Prompt 3: Palladium Poisoning (Provided by greekgirl211)
I'm already late for a thing I have to go to, so no commentary...
The ride back to the States from Monaco upset Tony more than he let on. There was a big issue here. The fact that he'd been attacked by a man with technology to rival his own, after promising the US government that no such technology would exist for years, was troubling, sure, but worse than that– worse than being proved wrong (Tony Stark was never wrong, dammit)– it made him realize something. At his hearing, Hammer had said that Tony wouldn't always be around to play protector, and the idiot hadn't even realized how true that was (ugh. Hammer being right was the only thing worse than Tony being wrong). Tony was dying, and he was dying fast. On top of that, this angry, Russian, wannabe dominatrix, Vanko knew he was dying. Once he was gone, who was there to stand against people like Vanko and protect America, or the World, or Pepper? He'd left his company to Pepper (which was the best thing he could have done for it, he was sure. She made a much better CEO than he ever did), but now he was faced with a bigger question: who could he leave Iron Man to?
The answers was pretty obvious. Rhodey. Even though he was the military's bitch sometimes, there was not a single person on the planet he would trust more with the responsibility of his greatest invention. Less obvious was the only question he had now: How did he give the armor to Rhodey? Sure, on an occasion or two he invited Rhodes to joyride in the silver armor, but if Tony tried to give it to Rhodey, he had no doubt would his friend start questioning his motives. The last thing he needed was to have Rhodey know he was dying. People got so stupid and mushy and pitying when they knew you were going to die, and like Hell was he going to let the last few weeks of his life turn into a Hallmark Channel, sentimental, 'I love you, man,' sob fest.
By Tony's birthday party, he still hadn't thought of a solution to the Rhodes problem, but he tried not to worry about it just then. Tonight was his birthday– his last birthday– and as Natalie-from-Legal had suggested, he was going to do whatever he wanted.
Of course, whatever he wanted stopped when Rhodey suited up. They fought, Tony lost, and as the good Colonel was flying away with the silver armor, Tony almost told JARVIS to override the system and bring the fun-sucker back. Maybe let him spend the night as an Iron Man statue in Tony's now destroyed living room. But he stopped himself. Rhodey had the suit. Sure, it wasn't how Tony thought he would come about it, but he had it now, and Tony hadn't done anything revealing to give it to him.
His secret was safe, and with his legacy split between the only two people he ever trusted, he could now ride out the rest of his life, consequences be damned. He smiled. With business out of the way, he could tackle his real bucket list. He'd always wanted to sit in that giant doughnut…
Hope you liked it, and special thanks to greekgirl211 for the prompt!
'Til tomorrow!
-WB
