A Taste of Vengeance

The voices, on the bright side, had stopped several chugs of whiskey ago. On the down side, I was locked in a room with Tony, who refused to let me leave, no matter how many times I tried to get past him. He had even set up a chair in front of my door, sitting in it and crossing his arms over his chest like a parent watching a very bratty child.

I sat down roughly on the bed, losing my balance and tumbling to the side. I hadn’t been this hammered in a very long time, but all I seemed to care about was figuring out a way to get past Tony. I was frustrated and wanted to hit something, but even in my drunken haze I knew hitting him would hurt him, although it had crossed my mind several times
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“I’m hungry,” I grumbled, looking up at him while laying on my side. My speech was as thick as my head and my tongue felt heavy and clumsy in my mouth. “I’m going to get food.”

“No actually,” he retorted evenly. “You’re not. You’re going to sit your Jim Bean ass on that bed, and you’re going to talk.”

“Talk?” I scrunched up my face distastefully. Tony didn’t seem like the kind of person that liked to talk. “Why the fuck are we talking? Is that what you do to Pepper? Talk?”

He rolled his eyes. “As much as it pains me to admit it, talking helps, especially when you’re wasted. Now start talking.”

I grumbled and pulled myself up against the wall, leaning on it haphazardly. I absently wondered where Steve was, but I didn’t want him to see me. Not like this. I knew if he saw me in this state I would disappoint him, I would shame myself. No… maybe Tony being my guard dog was a good thing, although I still wanted to leave.

“When did you realize the alcohol made the voices go away?” he asked me. I stared at him.

“Are you a mind reader too?” I asked him flatly. I was going to be pissed if he could read minds and didn’t tell me.

He laughed without humor. “No, I just have different types of voices in my head. The ones that are my own. Now answer the question.

Glowering at him, I answered, “When I was sixteen, I got word that Jean Grey had killed my uncle Charles. She mentored me from the age 8 until 12, you know? She’s part of the reason I’m so good at breaking weak minds. When she killed him, I told S.H.I.E.L.D I was taking an indefinite leave of absence. Fuckin figures Fury thought I was gonna’ run off an go rogue. He had agents tailing me everywhere I went. Are you sure I can’t get food?”

“Keep talking.”

I glowered at him , letting my head fall back against the wall harder than I wanted. I squinted and rubbed my head. “Back at the school, there were so many emotions and sadness and just thoughts flying right and left and I couldn’t drown any of it out. Do you know what it feels like, to not be able to retreat into your own mind without eeeevveryone else there? It’s not even a sanctuary for me.

“I only drank because I was mad, but the more I drank, the more the voices faded. My ability to read minds is in the limbic system where I control memories and emotion as well. The alcohol impairs the limbic system, so when I drink enough to have memory black outs, it blacks out the abilities to read and invades minds. The telekinesis is the same. That ability lies in the cerebellum because my cerebellum doesn’t just control my movement, it has a higher form of energy because of the mutation and that’s how I control objects around me, so when I drink, my cerebellum is usually the first thing that goes.”

Tony shook his head when I finished, but not in a scolding manner, which puzzled me. “The fact that you can still talk about science while drunk reminds me a lot of myself,” he laughed. “I used to drink until I didn’t care about anything or anyone else around me, and I’d go down to the garage and start working on new projects or trash the new ones and fix them.”

I shrugged. “If I was bad at science I think it’d be an insult to my parents.”

He cocked his head to the side. “Do you think you’re a disappointment?”

I recoiled. Even when drunk I could feel the insult. “Well isn’t that nice,” I slurred angrily, getting up from the bed with difficulty. “Just insult the drunk kid.

“That’s not what I meant,” Tony sighed. “I meant that do you feel like you are?”

I walked over to the stand next to my bed, picking up the picture and staring at it. I was so young in the picture. A little girl in a pink dress with black curls and big blue eyes. My mother, my uncle and myself all shared the same shade of blue eyes. My father’s eyes were just as beautiful. He had dark green eyes, standing in contrast with his dark hair. We looked so happy.

“I don’t think they’d be particularly happy about my actions,” I mumbled, setting the pictures down roughly. “I did a lot of bad things. My uncle voiced his opinion about it several times, but I didn’t really care. He was just a bossy, old, bald guy. And now…” I held up my hands and shrugged.

“Sit down kid.” He gestured to the bed and I complied. I was beginning to feel extremely tired and the thick buzz in my head was beginning to annoying me. “I’m not exactly one for the sentimental conversations and the sharing feelings nonsense. I personally, hate it. But I’m gonna tell you a few things I’ve learned over the years that I think you need to learn too. First, never worrying about trying to impress your parents. They are dead, they are gone, and you will never know what they think, so just impress yourself. Second, if you’re living life without pissing a couple people off, then you’re probably living a life where you let people walk all over you. Third, drinking, as fun and scintillating as it is, doesn’t help. Four, listen, agree, and then do what the fuck you were going to do anyways. Got it?”

I frowned, not sure how any of that was meant to be inspirational, but then again, it was Tony Stark talking. He was about as inspirational as a McDonalds commercial. “Can I go to bed now?”

“I swear,” He said, standing. “You are the single most annoying thing I have ever met.”

“Bur I’m number one in that category,” I muttered, pointing at him before collapsing backwards onto my bed.

He chortled. “Get some sleep, kid. And then shower. You smell like a hooker.”