Waking up in pain is nothing new to Tony. From constant hangovers to semi-normal cardiac arrest, the pain was something he was just used to. The pain stays despite what he does to subside his misery, growing with every breath he takes. The breaths he wishes he didn’t have to take. But he keeps living while the darkness claws at him
Everyone has their match in this world.
Soulmates are constants in this world of undecided circumstances. The soulmate bonds are something that can’t be replicated; each pair is different in their own way. The pairs are connected by their words, communicating through writing on the skin. Some people get their first mark by the age of four. If not at four, then they see it at ten. Rarely, someone must wait until twenty, but by then, people tend to give up on their soulmate if/when they get writing on their skin.
While everyone has a soulmate, that doesn’t always mean they live to see the writing on their skin.
At thirty-eight years old, Tony's skin remains empty of all pens or markers and the ache in his chest never truly dulls. But at this moment, something was different. A different type of pain took over the previous throb. Burning instead of aching, radiating from his chest to every part of his body.
His body screams in discomfort with every move he’s made since he opened his eyes. Even if the burning pain wasn't enough to keep him immobilized, the car battery attached to his chest would still hinder his ability to, more or less, do anything.
Panic fills his lungs as it wraps around his throat causing him to choke on the small amount of air he was able to bring in. A car battery is attached to him, keeping him alive. He kept his eyes trained on the magnet and guided his hand towards it.
The darkness begins to take over.
~
“It’s a magnetic suspension system. The shrapnel is heading for your atrial septum. While I removed what I could, I was not able to get all of it. That should keep the rest of it in place for now.”
Tony jumped, preoccupied with the car battery attached to his chest to realize he wasn’t alone. He glanced at the man as he attempted to overcome the pain and sit up.
The dimly lit cave closes in on them, surrounding them with the shadows. Dust fills the air and settles on their skin as the man walks over to Tony. His shadow cast upon Tony as he looms over him. The man glimpses down, observing his chest. “You see, the people in my village never lasted long with wounds like this. The walking dead was what we called them as it took a week for the barbs to reach vital organs.”
“Where are we?” He asks as he tries and fails to wrap his head around these words as his fingertips rest on his chest beside the magnet, almost wary to touch it.
The man hesitates for a moment and opens his mouth to speak as the door slams open, hitting the wall. Turning towards the door in a panic, the man grabs Tony's sleeve to pull him up before raising his hands to rest on his head.
“Stand up! Do as I do!” He hisses as Tony watches in confusion. Slowly bringing his hands to his head, he watches three men enter with the guns he made in their hands.
The guards glanced at each of Tony’s wrist, checking for something. Writing , he realizes bitterly, itching to grab his sleeves and pull them over his hands to hide his wrist from view. Instead, he clenches his fist, again and again, grasping the reality he once knew, desperate to keep ahold of it as the world crumbles around him.
The darkness, he decides, is better than this.
~
Build the missile, he was told. Build it and we will set you free, the man had said, lying through his teeth.
I refuse, Tony had said, ignorant to the lengths these people would go to in order to receive what they so desire.
Whether he built the missile or not, Tony knows he won’t get out of this place alive, but his only thought was that he doesn't have a soulmate. Not yet at least but now he never will.
His head is forced back underwater with a single breath as the only thing to accompany him. But that last breath will leave him too as it floats back to the surface.
And with this, Tony allows himself to succumb to the darkness.
~
The man greets him once again after he is dumped onto the dirt floor of their cell after his little water-boarding session.
“Stark.” He leans into Tony’s sight of view from his position on the ground. “Glad to see you are still living after you refused them. The people here do not take kindly to being dismissed, but I see you’ve learned that already.”
“Yeah? Well, I'm not exactly a people pleaser,” Tony says before stumbling to his feet. He placed a hand against his chest, willing the burning pain to go away.
“So I have gathered. You know we met once -- at a technical conference in Bern.”
Tony frowns as he searches his mind for any memory of this man -- or that conference for that matter. “I don’t remember,” He said, sitting onto the cot on the side of the room.
“You wouldn’t. “ The man chuckled quietly. “If I’d been that drunk, I wouldn’t have been able to stand, much less give a talk on integrated circuits.”
“Okay now that we’ve established that I don’t remember you, mind telling me your name?” Tony wondered if hearing his name would bring back any memory he may have of the man but he doubted it.
“Yinsen. My name is Ho Yinsen,”
Tony nodded as he rolled the name around in his head, trying to place it with a memory he may have retained even in his drunken state, However, the name didn’t stick anywhere.
“I’m Tony Stark but I guess you already knew that.”
“Everyone knows who you are, Stark.” Yinsen glances over at him from where he began to cook what looked like beans in a pot over a fire. “Whether it’s from your scientific research or your drunken scandals, I assure you, everyone knows who you are.”
Ouch, low blow. Though, Tony decides that he’s not wrong.
“Well, I believe for once my popularity isn’t the worst thing in the world. People will be looking for me.” At least, he hopes they are. Rhodey wouldn’t give up too quickly, right?
“I’m sure they are looking for you, but they will never find you here,” Yinsen begins before an uncertain look comes across his face. “The car battery is running out and they won’t turn on the generator till you start to work.”
Tony looks down, and does what he knows best; He masks his emotions, hiding how much Yinsen’s words truly affect him. Tony always knew he would never live to see the words of his other half never dance across his wrist as his soulmate wrote them with only him in mind. Maybe it was better that he never meet his soulmate. He’d never have to face the shame of knowing the person that would mean the most to him is disappointed with the universe's choice.
“You don’t like what you saw out there, did you? I didn’t like it either when those weapons destroyed my village,” He pauses. “What you just saw, that’s your legacy— your life’s work in the hands of these murderers. Is that how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Tony Stark?” Yinsen demands.
“Why should I do anything, huh? They’re either going to kill me or I’m going to die in a week.”
Tony expects Yinsen to give up and maybe even leave him to die. He is a dead man walking so hopefully Yinsen will save his breath and allow Tony to die with as much peace as he can get in this place.
But instead of doing any of that, Yinsen smiles.
“Then I suppose this is a very important week for you.”
~
They get to work. Hammering metal until their arms ache and welding things until the fire burns through the gloves. Working is the only thing keeping Tony sane, so he doesn’t stop.
For days on days, their lives consist of only working, eating, and barely sleeping. Escaping is all Tony thinks about as it consumes his mind and takes over. That's all he thinks about until the world comes to a screeching halt with a glance at his wrist.
‘hi’
One simple word was displayed proudly on the inside of his right wrist. Tony wasn’t sure when this word showed up or how long it had been there.
A line formed underneath the word and Tony could almost feel the pressure on his arm from the marker his soulmate was using to push one phrase from their skin into his.
‘i loev yu’
The letters were written slowly and messily as they showed up upon his wrist while he watched in disbelief. Not sure if he was hallucinating or just going insane, Tony rubbed at the writing, wondering if they would disappear once he looked again.
The words were barely recognizable, but they were still the best thing Tony had ever seen.
“Do you,” he began, voice low and filled with disbelief. “Do you have a pen?”
Yinsen adjusts his glasses on the bridge of his nose before handing Tony a worn-out marker and turning back to his work. The soft smile that overcame his face however, did not fade even as he tirelessly works on their only chance to escape.
Tony's eyes never left his wrist as he traced each letter with his finger, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that words were actually there.
He makes a decision on something he had contemplated his whole life.
Live or die.
He finally chooses to live.
Survive long enough to meet his soulmate.
Yeah, that sounds like a plan.
And the darkness finally subsides.
~
Somewhere, in Queens, New York, a boy with curly brown hair and doe eyes held a red Crayola marker in his left fist as he thought of what to write to his soulmate for the first time ever.
Six-year-old Peter Parker came home from school that day with a new determination to write to his soulmate after finally being able to read Amelia Bedelia front to back without asking Ms. Oliver for any help sounding out words. He wanted to be able to read without any assistance before contacting his soulmate so he would never have to ask for help reading their words. Whatever his other half writes is for his eyes only.
There’s so many words to write, Peter thought. He chewed on the bottom of his marker, desperately trying to think of the perfect thing to scrawl onto his arm.
After spending at least an hour thinking about what to write, Peter decided to tell his soulmate the words that always made him feel happy whenever his aunt and uncle tell him.
‘i loev yu’, he wrote slowly, focusing on the letters being recognizable so his soulmate knows how much he truly cares about them.
“Peter!” His Aunt May called, drawing Peter out of his concentration. He looked up for a moment before continuing to write, hoping his aunt could wait just a few more minutes so he could finish.
The boy stuck his tongue out in concentration as he finished the last word he wanted to mark on his wrist. He threw the uncapped marker onto his Star Wars bedsheets as he sat back and admired his handy work.
“Peter,” Uncle Ben said as he leaned onto the door frame. “It’s time for dinner and if you don’t come quick, I think May’s gonna steal all the dino-nuggets for herself.”
Peter looked up at his uncle and giggled. “You gotta stop her, Ben!” He cried, jumping off of his bed.
“I’ll try, but I need your help rescuing the nuggets from her clutches!” Ben ran out of the room towards his wife, hoping Peter would follow him instead of getting distracted by something else in his room.
Peter gave one last look towards his wrist as he kissed the words he wrote. He smiled a toothy grin to himself before chasing after his uncle, calling out for someone to save him some dino-nuggets.