Of Men and Meth

14,000,606

“Yeah, who’s this?”

“Tony it’s me, Stephen.”

-------

“S-Step-” He couldn’t even finish the words that died on his tongue. The phone almost slipped from his grip as he took a step back like Stephen was there in the kitchen with him.

“Hey?” He heard the deep baritone voice laced with concern. Tony’s chest constricted with pain. With the thought of Stephen.

“I- Where are you?” He questioned suddenly, feeling panic wash over him.

“I’m doing great. How are you? I’m fine, Oh yes, That’s nice. Nice to hear from you too, Asshole.” He could hear the sarcasm in Stephen’s voice and knew he was most likely smirking. Tony frowned a bit.

“Fuck you, douchebag, where the hell are you?” He ignored Stephen’s teasing. He needed to leave, had to see him right now. Right now.

“I can hear you thinking from here. No, you will not come here. I won’t allow that Tony.” Stephen spoke a bit stern, his voice no longer teasing.

“W-What do you mean? No, you can’t tell me no. You just disappear and now you call out of the blue and won’t tell me where you are?” He raised his voice a bit, a bit a rage building.

“It’s not safe here.” He frowned.

“Stop with the excuses, safe was never my forte, you should know that already.” He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. At this point he couldn’t stand still, he was pacing in the short room the kitchen had to offer.

“I can’t let you come here, not with what’s happening. Don’t you dare track me either. I already know what you were going to do.” He paused his pacing.

“What- I- no. I would never track you.” He flinched a bit and held the phone away from his face, covering the speaker with his hand. “FRIDAY stop the tracking, don’t track the call.” He hissed quietly. He brought the phone back to his ear and cleared his throat.

“Anthony…” He heard the stern voice trying to reprimand him.

“I’m serious, I wasn’t tracking you.” He pouted a bit.

“Whatever, point is, I’m calling you for a reason.” He changed the subject.

“Well, I can see that. I mean, that’s the reason why people call each other.” Tony smiled a bit at that. He could hear Stephen’s long, annoyed sigh.

“I’ll hang up on you, asshole.”

“Wait! I was only kidding, please.” He soon regretted teasing, he didn’t want to lose Stephen. He needed to stop joking, this could be serious.

“Look, I can’t have you come here now. It’s too early. They would find out I’m working with you. They may not be ready to join forces yet. It’s easier keeping the minimum to only one person knowing about it right now. I’m in a tough position, especially after what happened in Hong Kong.” He paused and sighed for a moment.

“What happened in Hong Kong? Who are ‘They’? What’s going on Steph-” Tony panicked a bit at this. How did someone from New York, who was homeless on top of that, make it all the way across the world to Hong Kong? And who were these people Stephen was talking about? Were they going to hurt Stephen? Maybe they were keeping him hostage?