A/N: This story was inspired by the popular Four Seasons song of the same title. I have included the chorus to said song at the end, but no more than that. The song does not actually go with the story, it was merely the inspiration. For full lyrics (and to see why), please visit my profile. Thanks!
Walk Like a Man
Just one foot in front of the other. That's what he kept telling himself. Just keep walking. With each step the sand shifted under his uncertain weight. With each step his shoulder throbbed with increasing pain. With each step the sun beat down hotter on his strained back.
With each step he remembered the horrors he had seen and smelled and heard and tasted in the past months. Horrors he had a hand in causing. Horrors he had felt firsthand. Cruel irony, that.
His father had tried to teach him early on that there were certain moral lines you just don't cross. "Dance along them all you want, Anthony, but you never set a foot over those lines," he would say. "And above all else, take responsibility for yourself. If you want to be considered a responsible adult, you have to think like one, talk like one, even walk like one."
The relationships, the parties, school, work, all the major decisions in his life were left completely up to him. As were the consequences. All his father would say was, "Walk like a man, son." It became his way of saying, "Think about this responsibly."
His foot slipped in the angled sand and he tumbled to the bottom of the dune. Only now did Tony Stark understand what his father had tried to tell him. "Walk like a man," he mumbled. It was never about walking, really. "Walk like a man." It was about the moral line. "Walk like a man." It was about taking responsibility for one's actions. "Walk like a man." He pushed himself to his feet with his good arm and went on walking, vowing with each step that he'd make this right if it killed him.
He didn't remember much about the rescue, or the plane ride back home. Even as he stepped gingerly into the limo with Pepper, his mind was only on one thing. Walk like a man. There was no time for hospitals and nonsense. He needed to fix this, now. "Call a press conference."
To him, Stark Industries had never looked like such a cruel place. He stood there on the sidewalk for a moment, staring at the monster he had created - and now must tame. He could hear his father's voice in his head even now. Walk like a man, son. Walk like a man.
And for the first time in his life, as he walked down the aisle of reporters to the podium, he did.
Walk like a man
Talk like a man
Walk like a man my son
No woman's worth
Crawling on the earth
So walk like a man my son