Have you ever been in the passenger seat where the driver is an angry adult? Where they're so angry that their knuckles were white on the wheel, breathing harsh, jaw clenched tight, and they just gave off waves and waves of fury that made you sick to your stomach? Supposedly most people have at least once, parents were angry about a not so amazing grade, insert other typical reason here, but to someone who was far too used to it absolutely all of my bravado had vanished the moment he stepped on the gas. Anxiety was making me feel nauseous and unsettled, eyes flicking over every now and again just to be sure it wasn't getting worse. This was so much scarier than all the other times because I didn't KNOW him, not really, how could you predict what you don't know?
At the Malibu mansion we parted ways where I desperately tried not to sprint up and out of the garage with the excuse of "being very tired and wanting to sleep". Truthfully I don't think he even heard me, instead staring at the armor that now matched my cast.
He had already made up his mind on what he was about to do, which I fully supported because terrorism can go to hell. However, since I was going to be alone here and big spaces freak me out in the dark, I made a pit stop in the kitchen where I nicked a small paring knife. Small enough for me to use, and yet not be stupid and cut myself.
It took forever and a half to go to sleep, I could toss and turn since the mattress was pulled slightly away from the wall. This was to allow for easy access to the cavity I carved out specifically for my new nighttime sleep aid. It may be super weird and made for a psychologist's field day, but in the world where assassins literally come dime a dozen it's not a stupid idea to have. Dear god I have got to get some therapy.
Tony wasn't there come dawn, not that I expected it knowing he flew cross the world in the dead of night. But truth be told I was BORED, bored out of my ever living mind. I was not meant to function by myself in any capacity since if I was bored I got into shit. My grandfather loved to say that my nimble fingers when idle were prime for the devil's work.
And man hoo boy, he was most certainly right. So far I've managed to get my hands on the toaster, or...what's left of it at this point. The pieces and scrap were strewn out in my own order that looked like utter chaos to the untrained eye. If it's one thing I'm good at it is sorting what seemed to be nonsensical shit into a system.
"Tony?" Ew, what is he doing here? "Oh hello there little one, have you seen Tony?" Shaking my head with a negative I continued with widdling the wires to try and make connections. "Not at all?"
"He was mad." Understatement, major understatement.
"So he isn't here?" Even though I knew damn well he wasn't, I just shrugged impassively. "Damn, that's a shame. Oh well, I always could do his job that he so desperately wanted and keep you company."
"I don't need any," Please take a hint, Jesus.
"What are you up to?" And ladies and gents, with my nonbinary peeps in tents, we have someone who refuses to take a hint. Shrugging yet again held up the passive aggressive thing I was going with. "Gonna fix the toaster when you're done?"
"No, that's impossible since I'm scavenging pieces." Honestly how stupid can he be?
He crouched down elbows resting on his knees in front of me, little too close there buddy. "Does Tony let you make stuff?" Shrugging dismissively while twisting various wires together I thought back to how he only gave me burnt out stuff yesterday.
"Not cool stuff,"
"Does cool stuff go 'boom'?" At that I couldn't help but smile a little. It was rather funny and really very true. He chuckled with a knowing smile, "I figured, you could be just like him you know?"
"Could?" I was genuinely curious now, like it or not this man truly knew Tony better than I did and I wanted to glean any smidgen of detail I could.
"Yeah! You remind me of him when he was a boy, curious." Fidgeting with the scraps with my fingers, I chewed on my lips, why was he doing all this? He has shown how much he didn't like me being round so what changed?
The beats of silence just made things uncomfortable and more weird than they were, so I turned away and decided lunch was the go to. Food, ladies and gents, is the way to my ever eternal happiness. No doubt about it especially since I say so, so it shall be written so it shall be done kind of a deal.
Being this short is one of my worst nightmares come to life. Melodramatic, I know, but one tends to develop a complex after having their head used as an armrest by an asshole tall person. Now the height I am...was...nothing to sneeze at. Five foot six even! Quite proud of it since my mother was four inches shorter and I look almost exactly like her in every way that counts.
Which segues into how Tony STILL doesn't have a freaking step stool in his kitchen. He is challenged in stature he should know how I feel! So now Stane just gets to watch as my somewhat less loopy self was climbing my own personal kitchen version of a jungle gym to search for whatever junk food Tony kept in this joint. It's been a while since my last dose.
"What on earth are you doing little one?"
Mentally rolling my eyes I at least only had a smidge of snark when replying with a single, "Food."
"Yes, little one, I can see that." With silent celebration came the pop tarts that were shoved into the back of the shelf. Like I couldn't sniff out junk food, tsk tsk Tony. "You shouldn't eat that, it will rot your brains."
Single brow raised in poised elegance, I didn't respond other than bite into the pop tart. I have the sassily eating something down to a total science I swear to god. A flash of pain shot up my arm and instinctively it pulled into my chest, face pinching hard to hold in any verbal vocalizations of pain. Fear was a total shot of adrenaline, he saw, he saw I was in pain. That I was currently weak.
The terror took hold and with surprising agility the sheer speed I used in jumping down and sprinting out of the kitchen was almost unbelievable. All I knew was that I had to hide, had to get away, even better was I took him completely by surprise enabling a clean-ish escape.
If you don't count the scrambling as my feet struggled to make purchase on Tony's stupidly smooth and slick floors, that is. But even with the slip n' slide action I still was able to dive for the closet in the room Pepper had all the stuff that was meant for my use put into. I'm not foolish enough to call it my room or my stuff, no way was this in any sense permanent.
My breaths shook for all of ten seconds before managing to tilt my head straight upwards to the ceiling causing the breathing out of my mouth to now be silent. Well, hopefully silent, my heartbeat was pounding away in my ears making it excruciatingly difficult to gauge how quiet I actually was. Fuck, I forgot my knife! I just went to hide like an idiot and utterly missed snatching my weapon like a total dumbass.
His footsteps were slow, my brain instantly linking them to those of a predator, and not the slow steps of one who is getting up there in age.
"Bit skittish aren't you little one? Did I frighten you?" My spine locked hearing him enter the room, hand and feet pressing into the floor ready to run at a moment's notice. But then there was the sound of plastic sliding against itself and electronic beeps. "Miss Potts? I seem to have managed to scare Tony's new houseguest, maybe you might have more luck than I do."
I couldn't hear her response, these phones not being exactly amazing in any way since it's 2008, but judging how he hummed as he hung up it seemed she was going to be over in just a moment. It was comforting being blanketed in the darkness, it just meant that you couldn't be seen.
"Think you might come out for Pepper? She might not be the most maternal of the lot, but we'll see how it goes." Why won't he leave? Please dear god make him leave.
He opened the closet door though really wouldn't be able to see me what with the load of clothing hanging in the way and how my body was attempting to shove its way through the wall. My heart was in my throat, wait, wait what is happening? Without my consent my body was crying, silently at first, but terrified sounds mixing with gasps that he definitely heard.
"Oh what's the matter little one?" Go away, go away, go away, go away! He just...sat there the entire time, waiting to see if I would come out on my own. Not bloody likely mate. If he really wanted to play the waiting game I most certainly was willing to play. Though willing was entirely different than "able to"; the longer I was in here the longer I didn't have a dose of pain medication, and that was quickly going to become a problem.
Already was one judging by the tears leaking out of my eyes. I never ever cried out of pain, it just didn't happen, showing how not okay things were. Breaths short and labored, I was starting to wonder if I could outlast him.
"Are you going to come out?" Shut the hell up, "I saw your bottle, you've missed a dose." Why did I leave it out?! "Must be feeling quite uncomfortable by now." No shit man, "I can help you, Anika." The sudden sharp tone on my name made me gasp and jump nearly out of my skin. "Your pill is right here in my hand, all you have to do is come out here."
God I was weak, I was really really weak. The prospect of being out of pain, relaxed, and just being able to sleep was too much to deny myself. I couldn't even argue with myself mentally over going straight into the open alligator's maw.
Slowly, ever so slowly, my left hand parted the hanging clothes. However that did not mean I was entirely willing to exit the cave-like room, the more pain I felt was the deciding factor sadly though. His smile was warm and encouraging, very creepily in a grandfather's manner, and he was kneeling on one leg with his arms outstretched. His eyes were even crinkled from the smile; the fact that it actually reached his eyes was more than a little odd, it just didn't make any sense!
"That's it," one of his hands was closed around what could only be a pill, "there we go, soon you can sleep." I gave in, he wouldn't do anything to hurt me as of this moment, I was like 70% sure of that, and by now I was desperate. So after chugging the water he had with him to down my medication things were getting hazy, sleep almost readily getting closer to being a reality.
He with surprising strength picked me up to take me into the foyer, though as I got more sluggish I couldn't tell the passage of time due to nodding off.
Finally I slipped under, only briefly taking notice of how the side of my face was on his shoulder before everything was just nice and fuzzy.
A/N I haven't been able to work on this for like weeks because yaaaaaaay job (adulting, it sucks but hey money) things are slowly coming together since a lot of my ideas are to future events.