Draumr

The never-ending darkness around him pushed and pulled at him, back and forth, up and down until Tony no longer knew which was which. It felt like being trapped inside a washing machine, turned around and around while choking on the air around him. Tony was in agony . He didn’t know how long it had been like this, only knew he wanted it to stop. How much more of this could he take before he-

-opened his eyes. It was bright, too bright. Letting out a soft groan, he brought a cold hand to his thumping forehead. Light shone from every direction, but it was sweet relief compared to the darkness from earlier.

“Come on! Get up already!” An impatient, snobby voice came from somewhere to his left. Tony turned, finding the action extremely difficult. He was in some sort of field. It almost reminded him of a gladiator arena from old Rome, but different all the same. The dirt under his body was far more tempting than getting up, and part of him wanted to snap at the kid to shut it. A hard book connected with his side, not enough to hurt, but it jolted him on his feet before he could even stop himself.

“Ow! Why did you do that?!” Tony heard himself, or at least he thought it was himself, ask. In front of him was a young-but big boy. Couldn’t be older than ten at most. His blonde hair was wild, poking out in every direction. He was wearing some kind of leather armour, laced with gold. He kind of reminded Tony of Thor… but he couldn’t be…

“Because you were too slow! Come on, let’s go again!” The tiny-Thor said eagerly, spreading his legs and taking on a fighting stand. “I’ll be father, and you can be Laufey!”

Tony felt a strange ache in his chest when tiny-Thor said that. A feeling all too familiar, yet he couldn’t place his hand on it. Whatever game they were playing, he felt he didn’t want to participate at all.

“No way!” he said, again his voice sounded slightly hoarse with feeling. “I was Laufey last time, and the time before that and the time before that! Why can’t I be father?”

Huh… not exactly what he’s meant to say. Then again, Tony didn’t really feel like he was in control of anything. His body moved without his consent, and voice said things he didn’t mean. This had to be a dream, right? Just something his mind was making up.

“Because you’re the ugliest, and I’m the oldest. Besides, you don’t look like father at all,” Again, Tony felt the words hit him like a bullet. His entire body seized, freezing to the spot like the time a bomb had landed next to him. He could feel tears tickle at the inside of his eyelids, and huffed. Remain calm, he told himself. Don’t let him see you cry. Tony’s breath shook, but he managed to gather enough air for his body to relax, if only a little. Half-turning to look at tiny-Thor over his shoulder, he said:

“I don’t want to play anymore,” And with those words, he went to leave. It was already too late when he heard it. Thumping footsteps coming rushing towards him. When he turned around, tiny-Thor was already in the air. He had less than a second to react, and it definitely wasn’t enough time, as tiny-Thor crashed into him, throwing them both to the ground. Tony yelled when he felt sand and grime scrape his skin, followed by the heat and sting of blood.

“Caught you!” tiny-Thor yelled happily, seemingly not noticing Tony’s tears were now streaming freely down his cheeks with the added pain of a boy almost twice his size standing atop of him. When the boy finally did notice, he pulled a frown. “Why are you crying?”

“I said I didn’t want to play anymore!” Tony yelled, hearing the desperation in his own voice. Tiny-Thor got off of him, looking utterly confused as Tony managed to stand on shaking legs.

“There’s no need to be weak, brother,” Tiny-Thor said. Before Tony had the time to reflect on the use of “brother”, he was yelling in anger.

“I’m not weak!” He shouted at the top of his lungs, gathering the attention of a few by-passing guards who stopped to look. “Every time we play, you always get to play the hero while I have to be the bad guy! Why can’t I be the hero just once?”

Tiny-Thor looked just as confused as he had earlier, before his face broke into a wide, stupid grin. It made Tony’s fists burn with the need to lash out.

“You play the part so well” Tiny-Thor said simply, going to place a colossal hand on Tony’s small shoulder. Tony’s body pulled away before he could, however.

“Is that what you think of me?” He asked, voice shaking.

“Well…” Tony turned around and stormed out. He didn’t need to hear anything else. Tears flooded his eyes and pooled at the corners. Everything began to blur and spin, but he kept running until the golden halls were nothing but a pure white flat, slowly consumed by darkness.

“I’m telling you, we don’t know what happened. One second they were there, the next they were gone. I don’t know what could have happened!” A familiar voice spoke, sounding stressed and angry. Oh dear… angry was bad, wasn’t it?

“We-we need the information,” Another, young and thin voice spoke, obviously scared. “Fury says-”

“I don’t give a damn about what Fury says. Tony is in no condition to answer questions! He’s not even awake yet! Tell Fury that if he wants information, he can take it up with Cap. Now go and tell him that, and leave me with my patient.”

“Yessir!” Quick footsteps disappeared out the door. Tony managed to open one eye just in time to see a small back and a blonde ponytail disappear out the automatic doors. Bruce, there was no mistaking that awful purple shirt, had his back turned and was breathing heavily. Tony allowed himself a smile.

“Ya know… I kinda like it when you go all rage-monster without the green, Brucie,” He muttered, forcing his arms to push him further up the pillow. Bruce whipped around, surprise evident on his face before his expression morphed into a relieved smile.

“Tony. Thank god, you’re awake,” Bruce said, instantly reaching a hand out to Tony’s forehead, checking for a fever. For once, tony allowed Bruce to do his little safety checks. The doctor was obviously more worried than usual, meaning something had not gone exactly to plan. While Bruce was busy babbling on about heart rates and temperatures, - Tony really wasn’t paying attention, as usual - he stole a quick look around the room. It was sterile, much like Bruce’s lab, but lacked the distinct smell of Bruceness and disgustingly bitter tea. Oh! And dangerous chemicals, can’t forget those.

“You still have a minor fever. How are you feeling?” Bruce asked, worried.

Tony ran down a checklist for his body, trying to figure out which part of him hurt the most. It was not easy to discern, considering the pain was radiating from everywhere.

“Like my friend is mothering me… and like I got hit by a truck,” Despite the off-hand comment, the joke still brought a small smile to Bruce’s lips. Or maybe he was just relieved that Tony didn’t suffer brain damage. A comfortable silence settled over them. Bruce brought over a chair and a starkpad and just fiddled with it while Tony got his bearings. It was nice, just sitting there. Bruce knew better than to push with questions and demands. The inventor allowed himself to just lean back in his pillow and relax.

“What happened, exactly?” He asked after a while, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Bruce hesitated for a second, fingers freezing over the thin screen. Tony waited somewhat patiently.

“Well…” the doctor started. “What do you remember?”

Tony thought back. He remembered… turkeys, and a madman with a staff. He remembered the ground shaking and fighting those monsters. And then…

“I remember the ground coming alive and attacking us,” He said with a shrug, as though it was an everyday occurrence and not fucking insane. They hadn’t really been that much out on missions after Loki, only a few small ones like terrorist groups similar to the ten rings and such. This “merlin” fella was the first bigshot in a while, and of-fucking-course he had magic.

“Well…” Bruce started. “After the… mage? Brought those things to life, everyone was pretty busy trying to hold their own. I didn’t catch too much of the action, as I was trying to stop the guy from escaping with the quinjet when I see you blast towards him. You hit him and then you were just… gone.”

As Bruce explained, the memories were starting to form in Tony’s mind. He’d fought the man, ended up in… what did he call it again? Mirror dimension? That was a place he was definitely never returning to ever!

“A few moments later you poof back into existence. There’s not much more to it than that. You appeared, and the ground-monsters just fell apart.”

Tony hesitated for a moment, feeling an uncomfortable lump in his throat, like his chest was being squeezed all over again.

“And the guy?”

Bruce fell quiet, not meeting Tony’s eyes. The inventor’s fears were confirmed with the silence. Normally, murder wasn’t something Tony kept on his conscience. H had been doing it practically his whole life anyway, be in directly or indirectly. Dwelling on it would drive him insane, he knew, so instead he tried to just let it go or drown it in alcohol. But this time it was different. This time he was-

“Disintegrated,” A too-loud too-familiar voice said. Neither scientists had noticed Director Fury stepping into the room until he spoke. The man held a small file in his hand which he pointed at Tony. “There was barely anything left for the cleaning crew aside from broken streets. Took us hours to find him, and what we found wasn’t much.”

Tony took the file with shaking hands, biting his lip when he held it in front of him. Bruce pushed his chair closer to get a better look.

“His name was Alan Brill. He was a transmitter operator until he disappeared some ten years ago, assumed dead,” Tony cringed at hearing the name. The guy had been completely insane. A normal name like “Alan” didn’t really fit. It made him sound too much like an innocent bystander. He shook his head, instead focusing on the file in his hand. Inside was a bunch of info on this “Alan Brill” character. The usual “where he grew up” and some info about his alleged disappearance. Tony didn’t bother reading it, his attention drawn in on the pictures.

What used to be a human body, was now a burned husk. Scorch marks covered him from top to toe, and he was curling in on himself, mouth open in a scream of pain. The charred, dark skin was in sharp contrast to the pale white teeth. Tony felt his insides turn to ice at the sight, a small voice in the back of his head screaming at him that this was his fault. He’d done this to that man. It didn’t look like it had been a fast death, his body twisted in agony as if he’d tried to somehow keep the pain at bay.

Tony pushed the file away, not wanting to look at the pictures anymore. He’d done that… but how? How had he done that? How had he teleported out of harm’s way in the accident, and then burned someone to a crisp. What the hell was going on? He needed to find the answer now! There simply had to be a logical explanation for it all.

“I thought I said to bring him in alive,” Fury continued, pacing the room while glaring angrily at Tony. Tony flinched at the harsh tone. He felt something curl up inside him, like a snake ready to pounce. Momentary panic gripped him, and he forced it down. The heart monitor let of a small shrill before returning to semi-normal. Fury’s eye trailed over to it suspiciously. He pointed accusingly at the file, now closed, on the bed. “Did that look alive to you?”

“Director Fury-”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Doctor Banner!” Fury snapped, making Bruce fall back in his chair. Tony looked for any sign of green, relieved to not find anything. It would be a shame to have survived whatever the hell that was, only to get squashed by a giant green hand afterwards. The director was at the end of Tony’s bed now, leaning over it and glaring at him, and Tony found himself thankful he didn’t have to suffer through two of those piercing eyes. He twisted in his bed, muscles tense and stiff. It hurt to move too much, especially around his chest, but at this rate Tony just bit his lip and sucked it up.

“Now. What I want to know…” The director leaned even closer, his knuckles white from his hard grip on the metal fence surrounding Tony’s bed. “… Is how he died. I have over twenty-three eyewitness reports of you and Alan disappearing mid-air, before you reappeared a few minutes later. We had to dig him out of the rubble a few yards away. What, you got a flamethrower conveniently snuck into that suit of yours as well?”

“Not since the first model,” He mumbled, more to himself than Fury, really, completely avoiding any eye contact.

“Then you mind telling me how he ended up as a piece of charred beef?”

Tony didn’t answer, not because he didn’t want to (although he really didn’t want to), but because no matter how much he tried to force his brain to come up with something, anything , it would turn up empty. The result was that he laid there, gaping like a confused fish.

“Director, if I may,” They both turned to look over at Bruce. “It is uncommon, but there are a few documented cases of spontaneous combustion. It isn’t a widely known phenomenon, but it has happened. Although no one’s really had the opportunity to study it because… well… spontaneous , it could be that Tony was just pulled into the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The inventor felt like he could kiss the doctor. How had he ever managed to survive without Bruce? Where he had been all those times Tony had been pulled into the principal’s office for ‘ misbehaving’ ?! Fury stared at the two scientists, face set in a stony mask. It didn’t look like he was buying Bruce’s story. However, before he had the chance to reply, a muffled, but familiar voice rang out from outside the room.

“What do you mean I can’t go in? I have every damn right to be here!” A small pause, where Tony could barely hear the mumbled, slightly scared reply. “My right to be here comes from the contract that I signed with SHIELD, as CEO of Stark Industries, your biggest benefactor! Now you open this door right now and let me see my boyfriend, or I will personally see to it that you’re fired by the morning!”

There was another short pause, before the door bleeped and swung open, revealing none other than a very angry-looking Pepper Potts. She was wearing one of her suits, the one with the long skirt Tony had bought for her as a belated promotion gift. Her face was pulled into an expression Tony couldn’t even identify, but at the same time found himself terrified of. With eyes instantly locking onto her target, Tony swallowed, she marched over to the bed with such speed it made Tony worry that she was just going to trample him down. He closed his eyes, waiting for the yelling that was inbound.

It didn’t come. Instead, he felt her warm hands grab the sides of his head, pulling him up until he collided with soft lips. Relieved, albeit slightly confused, he opened his eyes. On instinct, he allowed himself to be pulled into the sensation of warmth Pepper always brought with her. That was his first mistake. She pulled back, eyes the strangest mix of hard and soft Tony had ever seen. Her mood seemed to do a one-eighty flip back to pissed and before he had the time to say anything in his defence, a hand collided with his cheek. There was a short moment of silence where everyone seemed at a loss for words. Tony brought his hand up to feel his cheek- it had by no means been a harsh slap, especially compared to some of the things he’d lived through in his playboy days, but the shock was still there. Never before had Pepper slapped him.

“What the hell were you thinking?! ” Pepper shouted. Tony was too shocked to even jump back when she grabbed him and pulled him into another searing kiss, this one a lot more teeth than lip. He felt… incredibly confused. “Do you have any idea at all how worried I was?”

“Pep-”

“Don’t you ‘Pep’ me, mister! I was worried sick! When Happy told me, what had happened and… Oh my god Tony are you okay?!” Her eyes were red, as though she was on the verge of tears but… but that wasn’t right. Pepper didn’t cry. She hadn’t cried since he returned from Afghanistan, and those had been tears of joy.

“I… am?”

“Good, because when you get back I will break every bone in your body! How could you do something so foolish ?!” Tony desperately looked over at Bruce for help. The doctor had pulled away -the traitor!- and was taking it all in from the distance.

“Ms. Potts-” Pepper spun on her heels, facing Fury with an angry scowl.

“And you! You’re the director of SHIELD ! If your prized organisation can’t handle one man alone without pulling the Avengers in, I don’t know if SHIELD is worth sponsoring! If you allow anything like this to happen again, I will personally revoke any and all specialized contracts Stark Industries has with SHIELD, and that includes the benefactor and weapons contracts!” For once, Fury looked at a loss for words, and if Tony hadn’t felt exactly the same, he would have taken a picture to hang down in his lab. Pepper turned back to him, and Tony tensed.

“You better get healed up fast, because you are attending a press conference! This whole ordeal is all over the news and people are asking questions. I don’t care if you tell the truth or not, as long as it sounds good enough for the public to get off my ass about it, got it?!” Tony nodded, not daring anything else. Pepper gave her own, satisfied nod before her face melted into that worried expression again.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” She said, giving him another kiss before turning and marching out the door. The three men were left in silence, all wondering what the actual fuck just happened.