Persuasion »Quicksilver

We've made it this far, kid

"Whiskey?"

"Tony!"

Tony Stark grins at me over bottles of amber coloured liquid. Hanging upside down on his soda, I roll my eyes.

The rest of the avengers set off last night for the mission, leaving me behind at the facility. I had watched the jet leave from the roof, the tiny twinkling lights blinking back at me as it soared away.

Unable to bear the silence, I called Tony to pick me up.

"Just kidding kiddo," he winks, unscrewing the lid on a bottle.

I start doing sit ups.

He pours himself a glass before placing the bottle back down and making his way over to me. Lounging into the sofa, the ice cubes clink.

"How are you, Kit-Kat?"

"Never better."

"Alright, your repeated sit-ups beg to differ but if you want to keep pretending I'd understand." He states blankly, sipping his drink.

I pause, looking at him.

"What am I supposed to say, everyone thinks I'm not ready to get in the fight again! But it's the only thing I want to do!" I flump backdown.

Tony takes off his sunglasses. Why he's wearing them inside I have no clue.

"I think your ready."

I sit up fully, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear.

"Thanks, Tone. Its just so frustrating. Why is trying to help people so hard!"

"We've made it this far, kid." He grins, scuffing my hair.

•

"You know, they say sarcasm is a metric for potential." Howard Starks Holographic form smiles slightly "If that's true, you'll be a great man some day. I'll get the bags."

Watching from the side of the stage, I feel tears slightly well in my eyes. I can't believe Tony would put himself through this-reliving the last day with his parents in front of a crowd.

"He does miss you when you are not here." His mother smiles "And frankly, you're going to miss us. Because this is the last time we're all going to be together. You know what's about to happen. Say something. If you don't, you'll regret it."

"I love you, Dad." The young holographic version of Tony says sadly. "And I know you did the best you could."

The real Tony Stark steps into the spotlight, pausing the scene.

"That's how I wished it happened." He says, his voice hard.
"Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing... or BARF. God, I gotta work on that acronym."

I smirk, the stage hands beside me all watching Tony eagerly.

"An extremely costly method of hijacking the hippocampus... to clear traumatic memories." He says, walking towards the piano. Blowing softly on a candle placed on the top, the scene shimmers gently.

" It doesn't change the fact that they never made it to the airport... or all the things I did to avoid processing my grief, but..." he take soft his glasses swiftly. It is then that Tony's eyes betray his inner heartbreak.
" Plus, 611 million dollars for my little therapeutic experiment? No one in the right mind would've ever funded it. Help me out, what's the MIT mission statement?" Tony beckons the crowd.