Lamborghini | Tony Stark

FORTY FOUR - FATE AND THE UNIVERSE

Tony had lost himself. Everybody around him had slowly watched the demise of the man that they all relied upon, admired and although some of them kept it to themselves, all loved. It broke The Avengers' hearts to watch Tony fall to pieces, only there was no getting through to him, no matter how hard they tried.

And hard they did try. Steve had spent hours trying to get Tony to open up, only to be met with a cold, harsh response that left him no closer to being able to help his friend than before.

Natasha tried a more hostile approach, locking the two of them in rooms and refusing to let Tony out until he told her everything that was on his mind. Luckily for Tony, he had the patience to wait things out in a thick silence that only made Nat more frustrated, knowing she was at yet another dead end with him.

Tony worked and worked all day and almost all night for a month straight after the last time he'd seen Sasha. The others knew about the encounter in the garage beneath the Stark Tower, some good eavesdroppers being amongst the team to spread the news. They all collectively decided to keep a watchful eye over Tony, though he was beyond help when it came to anything more than being handed a few kind words of encouragement and compassion from his friends.

It was raining when Tony was walking down the street. The city was clouded over and illuminated by a crescent moon that hung low in the sky, a flurry of stars surrounding it that didn't seem quite as bright as they once had done.

With a paper bag tucked beneath his arm filled with bottles of beer, Tony sighed as he looked up from beneath an umbrella at a familiar haunt. The green sign of O'Shea's had once sparked a warmth inside his chest, knowing that whenever his eyes fell upon the neon shamrock hanging above the street, he was about to see Sasha, and that was enough to put a smile on his face on even the darkest of days.

He looked across the street and saw her office building, his eyes crawling up the floors until he counted the one he remembered sending that first bunch of flowers to only hours after they'd met.

He couldn't help but wonder if Sasha was still hard at work behind a laptop screen, or if she was even still in New York City at all. He had an awful gut feeling that she'd started fresh some place else, noticing an empty feeling in his chest over the past few weeks that hadn't been there before, bringing a heavy feeling of loneliness to his life.

What Tony didn't bank on as he walked down the street in the rain was his question being answered.

He recognised her laugh first, his ears pricking up at the sound, louder than any traffic and any other voices of New Yorkers passing him on the street. It sounded soft like falling snow and soulful like a first kiss, making his insides tense up as he froze on the sidewalk, clutching the umbrella tighter in his fist.

He glanced over his shoulder, camouflaged by a bustling street that blurred his face, though Sasha appeared far too distracted to have ever noticed his presence anyway. She was heading down the street with her arm linked through a gentleman's, his hand holding an umbrella over the two of them though covering her more than himself, rain soaking his left shoulder so her hair could stay dry.

Sasha was smiling, stealing glances up at the man who's arm she clung to the same way she once had done Tony's. As he stood and watched them head towards O'Shea's, Tony could feel the warmth of her hand on his bicep, replaced only seconds later by a harsh, realistic autumn chill.

Her blue eyes reflected the neon colours that New York's windows and billboards bled out, her cheeks glowing and smile wide. Tony felt himself tear apart inside, feeling an incandescent amount of love for the woman just a handful of yards away from him, yet equally feeling a gut-wrenching turn of sickness and jealousy at seeing her with someone else.