A/N: Out where they walk, out where they run, out where spend all day in the sun!
Chapter eleven *yay* once again thank you for sticking it out this long and if you followed and/or favourited...its very appreciated.
DISCLAIMER: I OWN OC'S AND NOTHING ELSE
The smoke began to perform its usual contorted dance as it whipped through the cold winter air, the heat from the cigarette begun to warm her face and thus turned her cheeks a warm pink while her hands remained the same ghostly white due to the cold.
She had vowed to stop the habit, though after being decorated into a nicotine tree by Darcy in an attempt to get rid of the habit she still found herself finding comfort in the tobacco sticks.
The sensation of being able to inhale the smoke as well as the somewhat artistic look of the way it curled in the air had always appealed to her. It was almost as if the smoke was trying to escape the confinements of the cigarette, which in itself was a ridiculous idea, but one that the silver-haired woman had herself admiring on many an occasion.
At first the little habit ha started out as a source of rebellion. Too show that she no longer was the seventeen year old child and could now make her own choices. But as the weeks and the months passed, the habit became less of a rebellion but more about something else. Control.
She had always told herself that she was in control, she smoked because she wanted to and she could quit at only time...only she found herself no wanting to.
There were many things in her life that she could not control; her powers, her ever growing bust and her mother's illness. But if there was one thing she could control it was being able to smoke. She controlled if she lit the lighter, she controlled whenever she inhaled and she controlled placing the dollar bills on the counter. And that was why Winter Snow loved to smoke.
She raised her hand to take the last puff of the cigarette, only to get it slapped out of her grasp at the last possible second. It took her a few moments to register the still lit cigarette that was slowly dying out on the pavement before she turned her head to look at the grinning culprit.
Laenna simply dismissed Winter's 'are you fucking kidding me' look and innocently shrugged "Smoking is a disgusting habit" She stated matter of factly before clutching the hooded jacket she wore tighter to her chest as a strong gust of wind blew past.
The wind whipped past the two women, catching the tendrils that Winter had tied into a high ponytail and pulling it around like some sort of strange silver kite.
Winter frowned at her mother before reaching into her pocket and pulling out the packet of cigarettes that she had just bought, serving as a sort of silent 'fuck you' to her mother.
Laenna frowned before snatching the packet, with a speed Winter didn't know she possessed from her daughter's fingers before chucking it into the busy road of Queens and thus forcing the small packet to meet its oncoming fate from the New York traffic.
Winter stared wide eyed at the remains of the cigarettes before turning back to her mother with her mouth agape "What the fuck-" Winter shouted before her mother lightly smacked her upside the head which effectively silence her.
Winter frowned at her mother once more before clutching the area where her mother had hit, she hated it when she treated her like a child, she was twenty two for pete's sake.
"Don't swear, is fucking rude" Laenna stated which caused Winter to frown once more.
Winter shook her head in disbelieve "But you just fucking-ow!" She exclaimed once Laenna hit her upside the head – in the same spot.
"You need to learn manners and live a healthier lifestyle" Laenna stated as the two continued down the busy streets.
Winter frowned, she hadn't been the healthiest of teenagers growing up- well there was one time she had been part of the cheer squad before she found out that the school quarter back only convinced the head cheerleader to let her join just so her could stare at her breasts during games. However once that was ousted, she was forcibly kicked off the team for being too distracting. But in Winter's opinion she was a great cheerleader.
"Sorry mom, me and healthy don't co-exist...its unnatural" Winter stated, the matter couldn't be helped.
Laenna rolled her eyes before reaching for her keys, giving Winter time to look at the house she had used to call home during her late teens. Still hadn't changed at still appeared to be the same shit-hole "Winter, please don't let me do this alone" Laenna pleaded with her best puppy dog expression, her bottom lip quivering to add to the cuteness.
Winter tried her best to ignore her mother's expression; however the occasional whimpering along with deep sadness in her sapphire orbs caused Winter to exhale loudly. It looked like the puppy dog face was Winter's one and only weakness "Fine. I'll be healthy with you" Winter stated which caused her mother's expression to change to complete happiness "...but I won't enjoy it" She added quickly causing Laenna to roll her eyes.
Natasha sighed before closing down the holographic screen in front her it seemed to be no use and none of had any leads on the nameless agent that had attacked Darcy and Winter back in Queens. It had seemed obvious at the time that the agent was HYDRA, the uniform, the saying...but it made o sense as to why someone would go through the trouble of making themselves out to be HYDRA it was as if to them it was all just some sort of game...
Clint was the first to have given up after coming to un breakable SHIELD file "So any ideas with who's after Snow?" He asked and thus breaking the silence.
All the heroes shook their heads sadly, Tony seems frustrated, Steve annoyed and Thor tired for he had no idea on where to start looking.
Steve ran a hand through his dark blonde hair before sighing loudly, it would have been simple and easy if it was just HYDRA, however now it seemed to be someone better at hiding, someone unexpected.
"Shouldn't we tell, Winter...I mean doesn't she have the right to know?" Bruce asked once he too had closed down his own screen.
Thor shook his head in disagreement "Wouldn't that upset, Lady Winter?" Thor asked, his voice echoing throughout the meeting room and causing everyone to cower slightly - he had a very distinctive voice.
Tony frowned at the thunder god "Use your inside voice, he-man" He said before opening up another screen, he wasn't giving up just yet.
Natasha nodded in agreement "She's been through enough already" She said, referring to her mother's illness and concerns over her growing powers.
"She probably could handle it" Clint offered
Steve shook his head slightly "Her powers are linked with emotions, if we add more stress to the mix we don't know what could happen" He added with a frown which caused Bruce to stiffen slightly. The doctor knew what it was like to be feared, yet he also knew what it was like to be kept in the dark, and that usually resulted in more anger and stress.
"Snow's a big girl...she can deal with a little stress" Tony said whilst never taking his eyes from the screen. He didn't want to admit it but he was...concerned, an agent just appeared and attacked the two most irritating, yet somewhat lovable women of the tower and they had no idea who they worked for. If there was one thing that annoyed Tony Stark it was not knowing things, for it meant that he was at a disadvantage and when you at a disadvantage you were vulnerable and he hated being vulnerable.
Natasha frowned at the billionaire, none of them knew the full extent of Winter's powers so perhaps stress wasn't the best idea for the young techno path
She rolled her eyes before speaking "We all know that stress is a good thing" She said sarcastically which caused Bruce to stiffen once more...had everyone forgotten that he was still in the room?
It seemed like a life time later that Winter had finally managed to get her mother to rest, the older silver-haired woman was adamant that she could clean the mess that had taken over the house herself only for her to pass out minutes later.
Winter sighed softly as she placed a blanket over her mother's sleeping form, allowing her to register just how small she actually looked tucked away in the soft pink blanket like a small child.
Laenna was stubborn and adamant that despite the doctor's suggestion on a week of bed rest post surgery, that she could just waltz around as if nothing had happened – as if everything was okay. At least the surgery had bought them more time together, more time to laugh, more time to dance around like fools and more time to be the family that Laenna always wanted.
Smiling, Winter continued to quietly sweep up the dust from the floor, since no one had occupied the house for a good while due to Laenna being in hospital the dust had taken this as an opportunity to form and cover the ground in a disgusting grey snow which Winter had the wonderful privilege of cleaning.
As Winter ran the broom over the floorboards once more it suddenly stopped and clanged against the ground as if something were obstructing its way. Crouching down slightly and moving the dust out of the way Winter noticed that one of the floorboards was slightly out of shape, making her realise that the house was more of s shit hole than she first thought.
Reaching down she proceeded to place the floor board back into its original position, only for it to slide forward into the ground below and reveal something that shouldn't have been there.
A numerous amount of papers and files seemed to be scattered around in the ground below the out of shape floor board as if someone had placed them there.
Winter reached down and pulled out one of the tanned coloured files, which had the words 'terminated' stamped red across the front. A second thing that caught her attention was the strange logo on the front, the logo that appeared on the top right corner of each paper and was stamped across the middle of each of the tanned coloured files, meaning that all the paper and the files came from the same place, a place that Laenna, for some reason was trying to hide.
Slowly opening the file Winter quickly scanned over the various charts, blood results and ultrasound s all of which meant nothing to her. She frowned before placing the file back on the ground only for one paper to fall out, picking it up she stared wide eyed at the photo in front her, the photo of young girl no older than four with long silver hair and bright silver eyes. The photo was of her.
The sound of her mother quietly shifting came to her attention and Winter quickly shoved whatever files she could up the back of her hooded jacket before quickly replacing the floorboard back into its original position.
She turned around so that she was facing her mother, whilst trying her best to make sure that the multiple files didn't creep out of its hiding space.
Laenna slowly sat up, double blinking once she noticed Winter in front of her sweeping up the remains of dust from the floor "Snowflake, you don't need to tidy up I can do it later" Laenna said with a small yawn before she rubbed at her eyes.
Winter smiled at her mother before placing the broom back down "Nah, its fine and you were tired" Winter stated before silently clutching her hooded jacket closer to her skin.
Laenna smiled before standing up "How about I make us dinner?" She suggested before she started on heading towards the kitchen.
Winter smiled before softly shaking her head at the request which caused Laenna to frown slightly – Winter never said no to the offer of food.
"It's just I promised Darcy that we would go out and eat later...and I want to go on an empty stomach and all" Winter lied
Laenna nodded in understanding before sitting back down on the sofa "How about you visit me tomorrow and I make you something then?" Laenna suggested with a grin.
Winter nodded "Yeah...that sounds great" Winter added with a grin before heading for the door. "I'll call you later" Winter called out before walking out the door and leaving Laenna somewhat confused.
Winter quickly walked down the street and pulled the files from out of its hiding place, she knew that theses files had some sort of importance otherwise her mother wouldn't have gone through the trouble of hiding them in the first place.
She also had a hunch that maybe one of the agents- Clint or Tasha knew about the strange yet somewhat familiar logo and maybe to extent Tony, for some of the papers had shown information on advanced technology which she had limited knowledge about.
But all Winter did know was that it had something to do with the letters A. I. M.
So what did you think of that?
I just had to put in a little cliffhanger and all that jazz.
Stay tuned for the next chapter where secrets are revealed and an a.i.m. is revealed
JustAnotherFairy :)