Tony Stark winces as his alarm clock goes off at nine-thirty exactly to wake him up, but he's been awake for hours, staring at the ceiling. His hand slams against the top of the machine quickly, trying not to wake Pepper, who's sleeping peacefully beside him.
Tony blinks slowly and then rolls out of bed, tucking Pepper back in the blanket. He shuffles down to the kitchen, his vision still slightly blurry from sleep. J.A.R.V.I.S greets him as he opens the pantry.
"Good morning, sir," the system speaks, and Tony sighs.
"Morning, J.A.R.V.I.S," he responds, crunching his teeth down on a bagel. The system is quiet for a moment, but speaks again.
"Sir, you do know what day it is, correct?" Tony swallows as a painful lump in his throat appears, the food sliding awkwardly down his throat.
"Yes. Thank you for reminding me," Tony nearly hisses, because he doesn't want to take his anger out on the only thing that protects him besides his suit and Pepper. "Where's the phone?"
"Top of the bar, sir, next to the coffee machine."
"Thank you." Tony makes his way over to the bar and picks up the phone, his hand shaking slightly.
It's now or never.
When she gets the phone call, she's on the floor, covered in half of her Mark XIII armor.
And, of course, Benji and Chloe are there, staring at her as she injects the fiftieth shot of bio-tech into her arms and legs, allowing the armor to be controlled telepathically.
"Uh, Beca," Benji hesitantly says, blinking when Beca grunts and looks up at him, the last shot in her hand, "do you really think that this is the best idea?"
"'Course it is. My watch can get destroyed or lost at any time. This is much easier. And just think about how cool it'll be! I can just close my eyes and stick my arm out, and BAM! My armor flies onto my body," she says, injecting the last chip into her arm with a yelp. "There. Done."
Beca hears Benji lean over to Chloe and whisper, "She hasn't gotten very much sleep lately."
Chloe raises her eyebrows at Beca as she gets up and stands on the small metal platform in the middle of the training room. Over the course of the past few weeks, Beca had decided that the Avengers' hideout/training building was too bland. She took it to herself to remodel the entire (and she wasn't joking when she meant entire, she literally upgraded the entire building) place with a new security system, equip it with J.A.R.V.I.S, use the smaller rooms for her suits and weapons, and use the bigger ones for training and a lounge area.
"Observe," Beca announces, motioning in front of her. Pieces of her Mark XIII are scattered across the floor in front of her, the helmet dull and lifeless on the ground. "Now, check this out!" Beca thrusts her left arm in front of her and pulls her right arm back towards her head, sticking two fingers up. Her tongue is clamped by her teeth in anticipation as she wills the metal hand to come flying towards her.
Nothing.
Beca's eyebrows furrow and she tries again, thrusting both of her arms forward as she shuts her eyes. She hears Benji snicker from behind her.
The genius huffs, smacking her arms. "C'mon! Why isn't it working?" she says, hitting her calf. One last time, she thinks. It'll work.
She extends one arm out and screams, "MOVE!" in her mind. The left hand of the armor comes flying towards her, latching itself onto her arm with a click and a whir. Beca looks up smugly at the boy and the red head (they thought she couldn't do it, ha) and says, "Alright. Send them all."
Without warning, the feet of the armor propel themselves in the air and launch themselves towards the brunette, and she jumps up, getting knocked back slightly as the armor crashes against her shins. She picks herself up only for the torso of the armor to come flying towards her and she falls backwards, only just managing to activate the thrusters and stop herself from hitting the ground.
"Wow," Beca gasps, hovering shakily in the air as Chloe and Benji laugh. "Hey, don't laugh at me!" she snaps.
"Sorry, Becs," Benji apologizes, smiling at her. "But your face was priceless. Besides, you're too small for all of this titanium to be hitting you like that."
"Oh really?" Beca drawls, raising an eyebrow and clapping her hands together. She cracks her neck and turns back to what's left of the armor, eyeing it carefully. She closes her eyes and exhales softly, focusing her mind on the armor. She imagines the shoulders of the raven armor latching onto her body, the cool feeling of the metal travelling up her shoulders and forming her helmet-
CLINK!
Beca opens her eyes just in time to be met with the face of the armor spiraling towards her face just as the helmet forms over her head, covering her dark brown locks. She closes her eyes quickly and braces herself for the impact, the force of the mask hitting her nose just a little too hard. But she simple brushes it off and turns back to Benji and Chloe, giving them a cocky smirk, though they can't see it.
"Suck. My. Dick," Beca taunts, motioning towards her hips. She screen in the armor zooms in to Chloe's face, and Beca likes the way the ginger's bright blue eyes follow the path of the brunette's hands.
"Good morning, ma'am," J.A.R.V.I.S greets. "Welcome back. Power at ninety-two percent, all systems seem to be functioning normally."
"Sweet," Beca responds, lowering herself to the ground and taking a few steps around. She smiles as she hears the satisfying clicks and whirs of her machine around her body, filling her ears.
Man, does she love her suit.
The Titanium-Girl-armor-clad brunette takes a few more steps to her left before she notices something.
Something's… missing.
Beca looks down at herself and inspects her arms, legs and chest. Hesitantly, she turns around and says, "Well, fuck."
The response she gets is the rear of the suit slamming into her backside and throwing her forward, the armor scattering across the floor as some of it files off of her body. Beca groans and flips over. She lifts her head and smiles sweetly up at Chloe and Benji, who are doubled over in laughter, her teeth grinding against each other and her jaw clenched.
"OW."
Beca strains to turn her head in the direction of her helmet as a sharp beeping noise emits from the mask. She rolls over once more and sticks her head in, blinking a few times as the computer reboots. "Who is it, J.A.R.V.I.S?" she asks, looking at the caller I.D as the system pulls it up.
"It's your father, ma'am."
Beca sighs.
Oh, yeah. Of course she goes and forgets about today.
"Uh," Beca sputters, her mind racing. "Put, uh, put him on." There's a small silence, and then the sound of breathing can be heard.
"Uh, hi, Becs." Did he just wake up?
"Hey, Dad," Beca exchanges lamely, looking over to the others. Benji sticks out his thumb and pinky finger and holds it up to his ear, and then points to the door. Beca nods, her ears ringing over the sound of breathing. Benji nudges Chloe, and after the red head casts the brunette a longing look, the pair get up and exit the room, leaving Beca still lying on her back on the ground, her arms and legs spread out like a snow-angel.
"How are you?" Beca wasn't aware she said anything until she got a response.
"Um, I'm… I'm okay. You?"
"I'm alright." Tony coughs awkwardly on the other line. "Are you, uh…"
"Am I what?"
"Sure. Are you sure you're alright?"
"I-" Beca hesitates. "I… no."
"No?"
"No." She says the word louder. "No." Louder. "No, I'm not sure I'm alright." She sits up and makes the mask retract from her face.
In all honesty, she really, truly, doesn't know. She's been holding up all these emotions inside of her, and she wants to cry. She wants to scream. She wants to punch something. She wants to cry on someone's shoulder.
But she doesn't. She knows deep down that everything is her fault.
She has panic attacks sometimes. She blacks out. Her blood gets hot, and all she sees is bright, painful red. But does she tell anybody?
Not once.
"Okay." There's another silence, and the both of them just sit there, slightly enjoying their company.
"Do you… wanna talk about it?" Beca can clearly hear the hesitation in Tony's voice.
"Uh, no. Not, uh, not really. But thank you," she adds hastily.
"It's okay. I just have to wait until your mother wakes-" Tony is cut off in the middle of his sentence by a sharp beeping noise on his end of the line. There's a thudding sound, and then the beeping stops.
"What was that?" Beca asks, putting her arms on her knees. Tony grunts.
"Nothing," is his hasty response, but he's not fooling anybody.
"That was J.A.R.V.I.S's emergency alarm. What's going on, Dad?" she asks, her jaw clenching. Tony doesn't speak for a moment, then he exhales.
"I need to talk to you, Beca."
"Okay, what is it?"
"No, I mean in person."
"Like, today?"
"That would be good."
Beca pauses, then asks, "Should I bring the others?"
"Huh?"
"The others. The team, Tony. Should I bring them to California with me?"
"Uh, yes. Yes, that's an excellent idea. Who do you trust the most out of all of them?" Tony asks.
Beca raises her eyebrows, genuinely surprised at her father's question. But she says the first person that comes to mind. "Chloe. Chloe Barton."
"Make sure she comes. I'll need her here."
"Um, yeah. Okay."
Silence.
"I, uh, have to go, Becs. I'll see you soon."
"Yeah, see you." Beca goes and almost exits out of the call, but Tony's voice stops her.
"Beca."
"Yep?"
"…I love you."
"Uh," Beca coughs. "Yeah. You too. I mean, I love you. Too. Bye, Dad."
"Bye."
Beca ends the call, rips the helmet off of her head and stares blankly at it's cold, empty, metal eyes, and screams as loud and as long as she possibly can.
WOW I AM SUCH AN ASSHOLE. IT'S BEEN WEEKS PROBABLY SINCE I'VE UPDATED.
SORRY ABOUT THAT.
So, what do you think happened on this day? What happened with Tony when the beeping noise went off?
Gah, I love cliff-hangers.
