Tony Stark drabble
5 Jun 2014 16:04![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
domarzioneTony, along with Bruce, remains the only Avengers I’ve not tried to use as a narrator. Which is probably the reverse of most people’s lists. I’m not sure I have it here, but I’m possibly oriented in the right direction. This is still more plot than character, which is Missing the Point even if it answers the “Where was Tony during CA:TWS?” question. I’m not sure there’s any there to get to, whether this is as-is or if something longer can be gotten out of it. There’s possibly something to say about Tony and Howard’s legacy that’s been left unsaid so far.
.
870 Words | PG | Tony Stark, James Rhodes
Tony had just gotten through with his half-hour of cardio when JARVIS told him that Rhodey was on the line.
"Where are you?" Rhodey asked without preamble.
He debated all of the ways he could answer that before settling on the truth, since he was feeling a little self-pitying. “In the living room facing the sad fact that I’m not as spry as I used to be?”
Thirty minutes on the elliptical still required an hour of lying on the couch doing nothing afterward, something that would be embarrassing save for the fact that he was four months out from major thoracic surgery and it had only been a few weeks since he’d been able to walk between the bed and the couch without needing to nap once he’d gotten where he was going. He was doing great in his recovery, everyone said so, but he couldn’t see the improvements. All he saw was the limitations. He’d slept more in the last four months than in the last four years, which Pepper agreed was true but said spoke more to his old life than his new one. He would argue the point, but that meant considering all of the ways his old life (Mark II, or possibly Mark III, depending on who was doing the telling) had hurt Pepper and so he usually didn’t. She liked the ‘new’ him, possibly because he was pliable and docile and more attentive to her because he didn’t have the energy to do anything else. He told her frequently that he felt like he was her housecat, which sometimes got her to roll her eyes and sometimes got her to pet him until he purred.
"You’re in New York?" Rhodey sounded like he might be in the suit and Tony was jealous; even if he had any intact armor right now, he was in no condition to fly it.
"I am," he confirmed. Weehawken was visible in the distance because he was facing west. "You’re welcome to come by if you’d like."
Rhodey made a noise that Tony knew was him getting bad news he didn’t think he could fix. Which, considering the context, was of note.
"Does this have to do with what happened to Fury?" he asked, trying to sit up a little and then thinking better of it when he entire chest spasmed from the exertion. "I’m safer here than I would be almost anywhere else."
That Fury had been assassinated hadn’t surprised Tony at all — Fury had been a powerful man with powerful enemies and that there would be attempts on his life would be a given. Fury had gone out of his way to make enemies because you didn’t accumulate the kind of power that mattered through any other means than by taking it from others. That that the successful attempt had come at Steve Rogers’s apartment had surprised him a little because while, yes, Rogers was an excellent first choice to turn to in times of trouble, he was also an obvious first choice and not exactly living undercover near Dupont Circle and there were probably half a dozen foreign and domestic spy agencies watching the place besides whatever SHIELD had set up. Fury had needed to go there for a reason, one worth his life, and Tony was curious what it was, but he also knew that nobody was going to tell him right now… unless Rhodey was about to do so.
"You are not safe anywhere right now, Tony," Rhodey said flatly. "How many places do you have that are off the grid? I mean really off the grid.”
Four or five around the world, Tony thought. Bought with cash, not held in his name or Pepper’s name or touched in any way by Stark Industries. None of which he would feel more secure in than the penthouse because they had no other advantages besides the aforementioned.
"Why?" Tony asked and he knew Rhodey could read the tone of his voice. He also knew that this was why Rhodey had sounded like he’d known he’d already lost the argument.
"SHIELD’s issued capture-or-kill orders on Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye," Rhodey replied and this time Tony did sit up, muscle spasms be damned. "They just tried to execute the one on Cap. Right in front of the Triskelion."
Without even needing to be asked, JARVIS pulled up the relevant video footage — between SHIELD and Homeland Security, the entire District and environs was one giant Truman Show.
"Well, that was unexpected," Tony drawled as he watched Rogers make good his escape.
“Tony.”
"Look, I’ll be the first person to admit that the possibility of air-launched Hellfires changes the equation a little," Tony began before Rhodey could warm up. "But I’m staying here. First, I don’t like running. We had that discussion six months ago about the Mandarin and you lost that one fair and square. Second, I can’t run, even if I could jog competently right now. If they’re gunning for me, then I can’t get on a plane or into a car and be anywhere they can’t find me and blow me up before I clear the Tri-State area.
"Pepper’s in Zurich and I’ll get her to a safehouse in Europe, but I stay here."
.
870 Words | PG | Tony Stark, James Rhodes
Tony had just gotten through with his half-hour of cardio when JARVIS told him that Rhodey was on the line.
"Where are you?" Rhodey asked without preamble.
He debated all of the ways he could answer that before settling on the truth, since he was feeling a little self-pitying. “In the living room facing the sad fact that I’m not as spry as I used to be?”
Thirty minutes on the elliptical still required an hour of lying on the couch doing nothing afterward, something that would be embarrassing save for the fact that he was four months out from major thoracic surgery and it had only been a few weeks since he’d been able to walk between the bed and the couch without needing to nap once he’d gotten where he was going. He was doing great in his recovery, everyone said so, but he couldn’t see the improvements. All he saw was the limitations. He’d slept more in the last four months than in the last four years, which Pepper agreed was true but said spoke more to his old life than his new one. He would argue the point, but that meant considering all of the ways his old life (Mark II, or possibly Mark III, depending on who was doing the telling) had hurt Pepper and so he usually didn’t. She liked the ‘new’ him, possibly because he was pliable and docile and more attentive to her because he didn’t have the energy to do anything else. He told her frequently that he felt like he was her housecat, which sometimes got her to roll her eyes and sometimes got her to pet him until he purred.
"You’re in New York?" Rhodey sounded like he might be in the suit and Tony was jealous; even if he had any intact armor right now, he was in no condition to fly it.
"I am," he confirmed. Weehawken was visible in the distance because he was facing west. "You’re welcome to come by if you’d like."
Rhodey made a noise that Tony knew was him getting bad news he didn’t think he could fix. Which, considering the context, was of note.
"Does this have to do with what happened to Fury?" he asked, trying to sit up a little and then thinking better of it when he entire chest spasmed from the exertion. "I’m safer here than I would be almost anywhere else."
That Fury had been assassinated hadn’t surprised Tony at all — Fury had been a powerful man with powerful enemies and that there would be attempts on his life would be a given. Fury had gone out of his way to make enemies because you didn’t accumulate the kind of power that mattered through any other means than by taking it from others. That that the successful attempt had come at Steve Rogers’s apartment had surprised him a little because while, yes, Rogers was an excellent first choice to turn to in times of trouble, he was also an obvious first choice and not exactly living undercover near Dupont Circle and there were probably half a dozen foreign and domestic spy agencies watching the place besides whatever SHIELD had set up. Fury had needed to go there for a reason, one worth his life, and Tony was curious what it was, but he also knew that nobody was going to tell him right now… unless Rhodey was about to do so.
"You are not safe anywhere right now, Tony," Rhodey said flatly. "How many places do you have that are off the grid? I mean really off the grid.”
Four or five around the world, Tony thought. Bought with cash, not held in his name or Pepper’s name or touched in any way by Stark Industries. None of which he would feel more secure in than the penthouse because they had no other advantages besides the aforementioned.
"Why?" Tony asked and he knew Rhodey could read the tone of his voice. He also knew that this was why Rhodey had sounded like he’d known he’d already lost the argument.
"SHIELD’s issued capture-or-kill orders on Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye," Rhodey replied and this time Tony did sit up, muscle spasms be damned. "They just tried to execute the one on Cap. Right in front of the Triskelion."
Without even needing to be asked, JARVIS pulled up the relevant video footage — between SHIELD and Homeland Security, the entire District and environs was one giant Truman Show.
"Well, that was unexpected," Tony drawled as he watched Rogers make good his escape.
“Tony.”
"Look, I’ll be the first person to admit that the possibility of air-launched Hellfires changes the equation a little," Tony began before Rhodey could warm up. "But I’m staying here. First, I don’t like running. We had that discussion six months ago about the Mandarin and you lost that one fair and square. Second, I can’t run, even if I could jog competently right now. If they’re gunning for me, then I can’t get on a plane or into a car and be anywhere they can’t find me and blow me up before I clear the Tri-State area.
"Pepper’s in Zurich and I’ll get her to a safehouse in Europe, but I stay here."
