Scars

Tony walked into his room he pulled out a blue box out of his closet the lid had a Lilly painted on it. Tony took a deep breath closed his eyes and opened the box. He didn't need to open his eyes to find what he was looking for in the box he knew exactly what was in the box and where it was. He had spent 16 years rearranging everything in it.

He quickly grabbed what he wanted and closed the box he let out a sigh of relief and opened his eyes in his hands was a flash drive. He put the box back in the top of the closet. Taking the flash drive he goes to the living room taking the tablet and sitting on the couch he plugs in the flash drive hesitant at first but eventually he presses a few buttons then places the tablet on the coffee table and sat back. He took a few deep breaths and relaxed waited for it to happen.

"You seem stressed, what's wrong Einstein?"

Oh, how beautiful she looked just standing there no problem in the world. Tony wanted to reach out and hug her have her hold him but he knew if he touched her he'd ruin this perfect unreal moment.

"Yo Strong"

Her long blond hair laid on the top of her head in a messy bun, she sat in a large unicorn sweater it hung off her shoulder and skinny jeans. Her fingers were painted black but toes in rainbow colors. Her eyes she gave them to their child brown and greenish blue. Tony was pretty sure she gave their child 88% of her beauty leaving him to give a good 12%. And was him being kind to himself.

"Tony, hey pal, talk to me?" she glitched appearing right next to him on the couch next to Tony.

"I've missed you"

“That can’t be the only reason why I’m here. There’s something else” Even now she knew something was wrong. Even now she read him so well.

“I’ve missed you. And I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“I’d say read a parenting book but after the pre-teens their no good, so I’ve heard” she laughed a bit

“I can’t do this alone. I need you” His eyes started to burn “ I’ve really missed you”

“all you had to do was plug me up. Me not here is your fault dickhead” she scolds him hitting his shoulder. He doesn’t feel it but he still laughs and pretends to be hurt.

She wasn’t real and he knew it she was simply the makes of his mind but he couldn’t really believe that even now he couldn’t handle the truth of the situation. The pain even now years later was too much to bear.

If it weren’t for his child he would have surely left the world behind for her. He would have joined her where ever she went. She was his everything, his soulmate, he was in so much paint when she had gone.

The pain at the moment was too much he had almost left the world once, almost joined her but his attempt had failed. A few days later he has stepped up to be a father and protect the last bit of her left on this planet. But that didn’t mean he stopped thinking about it. Being with her, loving her, joining her once more.

He thought about it but then he wouldn’t have become Iron Man, he wouldn’t have meet Pepper or Happy, he wouldn’t have met the avengers, he wouldn’t have watched his daughter grow.

He had to remember to thank her from bringing-No gifting him something so beautiful. For being his universe and creating his world.

“I love you Tony and I’ll always be here for you” Tony looked at her remembering all of her beauty inside and out. Was there anything to compare it to? His memory did her no justice. The real her radiated beauty.

“ I love you too. I’m sorry... I’m sorry I-”

“Tony” they both looked up to see Pepper behind the couch she had the look of business on her professional face but Tony could clearly see the look of anger and suspicion in her eyes. She put her purse down on the coffee table. Neither of them moved.

" Hello, I'm Lilith Vahallman everyone calls me Lilly"

"or demon, little monster, Satan's little helper" he chimed in

"The one time you read on religion and that's what you remember"

"A demon named Lilly"

"It's Lilith and fuck you" she flicked him off he laughed.

"Tony" Pepper snapped the attention back on to her “ May I asked what you’re doing here ? What is happening here at the moment?”

Tony stands up and approaches her “ Pepper, This use to be Lilly, Alice’s mother and my bestfriend. She died a long time ago. This is just....” he didn’t want to say it.

Suddenly she glitched and was across the couch closer to them. Tony reached down as if to touch her cheek but his hand instead went through finding no skin to grasp. Because she wasn’t here, she wasn’t real, she was a hologram, a program Tony made and stuffed with memories to make her seem real but she wasn’t.

"She's an A.I"

"No... she's just a memory. These are just memories that are placed in order to respond to the situation correctly. You're not real" Tony said with a sad smile.

Lilly gasped placing her hand on her chest dramatically “ You wound me Strong. I’m dumping you for Jarvis. He’s a real gentleman you know.”

Tony doesn’t say anything instead picking up the tablet on the table and presses a button and with that she fades away.

“I’m-I’m sorry, Tony I didn’t know” Pepper said as they both sat down on the couch.

"she was my best friend I love her. I loved her. I remember how it started we both just got out of bad relationships and we were just like fuck everyone else and let start doing each other. After about 4 months we finally understood we weren't meant to be with each other. we were a mess together... I remember the day we broke up it was funny."

Lilly was sitting on the couch next to Tony legs in his lap. They were just chilling in his house flipping trhough channels.

“Tony?”

“Yes my little demon”

“Tony” she says again he could hear the serious in her voice and out the remote down giving her his full attention “This isn’t working it doesn’t feel right,”

“What”

“Us dating. I’m dumbing you” she turns her attention back to the Tv and popped the las of their grapes in her mouth.

“No”

“No?”

“I can’t be dumbed. we’re going to have a mutual dumbing and you’re going to get more snacks”

“Fine” she rolled her eyes. With that she got more snacks they continued watching tv like nothing even happened.

Tony Laughed at the memory “ Just like that we broke up. But we didn’t stop being best friends. She still came to my place regularly. We still took trips together. We still partied together. We still did everything together.We just kicked out the whole romance part.

A week after the break up she told me she was pregnant."

Tony and Lilly were working on a car in his garage, well Tony was working on a car Lilly was watching and passing him tools. Lilly was as smart as Tony but didn’t do too well in the building section of things. Her brain was better than her hands most time.

For the last few days. Lilly had been acting strange Tony took notice but decided to wait until she was ready to talk about it. Which was today.

“hey, Tony, we’re bestfriends right?”

“Last I checked”

“but we come be more, we come be different. Finish this sentence. Friends with...”

"benefits"

"no"

"money"

"no"

"friends who have sex"

"no"

"friends who do drugs"

".... hell no"

"just tell me"

“Friends with.... a baby. I just went to the doctors and found out I’m 3 months in. What do you think?” Tony didn’t hesitate.

"His name shall be Anthony Jr. Genius Stark"

"no"

“ I don’ t know why but i didn’t hesitate. I was looking forward to the baby a bit nervous but i wanted my baby. Made two bedrooms one blue and another pink. I loved Alice before she got her. But then she got here and I realized holy shit she was pregnant with me and it was all real. It scared the shit out of me. All the fear I had during the pregnancy came flying at me as soon as she came into the world”

"parenting is pretty scary" Pepper laughed leaning into Tony.

“and... and then I was suddenly doing it alone and she was..” For some reason Tony found himself hesitating he didn’t know how to tell her, was he just going to spit it out. Yes, yes he was.

“Alice is a mutatnt”