SUMMARY: Just like everything else he does, the cemetery Tony builds inside Stark Tower is a little unorthodox.
AO3 TAGS: Gardener Tony
AN: I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm a stan of our favourite alcoholic technopagan, but I do love him all the same, and while listening to IM1 at work, I had an Idea I wanted to share, even though I don't think I've ever written ultimate-Gen before.
Gift for SailorChibi (AO3) / tsuki-chibi (tumblr) since I've been following her for years and I know she stans Tony and chibi, friend-that-I've-never-talked-to, hope you like this drabble.
Cross-posted from AO3 same day.
The blood on Tony's hands seems like it might drown him some days. Sometimes he's frozen by all the people that have died by his mistakes, all those lives snuffed out by his actions. There's not a moment that goes by that he wishes there were some way he could reverse all the death he's caused, inadvertently or otherwise, but playing around with resurrection probably wasn't a good idea and he probably shouldn't even play with it theoretically. The worst ones though, the ones that way on him the heaviest, are the ones that died in his pursuit to protect them, save them. It's because of those souls that he built The Cemetery.
It had a foreboding name, but it wasn't actually as ominous as it sounded. It was just a greenhouse he built that he constantly had Jarvis monitor. He tried to make it so that no two plant was alike, though it wasn't always possible, and each plant had a little placard with its name engraved on it. Though he had Jarvis keeping an eye on it, Tony made sure to spend at least a few hours in there at least once a week, made sure to greet every plant, made sure to touch every plant.
Each plant, most of them flowers, were chosen because of their relationship with their namesake, which meant that some of them came from all over the world. There was more than one section of the Cemetery dedicated to the different native environments, and Tony frequently had to switch between a hoodie and a tank top moving from rainy environments to desert ones. However, he always ended up the very first desert section he created, which was the first section he created at all, sitting on a stool in front of his very first plant.
The very first plant in Tony's greenhouse, in his Cemetery, was a lovely yellow-orange tulip, Tulipa heweri, exclusive to Afghanistan so he'd actually had to go back to get it. He always found himself in front of it at the very end of his traipse through the rest of his foliage, telling it about his week, but most often falling into a lecture on new engineering. It was only when he'd run out of words that he'd sit there for a moment in silence before standing, running his fingers first across the petals of one of the flowers, and then over the inscription on the nameplate as he turned and walked away.
And every week, on his way out that door, he always said the same thing: "Later, Yinsen."
FIN
Eh, this was probably terrible but I tried. Wrote this on my break instead of writing my other WIP but that's what my other breaks are for.
You should Google the 'Tulip heweri' because it's a fairly pretty tulip.
Reblog the thing (themadkatter13fanfiction tumblr, tagged/The Cemetery).