Chapter 2
He woke up slowly.
In itself, that should have been a hint as to the fact that he survived his attempt to kill himself, but, he has to admit, that at the time, he kinda forgot about it. Thankfully, he can blame it on the drugs that were running through his system at the time.
It was all kind of fuzzy when he opened his eyes only to squint at the strong light that came from the ceiling, but when his sight finally adjusted and he was able to look down at the itchy feeling that was crawling up his arms, a weirdly lucid dream came do mind as he took in the bandages that went from his wrists to his elbows. But was it a dream? It couldn’t have possibly been true, right? Why would he even- and then it came, the rest of the dream. That ugly, twisted dream that told him what kind of man Rogers really was, what kind of friendship theirs was. And it wasn’t a dream, no no, it was a Nightmare. And yes it deserved the capital n because fuck Rogers and fuck his boyfriend and fuck all of their merry band of assholes. Who had known? Did Natasha know? Did Clint? Sam might have known, but they hadn’t really been close- actually, fuck that, he should have told him if he did know, it was fucking human decency to tell someone the truth about their parents’ death. Fuck who had known, and fuck who didn’t, and-
“Mr Stark, are you with us?”
The voice startled him out of his thoughts, making his eyes snap to the man that was now to his left. He tried to sit up as the man neared him, having quite a struggle with his trembling arms. “Where am I?”
Before the man could answer someone opened the door and Thaddeus Ross came in. “You’re in the Raft, Stark”
Tony furrowed his brow. Talk about flashy entrance, how had Ross even heard his question? “And why, pray tell, am I here?”
“You lied, Stark, you told me you didn’t know where Barnes and Rogers were” he said fiddling with a red ball as big as a fist “and then you went there and helped them” Ross sighed “I’m very disappointed in you, Stark, very disappointed. You see, I thought we agreed, you and I-”
Tony laughed. He did not giggle. No sir. He didn’t. He laughed. And if it had to be defined, it would be defined as a rather manly laugh. And if he had, indeed, giggled, he could easily blame it on the drugs he was on
Anyway
Tony laughed in a rather manly way, thus interrupting Ross “are you seriously monologuing right now?” He asked amused “is that where we’re at right now? Cause if you pull any other super villain shit outta your ass I’m just gonna go ahead and ignore your-” the sound of the ball smacking the pavement stopped him. Tony was going to raise and eyebrow if it weren’t for the fact that a sudden wave of pain swept over him making his stomach clench, leaving him heaving, bile rising up his throat, leaving a burning sensation, and splattering on the floor. When Tony finally regained his breath he looked wide eyed up at Ross “what the- what the hell was that?” He asked breathlessly
“I thought we agreed” Ross continued ignoring his question “that actions. Must. Have. Consequences” he punctuated each of the tree words with the harsh slapping sound of the ball hitting the ground. Followed by the sound of his grunts as he tried not to yell or retch at the three waves of pain that almost drowned his consciousness.
He didn’t want to give Ross the satisfaction of his screams, so he clenched his teeth and swallowed the screams threatening to make their way past his lips, closing his eyes tightly enough to see spots, not daring to draw breath as moving anything would only worsen the pain. He gasped a breath when it finally ended. He took in a few trembling deep breaths before speaking again “you think you- you can keep me here? Huh? People will notice, Rho- Rhodey will notice, Pepper will notice, and you’ll be fucked when they find out what you’re doing to me” Tony laughed “you’re fucked, Ross, you’re done!” He smirked at Ross as he imagined Rhodey flying in and arresting the bastard “you’re so done, when the people’ll find out what you’re doing to their beloved Iron Man they’ll come for you” he said, grin splitting his face in half. But it started melt as he noticed the calmness in Ross’ eyes and the grin he was sporting.
Ross nodded “you’d think that, wouldn’t you? That people would notice the disappearance of the great Iron Man? But, you see, the vanishing of Tony Stark on the other hand… people don’t really care about it as much. All they needed to know was that Iron Man was dead and, by seeing their beloved hero’s carcass being dragged out of the bunker with Captain America’s shield embedded in its chest… well, it made it pretty easy for me to make them believe it. Actually, it made a lot of things easier for me. Like the Accords. Now everyone sees Iron Man’s death as a motive to sign the accords” Ross laughed “They didn’t even ask to see your body, the armour was enough for them. After all, they don’t really care about you, do they? They care about Iron Man and that’s it” he sighed “now, when we stitched up your arms, we inserted a chip in each of your arms, which melted into your nervous system, making me able to, when you aren’t- how can I say it? Docile… do this” he said letting the bill fall to the ground
He seized up in pain, all of his muscles tightening and trembling against the sheer force of the wave of pain. He didn’t know how much time passed, but it was the longest one yet. Finally spasming once released he gasped and coughed. Opening his eyes and looking at Ross while trying to draw deep breaths, he curled his upper lip and raised his chin in defiance “fuck you”
The ball slapped against the floor
So here he is now, half conscious, being dragged away from the medical room by two men who, by the way, aren’t being exactly gentle in their dragging. Spots are dancing in his vision and he must have blacked out at some point because now he’s on the ground breathing heavily. He tries to stay conscious and groans when he moves his stiff neck to see where he is. He closes his eyes as he focuses on staying awake. When he opens them again the lights are glaring at him making it hard to see. He looks around noticing for the first time the cell he’s in. There’s someone talking, but he can’t hear them over the ringing in his ears. He tries to see who it is but he can’t- he can’t focus. He clenches his eyes shut until the ringing goes away.
“Stark- Stark, do you hear me? Stark?” When he finally looks up, is to see Clint’s back in the opposite cell to his. But it isn’t him who’s talking, it’s Sam, to Tony’s right, looking confused if not a bit concerned “Stark, can you hear me?”
He grunts as answer, raising himself to a seated position against the wall, his ribs protesting all the way. Ross must’ve thought he would be okay with a few cracked ribs and no painkillers. He probably got his sternum replaced, or he wouldn’t be breathing right now
“What happened, Stark?”
He closes his eyes as he thinks about the past who knows how many hours. God, what the hell happened?
“Stark? Is Cap okay? Stark?”
Everyone thinks he’s dead and he’s stuck with people who pretty much hate him and that may have lied to him about his own parents
“What are those bandages around your arms? Stark?”
He rubs his eyes trying to prevent the incoming headache
“Are you okay?”
Fuck