TSUNAMI [A Fairy Tail/Marvel Fanfiction]

Chapter Nine - Tony, Part Eight

Alright! I'm back home for the holidays! I also want to thank everyone who gave me their own little present in the form of financial support! (The link on my tumblr is fixed, though with what's going on with tumblr...eh). For Chanukah I also posted several chapters in my other fics, as well as some FT one shots, in case you didn't get any alerts. I'd be really happy if you could check them out!

Anyway, thank you guys so much! To celebrate, this is last of the Tony arc (for now. He's still totally gonna be in it, the chapters aren't going to be called Tony, Part... anymore).

Sorry it's a bit of a cliffy - next chapter should at least be up at the end of the week.

Enjoy!

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Chapter Nine – Tony, Part Eight

Here's the thing.

Elle mentioned changing things for the better; creating a world that he'd be proud for Bucky and Steve to wake up to.

But Tony still wasn't sure what he thought about them.

He'd get over them eventually, he knew he'd have to.

But Bucky had killed his parents, and Steve was...Captain America.

He knew he was being a hypocrite. Tony didn't like it when other people judged him through association, or by rumors or things like that.

But when every word that came out of Howard's mouth had to do with Steve, it was hard to still remain neutral.

Tony had worshipped Steve, at first, but it didn't take him long before he realized he'd never measure up in his father's eyes. He'd started worrying about it after Howard didn't really do anything about building an engine when he was six; sending him off to boarding school a few years later only reinforced his suspicions. When he got into MIT, Howard barely huffed, and that was when Tony knew he wasn't worth it.

That was when he started rejecting Captain America; when he tore down the poster and refused to hear another word about him.

The only time after that...

Well, the only time when he could stand to learn about him was when he was hearing about Steve, not Captain America. He knew that his father was blind to just about anything concerning the Captain, but Aunt Peggy and the rest of his uncles; they could be relied on a bit more.

But Tony wasn't fixing the world for them and the thing is, he knew that Elle knew it too. She didn't say it outright, but this had just as much to do with making himself proud of something. When she talked about making them proud, she wasn't entirely talking about them; more the 'waking up' aspect.

Because if Tony woke up to a future that was a piece of shit like his life was now...well, he got what she was saying.

And the way that that resonated between them; well, that was another reason he trusted her so easily.

But not the main one.

It was her eyes.

Of all the things that Eleanor Rigby – Elle Dreyar – showed him, it was her eyes that shown with the truth.

And more than that; they didn't look at him with pity.

She looked at him with understanding, and when she had teared up earlier he hadn't been sure if she was crying for him or for herself.