London
“I can’t do this.” Tony paces around the waiting room, for what Wanda is sure a sixtieth time. “I can’t do this…”
Wanda sighs, silently admiring the stressed out man before her. Tony had been freaking out about this meeting during their whole flight to London. He even got to the point where he asked Wanda to cut his hair a little bit, so he wouldn’t look so much like his Father.
Luckily for him, Wanda has experience with cutting someone’s hair, so he doesn’t look like someone who got run down by a mower. Tony asked Her to keep his hair longer at the top, so the tips from his left side curled down and fall on his forehead, while his sides are a bit more cut shaven. He also adjusted his beard a bit.
He looks hot…
“I can’t do this. I can’t do this…” Tony repeats, his eyes frantically looking around the room as he takes a one step closer to the exit, only for Wanda to caught his arm and pull him back.
“Yes you can.” Wanda says, firmly and reassuring, dragging him to his seat. “You will go in and say whatever you need to say. You know you want too and you need too.”
“You make it sound so easy…” Tony sarcastically mutters, frowning at her. “That woman used to be in my life for my whole childhood. I adored her. Kids always loved Captain America, but for me, She was my hero... But as soon as her condition got worse and she started calling my “Howard” I simply.. I just couldn’t take it anymore. So, kept my distance, and I felt like I just lost another Mom…”
“You saw her as your second Mom?” Wanda softly asks, looking at him in sadness.
“Yes… well third. There was Anna Jarvis who was simply the best.” Tony quickly answers without hesitation with a hint of smile on his hips. “My Mom was a great and caring Mother, but she was also the wife of Howard Stark. She was always busy and sometimes couldn’t simply make time for me. But Aunt Peggy always somehow managed, despite running a super spy organization, or taking care of her own kids.”
“She has her own kids?” Wanda questions, looking surprised, before quickly shaking it off. “Sorry.. I just, Steve talks about her sometimes and he made it sound like if they were soulmates.”
“Soulmates?” Tony scoffs, shaking his head with narrowed eyes. “They didn’t even date, they just kissed once. Rogers has been actually banned from visiting Peggy, because he just kept confusing her even more then she normally is. Of course, he still keeps trying to get in here… Stupid asshole.”
“Tell me about her kids?” Wanda offers a talking topic, not touching the topic about Steve anymore.
“Yeah… Edwin and Danielle.” Tony smiles nostalgically. “They were like my older siblings. Edwin was a teasing bastard, but Dani was always so overprotective of me…” Tony laughs a little. “You should’ve seen what she did to the first girl I have been with… Sunset never dared to come near me again, not that I would let her...”
“Why?” Wanda asks with furrowed eyebrows
“She used me.” Tony answers, shrugging it of. “I was 14 and she was 17. I had a big crush on her, and she knew it, so she seduced me and manipulated me into giving her gifts and that kind of shit.”
Wanda wants to ask more, but seeing Tony’s pained expression makes her reconsider and she eventually completely drops it off. “So, are you, Edwin and Danielle still in contact?”
“No.” Tony admits, biting his lips. “There was an… incident between Me and Carter’s family and I haven’t seen them since Edwin’s wife gave birth to their Daughter.”
“What accid-“ Wanda starts, but is cut off when old looking man walks out of the room and immediately smiles at them, walking towards them.
“Tony.” Daniel Sausa greets, pulling the man into a small hug. “Look at you… You look well.”
“Hello Uncle Dan.” Tony greets, returning the hug, but Wanda can see that he is feeling nervous by it for some reason, probably the in incident he mentioned before… “You don’t look bad yourself… considering your age.”
“You and that big mouth of yours…” Daniel mutters, amusingly shaking his head, before focusing at Wanda. “And who is this beautiful young lady?”
“Hello. I’m Wanda, Tony’s-“ Wanda blushes slightly and freezes for a moment, taking a glance at Tony before turning back at Daniel with soft smile. “Friend.”
“Uhhhmm. Well, it’s nice to meet you.” Daniel says, looking between the two of them with amused expression, before focusing at Tony again. “She is waiting for you, mate.”
Tony’s eyes immediately go into panic mod, his breathing going faster every second, so Wanda slips her hand into his, giving him a tight reassuring squeeze, making him look towards her with a pleading look. “Come with me…”
“Tony…” Wanda mutters, shaking her head in apologizing manner.
“No, it’s fine.” Daniel quickly interjects, giving them a reassuring smile. “She likes having more people around anyway. Keep an eye on the Lad and… Good luck.”
Daniel leaves, leaving Tony staring at his retreating figure with unreadable look, as he stands beside Wanda, tense with his hands slightly shaking.
“Come on.” Wanda softly whispers, opening the doors and gently pushing completely frozen Tony inside, following closely behind him and closing the doors.
****
Tony stares at the woman he adored since he was a baby with wide, tearful eyes. Peggy is lying on her bed, covered from toes to neck with white blanket, hooked up to multiple medical machines.
She has a oxygen mask on her face, helping her breath normally and is sickly pale, her hands are visibly shaking too and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out she doesn’t have a lot of time.
Peggy’s eyes meet his and she weakly smiles, reaching for her oxygen mask and slowly taking it off, smiling a bit more. “Howard you came!”
Tony visibly flinches, closing his eyes to keep the tears from spilling down. He can feel Wanda running supportive circles on his back, but he doesn’t care right now.
Peggy doesn’t recognize him…
He knew that might be the case, but he still allowed himself to hope…
“I…”
“Anthony?” Peggy question with soft and Tony’s eyes snap back at her in an instant, only to see her eyes glowing Red.
“I’m giving her some soft or clarity…” Wanda explains, her own eyes closed in clear concentration. “I don’t know how long I can keep it up…”
Tony slowly walks up to Peggy’s bed, giving out a broken chuckle, as he takes her hand into his and kisses her knuckles. “I have at least thousand things I would like to say on my mind right now… but none of them seem…”
“Important?” Peggy finishes for him with a small laugh. “I’m happy you came, Anthony. It’s good to see you for one last time…”
Tony froze again. “You know that you are…?”
“Dying?” Peggy finishes for him again, smiling softly at him. “It’s not hard to figure it out when you have a clear mind.“
“Maybe there is something I can do…” Tony starts, frantically. “Look at me, I managed to enhanced myself and now I look like I’m just thirty years old…”
“You are a smart, beautiful and brilliant man, Anthony.” Peggy says with a proud smile, before pursing her lips into a thin line. “But you aren’t a God.”
“I don’t wanna say goodbye…” Tony pleads, his head falling down and his grip on her hand desperately tightening.
“It’s okay.” Peggy reassures him, lifting his chin up. “I will be always with you, even if I’m not there physically. I will watch over you.”
“I know you will.” Tony mutters with soft knowing smile, throwing his arms around her and hugging her tightly.
Peggy immediately hugs him back, smiling into his chest. “I’m proud of you…”
Tony and Peggy break apart and Tony sees the Red color vanish from her eyes, as she blinks a few times and then turns to him with soft smile again. “Howard you came!”
“Yeah… I did.” Tony mutters, sadly. “Look, I need to go now, but I will come back tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay.” Peggy agrees, looking thoughtful for a moment. “Could you tell someone to get me coffee? I like coffee, I swear, Anthony go me addicted.”
“He is like that.” Tony smiles, standing up and walks to breathless Wanda, who is still trying to catch up on her breath, before looking back at Peggy. “Goodbye Peggy.”
Peggy smiles and waves “Goodbye.”
Tony and Wanda walk outside, with Tony stoping behind the doors, just standing there and staring at the wall, before turning to Wanda with tearful and grateful eyes. “Thank you…”
“It’s fine-“ Wanda waves it off, still trying to catch her breath, but then, Tony does something she didn’t expect..
Tony pulls her into a tight hug, burying his face in her neck and Wanda can feel small wet drops on her skin, as she hugs him back. When they pull apart, Tony gives her a sad smile, before he shakes it off and puts on his confident face. “Where are my manners? Would you like a personal tour of London, Ms. Maximoff?”
“I would like that, Mr. Stark.” Wanda smiles, playing his game, as Tony offers her his name and she takes it, letting him lead her out of the building.
****
Tony showed Wanda all around London. They visited Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and even had a ride on the London eye. That’s probably the first place, Tony smiles at, since they left Peggy.
Eventually, they ended up in a small bar just outside the city, where Tony is trying to convince Wanda into trying some iconic British food. Mainly the pies. Wanda settled down on Molasses Pie, while Tony just keep stealing some bites out of it, every while and then, between his storytelling of some of his funny memories of Peggy.
“So, I was there, tied up to a chair and Peggy just stormed in, without even saying a word and started shooting.” Tony finishes the story of his first kidnapping. “Those guys were so shocked, that they didn’t even try to shoot at her. It was also very traumatic back then, but now… I can’t help myself but laugh.”
“What happened then?” Wanda asks, eagerly listening to him, but also looking slightly concerned for the 7 years old Tony.
“She took me to hospital and later had a good long screaming rant on my Father.” Tony answers, smiling at the memory. “Ahh. Good times…
A four buff and clearly drunk guys walk up to them, mainly looking at Wanda as if she was a bag of meet and completely ignoring Tony’s presence. “Hello Love. Maybe you can brighten up our evening?”
“Fuck off.” Tony growls, immediately going into his “protective mode” while his eyes start to glow, and are only masked by his sunglasses. “She isn’t interested.”
“Are you sure, Mate?” Another one question with a smirk. “And what are you? Her Knight in shiny armor?”
Wanda chuckles at his, because she finds this really ironic, considering that Tony really has a shiny suit of armor. She would normally take care of this guys herself, but seeing Tony’s look makes her reconsider, as she is really interested about how will this whole situation escalate.
“You could say that.” Tony answers with a knowing smirk, directed at Wanda, before looking at the guys again. “Go home. You don’t want this fight.”
“We will see about that.” The obvious Leader of the group exclaims, looking arrogantly confident in their abilities.
“Well, it was worth a shot…” Tony mutters to himself, pulling his sunglasses down and immediately sucker punching that guy and sending him crushing into a nearby table, before looking at the others with smirk on his face. “Shall we?”
One guy immediately grabs an empty bottle and aims it at Tony’s head, but Tony grabs his, arm and redirects this attack on to the Second guy, smashing the bottle over his head, before kicking under the First’s feet.
Tony then grabs another empty bottle and throws it at the third guy’s head, knocking him out, as the very first one guy recovers and grabs a knife from the table, trying to make a slash on Tony, who easily dodges and flips him over his back, before reaching for a drink, and taking a quick sip, before also
Tony grabs a drink from another table and takes a sip, before throwing the glass at the third guy, knocking him out, as the very first guy recovers, and picks a broken leg table up and quickly rushes at Tony, who just easily dodges, clearly enjoying himself.
Wanda watches the fight from their table, feeling slightly amused, as practically the whole bar joins the fight. She takes a quick glance at the waitress who doesn’t look bothered by this at all, as if this was her normal Thursday. She even hands Tony another drink, before Tony smashes another guy over the pool table.
“Oh great another bar fight.” An older man exclaims to his friend from behind Wanda. “I bet 20$ on that guy that’s kicking ass.”
“He has some nice moves.” The friend praises, looking amazed and impressed, before addressing Wanda directly. “Your Boyfriend is really charming and strong. You are lucky Young Lady!”
“He is not my Boyfriend!” Wanda quickly denies, blushing really hard, as an empty bottle flies over her head and she continues eating her pie, silently enjoying the show, while also being deeply in thoughts.
“Phew...” Tony stretches his arms up, smiling at his handy work and beaten opponents. “This was fun! The last time Rhodey and I got into a bar fight was almost 10 years ago.”
“Feeling better?” Wanda questions, standing up and putting his sunglasses on, while adorably titling his head to him. “These are actually pretty cool.”
“Want a pair too?” Tony asks, smirking. “And yes. I do feel better…”
“Glad we could help, Mate…” One of the beaten man breaths out, before falling unconscious again.
Wanda and Tony exchange amused looks, before Wanda’s eyes land behind Tony and her face expression quickly changes to horrified one. “Oh my god…”
Tony follows her eyes, seeing a TV above the bar and seeing News broadcast from a city called Lagos. “The Avengers Blow up a local building. 74 people injured, 36 dead.” Tony can feel his Extremis level rising, as he quickly grabs Wanda’s hand and starts dragging her to the exit. “Come on… We are leaving.”
“Hey! Wasn’t that Tony Stark?” One of the beaten guys asks one of his friends, holding his bloodied nose with a pained expression. “Did we just get beaten by Iron Man himself?”