Time • [T.S x reader]

Chapter 14;

A/N: Hi :) This is a short chapter than usual but I need it for the main plot <3

Not proof read yet, I'll do that tomorrow :)

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It had been two weeks since Tony had told you his theory about Zak being from the future. He was now under constant watch by Tony and Tony's team. Tony had informed The Avengers about said potential threat and they said they would step in whenever they were needed.

You had been distant from Tony for a while, not because you wanted to be, but Tony had asked you to get closer to Zak (much to his discomfort) to get him to slip up about certain details. You had been trying to act normal around Zak, but you were skeptical.

Every time you spoke to him you were reminded that he could be out to hurt you or worse, kill you.  You couldn't believe that the man you met on the first day at Stark Industries who you saw as nothing more than a harmless Labrador could be like this. None of it made sense.

Tony had left you an earpiece and a wire for you to wear almost every time you were with Zak. He wanted to keep tabs on everything that was being said and wanted to make sure you were always safe.

"Is there anything good to watch on TV? I'm bored of just sitting on my phone," You spoke to Zak. You were currently in his apartment; it was a huge apartment in the posh part of town. The parts where you imagined Tony to live. 

"Sure, what do you fancy?" Zak replied, if he knew something was wrong, he never once gave it away in the two weeks you were hanging around him.

"Anything, I'm not picky like that," You smiled.

"Maybe you should be," Zak shrugged as he filtered through his DVD collection.

"A DVD? Seriously?" You scoffed, leaning forward to get a better look.

Zak turned around with a smirk on his face, "My DVD collection is full of timeless classics. Netflix has nothing on these."

"If you two would stop flirting that would be fantastic," Tony spoke through the comms, all you could do was smile to yourself.

"Does it annoy you?" You spoke out loud to Tony as well as replied to Zak in a roundabout way.

"Netflix? Sometimes," Zak says.

"Maybe it does, would that be a problem?" Tony remarked through the earpiece was once again. Since being in Zak's presence you liked to annoy Tony and flirt with Zak. It was mindless flirting, but it always gained a raise out of Tony. He would always say that it was because 'this is a mission, and we have to keep you safe'. Bullshit, he was jealous.

You point at a DVD on the floor mindlessly, "What about that one?"

"Back to the Future? You've never seen it?"

"Could you be more on the nose, if you tried Y/N?" Tony whispers.

"No never, what's it about?" You lean back on the sofa and pat the free side next to you, asking Zak to join.

"Well, it's about a guy and a scientist who travel in time together – right up your street actually." Zak plonks himself down and puts his arm on the back of the sofa.

Time to be the best damn actor on the planet, you think.

Sighing you bring your head down, "Do you think I'll ever be able to do it, Zak? Invent time travel? I mean it's just in Hollywood movies, right?"

Zak places his hand on your shoulder, "Y/N, you are so talented and now you are working so closely with Stark," he nudges you, "I know you can do it."

The most disappointing thing about this being possibly true was the fact that he was nice. He seemed nice. Zak always knew the right thing to say and how to say it. He gave you hope when you didn't have any and, in many ways, he reminded you of AJ. You almost wanted to cry, not just for yourself but for him too. Surely, he wasn't always like this. Surely, there was a reason for all of this.

"Wow he's good, even I'm believing this smartass." Tony pops up again through the earpiece.

"Yeah," You sigh.

"Hey hey – look don't be like that." Zak brings his hand under your chin to move it up towards his face, "You've got this."

Swallowing thickly as you look into his eyes you almost forget why you were here in the first place. He seems to have you under some sort of trance as he looks into your eyes and you investigate his blue ones, "Thank you."

Zak continues to stare at you and there is what feels like, hours of silence before he decides to speak again with the strangest look on his face, "See the problem is we aren't alone right now, are we?"

You knit your eyebrows together, "What?"

"Y/N, what's happening?" Tony's voice was full of panic.

"We haven't been truly alone for two weeks, have we?" His grip on your chin tightens as his face begins to change, transform in front of you into a face you barely recognise. The blues of his eyes were now black and his face was full of rage.

"Zak, I don't know what you are on about." You squeal as his nails begin to dig into your skin, "You are hurting me please – please stop."

"Sweetheart, I am coming just hold on, we are all coming for you." Tony's voice is muffled through the earpiece as it gets ripped from your ear. All you felt next was Zak, push you to the ground with all his might.

"I just want you to know that it isn't personal – what I'm doing to you. You are nice and pretty and so welcoming but," he pauses as he crouches down beside you, "Tony Stark just had to get in the way, didn't he?"

Cowering into the corner of his apartment you shake your head as tears begin to fall, "What?"

"In every single universe it's you and me," he puts a hand to your cheek, "we always meet at Stark Industries, you tell me your plan for time travel, we become friends, we go out together, I kiss you at the club and the rest is history. I help you with your invention and we become successful together."

Zak grabs your hair to bring your face to his, "But instead of that happening, Tony got in the way and messed this whole thing up!"

"LET GO OF ME!" You scream.

"You were meant to be mine in every universe and I will not let him have you in this one. He cannot mess this up for me." Zak picks you up by your hair as you scream in pain, trying to punch him or kick him so he lets go of you.

"How careless of him to think I wouldn't realise what was happening?" He kisses you on the cheek, so you spit in his face. This causes him to hit you across the face, "It's a good thing you won't remember any of this by the time we are done."

Keeping your eyes closed you are praying for the seconds to fly by so Tony can come to get you, "He's not coming for you, Y/N."

"He will." You reply with a weaker voice than you thought.

"We'll be gone before he does." He pulled out the device that you knew so well. Your device but this one was fully made and functional, "Where we are going – you won't even remember Tony."