Tony was not having a good morning. He wasn't having a good day. You know what? He wasn't having a good week.
He was absolutely tired of waking up every morning feeling paralyzed. He didn't know what it was. Every morning, he woke up in his bed, completely unable to move. He didn't know if it was from fear, nightmares, or if he was just getting old, but it scared him. It made him feel vulnerable. It made tears run down his face. But he was sure that was just a weird symptom of the paralysis.
Not because he couldn't shake the feeling that Obadiah was always about to emerge from the shadows in the corners of his large room.
But it was fine. Tony was fine. Why? Because there was a fix. There was always fix. And this fix went by the name of coffee.
So there Tony was, at one AM, a strong cup of coffee in hand. He wasn't quite sure what he was working on anymore. He was just kind of pulling up random projects, making minor adjustments and moving onto the next one. He couldn't do anything major. He couldn't focus enough. Not when he could hear Stane whispering in his ear.
Two hours later he was hammering a sheet of metal. Fuck knows what he was doing to it. He told himself he was shaping it, but the only shape he had made was a large dent.
He was really trying fruitlessly to drown out the sound of Obadiah's promises that he would get his reactor.
Another two hours later, he was curled up in the corner of his workshop, hands pressed tightly to his ears, tears streaming down his face.
In thirty minutes he was asleep
He woke up paralyzed, terrified, tear-stricken, and completely done with this week.
After he had made himself an extremely strong cup of coffee, Tony got dressed in one of his suits (not metal, but a very soft and comfortable fabric) and made his way to the ground floor of the tower.
He needed a walk, no matter the imminent online news articles that would simply tear apart why he looked so lifeless and bedraggled.
As he made his way toward the main doors, he focused all his might to ignore the looks of his employees and the sound of Obadiah.
Why was this all starting now? Why couldn't he just forget? Why was the universe out to get him? Why-
Tony suddenly bumped into someone, their hands pressing into his arc reactor. And maybe he was imagining it, but he was sure he felt the hands wrap around it and tug.
Eyes going white his fear and panic, Tony sent a blind punch towards the man, feeling it connect with a sickening crack, before stumbling back and falling.
He sat there for a couple moments, gathering his breaths. When he looked up, he was met with a disturbing image. A man he knew (Brian maybe? He's an intern. Right?) was in a similar position to Tony, except he was clutching a broken looking jaw. Papers, the ones Brian was holding, were fanned out beside him. The entire room, usually so busy, was silent with shock, just staring at the scene before them.
Tony was hit with reality as he realized that the man was not Obadiah, and it was all a mistake.
Tony was the first to move, standing while muttering a quick apology. He walked over to Brian and helped him up, slipping a fifty into his hand while doing so.
He then turned and walked as quickly as he could without falling, out of the room and back to his workshop, probably to fall into a panic attack.
He made sure to hold onto his arc reactor the entire time.
Just to be safe.