Book Nerds {IronStrange} |ON HOLD|

8

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Tony and I had decided to take a break for the night, and meet back up tomorrow to finish the ring. By the time I left, the snow had almost entirely stopped and I was able to walk home safely. Once I got into my small apartment, I went through my bookshelves. I don't know why was looking for a book I had read a while back, but I remember it mentioning something about the cause of a worldwide blackout. My dry hands flipped through pages, occasionally tracing lines of text, trying to find the one blurb I was looking for.

          I called Tony as soon as I found it, "Tony?" "Yellow!" He hollered. "Listen to this blurb I found in a book about blackouts-" "BLACKOUTS?!" He interjected, "You mean like the internet blackout?" "Yes, listen, 'The sun occasionally lets out supermassive bursts of plasma energy called coronal mass ejections. These could knock out our satellites, power grids, or internet connection for decades. One barely missed us in 2012, and another has about a 94% chance of happening in the next 10 years."

          Tony thought it over for a second. "Is that what you think happened?" "Yes, 100%." Tony remained quiet for a few seconds before sighing. "Looks like I've got some work to do to fix this." "You don't have to start immediately, and you're busy hanging out with me tomorrow so, on Monday you can start." I negotiated. "But-" "No 'but's, Tony." He sighed audibly, probably just being dramatic as usual. "Okay, I guess I'll wait." "Good. You work too hard. I'll see you tomorrow, Tony. Get some rest." I heard a mumbled 'bye' as I hung up the phone.

As I was brushing my teeth, a thought came upon me. If Tony first acted like he was really popular when I met him, then he is probably internet famous! I took out my phone and opened my Instagram, and searched his name. Me, being a literal genius, forgot about "The Great Connectivity Issue of 2019" as most were calling it. I took my contacts off and wondered over to my bed. I kicked off my slippers and flopped into my cozy sheets. "If only there was a way that I could fix the issue overnight,, wait, Tony could!" I often spoke to myself when I'm alone, no one's there to judge. I opened my phone to send Tony an SMS (cause Y'know, you cant text without bars). But then, once again, I realized I was being stupid. "What is going on with me? I'm definitely overtired, that's it." I said with a yawn and a stretch. I plugged in my phone, took a deep breath, and closed my eyes.

          During the middle of the night, there was a knocking at my door. I believe it was like the Funky Cold Medina's tune. I shuffled on my slippers and groggily made my way over to the door. I looked through the little peep hole on the door, to see Tony in a really long black trench-coat thing. I undid the chain on the door and unlocked the doors actual locking mechanism and opened the door wide. Light from the hallway fled in from behind Tony, his small shadow being casted onto the floor.

"Hey.. I, um, I had a really bad dream, and I mean, like, REALLY BAD. I had no one else to go to and and- and I..." His stuttered speech broke of as I latched my arms onto him. He hesitated before strongly wrapping his arms around me like there was nothing else for him to wrap his gremlin hands around. We stood there in silence for a minute, just hugging. I was contemplating wether I should call him broski, or bruh or something completely straight like that once we released. The moment did happen, he pulled away to wipe his tears and apologize for the salty wet spot on my shirt. I dragged him into my apartment by his hand and offered him a tissue.

         He sat on the rug in my living room, if you could even call it that. The room didn't have a sofa or a love seat, only a few living chairs, I had sold all of my expensive luxuries and downgraded to cheap dollar store quality furniture. I desperately needed the money for my surgeries and physical therapy.

          "This rug has a weird stain on it." Tony examined through wet eyes. "I know, Tony." I said handing him the promised box of tissues. "It looks like either wine or blood." He quivered. "I know, Tony." He began to cry more as he said, "ArE YoU GonNA KilL mE,, OR ARE YOU JUST A CLUMSY DRUNK!" He sobbed out the last half of his sentence. I've never been good around crying people, but I tried to help by getting closer to him and rubbing my hand up and down his back. "Shhh shhhh shhhh," I soothed. "I'm just clumsy, don't worry. Shh, it's okay, Tony. Whatever you dreamed about can't hurt you."

          "But it already has..." He said, calming himself down a bit. "Do you remember the attack on New York?" I nodded solemnly. "I almost died. I was at my old apartment building, I used to live in the penthouse I was raised in after my parents passed. The whole building came crumbling down. With me and a bunch of people in it." His eyes fixated on nothing in particular. "I remember the sounds. The crashing, the screams, and when the screaming went quiet... I was fine, miraculously, but everything I had ever known had just completely changed. Do you get what I mean?" I nodded.

         "I felt the same way with my accident. I didn't want my life to change, and I spent all the money I could get my hands on to bring it back. I should've just held onto the ground as the ground kept shifting, live with the changing rules and hold up my head." He stayed silent for a minute before resting his head on my shoulder. "Where were you when it happened?" He asked, and for a moment I retreated into my head.

          "You know that Wong guy from earlier?" Tony took his head off my shoulder and looked me in the eyes with a raised brow. "The Chinese food guy?" "Yeah! We were getting lunch. Shawarmas. He wanted me to try the niche joint that he found, and we went there, and then, well, you know what happened next." Tony's eyes lit up. "You're joking." "No," I shook my head, "No I'm not." I said with a smile, scratching at my stubble, god I need a shave. "I went to a shawarma place right after I climbed out from the rubble." I smiled widely, "No way!" "Yes way!" "Maybe we met, Wong and I didn't leave anytime soon after." "Yeah..." Tony smiled. "Maybe we met."

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