Tony Stark - I’ll Always Come Back
Reader - Nonbinary - gender neutral pronouns Writing Style - one-shot
He was shocked. Who could blame him? He stood in the hallway of the hospital, unable to bring himself to come in to your hospital room. He turned to Fury, only one question leaving his lips. “Who did this?”
Fury knew that the question would come. “They were injured in a battle against a Hydra base.”
“The base?”
“Mostly destroyed. One man escaped. The one that injured them. We’re working to-”
Tony walked off without another word, already planning his revenge. Fury had hoped to reason with him, convince him to wait until they could locate the Hydra agent and send a full task force. However, Hydra had made it personal the moment you got injured.
Each night was spent in his lab or at the destroyed base, looking for signs of the man who caused the damage and possible ways to reverse it. Jarvis made attempts at convincing Tony to rest, but the image of you two together along with the wrapped box just small enough for the palm of his hand egged him on. There was no stopping until the man was found.
Eventually, you were discharged and returned to Avengers tower. You were shocked at the sight of Tony, surrounded by empty cups that once held coffee and in desperate need of a shave. The Avengers had warned you that he had taken the memory loss the hardest. You two had been the closest, they explained. You took it to mean best friends, but you had suspicious of more as you saw the state he was in. You slowly approached him, grabbing a few of the empty mugs. “Let me take these. You’ll run out of room at this rate.”
He was startled by your presence and you noticed a pain in his face which brought an ache to your heart for a reason you could not quite place. You quickly shuffled off with the mugs you held, promising to head back with a tray to carry more.
The Avengers watched you two adjust with baited breath. Tony was constantly at work and something inside you wanted to support him. You made him coffee and made sure he ate. Sometimes you would bring him juice to drink, insisting that he could not survive off coffee alone. Tony had other ideas, saying he needed the energy, but for some reason he could never stand up to you.
One night, you found him asleep at the desk. The work had finally wore him out. Taking advantage of his rolling desk chair, you rolled him towards the elevator and into his room. It was a bit difficult getting him into bed and even harder removing his tie and suit jacket. The pants and shirt were just going to have to stay on. You were about to move to leave, but a hand caught you and pulled you into bed. You were locked in his embrace as he murmured your name, causing a blush to rise to your cheeks. You knew he was tired, though, and let him stay like that all night, cuddled into your chest as he slept for what must have been the first time in weeks.
When morning came, you found yourself alone in the bed. As you went upstairs to check on him, you heard shouts.
“-id he go then?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? He went after the guy who attacked them!”
“He’s going to get himself killed if he takes the base on alone. Fury, can we track him?”
“Sure, but it might take a whi-”
They all fell silent as they saw you. Clint was the first to break the silence. “What are you doing up? It’s not even eight.”
You shrugged. “Where’s Tony? He wasn’t there when I woke up.”
The team exchanged glances before Steve spoke up. “That explains it.”
Instantly everyone started moving. You were overwhelmed, shocked at finding everyone suddenly rushing to find Tony. Naturally, you were worried, but you had no idea how to help. All you could do was sit by idly as you watched everyone.
It took them three hours to track him, and by that time he was already engaging the enemy. They instantly began to leave and, to your shock insisted you come with them. “You’re the only one that has a chance of calming him down,” they explained. So you accompanied them, still dressed in a pair of pajama pants and the baggy T-shirt you’d been wearing around the tower.
When you approached the base, it was a mess of fire. You could see Tony in the air, flying around his metal suit You were concerned, but at the same time you somehow knew you needed to trust with him.
Never mind. He was now falling towards the ground at an alarming rate after being hit. You heard a sound that you guessed was your own scream. It was hard to tell at this point with your ears ringing. Seeing him fall...
Suddenly your vision was white. You collapsed onto your knees, memories of Tony falling in New York flooding your mind. You remembered sobbing and hugging him tight once he woke up. You remembered how, after the mission, he had kissed you deeply, promising to never scare you like that again.
Some of the team began working to help you while the rest ran to help Tony and destroy the base. Soon they had Tony inside the ship, positioned next to you. You insisted you’d be fine, insisting they helped the others while you helped Tony. It didn’t take you long to get his mask off, tears pouring down your cheeks as you watched his eyes slowly open.
“Tony, you liar,” you said through tears.
“What do you mean?”
“You promised you wouldn’t scare me again. You promised not to do it.”
You saw his eyes go wide and, while he knew he should apologize, he instead pulled you close, grinning. “I was scared I’d never get you back.”
You smiled weakly at him as he wiped at your tears. “I’ll always come back.”