AN:  I found this gif and I thought it was perfect, so I had to incorporate it in. :) Thank you for all the comments and votes!

A week passed by faster than Tony could make a suit, which he says his record is a day and a half. Go figure. Xavier's safe house was just like I remembered it. The small, old cabin had some cobwebs on the inside and the door squeaked. One bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom were the only rooms in the cabin itself, all adorned with matching furniture. White cloths covered the items in the room from getting dusty and the wooden floors creaked below us. The musty smell made me nostalgic for a movie night in by the warm fire like Logan, Bobby, Kit, and I used to do.

My favorite part? The facial recognition scanner and pass code keypad hidden behind one of the panels in the wall. Some of the floor in the corner would move away, revealing a stair case leading to the basement. Dozens of rooms, a gym, a weapons vault, and even a lab hid underneath the whole cabin. Professor Xavier wanted a lot of children or X-Men to be comfortable if the occasion arose and they needed it. Right now, it was a blessing.

A cold chill flew through the air and squeezed between the cracks in the window to force its way into the room. The window frosted over from the white snow plummeting from the sky like tiny comets. A regular December storm raged outside, leaving us stuck in the cabin whether we liked it or not. Fire crackled in the fireplace and emanated heat into the living room. We reached the end of a conversation and enjoyed ourselves for once. We didn't feel the need to watch out backs or worry every moment. It felt great just to let go for once.

"I knew it!" Peter exclaimed happily and fist pumped into the air. He smiled widely and held out his hand towards Bruce and Tony. Both of them sighed, pulled out their wallets, and handed him ten dollars each. "Clint said it first."

"You bet on our relationship?" Natasha questioned, a little offended, but yet intrigued. They were interested in their love lives enough to bet on it. She lifted a blonde eyebrow and almost glared at all of them.

Bruce chuckled and glanced at her. "It was just some fun on the side."

"Who knew Barton was a bleeding heart," Tony chimed in, disbelief echoing in his voice. He crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his weight to the other foot. He was about to leave with Bruce and Peter to the lab below to fix their equipment.

Clint grinned at Natasha and stared at her with love in his eyes. "Of course I said I love her first. You really think Nat would be the first to say it?" Natasha squeezed his hand a bit and rested her head on his shoulder. Her short blonde hair fell into her line of sight and covered her face.

"Speaking of work, we have to go," Tony gestured to the stairs leading to the basement. Peter and Bruce nodded and followed him down to the labs. They have been attached to that place since we got here and absolutely love it. The tech, the smell, the endless hours of sleep exhaustion, the science trio missed it all.

Ira fumbled with the armor on her arm and adjusted it to her liking. She cleaned and polished it firmly, her gray eyes following every stroke. She pushed her wavy black hair behind her ear to focus more.

The golden symbols on her cheek that trailed all the way to her forehead caught my interest again. I never got the chance to ask before, so might as well take this down time to do that now. "What do those symbols mean?" Her attention snapped down to where I was sitting on the floor. I reiterated, "The symbols on your face. What do they mean?"

She skimmed her purple skin until she found the gold markings and stopped. Ira put her armor in place and faintly smiled from the memory. "I was born with them. My mother used to tell me it meant Shikohyna itolipatria munqueart. In your language, it translates to Fire briskly burning. She explained to me it showed my persistence and passion." Ira turned her gaze to the fire in the fireplace, the orange glow lighting up her features.

"That's very beautiful," Clint commented as he played with Natasha's fingers. His eyes stayed on Ira, but she didn't turn back to meet his gaze.

Ira changed the subject and whispered, "What is Loki like now?"

I scrunched my eyebrows together for a second in curiosity. Why is she bringing this up now? I questioned in my head. Clint shook his head at me, indicating he didn't want to answer. He probably had a few choice words to say about him, and none of them were good. I groaned internally and answered her, "He's a villain and wants to take over the world. He's ruthless, sassy, angry, revenge driven, psychotic..."

Clint cut me off once he noticed Ira's expression falling, "He's just a guy you don't want to mess with, Ira."

"He was not like that before...but the man I am in love with now is different. He is not angry, ruthless, or psychotic. I do not know what terms to describe him as, but I am glad I do not know the Loki you know. I have moved on from what I knew him as and hope to remain that way." Ira fell silent, which ended our conversation immediately. She stood up and left to her room downstairs to ingest the information.

My eyes wandered around the room until they fell on Steve, who scribbled away at his notebook. He brought his knees up to his chest, which made it easier to do whatever he was doing. His blue eyes scanned the opposite page and a small smile tugged at his lips. Steve brushed a hand through his short blond hair before continuing.

I became curious and crawled over to the spot next to him, sitting against the hard wall. My hand put my black hair behind my ear as I tried to get a peek at the page. "What are you doing?"

Steve closed the book quickly and shook his head. "Nothing."

I raised both eyebrows and gave him an Are-You-Serious look. "Steve." He studied me for a second, sweeping over my features until he sighed. He flipped passed a few pages and handed the book to me.

The pages were aged and more gray than they once had been. Pencil smears covered some parts of the paper, but became darker once it got to the picture. A man in a uniform slyly smirked at whatever he was looking at to his right. His hat covered almost all of his short black hair and tilted into his dark, warm eyes. His suit appeared freshly ironed and perfect, suiting him nicely in all the right places.

"Is that him...?" I asked in a whisper. My fingers grazed the page, nearing where the drawing was. I could imagine him like that. When I was at Hydra, he looked a lot more broken, unhappy, and intimidating. The drawing gave off a vibe that he was really nice or maybe even a big flirt. The way his gaze held, he might have been looking at Steve in a protective way. There were all these possibilities, but only Steve knew the real James Buchanan Barnes.

I turned the page and searched over the next drawing. Brown, curly hair fell over the figure's shoulders and she held her hand out, her fingers outstretched like she held an invisible bowling ball. I skimmed over the eyes, only to realize they were mine. The menacing glare stared right back at me, slightly covered by the rim of the black glasses. This...this was what I looked like the day we met. Did he remember this a lot? How I wanted to hurt him if he interfered with my escape? "Steve...this is beautiful. I didn't know you could draw so well."

"Yeah, just something I do in my spare time," he rubbed the back of his neck nervously as a small blush bloomed on his cheeks.

"You have a lot of talents. I'm a little jealous."

He laughed and took the book away from me. "I have seventy years of using those talents to make up." He put the pencil on top of the sketch book and set it aside.

"I'll be as talented as you one day," I declared with confidence. I had the rest of eternity to find hobbies that I'm great at. If I focused enough, I could be even better than he is.

"Maybe in a couple hundred years," he snorted. I pushed him over playfully and scoffed. Steve put his hands up in defense and smiled, "You know I'm kidding."

I crossed my arms and huffed, "Whatever. I don't have the time to draw or sing anyway. We have a bad guy to catch. Remember?"

"If he's even still alive," he scoffed and grew quiet. That was always the remaining question in our lives. Was the villain still alive? Would they come back to try again? Would we be strong enough to fight back this time?

A couple hours later, I made my way from the security vault to my room. I fidgeted with the burner phone in my hand and clicked the numbers on the keypad. I looked around the hall as I put the phone to my ear. The tiled walls and floors were a bright white, but in the lighting, it appeared blue. A cold chill ran down my spine and I stopped by the thermostat to turn up the heat. The ringing echoed loudly in my ear until the receiver picked up the phone.

"Lilly?" Logan answered quickly, a little out of breath.

"Yeah, Logan, it's me. We're at the safe house. We had an unexpected surprise at Tony's place...got ambushed again..." I trailed off and tried to think of how we were attacked. No one knew we were there, unless the government suddenly became smart enough to check into Tony's past affiliations.

His rough voice cleared a bit and he exhaled, "I've been worried about you, kid. Not knowing where you're at or if you're captured again..."

I interrupted him after entering my room, "I'm fine. We're going to fix this...we have to." I brushed my fingers through my hair and sat down on the soft bed. If we weren't going to fix this, no one would.

"That's going to be a lot of convincing to the government, but I have faith in you."

I laughed for a few seconds and smiled softly, "Yeah...not looking forward to that." My fingers traced the outline of the bedside table lamp before turning it on, illuminating the room. The blue painted walls reminded me of the night sky and the gray carpeting felt soft against my feet. Only a dark wooden dresser sat against the wall and a chair in the opposite corner, leaving room to maneuver around for a quick exit if need be. "So, everything's okay over there?"

"Yeah. Everything is fine. We've been trying to stay out of trouble so we're not targeted next, but you know how that usually works out," he chuckled lightly and a loud sound echoed in the background. He took a few sips of his drink, probably beer, and growled a bit. "Wanda and Pietro visited yesterday."

"How are they doing?" I quickly asked. My heart jumped at their names. I had only seen them a couple of times, but we talked a lot over the phone when I was in school. They helped on missions, I helped them on their research, it was a simplistic friendship to have.

"Fine." Logan grunted, "Apparently Magneto is trying to rebuild Genosha. I told him it failed once in the other timeline before it was altered. He said he's really adamant on building a city for mutants to live peacefully."

"Wow....okay..." I scratched the back of my head in thought. Would that work this time, or would it meet its doom like the last? And even if mutants could live peacefully, there is always another force trying to break it up. I waited for Logan to say something more about the twins, but he kept quiet about it. Tears tugged at my eyes and my heart ached. Being away from family, possibly risking their lives, and not knowing if I'd ever see them again really took a toll on me. Aunt May told me Enjoy every day as if it were your last. How could I do that when I haven't told them that I love them in person in so long? Did they know how much I cared? I wrapped up the call, "Can you please give Kit my number? I owe her an explanation. I'd love to keep talking to you, but I have to go. If something happens, I'll text you. Call me if something happens."

Logan's voice lowered in sadness and he sighed, "Alright, Lilly. I love you."

"I love you too." I hung up the phone and huffed. Phone calls were getting harder and harder to leave these days, but I would see them soon. I had to keep telling myself that or I would lose hope. I shot a text to Aunt May's phone and informed her about the situation.

Minutes later, my phone buzzed and received a picture message. Aunt May smiled at the camera, laugh lines surrounding her lips and crows feet in the corners of her brown eyes. Her wavy brown hair mixed with Amelia's long black hair. Amelia's brown eyes glistened in the light and her chubby cheeks puffed out as her lips spread out into a smile. A text message popped up underneath the picture, "Her first few months of Kindergarten were amazing. She won't stop talking about it."

Tears fell onto my face and I sniffled. I finally had alone time to grieve, release emotions, anything that I wanted. Right now, crying sounded like my best choice. I closed my eyes, whimpered to myself, and let it all out.

Tony walked by in the hallway and stopped when he saw me. A puzzled look settled on his face and it quickly melted into worry. He stepped into the room carefully and spoke up, "Are you alright?"

I swiftly wiped my tears away and sniffled. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" I blinked a few times to clear my reddening, swollen eyes. I turned away and backed up on my bed to cross my legs.

"You're crying, Lillybug," he declared in concern. Tony sat on the bed beside me and raised his eyebrows.

I glared at Tony for using Logan's nickname for me. "I was having a private moment, Tony."

His brown eyes locked onto my hazel ones and his expression softened. Tony's voice became clearer and calmer, "You can tell me."

The way he put his full attention on me...it seemed great. Tony usually multi-tasked or worked himself to near exhaustion to help with things like this. Maybe now that we were apart from his lifestyle, he took more time to get along with the team. I shook my head for a second before speaking, "You can tell the group is feeling just like I am. Guilty. Under the weather. There's no way around it. Clint stopped wanting to sleep, or complaining about it anyway. Natasha doesn't talk a lot anymore. Peter is still optimistic, but when he had his private moments, I know he just sat there and cried. He has a big heart...And Bruce seeing all that destruction on TV? Seeing the Hulk do all that? I know he feels bad. You can see it on his face. Steve hasn't been hopeful at times. And you...Tony, I just can't figure you out."

Tony shrugged and wiped some of my tears away. "Someone has to keep it together here, and that's me. We'll get through this." He stopped and held his hand there for a second, his eyes moving back and forth like he remembered something. He dropped his hand and looked down at the ground. "I'm not as strong as you think I am. I deal with..." He glimpsed back up at me, a part of him reluctant to say. "I deal with anxiety. I can't sleep. Constantly worrying. Always over thinking."

His face hardened and his jaw flexed. "Do you know why I stay up countless nights making those suits?" I shook my head for the sake of the conversation, and he continued, "I do it to protect the people I love and care about the most. I have this need to protect them at all times. If something goes wrong, I can fix it. But..." He paused and shrugged sadly. "But Pepper gets annoyed when I put too much effort into the suits. Sometimes, she even gets upset with me. I think to myself that next time she's going to leave me. I may act like an asshole, but it's only a defense mechanism. I have this nagging voice in my head telling me that all of my friends are slowly pushing me away. So, I push back. That's me when I'm being rude. And in reality..." he trailed off.

I finished his statement, "In reality, people aren't doing that and you're the only one pushing them away in the end." I sniffled again and moved the black hair out of my face. I watched Tony in worry. I never thought I would miss something so important to him...how could Tony have kept this under the wraps?

"Exactly. I don't want to lose anybody. Everything that I do is to protect them, not drive them away."

I sighed. This was the cold hard truth. "Tony, our actions will have consequences. Spend more time with Pepper. Go out with friends. Play chess with Jarvis. Do something. You can have a life and take time out of your day to try to protect the people you love. No one is going to leave you. I promise."

He rubbed his hands together nervously. "I can't help but to think they are. I feel powerless. No matter what I do, I'll always feel like I'm doing something wrong. I'm always worrying about what will happen next. I can't sleep. Everything is just a big mess."

"When did this start?" I questioned. Digging deeper into Tony's life gave me insight and improved our friendship. I felt much closer to him already.

"Right after we finished the Battle of New York," he simply answered.

I scooted closer to him and brought his attention to me. "You've saved people. Hell, you saved the entire planet."

"We didn't save the lives of the people in Chicago!" he snapped. The broken look in his eyes expressed how he felt so guilty, so hurt by our failure.

I retaliated, "For months, we've been planning on avenging those lives. We're going to succeed."

"How many more lives is that going to cost?" Tony's face twisted and he spit out, "How many more people have to die for our recklessness? Did you not see that gaping portal into Asgard and the many soldiers marching out of it? They were there to destroy the planet and take over. The nuke was a back up in case we couldn't save the people. You know what keeps going through my head? We were in the middle of it all. Of all the chaos. Of everything."

I could see what everyone had told me all this time. My guilt was not just mine. It was everyone's. Tony argued the same points I always brought up. Now I was on the other end of it. I opened my eyes and finally took in what those past conversations meant. "We still couldn't save them! We all feel how you feel. Powerless. The nuke was a wake up call and the government certainly has another thing coming." I had to change the subject. Get his mind off of this. Anything. I let my eyes wander the room and picked at my fingernails. "If I hadn't saved Amelia, I don't know what I would have done with myself..."

Tony calmed down and sat for a moment. The fresh tears in his eyes drew back when he blinked rapidly. "How is she?"

I showed him the picture Aunt May sent me and smiled. "She's going to Kindergarten now."

"They grow up so fast," he replied with a small smirk of his own. He touched the screen and grazed over Amelia's soft cheeks. He pulled his hand away and looked off into the distance.

"We couldn't save her parents, but I sure as hell am going to raise their child to everything they wanted her to be and more. It's the least I can do..." Tony slung his arm around my shoulder and rested on me. I played with my hands and whispered, "Tony, I can't have kids. That's why I'm so attached to Amelia."

Tony took my hand in his and didn't say anything. He pulled me close in a side hug and let the silence do all the talking. It felt comforting to have someone not freak out because of it. Tony didn't need words to convey his sorrow. It made our friendship that much stronger.