"Worthless. Pathetic. I hate you, they hate you. You are worth NOTHING to them." Howard's voice whispered cruelly in Tony's mind and he shot up in his sleep, tears streaming down his face, all the memories of the dreams rushing back to him, crushing him under their weight.
Blood. So MUCH blood. Strangled voices BEGGING him to stop-for him to just please stop the pain- first the voices of the spies he once tortured, slowly transforming into the voices of the people he loved. Pepper, Rhodey, the team. The darkness surrounding him as he heard the desperate begging voices of the people he loved and JUST COULDN'T STOP … He hadn't realized he was sobbing until Pepper's arms encircled him and she began whispering soothing reassurances in his ear. "Tony, Tony baby breathe. Come back to me. Tony baby TONY."
The pain in her voice brings him back to reality and Tony shuddered taking in Pepper's worried embrace and losing it. "Pepper?" He says brokenly, a silent prayer as the sobs overtake his body and she squeezes him tighter wiping the tears from his eyes. "Tony I'm here. I love you and I will ALWAYS be here."
Tony nods weakly burying his face in her long hair, tears slowing and he clutches her tightly, no other coherent thought except PEPPER, and the PAIN. "God Pepper, I don't wanna hurt people. I don't wanna hurt YOU." He breathes fearfully; sounding the most vulnerable he has in a long time. Pepper pulls away determined, looking into his eyes and stroking his hair softly. "Tony Stark, you do NOT hurt people. You save them. You're a hero. You are determined and strong, and I love you. You might act like the bad guy to push people away, but these eyes? These beautiful big brown eyes tell me that you're loving, caring, strong, and I fall more in love with you every time I look at them. You're my hero Tony. You save people, you save ME. Every damn day, Just by being you save me."
Tony's eyes searched hers for any waver in her conviction, and finding none he just sighed, falling into her lap as she pulled back guiding his head down gently. "It's alright. I'm not going ANYWHERE." This time, he believed her and let his eyes drift closed again his quiet whimpering the only thing left of his sobbing.
Later, Pepper sat watching the man she loved sleep, not even caring that she was going numb from sitting in this position for hours. Sunlight peaked though the windows as the sun began to rise in the sky and she smiled tears running down her face as she felt the steady heartbeats of her lover under her slender fingers. She hated how SAD Tony had been last night. She might have known he had a bad past, but somehow she had missed that Tony's life consisted of fighting to keep himself from disappearing every damn day. A gentle knock pulled her out of her daze- The signal for breadfeast.
"Tony, love. Time to wake up." She whispered quietly running her fingers through his messy brown hair, and was rewarded by big brown eyes popping open, gentle and scared. She sighed smiling quickly wiping the tears pooling in her eyes from them before he woke up enough to realize what she was doing. His sleepy eyes drifted up to her and she leaned down kissing his forehead, once again remembering how much she LOVED this man. "Come on sleepyhead, breadfeast outside." He smiled and nodded sitting up and rubbing his eyes as his brain pulled itself from sleep and running her fingers through his hair one more time she stood, slipping to the door and opening it, letting Natasha in.
The woman smiled gently at her and Pepper smiled back nodding to the still waking up Tony. "Just take him down to breadfeast alright? I'm gonna go hop in a quick shower." Natasha nodded and patted Pepper on the arm. "We got him Pepper, take your time." Pepper smiled weakly again before shooting a worried glance towards Tony again and making her way to him. "I'll be down in just a minute Tony. Go eat." He nodded and she kissed him on the forehead before disappearing into the bathroom, leaving Natasha and Tony alone.
He stared at her for a moment, wondering if what happened the night before was real, or just some cruel dream he had thought up, when Natasha smiled sweetly(sweetly for her) and gestured towards the living room. "Well? Come on, those pancakes aren't going to eat themselves." He stood slowly walking towards her and she slipped her hand into his, giving it a reassuring squeeze before letting go and guiding him once again towards the kitchen.
"Tony!" Bruce exclaimed happily as Tony and Natasha came into the kitchen. Thor, Steve, Rhodey, and Clint all sat at the table with big plates of pancakes in front of them. (Thor's looked more like a small mountain) Bruce was at the stove, flipping pancakes and smiling, wearing a very ironic green apron. Tony couldn't resist grinning and chuckled. "Make me up a hulk sized portion Doc." Bruce rolled his eyes and went back to work, but Tony didn't miss the fact that he was still watching him out of the corner of his eye. He sighed, falling into the chair across from Steve, who cleared his throat meeting his eyes warily. "Hey Tony, Fury wants us to come in for a debrief today, just about Loki's condition. Is that okay?"
Tony gulped and suddenly the bustling kitchen went dead quiet. "Um- yeah Steve. I can do that. How are those pancakes coming Big Green?" He said sarcastically in a desperate attempt to lighten the mood. Steve nodded and went back to talking with Thor, and Bruce groaned dropping a large stack of pancakes onto his plate. "You eat, Every. Single. One." Bruce said sternly and Tony sighed, completely NOT hungry-despite the intoxicating smell drifting to him. He rolled his eyes in a desperate attempt to cover the sick grimace that appeared when he stuck his fork into the food. He didn't even realize his nails were digging into his thigh under the table until he felt Natasha discreetly grab his hand from under the table, and shot him a disapproving glare. He shrugged in half-hearted apology. Old habits were hard to break, and he didn't really want to right now. "Yes momma Hulk."
Hey guys! Alright so there was some sort of Fan Fiction glitch last night, terribly sorry for any of you who it confused. I hope you enjoyed these chapters. I am trying very hard to do a good job with this sequel, I've never written one before, and its a little hard trying to compete with the original, but I'm trying! Hope you like, Review me please!"