darklittlestories:

izazov:

So. Tony
has kept the phone. Of course he has. But who calls first? Do they even
exchange words? I want to know.

Maybe Tony is
tinkering in the workshop when his phone rings, and it is Bruce on the other
side, and Tony is happy, he is thrilled, but then Bruce cuts through Tony’s
babble saying, “You’re really not going to like this, Tony.”

And then,
after talking to Bruce, Tony just stands there for a moment, frozen, mind
momentarily overwhelmed with the enormity of the threat that is heading their
way. He snaps out of his daze, hurrying toward his desk and pulling out the
phone Steve sent him. He glances down at it, half annoyed and half resigned,
before slipping it into his pocket.

Then, in
Strange’s Sanctum, he sort of tunes out Bruce and his babble about Thor and
Asgard burning, and some new space megalomaniac intercepting a ship full of
Asgardian refuges, and he really doesn’t want to listen to this Strange guy
because magic is freaky and illogical, and also he is kind of starting to panic
a bit, the old but never forgotten fear of the vastness of space pressing down
on him.

Tony doesn’t
make the decision consciously, but in between two breaths, he is holding Steve’s
phone in his hand, and he’s never meant to make this call, but the words ‘I’ll
be there’ are echoing loudly inside his head and it’s easier to breathe,
somehow.

And then,
just as Tony is ready to make the call, the tiny screen lights up, followed by
a shrill ringing sound. Tony smiles – in relief, in affection, in amusement –
and then a loud explosion drags his attention away from the phone, and he is
walking toward the door, pressing the phone to his ear, his chest twisting with
a dull ache as Steve’s voice, low and grim, echoes in his ear, “What happens
now, Tony?”

Tony doesn’t
have a clue, and people are screaming outside and there are even more explosions,
and he really should have called before, but now is not time for introspection
or regret or old wounds. Or panic attacks, no matter how much a part of Tony
wants to curl up somewhere and do nothing but try to breathe.

“Come home,
Steve,” Tony says in a surprisingly steady voice and disconnects the call,
slipping the phone back into his pocket. For later. They’re the Avengers, they’ll
make sure there is later.  

@lunariagold HOLD MEEEEE!!! 😭