Ghost of Christmas Future

[st_arkintern]

"Mr. Stark?"

Peter stands at the edge of the bed that Tony shares with Thor. He wears the Iron Spider armor Tony made for him, the faint glint of the moon through the thin slit between either side of the curtain reflecting off the suit's dark colors.

Peter's hair is styled differently from the Peter here at the inn; it's longer, more wild, even floppy. School had grown more and more demanding as the end of his sophomore year approached and balancing school and his time as Spider-Man was difficult. He had promised May he'd maintain his grades as part of the Spider-Man Negotiations of 2017, but criminals didn't stop just because he had two papers to write by Friday, a quiz tomorrow, and a test next Tuesday.

Hair had been less of a priority. Peter couldn't put off his homework if he wanted to continue being Spider-Man; he couldn't put off his evening patrol if he wanted to protect Queens, either. There were no serious long-term consequences to not getting his hair cut (save for perhaps more bullying from Flash, who was prone to bullying him anyway). A haircut could wait until later.

Peter always thought there'd be more time later.

Tony doesn't stir. Peter presses his lips together -- a nervous habit acquired when he was still alive -- and draws a little closer. He resists the natural urge to place a hand on Tony's shoulder to wake him; he knows that his fingers will slip right through. Instead he repeats, this time a little louder:

"Mr. Stark?"

Comments

[st_ormbreaker]

For one moment, a flash of panic washes over Thor at the prospect of a Thanos-ghost wandering the inn. He wills the thought away; he has to stay focused on Tony.

He opens his mouth to say something else, but before he can, Tony sends the both of them flying back.

Thor quickly grabs Tony's hands and knits their fingers together.

"Tony. Thanos isn't here."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

At some point, Tony ended up pinned by his hands on his back against the blessedly forgiving surface of the bed. His body broke out into shivers, reasoning slow to follow as the adrenaline aftershocks wracked through him.

"I did." He insisted, though it was quieter and questioning. "I did. I saw--I saw...it's not me. I'm--I'm there."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor can feel Tony trembling against him. Is he going into shock? Thor's not entirely sure what he should do if he is. He had studied many things, but Midgardian physiology wasn't one of them.

"Tony, you're here with me. In our room. You're here. You're not anywhere else."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"I'm not--I'm not." Why wasn't Thor listening? Why weren't the words making it out of his brain? Was what he experienced even real? It was! It was! And in some deep region of space, there he was, fighting through wounds without hope of rescue--

Tony began to hyperventilate, jerking in a useless struggle against the sensation of being trapped. A full minute of this frantic push and pull occurred until Tony could feel the warm weight of Thor's hands on his, and process his gentle reassurances.

"I'm not dead." He murmured through his slowing breath.

[st_ormbreaker]

"You're not dead," Thor affirms. He runs a hand over Tony's now-damp hair and inhales deeply.

"You're not dead."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

At Thor's apparent confirmation, Tony nodded along. Numbly, he mirrored Thor's gesture, running his fingers through the man's hair for the tactile feedback. His usually-deft hands were clumsy and harsh.

"Peter--he--is he safe?"

[st_ormbreaker]

"There's no reason he wouldn't be." The inn had been mostly-peaceful for the months he'd been there. The one time there was an assault on the inn, everyone at the inn had immediately known about it.

Nothing had disturbed them in the night.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony's gaze shot to the side of the bed where Peter had first appeared to him.

Empty space.

He looked back to Thor as his head fell back, unable to clearly see the man for the salty sting lapping at the corners of his eyes. "...Tell me I can trust you. Please."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor looks down into Tony's glossy brown eyes as he says it.

"You can trust me."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Holding his stare for a moment that stretched into eternity, Tony broke it as he clenched his eyes shut against the flood of bitterness and grief welled up within him. His armor vanished, leaving him a defenseless man trapped in place.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor lifts the one hand still holding Tony down. Tony is in such a state of distress and he feels powerless to help it.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

At some point, Tony managed to exhaust himself, completely and utterly. He managed to pull the rest of himself onto the bed and lie down in his usual orientation, though he was utterly still, staring at the spot that Peter disappeared.

"I'm here. I'm here." He repeated almost too softly to be heard.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor sits up beside him, and runs his hand over Tony's head as if to confirm what he's saying.

He's here.

Thor doesn't say anything until he is sure that Tony is calm enough to answer.

"Tony... what happened?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Recalling the right images and the words was like wading through mud instead of the seamless pace his mind always operated at. “I saw it. Titan. Me. Pete. Quill. There were others—there was him.“

[st_ormbreaker]

"Oh," Thor says softly to that. It's all that he can hope for that Tony did not see everything that happened there. But given Tony's reaction...

He had probably seen Peter die. He had probably seen himself die too. Thor remembers with absolute clarity how Tony had taken the news when he had just heard it. Now, actually seeing it...

"Are you okay?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“I lived.” Tony answered, Thor’s question skewing in his brain. “I’m—I’m up there. Just me and one other. I’m alive.”

[st_ormbreaker]

That... was not what Thor expected at all.

"You're alive," he says, and suddenly he understands what Tony was trying to say earlier.

Once the realization settles in a moment later, Thor pulls Tony into his arms and inhales deeply, his back rising as his lungs fill with air.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Once again, Tony’s heart beat to life as Thor pulled him up and into his familiar embrace. Tony grasped him back, clinging to him and his bountiful warmth. “Thanos. Didn’t kill anyone. But me—he got damn close. Bartered the stone for my life. Strange. Don’t know why—he did. And then—dust.”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor's breath catches in his throat. If Thanos hadn't killed anyone outright, then --

Thor focuses harder on Tony.

"I'm sorry," Thor says and even if Tony doesn't know anything about what he did (or what he failed to do), he's apologizing as much for that as he is at expressing regret that Tony had to see it.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“For all the good it did.” Tony swept a clammy hand through his damp hair. His body had reacted to the shock like a wicked fever. “On a barren alien wasteland nursing a sword wound to the gut. Tony Stark from your future might as well be dead.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"I know where you are," he says. "Now that I know you're alive, there's nothing stopping me from coming to get you."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“If it’s where I think it is, our best spacecraft would be lucky to reach it within two years.” Tony held his midsection as if he could feel the wound of his other self.

[st_ormbreaker]

"Asgard is gone, but I'm still able to summon the Bifrost. I can go anywhere in the universe. Even Titan."

The only thing the Bifrost wasn't capable of, apparently, was leaving this place. Thor had tried, repeatedly.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

His eyes softened slightly at that revelation. At the very least, that woman stranded with him would be saved as well. One light he can say he salvaged despite each and every stunning failure. Tony tilted his head up. When he saw the heavy guilt written across Thor’s face, it all came together. The unspoken truths weighing down even the small things between them. Even so, he didn’t have the energy left to ask, or to even summon anger. His break from reality had left him too barren.

“Wherever you’re going after you return...take me with you.”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor's expression softens at Tony's request. He should have known this was coming.

"You know how much we've lost," he says. "I'm not going to risk losing you on top of it."