Waking up with pained screams and cold sweats was nothing new to Tony. He had genuinely thought his PTSD was getting better after he had the arc reactor removed; he was sleeping better, able to go weeks withut a single panic attack… but, after Ultron, things changed.
He was back where he started, or perhaps in a place much worse. His dreams weren’t about him dying anymore, but about his friends dying all because of him; because he had decided to tinker with things he couldn’t control, all to save a world who needed a better hero than him.
He wasn’t good enough. All he had managed was to get the rest of the team hurt, and Pietro that had been his fault, no matter how many times he was told otherwise.
So, retiring had been for the best. It hadn’t helped with the nightmares, but at least now Tony couldn’t hurt anyone else.
With a sigh, he sat up, but remained in bed for a few seconds. In a past not too far away, he used to have JARVIS to check on him whenever he felt anxious. Even if only an AI, JARVIS had exceeded all of Tony’s expectactions he wasn’t just a computer system; he was a friend. And now he was gone. The one Tony considered his best friend was now lost inside a body the mechanic tried to hard to create.
Pepper was still around, but it didn’t feel the same anymore. She was busy with the company, and, in a way, Tony was thankful for that; he didn’t want her around too much, to see him decade into this shell of a person he had once been.
After everything, he was alone, in an empty house from which so much destruction had once originated. Tony lived surrounded by all the mistakes he had ever made, and it was tearing him apart.
The doorbell was enough to pull him away from his depressing thoughts. He wasn’t really expecting anyone. Perhaps Rhodey had come to check on him; he was the only one who still bothered at this point, but he was busy with the New Avengers nonetheless.
With slow steps, Tony dragged himself to the main hall, and picked up a crumpled shirt he had left on the couch. He figured whoever was on the other side of that door didn’t have any need to see him shirtless.
He was, however, surprised to see a young girl at his door. Tony didn’t recall ever meeting her before, though he couldn’t rule out her being a fan or someone he met at a fancy party.
“Who are you?” he asked, in a somewhat aggressive tone. “What do you want?”