Alright, I know I really shouldn't be writing a new story, especially a chapter story, but not only could I not help myself, but I also figured that in doing so, I might be able to shake this evil writers block for all my other stories. This is an idea that has been playing around in my head for like ever and it's finally made its way out onto the screen! It'll be confusing at first (maybe) so bear with me a few chapters (likely not that many) if you please.
Disclaimer: IMAA belongs to its proper owners. I own nothing by my stories ideas.
The blaring ring of his alarm clock woke him up with a start, much like it had for the past few days. Almost instinctively, he swung out—more like flailed out—and knocked yet another alarm clock to the ground. The blaring continued, much to his annoyance as he realized that he'd now have to drag himself out of bed to turn the incessant noise off so he could catch a little more much needed z's.
He groaned, almost as if he was in pain as he threw off the warmth that was his blanket. He silently noted that maybe he should start sleeping with a shirt now that it was getting colder and colder outside as winter drew nearer. Tapping the alarm clock off with unnecessary force, he threw himself back onto the bed and back under the comfort and warmth of his blankets. It felt absolutely relieving and almost heavenly to be back in his bed where he knew he belonged in for the next few hours until he had gotten a decent amount of sleep. Then, and only then, would he be ready to leave his bed and face the real world.
Only, he should have known that he wasn't going to be so lucky.
His door slammed open far too enthusiastically for 6:30 in the morning. "Time to wake up, Tony!"
Tony was quick to throw his blanket over his head as if he was trying to pretend that there was nobody standing at his bedroom door. He groaned out something that was supposed to resemble a "no" and turned away from the approaching boy at his door.
"C'mon, bro," the human alarm clock continued, "there's only one more day left until your first day of school. If you sleep in any longer, you'll never be able to wake up in time for school."
Tony silently cursed the idea of going to school and almost verbally told the other so, but decided to keep his mouth shut on the account of being too tired to speak coherently. Then, moments later, he found himself in a struggle to remain on his bed and safe from the cold and hard floor as his friend attempted to pull the young boy off the bed.
"Rhodey!" Tony finally protested as he came crashing to the floor, still tangled in the mess of blankets.
As he finally poked his head out from the tangle of blankets, he glared up at the smirking boy, Rhodey, as best as he could with how tired he was. He felt like he was only half awake and dreaming of all of this. Only, if he was dreaming, he wouldn't have an aching bottom and elbow.
"Good, you're awake," Rhodey announced happily to the room, "now you can come out for breakfast. Mom's making French toast!"
Tony grumbled as Rhodey whisked himself out of the room, far too happily and awake for this time of the morning. He tiredly made his bed—meaning he just threw the blankets back on the bed—and made his way to get dressed. He distantly gazed down at the glowing circle in his chest, a sort of sadness settled in his chest as he flashed back to nearly six months ago.
The plane.
The shrapnel.
His dad...
A set of high-pitched, bubbly laughter snapped him out of his thoughts. For a split second he found himself filled with immense happiness despite the despairing thoughts that had clouded his mind only seconds ago. He spun around with a smile on his face as if expecting to find someone, only to remember that he was still alone in his bedroom. For a split second, he felt lonely and sad as if something was just taken away from him.
He frowned as he turned to gaze intently at himself in the mirror as if trying to find any signs of him going mentally insane. He shook his head fervently and rushed himself with unnecessary speed to finish dressing himself for the day. He didn't have time to be imagining things. Not when he had so much that he had planned for today. So much meaning, sneaking to get some more sleep where not even Rhodey could stop him and maybe a bit of time to work in the lab before all his time would be consumed by means of school.
Besides, he also had a good breakfast of French toast waiting for him.
xXx
He woke up several hour later that same day feeling victorious. He had the sudden urge to rush to Rhodey to brag about his rebellious act of sleeping in more. Sometimes, there was nothing better than going against Rhodey's word, because to him, it was something akin to breaking the law. Just without the consequence of jail time or lawsuits, and that was what made it so great.
Though, his sense of victory didn't last very long when he came to the realization that maybe sleeping in the lab wasn't such a great idea. A couch or something would be nice, he commented to himself as he rubbed at his aching muscles. Sleeping on an empty lab table was fine and all (better than the floor) but it didn't do his back and neck any wonders.
Sliding his way off the lab table, he looked back and smiled as he reached out towards the other side of the table. When his hands made contacts with nothing but cold steel, he frowned. For several moments he stared at the table, almost as if he was willing it to produce something out of thin air.
No, he corrected himself, someone.
The thought was gone as fast as it came. He shrugged and rubbed at his tired eyes quietly mumbling to himself to wake up and stop dreaming already. It was then that Tony regretted sleeping in more. Especially when he looked at the clock and realized that it was two hours past noon. Yeah, he wasn't getting to sleep anytime soon. In other words, tomorrow just became that much worse.
He sighed and resolved to keep himself as busy as possible in hopes of tiring himself out faster. Then maybe Rhodey wouldn't find out about him falling asleep once more that day. Opposed to what he thought only minutes ago, he didn't want to flaunt about his rebellious act to Rhodey solely because he didn't want to deal with the "mom" side of Rhodey. He didn't know he should be worried that Rhodey sometimes seemed more motherly than Roberta, especially when it came to himself.
"Morning sunshine."
The voice coming from the computer desk nearly sent Tony spiraling and crashing to the trash-filled floor. "Gah!"
So much for not telling him, Tony grumbled silently.
xXx
The next day, Rhodey nearly had to drag Tony to school kicking and screaming. Tony hadn't realized before how much he didn't want to start going to school until the time came to head to school. It was hard enough getting himself to wake up—after all, he was now running off of three hours of sleep thanks to his stunt yesterday—but getting him out the door and too school was another story. Going to school meant many things for Tony. It meant change, schedule, organization, and it meant he had to look presentable. All of which Tony lacked.
Though actually arriving at the school made him feel a little bit better about the whole thing. Especially when he noticed that in school, there was plenty of young girls that were his age. That was definitely one of the highlights of going to high school. Girls his age for sure was better than constantly hanging out with older women at his dad's company who cared for nothing else but money and status. Though Rhodey claimed and joked that the older women had nothing to do with Tony's new excitement towards school.
All this happened before they even arrived at their first class. After that, Tony found himself actually enjoying the classes. Though he never really paid attention, because most teachers taught a curriculum that was out-of-date. He just had fun either correcting the teachers or looking through and memorizing the school books.
It was when he was sent off on his own for free period, when he came the sudden realization that school was going to become nothing more than a distraction for him. It was going to become a way for him to keep his mind from wondering back to six months earlier. Back to much happier times.
He realized that free period was going to be his least favorite hour.
Staring at birds that soared in the sky with his dad's company towering over the city of New York in the background, he found himself drifting off from the present and into the past. He was no longer hearing the sounds of life in New York City. Horns, whistles, and the bustling of the human traffic below him were nothing more than white noise. Sounds of New York was replaced with the quietness of his dad's office, the bangs and ticks of his lab, a soft voice and trill laughter. All to be enveloped in flames as the plane crash came bubbling up to the front of his mind as it always managed to do.
He closed his eyes, trying to block out the onslaught of memories that were bound to break him apart piece by piece if they continued much longer.
"Your dad used to work there," a voice broke through his thoughts, welcomingly so.
He spun and stared at a redheaded girl with wide eyes. He couldn't even bring himself to say anything as she continued to spout out some sort of nonsense about his life. He couldn't even focus on her words. Just the familiarity of her face and voice. He couldn't pinpoint where he's heard her voice, and why she looked so familiar. Almost as if he's met her before.
"...Privately tutored after your mom...uh..." was what was coming out of her mouth. But the only words Tony was hearing was, "I love you."
His heart skipped a beat as he suddenly understood what they meant by "love at first sight".
Meant to be short, because it's basically like the prologue, but hopefully it's still good. :)
Fun Fact: I'm not big on eating cakes. I don't really like their flavor sometimes.
Work is killing me, school is a pain, and my cold is stubborn and won't go away (and neither will this writers block). Life won't let me do what I love. :( Oh well. It'll get better! How have you guys been?
Hugs and Love! SilverPedals!
