(8/10)
Chapter 24 – Leon's POV (Still Paper-Bagless but Emotionally Unstable)
We sat on the couch.
Correction: I sat like a raccoon after tax season, and Carol lounged like a goddess judging mankind's worth from Mount Sass.
The anime? Something slice-of-life with way too many sparkles and girls yelling "Senpai!" every 30 seconds. I was half-invested, half-panicking.
Because her thigh?
Was touching mine.
Just a little. Just enough to send my brain into a mental static loop.
/Thigh contact detected. Abort? Engage? Pretend you're dead?/
Meanwhile, Carol sat cool and casual, sipping tea from a mug that said "Stab First, Ask Questions Later."
"So... you're just gonna pretend you didn't run through a brick wall wearing a paper bag?" she asked, sipping. Calm. Deadpan. Painfully sarcastic.
"I like dramatic entrances."
"Into a retirement home."
"Old people need spice too."
She didn't laugh. But I saw it. That micro-twitch at the corner of her lip. A full-blown giggle barely escaped containment.
Progress.
Then it happened.
The Lean.
Subtle. Casual. But suddenly, Carol shifted. Her shoulder brushed mine. Her arm rested close. Her scent—pine needles and war crimes—filled my lungs.
"You're tense," she whispered, her voice lower now. "Something's been going on, hasn't it?"
I blinked. "Nope. I'm always tense. It's the default setting."
She turned to face me. Eyes locked. Close. Way too close. Like, one accidental sneeze away from mouth-to-mouth resuscitation levels of close.
"I know when you're lying," she said. "Your left nostril flares."
"Lies."
"It just flared."
"DAMN IT."
She giggled.
Like, full giggle. Musical. Dangerous. I swear the walls leaned in to eavesdrop.
Then she did the unspeakable.
She reached up and—
Ruffled my hair.
Like I was some kind of emotionally constipated puppy.
My entire body shut down.
CPU overheated.
/Emotion.exe has stopped responding. Please reboot./
/System error. Clear cache/
She leaned in again—this time closer. "You've grown, Leon. You're still an idiot, but... I feel like I don't have to protect you as much anymore."
"I'm totally fine with you still doing it, though," I blurted. "The protecting. The... touching. Wait—I mean—THE HAIR. HAIR TOUCH. NOT... oh god."
Carol tilted her head, watching me unravel like a malfunctioning toaster.
Then, softly:
"You're kinda cute when you panic."
And then she stood. Just—stood.
Tension cut. Scene over. Peace never existed.
"Don't blow anything up while I take a shower," she said over her shoulder, vanishing into the hallway with a sway in her step that was 100% illegal.
I stared at the blank TV screen. Anime girl on screen yelled "BAKA!!"
I felt that.
-------
FLASHBACK: "When the Stars Burn Red"
Location: Underground Bio-Vault, Genosha.
Time: A week ago.
POV: Carol Danvers.
The air smelled like copper and rot. Metal walls stretched endlessly, lined with tanks filled with half-grown things—some human, some not. None of them breathing.
Carol's boots crunched over broken glass. Her fists clenched, glowing faintly. Her heart pounded with something primal. Something she hadn't felt since the Kree Wars.
Rage.
"Ah… Ms Captain Marvel herself."
That voice.
Smooth. Calculated. The kind that dismantles you with a compliment, then files your corpse alphabetically.
From the shadows stepped Nathaniel Essex. Mr. Sinister.
Clad in regal horror, skin pale like porcelain dipped in nightmares. His smile? Surgical. His eyes? Dissecting her soul.
"You knew," she growled, stepping forward, each word coated in fire. "You knew he was just a kid."
"Oh, Lieutenant Trouble?" Sinister purred. "He's so much more than a kid. He's my greatest composition. Do you know how many failed mutations I went through? How many mothers were paid off? How many—"
CRACK!
Her fist connected.
Bone and blood snapped sideways.
Sinister's head twisted ninety degrees.
He laughed.
"You're emotional, Carol. I like that. It means I won."
"I will end you," she whispered.
In an instant, she was on him—fists glowing like solar eruptions, smashing him through the cryo-pods, through reinforced walls, through time itself.
Sinister coughed blood, still grinning. "He's unlike anything else, Danvers. You think Charles and Erik were rivals? You haven't begun to imagine what he is."
She hoisted him by the throat. The glow from her eyes made even the darkness recoil.
"What did you do to my nephew?"
Sinister chuckled, even as blood ran from his lips.
"I didn't create a boy, Carol... I unchained a singularity. A walking paradox. You should be thanking me."
BOOM.
A crater formed beneath them. Sinister's body slammed into the concrete like a meteor, limp, broken—but alive.
Carol stood over him. Breathing heavy. Hands still burning.
And then—
She paused.
Because in the rubble... she saw the first photo.
A test log. A surveillance image. A five-year-old Leon.
Playing with toy cars. Laughing. Unaware the entire world had made him a ticking time bomb.
Tears welled in her eyes.
Not from weakness.
From fury.
She knelt beside Sinister's broken form.
"If you so much as whisper his name again," she whispered, her voice trembling, "I will burn your mind from existence. I'll turn your bones to stardust. I'll find the original you—and rip it from the womb of time."
Sinister smiled faintly.
"You already love him like a son, don't you?"
Her silence said everything.
She stood, cracked her knuckles, and ignited one last blast of cosmic flame.
But she didn't kill him.
Not today.
"Leon will never know your name. He'll never know your voice. Because I'll be there. Always. Watching. Guarding him from what you made him to be."
She vanished in a blink, leaving Sinister in a pit of his own ruin.
Back to Present – Leon's POV
I don't get Carol, man. One moment she's burning toast and threatening delivery guys, the next she's staring at me like I'm a ticking nuke she wants to hug.
I just wish I knew what she was protecting me from.