This started out as a starter for a roleplay that got a little longish. Might turn some of the following RP into fic, but I liked this bit so I thought I would share.
Tony Stark: genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Not to mention, Avenger. To the onlooking world, Tony had everything. Hell, even to most of his close and personal friends, he had all he ever wanted. He put on a confident smile every morning and met the world with savvy and charisma. No one really had any reason to believe that there was anything lacking in his life.
Even after Pepper had left, unable to handle the constant stress of never knowing if Tony would come back from the latest effort to save the world, Tony seemed well enough. Sure, he'd loved Pepper – still loved her – but it was for the best. He was even the one to give her away at her wedding to Happy a year and a half later. He did so with a smile both warm and genuine that convinced even Pepper that Tony really had moved on. That he was actually happy.
Deep down, though, something was missing. Something had always been missing. Tony had filled the void with parties and sex and booze for many years. He later filled the void with his work as Iron Man and that worked for quite some time in the absence of the numerous partners and Pepper. Eventually though, after one too many nights of coming home to the empty penthouse, Tony had to admit to himself that something was missing. It took him many more nights before he was willing to admit just what that something was.
Tony had tried, since Pepper, to connect with others. He'd started with Bruce; after all, the two had connected during the Chitauri incident and had only grown closer afterward. The doctor was the first of the Avengers to move into the Tower and the first to take a spot on Stark's payroll. The two shared lab space and experiments and projects. Plus, Bruce really seemed to understand Tony. When the engineer would go off on one of the team – all too often Steve – Bruce was the one who could calm him down. When one of Tony's little "quirks" got the better of him, it was Banner who helped him through it without ever once insisting that he ought to seek professional help – even if everyone, Tony included, knew he ought to. It made sense that Bruce would be the first, but, try as he might, the most he ever got from Bruce was a sympathetic smile.
And so, he tried with Steve. Although he and Rogers had gotten off to a rough start, both had come to respect the other, to regret their harsh words on the Helicarrier. No one could deny the chemistry between the two and even the other Avengers had come to jokingly refer to them as "Mom and Dad." Though others suggested that he should lay off flirting with the soldier – even if it wasn't serious, because of course, everyone assumed Stark couldn't possibly be serious – if only because the man had come from the forties. Tony, however, had done his research – looking through his father's old journals – and knew full well that Steve's lost friend "Bucky" had been a good bit more than a friend. So, knowing that Steve definitely swung both ways, Tony could only take the soldier's lack of response to Star's advances as a personal rejection.
There had been a few others, but no one that really panned out. Rapidly approaching his fortieth birthday, Tony was coming to the realization that he might just have lost his touch. Sure, he could go out to some party or premiere and bring home any number of beautiful women (or men) but when it came to real people, that actually knew him and who he might actually want to form a lasting relationship with – and who, most definitely, were not using him – none of them seemed remotely interested.
Of course, a partner had only been step one. Something that his rapid approach to forty had brought to the forefront of his mind was the fact that eventually, he would need someone to hand his company down to. Not a single member of the board could be trusted. Pepper had made very clear that she had no interest in running the company again. Most of the people he'd trust with the company weren't much younger than him and none were actually qualified or interested. A part of Tony had hoped that maybe, if he had someone in his life more permanently, that he might just end up with a child, even if the child were adopted – though Stark was almost certain he and Banner could find a way to make one in the lab.
But then, that thought came back in a somewhat more serious fashion. At first, Tony tried to dismiss it. It was absurd to think he could just create an heir, a person, a real human being who could be his son and inherit his company. Yet, as much as he tried to dismiss the idea, it kept coming back, persistently occupying a portion of his thought processes. Ultimately, Tony gave in just enough to research, to look into the possibilities. After all, he was sure that he'd find technology and biological understanding to be too lacking to actually make this a possibility.
The more research he did, however, the more Tony began to realize that, although this was nothing like anything anyone had done before – and likely beyond the capacities of all but a select few people on the planet – this wasn't impossible. In fact, Stark was already seeing ways he could do just that. More and more, he could see ways around both the biological hurdles and the mechanical roadblocks. Extremis was likely the biggest tool in overcoming those barriers, giving him the means to merge biological and mechanical as had never been seen beyond his own bleeding edge suit. Add that to his own genius, three Ph.D.s and a wealth of resources, including the invaluable help of an unaware Doctor Banner – because Bruce was glad to speculate on all sorts of ideas surrounding artificial life, intelligence and potential for the integration of the two with biological components – and Tony had everything he needed to make this dream a reality.
Months of work later, Stark was halfway through the year that would lead to forty-one but that no longer mattered. No, there was only one thing on Tony's mind and even the team had noticed how distracted he'd been, how he spent so, so much time in the labs and workshops. Although they'd long passed the point of worrying that the engineer wasn't eating or sleeping when he ought to, but for some reason, he wasn't letting anyone in on this project. JARVIS kept everyone in the dark as well, which was particularly unusual for the AI which had often come to rely on at the very least Steve and Bruce to make sure Tony didn't work himself to death. Although there had been much speculation on just what Tony had been working on all this time, none of them could have been prepared for the truth.
Finally, after all his work, Tony was finally ready. He looked over the boy once more, checked all his vitals and specs once again. Everything was ready, perfect. "J, we're ready down here," he instructed – sure, he could have done it automatically with Extremis but JARVIS had been there every step of the way, supporting Tony in this; he felt like the AI deserved to be involved in waking Collin up.
"Sir," the AI responded. "The final connections are complete."
With a warm smile, Tony gently shook the boy and said, "Collin, it's time to get up."