shut down.

   "JARVIS. JARVIS? Don't leave me, buddy." Tony told him but it was too late.

   I opened a portal. "It's a pocket dimension to my old New York apartment—"

   "No!" He yelled and I slightly jumped. He got up. "Close that thing now! Fast!"

   I closed it. "Sorry." He looked at me and looked sorry but I looked at the suit, not wanting to look at him. "How are we gonna get back to Pepper?"

   "Just follow me. That way I know at least you're safe."

   "It's cold." I mumble.

"You're dry." He says. "Come on."

   He tugged at the bands on the inside of the suit and we started walking, Tony dragged the suit along.

   I was glad I had thrown on a jacket before and that it was still warm. I followed Tony often teleporting, kicking the snow or sticking my tongue out to catch a snowflake, trying to keep myself distracted.
We finally got to a Texaco station. I watched as he took the poncho off of the statue and put it on, I had a jacket so I didn't care.

"You sure?" He asks.

"Positive." I assured him. "They don't know me, I'm gonna go inside." He nods, giving me five dollars.

   I went inside and was greeted by a lady at the register. I bought a hot chocolate for myself and a hot coffee for Tony. On my way out I picked up a map of the town.
Tony had called Pepper from the phone booth, I wasn't sure what he told her but I'm sure he let her know that we were fine. I didn't ask.

   "Coffee." I handed it to him and opened the map, pointing to our current spot and to the closest town. "I'm sure we can find a place to stay and fix your suit."

   "You can go home." He tells me as he looks at the map.

   I look up at him. "You're joking right?" I asked.

   "Mel, you have to be safe—"

   "You took my home away from me and the mansion isn't livable or at all safe." I told him. "It's not even there anymore. We don't have a house. We're basically homeless because of you. ON CHRISTMAS!"

"Right.. Christmas.." He thinks about it.

   I looked at him and felt bad but it was the truth and there was really nothing either of us could do. "Let's go into town, I'm sure you can fix your suit there and.. stop this Mandarin guy."

   I heard him sigh but he followed me to the town and we found a shed, he picked up the axe that sat against it and told me to step back.

   "This is breaking in and entering." I say looking around as he hits the door, letting us in. "People go to jail for this."

   "Just for a few minutes." He takes off the poncho and throws it onto my head. "You're cold and ponchos came from Mexico, right?"

   "South America." I rolled my eyes but took it because I was really cold and didn't care. "Bolivia or Peru, they didn't make it to Mexico for over a hundred years."

   "Sorry." He says as we walked into the shed. "Still in South America, Mexico is in South America."

He ruffles my hair as I glared at him.