(no subject)
Title: Could Not Stop For Death
Author: dragons_muse
Artist: ko_no_yo
Pairings/characters: Tony/Loki, Tony/Pepper, implied Tony/Steve
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 11,039
Warnings: character death, suicidal ideation
Summary: Tony just wanted to retire. He was tired, ready to lay down his arms, but then an old enemy abducts him and leads him through a series of revelations that end somewhere unexpected.
Story link: Read or Download on AO3
Art link: Masterpost on LJ Tumblr
In the course of his long, fraught relationship with concussions, Tony had woken up in a variety of locations ranging from the nightmarish to the medicinal. So it was with some begrudging respect that he had to admit that this time was different. The room was quiet and smelled pleasantly of the ocean. Wide windows were propped open, letting in a warm breeze. The bed was soft underneath him, white diaphanous curtains fluttering from the tall four posters. All in all, it felt much more like a scene from a terrible romance novel than a prison.
They stood on the roof of the Avengers’ Tower. Tony’s scarf whipped around his head, his sunglasses tinting the sunset blue and black.
“Do you ever wonder,” Bruce asked him, wrapped in countless layers of clothes, nose and eyes red with the whipping wind, “what comes after?”
“After what?” Tony shoved his hands in his pockets and watched the first flakes of snow fall towards them in a lazy spin.
There were stars overhead. He couldn’t see them, but he could feel their warm light on his skin. New worlds, new experiences, new music, tastes, touches, thoughts, experiments, friends....love, maybe. The Armani suit wasn’t going to cut it. He conjured fresh armor, something new and brilliant. He pulled his wallet from his pocket, discarded the heavy lump of it after he drew a single picture from it’s folds. He tucked Pepper’s image away, under his skin and close to his heart.
Then he stepped forward on boots as black as midnight and embossed with the curl of ram’s horns. They broke the pavement under his feet and led him into a new story.