The Legacy

Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

|| Valerie ||

            I just finished tugging on my stretchy skinny black jeans when Stark walks into my room, shutting the door behind him. Like me, he's dressed in all black, a long sleeve that hugs his muscles and where my pants are skin tight, his are loose cargos.

"You'll need these," he holds up belts with attached pockets of different sizes. Kneeling down in front of me he begins strapping one to each of my thighs before proceeding to put a medium sized blade in one and a pistol in another.

"Heavy duty." I admire the sheathed weapons clinging to my legs, and it's with a start that I realize how far I have come. From teaching children how to dance ballet, attending college and going out with friends to now gearing up in weapons with my Super boyfriend, things have definitely done a one-eighty.

Stark adds extra rounds of bullets to another pocket beside the gun and slips a smaller knife in my pocket before he stands in front of me. Looking over every detail, his navy eyes run over every inch of me, making sure I am not missing anything. I want to fidget under his scrutiny but instead I step forward, bridging the distance and placing a quick peck on his cheek.

"I will be fine. Stop worrying so much."

He rolls his eyes at me but slides his arm around my waist. His other hand cups my cheek, the pad of his thumb brushing over the smooth skin. The intensity in his gaze leaves me breathless but I cannot look away. Not that I would even want to. I could stare at him forever.

"Be-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, she'll be careful." Serina charges in without knocking, hand clasping a duffle bag that she hauls onto my bed with a huff. She unzips it and starts rifling through it, pulling out black clothing and boots.

Stark throws her an annoyed glare before placing a chaste kiss on my forehead. "Meet me in my room in five minutes. I want a moment alone with you before we leave." He punctuates the last sentence more forcefully, for Serina's benefit no doubt. I giggle but nod, watching with longing as he leaves the room. I can't help but ogle the way his shirt hugs his muscles, the material stretching over his broad back the same way it did his strapped chest.

"Lord, are you going to stand there all night making googly eyes at the man or are you going to get ready for this mission?" Serina's voice snaps me out of my trance and I go to stand next to her.

"What is all this?" Aside from the clothing she pulled out, the bag mostly contained weapons, ammo, maps, devices, cellphones, clothing and aid kits.

"Emergency situations may arise. Best to be prepared." Serina removes an automatic rifle, checks the ammunition, puts it on safety and puts it back in the bag. "Start with the guns. Make sure they are fully loaded and have the safety on."

I do as she says, having learned how to handle any sort of gun from Stark. When we finish that, we start loading extra ammo into extra clips for quick reloads if it comes down to that. Hopefully it doesn't, I do not mind hand on hand combat or even wielding my knife, but guns seem so extreme. So violent and final. It also feels a little bit like cheating. Taking a life should not be as easy as pulling a trigger, except for when it is in self-defense. Which I suppose it would be. In all my time down here in this safe house I never saw the guys use their guns. They wore them for extra help, but I think their powers were enough to do the job. Especially someone like Stark who could make you use your own gun on yourself.

"You ready for tonight?" Serina asks quietly, placing a pistol back into the bag. She removes a sleek boning knife with a long silver blade and black grip handle. On the side etched into the metal are the initials S.D.