[TRIGGER WARNING - BRIEF MENTION OF RAPE]

"For a raging alcoholic, you're not much of a drinker."

Arlo clenched his teeth at Sharon's taunting. Here he was with one arm tied with a goddamn fucking chain - bit excessive, even for him - sitting in an office chair, with a small bar cart stalled to his right, a singular glass of whiskey poured out alongside a glass pitcher on top of it.

Sharon had been aimlessly pacing around the large open landing on the third floor of her ridiculous Madripoor mansion taunting him for the past half-hour, only a light from above the desk on the graffitied wall & the lights from the city shining through the wall entirely composed of glass to his right enabled him to see her.

Arlo took a breath & composed himself slightly. "Do you really think I'm that naive to drink something that's so obviously poisoned? I thought far better of you Agent Carter."

Sharon, who had had her back turned to him, snapped to attention at his words & did a complete U-turn & legged it over towards him, grabbed the glass and downed it all in one swoop before slamming it back down on the cart.

"Do you really think so little of me that I'd try to pull such a rookie move? I thought better of you, Stark."

He swallowed, annoyed. Of course she wouldn't. She had been in this game almost as long as him. "If I'm not here to be poisoned, then why am I?"

"If I wanted you dead right now I would've had you dead the second you stepped foot in this city after your last little visit to your niece & nephew in California, believe me - actually, I probably would've had you killed in California."

Arlo paused. Of course she fucking knew about him visiting Pepper, Morgan & Jack. Why wouldn't she? Sharon knew every single thing that went on in Madripoor. She probably knew all the breeds of rat that ran around in the damn sewers.

"I'm well aware. Hence my question. Why am I here? For the laugh? For your little group of pyschos' personal entertainment?"

Sharon slowly approached him again, bent down to his height & dug her knuckles hard into his knees.

Arlo tensed at the feeling of her many signet rings sinking into his legs, deducting they would most likely leave some sort of bruise or mark.

He was tempted to remark how most romance novelists would swoon at the scene & gawk about the apparent sexual tension, but then quickly remembered they were both gay so the "tension" was non-existent.

"Those "psychos" are the closest thing I have left to a fucking family," Sharon snarled. "Besides my son of course."

Then it clicked. Ian Carter. The three year-old son of the deceased Darcy Lewis & Darius Costa, who had been adopted by Sharon after Darius shot Darcy dead & in turn was beaten to death with a crowbar by Sharon.

Arlo would consider that one of Sharon's lowest points. Darcy had been in an extremely abusive relationship with the absolute bastard that was Darius Costa, but ended up finding comfort in Sharon & they had began an affair, that had unfortunately been discovered by Darius.

Mere weeks after Ian's birth Sharon had discovered that he had been the result of rape, & from what Arlo heard Sharon saw red & immediately stormed over to their apartment with the first weapon she could get her hands on - a crowbar - and broke down the door, just to find a dead Darcy, a crying baby & a drunk abusive prick messing with a gun. And that was the last thing said abusive prick ever did.

Arlo knew one of his goons - Eric or something his name was - had come up with the genius idea to kidnap the toddler & use him to extort information about his brother Tony's latest tech.

He shot down the idea immediately however. There isn't many neutral grounds in the criminal underground of Madripoor, but using children as tools for extortion was a major no-go, at least between him & Sharon.

Arlo had enough enemies as it was, he definitely did not need to make his far more powerful on-again off-again ally one too.

But judging by the look in her eyes, Arlo assumed that the great Eric didn't follow his orders.

"I want to know why one of your men decided to try & kidnap my son, saying it was on your orders. I thought we had a deal Stark, did we not?" Sharon growled with a raised eyebrow, maintaing eye contact

Arlo felt his blood start to boil and clenched his fists. That bloody bastard. "We did, & we do have a deal. Children are off limits. I assure you I gave no orders of the sort-"

"Don't bullshit me Stark!" Sharon pushed herself away from him angrily, & in an instant Arlo felt himself being choked - but it wasn't by Sharon.

Then he looked up. Towering above him he noticed a guy who's face was casted in shadows by the hood of his jacket & his dark fringe, but the eyes - oh the eyes - that were glowing red gave him away instantly - Ronan fucking Rogers.

The boy who was believed to be dead for near a decade, just like his parents. The walking symbol of American patriosim, Steve Rogers, & public enemy number one Wanda Maximoff. A strange pair, he had always thought, but he knew love could be strange sometimes.

It had to have been love. There was nothing else it could be. Steve's name was dragged through the mud the second there was even the slightest rumour of them dating over twenty years ago, it then only escalated to a whole new level once the press & public had discovered that Steve had dared to have children with & got married to the daughter of one of the most infamous mutants of all time, Erik Lehnsherr, who also died in the freak accident that took the life of Steve & Wanda's only non-mutant child, Danilo James Rogers at only five years old.

It was as if that family had some sort of curse cast on them. Death seemed to follow them around every corner. Steve had been pressured into "retiring" the Captain America mantle, which he passed on to Sam Wilson while carrying out Avengers' missions as "Nomad" instead, proving his so-called retirement had merely been a PR stunt.

To Arlo's knowledge the couple had four children, Ronan, the eldest, was despised by many from birth, then came the twins Ellen & the aforementioned Dani, and then the youngest Conrad.

Most of Arlo's perception of Ronan came from his few personal encounters & the words of his niece & nephew Morgan & Jack, the former always seeming particularly fond of him.

Growing up he had been your average run of the mill kid, minus his mutant powers that were near identical to his mother's.

Wanda had been extensively training him on how to use & control them, fearing the inevitable that he would turn out to be just like her.

Ellen was basically Ms. Invincible, no weapon, chemical or illness could penetrate her, if she were to be stabbed she could pull the knife out & the blood would dry up in seconds & the wound would heal immediately as if nothing had ever happened. She could drink any poison like it was a bottle of water.

Conrad had powers just like his uncles & cousin, Pietro, Peter & Luna Maximoff - insane superspeed. But not just the ability to run faster than the speed to sound, but also think faster than the speed of sound.

All Dani ever seemed to have inheritated was his father's nasty pre-serum asthma, from what Pepper had told him.

They seemed to have been a relatively content family all things considered, until that hypothetical curse struck again, a measely four years after Dani, Erik & Wanda's half-sister Lorna Dane had died in the accident.

Arlo's own brother - well it's complicated - had organised a sting operation on the majority of the Avengers in kahoots with S.W.O.R.D. director Tyler Hayward & the U.S government.

Ronan, Conrad, Steve, Wanda, & Pietro's daughter Luna Maximoff had all been assumed dead, Peter Maximoff had dissapeared with his niece Dawn Diaz - the daughter of Lorna - Pietro Maximoff, Monica Rambeau & Carol Danvers had been taken into custody on The Raft, Natasha Romanoff & Yelena Belova fled the country to Wakanda with King T'Challa while the remaining children Ellen Rogers & Ace Maximoff were put into the custody of Tony, who's custody of his own children was hanging on by a thread at the time.

Of course no one really knew the truth of what had happened that night. For one, not a soul - or not any important ones anyways - knew that Ronan, Conrad nor Luna were not dead, & had instead been rescued by Sharon Carter & were taken to Madripoor. The three eventually became part of her little squad known as The Misfits, with Ronan even carrying his father's old shield that he stolen from the current Captain America, John Walker. Though Ronan preffered to go by a different title - Captain Chaos.

Rather fitting in Arlo's opinion. And speaking of Captain Chaos, Arlo was jolted of his thoughts by Ronan suddenly releasing grip on his throat & taking a step back.

But just as Arlo thought he was getting a moment of reprive, he felt Sharon's fist connecting at full force with his temple, knocking him out cold.

---

Ok, so the first chapter is FINALLY here! This was originally going to be a fair bit longer, but I decided to split it into two seperate chapers, so the next one may seem a bit short in comparison to this, but just think of it as "part 2" to this lol.

Please let me know what you guys think & if you like it!