Restart [ discontinued ]

While you and Tony had a rough few years together- you as a rebellious and reckless child, and Tony as a neglectful and near deadbeat father-, ever since he became Iron Man he had gotten progressively better and more active in your life; with the help of Pepper and occasionally Happy of course.

And ever since you obtained the suit and mantle of Apex, which you’ve since changed it to just your name in later years, you two have definitely bonded more. Though, you two did have the occasional rough bumps here and there. But they say that fights only made your relationship stronger.

Tony would even dare say that he practically knew you like the back of his hand, especially since you two share the Stark gene.

But now, he’s not really sure about that anymore as he watches your hunched figure scribble incessantly over a journal. 

You seemed to not have noticed your father standing in the doorway to your room. You were far too preoccupied with whatever it was that you were writing down to notice, and if you did, you didn’t show that you cared.

While this wasn’t out of the norm of you to be unaware of your surroundings, it was because you typically had loud music blasting; mainly to annoy your father.

But your room was filled with nothing but your pen scratching against your journal. No music, no TV, no background noise.

That made Tony feel cautious. He could normally tell how you were feeling depending on the genre of music you’d play, but he didn’t know what complete silence meant.

Were you angry? 

Tony did yell at you a couple of days ago. You had been especially reckless on the last mission and had nearly gotten crushed by a falling building. Though you both knew you kind of deserved it, you were as hard-headed as your father. You didn’t take the reprimand well and had a yelling match that led to Steve and Clint dragging you two apart from each other.

Though you normally didn’t hold grudges, you still could.

Maybe that explained the silence?

No, Tony knew that wasn’t it. If you were angry, you’d have locked the door. But it was wide opened in the first place.

So what was it?

As Tony kept thinking silently, he hadn’t noticed you lean back and stretch. You turned around and saw Tony behind you.

“Jesus-!”

Tony snapped out of it and saw you stare at him with wide surprised eyes. Your eyebrows furrowed as you placed your hand on your chest jokingly.

“Dad, don’t stand there like a creep- say something why don’t ya’!”

Tony smirked and went towards you. He patted you on the back and sat right next to you on your bed.

“Sorry to scare you champ, just thought I’d give you a moment writing in your diary- or diaries, it seems.”

You sent him a smile; one without any malice in it, which unnerved Tony a little bit. You swerved a bit in your swivel chair- you must’ve gotten a new one just now since he doesn’t recognize the new color. Did you get a new desk too?

“What’s up pops?”

Tony mocked shivered and rubbed his hands.

“It is so cold up here- how do you not get frostbite from this?”

Tony jests, but in reality, he was trying to see how you would respond to him joking around. If you were still moody, you’d scoff and flip him off like usual. If you weren’t, you’d joke back at him.

You raise an eyebrow and stood up. You walked over to your doorway which had the thermostat next to it.

“I swear I turned up the temperature yesterday- is the AC not working?”

While you fiddled with the AC, Tony was confused.

That was not the response he was expecting.

He has known you for nearly your entire life, and not once had you ever changed the temperature on your floor of the tower. It had always been staggeringly cold, but now that Tony thought about it, it wasn’t as cold as he had remembered it to be. 

Tony stood up and approached you.

“Hm, no, it says 72 degrees,” you muttered quietly.

You jumped when you felt your dad’s hand on your shoulder. You turned around and looked at him.

“Hmm?”

Tony had an unreadable expression on.

“(Name), are you feeling okay?”

Your expression clearly said you had no idea what he was talking about. Tony sighed and motioned you to sit down, which you did. He sat down in front of you on your bed once again.

“Is it from that fight a few days ago? I know I can be harsh, but you know that I only want the best for you, right?”

You still had that dumb expression on, if not it was even worse this time. Tony raised an unimpressed eyebrow and waved his hands around. As serious as he wanted to be, the sarcasm had to come through one way or another.

“Y'know. The mission we had. In Washington. You almost got injured badly because you were being dumb. And I yelled at you for it when we got back. Hello- does that not ring a bell to you?”

He was exasperated; he was starting to think that you must have sustained some type of brain damage for you to instantly forget about something as recent as that. You always remembered every single detail, even the ones Tony would rather you forget.

This was concerning if he was being honest.

He thought you might have been at least ticked off from remembering that fight, but all he got was a smile and understanding eyes.

“Oh, that! Yeah, don’t worry, I deserved that. Totally.”

While your words say that you remembered, your eyes said it loud and clear.

You didn’t have a single clue what he was talking about.

Tony didn’t know how to respond. But he was just glad that you weren’t mad at him. He stood up and you watched him with observing eyes. 

“Anyways,” Tony knew there was no point beating a dead horse, so he might as well move on, “What’ve you been writing these days? Filled up a bunch of journals, huh? Especially with that… Fancy handwriting.”

Your shoulders instantly stiffened.

“Oh, that, uh- just some notes for class.”

He looked at you, silently asking permission to go through your stuff. Last time he did that without your permission, you nearly tasered him had it not been Clint that intervened.

You scooted away from the desk and let him have a full view of your notes.

Much to his annoyance, it was all in shorthand, something he could surprisingly not read. It wasn’t that he can’t, he just never bothered to learn. Then again, it might be because this was your one way of keeping a secret from him. In a world where security was getting scarce, he might as well let you have that one thing to yourself- shorthand.

Though, he can say that you definitely wrote a lot- enough to fill a few journals. Granted, there were a lot of pictures and diagrams, and a lot of pages seemed to be ripped out.

The trashcan right next to your desk- when had that been there?- was overflowing with crumpled up paper. He took one last glance at the journals and hummed. He wasn’t going to pretend to know what they were about.

“That’s a lot. You’ve been getting yourself busy with studying, huh?”

“Yeah, gotta cram for AP exams, you know?”

Tony lingered a little longer but gave his son a smile. 

“You better not fail, okay?

He didn’t say another word as he left your room. You were smiling as you went back to work, unbeknownst to Tony’s worried thoughts about you.

"Something’s wrong with him, I know it!”

Bruce looked at Tony with an exhausted expression. He took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Maybe he’s just going through a phase or something- he’s still a teenager Tony.”

Bruce watched as Tony rolled his eyes and pace back and forth. He had been in his section of the lab minding his own business when Tony had busted through in a mild frantic about his son.

“He’s gone through many phases before, but they all last around 5 years each! The introvert phase, the Hulk phase,” Bruce sighed, knowing that that phase was when you were especially angry at your father, “The emo phase, and now the rebellion phase! He’s still got a few more years till the next one comes around- so why’s he acting weirdly now?”

“Maybe your theory about that 5-year phase change is wrong?” Bruce offered, but he was only met with another eye roll.

“I’m never wrong- besides, he’s my son. I know when he’s not being normal.”

While Tony and Bruce bickered in the lab- more like Tony ranting about what the new phase is and Bruce reluctantly listening-, a certain super soldier had just so happened to pass by the lab and heard them talking about you.

“What’s all this about (Name)?”

Tony spared Steve a glance. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere else? What, did Fury not give you a new mission?”

Steve sent Tony an unimpressed raised eyebrow. Bruce spoke up.

“Tony thinks something’s wrong with (Name). Says he’s acting weirdly.”

“How so?”

“He turned the temperature up. He's never turned the temperature up!” Tony exclaimed. 

Steve leaned against a nearby table and crossed his arms.

“Maybe he’s had a change of heart. Can’t be that major.”

Steve hadn’t known you for long, though he already had a general idea as to your personality and habits: you were similar to your father as much as you’d say otherwise. You were also hardheaded and rebellious, which was a bit of a pain when you were sent on missions.

“He also forgot I yelled at him. You should’ve seen it- he looked like I told him that magic is real!”

Steve looked down and stifled a smile.

Bruce shook his head.

“Maybe he had a concussion.” Bruce offered.

Tony pointed his hands at Bruce with an exaggerated expression.

“See? That’s what I thought too!”

“J.A.R.V.I.S., get this out of my face.”

Just as the live camera footage was once in your face, it quickly left as J.A.R.V.I.S. said a quick ‘yes sir’.

While you thought you had put up a good front in front of Tony, you knew he wasn’t a fool. Besides, he was just as good as an actor as you were; you both knew something was up with the other.

And while you were glad that he just thought you were going through another phase- hearing Tony mention your 'emo phase’ gave you damn near second-hand whiplash- you knew this wasn’t ideal.

After finally coming to terms that you had been sent to the past, you didn’t know what to do. What you did know, was that you needed to write down what had happened from the new now- 2013- to the old now- 2023- just so you hadn’t forgotten.

You’re nearly done, but there’s just one part of your memory that had escaped you. What had really happened before you were transported to this timeline? There was an explosion, you were stuck, and then… You crushed something…

You shook your head. It didn’t matter, for now, it’ll come to you eventually.

Thankfully you’ve never gotten out of the habit of writing in shorthand, so when Tony peered at your journals you had easily played it off as studying for AP exams. Though, you weren’t sure which AP exams you even had right now.

Your lips were held in a firm line and your eyes were narrow. 

You were more than conflicted. Should you act how 2013 you would? Or should you try to mold this timeline into a timeline where you all win?

For now, you’ll see how it goes.

Few days had past and by now, you were acutely aware that the rest of the Avengers knew something was up with you. Even if they were being subtle, you’ve known them for longer than they would ever know.

Natasha had been trying to encourage you to talk more, saying how you should know that you shouldn’t be afraid to talk to her about things. You did know her for longer than the others; she did introduce herself to you and your father when she went by the name 'Natalie’. Though, you weren’t sure if that counted since she was undercover.

Bruce, Clint, and Steve tried to be more like what you interpreted as a father figure to you- not that they weren’t trying to do that beforehand, anyway. Though, Clint was especially worse than the others, considering he has children… Not that the Avengers knew of yet.

As for Thor, he didn’t hide it that well. He checked up on you more often than usual and lingered around a bit more. You appreciated him trying, but the big guy was starting to get a bit tiresome.

And your father… You had forgotten how annoying he could get when he’s worried.

“You want some juice? Maybe milk? Or are you craving for some coffee right now? God knows where we’d be without it.”

You sighed and rubbed your head. You had told Tony you wanted your own laboratory on your floor and while it was under construction, you had no choice but to move your work area to the Stark laboratory temporarily. Though, he hadn’t stopped bothering you ever since you entered the lab.

“Dad, no, I’m fine-”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

Cold and standoffish. If you remembered correctly, that’s how you acted around this time. You winced, not liking the way it came out of your mouth. As much as it pained you to be an asshole to your dad, you needed to get him off of your back.

Tony furrowed his eyebrows.

“(Name)…”

You looked up at him, swiveling your head fast enough to look like a jerk. You frowned and stood up.

“Look, dad, I don’t know what you’re thinking right now,” lie, you do. “But you need to get off my back. I’m fine, okay?”

Your heart aches a little to see your dad frown. You wanted to punch yourself for being an asshole right now. Jeez, how much of a jerk were you when you were actually 17?

“You sure?”

While it wasn’t noticeable, you clenched your fist when you heard how smaller he sounded than before. It was slight, but it was there.

“Yeah, whatever.”

You turned around to not look at him and sat back down at your table. You wanted to turn around and hug the poor guy. He’s done too much for you to be treating him this way, even if you have to.

Tony looked at the back of your head with both worry and relief. While you seemed to be back to normal now, he might’ve made you angry again.

Both of you sat in the lab silently, an air of awkwardness looms over the both of you.

But neither of you had time to sulk quietly before Steve stormed through the lab. You snapped your head at him with wide eyes. He had his shield on his back while wearing his uniform- that obnoxious blue suit would’ve made you laugh but this was serious.

“Tony, (Name)-” he looks at you with a hard expression, “We have another mission. Suit up.”