A/N: Hey guys. This chapter two of this story. At first I hadn't thought much of continuing this story ( especially since I didn't get many revies on the first one, so I didn't think you guys really cared for it much), but it just keeps nagging at me and I really have it pretty developed in my head. This is an unsual update for me because it's the middle of the week and I'm usually busy with school or work, but I had a break and I started listening to Justin Nozuka (awesome singer, listen to his cd!) and the mellowness and somewhat depressing nature of some of the songs put me in the mood.

Once again I think this is going to be a pretty dark fic, it may get darker, more explicit and I may raise the rating later. I think it's pretty OOC for Tony I guess, but I'd like to think I'm exploring a different part of something that maybe 'could have been'. This is once again pre-IM of course, though that may be incorporated later.

Ok, well I really do hope you guys enjoy it. If you read it and like it, PLEASE REVIEW. It's encouraging when writing to know someone is enjoying what you're puttig together. Enjoy!


He woke up to the feel of something cold and hard underneath him. When he opened his eyes he realized that he was lying on the floor of his bathroom. The lights were still on he looked and down to find himself wearing the slacks form the night before, along with the shirt, though it was all rattled and un-tucked, definitely a sign of turbulence. He couldn't remember how he'd gotten there, he usually never did exactly. But he knew where he'd been. It was always the same place. At least this time he was lucky enough to have made it home.

He got up from the hard flood and made his way to his bedroom. His feet were bare, his tie no where to be found and his hair tossed about in disarray. This wasn't the life he enjoyed, but it was the on he was accustomed to. He'd made a mistake the night before, he always made that mistake. He thought he would've been strong enough. For once he thought he was really going to resist his seemingly innate urges, but alas he hadn't. He'd gone, ran, flown, thrown himself at him at the speed of light and ended up in the same shit hole he always did.

His comfort zone had been disturbed once again. He sat on the floor leaning against his bed and hung his head. He couldn't do this any more, he shouldn't have been doing this for years now. His mind knew it, his heart knew it, damn it everything within him knew it, but he just couldn't figure out how he ended up in the same predicament over and over again. His whole body ached, he was used to that too though, that was nothing new. His body had been aching since the moment this whole thing started, and it rarely ceased.

The sound of the alarm going off startled him, alerting him that someone had come into the house. He slowly made his up from the floor once again and looked at the clock on his nigh stand. It was mid- afternoon, his assistant must have come over to go over some things.

This wasn't something that she could see, not something that she could know about. She knew everything about him. His daily routine, his schedule, where he should and shouldn't be at each moment of the day, how he took his coffee, hell she even knew what to do on mornings after he'd come home with somebody, but this he would never tell her. A quick shower and a change of clothes would remedy that. It always did, his mask would be put on, the smile plastered firmly on his face. His speech would be intelligent, confident, witty, and no one would suspect a thing. Everything was fine in his world, as it seemed to be.

It had grown into a routine. Remembering, or at least trying to remember, how this had all started over made him angry. He was young then, just a kid. Early, mid-teens maybe. He was a genius from a young age, grew up too fast, learned many things too soon, never really had time to be a kid- that wasn't what he'd been born for. Yet all this, at that young age had still made him extremely gullible. Fact was, he'd never really been able to interact well with kids his own; really he hadn't even had a friend close to his age until his twenties. He only knew the things his parents taught him, whether they were about life, or physics they were never really what a kid his age should have been learning. He didn't know what TV shows they liked, or what superheroes they idolized. No, it seemed that in the shielded world his parents had raised him, rich, fortunate, and able to get anything he wanted, genius even, he really didn't know anything about the real world. He'd barely ever even eaten cereal.

He hadn't understood the dangers that truly existed beyond the doors of his mansion, but he learned to get to know them real fast. When the torment started, it'd really barely happened much then, and soon after his parents died, both together, at the same time. In one split second his entire world crumpled. His mind became a broken puzzle. The future he once thought was ahead of him no longer existed. He was left in guardianship of the one person he hated the most, the person who could most easily take his already shattered life and mesh it into saw dust, left to be buried beneath something left unseen.

He went to college early too, much too early probably, but what else was he supposed to have done? In all honestly too, he was happy to leave, happy to be free if even for a short time, but at least given a moment to breathe.

College soon ended and his addiction almost immediately turned in full swing. He was confused at first; scared-he was still scared. Was this normal? No it couldn't be, of course it wasn't…right? As unseemly as it sounds, it actually took him a while to figure that out. He couldn't understand how someone who he thought of once as family, could have changed so drastically, but then again the memories of a time before that were already fading.

The façade he lived with now had slowly merged over the years. Truth be told, he was still that same kid he once was, alone, scared, and unknowing of the future, but now, at his age, he was forced to be a man, act like one, talk like one, show the whole world that he deserved the position he was thrust into. He was after all one of the most powerful and richest men in the world; a boy couldn't possibly run this company.

The minutes in the clock ticked by and he'd yet to move, yet to make any effort. He needed to get dressed, get out of those clothes. He needed to wash off the evidence- the scum- and become himself again. Pepper, his assistant, would be there soon. She wouldn't find him in his shop, so she'd search for him, or she may just ask his AI, either way she couldn't find him like that. Only one thought came to mind, through the dense haze.

Shower. Now.


Thirty minutes later he felt close to himself again. He was making his way down the stairs from his bedroom. Pepper was sitting in the living room with her lap top waiting for him when he reached the first floor.

"Hello, Mr. Stark. Did you have a good morning?" he walked casually past her into the adjacent kitchen. He served himself some orange juice and grabbed a bagel as he answered all her questions. He tried to keep things as 'normal' as possible. In reality he wasn't even hungry. All he really wanted to do was go down to his shop and work on his cars. Loose himself in the challenge of fixing them and let his mind clear for at least a few hours.

"Is that today's schedule you're working on?"

"Yes Mr. Stark. I kept your morning empty because I knew you'd be up late due to last night's festivities. However, you do have a meeting today at three." he finished the bagel and grabbed the cup or juice and walked back to the living room where the door to his shop was.

"That's fine. I'll be down in the shop. Let me know when its two fifteen so that I can get start getting ready for it." he didn't wait for her to answer him, but instead walked towards the stairs leading to his shop. The shop, the bright, multi-colored shop. Filled with his cars, and his robots, the one place where he truly felt safe. He rarely invited others down there. The only person who ever really went down was Pepper.

He could trust Pepper. She did so much for him, it almost made him a bit sick inside. She put up with everything from him. She never passed judgment. She knew him well enough to know that it wouldn't affect him. He was who he was. She understood that. She didn't look for much more than a well paying and enjoyable job; he hoped he was at least providing one of those for her.

Truth be told, he considered Pepper more than just an employee. She was also a friend. She'd passed the test. In all the years she'd worked for him she had never lied to him. Never betrayed him, and most of all, had never hurt him. She was a saint in his eyes. She was one of the few people who didn't put on a smile or pretend to like him because of his status or his money. Of course, yes, he did pay her. She did work for him, but in those times when their relationship surpassed the normal work levels and made its way into friendship, he could see in her eyes that she genuinely cared for him.

He was almost to the first step of the descending stairs, when said person stopped him in his tracks.

"Mr. Stark?" his feet stopped mid-walk and waited for her to continue.

"You're limping sir" she put her lap top aside and got up from the couch walking towards him.

"What?" he turned and asked, having been a bit thrown off by her statement.

"You were limping, when you were walking...are you okay?" her voice was filled with caring worry as she made her way closer to him.

"Me? Yeah...I'm fine." She'd reached his spot between the stairs that descended down and the edge of the living room. The extra light from both locations was giving her a better look at him.

"Ms. Potts." She wasn't listening. She didn't believe him when he'd said he was fine. He hadn't even noticed that he'd been limping. He felt pain in his leg, but he also felt it in other parts of his body so he hadn't given it much thought. She was inspecting him now. Looking at him like a kid looks at a fish through a tank, taking in the details of his features. This was the one thing about Pepper that made him still keep her at arms length. Yes, she did care, and for that he was grateful, but unfortunately, he was afraid, she may care too much. She didn't let things go as two people who have no real obligations to each other would. 'I'm fine' 'OK' and move on with your life. This wasn't employee Pepper looking at him, this was friend Pepper.

"Ms. Potts please-"

"You have bruising." She said quietly, more to herself than him really. She was looking closely at his lower back through his shirt. His white shirt. His thin, white shirt. This was one of those moments when he felt 'genius' would not be an adequate description of him. How could he be stupid enough to wear a plain white shirt today knowing what he'd looked like in the mirror that morning? He wasn't thinking straight. He usually wasn't, but still he was usually good enough to hide his lack of attentiveness to certain things.

She was now trying to lift shirt up to take a look at it. Scratch that, this wasn't 'friend' Pepper, this was 'mother' Pepper, or maybe even 'nurse' Pepper. Either way, he didn't want this from her. He couldn't let her get much closer. He needed to stop her before it became too much.

"Mr. Potts" he spoke loudly, "for the second time, I'm fine. Please. Now just let me go down to my shop and don't come down until it's time for me to start getting ready for the meeting." The look she gave him told him she'd been startled by strict words. She quickly straightened and looked at him straight in the eyes, searching, looking for any sign that could tell her something more. He knew she wouldn't let this go. He knew she'd be more alert now. Maybe she may even inquire on it again later.

Deep down he knew this probably wasn't the first time she'd noticed something. She wasn't ignorant after-all and she was the one person who was closest to him. This was probably just the first time she'd decided to make a remark about it. Honestly, he didn't care. He hoped that she would not ask about it again. He hoped that she'd continue on with her work and pretend this hadn't happened. He had no reason to look the way he did. He had no reason for limping, or bruising or anything.

Whatever would happen, he'd have to deal with it then.

He broke the gaze that Pepper held on him and turned back towards the stairs. He took the first step cautious to not show any signs of a limp. Maybe then she'd think it was just her imagination. The bruising was just bad lighting. Whatever, as long as he could just go down to his shop and clear his mind. He turned back towards her and found her still watching him.

"Don't forget to remind of the meeting." His voice was soft then, reassuring. He'd be fine, he was telling her between the lines. They'd be fine. Don't take offense on what I said before. She nodded in her silent understanding and turned to go back to the couch and her lap top. He watched her go and once he was sure she wouldn't be watching him again, he too turned. This time he didn't care about the limp, he was almost trying to run, to get down to his haven as fast as possible and forget for just a few hours about the demons that haunted him.