At What Cost

Letter

  Tony sat on his orange couch with his head in his hands. Ever since that woman approached him at the MIT conference, he had had nonstop migraines. He was sitting in the silence waiting for the medication to kick in when he heard a beeping from his lab. With a reluctant sigh he stood from his spot on the couch and dragged his feet to the lab. Vision was sitting in the kitchen looking thru a cook book when Tony passed him.

"Looks like take out tonight F.R.I.D.A.Y....." He mumbled to himself.

He sighed loudly as he opened the glass doors in front of him. He took out his phone and switched on the lights as he walked over to his computer. His eyes wandered over the screen as several alerts popped up. Tip wires in the warehouse Y/n had been sent to. Now if this was normal Tony, he would be watching everything as it played out, but Y/n had made him promise to let her do this on her own. He blew a breath thru his lips as he leaned back in his seat. The plastic creaked as he bounced about in the office chair.

"Uuuuuuuugggggggghhhhhhhh....." He groaned as he spun around a few times. His headache wasn't getting any better, and the stress of not knowing how Y/n was doing was not helping. He scooted to the left and glanced at Vision in the kitchen. He watched as the AI grabbed a few things from the fridge and began laying them out on the counter. Not wanting to risk another meal from the worst cook in the world, Tony stood and walked over to the kitchen.

"What's up?" He questioned, popping the "p", as he sat down at the breakfast bar. Vision looked up at him a bit surprised. "I was attempting to make some...." He paused as he looked over at the cookbook, "Chocolate chip cookies..." He hummed as he looked up at Tony. Tony pushed out his bottom lip and nodded. "Sounds good...." He lied. His stomach churned as he looked at some of the things Vision had on the counter.

"Not sure what you need ketchup for, but okay..." He sighed as he stood up again.

In all honesty, Tony was losing his mid a little bit. Day in and day out it was the same thing. Wake up, eat, walk around aimlessly, eat, more aimless walking, more eating, and eventually bed. It was killing him to have the compound so empty. He missed the life that used to ooze from the walls. He missed his family. True he still had Vision and Rhodey, but they were only pieces of a much bigger puzzle. A puzzle that was now un-assembled; broken.

"Tony..." Visions voice rung out as he placed the bag of sugar down on the counter. Tony sniffed and turned to face him, "Yeah?" He asked. "I'm sorry to interrupt your thoughts, but I noticed that you neglected to give Miss Y/n he letter from Captain Rogers." Tony's heart sank to his stomach. He had been so focused on making sure Y/n was safe, that he had forgotten all about the letter that had come with the phone Steve sent.

"Fuck......" He breathed as he shuffled to his desk to look for the paper. He rummaged thru countless stacks of papers and photos, before he found the envelope marked "Tony" in Steve's perfect handwriting. "Got one. Where is your friend...?" He mumbled to himself as he placed the flip phone on top of his own letter.
"How did you remember?" Tony shouted to the kitchen, awaiting Visions response.

"I recalled you reading yours when the call about the prison break arrived. Then I realized that Miss Y/n never read the one addressed to her personally." Tony pursed his lips as he cursed his own stupidity. A laugh was heard when he finally found his missing letter. He pressed a chaste kiss to the envelope before sitting down. Weighing the options in his mind, he decided he should read it in case it contained any important information.

"What the hell, right?" He said to himself as he opened the document.

He recognized Steve's handwriting right away and felt a pang of pain in his heart. He sat back and began reading.








"Y/n,