Hollow Scars 39 Pt. 2
Title: Hollow Scars
Chapter: 39 Afghanistan Pt. 2
Author: Me
Disclaimer: Iron Man and the movie-verse including all of its characters do NOT belong to me, but to Marvel and all its glory. Though, Scarlett Damien does belong to me.
Comic: Iron Man
Pairing/Characters: Tony Stark/Scarlett Damien, Pepper, Rhodey, Happy
Rating: M
Author's Note: I write long chapters! I mean not excessively crazy long but long enough! I'm the sort of writer who likes to think of their stories as novels and so I aspire to give readers what they would expect upon purchasing a book. I average around 13-15 pages a chapter, but sometimes I've got less and sometimes more! I hope you can look past the length and the time it may take to read and give it a shot. I promise quality work.
Scarlett didn’t sleep for very long. An hour after she’d found rest she woke up covered in a layer of cold sweat, her heart racing in her ears, adrenaline pumping through her thanks to the fear her night terrors had left her with. Jumping up as she had earlier, she immediately hunched over, her stomach aching in protest to her movements. Closing her eyes she hoped and prayed to a deity she didn’t believe in that she could calm herself quickly. The pain in her stomach intensified and no amount of wishing or praying could make it stop.
Stumbling, Scarlett found her way to the restroom and just in time as the little she had eaten earlier came spilling past her lips. The taste of bile burned her throat as she coughed what remained in her throat. Once she was sure nothing else would escape her body, Scarlett stumbled backwards and leaned against the wall of the bathroom. Wiping her mouth with a bit of toilet paper she closed her eyes and clenched her fist. Everything she’d gone through in the last few weeks, the struggle, the strife, the monstrosities, none of it had meant anything.
She was still having nightmares.
For all her attempts to better her peace of mind, she had only managed to make things worse. Her head was spinning and her heart was racing in her chest. The last week had offered time for her to reflect on the life she’d lived thus far and while that seemed like a rather overwhelming task for one week, it was one she’d put off for much longer than that.
She’d spent every moment of her life seeking out the next cheap thrill in an attempt to feel something, anything. When it came down to it she’d gone nowhere fast. Sure, she’d had brilliant ideas but where had they gotten her? Scott had stolen them and sold them off without a word and without her noticing. Regular jobs had been too boring, relationships had been boring. Even the money she made hadn’t meant anything; it sat to rot in a bank account. The destruction she’d left in her wake for the past twenty years was astonishing.
Now it gave her nightmares.
Looking out of the bathroom she could vaguely see the silhouette of Tony who remained asleep in the bed she’d abandoned. Thankfully she hadn’t disturbed him when she’d run to the bathroom.
He was the only thing that gave her life any meaning. It had taken months of torture and practical enslavement before she’d found one thing that made her feel alive. But if burning her bridges didn’t make her feel any better, then what would? Scarlett knew she should wake Tony up and let him know that she had another nightmare but when she walked back into the bedroom after rinsing out her mouth she could see the peace on his face. There was no way she could wake him up, not now.
Instead Scarlett walked to the loveseat near the window in the adjoining room and sat down. Eventually she would make a cup of coffee but for the time being she would sit and she would try to clear her thoughts of the nightmares that had been renewed in the past night. Another attempt at sleep would be fruitless with the way her heart continued to race.
Tony woke up a little while later, shivering from the chill in the air of the hotel room. Scarlett was no longer lying on his shoulder to keep him warm. Rolling over, he draped his arm to the side in hopes of finding Scarlett to pull her against him for warmth but instead found that he was very much alone. Instantly he shot up, part of him terrified that Scarlett had disappeared while he slept to chase after more demons.
Before he made it out of the room he could see her sitting on the couch looking out the window. It was raining in Moscow, the sky a dark gray, and somehow it matched the air around her. Scarlett had turned solemn; he didn’t have to ask her to know that it was true. If she hadn’t changed then Tony assumed she also had to be freezing. Well, at least he was freezing. Grabbing the blanket off of the bed, he wrapped it around his shoulders and lumbered from the bedroom and into the next one. Scarlett heard him approaching noisily but didn’t turn her gaze away from the window.
“You stayed.” Tony sat down on the couch next to her. When she didn’t respond he placed his arm around her and covered them both with the blanket that he’d dragged along with him. A smile spread over her face for a ghost of a moment before she looked back out the window and it faded. “I half expected you to leave me in the hospital.” They hadn’t had much of a chance to talk about what had transpired what with the two of them healing after their ordeal. Scarlett was half dreading what would happen next.
“I wanted to make sure that you were okay.” Scarlett responded after a long moment lost in thought. It was only partially the truth but it wasn’t a lie either. Tony leaned to kiss her shoulder and kept his lips there while he considered her answer. There were things she wasn’t telling him but he guessed that would be something he had to get used to. Fortunately on this occasion he could guess what she wasn’t telling him. He had gotten pretty good at reading her in the months passed since he’d had no other choice in some situations where she hadn’t been willing to talk.
“What do you dream about when you wake up like that?” Tony nodded toward the bed, addressing when she’d woken up earlier and scared him half to death. It was easy to guess that she had another nightmare that had led her to her quiet contemplation on the couch in front of the gray skies of Moscow. Scarlett didn’t respond, but not because she didn’t want to. Most times she didn’t remember what she dreamt of, at least not the specifics. “Is it about what happened in Afghanistan?”
Turning her gaze to Tony who stared up at her with brown puppy dog eyes, Scarlett nodded her head to let him know that he had guessed at least part of what her dreams were about.
“What happened there?” It was bold of him to ask her outright, but skating around the truth was clearly not working for either of them. If ever there was a time that she would finally feel open enough to share the truth then he hoped it was now. She had chosen to stay with him for some reason and he hoped that reason was that she was finally ready to open up and share some of the burdens that had brought her to her knees in the last year. “I know bits and pieces of it but I don’t know the whole story.”
“You don’t want those images in your head, Tony.” Scarlett swallowed the lump in her throat.
“Don’t presume what I want.”
“So you want that in your head, then?”
“Oh, you’re good, but you cannot manipulate my words like that.” Tony brushed his scruff against her shoulder, not bothered by Scarlett’s avoidance in the least.
“You know most of the story already, why do you need me to tell you?”
“Do you know what happens when I don’t know the whole story, Scarlett?” Tony lifted his head up. Scarlett stared at him and shook her head no. “I fill in the blankets, okay? When you don’t tell me what happened I make it up and when I close my eyes? Do you have any idea what I see?”
Turning her gaze back to the window Scarlett felt the guilt in her throat again. Placing her hand over her stomach she tried to resist the urge to run back to the bathroom. Tony’s heart raced in his chest as he waited for her to say something, anything. He wouldn’t push her too far out of her comfort zone but she was almost as smart as he was. If she understood what he went through worrying about her then maybe she would be willing to share a few more of her secrets than she was ready for.
“Damnit,” sighing under his breath, Tony leaned his head away from her shoulder and brushed his hand over the scruff that desperately needed a trim. He was sure that she wasn’t going to spill her guts, at least not that day.
“My contact told me not to take the job, you know.” Scarlett began cautiously and quietly. It wasn’t easy for her to share stories about her past. She was used to keeping every part of her life a secret and trying to open her heart to someone else? It was almost impossible. But she would try for Tony because he was the only thing that meant anything in her life. Being with him was the only genuinely good thing she’d ever done and even that was questionable to those on the outside looking in.
“He had a bad feeling about it from the beginning and I laughed it off because he’d had bad feelings about jobs in the past that turned out to be nothing. Why was that time any different? It was a simple data retrieval job from a small company in Afghanistan… I should’ve been in and out but I wasn’t.”
“Someone set you up.” Tony finished for her and she nodded to let him know that was the answer.
“I could only guess back then that someone had set me up. But the only person I could think that would do it was my handler and I trusted him with my life and knew it couldn’t be him. So who else could it be? I chalked it up to bad timing then.”
“You never even considered it could be Scott?” Tony grimaced. The bias they’d felt about Scott likely didn’t apply back then. From what Tony knew of Scott from Scarlett she had thought he was a genuinely good guy. She’d practically regarded him as a saint.
“No, not a chance. He was a fragile mouse, couldn’t hurt a fly. Apparently I was very wrong about him. I was wrong about a lot of things, Tony.” Scarlett whispered, wringing her hands together and leaning forward against her knees. “I was taken prisoner and honestly I didn’t get to think about the how or why until after I was out of there.”
“What happened there that gives you such nightmares?” Tony watched her curiously, wanting to make sure she wasn’t going to lose it if pushed too far.
“What didn’t happen?” Scarlett shivered at the memory of it. “They beat the hell out of me until I couldn’t walk around anymore. When I got a little better they did it again to make sure I couldn’t move easily. When I resisted even then they cut open my feet so I couldn’t walk. I still have the scars there, I didn’t bother trying to get rid of them.” Tony didn’t respond so Scarlett continued instead. “I thought of nothing else than getting free. What more could I do than that? Thinking of anything else would’ve gotten me killed” Her gaze fell on Tony again and he could see her eyes dull and distant. “I attempted escape nine times. Nine, Tony. Seven of those times I almost died. Each time I was caught the punishment was worse. They never… I didn’t understand why they didn’t rape me. Not that I wanted that but it’s typical over there for women who are prisoners. Don’t get me wrong I’m glad it never happened but it makes sense now that I know who was behind it.” She sniffled though Tony couldn’t see any sign of tears in her eyes. He’d only ever seen her cry once before and that had been when she’d had a panic attack after a bad chemical reaction on her leg.
“Take your time.” Tony’s voice was as soothing as he could make it. He’d heard most of the story from his investigation but hearing it from the woman he loved was something else entirely. The rage that he’d felt when he’d first discovered the secret was completely absent. There was something else, a completely different kind of pain that Tony didn’t understand how to deal with. It was fear in a way; fear that something like that could happen to a person and worse that it could be with her the rest of her life. It was fear that no matter what he did, he wouldn’t be able to make it better.
“I’m fine.”
“Yeah, sure, it’s only months of torture. What was I thinking?” Tony rolled his eyes. He wasn’t fine after what had happened to him in the Middle East, so there was no way that Scarlett was okay after what had happened to her. From what Tony understood about what had transpired she hadn’t had much time to cope after it. Once she’d healed she’d gone to work for MedCo thinking it was a nice safe job and the rest had been history. “How did you get out of there if it was that bad?”
“I knew the last time, the tenth time, I tried to escape that it would be my final attempt one way or the other. Either I’d die trying or I’d escape.” Scarlett brushed her right hand nervously over her left. The escape process was a huge blur and most of what had happened was sealed away somewhere in her subconscious. These were things she never intended to share with anyone. When she’d been released from the hospital she had vowed that it was her story and hers alone. No one needed to know the hell she’d lived through. She hadn’t anticipated the last few weeks with Tony or realizing Scott was behind it all. He was supposed to love her, how could he have done that to her?
“Why was that?”
“I was sick.” Scarlett finally turned to acknowledge that she was, in fact, speaking to Tony. Sitting sideways now on the couch she pulled the blankets further around her still rubbing the spot on her arm every few moments; an obvious nervous habit. “The conditions they kept me in out of spite were deplorable. I can’t tell you how many infections I must have had between my wounds being filthy and just overall sickness. On top of that I was malnourished and they only gave me enough to keep me alive. The more I fought the worse it got. They would give me just enough medicine to keep me living for more torture.”
“If I’ve learned anything about you in the last few months it’s that you don’t easily give up.” Tony grimaced at the notion.
“I knew that if I didn’t get help soon then I would die one way or another. I had to get away. So when I did try again, miraculously it worked. I managed the little bit of strength I had left and walked until I found a town. With every intention of asking someone to help me I collapsed in the street. Someone found me I think, they must have. I don’t remember much of what happened while I was there, Tony. I don’t want to remember if that’s okay. Not yet.” Tony took Scarlett’s hand and brushed the spot on her arm, one of the smaller scars that she hid well.
“I can’t blame you. But you can’t run from it forever.”
“I’m not running, Tony. I’m just not ready yet.”
“I know.” He nodded and let go of her hand to let her continue with her story.
“What happened next, like I said, I don’t quite remember. The hospital I woke up in was filthy. It stunk and I was kept in a room in the back like I was locked up. It scared the hell out of me. As soon as I was strong enough I ran away. Later I discovered that they were hiding me from the men who had come looking for me. They kept me safe when they didn’t know anything about me. I was just some white girl who collapsed in town and they protected me. When I realized the gravity of how those people risked their lives to save mine I started sending money every month. I hope that they’re doing something good with it. I have faith they are and I have very little faith in much of anything.” Scarlett summed up the story as quickly as she could, resting her head against the back of the couch. “I thought I’d feel some kind of closure once I understood what happened. If I could go back and take away that knowledge now I would. It has done me no favors.”
“Trauma doesn’t disappear just because you understand why it happened, Scarlett.” Tony began nervously. This wasn’t his forte. Listening to other people’s problems and trying to understand them, it just wasn’t him. But there were things he needed to understand about Scarlett and secrets they would have to share. There was nothing he could do about what happened to her but he could let her know that she wasn’t alone. “When I was doing a weapons demonstration of a missile I’d developed our convoy was attacked by insurgents. My own weapon blew shrapnel into my chest. I thought I was going to die. But I woke up in a cave attached to a car battery with this hideous electromagnet in my chest. It scared the hell out of me but dying scared me more. There was another scientist being held there, Yinsen was his name.”
“You’ve mentioned him before.” Scarlett was surprised that he was sharing his story; it was something she hadn’t thought he was ready to share. Oddly she was comforted by it. It was an unfortunate thing for them to have in common. Tony furrowed his brow in confusion. Obviously Yinsen had been on his mind lately but he didn’t remember mentioning him to her in the past. “In your sleep, you brought him up. I didn’t ask because I didn’t have time. I wanted to know but this month wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.”
“Oh, well, I’ll tell you then. Yinsen was the man who put the electromagnet in my chest to keep the shrapnel from going into my heart. He saved my life. Steadiest hands I’ve ever seen. I think I hated him at first because of what he did but I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t saved me. We got to know each other as I planned our escape. He asked me what I was fighting for and I didn’t have an answer. He called me the man with everything and nothing. That hit me harder than I’d like to admit.” Scarlett had always wondered how he’d come out such a completely changed man after his time in captivity. Yes, traumatic experiences undoubtedly changed lives but his outlook on life changed so dramatically that Scarlett had known something more had happened.
“When I finally put my plan for escape into action we were running out of time. Yinsen ran ahead with a gun after I told him not to. I wanted to protect him and get him back home to his family. I didn’t realize it then but I was fighting for him not for me. He was right, I had nothing. But I found him dying moments later in the caves. He told me then that his family was already dead and he was going to be with them. Scarlett, he told me not to waste my life. He acted like what I had was a gift, a second chance. Back then it didn’t feel like it. I think it’s why I rushed into things with Pepper when I got back. I was afraid of being alone. I didn’t want to waste my life, I wanted more than anything to keep that promise to him.” Scarlett turned her gaze away from Tony, knowing now where he was going with sharing his story. “I don’t want you to waste your life, Scarlett. I finally found a way to keep my promise and it may be selfish of me but I want the same for you.”
“I’m responsible for so much torment, Tony.” Scarlett began arguing instantly. Her head was swimming now as it often had in the last two weeks. Ever since her conscience had decided to play a part in her future she hadn’t been able to get her past intentions out of her head. Scarlett had become consumed with redemption somewhere along the line. “Things I only intended to be used to help people have been twisted and turned against the same people I wanted to help. Every time I try to do a little good in this world it goes horribly wrong. More than anything I want to fix something.”
“Scarlett, what happened isn’t your fault. Scott’s been setting you up for years. It wasn’t just the thing in Afghanistan. He took your ideas, he sold them; ideas that helped millions. Jobs you had in the past that went wrong? It was all his doing.” Scarlett looked up at him and for once what was in her head was transparent. Usually behind her eyes he could see muddled confusion but he saw it in her eyes then and there. Betrayal. She knew some of the extent of what Scott had done but obviously had no idea how far back it went.
Scarlett thought that Scott had loved her. For years she had held him on a pedestal and thought he was beyond reprieve. The more she learned about his betrayal the more she could feel things breaking down inside her head. Everything she knew about the last ten years had been a lie. How was she supposed to trust anyone or anything after this? She thought she was paranoid before, this was only going to make things much worse.
“Baby, none of this was your fault.” Tony could see where this was going because he’d been there before. The things that Stane had done to his company had fallen on his shoulders for years because he’d been party to it by ignoring that the illegal weapons sales had been happening. He’d known that the weapons were showing up in the hands of people they shouldn’t be party to but he didn’t care as long as he got his money and lived his party life. Panic gripped Tony’s chest. He could lose her if things went the wrong way.
It certainly wasn’t going well. All Scarlett did was shake her head from side to side in response. How could it not be her fault? How could Tony say that? She’d seen nothing but good in Scott and he had twisted every benevolent deed she’d done into something terrible so that he could destroy her from the inside out and reinvent her into a woman he wanted her to be instead of the woman she was. She had been such a terrible person in his eyes that he had wanted to completely reset her and rebuild her. How did she know that Scott wasn’t right?
What was worse was that she had been blind to see it! How was that not her fault?
“It doesn’t change what I need to do, Tony.” Her voice was cold and broken. Tony felt his chest aching in objection. She was pulling away, retreating within herself and quickly at that.
“Scarlett you don’t have to do any of this alone. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” Tony pled, picking up both her hands. She tried to pull her hands away but he grabbed her wrists instead and tugged her closer to him, capturing her gaze in his though she tried desperately to avoid it. “You don’t have to fight alone anymore. Strength doesn’t mean not being happy. You don’t have to punish yourself for what you did in the past. We can handle MedCo but we have to do it together and we have to do it the right way or you’re going to end up dead. I have faith in you but trust me, chasing demons? It’s only going to cause you more grief. There are always demons Scarlett, always. This is what matters. This.”
Not responding, Scarlett stared down at his hands and considered what he had to say. People kept telling her to stop chasing after MedCo, to stop trying to make recompense for the things she’d done. The hurt in her chest made her hunch over. What else could she do? Leaving Tony felt like suicide but her guilty conscience wasn’t going to let her sleep either. Maybe he was right. But what if he wasn’t?
“I love you, Scarlett. There’s no danger right now. But I love you. Selfishly I don’t want you to leave me. I want you to fight with me. I’ll do whatever I can to help you.” Tony watched as Scarlett took his hands and kissed the back of them.
“Loving you is the only thing I’m sure of.” Sighing, Scarlett let go of his hands and leaned heavily against the back of the couch. Discussing their history had worn her out. Why were emotions so damn hard? It was much easier when she didn’t pay any attention to the torment in the back of her mind. Where was that woman? Where had she gone? Learning to love and give a damn about something other than her next job was much harder than she had anticipated it would ever be. But was it worth it in the long run? So far it seemed to be.
“Come stay with me. We’ll work on this MedCo thing together from the safety of my home. Plus you promised to work on that power converter with me way back when. I have a contract and everything. I hope you’re still interested in that.” Tony hoped that offering her somewhere to go, an official offer rather than an implied one, would sweeten the deal for her. He would give anything to keep her with him.
“I don’t know, Tony.” Scarlett hesitated. That was a pretty big commitment to make. She’d go from being homeless to living in a mansion in Malibu. On top of that she wasn’t incredibly fond of Malibu to begin with. It was a beautiful place but Scarlett had never been very good at living in the lap of luxury.
“I’ve been building a place in Manhattan. I’ll still have the house in Malibu for us but I need to get away for awhile besides who doesn’t love New York? It’s massive, this place, honestly it makes my house in Malibu look like a shack.” Tony smirked proudly. He hoped that the things he’d done to the home in Manhattan that doubled as his workplace wouldn’t be considered overstepping their fragile boundaries. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t planning on you being there with me. You’d have your own lab so you can work on your ideas and developments. If you stay that is. And if you’re not ready to live with me I’ll have a loft set up in the building so you can stay there in your own private space. You don’t have to live with me yet. I know that’s a huge step. I’d prefer if you lived with me but it’s been a long road since we met and if you need that normalcy and some time to figure it out then that’s okay too.”
“Tony, you’ve been planning all of this?” Scarlett stared at him with her mouth agape. It was almost too much information to absorb. Tony wanted her to move in with him, so badly that he was willing to build a separate space for her to live in. On top of that she was pretty sure the offer of a laboratory of her own meant that a lab had already been built for her to work in. She’d never received such extravagant gifts from anyone before in her life and she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. Then again, if she was going to be dating one of the most prosperous men on the planet she probably had to get used to luxurious gifts. After a long time spent in contemplative silence she finally smiled.
“Well, I’m sort of spontaneous most of the time to be honest. I get these ideas in my head and I didn’t consider you wouldn’t want to be a part of them. That’s a good sign for me. And I think you should definitely consider it. I don’t think I’ve ever really seen anyone in my future before.”
“It’s so generous, Tony.” Scarlett shook her head but still couldn’t help but smile. Even with the dark things he knew about her past and the likelihood that in the long run she would be getting him into far more trouble than he realized, he still wanted her to be with him. It sent shivers down her spine which she quietly shook off.
“There is one condition though.”
“If it’s sexual you should probably reconsider the next words out of your mouth.”
“Damn, I hadn’t thought of that.” Laughing, Tony shook his head. “No, it’s something you’re probably going to like less than sexual favors.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Oh, don’t pretend you don’t like it. I was there, you more than like it.”
“I guess I can’t argue with results, can I?” Shrugging nonchalantly Scarlett had already made up her mind. It was a tough decision at first but once she’d resolved to stay with Tony there was no considering going back to the life she’d once lived. That woman was long dead. She’d died in the explosion she’d set off in the MedCo building in South Africa. The woman she’d become since then didn’t want to be alone anymore.
“Cute,” Tony settled his laughter then continued. “If you take my offer there’s no more lone gunmen act. You have to promise me. No more chasing after ghosts by yourself. If there’s a ghost you’re going after you tell me about it. You take me with you.” Silence fell between them. It was a big promise for Scarlett to make. If she did this and agreed to it then it would mean there was no going back. While she had mentally made the decision to stay she wasn’t sure how well she’d be able to keep her promise. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to but years of acting alone and doing what she wanted without consulting anyone else, including Scott, weren’t going to be easy to ignore.
“Counter offer.” Scarlett pointed a finger at him and Tony leaned back in surprise, not having expected her to come back with conditions of her own. “If I’m getting a lab and a place to live I want to be part of the design process for it. And I want to pay rent just like if it were a real apartment. I don’t want to feel like a freeloader while I’m there.”
“Scarlett you may not know it but you’ve been helping me build this place for weeks.” Tony placed his arm around her and pulled her close again, as close as he could without pulling her into his lap. This was becoming a bad habit of his though Scarlett couldn’t help but lean into his touch. It was comforting after what they’d finished discussing. Neither one of them was likely to admit just how much the other comforted them.
“Oh, really?”
“I’ll show you what I have in mind.” Tony nodded toward the room where he knew a replacement computer was likely lying around. Scarlett had worked with Pepper to take care of everything while he’d been asleep. It was weird having someone besides Pepper taking care of him and it felt somehow nicer. Maybe it was because he paid Pepper to take care of him every week and Scarlett did it only because she loved him. Hell, most of what she’d done she’d paid for which was absolutely unprecedented in Tony’s long life of dating. “But, this deal we’re making. You’re agreeing to my terms then?”
“Yeah, did I try to change them? But look there is something you have to understand Tony.”
“Always with the buts. Why can’t you just say sure! It’s easy. Four letter word, pretty easy to pronounce, rolls right off the tongue…”
“You do realize the reason we never get to discuss anything is because you have to interject every ten seconds with some sort of witty quip?”
“You think it’s sexy, I can tell. Why do you think you end up naked so much?”
“Because you have this crazy super power where you take off my clothes without me realizing it?” Scarlett countered, resulting in a laugh from Tony.
“That is my super power, isn’t it?” He sounded proud of the notion.
“And the ability to distract entirely from the topic of conversation.” Scarlett placed her hand over his lips when he went to speak. Biting at her fingers, he was surprised when she didn’t pull away. “This is serious.” Tony pulled her into his lap and nibbled her hand until she was forced to pull away.
“I’m being very, very serious.” Tony growled playfully before finding her lips. Scarlett tilted her head away to dodge the kiss since she truly did have something to say. But Tony didn’t care and instead kissed her neck sloppily, leaving a trail of saliva across her skin.
“Look, you have to understand something, Tony! I will try not to do the lone gunmen thing but I’ve been doing it for years. Honestly it’s sort of second nature to do stuff by myself. I can’t promise I won’t do it without thinking but I will certainly try not to. And if I screw up then bear with me and I’ll do what I can to make it right. I’m a huge work in progress and look you’re no peach either half the time. If I can’t do the lone gunmen thing then neither can you. Promise me before you give me another hickie, okay?” Scarlett tugged at his hair and he pulled his lips away from her neck but only for a moment.
“I promise.” Tony spoke resolutely. It wouldn’t be easy for him to confide in her all the time either but he would certainly give it a good effort. If she was willing to try then so was he. “I’m a work in progress too, you know. Together, we’ll be the best fuck-ups we can be.” Tony smirked before finding her lips again. Scarlett let him kiss her this time, returning the sentiment contently.
“It sounds like we have a deal then.” Scarlett returned to his lips once more, speaking between kisses. Tony nodded as their lips met over and over again, satisfied with the way things had come along. Scarlett had finally told him what was in the darkest recesses of her mind and he had shared his own emotional story. Scarlett laughed as he leaned her back on the couch and Tony couldn’t help but feel something inside of him swell with happiness.
Yinsen would’ve been proud.
Chapter: 39 Afghanistan Pt. 2
Author: Me
Disclaimer: Iron Man and the movie-verse including all of its characters do NOT belong to me, but to Marvel and all its glory. Though, Scarlett Damien does belong to me.
Comic: Iron Man
Pairing/Characters: Tony Stark/Scarlett Damien, Pepper, Rhodey, Happy
Rating: M
Author's Note: I write long chapters! I mean not excessively crazy long but long enough! I'm the sort of writer who likes to think of their stories as novels and so I aspire to give readers what they would expect upon purchasing a book. I average around 13-15 pages a chapter, but sometimes I've got less and sometimes more! I hope you can look past the length and the time it may take to read and give it a shot. I promise quality work.
Scarlett didn’t sleep for very long. An hour after she’d found rest she woke up covered in a layer of cold sweat, her heart racing in her ears, adrenaline pumping through her thanks to the fear her night terrors had left her with. Jumping up as she had earlier, she immediately hunched over, her stomach aching in protest to her movements. Closing her eyes she hoped and prayed to a deity she didn’t believe in that she could calm herself quickly. The pain in her stomach intensified and no amount of wishing or praying could make it stop.
Stumbling, Scarlett found her way to the restroom and just in time as the little she had eaten earlier came spilling past her lips. The taste of bile burned her throat as she coughed what remained in her throat. Once she was sure nothing else would escape her body, Scarlett stumbled backwards and leaned against the wall of the bathroom. Wiping her mouth with a bit of toilet paper she closed her eyes and clenched her fist. Everything she’d gone through in the last few weeks, the struggle, the strife, the monstrosities, none of it had meant anything.
She was still having nightmares.
For all her attempts to better her peace of mind, she had only managed to make things worse. Her head was spinning and her heart was racing in her chest. The last week had offered time for her to reflect on the life she’d lived thus far and while that seemed like a rather overwhelming task for one week, it was one she’d put off for much longer than that.
She’d spent every moment of her life seeking out the next cheap thrill in an attempt to feel something, anything. When it came down to it she’d gone nowhere fast. Sure, she’d had brilliant ideas but where had they gotten her? Scott had stolen them and sold them off without a word and without her noticing. Regular jobs had been too boring, relationships had been boring. Even the money she made hadn’t meant anything; it sat to rot in a bank account. The destruction she’d left in her wake for the past twenty years was astonishing.
Now it gave her nightmares.
Looking out of the bathroom she could vaguely see the silhouette of Tony who remained asleep in the bed she’d abandoned. Thankfully she hadn’t disturbed him when she’d run to the bathroom.
He was the only thing that gave her life any meaning. It had taken months of torture and practical enslavement before she’d found one thing that made her feel alive. But if burning her bridges didn’t make her feel any better, then what would? Scarlett knew she should wake Tony up and let him know that she had another nightmare but when she walked back into the bedroom after rinsing out her mouth she could see the peace on his face. There was no way she could wake him up, not now.
Instead Scarlett walked to the loveseat near the window in the adjoining room and sat down. Eventually she would make a cup of coffee but for the time being she would sit and she would try to clear her thoughts of the nightmares that had been renewed in the past night. Another attempt at sleep would be fruitless with the way her heart continued to race.
Tony woke up a little while later, shivering from the chill in the air of the hotel room. Scarlett was no longer lying on his shoulder to keep him warm. Rolling over, he draped his arm to the side in hopes of finding Scarlett to pull her against him for warmth but instead found that he was very much alone. Instantly he shot up, part of him terrified that Scarlett had disappeared while he slept to chase after more demons.
Before he made it out of the room he could see her sitting on the couch looking out the window. It was raining in Moscow, the sky a dark gray, and somehow it matched the air around her. Scarlett had turned solemn; he didn’t have to ask her to know that it was true. If she hadn’t changed then Tony assumed she also had to be freezing. Well, at least he was freezing. Grabbing the blanket off of the bed, he wrapped it around his shoulders and lumbered from the bedroom and into the next one. Scarlett heard him approaching noisily but didn’t turn her gaze away from the window.
“You stayed.” Tony sat down on the couch next to her. When she didn’t respond he placed his arm around her and covered them both with the blanket that he’d dragged along with him. A smile spread over her face for a ghost of a moment before she looked back out the window and it faded. “I half expected you to leave me in the hospital.” They hadn’t had much of a chance to talk about what had transpired what with the two of them healing after their ordeal. Scarlett was half dreading what would happen next.
“I wanted to make sure that you were okay.” Scarlett responded after a long moment lost in thought. It was only partially the truth but it wasn’t a lie either. Tony leaned to kiss her shoulder and kept his lips there while he considered her answer. There were things she wasn’t telling him but he guessed that would be something he had to get used to. Fortunately on this occasion he could guess what she wasn’t telling him. He had gotten pretty good at reading her in the months passed since he’d had no other choice in some situations where she hadn’t been willing to talk.
“What do you dream about when you wake up like that?” Tony nodded toward the bed, addressing when she’d woken up earlier and scared him half to death. It was easy to guess that she had another nightmare that had led her to her quiet contemplation on the couch in front of the gray skies of Moscow. Scarlett didn’t respond, but not because she didn’t want to. Most times she didn’t remember what she dreamt of, at least not the specifics. “Is it about what happened in Afghanistan?”
Turning her gaze to Tony who stared up at her with brown puppy dog eyes, Scarlett nodded her head to let him know that he had guessed at least part of what her dreams were about.
“What happened there?” It was bold of him to ask her outright, but skating around the truth was clearly not working for either of them. If ever there was a time that she would finally feel open enough to share the truth then he hoped it was now. She had chosen to stay with him for some reason and he hoped that reason was that she was finally ready to open up and share some of the burdens that had brought her to her knees in the last year. “I know bits and pieces of it but I don’t know the whole story.”
“You don’t want those images in your head, Tony.” Scarlett swallowed the lump in her throat.
“Don’t presume what I want.”
“So you want that in your head, then?”
“Oh, you’re good, but you cannot manipulate my words like that.” Tony brushed his scruff against her shoulder, not bothered by Scarlett’s avoidance in the least.
“You know most of the story already, why do you need me to tell you?”
“Do you know what happens when I don’t know the whole story, Scarlett?” Tony lifted his head up. Scarlett stared at him and shook her head no. “I fill in the blankets, okay? When you don’t tell me what happened I make it up and when I close my eyes? Do you have any idea what I see?”
Turning her gaze back to the window Scarlett felt the guilt in her throat again. Placing her hand over her stomach she tried to resist the urge to run back to the bathroom. Tony’s heart raced in his chest as he waited for her to say something, anything. He wouldn’t push her too far out of her comfort zone but she was almost as smart as he was. If she understood what he went through worrying about her then maybe she would be willing to share a few more of her secrets than she was ready for.
“Damnit,” sighing under his breath, Tony leaned his head away from her shoulder and brushed his hand over the scruff that desperately needed a trim. He was sure that she wasn’t going to spill her guts, at least not that day.
“My contact told me not to take the job, you know.” Scarlett began cautiously and quietly. It wasn’t easy for her to share stories about her past. She was used to keeping every part of her life a secret and trying to open her heart to someone else? It was almost impossible. But she would try for Tony because he was the only thing that meant anything in her life. Being with him was the only genuinely good thing she’d ever done and even that was questionable to those on the outside looking in.
“He had a bad feeling about it from the beginning and I laughed it off because he’d had bad feelings about jobs in the past that turned out to be nothing. Why was that time any different? It was a simple data retrieval job from a small company in Afghanistan… I should’ve been in and out but I wasn’t.”
“Someone set you up.” Tony finished for her and she nodded to let him know that was the answer.
“I could only guess back then that someone had set me up. But the only person I could think that would do it was my handler and I trusted him with my life and knew it couldn’t be him. So who else could it be? I chalked it up to bad timing then.”
“You never even considered it could be Scott?” Tony grimaced. The bias they’d felt about Scott likely didn’t apply back then. From what Tony knew of Scott from Scarlett she had thought he was a genuinely good guy. She’d practically regarded him as a saint.
“No, not a chance. He was a fragile mouse, couldn’t hurt a fly. Apparently I was very wrong about him. I was wrong about a lot of things, Tony.” Scarlett whispered, wringing her hands together and leaning forward against her knees. “I was taken prisoner and honestly I didn’t get to think about the how or why until after I was out of there.”
“What happened there that gives you such nightmares?” Tony watched her curiously, wanting to make sure she wasn’t going to lose it if pushed too far.
“What didn’t happen?” Scarlett shivered at the memory of it. “They beat the hell out of me until I couldn’t walk around anymore. When I got a little better they did it again to make sure I couldn’t move easily. When I resisted even then they cut open my feet so I couldn’t walk. I still have the scars there, I didn’t bother trying to get rid of them.” Tony didn’t respond so Scarlett continued instead. “I thought of nothing else than getting free. What more could I do than that? Thinking of anything else would’ve gotten me killed” Her gaze fell on Tony again and he could see her eyes dull and distant. “I attempted escape nine times. Nine, Tony. Seven of those times I almost died. Each time I was caught the punishment was worse. They never… I didn’t understand why they didn’t rape me. Not that I wanted that but it’s typical over there for women who are prisoners. Don’t get me wrong I’m glad it never happened but it makes sense now that I know who was behind it.” She sniffled though Tony couldn’t see any sign of tears in her eyes. He’d only ever seen her cry once before and that had been when she’d had a panic attack after a bad chemical reaction on her leg.
“Take your time.” Tony’s voice was as soothing as he could make it. He’d heard most of the story from his investigation but hearing it from the woman he loved was something else entirely. The rage that he’d felt when he’d first discovered the secret was completely absent. There was something else, a completely different kind of pain that Tony didn’t understand how to deal with. It was fear in a way; fear that something like that could happen to a person and worse that it could be with her the rest of her life. It was fear that no matter what he did, he wouldn’t be able to make it better.
“I’m fine.”
“Yeah, sure, it’s only months of torture. What was I thinking?” Tony rolled his eyes. He wasn’t fine after what had happened to him in the Middle East, so there was no way that Scarlett was okay after what had happened to her. From what Tony understood about what had transpired she hadn’t had much time to cope after it. Once she’d healed she’d gone to work for MedCo thinking it was a nice safe job and the rest had been history. “How did you get out of there if it was that bad?”
“I knew the last time, the tenth time, I tried to escape that it would be my final attempt one way or the other. Either I’d die trying or I’d escape.” Scarlett brushed her right hand nervously over her left. The escape process was a huge blur and most of what had happened was sealed away somewhere in her subconscious. These were things she never intended to share with anyone. When she’d been released from the hospital she had vowed that it was her story and hers alone. No one needed to know the hell she’d lived through. She hadn’t anticipated the last few weeks with Tony or realizing Scott was behind it all. He was supposed to love her, how could he have done that to her?
“Why was that?”
“I was sick.” Scarlett finally turned to acknowledge that she was, in fact, speaking to Tony. Sitting sideways now on the couch she pulled the blankets further around her still rubbing the spot on her arm every few moments; an obvious nervous habit. “The conditions they kept me in out of spite were deplorable. I can’t tell you how many infections I must have had between my wounds being filthy and just overall sickness. On top of that I was malnourished and they only gave me enough to keep me alive. The more I fought the worse it got. They would give me just enough medicine to keep me living for more torture.”
“If I’ve learned anything about you in the last few months it’s that you don’t easily give up.” Tony grimaced at the notion.
“I knew that if I didn’t get help soon then I would die one way or another. I had to get away. So when I did try again, miraculously it worked. I managed the little bit of strength I had left and walked until I found a town. With every intention of asking someone to help me I collapsed in the street. Someone found me I think, they must have. I don’t remember much of what happened while I was there, Tony. I don’t want to remember if that’s okay. Not yet.” Tony took Scarlett’s hand and brushed the spot on her arm, one of the smaller scars that she hid well.
“I can’t blame you. But you can’t run from it forever.”
“I’m not running, Tony. I’m just not ready yet.”
“I know.” He nodded and let go of her hand to let her continue with her story.
“What happened next, like I said, I don’t quite remember. The hospital I woke up in was filthy. It stunk and I was kept in a room in the back like I was locked up. It scared the hell out of me. As soon as I was strong enough I ran away. Later I discovered that they were hiding me from the men who had come looking for me. They kept me safe when they didn’t know anything about me. I was just some white girl who collapsed in town and they protected me. When I realized the gravity of how those people risked their lives to save mine I started sending money every month. I hope that they’re doing something good with it. I have faith they are and I have very little faith in much of anything.” Scarlett summed up the story as quickly as she could, resting her head against the back of the couch. “I thought I’d feel some kind of closure once I understood what happened. If I could go back and take away that knowledge now I would. It has done me no favors.”
“Trauma doesn’t disappear just because you understand why it happened, Scarlett.” Tony began nervously. This wasn’t his forte. Listening to other people’s problems and trying to understand them, it just wasn’t him. But there were things he needed to understand about Scarlett and secrets they would have to share. There was nothing he could do about what happened to her but he could let her know that she wasn’t alone. “When I was doing a weapons demonstration of a missile I’d developed our convoy was attacked by insurgents. My own weapon blew shrapnel into my chest. I thought I was going to die. But I woke up in a cave attached to a car battery with this hideous electromagnet in my chest. It scared the hell out of me but dying scared me more. There was another scientist being held there, Yinsen was his name.”
“You’ve mentioned him before.” Scarlett was surprised that he was sharing his story; it was something she hadn’t thought he was ready to share. Oddly she was comforted by it. It was an unfortunate thing for them to have in common. Tony furrowed his brow in confusion. Obviously Yinsen had been on his mind lately but he didn’t remember mentioning him to her in the past. “In your sleep, you brought him up. I didn’t ask because I didn’t have time. I wanted to know but this month wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.”
“Oh, well, I’ll tell you then. Yinsen was the man who put the electromagnet in my chest to keep the shrapnel from going into my heart. He saved my life. Steadiest hands I’ve ever seen. I think I hated him at first because of what he did but I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t saved me. We got to know each other as I planned our escape. He asked me what I was fighting for and I didn’t have an answer. He called me the man with everything and nothing. That hit me harder than I’d like to admit.” Scarlett had always wondered how he’d come out such a completely changed man after his time in captivity. Yes, traumatic experiences undoubtedly changed lives but his outlook on life changed so dramatically that Scarlett had known something more had happened.
“When I finally put my plan for escape into action we were running out of time. Yinsen ran ahead with a gun after I told him not to. I wanted to protect him and get him back home to his family. I didn’t realize it then but I was fighting for him not for me. He was right, I had nothing. But I found him dying moments later in the caves. He told me then that his family was already dead and he was going to be with them. Scarlett, he told me not to waste my life. He acted like what I had was a gift, a second chance. Back then it didn’t feel like it. I think it’s why I rushed into things with Pepper when I got back. I was afraid of being alone. I didn’t want to waste my life, I wanted more than anything to keep that promise to him.” Scarlett turned her gaze away from Tony, knowing now where he was going with sharing his story. “I don’t want you to waste your life, Scarlett. I finally found a way to keep my promise and it may be selfish of me but I want the same for you.”
“I’m responsible for so much torment, Tony.” Scarlett began arguing instantly. Her head was swimming now as it often had in the last two weeks. Ever since her conscience had decided to play a part in her future she hadn’t been able to get her past intentions out of her head. Scarlett had become consumed with redemption somewhere along the line. “Things I only intended to be used to help people have been twisted and turned against the same people I wanted to help. Every time I try to do a little good in this world it goes horribly wrong. More than anything I want to fix something.”
“Scarlett, what happened isn’t your fault. Scott’s been setting you up for years. It wasn’t just the thing in Afghanistan. He took your ideas, he sold them; ideas that helped millions. Jobs you had in the past that went wrong? It was all his doing.” Scarlett looked up at him and for once what was in her head was transparent. Usually behind her eyes he could see muddled confusion but he saw it in her eyes then and there. Betrayal. She knew some of the extent of what Scott had done but obviously had no idea how far back it went.
Scarlett thought that Scott had loved her. For years she had held him on a pedestal and thought he was beyond reprieve. The more she learned about his betrayal the more she could feel things breaking down inside her head. Everything she knew about the last ten years had been a lie. How was she supposed to trust anyone or anything after this? She thought she was paranoid before, this was only going to make things much worse.
“Baby, none of this was your fault.” Tony could see where this was going because he’d been there before. The things that Stane had done to his company had fallen on his shoulders for years because he’d been party to it by ignoring that the illegal weapons sales had been happening. He’d known that the weapons were showing up in the hands of people they shouldn’t be party to but he didn’t care as long as he got his money and lived his party life. Panic gripped Tony’s chest. He could lose her if things went the wrong way.
It certainly wasn’t going well. All Scarlett did was shake her head from side to side in response. How could it not be her fault? How could Tony say that? She’d seen nothing but good in Scott and he had twisted every benevolent deed she’d done into something terrible so that he could destroy her from the inside out and reinvent her into a woman he wanted her to be instead of the woman she was. She had been such a terrible person in his eyes that he had wanted to completely reset her and rebuild her. How did she know that Scott wasn’t right?
What was worse was that she had been blind to see it! How was that not her fault?
“It doesn’t change what I need to do, Tony.” Her voice was cold and broken. Tony felt his chest aching in objection. She was pulling away, retreating within herself and quickly at that.
“Scarlett you don’t have to do any of this alone. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” Tony pled, picking up both her hands. She tried to pull her hands away but he grabbed her wrists instead and tugged her closer to him, capturing her gaze in his though she tried desperately to avoid it. “You don’t have to fight alone anymore. Strength doesn’t mean not being happy. You don’t have to punish yourself for what you did in the past. We can handle MedCo but we have to do it together and we have to do it the right way or you’re going to end up dead. I have faith in you but trust me, chasing demons? It’s only going to cause you more grief. There are always demons Scarlett, always. This is what matters. This.”
Not responding, Scarlett stared down at his hands and considered what he had to say. People kept telling her to stop chasing after MedCo, to stop trying to make recompense for the things she’d done. The hurt in her chest made her hunch over. What else could she do? Leaving Tony felt like suicide but her guilty conscience wasn’t going to let her sleep either. Maybe he was right. But what if he wasn’t?
“I love you, Scarlett. There’s no danger right now. But I love you. Selfishly I don’t want you to leave me. I want you to fight with me. I’ll do whatever I can to help you.” Tony watched as Scarlett took his hands and kissed the back of them.
“Loving you is the only thing I’m sure of.” Sighing, Scarlett let go of his hands and leaned heavily against the back of the couch. Discussing their history had worn her out. Why were emotions so damn hard? It was much easier when she didn’t pay any attention to the torment in the back of her mind. Where was that woman? Where had she gone? Learning to love and give a damn about something other than her next job was much harder than she had anticipated it would ever be. But was it worth it in the long run? So far it seemed to be.
“Come stay with me. We’ll work on this MedCo thing together from the safety of my home. Plus you promised to work on that power converter with me way back when. I have a contract and everything. I hope you’re still interested in that.” Tony hoped that offering her somewhere to go, an official offer rather than an implied one, would sweeten the deal for her. He would give anything to keep her with him.
“I don’t know, Tony.” Scarlett hesitated. That was a pretty big commitment to make. She’d go from being homeless to living in a mansion in Malibu. On top of that she wasn’t incredibly fond of Malibu to begin with. It was a beautiful place but Scarlett had never been very good at living in the lap of luxury.
“I’ve been building a place in Manhattan. I’ll still have the house in Malibu for us but I need to get away for awhile besides who doesn’t love New York? It’s massive, this place, honestly it makes my house in Malibu look like a shack.” Tony smirked proudly. He hoped that the things he’d done to the home in Manhattan that doubled as his workplace wouldn’t be considered overstepping their fragile boundaries. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t planning on you being there with me. You’d have your own lab so you can work on your ideas and developments. If you stay that is. And if you’re not ready to live with me I’ll have a loft set up in the building so you can stay there in your own private space. You don’t have to live with me yet. I know that’s a huge step. I’d prefer if you lived with me but it’s been a long road since we met and if you need that normalcy and some time to figure it out then that’s okay too.”
“Tony, you’ve been planning all of this?” Scarlett stared at him with her mouth agape. It was almost too much information to absorb. Tony wanted her to move in with him, so badly that he was willing to build a separate space for her to live in. On top of that she was pretty sure the offer of a laboratory of her own meant that a lab had already been built for her to work in. She’d never received such extravagant gifts from anyone before in her life and she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. Then again, if she was going to be dating one of the most prosperous men on the planet she probably had to get used to luxurious gifts. After a long time spent in contemplative silence she finally smiled.
“Well, I’m sort of spontaneous most of the time to be honest. I get these ideas in my head and I didn’t consider you wouldn’t want to be a part of them. That’s a good sign for me. And I think you should definitely consider it. I don’t think I’ve ever really seen anyone in my future before.”
“It’s so generous, Tony.” Scarlett shook her head but still couldn’t help but smile. Even with the dark things he knew about her past and the likelihood that in the long run she would be getting him into far more trouble than he realized, he still wanted her to be with him. It sent shivers down her spine which she quietly shook off.
“There is one condition though.”
“If it’s sexual you should probably reconsider the next words out of your mouth.”
“Damn, I hadn’t thought of that.” Laughing, Tony shook his head. “No, it’s something you’re probably going to like less than sexual favors.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Oh, don’t pretend you don’t like it. I was there, you more than like it.”
“I guess I can’t argue with results, can I?” Shrugging nonchalantly Scarlett had already made up her mind. It was a tough decision at first but once she’d resolved to stay with Tony there was no considering going back to the life she’d once lived. That woman was long dead. She’d died in the explosion she’d set off in the MedCo building in South Africa. The woman she’d become since then didn’t want to be alone anymore.
“Cute,” Tony settled his laughter then continued. “If you take my offer there’s no more lone gunmen act. You have to promise me. No more chasing after ghosts by yourself. If there’s a ghost you’re going after you tell me about it. You take me with you.” Silence fell between them. It was a big promise for Scarlett to make. If she did this and agreed to it then it would mean there was no going back. While she had mentally made the decision to stay she wasn’t sure how well she’d be able to keep her promise. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to but years of acting alone and doing what she wanted without consulting anyone else, including Scott, weren’t going to be easy to ignore.
“Counter offer.” Scarlett pointed a finger at him and Tony leaned back in surprise, not having expected her to come back with conditions of her own. “If I’m getting a lab and a place to live I want to be part of the design process for it. And I want to pay rent just like if it were a real apartment. I don’t want to feel like a freeloader while I’m there.”
“Scarlett you may not know it but you’ve been helping me build this place for weeks.” Tony placed his arm around her and pulled her close again, as close as he could without pulling her into his lap. This was becoming a bad habit of his though Scarlett couldn’t help but lean into his touch. It was comforting after what they’d finished discussing. Neither one of them was likely to admit just how much the other comforted them.
“Oh, really?”
“I’ll show you what I have in mind.” Tony nodded toward the room where he knew a replacement computer was likely lying around. Scarlett had worked with Pepper to take care of everything while he’d been asleep. It was weird having someone besides Pepper taking care of him and it felt somehow nicer. Maybe it was because he paid Pepper to take care of him every week and Scarlett did it only because she loved him. Hell, most of what she’d done she’d paid for which was absolutely unprecedented in Tony’s long life of dating. “But, this deal we’re making. You’re agreeing to my terms then?”
“Yeah, did I try to change them? But look there is something you have to understand Tony.”
“Always with the buts. Why can’t you just say sure! It’s easy. Four letter word, pretty easy to pronounce, rolls right off the tongue…”
“You do realize the reason we never get to discuss anything is because you have to interject every ten seconds with some sort of witty quip?”
“You think it’s sexy, I can tell. Why do you think you end up naked so much?”
“Because you have this crazy super power where you take off my clothes without me realizing it?” Scarlett countered, resulting in a laugh from Tony.
“That is my super power, isn’t it?” He sounded proud of the notion.
“And the ability to distract entirely from the topic of conversation.” Scarlett placed her hand over his lips when he went to speak. Biting at her fingers, he was surprised when she didn’t pull away. “This is serious.” Tony pulled her into his lap and nibbled her hand until she was forced to pull away.
“I’m being very, very serious.” Tony growled playfully before finding her lips. Scarlett tilted her head away to dodge the kiss since she truly did have something to say. But Tony didn’t care and instead kissed her neck sloppily, leaving a trail of saliva across her skin.
“Look, you have to understand something, Tony! I will try not to do the lone gunmen thing but I’ve been doing it for years. Honestly it’s sort of second nature to do stuff by myself. I can’t promise I won’t do it without thinking but I will certainly try not to. And if I screw up then bear with me and I’ll do what I can to make it right. I’m a huge work in progress and look you’re no peach either half the time. If I can’t do the lone gunmen thing then neither can you. Promise me before you give me another hickie, okay?” Scarlett tugged at his hair and he pulled his lips away from her neck but only for a moment.
“I promise.” Tony spoke resolutely. It wouldn’t be easy for him to confide in her all the time either but he would certainly give it a good effort. If she was willing to try then so was he. “I’m a work in progress too, you know. Together, we’ll be the best fuck-ups we can be.” Tony smirked before finding her lips again. Scarlett let him kiss her this time, returning the sentiment contently.
“It sounds like we have a deal then.” Scarlett returned to his lips once more, speaking between kisses. Tony nodded as their lips met over and over again, satisfied with the way things had come along. Scarlett had finally told him what was in the darkest recesses of her mind and he had shared his own emotional story. Scarlett laughed as he leaned her back on the couch and Tony couldn’t help but feel something inside of him swell with happiness.
Yinsen would’ve been proud.