Hey Guys! So sorry for the wait! Just saw Sea of Monsters and it was much better than the first. Anyway, here is the next chapter! Enjoy!
Tony shuffled his feet on the expensive wood flooring, unable to stand still. Something was making him so jittery...oh yeah. It was that fact that two boys– his boys– were probably waking up from a year long coma, practically coming back to life, but no, he was prisoner in his very own tower, forced to listen to Fury ramble on about some seriously unimportant topic— while his sons needed him! They needed him and-
"Mr. Stark?" Fury's deep, distinctly annoyed somehow managed to temporarily distract a 1/100000000 of his brain from the pure parental instinct. Tony looked up, trying to lease his energy by ramming his clenched fists into his grimy jean pockets. If the commander of SHEILD took any more notice of Tony's stained clothes, patchy beard, mussed hair, coffee mustache, or black-ringed eyes, he didn't show it. He just gave the the billionaire an irritated look, as if he had said something stupid in front of the president if the United States. "Are you paying attention at all?"
"M'yeah, yeah." Tony said distractedly, sparing a glance at the stuck up a-hole.
For a moment, Fury simply considered the distant-minded man in front of him. Then, he decided to cut right to the chase.
"Mr. Stark, SHEILD's sensors picked up traces of tesseract energy at this exact location that were active within the past 24 hours- so it isn't residual energy left from the tesseracts time here." Fury took a step here closer to Tony, who now at least had two eyes on him. "You of all people should know that the energy emitted by the Tesseract, no matter how small, has the potential to destroy this world and those around it. Not to mention that those traces would still be visible now, which would be more than enough evidence to put even you in the most maximum security prison this planet can muster. So," He leaned forward until their faces were barely a foot apart. "Are you going to tell me what you were doing?"
Tony met Fury's stare evenly and unflinchingly, showing no emotion.
On the inside, his mind and heart raced.
His first instinct was to lie. They had definitely picked up the signal from when he had separated the serum from Steve's blood (the super soldier was shifting nervously from foot to foot in the corner of the room, his face fraught with worry and anxiety. Tony personally thought he might wet himself. Though, he was impressed that for once the Golden Boy wasn't so inclined to tell the biggest figure of authority about the boys). Anyway, he could tell Fury that he'd been trying to recreate the serum, and had just stumbled upon the Tesseract elements... No, they would have expected him to figure it out (which he had).
Could he maybe- possibly- tell the truth? No, then SHEILD would want to experiment on his boys, and he'd be questioned as to why he kept Benji and Jack's condition a secret and allowed the world to believe the initial media reports of their death. As if they would believe that he wanted to protect them from the god-damn media and press— for once he was cursing the sarcastic attention-hog facade he'd adopted. But the bottom line was that he could not - with a capital COULD NOT- let anyone find out about the boys. Not yet.
Alright. He was running out of options. What if he could—
"Mr. Stark." Fury's voice was bordering dangerous, hard and unforgiving. Tony stared at Fury's shiny black shoes, trying to think.
No. His heart sank into his worn socks. There was no way out.
He looked up into Fury's dark, hard eyes and opened his mouth, feeling himself force his jaw to lower.
"I—"
Boom.
A dull thud resonated in the walls behind him. Tony had lived here in New York for years, and had memorized every room on this floor...and he thought what he thought was wrong, it couldn't be right... But he was sure that it was the twins room.
"I...have to, um, go to, the, uh, bathroom. Right." It was lame, and he knew it, but before anyone could say anything he turned on heel, slipped through the door, and locked it behind him. He dimly heard voices on the other side, angry, shocked voices and a worried, tentative one. Steve would cover for him, at least he could rely on that.
Tony closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Suddenly, facing whatever was in the twin's room (and he was positive that was where the noise was coming from as more thunks and even muffled sounds that could be words floated down the hallway) seemed much harder than simply going back into the room and confronting Fury. But... No. He had to carry on.
He took a step down the hallway, and another step. His strides seemed to get tinier and tinier as the corridor seemed to stretch in length.
Suddenly, he was at the door. The door to the room he had stared at months earlier, trying to imagine his boys running out and tackling him, teenagers though they were. Funny, he realized, how they had a room together even though there were enough rooms to spaciously house a small field trip. Had they stayed together to feel the comfort of another's presence? Tony knew what it felt like to be alone, to be lying in his bed and not be able to reach out and touch his wonderful wife, now long gone. His throat constricted. Had he done anything for his children since their mother died? There had never been any grief counseling, long tearful talk, or anything like that. He had just somehow managed to carry on long enough to teach Benji and Jack the things he knew until it became a routine for all three of them. The boys had woken up the morning after she passed with tear stained faces and bed heads, but after that it was just plain. No tears, just silence. I mean,Tony had never done anything wrong— contrary to the popular belief he did not have a different woman in his room every night! He'd never done anything like that at all except with Pepper... It was odd, because he'd always been the one that could tell them apart while their own mother...
Tony shook his head and put his shaking hand on the doorknob, listening to the thumps and bangs. Whatever lay behind that door...
Tony steeled himself and turned the knob, entering the room in time to see Benji flop right over on his back, his arms hopelessly tangled in his favorite old brown sweatshirt. At the sound of the door opening, he turned his head and said, "I think I've forgotten how to do this."
Tony laughed harder than he had ever done.
THIS IS NOT THE END! Horrible ending yeah but I have a plan! Review!
