The Never-Ending Why: Chapter 35: In The Dark (Part 5)

Clea was about to head back to her world, but she was stalling the departure for as long as she could. Donna wasn't feeling the marriage thing. She mentioned that her brother was only how old? Twenty?

Donna Strange did the math. Stephen was two years older than her, and she turned 18 back in February. Stephen was born in NOVEMBER.

She reminded him that his twenty first birthday was coming up, and he had no business being married. He couldn't even legally buy a drink. The marriage was very random for her, and unexpected. She didn't want to talk to them any longer, so she headed back into the apartment.

Clea and Stephen were standing on the sidewalk, alone. They didn't want to talk about what Donna was mentioning. In Clea's opinion, Stephen's age did not matter.

"I really upset Agamotto. He looked very hurt."

Stephen looked down at the amulet. He picked it up from his chest, and started staring at all the details. The almost-sorcerer pondered Clea's comment, and then he looked at her.

He looked at her for a long while, then he smiled and changed his focus.

"He'll get over it."

"Do you really think so? He looked broken."

Clea didn't want to hurt either of them. It hurt her heart to have him put away, but she felt like Stephen needed a fighting chance. He needed to master Agamotto's skills in his own time.

"I know so. He will get over it. Agamotto has no choice."

Stephen knew how his entity felt about Clea, and he felt the exact same way. His small smile remained on his face, and she stepped close to him.

She really needed to head back to her responsibilities, so she only gave him a soft kiss. It was very brief, but Stephen was glad for it. His life had resumed where he left it, and his dream girl disappeared.

Stephen hated it when she left. He closed his eyes, and stood alone for a short while. The older brother walked it off, and headed up to his own apartment. His siblings went back to sleep, and he found some comfort on the living room sofa.

He realized that all his stuff was gone when he walked in, but he wasn't bothered by that. Donna and Victor had made it a home, so Stephen was content.

Someone else in this story was far from content. Steve Rogers was still walking to Brooklyn. Tony was following along, and trying to get him talking.

Tony didn't shy away from a conversation. He welcomed any sort of communication. Even if it started an argument between them, Tony wanted something to happen.

He asked if they were really walking all the way to Brooklyn. Steve said that he was, because he needed to think.

"I can meet you back at the apartment, you don't have to walk with me Tony."

WHAT? Tony didn't like hearing that. His frozen breath puffed out of his mouth, and he started walking faster. He didn't want to leave Steve out on the streets so he could SULK about Stephen's rude ass.

Tony bit his tongue, and he kept marching onward. His shoes were expensive, beautiful, and covered in street debris. BUT, WHATEVER.

He kept going, and tried to act unaffected. They didn't have jackets, because they friggen teleported to Stephen's apartment. Tony was hella cold, and Steve's body looked warm.

Tony wanted to feel it, back in their bed. He let out a loud and exhausted sigh.. and Steve looked in his direction.

"This isn't about you, ok? So you don't have to be out here."

"I WANT to be out here. Its beautiful and peaceful so, suck it."

Tony wasn't giving up without a fight. He shivered all along the way, and he tried to huddle close to Steve several times. That blonde was stubborn as fuhhhhkkkkk.

Tony thought that he heard a laugh, so he looked over at him. Tony's eyebrow arched high, as the two of them kept on walking.

"I'm sorry about what I did, earlier. Before we went to sleep."

Steve was talking about pretending to be Stephen. He did it to really get a sense of what Stephen wanted. He took it way too far, and Tony told him to stop.

Tony was glad that he said something. He acknowledged the apology, but that wasn't what he wanted to discuss.

"Ehh, don't worry. It's fine."

"No, it's not."

Steve sounded very stern as he spoke, because he was very disappointed with himself. His current attitude had nothing to do with Tony, but he was failing to make that clear.

The blonde was very new with relationships, and what Tony had in mind was pretty scary for Steve. He was trying to figure out if he could balance Stephen into his life.

Because of Stephen's behavior behind his back, Steve wasn't sure if he could trust him.

His top priority was to have a conversation with Stephen. He didn't want Tony involved at all. He needed to hear how Stephen really felt, and what his actual intentions were.

Steve could not move forward without having some sort of chat. He worked it all out in his head, as the almost-soldier walked quietly beside Tony.

Chapter: END

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