Jet Pack Blues
Tony Stark was born with a timer on his wrist. 36 years, 3 months, 20 days, 40 minutes, and 2 seconds. It ticked the second he was born, telling them at the age of 36 he was to meet his true love. Everyone knew that no matter what happened, the universe made people meet at that very second and it had managed it.
Tony had heard commotion outside of his office late at night. He generally ignored his timer, being a playboy and not giving any thought to it.
“I will peppers pray you if you touch me!” A female voice said from outside of his office. That made him interested.
Going outside, he saw one of his female employees with a stack of folders and her hair ruffled. He could see her wrist counting down a few seconds. He glanced at his own to see his own timer ticking to the last few seconds. The bodyguards moved back the second they recognized Tony was out of his office and the woman huffed. She turned to Tony and frowned.
“Mr. Stark, my name is Virginia Potts.” She was a light ginger with many freckles on her face. She was beautiful. Tony felt a tingling from his wrist and he noticed that she had no way of carrying pepper spray on her. “I am from the financial department and I realized you messed up in your reports. You recorded an extra zero on a few papers and some personal documents. Your company will fail if you do not address it. Of course, it could just be an employee-”
“Virginia, was it?” Tony cut her small tirade off. She straightened up and nodded. “I think Pepper would be a cute nickname for you. You obviously don’t have Pepper spray and I like your confidence.”
With that, Tony had fallen in love with Pepper Potts, his soulmate.
-
A few years had past, and Tony had become Iron man. He still had no idea who his platonic soulmate was, or if he had one. It didn’t matter much to Tony, as he balanced Stark Industries and the new title of Iron Man.
The Expo had happened, and Tony had passed out in his lab after staying all night in there. His eyes opened and he knew automatically he was dreaming. His body didn’t feel like his own and everything was disorienting.
“May!” A small voice called out.
Tony glanced around, as much as he could with the limited movement. His dream felt automated.
“Hey, little man. What are you doing up?” A woman’s voice came from in front of him and Tony’s eyes focused back to in front of him. A woman stood in front of the smaller body he seemed to inhabit. She looked tired and the clock told him that it was five minutes after he had fallen asleep. “I thought you went to bed?”
“I had a cool dream, May!” The kid he realized he was viewing from said. “I was inside of a robotics lab! Everything seemed soooo cool! Kinda like from the Expo!”
“Oh, Munchkin.” May had cooed to the small boy and picked her up. “I know you’re still worked up over the Expo. You gave me gray hairs when you ran off during the attack.”
Tony knew the child was grinning, he could feel it, but internally Tony was frowning.
“Iron Man came in and saved me, May! I could have handled it though. But in the dream it was so cool! There was music from that band you don’t like. The one like the circuit wiring!” The kid said.
Dejavu hit Tony quickly. He had saved a child at the Expo from being attacked. Was this his consciousness poking fun at him?
“AC/DC? That’s it. Let’s get you back to bed, okay? You can tell your uncle in the morning about your dream. I bet you he will let you mess with his computer after work.” May had carried the kid back to his bed and put him down. Tony could see a Iron Man mask sitting to the side. His room was scattered with things and the kid looked to be a bit smart for his age.
“Hey, May…” The kid asked.
“Yes?” May smiled and sat on the kid’s bed.
“You said I should be getting soulmate dreams, right?” The kid asked. Tony felt a pit in his stomach reform.
“You ARE six now. You should be seeing what they see if you’re awake. Why…? Do you think you’ve seen your first one?” May looked a bit excited at that.
Platonic soulmates were delivered in the form of you seeing through their eyes when you were asleep. It got nulled out if you both are asleep. Overtime, government agents were forced to find their soulmates as soon as possible. Tony never had to deal with a soulmate, but if this dream wasn’t some weird guilt dream, then he was doomed.
“I wonder who it is. They seem smart!” The kid wiggled his hands. May laughed and silenced the kid before putting him to sleep. The dream slipped away as the kid fell asleep. Tony didn’t dream anything after that. In the morning he woke up in a shock.
“Fuck-!” Tony cursed and he heard a laugh from next to him. He turned to see Pepper next to him.
“You alright?” Pepper smiled at him.
“I think I just got my first soulmate dream.” Tony looked her straight in the eyes and watched as her face moved to a shocked one.
“Oh my… oh my God.” Pepper slowly smiled again. “That’s great. Now we know that you have one, you can find out who it is.”
“Pep, I can’t ruin some kid’s life.” Tony sighed and stood up. “Let’s get to bed.”
Tony got up and followed his fiance back to their suit.