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Summary: What if there was a bit of context? A small added perspective on the home video Tony watch of his father?
Timeline setting: Iron Man 2
Established uncle and nephew relationship: Tony Stark & Jason Underwood
Click theses two fanfics for more context on the stories referenced
-> Friends Over The Years
-> What If Jason Stay At Home Stark? (This fic started the AU Saga btw hehe 😉)
Note: This is the scene in Iron Man 2 where Tony looks at old footage and an deleted scene that was supposed to be in the movie 🎥
——
The last 48 hours have been a bust. From long hour drives to the whole wisecracking donut incident downtown in Miami.
After a small load speech from Fury and the tiny reverse side of how things were left, it was time to settle things down.
Jason knew Tony needed some home videos to have a breather, older footage in the storage closet in the basement and some given to by SHIELD themselves.
It was late. The two sat down comfortably on the couch downtown as the projector played a couple of old moments from their past. From black and white to living grainy color.
It flipped across footage that showed Jason dancing with Peggy at a Christmas party to Tony’s first birthday where he smashed cake into his face. Even footage of Jarvis and Maria in the living room painting a wall.
Plenty of things to choose from as the two smiled softly at the small fragments of the past as the tapes just kept on rolling.
There was one snippet of footage that caught the blondes eye as he raised an eyebrow at the date. Not exactly remembering it being filmed as the tape began to play.
It wasn’t until he noticed the background Howard was set in, as he looked away realizing the office turned lab had furniture removed from the screen. It was a huge mess before with paperwork, toolboxes and items scattered around the flooring.
Tony seemed to noticed his facial expression changed and nodded, “What happened? You’re usually pointing out certain things..”
He paused the footage and glanced over at his nephew, “Don’t need to. Just, uh, before video was filmed, it seemed like it was two days after I left..”
“Hm? Sorry, context for the child here.”
He scoffed at that comment and added, “For more than a few days, me and your father didn’t even bother to speak to one another. We had a fight, it was harshly ended by pure shock and anger..you’re father said a few things and so did I involving the context of our current state.. and uh, things happened.”
“Oh, t-that doesn’t sound like you and dad.” Tony scoffed as it sounded like a light joke, “You were buddies.”
“Well we fought long and hard that night.”
“Where was i during all of this?”
“In your room playing with your infamous racetrack.”
“I loved that racetrack, one of the best gifts I ever gotten. Uh, was this the same week you left to go on a trip for work?”
“Yeah, I sorta half lied to you about the trip being just for work since you were only 7 and didn’t know any better. But me and your father needed a small break from each other.”
Tony snorted, “Oh god.”
“What?” Jason reply with a raised eyebrow.
“You sound like you and dad were dating or something with that statement. It’s weird. What was the fight about?”
“You.”
“Me?”
“Well, our friends and family but you were mentioned a couple of times. Your father turned into a huge workaholic and a jerk, which pissed me off. And well, I pissed him off because I was trying to reason with him to cut the crap and focus on the bigger things in life.”
“Me huh?”
“Tony.”
“What? I’m surprised I was mentioned in the conversation. But I get it! Dad was more a work now, play later—or in his case, never kinda guy. I uh..I’ll just let the footage speak for itself.”
————
Tony pressed play as the projector kept the video rolling, he half glanced over at the footage since he was fumbling with an old notebook. Jason was laying down, turned sideways toward the screen listening to Howard talk.
He was introducing himself and Stark Industries as the camera tried to follow him. Howard was leaning against the table, looking over his shoulder and did a double take towards his young son, “Eh-Tony? What are you doing back there?”
It caused both young and older versions of him to face the man who said his name. Howard was telling Tony to put the item he had in his hand back where he got it from. All Jason could remember of a tiny Tony one afternoon telling him that dad seemed angry at him again as he hushed the boys worries. He shook his head at the thought, glancing at his nephew.
He watched the footage as Howard ushered his son off the screen and turning back to the camera man telling him a few things.
Tony looked at his uncle, “You sure you two had a fight? He doesn’t seem that annoyed.”
“It was two days ago after that fight he must’ve filmed this, so he could’ve just masked his anger and annoyance.” Jason tried to explain the best he could.
The footage skipped to a few other scenes of Howard having a small drink from talking nonsense to going off script. He wasn’t as focused, fumbling around with the trinkets on the table and blabbing onto the cameraman.
It was clearly being shown. The man was a bit of a mess.
Tony watched, noticing his father’s moments were similar to his own. He tends to blabber and ramble a lot, especially have his fingers fidget with something. Hell he was holding a old flip phone in his hand. He returned his eyes back to the old notebook with plenty of blank pages.
Jason took one the notebook’s from his lap, handing him the glass of ice cold soda, since he made a deal to cut down on daily drinks for the week. Sober him up a bit. He gave him a half smile in which he returned, glancing up at the footage.
Moments like this, it reminded him of Tony’s younger years where they watched old footage with his aunts and uncles on the couch. Just by the footage alone of Howard, there were flickers in his mind of the little boy who called him that same week he left asking when will he come back home.
Along with the thoughts of him in that very lab that Howard was standing in, where the fight broke out organically into a week long standing debate.
He knew it effected him not coming home after walking out of the house that week, because Howard didn’t expect for Jason to take that step. But he did.
Seeing Howard like this on the footage just spoke volumes itself.
He would never admit it but he was a fumbling mess, more than usual. Cracking lame jokes, pacing around the lab, muttering a couple of things and the way he glanced over at the door as if someone will magically appear.
As if Jason, Maria and or Elizabeth would magically appear to fix his issue and reset the clock for the time he wasted on footage. But neither one of them came, especially after it was clearly said by Howard to his friend to ‘Get out!’ before the blonde left.
It was as if Howard got reminded of those flashbacks from their fight and flipped the scripture of the video. As if he admitted to his mistakes and let the words Jason told him start to set into motion.
He said, “Tony. You’re too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you…I built this for you.”
All of that got Tony’s full attention, leaning into the edge of his seat, glancing between his uncle and father. It was as if the words hit home where Tony didn’t know they had to be.
Howard continued leaning against the table, “..and someday you’ll realize that it represents something a lot more than just people’s inventions. It represents my life’s work. This is the key to the future…I did not understand it at the time of building this but it is..”
The footage cut up a few small scale models of Stark Industries and The Expo as his voiceover was clear as day. He said he was limited by the technology of his time, which was very true, but knowing one day Tony will figure it out.
Because Tony shares a fraction of his father’s mind and his mother’s heart, in result he knows he will change the world. Tony was silent hearing this, glancing over at his uncle once again who softly smiled watching the tape as if it the message was very much becoming clear to Tony.
The fight he mentioned earlier that heavily mentioned him. Because a part of them knew his path would lead him somewhere they couldn’t imagine but fought onto wanting to share the knowledge with him.
Howard wasn’t sure if he was ready yet to know it all but Jason somehow was just making sure he got to spend time with him.
Howard spoke again facing the camera in all seriousness and smiles longingly, as a place of love came the next few words. He said, “What is and always will be, my greatest creation..is you.”
Jason softly nodded, blinking because his last breath to Howard before he walked out of the house was that Tony is his greatest creation.
His connections to his family and friends are the greatest creations he ever built, his legacy people will be talking about in his future.
“..he never told me about this..” The blonde muttered with a soft grin and nodded, “Not even after we made up..”
Tony looked at him with a gentle smile, “Really?”
“No. It never came up. That stinking idiot..but I’m actually kinda glad I never found out til now.”
“I didn’t know about this footage, period. I always thought dad was disappointed in me and just wanted me to stay away from his work..”
This time he met Tony’s eyes and chuckled, “Well to be fair, you were young and we were all kinda scared you would get hurt in the lab. Especially your aunt. But he wasn’t ever disappointed in you or wanted you to stay strictly away from it.”
“Yeah..?” Tony replies come out as a mere soft mutter.
“Yeah, he knew one day you’ll figure it out, understand why he did it to keep you as safe as possible. Let’s be real here, this lab always tends to be a bit of a fire hazard.”
“Tell me about. It’s why I have Dummy carry around a fire extinguisher.”
Both men chuckled and even snorted loudly at that comment.
Jason chuckled and sighed, “Exactly, there was always a part of him that wanted to share this work with you since before you were born but knew he had to wait or Lizzie would kill him.”
“Oh I know!” Tony replied with a smiled, “Mom and aunt Peg would’ve been furious too, if I was down there unsupervised or worse. I get it now cause I’m a adult but still. It bothered me.”
“And you have every right to feel that way.”
“Sometimes it felt like dad and I weren’t always on the same page either. He was a pain in the ass at time and sometimes I don’t know..”
“Yeah, we both know Howard wasn’t the best at showering people with grand affection but he did it his own way weather he showed it or not..”
“Dad never specified in saying ‘I love you’, he always just crack a joke about something or ruffle my hair and give me a nice squeeze..”
“He has always been like that with everyone.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah! He had his ways of tell something he cared for them. Like letting Jarvis and his wife stay at one of his houses, getting Peggy a new dress or your mother her favorite pair of pearl earrings.”
Tony smiled hearing that and nodded, “Or buying me a new toy! Now that sounds like something he would do. Hell I think I would do that for Pepper and my kids.”
“You see? He did care in his own way.” Jason added, “But he did love you, bubba. And he knew you would do something bigger with your life.”
The two kept talking, not realizing the footage kept running.
Tony grinned mid chat and glanced at the screen, noticing his father carrying his kid self in his arms affectionally rocking him back and forth a little, as he spoke to the camera. Patting his back as his small face was turned away from the camera in his pjs.
It seemed like he couldn’t fall asleep and went rushing to his father for comfort. His dad seemed more comfortable, having removed his suit jacket from earlier and stayed in a white button down and a loose tie.
He turned up the volume a bit to watch him in mid speech, leaning forward with a small smile.
“You’re the future.” Howard said, pointing to the camera then returned his hand onto to the son’s back rubbing small circles, “..you know i created so much in my lifetime. But you know what I’m most proud of? You. My son.”
Tony stayed silent looking down with a soft smile, glancing back at Jason who nodded watching the footage. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it once again.
Howard continued with a small grin, resting his head against Tony’s in a comforting way and said, “I know it said it already but you are my greatest inspiration and my greatest creation...don’t let your uncle hear this or he will know I sorta screwed up and that he was right..we both were about this. I just didn’t let it register in my brain yet that instead of just showing you everything, I gotta let you explore it as well. Come down to the lab more often than not and see what you can do..”
You can still tell that Howard was trying his best to format his wording where it makes sense and doesn’t sound like he’s rambling too much. Like he was figuring out the best way to say everything on his mind and the effort was clearly there.
Jason held back a chuckle at hearing that last part about himself and nodded, rolling his eyes as he glanced at Tony. His nephew smiled and shook his head hearing his father taking in everything he meant and more.
The man fell silent in a moment as if wanting the words to sink in. Howard nodded with a half smile and added, “I love you.” He glanced over at his son falling back asleep on his shoulder nodding, “Let’s get you back to bed.”
With that Howard walked off screen and the camera cut to black.
Tony blinked watching the vision of screen and the words that came out of his father’s own mouth. He wondered for a second if heard him correctly. Maybe he was wrong? His dad really did love people and his uncle was right that he has his own ways of showing it?
He was silent. He sinked back into his chair and took another sip of his drink, letting the whole footage register in his own head.
Have everything wrap around his own head all at once. It still didn’t all stay trapped in his head the words he just heard.
Then a small smile appeared on his lips as he murmured softly, “W-wow.”
Jason seemed to share the same sentiment as he scoffed, “Yeah. So, how are we feeling?”
“Sorta satisfied, if that makes sense?”
“That’s the way i would put it.”
“I didn’t know about this. A-are you sure you didn’t have knowledge about this video?”
“Nope. Just as surprised as you are.”
Jason just chuckled at that comment as Tony snickered. It was understandable how he didn’t know about the old footage and if he had to be honest, neither did he.
Maybe there was a reason why they both found the footage this time around?
Maybe it wasn’t random but yet fate cause there was a chance of something happening in their future?
Maybe there is something left behind in the past that was coming their way?
The two just had to wait and see.
——-
Ah that is all folks! Pls tell me know what you think 💭
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