Hidden on Titan (Infinity War x Fem!Reader)

Chapter Thirty

"She's been in that room ever since she arrived," Strange's voice echoed throughout one of the conference rooms in the Tower, his feet clicked against the marble flooring, a stressed hand flying up to massage his temple, "Why did you bring her back with you again?"

A frustrated Tony Stark sat at the head of the table, his right hand was nervously clicking and un-clicking one of his own pens, his left leg bouncing up and down out of habit.

The room was quiet for a few moments.

Steve, Bucky, Sam, Nat, Bruce, Peter, and Thor either stood or sat around the table, staring at both Strange and Tony as they awaited one of the men to break the silence. The seven of them had a slight inkling of what was going on, but they would never be able to understand the entirety of the situation if neither of the men were willing to speak about it.

"You do understand that the atmosphere of Titan is undeniably different than that of Earth, right?" Tony retorted, obvious frustration poisoning his tone, "She's only been in Manhattan for three days. I do not expect her to get up and walk around as freely as we would have liked to believe she could have," Hands flew up in equal frustration, then a shake of the head, "I'm sorry, but it just doesn't work like that."

"You have billions of dollars and you couldn't come up with something that would at least - oh, I don't know - help her in the slightest?"

Young Peter placed his head down on the conference table in apparent annoyance. The bickering was the same as it had been on Titan, over the same girl, over the stupidest of things.

"Of course Mr. Stark has the money and the resources, but she is another life-form, Mr. Strange," Peter spoke up, voice cracking momentarily as he noticed all eyes were on him, "While she was able to save our entire universe, she's still a living, breathing organism that's not from this planet. What she needs is time to adjust."

"I'm sure Vision is catering to her every need," Tony added, subtly praising Peter for being so vocal for a change as opposed to his unnecessary silence during meetings, "I asked him to watch over her."

"And what about Wanda?" Steve spoke up, "How do you think she'd feel about that?"

Tony's palm slapped against his forehead, eyes darting down to the ground, "Ya know, Cap, I don't really know. Not really all that concerned about love interests at the moment. Vision is keeping her alive, not making life with her."

"Just let her rest, guys," Peter said, flopping back in his chair with his arms crossed against his chest, "We can talk about the remainder of her stay when she is well enough."

The rest of the team that gathered and sat around the table remained quiet. There was nothing to say, nothing to argue. Nothing could be done until (Y/N) was feeling better. News Crew visits and scientific purposes could wait until she was better and they knew that. The argument Strange had posed in the first place had been unnecessary and out of the blue. Arguing the well-being of your savior was unneeded and out of the question.

-

A few hours had passed since the sharp feeling in (Y/N)'s chest. Vision remained by her side throughout the following hours, accompanying her in small talk, asking questions about her home, discussing Thanos, but, for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to talk about the Infinity Stones. It seemed wrong.

"Do you think I'm unwell because of Earth's atmosphere?" She asked for the umpteenth time.

No matter how many times Vision answered her, she couldn't seem to be satisfied with his responses. Somewhere deep inside of her, she knew something else was wrong. It couldn't just be because she wasn't from the planet. However, the reality of the living conditions on Titan versus the living conditions on Earth were incredibly apparent and very different. Titan was far colder than that of Earth despite the fact that (Y/N) had only known heat throughout a majority of her life. Titan's atmosphere is also thicker and filled with far more carbon compounds than that of Earth. That alone could be what was affecting her so negatively.

"You understand the realistic living conditions of both planets and yet you still question your ailments," A small chuckle fell from Vision's lips, bemused at the fact that she was still trying to convince herself that it couldn't be that much different, "Why is that? Are you wanting something to be wrong with just you?"

Unnecessarily as a majority of her feelings had been, (Y/N) felt herself slightly offended at such an accusation. No more than anyone else, she did not desire to be her own reasoning for suffering. More than anything, it was comforting to her to actually know that it was the carbon compound difference between the planets that was affecting her, not her existence in general.

"I've been here for a few days, I can assume," She spoke quietly, wanting to dismantle the defenses she would have surely brought up if she'd continued to feel attacked, "I know that the atmosphere is the reason I am unwell, but I can't understand why it is taking so long to recover."

Vision sat back in the chair he'd dragged from across the room and placed by her bed, arms crossing against his chest. He'd adorned himself with a black, long-sleeved, v-neck and dress pants. This form of dress confused (Y/N), seeing as though it was apparent that this being was not at all human.

"There's no way you're from Earth," She continued, "How did you recover?"

His eyes darted to the ground, fingertips picking at the lint still attached to his shirt out of nervous habit.

There was no easy way to explain his existence to her. His form of living was far more complex than hers, he was certain. How could he explain it to an alien life-form that had never experienced Earth's technology until recently?

"I'm not sure how much you know of Earth's technology, or any other world's technology for that matter, but simply - I am an android. A living, breathing android. For a time, I accompanied Mr. Stark as his technological assistant - hence, J.A.R.V.I.S."

"What does that stand for exactly?"

"Just A Rather Very Intelligent System," He chuckled, "Silly, right?"

A petite, subconscious giggle fell from her lips, "Tony Stark came up with that, correct?"

He nodded, a warm smile playing at his lips.

"Then of course it's silly."

"Hm..." He hummed, content with her solace, even if it was only momentary.

"And 'Vision,'" She started, "Why 'Vision'?"

A pang hit his mechanical heart.

So many different answers...

"A woman a long time ago described me as a vision," His eyes seemed to gloss over, almost as if he was staring at the space behind (Y/N) rather than right at her, "I suppose it just stuck."

A rather strangely comforting silence filled the room as Vision drowned himself in his thoughts and (Y/N) found herself staring at a wax stick sat on a small structure just beside her cot, a small, orange flame decorating the top of it, the wax melting onto a silver dish just beneath it.

Anything orange and warm seemed to remind her of home.

But for some reason, she didn't miss it like she thought she would.

Looking from the flame to Vision, she felt a sense of warmth from both.

How strange...