TSUNAMI [A Fairy Tail/Marvel Fanfiction]

Chapter Twenty Four - Winter, Part Three

Well, I don't like this chapter this much, but I've put it off long enough and it's barely changed within the past week or so, so it's going up. From that point of view, I'm sorry I didn't put it up sooner.

Chapter Twenty Four - Winter, Part Three

"Ugh," I collapsed in a chair next to Tony.

He stopped his tinkering. "That bad?" he asked.

"I need a hug," I said, avoiding the question.

He wiped his hands off on a towel (not that it got rid of much of the grease) and put his arms around me. I squeezed him back.

"That bad?" he repeated.

"Worse." My voice was muffled into his shirt. "Ugh, I haven't been that emotionally exhausted in years. What they did to him..."

"He should get better, remember?" he asked.

"God, I hope so," I muttered. "I'm going to ask him about magic tomorrow, see if he'll let me speed it up more now that he's awake."

"You think he won't?" Tony asked.

"I think he's a scared PTSD vet who's been tortured for decades and probably doesn't know what to do with weird mystical lights," I said dryly. "Or, I think he might let me do it anyway because he's scared of my reaction otherwise."

Tony gave me another squeeze before backing out. I reluctantly let him go.

"Well, if anyone can help, I'm sure it's you," he said, reassuringly. "You haven't been in my life a week, and look! Better already."

I sadly smiled at him and gave him another quick hug. "Thanks, Tony. I'm going to take a shower and go to bed with the cats. Do you want anything to eat?"

"Not really," Tony said.

I raised an eyebrow.

He rolled his eyes. "I dunno, just whatever."

I sighed. "I'll see if we have leftover pizza. Goodnight, Tony."

"Goodnight," he said absently, sitting back down on his chair and returning to a half-structured arm.

I shook my head and went upstairs.

The Asset stared at the door where Its Handler left.

No. Not its. His.

His?

His.

He had had a Handler like this before. Once.

He had been a scientist, not an agent, and while usually he feared the scientists the most, this one was different. The scientist had claimed that the Asset was his experiment, and stopped the other scientists and agents from experimenting and abusing the Asset.

For a small amount of time, it wasn't so bad.

Until, of course, Hydra found out, and they had used his trigger words to make him kill the man.

But he wasn't at Hydra anymore, that was obvious. Hydra didn't give him a bed, or warm clothes, or toys or food.

He was scared to go to sleep. Scared that he'd wake up in Hydra, that this was all some sort of fever dream from his cryostasis chamber caused by bad chemicals. He'd had one before, where a blonde man saved him from an experiment. He wasn't supposed to have dreams in cryostasis, but if something went wrong with the freezing process, it was possible.