SoundsOfSomeday's (sounds-of-some-day on Tumblr) Stony fic recs. Some time ago I decided to read (almost) all of the Stony fics on AO3 in alphabetical order (by title). These are my favorites. Follow my progress through the alphabet. (I am currently working my way through the C's.) Know a great fic that I missed along the way? Have a question for me? Asks are always open. Profile pic is by the fabulous Sreppub. She's amazing. Follow her here on Tumblr or Twitter for fabulous Tony-centric fan art.
Chapter 4 of my terrible SteveTony Moulin Rouge! AU was just posted. Mind the updated Content Warnings. This is my first foray into darkfic so bear with me.
roxanne (why does my heart cry?)
Between his clients, and the performances, and the rehearsals, the make up, the grooming, and the drinking, Tony managed to eke out two or three hours of the day for himself.
That was when he cried.
One day, he would come to meet Steve Rogers. He would give Steve Rogers the only hours he had. And Steve would take them.
Steve would take him in his wailing hours.
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Tony Stark/Other(s), Obadiah Stane/Tony Stark, Tony Stark/Tiberius Stone
Characters: Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Obadiah Stane, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Tiberius Stone
Content Warnings: Rape/Non-con Elements, Rape, Extremely Dubious Consent, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Abusive Relationships, Forced Prostitution, Dubiously Consensual Blow Jobs, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Slavery
Additional Tags: Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Angst, Inspired by Moulin Rouge!, Protective Steve Rogers, Artist Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Character Death, Everything Hurts
Summary: After they beat Thanos, Steve and Tony muddle through what is left of their relationship.
Ending: Open/Ambiguous but hopeful with a hint of Happy for Now.
Why I'm Reccing: So, I'm not sure why this one comes up at the beginning of the alphabet. Maybe there's a space in the title or something, I don't know. But I am so so so pleased that this was the first fic I read upon returning to Stony fic.
I actually almost didn't click on it, and I waffled back and forth for a bit, because while this takes place after Endgame (edit: this was actually published *before* Endgame came out, but after Infinity War, but for me, it still works just fine with canon if we just ignore the last 15-ish minutes of the movie -- which I do!) , it is ultimately a Civil War fix-it. And I'm always so nervous with those, because a lot of them tend to paint Steve as being completely in the wrong and that's just very far from my own take.
But this fic doesn't do that! Steve feels guilt for the role that he played in Civil War, and everything that came after it, feels guilt about not trusting Tony more at the time -- but he also still has his own feelings about the things that Tony did (including in Age of Ultron). Not a lot of CW fix-its focus on the fact that it happened in the wake of AoU, and I'm glad that this one did, because I think it provides another necessary layer and nuance. Not that this dwells on Ultron, but it does come up as Steve is contemplating how they started to fall apart, and what he wants his relationship with Tony to look like in the future.
Y'all, this fic.... I haven't even finished reading it yet, but I had to start typing this up because I knew it was going to be my first rec. It is just an amazing character portrait of Steve (and also Tony, in a way, through Steve's thoughts about Tony) that feels incredibly in character for Steve in a way that stays true to who he is in canon, while also adding more depth to his character.
Since this is ultimately a reconciliation(ish) fic, it kinda gives those early 2012 post-Avengers getting to know one another vibes in parts of the fic (though everything is tinged with heartache and grief -- even the "happy" moments). Which I actually think is sort of a nice bookend to their relationship. And while this fic is short (only 4.5k) and so never actually gives us a complete reconciliation, we are left with hope that they will find their way back into one another's hearts, that they will work through their guilt, and their trust issues, and find a way to make it work this time.
I don't know. It just feels like a very realistic portrayal of where they would be post-Thanos. And the thing that I really like about this fic is that, in staying true to Steve's canonical characterization, we can feel him holding himself back from Tony, keeping his emotions close to his chest, and just how much it's hurting him to do that. In fact, we see a lot of Steve's recklessness in this fic, the way he's almost careless with himself. Steve is not a perfect character, he is flawed, and I wouldn't want him any other way, and this fic hits his flaws perfectly.
And look, I just need to add something. This fic is, in my opinion, extremely underrated. It only has 146 kudos, but whatever. I've read some truly atrocious fics with thousands of kudos, so kudos aren't everything. But when I went into the comments, the very first comments were from people complaining about the fic, about how Steve didn't do enough for Tony in the fic, and frankly being outright argumentative with the author (this argument made up the bulk of the fic's 18 comments), and that.... that really sucks. Cause this was a truly beautiful fic, and the author didn't deserve that. No author does, but it was especially shitty to see it on such a brilliant character study of Steve.
Anyway, if you give the fic a chance, and I really hope you do, especially if you are a Steve fan, please show the author some love.
~.~.~
Follow me on my journey as I make my way alphabetically through every Stony fic on AO3.
Okay, I'm about to post my first rec in a while, but I wanted to give a heads up, from now on I'll be using the following romance termonologies.
HEA : Happily Ever After (fic has a happy ending)
HFN: Happy for Now (fic ends on a happy note but things in the far future are still ambiguous)
Open/Ambiguous Ending: Fic ends with the implication that either a HEA or a HFN ending could possibly be in the couple's future, but we don't actually get all the way to HFN or HEA.
Closed Door: Fade-to-black. Sex scenes are implied, but happen off page.
Open Door: Sex scenes are on page, but often use euphemisms and don't go into explicit detail.
Open Door Explicit: Sex scenes are on page and in explicit detail. Uses words like cock and dick etc...
Open Door Explicit and Plentiful: More than one explicit sex scene.
I want to share a fic I love and that lives in my head till this day!
Deep in the Heart of Me by Finely Honed (jaqen_hgar)
It was just amazing! The Tattoo shop, the slow built, the drama and tears, the happy ending. Like, I don't remember the details but I DO remember how much I loved it!
This looks really good! Thanks so much for sending in the rec.
Deep In the Heart of Me by Finely Honed (jagen_hgar)
Rating: Explicit
Summary: Veteran single dad Steve runs a tattoo shop. Pepper arranges for Tony to get that tattoo he always wanted, and he winds up with the mother of all crushes instead. Jumping out of airplanes is one thing, but love requires real courage. Steve struggles with letting someone into his life. Tony tries to keep his heart intact while Steve works on his issues.
Okay, I'm back. Sorry I needed a bit of a break from things. Just from everything. Not this blog but everything in [gestures vaguely] life.
As some of you know, my phone broke back over the summer and I lost all of my open tabs and where I was on my journey. That definitely was a setback and I didn't know how I wanted to handle it.
But now that I've had time to think about it, I've decided to.... restart my journey.
Lol.
Now I know you probably think I'm insane, but here are my reasons. When I first started reading I was only reading MCU based fic because I thought you had to choose a fandom on AO3. It wasn't for a while before I figured out I could just click on the ship's tag and see everything. So I was severely lacking in 616 fic. Also I didn't read everything when I started. I tended to skip AUs, a lot of the more kinky stuff. As I read more I opened myself up to a lot more types of fics.
And then finally my last reason is I want to change the way I interact with fic and fandom. I want to comment more and read WIPs and I dunno. I want to share and spread my enthusiasm. I also want to pull back in some ways, *except* on this blog. I want to get to know you and gush with you all about these two guys we love so much and all the creativity that gets poured into this fandom and this ship and these characters, the blood the sweat and the tears of it all.
So feel free to message me about anything. I try to be good about answering requests, though, I don't always have a fic that perfectly matches what you want.
I was thinking there's the findingstony blog that finds specific fic that you know exists, but maybe this would be a good place for people to submit things that they are looking for that they haven't already found. Like more general requests of tropes or plots that you want to read. Again I'll do my best to match you with something, but I'll also put them out to my followers (I don't have a ton but we'll see what the community can do).
Anyway, I'd like this to be a community to talk about all these things we love. I know I still have 2-3 unanswered asks, and I haven't forgotten them. For the person who asked for heartwrenching angst with or without a happy ending, I'm trying to decide if I want to rec you the most heart-shattering fic I have ever read. 🤔🤔🤔 (Are you open to Tony being evil?)
Anyway, does this restart mean that I may never get to some truly amazing fics at the end of the alphabet? Almost certainly. There are over 55k Stony fics on AO3. The first time I did this was a ship that had about 500 fics. I read them all in a couple months. I'm not going to complain about having too much good stuff.
But you can feel free to send in your own recs as well. Again, I'd love this to be a community, and a conversation.
Okay, well... I'm off to read. A couple of notes.
I will attempt to read every fic. There will be some that I do not finish. It might just be that it's not to my personal taste.
When I say everything, I do mean *everything*, which means that I may rec some fics that have content that you don't like. I will tag my posts accordingly. I'm not here to debate the ethics of fictional depictions of fictional characters in a fictional relationship with anyone.
I'm going to post as I go through. It's just easier for me that way. Also this way you can literally see my journey, lol. Posts will be scheduled for Saturdays, one post per week, unless my drafts start to get really full, in which case I'll bump it up to two posts per week.
Sometimes I may open a fic and save it in an open tag if I'm not in the right headspace for it, or if I want to read it but I'm not connecting with it at the moment. Or, if it's a really long fic, sometimes I'll intersperse other shorter fics in between chapters. So just because I skip a fic doesn't mean I didn't like it, or I thought it was bad.
Though I will give everything a shot, in general, kid fic is just not my thing, so you're unlikely to see many recs with that topic. But feel free to send in your own fic recs if there's something you really love. I'm sure others would love it as well.
I also generally tend to be not a fan of kink involving bodily fluids other than spit, sweat and semen, but I will give them a chance. Just don't expect a lot of recs for those. Also I'm not really a fan of age play. It's just not my thing.
The only hard pass for me is anything that tries to villainize Steve for MCU Civil War. That's a hard no for me.
Okay, I accidentally added a poll and it won't let me delete it, so....
Should I also reblog fan art here?
Yes, I want all the Stony fan content goddess
No, just fic!
Voting ended onOct 28, 2023
Lmao - that was supposed to say goodness not goddess. 🙃🙃🙃 This is why I don't do polls. I am far too much of a mess to handle this kind of responsibility.
Aww, thank you so much for sending this anon. I really do appreciate it, and it makes me feel all warm and mushy inside.
I am doing okay. I just had kind of an insanely busy time lately. I moved to a new city over the summer, which was actually a lot of work. (Also never move in the middle of July - it sucks!)
And then at work I decided to do something that is going to make my life easier/better in the future, but it's making my life extremely busy in the present. I've been working 11 hour days and then I come home and I'm just too exhausted to really do anything else.
But I haven't forgotten about this blog, or the 3 asks that I still have sitting in my inbox!
Also sometimes I just worry that I'm just repeating myself in these reviews, and that people will get bored with them. 😬
So actually, just really thank you for reaching out. It makes my day to think that people care about my little fic ramblings.
I know I keep saying this, but I really do want to have a regular posting schedule. So... maybe this will help me, I have adhd and having deadlines actually really helps me a ton.
So, if I post a new rec each week, what day should I post it on?
Day to post recs?
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Voting ended onSep 9, 2023
No need to reblog since I only need people who follow me to answer.
Aww, thank you so much for sending this anon. I really do appreciate it, and it makes me feel all warm and mushy inside.
I am doing okay. I just had kind of an insanely busy time lately. I moved to a new city over the summer, which was actually a lot of work. (Also never move in the middle of July - it sucks!)
And then at work I decided to do something that is going to make my life easier/better in the future, but it's making my life extremely busy in the present. I've been working 11 hour days and then I come home and I'm just too exhausted to really do anything else.
But I haven't forgotten about this blog, or the 3 asks that I still have sitting in my inbox!
Also sometimes I just worry that I'm just repeating myself in these reviews, and that people will get bored with them. 😬
So actually, just really thank you for reaching out. It makes my day to think that people care about my little fic ramblings.
I know I keep saying this, but I really do want to have a regular posting schedule. So... maybe this will help me, I have adhd and having deadlines actually really helps me a ton.
So, if I post a new rec each week, what day should I post it on?
Day to post recs?
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Voting ended onSep 9, 2023
No need to reblog since I only need people who follow me to answer.
stevetony, non-powered summer before college au, 1k
fill for the @stevetonygames bingo square "Seasons" and challenge "Resolutions" for Team Past :)
(read on ao3)
Summer days make for sun-soaked purgatory, hellish in all but name. The weather oppresses, enough that even Tony’s constantly racing mind relents to the sluggishness of the heat. The wait weighs heavy on his shoulders, heavier still with each second that acquiesces to the inevitability of fall. The empty house rings silence save for the incessant drip, drip, drip of his bathroom faucet from dawn to dusk, then from dusk to dawn, again, again, again.
Sometimes, in an indulgent act of self-pity or perhaps just typical teenage boredom, Tony calls his mom’s name out just to hear the unanswered echo respond back to him, to break the monotony of a leaky pipe.
They had invited him—his father, and his mother by default—they had invited him to Europe this summer to attend the unending battery of business conferences that would be taking the Starks from Paris to Zurich, Zurich to Milan, Milan to Berlin, Berlin to Madrid, Madrid to London, and from London back to Paris. The networking opportunities alone would give him a leg up for school in the fall, for internships next summer, for job opportunities after graduation, for corporate mergers scheduled twenty years from now, or so his father had said. But hell has a name, and that name is printed on the seal at the top of a college admission letter, signed by both the university president and the dean of the school of business. Idleness burns him from the inside out, but still Tony would rather spend his final summer alone in an empty house with a leaky faucet than begin the lifelong descent through the circles even a second too soon.
Daytime holds his sweaty body and his exhausted mind prisoner to the heat, so Tony bides his time until night to work on his inventions. In the cool respite, he weaves together a mimicry of human learning from lines of computer code. A real companion made from artificial intelligence, yes, but more importantly a reminder that before he becomes anything else—business school graduate, Stark Industries’ future CEO, unhappy—he was an engineer, and the insistent itch of creation buzzed with potential underneath the palms of his hands, once.
The temperature climbs higher, the seconds tick by, and the house slowly fills with the robotic fruits of his nighttime labor.
The faucet drips on.
One morning, Tony finds himself blinking away the haze of a machining binge to see the first signs of dawn glowing outside his window. The illumination of heaven without the burn of hell, a delicate and transient occurrence at this time of year, during which Tony is usually asleep. He stands and follows a wordless summons to go to the window, to open the boundary between himself and the world.
A bird chirps. A breeze lifts. The smell of sweet summer blooms scents the fresh air.
And down the street, a paperboy follows his route.
Tony watches him ride closer with eyes trained to inspect, dismantle, and reform component parts. The boy has blond hair. The boy seems to be about his age. The boy has a thin frame; the weight of the newspapers in his satchel upsets his balance on the bike, and he wobbles dangerously every time he throws a paper towards someone's front door before setting himself to rights again through what seems to be sheer force of will.
He rides closer. Tony sees:
Worn canvas on the strap of his satchel. There are patches painstakingly sewn on in multiple places.
A missing tooth on the chain of his bike. Someone should fix that. Tony could fix that.
A crooked smile. A happy life.
Blue eyes.
Oh.
The boy looks back at him from where he’s stopped in the street, one foot on the ground, still smiling.
Tony can’t help it; he smiles back.
His mind begins racing, racing, racing. He wonders what it would be like to run downstairs, open the door, offer to fix this boy’s bike.
Wonders what it would be like to ride home with him, wherever home is. Wonders at a day spent together, a night spent together, a morning brought to wakefulness by the presence of disheveled blond hair, a crooked smile, blue eyes.
He thinks of laughter, of pet names, of take-out dinner dates.
He imagines a modest one-bedroom too cozy to ever feel empty, with impeccable plumbing and a workshop in the garage. It’s no Ivy League, but there would be ivy creeping up the brick on the side of the house where they keep the garbage cans, triumphant in the face of all their half-hearted attempts at weeding, and wouldn’t that be so lovely in its own simple way?
He sees years worth of yet unlived memories and trembles with the bone-deep knowing: it would all be so terribly beautiful, this lifelong descent into love.
The boy lifts his arm and waves.
Tony can’t help it; he waves back. He smiles harder.
But the moment breaks when the boy drops his hand and pushes his foot off the ground. Tony’s heart sinks as he bikes out of view. Suddenly, the heat is unbearable, the house insufferably empty amongst the clutter, every drip of water from the bathroom faucet intolerable. Daylight is here, and Tony is faintly dizzy with the need to seek solace away from his inescapable life for a few hours in the impermanent oblivion of sleep.
He sinks miserably onto the bed, drags a pillow over his head in a futile attempt to block out the sound of his life dripping down the drain one drop at a time, already halfway to unconsciousness.
Only for his eyes to fly open a mere moment after closing, a smile already curling on his lips. Downstairs, another knock sounds resolutely against the door.
Thank you so much for he ask! Sorry it took me so long. Part of the problem is that none of my bookmarks are organized and then I have to search through them trying to remember what they all were, and you know my memory is terrible., so I'm like....clicking on every link... Anyway, thank you for the ask!!
Coming Up Roses by fitz_y, imafriendlydalek
Rating: G
Summary: The world’s most beautiful creature, clearly God’s (Darwin’s) gift to mankind, is standing right in his path as if he’s been waiting for this moment, for Tony to walk into his life.
Okay, Tony really needs to stop letting Happy talk him into watching Downton Abbey so often.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Tall, Blond and Gorgeous says with a 1000-watt smile. An arm is stretched out towards Tony, a red rose in his hand.
What the hell? Is he dead? Has he died and gone to heaven? Unlikely - he’s pretty sure that, if there is an afterlife, he’s not going up in the clouds. Is he being Punk’d?
Why I'm Reccing: Okay...so...Steve is doing some community service at the retirement home where Peggy lives on Valentine's Day, and all they have for him to wear is a pink medium women's t-shirt with a fluffy velvet heart on it, and there's this running joke about how it's way too small for Steve, and like.... a men's medium would be way too small for Steve. I'm honestly trying to picture Chris Evans in this shirt - I feel like it would fit him like a crop top. I really wish I could art, because I would absolutely draw this.
Also, progressive activist Steve. I won't spoil why he has to do community service, but you can probably guess, and honestly, okay, I will spoil this, because I need more Steve getting arrested at protest fics.
Anyway, Tony just so happens to come visit his Aunt Peggy on this Valentine's Day, and Peggy just so happens to insist that she and Tony take Steve out for coffee.
And, like, this fic is just really fun! You read lines like this:
Better change the shirt too, he thinks as he reaches for his coat and feels the shirt stretch ominously as if it might tear if he makes any other movements than just standing.
Which is how he ends up with his arms above his head, tangled in a tiny shirt that he seems to be stuck in, when Tony sticks his head into the break room looking for him.
***
“You all se– hell-OHHH!” Christmas was a few weeks ago, and his birthday is still a while off, but damn, Tony must have been doing something right to warrant this gift.
and it's just really fun. It was written in 2018, but it just feels like one of those fun 2012 fics, you know what I mean?
😭 A fic that ripped your heart out (but it hurt so good)
Thanks so much for the ask!
Castaway by AzureTiger
Rating: Teen
Summary: Fury must be out of his mind to send Tony and Steve together on a mission where spies would surely be better suited to the job. But here they are, stuck on an island together, running an op.
It's hard to say what might kill him first, Steve annoying the hell out of him, or the disaster that's bound to happen when you throw two clashing personalities and practical strangers into a dangerous mission.
But that's the best way to make friendships, isn't it? When your lives are on the line, and all you have is each other? Sometimes your best resource is the good company, and the inspirational posters are right: it really is about the journey.
Why I'm Reccing: This fic. I love this fic. This is definitely one of my all time favorite fics. Though I do think it's one you've got to give time to and allow the story to develop. It's tagged as slow burn and hurt/comfort and those two tags are not misplaced. This is definitely a slow burn, and there is a lot of hurt/comforting happening.
I don't know, this fic is I think underrated. It only has 36 comments on 10 chapters and 233 kudos, and I think, from my own experience, there's a tendency with fanfic to not always allow the story a chance to breath, that if things aren't immediately happening (in terms of romance/pining etc) readers can abandon a fic quite quickly, and I just want to say, if you give this fic your time, it will be worth it, I swear.
This is post Avengers, where the team never really formed after that. Like, they exist in this sort of nebulous way, where Tony isn't part of the team anymore, but the team hasn't had a reason to come together again after the battle of New York, though Steve is working for Fury and SHIELD.
And Tony and Steve don't get a long. If you're feeling nostalgic for that 2012 era fic where Tony and Steve need to come together and work their shit out, this is the fic for you.
There's also a lot of story here. Like, a very well thought out plot that goes beyond just the two of them falling in love. Some terrorists (I haven't read this in a while, but I think it's maybe Hydra) have gotten ahold of blueprints for Tony's old weapons and are manufacturing them again. So, he and Steve are sent to this remote island to shut it all down.
So, I said this is hurt/comfort, and what I like about this fic is the hurt/comfort goes both ways. Tony is suffering from ptsd from his experience in Avengers, and the role that plays in this fic and how it is portrayed is exceedingly well done.
But but.... that is not why this fic is going to rip out your heart. Because I said the hurt/comfort goes both ways. And something happens to Steve that made my heart drop into my stomach. It was only the fact that I was reading fic and knew that everything would work out okay in the end that kept me going. The hurt/comfort portion of this fic that revolves around Steve is top notch h/c. And that's where Tony and Steve really start to come together.
Also the battles in this! I'll be honest, I usually tend to sort of skim over battles in fic (look, I don't watch the big super hero movies for the big super hero battles...) but the battles in this are really well done, and I found myself really enjoying them. Bonus for Steve fighting in one of Tony's suits.
AzureTiger is mostly a ThunderShield writer (or they were back when I read this) but when I commented on this fic, they said they had other Stony fic ideas they were toying with. So.... go, read, comment if you like, and maybe we can tempt them over to the dark Stony side.
I'm still working on more fic rec asks, but also I managed to catch something at the end of the semester, and now I'm stuck lying in bed feeling awful.
So, I thought I'd throw this question out. What would you like to see more of in Stony fic?
I'll go first. I'd like to see more of Tony rescuing/saving/taking care of Steve. I know even in my own writing, I always tend to default to Steve saving Tony from some bad situation, and Steve being quite stoic.
I think, you know, Tony's had a lot of trauma in his life, and so there's a lot to build from there. And Steve, Steve has a lot of trauma, but he was also shown to be quite stoic in the MCU (even CEvans says this).
So I'd definitely like to see some more focus on Steve's trauma, something that allows Steve to be vulnerable.
Now what's your pick? What would you like to see more of in Stony fic? Drop me an ask (and maybe I'll have a rec for you). Also feel free to drop a rec for vulnerable, traumatized Steve being cared for by Tony. 💜💜
Thanks for the ask. I answered the reread question here.
7. a fic that made you think #writer goals
Okay....soooooo... sometime back I talked about rereading a fic that I couldn't in good conscience recommend as a Stony fic. But I am going to go ahead and rec it here, because it really is that good. So, be forewarned, this is not a happy Stony fic, and it does not have a happy ending. But it is really really really good, if you are a Tony fan, and want some top notch character exploration. As long as you don't mind hurting because this one's gonna hurt.
Black Right Hand by Diomedes
Rating: Mature
Summary: Destiny never marks him false. It’s Tony who learns all the wrong lessons. Soulmark AU: People are born with soulmarks: bloodline marks and soulmates. Very rarely do more appear or do they fade. Tony's do. This messes with his perception of love irreparably.
Why I'm Reccing: So, as I was going through my bookmarks looking for something that I hadn't already recced, I got like one sentence into this one and I was like....oh....this is that one. Because this fic lives in my head rent free. This fic absolutely set the standard for me in terms of a darker, self-destructive Tony characterization, and I haven't been the same since. (This fic also set the standard for me on Tony's relationship with Jarvis, and I will accept nothing less. We stan Jarvis on this blog.)
Look, I know a lot of people want to read happy fic, and I get that, so this fic will not be for everyone, but when I say that this fic is stunning, I do not say that lightly. This fic is poetry. It is art, it is music, it paints a beautiful and heart wrenching painting from the very first line, and it honestly takes my breath away.
This is a story of a Tony who is hurt by love pretty much from the moment he is born. This is the story of the many loves of Tony's life, the good, the bad, and the (very) ugly. This is the story of being hurt by love, over and over and over again. That's it, that's the fic. There's no upside here, just pain. Pain that you feel deep in your soul, but it's okay, because it's beautiful.
Tony loves as best he can with his defective heart but it isn’t enough for Destiny to hear him. He never considers that his mother’s mark faded because he’s nothing like her at all. See, Tony is nothing like Maria who loved so much she bent the will of Destiny. Instead Tony is marked with the names of those who love him.
Then he gets to watch, one by one, as they stop.
It hurts. It hurts a lot. But it's worth it.
Trigger warning for depictions of abusive relationships (both child and domestic) but none involving Steve. (Though again, this is not a happy Stony fic.) Also this is MCU canon complaint, up to and including Endgame.
Gonna have to go with my number one favorite Stony fic.
And Time Has Enough by wanttobeatree.
I actually already wrote up this fic here. This is my all time favorite Stony fic and it's a fic that I think only gets better on reread. It's a Time Traveler's Wife AU, so the first time you read it there's a lot going on, and I think on a second read you can really appreciate what's going on in this fic.
Plus, like I could literally write an essay about this fic. Like, I want to sit down and do a close read and like, analyze this fic, it's so good and there are so many moral questions in this fic, because in a way, neither one of them have a choice about anything that's happening. So in a way there's this sort of predestination aspect to it. Tony visits Steve throughout his (Steve's) life because they have a close relationship in the future, but they have a close relationship in the future because Tony has been visiting Steve since he was a kid. It's the exact same conundrum that the book has, and I love that it comes through in this fic as well.
Plus I also want to go through and figure out the order of the timeline from the perspective of each of their characters sometime.
I have a few of these still in my inbox. I'll keep answering throughout the week. Feel free to send more. If I get duplicates I'll just rec different fics for them. Just it takes me a bit of time to reread things and then write up the reviews. But I promise I'll answer.
Thanks for sending these in, it's gotten me back into reading the fics I love. 💜💜
Stony Fic Recs @matchbookarmy - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
