"I'll sleep downstairs." Tony felt his heart sink. "You can tinker with that."
Pepper left to sleep downstairs.
Tony tinkered. It was the only thing he could thing of doing. He recalibrated the insides so he couldn't call it so easily.
He plotted an apology to Pepper. But the next time he saw he, all he did was argue. And then save her life.
But he knew it was falling apart. Especially after he fixed Pepper. It just wasn't working. She was grateful, happy and romantic. But it felt fake. It felt so, so fake. Nothing was real.
And then it was gone. She moved out for a day when Tony had to do some repairs. She just never came back.
Well, she was still there. At the corners of his vision, swimming in his nightmares, laughing, being affectionate.
And he'd wake up alone and the cold of the cave, the palladium, the wormhole, the water, everything.
He was always cold now. It was psychosomatic. Not real, he'd been told so by countless therapists.
But that didn't make it any less cold.