Eleven - Ego

Fairburn, Georgia - Earth

2020

"Tony, what's going on?" Kass asked as they drove. "Where are we going? Why have you brought me all the way to Georgia?"

"You'll see." Tony's eyes left the road for a moment to peek over the rim of his sunglasses at her with a grin. He had one had on the steering wheel and the other had Kass's hand clasped tightly in it.

"Oh dear."

"What?"

"I know that look."

"What?"

"It's a surprise, isn't it?"

"I thought you liked surprises."

"And I thought you said no more surprises."

"Of the bad kind," he clarified. "Of the unexpected, hell-bent-on-earth's-destruction kind. This one is, I think, pretty darn good."

"How do I know?" she continued to tease.

"You'll just have to take my word for it. And wait and see - we're almost there."

"I guess I will."

They drove the rest of the way in comfortable silence, which wasn't for very long - he had been right, they had been almost there.

"Ready?"

"For what?"

"For my surprise!"

"Is something going to jump out of the trees at us?"

"Nope." He pulled around the trees along the gravel driveway and Kass gasped when she saw what lay ahead of them at the end of the drive:

A house.

Tony pulled the car to a stop in front of the building. "Welcome home, Kazimiera."

"What do you mean?" she asked, staring out the window in awe at the house, sitting alone at the edge of a calm and quiet lake. It was nestled in the trees, secluded.

"This is ours."

She turned to face him. "Ours?"

"Yeah, our fresh start. Our new home."

"Oh, Tony..."

"So what do you think?"

"I think I need a moment to process this... But in a good way."

"So a good surprise, right?"

"Yeah, it's good."

"Want to see the inside?" He held up a ring of keys.

"Yeah, yeah I do."


"Cheers." Tony and Kass, standing on the porch of their new house, touched wine glasses in a little toast that evening. "To our new home."

"Home. Ours." She smiled. "I haven't had a home in a really long time."

"And now you do."

"And now I do."

"I'm glad you feel at home here."

"I feel at home with you, Tony. No matter where we are. But the nice forest house on the lake is sure a bonus. And I'm still kind of pissed you had to blow up your Malibu mansion, but-" She shrugged. "-This is pretty good too."

He snorted with laughter. "And that's not all."

"Uh oh, now what?"

"'Now what'? There's more to the surprise."

"I think the new house was surprise enough."

"Well just wait until you see this-" Tony withdrew a flat box, opening it to reveal a silver necklace with a red heart stone at the centre.

"You don't have to buy me nice, expensive stuff, you know."

"You'd rather steal it."

"True, but I'm not worth it."

"Well, I think you are, and I want to. Because I care about you and I want you to know that."

"I do know it, even without the fancy gifts."

"And I'm glad you know. Here, hold your hair out of the way while I put it on."

"It's beautiful. Thank you."

"You're welcome. I love you, you know."

"Yeah. I love you, too."

"I love you three-thousand."

"Three-thousand? Wow. Why three-thousand? Did you just pick a random number out of the sky? Or are you just wanting to show off you insane math skills again?"

"Because its an outrageously big number and that's the only way I feel I can express myself and what I feel."

"Well you're always full of surprises."

"Like the house."

"Yes, like that. But also because you proved to me that deep down you're an incredibly generous and loving guy. At first I thought you were nothing but a spoiled-rotten, rich, playboy-"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthrophist."

"Pardon me, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthrophist. But you're so much more than that."

"And you're so much more than just a thief. You stole my heart, you know."

"So you've said. And yeah, I know." She leaned into him. "Three-thousand, huh?"

"Yup, three-thousand. Not that it's a competition or anything, but I love you three-thousand."

"Three-thousand."

"Three-thousand."

She smiled. "Yeah, that sums it up quite perfectly."


"Tony! Tony wake up!"

Tony was having another middle-of-the-night panic attack. They had for the most part left him, but since their confrontation with Thanos and becoming stranded in space, and the Avengers' failure leading to Thanos's victory and the loss of the Stones, the attacks had increased again, understandably.

"Kass - where am I?" He was sitting up in bed, looking around frantically, disoriented.

"You're here, you're home."

"Home?"

"Our new house in Georgia."

"Home..." He looked around them, almost in awe and confusion. Then he looked at her, reaching out to cup her face. "You're here."

Her heart broke knowing that before, when this had happened, many times before, he would be reaching out in the dark and emptiness, for she hadn't been there. He would have been alone there. It was one of her biggest regrets.

"Tony, I'm here." She took his hand that was holding her cheek and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise. I'm not leaving your side." Not this time, not like before. Not ever.

She had broken her promise to him before, but she would not break it again.

Writing a separate story for Kass too, so this was also an add-on chapter for her! I have so much fun writing her and Tony! ;)

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :)