Another public event. Cameras, expensive and tasty but not very filling food, and lots of people wanting to ask year old Zachary looked around as he stood beside his father, bored. Reporters and magazine journalists swarmed them-eager to hear about the new Stark technology coming out. It took him several seconds to realize one of the journalist's questions had been directed at him. Several eyes were on him now as he was caught off guard, including his father's.
"Oh," he said sheepishly. "What was the question?"
Tony's brows furrowed slightly and he reached behind his son's right ear to unclip his hearing aid. He fiddled with it for a second and then said and signed with one hand at the same time, "His hearing aid went out. Again."
To Zachary, he said and signed, "They're asking if you're having a good time tonight."
Zachary nodded.
"Yeah," he said. "A great time."
It was a lie. He was bored out of his mind, and there was nothing wrong with his hearing aids. He'd simply disabled them, as he always did at these functions. Sooner or later his father would catch on, but for now, being able to completely tune out at will was well worth learning how to disable arc reactor technology.
He slinked away after several pictures were taken and made his way outside to get some air. The night sky had a few scattered stars, but the city lights polluted the sky, making it impossible to see the rest of them. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to see his mother. She handed him a drink. Something bright red with a skewer of fruit floating inside.
"Needed some air?" She guessed, and Zachary discretely turned his hearing aids back by powering off the jamming device in his pocket.
"I'll tell Dad we're heading home," Pepper said. "You're tired, I can tell."
Zachary nodded. It wouldn't hurt his father's feelings. Often, Pepper and Zachary left ahead of time or took an early flight home while his father remained, being fawned over by business prospects and taken to lunch and dinner and media swarming him.
"I'll tell him," he offered.
He went back inside the concert hall and found his father talking to some men in suits. He wasn't smiling, Zachary noticed, and the conversation seemed pretty serious. One of the men turned around and Zachary recognized him as Phil Coulson.
"Hello, Zachary," Agent Coulson said politely.
"Hi," Zachary said and tugged at his father's arm.
"Mom and I are heading home," he told him.
Tony nodded. "Alright, Kiddo. I'll see you at home then."
Zachary started to walk away, but Tony pulled him back into a one-armed embrace and kissed him. Zachary was embarrassed by the display of affection in front of two important looking suits, and his father only made it worse when he ruffled his hair.
-
Zachary loved his father, he really did. They were just so different. Zachary wasn't outgoing and charming and funny. he didn't care much about physics and machinery, but Tony didn't care much about space either. Zachary loved space. If it were up to him, the Stark family would live in a remote cabin somewhere surrounded by stars.
"Zach?" His mother shook him lightly and he raised his head from the window of the backseat.
"We're home, Sweetheart," his mother said quietly.
Zachary sleep-walked himself into the house and up the stairs to his bedroom. He didn't even bother to find his pajamas. He just wriggled his way out of his fancy suit jacket and collar shirt and slacks and climbed into bed. He was almost asleep when he remembered his hearing aids and took those off too, clumsily feeling around for his nightstand where he set them down.
Zachary entered his passcode that let him into his father's workshop one afternoon the following week. Rock music played on a low setting as Tony worked on something-possibly repairing something since there were pieces all over the work bench.
"Hey," his father said, raising his eyes at him briefly.
"Hey," Zachary replied automatically, approaching him, picking up one of the small pieces. He was trying to think of a way to ask his father about Agent Coulson and the other suited man at the concert hall on Saturday night.
"How was school?" His father asked.
"Good," Zachary said with a shrug.
He attended a magnet school, of course, one of the best in California, but unlike some of the other children who were there because their parents were rich and powerful and had connections, Zachary actually deserved to be there. Zachary was beyond smart. Of course, being a Stark, this didn't come as a surprise to anybody, but Zachary wished that at some point in his life, somebody would be awed by him and not just shrug because he was his father's son and it was expected of him to be a genius.
"Go change out of the uniform," His father told him. "We'll go test the new flight suit pieces."
"You mean mine?" Zachary asked.
"Parts of it, yeah," Tony said. "Your mother's very big on making it one-hundred and ten percent safe."
Zachary managed a half smile. His father had been going on and on about Zachary having a suit of his own, but he had no idea he'd already started working on it.
Without him.
"Actually," Zachary said, pulling away from the work station. "I have a lot of homework."
Tony took him by the arm.
"Finish it down here," he offered. "Maybe I can help you with it."
Zachary didn't know what to say to that. He didn't really have any homework to do. He'd done it all during study period. What is 'homework' was was working on his spacecraft designs. Zachary loved to design useful machinery for space travel-often modeled by what NASA put out. Of course, it was all just models and designs, but Zachary dreamed of NASA contacting him one day, wanting him to work for them. It was nothing that would interest his father, who was too busy working on his son's flight suit without his son.
"I'll get distracted," Zachary said with a half shrug, looking at his father's calloused hand around his wrist.
Tony let his hand go. Zachary could see it in his face that he knew something was wrong, but he didn't push the issue.
"Alright," he finally said. "Get to it, Champ."
Zachary exited the workshop and went upstairs to his bedroom. He changed out of his school uniform into a t-shirt and jeans. He turned on some music and sat at his desk, wiping his hands across the the top to make the holograms appear. Images of his previous projects. Zachary pulled up a photograph of the latest NASA project and entered a code to make it a three-dimensional hologram as well, turning it around cocking his head and standing up to 'hold' it with both hands. He began working on his own design, using what he liked about the latest NASA piece.
"Zach?" His father knocked on his door before opening it. He glanced at the holograms on the desk.
"Hi," Zachary said sheepishly, swiping his hand across, making them all disappear.
"Finish your homework?" Tony asked. "Wanna try out the arms and legs?"
He looked hopeful and nervous at the same time. Zachary wondered if he should stay angry about not being included on the building process. He wasn't so much as angry as he was hurt.
"I'm busy," he said.
"Oh." Tony ran a hand through his hair awkwardly, rocking back and forth on his heels. "Um, okay. Well, maybe later in the week, yeah?"
"Yeah." Zachary nodded.
-
"I just don't get it," Tony said to Pepper as they stood side by side at the sink, spitting out toothpaste. "We used to be so close."
"He's mad at you," Pepper said simply.
"Mad at me?" Tony seemed indignant. "Why?"
Pepper stopped flossing and gave him an 'are you serious' look.
"You started on his suit without him," she said.
"So he can immediately start flying in it," Tony said, like she was missing the point.
Pepper turned his tone back on him real quick.
"Zachary doesn't just want to 'fly in it'," she said. "He wants to be part of it. You don't know how many times he's asked me, 'When is Dad going to be ready to work on my suit?'"
Tony stood by the sink staring into space for several seconds. Pepper looked at him, eyebrows raised.
"Why didn't he ask me that?" He asked in a small voice.
Pepper took him by the hand and tugged him closer to her. She ran her fingers through his hair, kissing his forehead and held his face in her hands.
"Zachary feels like the two of you don't connect anymore either," she told him quietly. "You're different, that's all."
Zachary was asleep when Tony got to his room. He was lying on his side, his back facing his father. Tony walked over to his bed and gently ran some of his fingers through his son's dark hair. He looked up and around the room. The walls were littered with framed photographs of NASA rovers, planets, comets...there was a hanging solar system in the corner-one Zachary had made completely on a whim when he was a toddler.
Tony walked over to his son's desk and wiped his hand across the desktop. A hologram appeared asking for a password. Tony tried a couple of space terms and then asked quietly, "Jarvis, bypass Zach's password. Show me what my boy's working on."
He didn't really have to be quiet. Zachary's hearing aids were on the nightstand beside the bed, but Tony knew it wasn't really polite of him to snoop through his son's things. Jarvis lifted the password blockage and floating text appeared along with three dimensional images of various and half-finished blue prints. Tony 'took' one in his hand and turned it over.
Zachary stirred and rolled over onto his back and Tony moved his hand quickly, shutting it all down. He looked at his son, who scratched his torso in his sleep and exhaled, becoming still again, one of his arms flung over and above his head, his breathing slow and deep.
Tony sighed. Pepper was right. If he didn't want to lose Zachary, he needed to become more involved in Zachary's life instead of trying to include Zachary in his. His only son. His pride and joy. His little premature baby that brought him and Pepper together once and for all. His precious baby that had failed the hearing test and Tony had refused the cochlear because not only was Tony NOT going to put an implant in his one-year-old son's brain, but because Zachary was and had always been perfect just the way he was.
Before he left the room, Tony moved back to the bed and kissed his son, fixing his covers.