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Queenie shudders under Tony’s gaze, every hair standing on end.
This is not new, it was, way back when, when she was young and naive and she thought him nothing but a normal man.
This concept has long since been forgotten.
Reggie brushes their shoulder against her’s, they look far off, as they always do when they are around Tony.
They can see better than she can, have known him far longer than she has, has loved him far longer.
Queenie knocks her shoulder against their’s, steels herself, meets Tony’s gaze evenly.
Something , brushes against her ankles, long and tentacle-like, she does not flinch, does not stamp it down with a single knife sharp heel, Tony would never harm her and he would especially never hurt Reggie.
Even if he would, both of them know better than to make an enemy of Tony, have better sense, would never, will never, and are not capable of going toe to toe with him and, of course, they know him and make an effort to know him.
It seems, that his new ‘friends’ do not get this, do not understand, do not try to see past that thin human facade, that is, if she were to go off the fury radiating from every inch of Tony’s being.
Teeth clack far off to the right, sharp and grinding and terrifying. Neither she nor Reggie turn to look.
“Queenie,” his voice is echoed a thousand times over, warped until it’s nothing but monstrous and she feels something wrap around Reggie’s waist loosely before releasing them, “go with Reggie and run .”
She looks at him, looks at all of him, eyes and teeth and faces and claws and monster , and nods, grips Reggie’s hand tightly and both of them turn from Tony, trusting Tony.
“He’s not ever following us.”
Their voice is so quiet she almost misses it, but when she looks at them their eyes are so dark with knowledge that she’s almost more scared of them than him.
They look her in the eyes and something heavy slams down onto her shoulders.
“Don’t look back.”
The moment stretches until they look away and her shoulders are free and she can breathe again.
Air rattles through her lungs, and out of the corner of her eye she sees Tony’s ‘friends’ walking towards where they left him.
She looks back, Reggie starts running and their clasped hands break apart like shattering glass.
There is nothing in any universe to explain what she sees.
The air in her lungs withers until there is nothing but ash and soot left in her body.
There is a half-broken cry and Tony, all of Tony is hovering over her destroyed body and Queenie shudders.