Okay guys, it's been a long time, but I'm back! It took some time for me to settle down and get into routines after I moved and started school, but it's starting to get better. I hope that even if it took me a while to write this and post it, I will still have as much readers as normal. Thank you so much for being here, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!
Tony sat with his cheek leaned on his knuckles, struggling to keep his eyes open. There had been a long time ago since he needed to go out on a mission in the middle of the night, things had been quiet lately, especially after he took out the arc reactor. As far as Tony knew the other guys hadn't had any missions after he took it out either
"Why?" Tony suddenly asked. "Why did you take me back?"
"I found out... we found out, that... we need you" Fury said quickly. "And letting you fly all over the planet in that suit on your own wouldn't be safe for the human race" He pointed out just as quickly afterwards.
Tony tried to keep cool, but he couldn't anything to it but smile satisfied. He knew that Fury wasn't exactly fond of him and that feeling was returned, but they both respected each other somewhat anyways.
"This isn't a hard or big mission, but it requires something more than just a gun and a few soldiers. There has been discovered something we think is bombs in an industrial area in the outskirts of Mexico, with all the gasses and electrics in the area there will be no problem to take out every single house in dozens of miles radius. Your job... get the bombs away before that happens" An expectantly gaze was sent to all of the people in the room. "What are you waiting for?" Fury turned on his heel and walked quickly out of the room.
All of the Avengers stood up from their chairs and shuffled tiredly out of the room. The others felt just the same as Tony. When there hadn't been any missions lately, they had finally got some time to actually sleep throughout the whole night, and standing up in the middle of the night wasn't as cool now as then. All of them put on a brave face and parted to get ready for action.
Pepper walked stressed back and forth on the floor in the apartment waiting for Tony to get home. These damn missions, she had never learned to really relax when he was on one of them. What she did was just stressing through the whole day, always keeping herself busy and trying not to think about him even though she knew that every other second her mind would drift his way. When a mission took several days, Pepper would, at some point, fall asleep at the couch and then he would pick her up and lay her in the bed when he came home. Tonight she couldn't get to sleep again. This was Tony's first mission after he took out the arc reactor and it was his first time in the suit after whatever happened when Happy found him. She knew very well that it was triggering for his panic attacks, and she hoped with the whole of her heart that he managed to stay calm. Just the same moment as Pepper made herself a cup of tea with shaky hands, the door went up and a fresh Tony walked in. Pepper stared at him, not believing her own two eyes which caused her to pour more tea into her cup than it could hold. Her attention quickly went from Tony to the cup of tea when she felt hot water hit her feet and she jumped away from the table. A loud groan escaped her lips as she looked at the mess she had made, but it went over to a satisfied moan when Tony's lips suddenly were on hers. She stood there with the can of tea, not quite knowing where to place herself, she only knew that this was what she had been waiting for. When Tony stopped kissing her, he pulled her away, holding on to each of her arms and looking at her confused face with a big grin.
"I guess things went good?" Pepper asked not so sure if she was asking the right question.
"I'm back. I am seriously back on track. This is where I left it and I just can't seem to understand how I could've possibly wanted to throw all of it away" Because of me, Tony, you let it go because of me! Pepper wanted to yell at him, but right now it was important to support him.
"That's so good to hear Mr. Stark, now, where did we leave it?" Pepper raised one eyebrow and took his hand to lead him into the bedroom, and he willingly followed her.
Tony slowly opened his eyes when he heard that someone was calling his phone. A sleepy hand fumbled after it on the bedside table and clicked the answer button.
"Helloooo?" A groggy voice said.
"Hey Tony, hope I didn't wake you up?" The voice in the other end was playful and nimble.
"Ehhrm, no, no... No, of course not" Tony was suddenly a whole lot more awake when he saw that the clock had already passed 10 am.
"You see, you've got a visitor" The other voice continued, and then he hung up before Tony could ask any more questions.
He was quickly out of bed, being extremely careful not to wake up Pepper. All of their clothes were slung all over the room and Tony picked them up bit by bit until he came to his jeans, he threw them away and found a pair of sweats he had picked up from their apartment instead. On his way to the door he had to pass the kitchen and he slowly dragged with him a knife, afraid of what might meet him. When he came to the door, he waited a few seconds, just to have a little debate with himself on how smart it was to open it. Would it put anyone at risk? Maybe someone had finally come to kill him, when he so obviously couldn't do that himself, or it could just be Bruce. Tony slowly opened the wooden door and hid behind it so that if needed, he could attack the person coming through it.
"Ey, Tone?" A dark shadow walked into the dimly lit apartment and stopped a few steps inside when he couldn't see anyone. "Anyone here?" He said a bit louder.
"Shhh colonel, you're waking up my princess" Tony whispered and put a finger over his grinning mouth.
"Dear god, you scared the hell out of me! Is that a knife?" Rhodey pointed to the metal tool in Tony's hand.
Tony just shrugged it off and led him into the kitchen where he put the knife back in place and turned on some more lights. They both sat down on two barstools and just stared at each other.
"What?" Tony finally said and gave his friend a stupid look.
"Aren't you going to make me a suit?" Rhodey's eyebrows rose and the left corner of his mouth went slightly upwards.
Oh, yes, he absolutely was, and he remembered it even more now when he saw the drawings he left on the counter before he went to bed. He could paint and draw and plan all day long, but he would never be able to make it without his workshop. How long had these men used on fixing it anyways? In Tony's opinion it should've just taken them a couple of hours, but he had his reasons for thinking it would take more than a few weeks. All of the material lay outside in a tent with warmth in it and when all you needed was a drill to fasten the windows and a broom to clean up inside... there was no doubt Tony could do it himself, with a little help from a friend.
"Yes my dear platypus, yes I am" A little smirk passed Tony's lips as he jumped of the stool and walked towards the door again. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Tony waved his hand to tell Rhodey to come with him, and he sceptically dragged himself towards the door.
Tony walked straight to the elevator and pushed the down button to get down to the room he liked to call "Hall of Fame". The elevator opened and the two guys stepped inside. Suddenly Rhodey could see how tired Tony appeared, he was clenching to the railings surrounding the elevator and it seemed like he was about to fall down any second he let go of it.
"Are you okay dude?" Rhodey finally put a hand on his shoulder and looked worriedly at him.
"Yeah... sure... just tired" Tony whispered distantly as he focused on pushing the right button to the right floor.
Why couldn't he just have been in bed, sleeping together with Peps right now? Nothing was more appealing to him right now than that, and he was almost about to just stop the elevator and taking it up to the apartment again. Tony woke up from his thinking when the doors slid open and a hallway with white walls and dark purple carpet was revealed. Tony was quickly outside of the elevator, heading towards a wall with no doors, at least that was what normal people would think it was... Tony pushed on the wall and the whole of it opened up, revealing a big room with walls of concrete and black tiles as floor. The room was dark, but suddenly blue lights beamed on the floor making Rhodey jump. They continued to beam and float over the floor with a few seconds intervals and after a while there was blue lights formed as squares on the walls. Tony was heading straight forward, obviously knowing where he was heading at. When a blue light shot left on the floor, Tony followed it and put his hand on the wall when he came to it, right in the middle of one of the squares. Another blue light lit up on the wall formed as Tony's hand and the square loosened from the wall, revealing the Iron Man suit. Rhodey couldn't help it, he just had to let out a little gasp, it was just too cool. He tried to look around in the room, but the only thing illuminating it was the blue lights shooting across the floor and beaming on the walls. A little sting of jealousy hit Rhodey, but it disappeared as fast as it came, Tony deserved this. Tony did a weird gesture with his arms and the suit fastened to his body bit by bit until it was complete. Rhodey couldn't see it, but he knew that inside of the suit Tony was smirking.
"I don't have a second to lose" He said mystically and then a big part of the wall opened as if it was a garage gate.
Finally the room was illuminated and Rhodey could see that the room was in fact a sort of hangar with different small aircrafts, and that this was most likely the Avengers' "dressing room". He wouldn't mind being a part of them, really, he felt more like the nice guy when he was on missions, with the Avengers you never knew, that was a part of the excitement, maybe the government interrupted you and then you had to just forget about all rules that existed. A longingly gaze was sent after Tony and the suit as he flew out of the room. It didn't take long before Rhodey started thinking about what just happened, didn't he say he was going to make the suit?
"Wow, I didn't think the suit would be able to do all of this. Glad to have you back J!" Tony clasped his hands together and sighed satisfied at the sight of his fixed workshop.
"Glad to have you back too Sir. Feel free to interpret that the way you want" Tony felt warmth surrounding his heart as he heard his AI speak.
Finally he could move into the penthouse again, he had been longing for the opportunity to talk to Jarvis as much as he wanted and to and being in the workshop. There was this little lump of concern in his system that told him he didn't want to move in after all, but he just told himself not to listen to that lump and go tell Pepper that they could move in already. He started wondering about how long it would take for the carpenters to get the workshop back to how it was before the explosion, a week? A month? Maybe even several months? Anyways, Tony had made it in a couple of hours and it looked better than they would've ever got it. It looked like nothing had happened... just as messy as before. With one more thing off his mind, Tony got out of the suit and jogged down the stairs and to the elevator to get down to Pepper. When he opened the door into the apartment, he tried to be as quiet and gentle as possible and locked it carefully before he turned around and his whole body was sent into the door when he got startled by Pepper standing right in front of him.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you to treat your visitors with respect?" Pepper said strictly and moved one step away, revealing Rhodey sitting at the table drinking a cup of coffee.
"No one cared about me, I learned myself how to treat my visitors, apparently this isn't the right way to do it. Thank you for putting me in place" Tony said sounding very thankful. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm moving" He shoved Pepper away and gave Rhodey a little wink.
"What?" Pepper said, utterly confused.
"Let's just say that someone put some speed into the building progress of the workshop" Tony stopped and gave Pepper a playful smile that revealed everything.
"Oh no you..." Pepper followed Tony into the bedroom, telling him how stupid he was, while Rhodey got left alone in the kitchen, sipping from his cup and shaking his head in resignation.
"About treating your visitors with respect" He mumbled after them.
A few seconds later Tony walked hastily out of the bedroom with some clothes in his arms and with Pepper right behind him, still arguing and yelling at a Tony that wouldn't listen to her. Rhodey had to laugh a bit to himself, they were made for each other, the one being awfully responsible and the other awfully irresponsible. Everyone around them had just been waiting for them to get together, so when Rhodey found them on that rooftop after blowing up Vanko, he wasn't even surprised by a bit. He hoped that he could get a girl like that one day too, but he was married to his work and his best friend and right now he didn't need anything more than that, except from one thing...
"SO, Tony, about that suit..." Rhodey tried to interrupt their arguing to get them both to shut up.
"Yep, follow me" Tony said, still running around the whole apartment collecting things while he was cursing to himself and coming with witty comments to his quarrelsome girlfriend.
Rhodey did follow Tony out to the hallway, into the elevator and up a few stairs before they were inside the "old" apartment of theirs. The exact same moment as they were inside, Tony dropped everything in his arms right down on the floor, making a pile of cell phones, clothes and other small things he had had with him in the other apartment. Not until now did Rhodey notice that Pepper wasn't with them and he started shivering, not because of that, but because of the cold. He felt like going out to catch some warmth again.
"Yeah, it hasn't quite reached normal temperature in here yet, but Jarvis will fix that" Tony smiled kindly when he saw how Rhodey was shaking of the cold. "Let's get down to the workshop and do some planning!"
For about two hours Tony and Rhodey sat in the workshop, disagreeing and agreeing to new and old details to the War Machine suit. Some new features were added and some others deleted until they were satisfied with the looks and specifics of it. Pepper came down once and planted a kiss on Tony's forehead before she gave them two sandwiches each and returned to the couch upstairs. Tony was working, and when he was, he was in a whole other universe than her. There was no point in trying to interrupt him. Starting to face him with the fact that he had fixed the Stark Tower all by himself now was not a thing to do, she would have to take that up later. What was the problem anyways? She knew that the carpenters would've been working for several weeks too, maybe she should just let it go, but once she started letting him do these things he wouldn't stop it there. Tony could think that he was able to anything whenever and however he wanted to do it, and sometimes it just got too much, that was why he needed her. She decided to let it go and just let him feel good for once. It was weird how she had started pitying him for the last weeks, she felt like he was so much more vulnerable, like you could just look at him and he would shatter into a thousand pieces. She hated herself for feeling that way because she knew he hated it, and she didn't feel like he was as able to protect her now as before. It was silly and egoistic thinking like that, she told that to herself all the time, but her mind was just drifting away on its own and she couldn't anything to it. After several hours of just thinking and turning some attention to the TV, Pepper fell asleep at the couch, curled in on herself and with the remote in her hand. When Tony found her like that when he and Rhodey were all finished he started worrying if he might've said or done something really wrong, because the only time she fell asleep on the couch was when she couldn't stop thinking. He found a warm blanket and laid it neatly over the tiny figure before he walked to the door together with his friend.
"Shouldn't you have been to work today by the way?" Tony suddenly realized that the colonel taking a day off wasn't normal.
"Yeah, I probably should've gone to work, but I guess my students doesn't mind a day off, and when they hear why I was gone… Oh, they're smiles are gonna go all around their heads!" Rhodey whispered not to wake Pepper, but Tony could tell how excited he was anyways.
"Just keep quiet about it until you get it, rumours like that spreads like wildfire in the army. Make sure you give them a good show when you arrive with it" A little smile appeared on Tonys lips as he whispered to his friend.
Rhodey gave him thumbs up and then Tony slowly closed the door and returned to his girlfriend. He sat down next to her head and lifted her gently up to get her to lie in his lap. She groaned and shifted slightly, but Tony hushed her and started stroking her hair so that she fell asleep again. He sat like that, stroking and kissing her head, for about twenty minutes until he was interrupted by a voice coming from the earpiece he had left in since the last mission.
"Stark, we've got another one"
IMPORTANT, READ THIS!
I know it's been a long time now with things just being good and perfect and all, but this is the last chapter where I'm playing nice. I felt like I owed Tony a good time, he needed it, but it's over now. The next chapters will be totally over-whumped! And also the days at school are long and the hours just flies away when I'm in the stable with my new friends, so review and make me happy and motivated. You can review as a guest too, come ooon be a little kind to me, it's the least you can do, right?