a ghost's endeavour

by himynameisvaleria

*I have no idea how long I can keep this running for, and I'm horrible at updating. I'm so sorry!

6.

"Who are you?"

She fell from the plank that she was currently holding, and looked towards the source of the voice. Cursing, Hayley realised that Steve had forgotten to close the door and as a result, someone had caught a glimpse of her from the hallway, and was standing with his arms crossed over his chest demandingly at the door.

"I'm um… I'm Hayley," she offered, not sounding too sure of herself in the face of a leather-clad Avenger (presumably). Cringing, she realised that her name did not tell him much, and was about to further explain when he stepped into the room.

She stood up, and took a step back, bumping into the nightstand behind her. "Okay, Hayley, what are you doing here?" he demanded again.

"She's a friend of Captain Rogers, Mr Barton, and does not pose a threat to the tower, or the inhabitants of it," Jarvis informed.

Deciding that the figure was Hawkeye, she gulped, and opened her mouth to explain again, "I was with Steve and he stepped out for a brief mission. Since I promised to bake him something later, I thought I would stay and… well, wait."

Though the suspiciousness in his eyes did not die down, he nodded curtly, and left the room promptly without another word.

She let out a breath of relief as he left—until Tony replaced him as an unwelcome stranger in Steve's room. "Hey, kid."

"No, I don't want to fuck, Tony, thanks."

He raised his eyebrows, and dragged a chair to sit opposite to Hayley, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed. He stared at her until she put away her laptop to look at him. "Don't treat me like a child, Tony. I feel like I'm about to get a lecture from you."

Tony rolled his eyes. "What do you want from Steve? Don't lie, because I will hold you responsible, and you might not enjoy the consequences of it."

Hayley's heart lurched in her chest. "Why have you been so nice to me in the past? You didn't have to be."

"I have a soft spot for Steve—I didn't want to scare you off. He's my friend," he answered honestly.

She swallowed. "I have feelings for him. I just don't know how much—I'm just not sure if it's enough. I know he deserves more and it would hurt less to just refrain from a relationship in case it doesn't end well. It probably won't end well. I'm still in a bad place right now."

Tony was about to speak, and then his phone rang. Taking a brief look at his screen, he pulled out a holograph, and to Hayley's horror, she saw that he had her file out. She scrambled to stand up and gain control of Tony's device only for him to push her away. In hysteria, she managed to trip over the corner of the bed, and fall on her knees. "That's a fucking invasion of privacy, Stark, don't you fucking read—"

"Hm, a few publications of creative pieces… not bad, you can write, kid. Competition wins—don't fight this, it'll be easier, trust me," he chuckled, and continued reading out loud.

"Please, Tony, this is really private, don't—"

"A news article on you? Shit, I didn't know you were this big of a dea—"

And then he stopped short, and Hayley sighed, turning away, knowing that he had reached the one part of her life that she had tried so desperately hard to run away from. He read in silence for a few more minutes, and then proclaimed, "Shit, kid."

"I told you not to go into it," she whispered, voice shaking. She had one hand covering her face, and Stark didn't know whether she was crying or simply hiding her embarrassment, but he had a pretty good guess that it was a combination of both.

Quickly, he minimised the file, and pushed his chair backwards so he could get on the floor with her. Wincing, he put a hand on her shoulder. Hayley shrugged his hand off of her. "Don't try to comfort me, Stark. I had it under my belt and you brought it up and I'm not sure you are what I want to see right now."

"You have to rip off the band-aid sometimes."

"The wound is still not healed, Stark, you rip it off, you rip the skin off and blood comes gushing out. I'm not sure if you understand, but you haven't had someone force themselves on you, have you?" she looked up, strangely tear free.

He opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off, "What about calling him on the phone seconds before it happened, hoping he would come and save you. Then he rejects your urgency in favour of the girlfriend that you thought you helped him get over because goddamn it, you were just a rebound—yet you sit here judging me for not being able to move on? Fuck, you're kind of an asshole, but I bet you already know that, didn't you?"

Moments after she told him (most of) the whole story, she sat there on the floor, hoping she could somehow take it all back. Steve, she felt better with leaving the truth with, but Tony Stark was a wildcard—she could never expect him to not blurt it out in a heat wave of anger or drunken foolishness.

And then, she realised that maybe, just maybe, she was ready to trust Steve yet.

(But does trusting him mean that she was comfortable with being with him?)

"Hayley, I'm sorry. But I'm not sorry for bringing this up. You need an outlet—you can't keep it in forever. I didn't talk about the Battle of New York and it almost ripped me apart. Look, I know it hurts, but damn it, it's not Steve's fault. Don't use him like he used you."

That hit her. This had always been something that was at the edge of her mind, but it never fully hit her until now. Perhaps it had always been overshadowed by the need for warmth and companionship.

"Well, this is my cue to leave," he said, getting up promptly as footsteps neared.

As Tony left, he passed by Steve Rogers, who gave him a dirty, suspicious look. Walking into the room, he was met with a side of Hayley Song that he had never seen before. It took him only one look at her crying on the floor before he was at her side.