LAURA

'Some kind of a family reconciliation going on here?' 

From the entrance of the drawing room which overlooked the garden outside, a serious youthful boy entered with a monotonous expression. He was dressed in his comfortable clothes, not ready for visitors. His remained stuck on the young woman and the little girl close to her, seemingly clinging to the arm of this woman. Her daughter. 

'Tony,' Maria breathed when he entered the room.  'This is Catherine Sharipov and her daughter, Laureline. Our good friend from college.'

'Hi,' he waved at the woman and fisted his hands again, not bothering to her reaction. He shot a look at his parents. 'What's going on?'

'She's here because she needs help,' Maria explained, his father remaining reticent and having a keen eye on the girl who hid her face behind her mother. 'A lot of help.'

 A beat passed.

'Knocked up and forgotten? Or here for the cash?' Tony asked dryly, leaning onto a pillar with crossed arms. He wasn't too poignant about an estranged blonde and Russian-looking woman at their front door who his parents were receiving with open arms. Hell, he'd never heard of this woman ever.

'Tony!' His father hissed at him sternly and Catherine reached across the table to silence him with a gracious smile. 'Howard, it's okay.' 

She met Tony's keen gaze with the same expression, a little teasing. 'What are the odds, am I right?' She joked. 'One day, you're at your home having pre-Christmas dinner and the next you're running for the hills from your devil-in-disguise father.'

The young boy couldn't help but sympathize. So this woman had to raise a child on her own in a house with misleading parents. Of course, he wasn't emotionally able to show off his sentiments, so he shrouded it with an apologetic look. 

'Tony, why don't you take Laureline to the kitchen and grab her a bite while we work this out?'

The little girl was hesitant to leave her mother's side but with a quick whisper into her ears, she joined the young billionaire's side as he led her to the vast kitchen. Tony was reluctant to hang out with a kid, the weirdest part of this stupid day. Surprisingly enough, the girl wasn't the least bit intimidated to enter a kitchen that was ten times the size of her as she looked up to the large marble shelves, impressed. She wore a cotton dress which was a bit too big for her, her hair pulled into a messy braid and a tooth gap.

'So, kid,' he started. 'How old are you?'

She showed five painted fingers and one bent finger on the other. 'Five and a half.'

'Oddly specific,' he murmured, eyeing the girl sideways. She made her way up the kitchenette stool, strangely tall for a five-year-old. Clasping her hands in front of her, she kneeled over the counter and reaching for an apple in a basket. Tony pulled the basket towards him, with raised eyebrows.

'Answer my question and I'll give you the entire basket.'

She narrowed her eyes. 'Bully.'

'I'm not a bully. You know why?  Because bullies hurt you,' he answered his question and leaned forward to met the girl's eyes who didn't back down. 'Did I hurt you?'

'No.'

'Then answer for the apple,' he shrugged. 'Easy peasy.'

'Fine,' she groaned, backing down from his intense stare. 'You're pushy.'

'And you're five,' he scoffed. 'So, tell me. What's your story?'

She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms to incline over the marble countertop. 'Deda started shouting at Mum about Daddy and me. I was behind Baba because I hate when Deda gets angry. Then, Mum took me away before Baba could snatch me with his long werewolf like claws. She sent these hound dogs after with us, with huge teeth and they tried to eat Mum and me - '

Tony looked taken aback. 'Hounds?'

'Yes,' she said, eerily excited. She climbed over the countertop, settling over it in a crawling position She was shouting making up more creatively specific lines, making a claw motions with her hands and snapping it in front of Tony's face who reeled back with an irritated sigh.

'Vampires? Kid, what - '

'There's more!' She clapped her hands. 'And, then - '

'Oh my god,' he rubbed his forehead with qualms. 'My death is going to be in the words of a child.'

'Hey, you wanted to hear a story,' she said with innocent eyes that ticked him off.

'No,' he retraced to what he had said and dropped his shoulders. So he had to hold back his tongue to explain it. 'Okay, yeah I did. Wow, outsmarted me, huh?'

'Can I get the apple, now?'

He tossed another fruit that was buried underneath a pile of grapes, calling a truce. She caught it before it rolled and brought it to her lips with the victory. She extended a hand forward, with a sweet smile.

'I'm Laureline. You can call me Laurie.'

He shook her tiny hand, completely ignoring the fact that this was not how he imagined his night would go. 'Tony. Only Tony even for you.'

'Are you married?' She asked, using her fragile milk teeth to gnaw into the apple. Tony made a face at her. 'Why, do you want to marry me, Laurie?'

She raised her gaze to his, intrigued. 'Would you?'

'I'm fifteen years older,' he reminded her. 'You'll marry me?'

'I like you,' she shrugged. 'Because you listened to my story. Only Mum listens to my stories.'

'They're horrific.'

'Thank you,' she smiled, bowing her head. 'Mum said the same.'

He shut his eyes, willing life itself to absorb him into a dimension where kids never existed. He let out a breath, reprimanding her. 'That's terrific. What I meant is that they're - you know what, you're good. Keep it up.'

'To get married, you'll have to sacrifice a goat and drink it's - '

'Shut up, kid or I swear to god I'll puke.'

'Scaredy cat,' she whispered under her breath.

When silence wedged in, only the crunch of the fruit keeping them company and then Tony really looked at her. This young girl was brought with no fatherly figure but still managed to make it seem completely normal. Now, her mother who has nowhere to go not only has to fend for herself but Laurie, too.

'Hey, kiddo,' he started and Laurie met his eyes. 'Even if your dad isn't here, your mom seems pretty cool. Don't crash and burn with her. She's the only one you've got.'

She nodded, prying a finger over the skin of the apple as if immersed in deep thought. 'Alright.' 

'And hey, Laurie? I'll marry you too.'

-  ♣ -

My eyes were barely held open when I read the time on the clock for the tenth time that night. I tossed on the bed, trying to remember something that kept bugging me at the back of my head. Having Sin back in my system felt unusually completing at that point in time. My breakfast was loading up a box of chocolates which I inhaled up in seconds. When I got off the bed for the first time, I felt more powerful than ever and body feeling more stronger. 

However, on the inside, my mind was in a state of chaos. When Sin unhitched my memories, it was a dirty shelf of constant displacing thoughts. I didn't know what went where and how my past would be fit back together but eventually, with some of the words Eddie spoke around me - I was able to piece some of it back together.

I let my feet hit the cold ground of the extensive room which I shared with Eddie for just one night at the Stark residence. It was massive with its floor-length windows and view that overlooked the forest and city; I almost wished I could live here forever. I placed my hands over the glass, the region around my fingers frosting over with the immense cold that I generated. I watched on as it frosted a square region of the glass.

'Can't sleep?' 

I swerved to greet Eddie's voice, who was already up and moving to me in easy strides. His midsection was left empty, only trousers sheathing his legs and a kindred smile upon his lips. He stopped behind me, resting his chin over my shoulder and the slight stubble growth scratching my neck.

He wants sex.

I gasped, making Eddie grumble with displeasure as I moved away. 'You can't just say that, Sin!'

He reeks of testosterone and his eyes are on your -

'That's enough, ET. I'll have sex if he wants to.'

Eddie answered with a brazen smirk on his lips, hooking a hand over my waist. 'I want to.'

Told you so.

I groaned. Sometimes having another voice wasn't as helpful as it seemed. It could be a major buzzkill. Meanwhile, Eddie's lips set over my forehead and let it revel there. His cool breaths blew into the crown of my head, bathing me a chilling warmth.

'Why can't you sleep?'

I shook my head. 'I had the weirdest dream. It was more of a memory, I think.'

'So, what was it?' 

I tried to frame it to sentences, creating a valid statement. 'I - It had something to my mom and,' I released a breath, turning to face him directly. I had to tell somebody about the issue Wanda had approached me about before anybody blew it out of proportion. Eddie was the one person I trusted with my life.

Tell him, my symbiote urged. He'll help, I can feel it.

'What?'

'The Stark family,' I murmured. 'My mother was somehow connected to them. Ed, I knew Tony before this but - '

' - you can't remember it.' He finished for me, placing his hands over his hips. 'And Tony obviously won't, because you're not Laureline.'

That name brought a wave of anger in my chest, my symbiote coiling with passion. A fire that a ravished like a seven-course serving of fury. I didn't realize the snarl that had curled on my lips, Eddie rubbing my shoulders gently. 

'I know that name ticks you off,' he said quickly, 'but he knows you as . . . that.'

I relaxed when his fingers knead into my bones deeply. I shook my head, knowing not to reveal further because all these varied emotions starting to churn in me the wrong way. 

'Let's keep this between us, please?'

'Sure, doll. You can count on me.'

'Mr. Brock, sorry to interrupt but Mr. Parker would like to speak with you.'

The AI, JARVIS, scared the living crap out of me. Sin and I went into defense mode when the lights turned on, my hands turning to amorphous cords of tendons. The sudden change in the light made me squint, holding Eddie close. Eddie shook himself out of a trance, answering to nothing. 'I'll be there.'

Before departing, he kissed my lips softly and ruffled my tresses with a stern glance. 'Get to some rest.'

I chuckled under my breath, letting him go unwillingly. I just wanted to keep him for myself, was that too much to ask? 

'Don't do anything breakneck.'

'You know me,' he shrugged with his hands out, pushing past the door and into the hallway. When the door slammed, I was left to revel in my thoughts and that threatened to swallow my mind into confusion I could never wake up from.

We'll figure it out, Laura. 

'He needs to know,' I spoke guiltily. 'He needs to know about my family.'

It's for the better good. 

'He is my better good,' I said back. 

Leave the shit as it is. There are bigger things to deal with.

'Which are?'

The deaths around town in your memories? That's no symbiote.

'Nobody knows what it is.'

I do. My father, Riot, saw thousand years ago on Klyntar but after a millennium, it's back again. And it won't stop until every last symbiote-host on the planet is dead.

- ♣ -

[ w/n: hoot hoot! we finally know what it is! (not the real name, of course, that's still suspense) but hey, a little insight into little Laura and Tony's relationship in the past! so they do have a sibling bond rather than a love-love bond so I really hope this sort of levels that playing field. I know the idea of Tora is a no-go but that's just to mess with you, guys. I had this planned WAY back, like part 1 back, that both of 'em had a chemistry that only siblings had. so we'll see how these to sort of connect with their relevant character deaths. next chappie, twist, twist and turn!

before I leave. ]