Ghost of You

t h i r t y - o n e

"You know I didn't force you to break the law." He said, his arm falling back to his side with a light thud. "You didn't have to go and meet Steve, you made that choice on your own. I just called that it was exactly what you'd do because you're every bit as predictable now as you were the day I met you."

He shoved his hands in his jacket pockets, taking the few steps back towards my glass so he was right in front of it.

"You made your choice." His voice was even and factual, making me wonder how he could possibly seem so indifferent towards the way I clearly felt about him and about what he had done. "You consorted with an enemy of the state, fully knowing what the outcome would be. You have to own up to that. Don't blame me for your own decisions."

"I don't blame you for my decisions, I blame you for yours!"

Tony took a step back, apparently surprised by the anger in my raised voice. I'd be lying if I'd said I wasn't a little shocked myself. After that talk with my father and Ross, my emotions had been heightening, stirring frustratedly with no way to release any of the bitterness in my heart or the anger in my chest. I was feeling unusually highly confrontational, and unluckily for Tony, he was facing the brunt of that. I wasn't going to waste any more time pretending. He might enjoy pretending to still be my friend, but I didn't enjoy pretending to be his.

"Do you have any idea how much I looked up to you?" I asked, eyes burning into his. "I thought working for you was the most worthwhile and fulfilling job I'd ever taken, not just because of the work we were doing but because of you."

My right hand gestured towards him, before falling back to my side. None of my movements seemed enough to get all of the pent up negativity out of my body. Even my words couldn't do it. 

"I didn't just think you were just different from my other bosses, I thought you were better. But I was wrong." I continued, relentlessly. "At least Ross never acted like he was my friend, hell he barely acted like we were even on the same team, but you... you looked me in the eye, pretended to have my back, and then sold me out the first fucking chance you got."

Tony's feet shuffled against the floor. 

"(Y/n)..."

The start of his sentence hung in the air unfinished. I wasn't sure if he had lost it along the way or just didn't have anything else to say it all. It didn't matter to me either way. His actions had spoken louder than his words ever could. 

I used to see him as this great pillar, a brilliant example of how someone could turn their life around. To me, Tony Stark had been this imperfectly perfect man, one who fought to protect both those close to him and strangers alike. Him bugging my phone didn't take that away exactly, he had still done a lot of good for the world around him and betraying a friend doesn't undo that good. But it does warp it. Just like wood splinters and cracks when exposed to uneven and unruly weather, my opinion of him, my faith in the man I had once been proud to call my boss had been fractured, severed by the knife he had stabbed in my back.

"Please just leave me alone." My voice had lost most of its previous aggression. It now just sounded, defeated and resigned. "Steve never told me where he was going so I don't have anything to give you or any information that you came here to get out of me." 

"That's not why I came here." Tony shook his head. "As of yesterday Steve, Sam, Nat, Wanda and Barnes... they're all gone, hiding out somewhere. Clint is serving his sentence under house arrest, at home with his family."

I turned away from him slightly, letting my back hit the glass wall off to the side. Nat was gone too? Did that mean she had decided to go against the accords after all? And what did this have to do with Clint? Steve had pulled him in out of retirement?