Chapter Text
I remember one day I walked into my apartment after school. I was looking for my aunt.
“Aunt Lucy, I'm home.” “Honey I’m in the living room she called back” she said with that sweet voice that I loved. I walked into the living room and my heart did a double take. Tony fucking Stark was in my living room. “Ummmm w..ww umm hi.” I stuttered. “Hi”, Tony Stark said. He stuck his hand out for me to shake. “I... I... I’mmmmm Ellie.” “Hi Ellie I’m here to talk about your internship.” He said. “Ellie, you never told me about an internship!” Aunt Lucy said surprised. “Umm... I wanted to surprise you” I said. “Well Ellie let's finish up this process.” He said. “Ok” I said as I started to walk into my room. He followed. My room was small. I had a twin size bed with a desk next to it. Thankfully I cleaned yesterday. Once we were in my room he closed my door. “Why are you really here?” I asked. “You're the icicle right?” He asked, seeming like he already knew the answer. “No, what are you talking about?” I said acting confused. “Then what is this?” He said as he walked over to my window and pulled the shades up. Revealing a blue sweatshirt and mask. “Shoot!” I said as I ran to grab it. “Do not lie to me”, He said in a snarky way. I sighed, “Fine I am, how did you figure it out?” I asked. “I saw the video of your accident, I just put the pieces together.” He said as he kept looking at me.
About a year ago I went on a trip to a research facility. I was looking at one of the tubes full of ice radiation they were working on. There was a room full of it. When all of a sudden the room went into lockdown. I was locked into the room alone. I was terrified. All of a sudden I realized that the reason I went into the lockdown was because one of the tubes full of ice radiation had a crack. It burst open creating a blue wave of ice radiation that caused all of the other tubes to break. It was neck high on me at that point. It was like a whirlpool. I was being sucked in. The next thing I know I am laying on the floor soaking wet and all of the ice radiation is gone. I was freezing and I couldn’t breathe. By then the scientists were prying the door open. They ran over to me and they couldn’t touch me. They say I was as cold as ice. I remember being rushed to the hospital. I remember seeing my Aunts tear stained eyes. They said nothing was wrong with me. Little did they know every time I touched something it would turn to ice. At first I was terrified I wore gloves everywhere. But later I learned how to control it. Now I am in complete control over my powers and I go out every night. To fight crime as Icicle.
“Oh.” I said. “Now listen, you are really good at what you do. I need you to help fight Captain America. He is trying to do something bad. Will you help me?”, He asked. “Um I would love to but I don’t have a passport”, I said. “I am going to deal with that,'' he said. “Fine, I will come.”
That was a year ago. Now I go over to his house two days a week. We work in the lab. I have a better suit now that has all of the cool stuff. And I think everything is going to start going back to normal. After the whole Thanos thing. After Tony snapped he was taken to a hospital and lived. Then when Steve went to return the stones he came back normal and with Nat. I think life is going pretty well, besides the weather. It was a rainy day and I was walking home from school. It had been a good day but I was excited to get home. I was going to make dinner to surprise Aunt Lucy once she got home from work. She wanted to talk about the icicle and making sure I was safe. She found out about my secret a couple months after Germany. She was making me check in with Mr. Stark after every battle. It was ok. I just wanted to hug her and eat. I missed her. I walked into our apartment and went to the kitchen. I started to cook some chicken and pasta, her favorite. I had just finished, I glanced over to the clock above the door. She was late. I went and grabbed my phone. I sat down and started to go through my Instagram. Then my phone started to ring. It was the doctor. I had an appointment next week so they were probably just confirming. I answered, “Hello?” “Hi this is Susan, is this Ellie?” “Yes this is her'' , I stated. So far it was normal. The lady over the phone paused and gulped, she eventually said “I’m sorry to say but your aunt has been in a car crash. She is unresponsive. We are at the hospital and we are doing all we can. Can you come please?” She stated as if she had said it a million times. I felt my heart drop. I stood up and walked to the door in nothing but a tank top and shorts. It was raining. I ran outside forgetting she was still on the phone. “Hello?” She said. Startled, I said, “Hi sorry I’m on my way.” I then ended the call. I started to cry. I was not paying attention. A car honked at me as I ran into the middle of the road. I felt something hard on my back. It was hail. Shoot! I wasn't careful and I froze the rain. I didn’t care, I just kept running. Hail kept hitting me. It hurt so bad it felt like gun shot wounds. I saw the hospital lights. I was done running. I froze the rain on the ground and slid to the hospital. I burst inside. “Where is my aunt?!?” I asked in a panic. The front desk lady rolled her eyes and said “room 406.” She looked unphased to the blood dripping from my shirt from the hail. I ran into the room. There she was. Unconscious. She looked older than she was. There was blood dripping from her face and a lot of machines. I tried to act calm. I walked over to her and grabbed her hand. I sat there and cried waiting for her to wake up. Then all of a sudden I heard the ongoing beep from the machine. “What’s happening?”, I screamed as the doctors started to rush in. I tried so hard to control my powers. So when a Doctor grabbed me and dragged me out of the room, I didn’t fight.I sat on the floor and continued crying hysterically. ”Please please you can’t do this to me.” I whispered. After about 5 minutes a lady walked out. I quickly stood up gathering all my strength. She said, “Miss I’m sorry to say but your aunt is dead.” She said in the most sympathetic voice she could muster. I let out a deathly scream and fell to the floor. I felt any last ounce of hope leave my body. I resented how just an hour ago I had pranced around her kitchen, with no worry or doubt that anything had gone wrong. My ignorance twisted inside of me like a hot blade. What I would do just to hear her voice, to feel the comfort she gave me with every word she spoke, to see the smile on her face when I had made her favorite dinner. It pained me that some didn’t have the chance to see that smile, or hear her squeaky little laugh. But none of that mattered. She was dead. Nothing more than just another black bag in a morgue, and gravestone people walked past and gave no thought to. I thought about how I would come to her with my problems, I burst into tears knowing that her wisdom and sympathy could no longer guide me, I was completely alone. I tried to focus on my powers to keep them in check. The lady sat next to me and tried to comfort me. She asked if there was anyone who she could call. “Call.... this number” I somehow mustered out between my sobs. She nodded and walked out. I stood up and grabbed onto the wall so I didn’t fall over. I slowly walked over to my aunt's room. Falling to her side. About 30 minutes later they came in and told me I had to leave so they could cover her and take her away. I didn’t put up a fight. I was too weak. I just sadly sobbed and they dragged me away. I sat on the floor and cried. Until an older lady walked up to me. “Hello, I am Eleanor, a social worker. Do you have any living family members?” She asked in the most disrespectful way. I shook my head. She looked at me, “Well we need to discuss this so we can get you somewhere to stay.” She said kinda meanly. “No, I don’t want to discuss this.” I yelled weakly. “Fine, we will discuss this later.”, She said as she turned around and stomped away. I could hear her annoying heels clicking and clacking on the floor. Who says that to a person who just lost a relative??! I laid on the floor and curled into a ball and cried. I closed my eyes concentrating on my powers. I must have fallen asleep because I woke up to someone patting my shoulder. I slowly opened my eyes. Tony Stark was sitting next to me.