Storm ≛ Tony Stark ≛

29.

Tony almost smiled but stopped when Sue walked further into the room. She was slow and sluggish, her feet dragging and the strands that hung out from her low bun swung in front of her face. Tony was ready for another lecture about needing to sleep as his episode from today was a prime example of what Sue was worried about. But he now thought it would be him encouraging Sue to lie down.

'I signed over the company today...' Sue decided to say and leaned against his worktable's edge. 'Over to Aldrich Killian. God, what a creep...'

Tony took the screen off his face and typed on the one JARVIS displayed in the air. Sue kept her stare on the floor while he brought up the face of the man that creeped her to no end. The company 'AIM' sat next to Aldrich's name on the screen and a picture of the handsome, cringeworthy Killian beamed in all his glory.

'Huh...' Tony hummed as his eyes raked over the face. He was sure he recognised it and clicked his fingers once he remembered. 'I know! Switzerland, 1999. New Year's. I hated that conference. There was this big hall, and I apparently gave a riveting speech.'

'I know. I was there.'

Tony whipped his head around and looked to Sue who leaned with a lazy smile on her lips. He was glad to see something other than fatigue on her face. He thought back to the time of his dark period of sleeping with countless women and barely ever being sober. The start of the 2000s was blurry for him, besides some very minor details he didn't know why he remembered.

'Green dress!' he snapped his fingers again and pointed them at Sue. 'I remember that! I remember seeing you. Why am I thinking of the Backstreet Boys?'

'I'm surprised you remember anything from that night,' Sue hummed, her tone all in one note of zero energy. 'I knew the dress stood out too much.'

'You were blonde,' Tony pondered aloud. 'I can see it peeking through again.'

Sue put her hand on the roots that were producing her natural blonde. JARVIS theorised that the radiation that changed her hair colour in the first place was wearing off. Her abilities came from the altering of her DNA, so they would remain, but her hair was a physical effect of her outer characteristics. The same thing was happening to Johnny. They'll soon be blonde again, although it was a trait they got from their father, so she wasn't too enthused by the idea.

'What happened today?'

Tony hoped she wouldn't bother asking. The conversation was going well, and he thought he had gotten out of it. But that proved to be a mistake of assumption on Tony's behalf. Nothing was ever forgotten by Susan Storm.

'Nothing's been the same since New York,' he said plainly. His hands sat on his hips, and he leaned on one foot. The ache behind his eyes proved how exhausted he was and the rush from today had a lasting effect on his chest. The arc reactor powered intensely as the body around it was strained and pulled. The breaths he heaved and the acceleration of his heartbeat from the anxiety attack would stay with him for a while.

'You experience things and then they're over and you still can't explain 'em,' Tony talked and Sue listened to every word. 'Gods, aliens, other dimensions. I.. I'm just a man in a can. The only reason I haven't cracked up is because you're around. I'm lucky... but I can't sleep. You leave, I come down here. I do what I know, I tinker.'

This was more than Sue had ever gotten out of him. Tony Stark was expressing his feelings and down moments. But she couldn't relish in it like she thought she could. Tony's eyes watered and he threw his gaze down so she wouldn't see, but she caught it. His foot tapped nervously on the floor, and he hated the feeling of being vulnerable. He felt exposed, just like a nerve, as Bruce Banner expressed on the SHEILD helicarrier.