AN: Tumblr prompt: "You're supposed to be dead! Ended! unexisted! Argh whatever!"

Drabble 24-Welcome Home

"You're supposed to be dead! Ended! Unexisted! Argh, whatever!"

Danny flinched as Tony raised his voice, pacing back and forth and running his greasy hands through his greasy hair.

Yeah, he did die, but now he was back. Just…Not like before.

"I can explain-"

"-Why didn't you come back sooner?! We were all so worried about you! We thought you died! Wanda and Pietro even made you a tombstone!"

The raw emotion that Stark gave, the kind of emotion he never gave to anybody but Jarvis or Bruce, startled him. He hadn't meant to worry anybody, and what he had done had gotten the job done and saved the world. But he never realized that his friend's emotions to him coming back would be harder to experience than dying.

"How…How long was I gone?" Danny asked. His voice was small, and he couldn't look Tony in the eye. He should have come back sooner. It was his fault Tony felt like this. He hung his head, and despite his broad shoulders and his height he got from his father, he felt small. Small in comparison to what he started and the whole shit-show that was happening at this very moment, and the major shit-show that happened-

"-It's been almost six years, Danny."

Danny's head shot up. Tony had stopped pacing, just standing with his back to him now, holding his head in his hands. Tony's voice was small when he spoke again.

"Six years. If you aren't actually dead…Where have you been?"

"I…I'm sorry. I was stuck in the Zone and couldn't get away. But I only just woke up a few weeks ago. Clockwork said…" Danny trailed off, unable to finish the rest of his sentence without his breathe getting lodged in his throat.

"What? What did Clockwork say?" Tony's voice started to rise, and Danny could feel the anger coming off of him in waves. He could see the red in Tony's aura. They were only little flecks, but still there all the same.

"He said I was dead. Not…Tony, I'm a full ghost now. It took all that time for my soul to cross over and become me now. A full ghost."

Danny was quiet when he spoke, but through some miracle Tony still heard him. He stared at Danny, slow tears running down his face.

"Really?" He asked, almost in disbelief.

"Really," Danny swallowed hard. "And the few weeks was because I'm now the official king of the Zone for that whole thing with Pariah Dark. I-I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner, Tony. I-"

He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. He was cut off by the bone crushing hug Tony was giving him. He squeezed the back of Danny's new, kingly clothing and pulled him in as closely as he could. Danny hugged him back just as tightly.

After almost a minute, Tony pulled back and wiped his face, giving Danny a huge grin.

"Come on! We got a party to throw! You're back, and you're a king. I mean, it'll be nice to have your sense of humor back, too."

He didn't mention the whole full-ghost thing for the rest of the week. Instead, he let Danny reconnect with his friends, his family. Sam and Tucker and Valerie and Dani stopped by, staying with them for a few days to be with Danny again.

He couldn't be more happy to be home again.