theatrical-muse: Do you keep to a routine?
WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE AVENGERS. Set in movie-verse and mixed with fandom verse.
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Tony Stark has never been one to follow routines; he is far too used to do his own thing, whenever he wants to, to fall into any sort of predictable pattern. As he would explain, there are just too many variables to take into consideration; how much he has slept, how many projects he has pending, how quickly his mind is racing, and various others that would make any sort of guess or prediction ultimately worthless.
Ever since a young man with a smile that was (at least to Tony) identical to Maria Stark's entered into his life, however, there is one routine that Tony has fallen into: Whenever he's out on a mission, without fail, the second that Iron Man gets home a text message is sent to his son's phone.
Just got back, the text always reads. No problems. I'll talk to you later, kiddo.
Jarvis never needs to remind Tony to send it, because it's Dylan, and even if he doesn't say it in many words, each time he means the same thing. 'Please stop worrying, everything is okay. I love you.' Because, while Tony is the last thing there is to an ideal father and he has many issues expressing his emotions, the fact is that he is a father and he just tries his best.
After fighting Loki's army, though, and falling from the sky, there is too much to do to go home right away. And even if he wanted to communicate with Dylan, the suit's power and communication are completely shot which makes it impossible to do anything until they're back on the helicarrier. They all fall in line; not as soldiers but to flat out tell Fury what their plan is, and how there would be no negotiations.
Or, well, Tony let's Thor and Steve take care of it. Tony fixes what he can of the armor in what's left of the lab to make the suit at least somewhat functional, and tries to recharge it with a spare reactor core he got into the habit of always taking with him after it constantly burnt out when he had been dying, before he sends Dylan another text.
I'm okay. Still working, but I'll see you soon, kiddo.
Because, Tony knows his son. His boy is not going to stay across the globe after what happened, and as the thought crosses his mind he feels his knees weaken at the thought that Dylan could have been in New York. Dylan could have been caught in the crossfire, and what if he had been on one of the buses he saw crushed on one of the streets, and what if he had been one of the victims, and before the contents of his stomach come rushing out he's quick to get back in the suit as quickly as he can and fly out to assist with some of the clean-up.
He has to. He needs to. This is his city, he can only think as he takes in the destruction that surrounds Manhattan. This is his home; this is his son's home.
Very few things can render Tony speechless, but he just works in absolute silence until the suit's power starts failing again. Because that's when he notices - the way his chest hurts, the way his whole body feels as if it's carrying the suit rather than the suit carrying him. He remembers the suit losing power, that absolute darkness out in space, and if the reactor had died then the shrapnel--
"Stark," someone says behind him, and Tony realizes it's Agent Barton who looks as if he himself has been going through the rubble. It's dark, Tony notices until that moment, but he's too busy instructing the suit to come apart before it drains the reactor completely and his heart is left to deal with the shrapnel all on its own again. "We're going to grab something to eat. What was it you wanted to try? C'mon, let's take a break."
And Tony just nods, and before he has to worry about the suit a SHIELD vehicle approaches them and assures him that they'll take it back to Stark Tower.
If it wasn't for the exhaustion, and Barton giving him a small nod as if to say its okay to trust him, Tony would have balked at the idea of someone else handling his suit. But, instead, he just finds himself at a shawarma restaurant, eating something he had only heard Yinsen mention once many years ago.
The thought of Yinsen brings forth the memory of Coulson, but Tony shoves them both away as he eatss. He just focuses on eating, because that's here and now and he just can't think about that. He can't think about them. There is a city to clean up, and a suit to repair, and fuck his chest hurts. They're all things he can fix, though, and that's what matters.
That's what he can repair so it won't stay broken.
Once they all finish eating, they agree to meet later to finish dealing with Loki, but Tony is barely listening as he walks out of the restaurant. His whole body is aching, and for the first time he feels something warm trickling behind his ear, but he briefly forgets about it as he notices that Happy is waiting for him outside of the restaurant.
"What are you doing here?" Tony's voice comes out dry, the edge he already feels digging at him suddenly very audible in his tone.
Happy doesn't even blink, though. "Jarvis mentioned you might need a ride." His eyes venture to the others for a moment, before falling back on his boss. "Do they need--"
"SHIELD," Tony simply responds, as if that answers everything, and before Happy can ask another question SHIELD vehicles arrive to pick up the others.
"So, Stark Tower?"
Tony's eyes venture to the tower that is standing in the darkness, since he hasn't had Jarvis re-start the power once more, but... "No. Long Island."
Afterwards, Tony doesn't talk. As Happy drives, Tony ignores every question. When they arrive at the Stark estate in Long Island, he ignores his attempts at trying to get him to treat the cuts, and instead he makes a beeline for the lab.
"Boss," Happy calls out as he rushes to him. "You have... There's blood. On your neck."
Tony reaches for his neck then, and realizes that the sensation behind his ear had been blood. There's some cut somewhere on the side of his head and, since it's not bleeding at a rate that would be alarming, he just shrugs. "It's fine."
"Boss--"
But, Tony doesn't wait for a response. He just walks to his lab, his body feeling the weariness with each step, but he ignores the way that his chest still continuous hurting. He ignores how his ribs and shoulder feel as if they're on fire, he ignores...
Well. He ignores everything.
Except, after he has Jarvis restrict access to anybody that's not Dylan or Pepper, he reaches for his phone types a message.
'I love you, kiddo,' he sends instead of his usual text, and as he stares at the screen after the message is sent he realizes his hands are shaking as he holds the phone.
Maybe it's the exhaustion, or maybe it's just everything that has been happening, but instead of setting the phone down he just flings it towards a wall as a sort of growl strangles out of him.
If a message comes through, he reasons as he stares at the broken pieces scattered about, Jarvis will read it to him. He'll fix the phone later. It's just one more thing of broken things that he'll fix later; the fact that it's something he can actually fix being a sort of relief in the sea of anger and various other emotions that he cannot comprehend but are suffocating the life right out of him.
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Tony Stark has never been one to follow routines; he is far too used to do his own thing, whenever he wants to, to fall into any sort of predictable pattern. As he would explain, there are just too many variables to take into consideration; how much he has slept, how many projects he has pending, how quickly his mind is racing, and various others that would make any sort of guess or prediction ultimately worthless.
Ever since a young man with a smile that was (at least to Tony) identical to Maria Stark's entered into his life, however, there is one routine that Tony has fallen into: Whenever he's out on a mission, without fail, the second that Iron Man gets home a text message is sent to his son's phone.
Just got back, the text always reads. No problems. I'll talk to you later, kiddo.
Jarvis never needs to remind Tony to send it, because it's Dylan, and even if he doesn't say it in many words, each time he means the same thing. 'Please stop worrying, everything is okay. I love you.' Because, while Tony is the last thing there is to an ideal father and he has many issues expressing his emotions, the fact is that he is a father and he just tries his best.
After fighting Loki's army, though, and falling from the sky, there is too much to do to go home right away. And even if he wanted to communicate with Dylan, the suit's power and communication are completely shot which makes it impossible to do anything until they're back on the helicarrier. They all fall in line; not as soldiers but to flat out tell Fury what their plan is, and how there would be no negotiations.
Or, well, Tony let's Thor and Steve take care of it. Tony fixes what he can of the armor in what's left of the lab to make the suit at least somewhat functional, and tries to recharge it with a spare reactor core he got into the habit of always taking with him after it constantly burnt out when he had been dying, before he sends Dylan another text.
I'm okay. Still working, but I'll see you soon, kiddo.
Because, Tony knows his son. His boy is not going to stay across the globe after what happened, and as the thought crosses his mind he feels his knees weaken at the thought that Dylan could have been in New York. Dylan could have been caught in the crossfire, and what if he had been on one of the buses he saw crushed on one of the streets, and what if he had been one of the victims, and before the contents of his stomach come rushing out he's quick to get back in the suit as quickly as he can and fly out to assist with some of the clean-up.
He has to. He needs to. This is his city, he can only think as he takes in the destruction that surrounds Manhattan. This is his home; this is his son's home.
Very few things can render Tony speechless, but he just works in absolute silence until the suit's power starts failing again. Because that's when he notices - the way his chest hurts, the way his whole body feels as if it's carrying the suit rather than the suit carrying him. He remembers the suit losing power, that absolute darkness out in space, and if the reactor had died then the shrapnel--
"Stark," someone says behind him, and Tony realizes it's Agent Barton who looks as if he himself has been going through the rubble. It's dark, Tony notices until that moment, but he's too busy instructing the suit to come apart before it drains the reactor completely and his heart is left to deal with the shrapnel all on its own again. "We're going to grab something to eat. What was it you wanted to try? C'mon, let's take a break."
And Tony just nods, and before he has to worry about the suit a SHIELD vehicle approaches them and assures him that they'll take it back to Stark Tower.
If it wasn't for the exhaustion, and Barton giving him a small nod as if to say its okay to trust him, Tony would have balked at the idea of someone else handling his suit. But, instead, he just finds himself at a shawarma restaurant, eating something he had only heard Yinsen mention once many years ago.
The thought of Yinsen brings forth the memory of Coulson, but Tony shoves them both away as he eatss. He just focuses on eating, because that's here and now and he just can't think about that. He can't think about them. There is a city to clean up, and a suit to repair, and fuck his chest hurts. They're all things he can fix, though, and that's what matters.
That's what he can repair so it won't stay broken.
Once they all finish eating, they agree to meet later to finish dealing with Loki, but Tony is barely listening as he walks out of the restaurant. His whole body is aching, and for the first time he feels something warm trickling behind his ear, but he briefly forgets about it as he notices that Happy is waiting for him outside of the restaurant.
"What are you doing here?" Tony's voice comes out dry, the edge he already feels digging at him suddenly very audible in his tone.
Happy doesn't even blink, though. "Jarvis mentioned you might need a ride." His eyes venture to the others for a moment, before falling back on his boss. "Do they need--"
"SHIELD," Tony simply responds, as if that answers everything, and before Happy can ask another question SHIELD vehicles arrive to pick up the others.
"So, Stark Tower?"
Tony's eyes venture to the tower that is standing in the darkness, since he hasn't had Jarvis re-start the power once more, but... "No. Long Island."
Afterwards, Tony doesn't talk. As Happy drives, Tony ignores every question. When they arrive at the Stark estate in Long Island, he ignores his attempts at trying to get him to treat the cuts, and instead he makes a beeline for the lab.
"Boss," Happy calls out as he rushes to him. "You have... There's blood. On your neck."
Tony reaches for his neck then, and realizes that the sensation behind his ear had been blood. There's some cut somewhere on the side of his head and, since it's not bleeding at a rate that would be alarming, he just shrugs. "It's fine."
"Boss--"
But, Tony doesn't wait for a response. He just walks to his lab, his body feeling the weariness with each step, but he ignores the way that his chest still continuous hurting. He ignores how his ribs and shoulder feel as if they're on fire, he ignores...
Well. He ignores everything.
Except, after he has Jarvis restrict access to anybody that's not Dylan or Pepper, he reaches for his phone types a message.
'I love you, kiddo,' he sends instead of his usual text, and as he stares at the screen after the message is sent he realizes his hands are shaking as he holds the phone.
Maybe it's the exhaustion, or maybe it's just everything that has been happening, but instead of setting the phone down he just flings it towards a wall as a sort of growl strangles out of him.
If a message comes through, he reasons as he stares at the broken pieces scattered about, Jarvis will read it to him. He'll fix the phone later. It's just one more thing of broken things that he'll fix later; the fact that it's something he can actually fix being a sort of relief in the sea of anger and various other emotions that he cannot comprehend but are suffocating the life right out of him.