(Still on hiatus BUT:)
A concept: Carol comes back from space. The day is saved. Everything is unsnapped. All is well. Carol pulls Rhodey in for a hug.
She is very unimpressed when she finds Iron Man making grabby hands at her. “What do you want?” Those big brown eyes go big and hurt in a very familiar way, but she can’t quite put her finger on it, and it might piss her off a little more than she’d like to admit.
He looks down at his feet and shuffles, something also familiar but it’s still on the tip of her tongue. “Oh. I just–never mind. I’m sorry.”
“Who in the fuck,” Carol begins, irate at her own confusion.
“That’s Tony,” Rhodey says, just a touch miffed at her not figuring it out herself.
“What? NO,” Carol scoffs, and then squints at Tony suspiciously, looking him up and down. “Tony was scrawny and tiny and OH,” she gasps, then points at him, appalled.
Tony glances at Rhodey, unable to help the little frisson of fear he feels, because Carol could bench press him before she had super powers.
“You grew facial hair on that baby face?!” Carol hisses, disbelieving, and then lunges for him.
Tony is not ashamed of the scream of terror he lets out and he will not stand anyone making fun of him for it because she’d looked like she was gonna eat him for a second.
Carol bench presses him with one hand while he’s wearing the suit after she gives him a hug. He giggles in delight just like she remembered, and there’s something soothing about it, knowing that some things don’t change.
