The End of the World Pt.9
Thor, Iron Man, and Super Soldier VX
Pairing: Thor x Reader
Word Count: 2,467
Masterpost
Warnings: Language
A/N: I’ve been looking forward to writing for Tony sober for a while. I was so eager to get it out that I wrote this almost immediately after I wrote the previous chapter. Hardest part is definitely coming up with nicknames for the reader. Ugh! How does he do it?! lol This part of the story has been a long time coming. I’ve had this planned out since about the fourth chapter. I’ve struggled so much trying to figure out how I want to do this and what will happen afterwards. Anyway, hope you like it! xoxo
You’re not sure how long you were lying on your bed, frozen in pain. It felt as if your blood was knives and needles drenched in gasoline and set on fire. Your body had gone rigid shortly after you injected yourself with the first full syringe of serum. The needle had penetrated your skin and almost from the first depression you’d regretted your decision.
The regret was temporary. You struggled with your muscles, which had tensed so much in reaction to the serum that you grunted and groaned as you strained to reach the vial of serum once more. You threw your body in the direction of the vial, your stiff arm reached out and with straining and stretching fingers you grabbed it. It took you longer than it should have but you finally jammed the needle into the top and filled the syringe once more, emptying the rest of the vial.
Ruthlessly you violently jam the needle into the crook of your arm—and amazingly, right into your vein—half in resolve to do what you said you’d do and half because you had little control left in your limbs.
As the rest of the serum spread throughout your bloodstream you felt your chest explode. Your heart began to pound and finally, thankfully you lost consciousness, sprawled out on the bed with one arm hanging over the edge. Probably looked dead.
“Why hasn’t she woken up?” Thor demands, his voice worried and angry. You’re mostly asleep still. No. Not asleep. In transition. You try to wake yourself up but your body doesn’t respond.
“You have to give her time. She's…different now.” Natasha keeps her voice even, stern as she speaks to Thor.
“How could you all let this happen?” Thor sounds like he’s somewhere to your right, still stressed and angry. “You should have kept her here.”
“Thor, I asked her to stay, I swear. I told her you wouldn't like her leaving but she wouldn't change her mind.” Bruce’s voice is laden with remorse and failure as he explains his time with you.
“Then you should have chained her to a chair!” His voice shakes the room though he’s still not even really shouting.
“Hey, I heard her with the Doc,” Rocket agrees to your left, up by your head. “She’d made up her mind to go home. You probably woulda flayed us if we touched her and from what I know of your girl, she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.”
A huff to your right tells you Thor still isn’t happy, but he does accept Rocket's explanation. When he speaks again his voice is strained with worry and near-agony.
“Why hasn’t she woken up, Banner?”
“I think that might be my fault. I gave her a bit of Tetrodotoxin B. Her heart was racing when you brought her in and I was afraid she’d have a heart attack so I wanted to slow her heart rate down. I think maybe it might have sedated her as well.”
“Does she have to be sedated?” Thor wonders.
“I honestly don't know. I prefer it but it would be better if Steve were here.” You can almost picture Bruce leaning back in a stool, rubbing his chin. His voice is calm as always but there’s an underlying tone of fascination. “He has first hand experience with this.”
“I’ll go get him. It'll be a little tense but I think this is more important than old fights.”
“Nat, be careful. Don’t tell anyone about Y/N until we know more." Bruce says.
“Of course.” Natasha's footsteps fade.
“What was it she injected herself with?” Thor’s voice is much closer, aggrieved, quieter since he’s so close now. His left hand finds the top of your head where he gently cups it. His right hand tenderly takes hold of your own.
“It looks like either during or after the attack she took one of the vials from the box Pepper and Nat brought back.” If there was an audible equivalent to quietly punching the air with your fist, Bruce did it. “I shoulda known something was off. She was asking me a lot of questions about the Super Soldiers in Siberia and Steve, why didn’t I pick up on it?”
“Y/N has always been good at keeping her thoughts private. When I first met her, she helped me recover from a small injury. I might have played the hurt up a little. She was cute and very kind.” You can hear the smile in his voice. The hand on the top of your head gently strokes your hair.
“That was just after Sokovia right? I wasn't there but Nat filled me in on what she could remember happened.”
“Yes. She told me later that I spent so much time talking about Jane during our first meeting that she buried her feelings for me. Despite being attracted to me instantly. It took me four months to get her to open up. Another four weeks until she allowed me to kiss her. With Jane everything simply happened, falling into place easily. With Y/N, things have always taken a little more work.” You hear him sigh heavily then feel the warmth of his breath on your right temple.
“Wow, what a pain in the ass. Hey, I don't mean anything by it. Your girl will be alright, Thor.” Rocket says. “I mean, she's stubborn, right? She's not gonna let this keep her from marrying you. I think I’ll go grab something to eat.”
You hear Rocket leave.
Almost ten minutes pass in silence.
“Why is her hair this color?” Thor strokes your head again.
“I don’t know. The serum alters body and mind, it's unpredictable and this one that Pepper and Nat found was especially strange. Modified. There's no way to know what she’s going to wake up with. I mean, I'm sure she'll still be her.”
“You're sure?” Thor sounds upset again and the hand on the top of your head tightens. “Why would she do this to herself?”
His breath was on your face again. “Whatever was troubling you, why did you not come to me? I could have helped you. I am your harbor. Your escape.”
You hear fading footsteps as Thor continues to speak.
“Please, do not leave me when our lives have yet to begin. My love, my soul, my reason for existence. Wake up, Y/N.” He says your name with strength in his voice like he’s trying to order you awake. His soft pleas and declarations of love only serve to send you under again and with his warm breath lingering on your cheek, you fall back into darkness.
As your eyes slowly flutter open you take in the plain off-white ceiling. There's so much more to the ceiling though. You can see the small pores of the white ceiling tiles, the dust within them. A very small movement, someone taking a breath, pulls your eyesight to the left.
Standing in front of a dark grey wall, painted in uneven strokes, is Tony Stark. There's a gradient in the wall that you’re only sure is unintentional because you’ve been in this room before just a few days ago. Despite the uneven paint and the small bits of dust, the rest of the plain medical room is spotless. So much of the room is clearer, like you’ve upgraded to a higher definition T.V., that for a second you don’t notice the increase in your hearing at first.
As Tony clears his throat to bring your attention back to him, you notice the clarity of it. You can hear each small breath that he takes. In and out. In and out. Steady and relaxed breaths.
You push yourself up a little and remember your injured ribs. You sit up straighter and gently press against your side. No pain. And your leg has no cast or brace.
When you look back up Tony is moving over with a chair held by its back. He places the chair by your bed, his face bright and alert, and sits himself in it. His pants are black sweats and his top a blue compression sports shirt.
“Don’t you own anything other than suits and sportswear, Mr. Stank?” You ask dryly. You’re not sure this is the face you want to see as soon as you wake up. Where the hell is Thor?
Tony laughs casually, subdued, and you definitely don’t want his face to be the first you see. When he finally stops laughing he leans back and watches you with that same smug and contemplative look from before.
“Rhodey?” He asks.
You nod. “He said to wait until you were sober.”
“I knew you were fearless.” He admits. “I mean, you’d have to be to shack up with Thor. To choose this life after what happened?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of gum, took a piece, then shoved the pack back into his pocket. “Takes guts. Gum?”
You shake your head. “Easy to say when you’ve given up. Where are your guts?”
Tony chews his gum then fixes you with that unreadable and penetrating gaze. “On Titan.”
You see his grief again, this time multiplied by a hundred as you can suddenly see every twitch of his lip, eye, and the way his mouth turns down at the corners for a second. There's also that same dead look you’ve seen in Thor's and Rocket's eyes. And pretty much everyone else that’s lost someone.
“I saw it, you know? The intent in your eyes even before you made up your mind.” He’s smirking, like he knows you. Why does it feel like he can see through you? “I knew if I set things up just right, you’d bite. And here you are, all superheroed out. How’s it feel to be the newest member of the Super Soldier club?”
You watch Tony with narrowed eyes. Something about what he said. “What do you mean, set things up just right?”
“Listen Teach,” Tony pushes off of the chair and sits up straight then leans forward so that he can reach out towards you. The familiarity is not welcome so you pull your hand close, crossing your arms over your chest and remain wary. “What I said to you that day I first met you, I’m sorry. I was out of line and not…myself.”
His hand comes up to nervously rub at his bottom lip. He clasps his hands together and raises his eyebrows once as he lets his apology linger between you. You want to tell him to fuck off. You want to tell him that he can shove his apology, that you hate him, and nothing he can say to you will make up for the fears and all consuming insecurities that his words re-exposed. You’d resolved yourself to living and loving quietly at Thor's side. But then you were injured and despite the mortality worries you’d had, nothing compared to watching Thor have to choose between leaving you here injured and choosing his people.
You needed to be strong for your God of Thunder and that’s what you would be now.
Even though you want to tell Tony all of this and be done with him, you see the sincerity of his remorse. Here was a broken man, apologizing, eyes slightly watery, how could you not let it go?
“I didn't mean to make you feel like you had to do this.” He says more quietly.
“You didn't. I mean, you did, but it was already there. It’s been there since Thor left me.” Admitting this aloud makes you nervous. “I think eventually I would have done something more stupid.”
“I think so to. Which makes me glad this serum fell right into our lap.” Tony says with a smile. “I’d really like to be friends, if you think that’s at all possible?”
He gets to his feet and moves closer to you, his hand extended. You stare at it for a good two minutes, Tony stands there sweating buckets. You finally take his hand and squeeze.
“Woah, ow, easy there Miss Mischief. You can break us plain people like sticks, now. You’re going to have to adapt to your strength.”
“Sorry.” You rush to say as you release his hand.
He keeps his eyes on you. They wander up to your hair as he shakes his right hand and then massages his fingers.
“Ow.” He repeats. “I like the hair.”
You reach up and pull your hair forward as you remember Thor asking about it. Or had you dreamt that?
For a moment you're sure that you aren’t seeing things right. It looks almost as if someone has sucked all the pigment from your hair.
“Haven't seen it?” Tony realizes. You shake your head at him. He looks the room over before he reaches for a silver tray with several medical tools on it. He dumps the tools then moves back towards you with the underside of the tray held up for you like a mirror.
Almost all of your hair has turned what looks like white. Pure, non-polluted white hair save for a thick black strip, about two inches wide, that starts at the center of your scalp and extends down the right side of your head.
“What the shit?” You say, unable to contain the surprise.
“That’s one way to put it.” Tony agrees.
You take the tray and turn your head this way and that to get a better look.
“Anyway, I wanted to come and apologize, and congratulate you on both the engagement and your new lease on life. I’m sorry that I had a hand in pushing you to it…wait, no I’m not. We need the hands.”
You put the tray down to glare at him and don’t realize how hard you're gripping the tray until you feel the metal bend in your hands. You look down at the silver tray and carefully place it on the small table by your hospital style bed.
Tony is also watching you with the tray. “Don’t worry. We'll get you trained up. Sleep some more.”
He begins to leave but you lean towards the door, forgetting your momentary anger.
“Wait, where’s Thor?” You don’t realize how strongly you want to see him until you say his name with your own mouth.
“I’m sure Mr. Mischief is somewhere around here.” He seems to see your distress as he reaches the door. “Tell you what, I’ll find him. Send him this way.”
He taps the frame with his hand and waits for you to nod. “Good girl. Hang tight.”
Tony Stark leaves you alone in your room, confused, expectant—Where the hell is Thor?!—and wondering if you might not have just made the biggest mistake of your life.
@bionic-buckyb, @mdgrdians, @ulired, @biawol, @markusstraya