Tony's Secret
Anthony Edward Stark had a secret. Well, to be fair, he had a lot of secrets. But this one, he kept buried as deeply as possible. In a world where classifications are required and how society treats you is dependent on them. There are 5 different classifications that one can be. Dom, sub, caregiver, little, and switch.
The first four are rather straightforward. Doms are individuals who, obviously, display dominant tendencies. They tend to take on jobs that put them in positions of power. Subs are individuals who, as one might guess, display submissive tendencies. They tend to take on jobs such as secretaries, butlers, and so on.
Caregivers act as the guardians to littles, caring for them and any needs they may have. Caregivers tend to take jobs that involve childcare such as teaching, pediatric medicine, etc. Littles are individuals who regress to a younger age than they are physically. This age can be anywhere from babyhood to being a teenager, it all depends on the little. Most littles don’t have jobs, as they are viewed as not being able to handle them.
Finally, switches, are individuals who display equal tendencies of more than one classification. The most common types of switches are ones that flip between being a caregiver and little or a dom and sub. However, there have been cases of other parings, and even some people who display tendencies from three, or even all four, classifications.
From a young age, Tony showed the classic signs of being a little, though his guardian Obadiah Stane, refused to acknowledge it. He consistently reminded Tony how his Father, Howard Stark, had been a dom and that he needed to be like that. Because Stark’s were made of iron. Not glass.
Tony’s butler, Jarvis, tried to undo the damage that Obadiah caused the young heir, but by the time Tony reached 15 and took his test, his view on the classifications was firmly skewed in the way that his guardian wanted it to be.
Tony hated himself when the results came back as him being a little. Obadiah paid a pretty penny to have them altered and for the boy to be labeled as a dom. He would spend the next five years resisting his headspace.
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It wasn’t until Afghanistan that someone found out. It wasn’t hard, of course, for Yinsen to figure it out. He was a doctor after all. He approached Tony about it when they were taking a break.
“So, you’re a little.”
Tony choked on the water he was drinking, looking over at the man in shock. “How do you-”
“I’m a doctor, Stark. It’s my job to know. And you’re not hiding it very well right now anyways.” Tony lurches, looking up towards the cameras he knew were hidden, recording them, and Yinsen lets out a small huff, shaking his head, “Don’t worry, they’re not knowledgeable enough to identify it. You’re showing small signs. Signs that someone like me would pick up. It’s only natural, considering the level of…stress you’re under.”
Tony relaxes slightly, leaning back in his chair. “Yeah, I’m a little. So what?”
“I thought you were labeled as a dom?”
“I am. What about it?”
“I supposed I’m wondering why you have a fake classification.”
“Because I’m a Stark. And they would never let me take over my company and wealth if they knew I was a little.”
“Ah. I see. Your country views littles as being incapable of managing such things. It is much the same here. I imagine it’s like that nearly everywhere.”
“Yeah. I know.” Tony’s voice is bitter.“Where I’m from, littles do not have adult headspaces. You must spend an extraordinary amount of time in one for this secret of yours to remain as such for so long.”“I haven’t dropped.”There is a moment of confused silence, and Tony sighs, elaborating.”Ever. I haven’t dropped…ever.” The man stares at him with an expression bordering on horror. “That is…” he trails off and Tony lets out a shaky sigh, turning away. He hopes silently that Yinsen will catch the hint and drop the subject. There are a few moments where Tony thinks the man might say something more, but eventually, he simply sighs and suggests that they continue working.
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The first time Tony drops is when he gets back home. It happens in the middle of the night when he is all alone, curled up in his lab, sobbing as he recalls the horrors that he faced in Afghanistan. JARVIS asks if there is someone that he could contact to help, but Tony screams for him to mute, insisting that he is fine.
Three days later, he came out of his lab as if nothing had happened. As if he hadn’t just spent all that time curled up in his soiled clothes, sobbing when he was awake and when he wasn’t awake, having nightmares that would wake him up, starting the whole cruel process over again.
He never mentions it to anyone.
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The second time that he drops is the night after Obadiah attempts to kill him and Pepper. He dropped right in the middle of his living room, sinking to the floor and sobbing, his pants becoming soaked as he lost control of his bladder.
That was the night that Pepper Potts found out that her supposed dom of a boss was, in fact, a little.
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The following years proved to be a lot easier in keeping his secret hidden. Pepper refused to allow him to entirely resist dropping, so when the urge got to be too strong, she covered for him. He quickly realized that occasionally allowing himself to fall into his headspace made it a lot easier to function in public.
However, he couldn’t allow himself to do so nearly as often as he truly needed. It was hard for him to care for himself considering he was on the younger end of the spectrum. JARVIS ran some tests and concluded that he tended to shift anywhere between eighteen months and about two and a half. Pepper set up a nursery space which was kept locked when Tony wasn’t using it, but it remained mostly unused except for the times that Tony truly couldn’t hold onto his adult headspace any longer.
When he wasn’t little, he threw himself into work. He decided he wanted to get away from Malibu and declared that he was moving to New York. He instantly got to work building a tower in the smack middle of the city, aspiring it to be run on entirely clean energy. Now that he was no longer in the weapons business, something he knew had his Father rolling in the grave, he expanded his horizons to…well everywhere. He started throwing out designs for cell phones, tablets, computers, and other devices. He expanded his programs for human welfare. He delved into clean energy. His days were so busy that he found time flying by faster than he could comprehend.
Tony finally was settling into a rhythm. Sure, the urge to drop was like a niggling itch that never went away. Sure, he was sleep-deprived most of the time and lived almost solely off of coffee. His life was stable. And nothing was going to change that.
Right?