Sure Sign of Sanity - Stony Oneshot

Sure Sign of Sanity

MIT was supposed to be hard. It was supposed...what? Fill in that hole in his heart? Give him a proper purpose in life?

Tony didn't believe in stuff like that.

He had, however, hoped it could keep him entertained.  He slumped down at the nearest bench and put his hands on his head. Being smart sucked.

"Rwoof?"

Tony's head darted up. A blonde dog was sitting in front of him.

"Oh." Tony said. Weird. "Hey dog."

The dog trotted forward and rubbed its head against his knee. Tony gave a half chuckle and petted its head.

"Must be nice being a dog, huh?"

The dog whined.

"No schools, no expectations, no stupid people. All you have to do is know how to fetch."

The dog's ears pricked up.

"I uh... don't have a stick."

The dog made another noise and ran off.

"Yeah, yeah, leave me like everyone else," Tony muttered, his heart not really in it.

He got out his phone and tapped away some messages to Pepper.

"Rwoof?"

Tony frowned and looked down. The dog had returned, and, as soon as it had got Tony's attention, it dropped a stick in front of him.

Tony blinked twice. "Oh." He leant down. "That's uh... nice. Good work."

The dog pushed the stick towards him with its snout.

"You want me to throw it?" He put away his phone. "I mean, I guess I can."  He leant down, picked up the stick, and threw it. Badly.

The dog gave him a look.

"Shut up," he grumbled. "I'm having a bad day."

The dog seemed to be grinning at him as he trotted the short distance to the stick and brought it back. It dropped it again.

"Is this going to be a thing?"

The dog waited and Tony sighed. He picked up the stick and stood up, aiming it properly this time and throwing it.

The dog gave him an approving look and ran off.

This continued for a few hours, back and forth, throwing and fetching, and after a while, he almost forgot how sucky MIT was.

Finally, he yawned and sat down again. The dog returned with the stick and made a disappointed noise. Tony waved it away.

"Not all of us have dog-like energy, you know."

The dog seemed to shrug and offered its stomach to be petted. Tony leant over and obliged him. "Oh hey," he said, noticing for the first time the blue collar around the dog's neck. He reached over to examine the tag. "Steve. Hmm." He ran a hand through the dog's fur again. "Guess you're a boy then, huh?"

The dog gave him a look that seemed to say 'Yeah, obviously.'

Tony sighed and stood up. The dog jumped up too.

"No, no, you stay here, I've got to go home."

Steve made a displeased noise.

Tony shrugged. "Maybe I'll see you again sometime. Bye Steve."

XXX

Steve trotted through the park, strangely happy.