Tony Stark (cutsthewire) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2019-12-03 19:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, julia wicker, tony stark / iron man (mcu) |
WHO: Tony Stark (MCU), Julia Wicker
WHAT: Tony and Julia experience the Pokemon version of can't move the sleeping cat, guess we're stuck here.
WHEN: Friday, November 29
WHERE: Stark Lake House
WARNINGS: None
STATUS: Complete
They never had put a time frame on the “worried boyfriend observation,” as Julia had called it. And so it had been three weeks, and she was still under Tony’s roof. In Tony’s bed. Sharing meals with Tony and his kids. It had not taken long for him to realize that she was not bouncing back as quickly as she expected, magically speaking. It reminded him a little of the early days of their last go around with cohabitation, when she’d lost her magic and struggled with finding her place without it. That had been nearly a year ago, but also felt like longer ago still. His Tumbleweed past seemed to reach back a little further after his last update. Back then, he had given Julia space, which was easy to do in a house as large as his Malibu place. This time around, he opted for a different M.O. Distraction. Designing and building her nanotech suit of armor. Playing holographic HORSE with the ideas that didn’t pan out. Dishing up take-out for Gerald and the chickens. Setting speed records for handwashing and drying dishes. Swiping Peter’s Nintendo Switch and participating in some very heated Mario Kart races. And curling up together on the sofa to make fun of terrible movies streaming online. That night it was less about the distraction and more about proximity. The kids were in bed, and the movie which hadn’t been chosen in jest this time faded to credits. Yet neither one of them made a move to get up. Tony looked over at Julia with a sleepy smile on his face and then down to his lap, where the tail-end of Yen the Alolan Persian was planted. His large, blue body stretched across to Julia’s lap, where his giant round head rested peacefully on his paws. His mouth twitched a little as he slept, like a furry, weighted blanket holding the two of them hostage on the couch. Tony reached out to run his hand along the length of the Pokemon’s velvety back. “Don’t suppose you want to go warm the foot of Morgan’s bed,” he told Yen more than asked. The Persian shifted a little under his touch, but made no attempts to get up. Tony sighed and looked back at Julia, his tired eyes betraying him for the softy he was. He couldn’t bring himself to try to move the nested not-cat. “You didn’t want to sleep in a bed tonight, right?” Julia’s lips curled despite any attempt to keep it straight. She tried to answer Tony’s question with a look, but it was hard to read anything into it when she didn’t make any attempt herself to get up. Maybe it was the size of the cat, or the coma dulled the memory of her trauma, or Julia had grown, but the presence of the pokemon hadn’t bothered her. “Pretty sure my legs are numb,” she said. She was more forgiving of herself this time around when magic didn’t come back so easily to her. It was a familiar pattern with her; get magic, lose magic, evaluate, get magic again. From being kicked out of Brakebills, to her path to divinity, to giving up her divinity. Now she had coma to add to the list. She’d come through it like she had everything else. “You know we haven’t come up with a name,” Julia said. “For the suit. Pretty sure we’re not actually going with ‘Shrubwitch.’” There were other things on her mind. But Julia wanted to bring up something lighter. She wanted to pretend for a few moments that they didn’t have to be anywhere. "What's wrong with Shrubwitch?" Tony joked. "It's got such a nice ring to it." Of course the name was a bit too intimate for such general use, not to mention ridiculous. "Don't tell me you're still coming back to Iron Hedge." “I kinda liked it,” Julia admitted. “Or Hedge Knight, but I’m not actually a knight so--” Julia made a sort of shrugging expression with her eyes before her expression softened. “What was Pepper’s codename?” They didn’t talk about her much, but that seemed unfair. Pepper had been an important part of Tony’s life. And while there was still a possibility of her showing up at any moment, Julia didn’t mind quietly signalling that it was okay to talk about her, to miss her, to still love her. If she never showed, it left Tony as a sort of widow in reverse. “And Cap’s not really a captain,” Tony shrugged. “It’s a codename. It’s allowed to take liberties. Iron Man’s never been made of iron.” His face softened and took on the slightly pained and wistful expression that accompanied mention of Pepper. While she was often a topic of conversation between he and Morgan, out of respect for Julia, Tony tried to keep clear of the subject when it was the two of them. He knew how much he had hurt Julia by choosing his memory of Pepper over even trying to work things through in light of his memory update. So he kept thoughts of her to himself and focused on making good use of the extra time that he got. “We never had that conversation,” Tony smiled a little. “Only other time I got her in the suit was the day I gave it to her, and that was just to humor me.” A beat. “She’d probably have shot down every name I came up with and chosen something for herself.” “How many heroes actually choose their code name, though?” Julia asked. “Usually it’s something the news comes up with or a nickname. Sort of feels like I’m breaking tradition if I come up with my own.” "You got a problem with that?" Tony didn't think she seemed like the kind of person who worried about tradition. "I can keep throwing out names. Buzzkill. Iron Maiden, if we want to keep the musical theme." Tony was more than pleased that Julia had agreed to let him suit her up. While it was flight capable, his design relied upon on-the-ground defenses and weapons that were secondary to Julia's own magical abilities. It played to her strengths while giving her the superhuman backup that would keep her safe and Tony from worrying about her. “Buzzkill,” Julia repeated. She got the reference to his other nickname for her, but by itself, she was less fond of it. “Iron Maiden is a half step above Iron Woman.” Julia jabbed Tony’s side while he was trapped beside her with a finger. "Hey!" Tony tried to dodge her poke as best he could. "It was just an idea." Yen's tail swished through the air at the disturbance. "You know, you don't really need a codename for the suit. No matter what we call it, it's always gonna be you in there." The whole I am Iron Man, and Iron Man is me lesson was not one he had let go of. “Mhm,” Julia said. Her eyes betrayed her amusement. Her hands combed through Yen’s fur idly. It probably did not encourage the cat-like creature to leave any time soon. “Maybe I should have tried to catch a Pokemon,” Julia said idly. It was a credit to Yen that Julia would even consider anything close to a pet. "Oh, I didn't catch this guy. He chose me. Kept showing up out of nowhere with something shiny to drop at my feet like some kind of tribute. Usually coins, hence the name. He hasn't spent a day in one of those balls." Maybe that was why he liked Tony so much. He let him do his own thing, much to the aggravation of Bruce, who had been a constant victim of the Pokemon's thieving tendencies early on. Tony had never had a pet before, but Yen had charmed him. He wasn't too thrilled by the size upgrade Morgan accidentally performed, but by now he had gotten used to having a blue jeweled mountain lion around the house. "Something with wings," he decided, considering the recurring theme of birds in their Tumbleweed life. “There’s always the next cruise,” Julia said. “Is it weird that I almost look forward to them?” Especially after what happened to them on the last one with their memory updates. But the updates, she reasoned, could have happened anywhere. The cruises weren’t exactly like being on a quest, but there were things to do. Julia had something to focus on, problems to solve. She felt useful. "They're kind of a mixed bag." Tony had arrived in this universe during the ocean cruise. And it had been where he and Julia met and first teamed up. But the displaced had lost some people. The second cruise had driven a wedge in his relationship with Julia, though that was owing to the loss of her what and likely would have happened whether they had been on the cruise or not. Then their reconciliation had been short-lived after he received an update of his own. At least he wouldn't have any more of those to worry about on his own end. "I could do with more spa retreat and less mind-control next time around." Julia nodded in agreement. She did her best to shift, but wasn’t able to do much more than lean into Tony and use his shoulder as a headrest. “You know if we’re going to be trapped here, we could put on another movie.” There were words that he wanted to say to her, a conversation they needed to have about whether her presence at the Lake House was still a convalescence or if it had veered off into something else. He wanted to ask her what she wanted, knew she would want to ask him the same. But instead of going there, Tony leaned his head against hers and handed her the television remote. “Ladies choice.” |