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Tweak says, "Did you hear that rubber ducky"

Tony Stark: Earth's Best Defender (allaboutego) wrote in snapthread,
@ 2019-08-27 12:13:00

Entry tags:

gwen stacy, tony stark (mcu)

Who: Tony Stark, Gwen Stacy
What: Family bonding, talking, legos
Where: House Stark
When: August 27th

It’d been an eventful week. Vegas tended to do that to people, Tony supposed. It’d started out so well with some pool time and a trip or two to a tailors, a proper date with Steve and hell, the day had ended in a wedding. Not his, mind, but it wasn’t like he’d been about to let Steve go be a witness without him.

He hadn’t even really been bothered by having to bail a few folks out of jail — while he didn’t one hundred percent condone the goings on there, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t done worse when he was younger. It was like a day off that went a little too far. That was fine. Even if Gwen had been involved.

Tony had not so much liked the next day — alien invasions in general were sort of a sore spot for him and while he’d suited up and helped deal with the problem, god he really wished it hadn’t been a problem in the first place.

At least it’d been easy to deal with. But it left Tony feeling a little twitchy and raw, thinking about how this was something that apparently happened more often than it should have.

So obviously the best way to alleviate some of that twitchiness was by drinking an entire pot of coffee whilst sitting at the kitchen table and doing nothing else. Obviously.

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itsybitsyspidey
2019-08-31 01:50 pm UTC (link)

Gwen imagined it was different for everyone. Some people were chatty, engaged in talk about themselves and others in light conversation. She'd kind of let the bare bones be known. She was a teenager, a drummer in a rock band that'd been steadily growing more popular, her dad was the captain of the police, and she was falsely being held responsible for the murder of her best friend. In a nutshell, that was it. What was missing was all the little details that tied it all together. How did it feel to be in a rock band? How was she coping with being hunted down by her own dad until she was forced to show him her face in her spider-suit? What was it like going over to Aunt May and Uncle Ben's house knowing exactly what happened to their nephew? These were the little things she kept to herself because no one really wanted to know that. Not really. Not in the light, passing sort of conversations she had with most people.

That was why when Flash had been here and he asked her about her life, she'd stopped and questioned him; do you want the brief summary or do you really want to know me? because there was a huge difference. It was easier to go with the former. It seemed like most people here did that. It was also just sorta... normal. Most people didn't go unloading their grief and struggles in everyday conversation. But on the other hand, the people that really knew you were supposed to be the people you could talk to when that heavy stuff got to be too much.

She smirked a little when he corrected her reasoning. It made her feel good to know the person she admired most thought she was cool. That actually... was really cool in of itself.

"Ah man, I bet he'd loop them both into a guilt trip about my choices and overall behavior lately," Gwen said, and shook her head. "He's good like that."

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allaboutego
2019-08-31 10:30 pm UTC (link)

Tony would have listened. Tony wanted to know, he really did. He wanted to know anything and everything Gwen wanted to tell him. He did, however, suffer from a distinct lack of communication skills when it came to most people. It was a learning process, for the most part - not the same as Rhodey having known him since he was just an underaged brat at MIT or Pepper having worked with and for him for over a decade.

He was getting better, he thought. He had to be. It was probably Steve's fault; Tony's long awaited outburst at the other man had offered up results he'd never before imagined. And Gwen -- well. They were always on the cusp of something. Saying more by not saying something than the other way around. But they'd get there.

"He is good," Tony agreed mildly. "But he's also less morally black and white than people give him credit for. It's a bad break, getting caught up in Vegas when all you were doing was having a little fun. The odds of hitting that kind of jackpot are pretty wild. You got unluckily lucky." He paused to click together to corners of the building. "I get wanting to do wild and fun stuff just for the sake of doing it, you know? I would have given you money though."

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itsybitsyspidey
2019-09-02 06:00 pm UTC (link)

It was hard, finding that balance, that way to slip into the deeper conversations. They'd fallen into a certain level of comfort with each other that really allowed them to enjoy each other's company. Gwen had never really lost her usual demeanor around him other than those brief moments when he came to get her after Jan disappeared. Gwen had cracked a little and he'd protected her vulnerability without making her feel exposed as a result of showing her sadness. It hadn't lasted long; the length of a hug, really. But for people like them, it was kind of a lot.

It was also likely just.. personality habits. She'd never been an open book even before she shut everyone out. The Tony Stark she knew was kind of a half-celebrity so people knew of him and knew some of his life but it wasn't because he put it out there. She guessed her Mr. Stark was kinda like that too, or at least he probably chose what was put out when he could. There was a difference between an interview and confiding in someone.

"Yeah," she said, while clicking together a couple of pieces that probably fit. "Just.. I dunno. It was a lot of things. We were already there, and I thought we'd just hit the button a couple of times to cover our entrance fee and not think twice about it. It just kinda.. er.. well we just kept seeing dollar signs and didn't quit while we were ahead. But I get what you're saying. I feel pretty shitty about it, honestly. It was like, the one thing I never thought would happen to me. Even beyond getting bitten by a radioactive spider."

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allaboutego
2019-09-04 01:38 am UTC (link)

Any length of time was a lot, really, when it came to showing real emotions, not filtered for whatever audience they had in front of them -- or, more likely even, for themselves. Living life without being able to give things away -- or feeling like you have to keep everything inside because that was simply the way it had always been was very often was tiring. They all needed someone they could drop their shields in front of sometimes.

He nodded thoughtfully, building the sliding doors of the building and wondering vaguely if they couldn't add a little pizzaz to this later and actually make things a little animatronic. "It's never something someone really expects, I think. One minute you're riding high on good feelings, the next you're in a little holding cell. It's -- yeah. It sucks. Don't feel too bad about it. I think it's safe to say in a normal setting you probably wouldn't have felt so inclined to have a wild night of tourism."

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