Iron Phoenix | Tony Stark x oc

Chapter 20

"Are you ok?" Athena asked when Tony groaned in pain slightly when standing up. "Yeah. I'm fine" was his response, but it seemed a little too quick, and Tony didn't look alright at all, so Athena raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Ok, fine. Maybe I'm a little injured, but it's not that bad" Tony raised his arms in defence, even if doing so caused him pain. He was good at hiding it, Athena had to admit it, but she had also gotten good at recognizing someone who was in pain, but didn't want to show it.

Athena shook her head and took a step towards Tony. "Listen, I know you're more injured than you want to admit, but a freaking arc reactor just exploded in your face, it's a small miracle that you're even alive" she placed a hand on Tony's shoulder, making him drop his facade and letting Athena see how bad it really was.

It broke Athena's heart, seeing Tony like that. Athena knew she needed to take a look at his injuries, and she needed to do so sooner rather than later.

"Let's just go to Pepper real quick and then we can get back home" Athena sighed and started to slowly walk towards the edge of the roof, Tony following close behind. They saw Pepper standing a bit away from a group of agents, so Athena grabbed Tony's arm and teleported them down, right in front of Pepper, who let out a startled scream at seeing the two friends appear out of thin air.

Tony had put his facade back on, not showing Pepper how injured he actually was. "Well that went better than expected" he noted, looking around and seeing that nobody except him and Athena looked hurt. Pepper shot him an unbelieving look. In what universe was this 'better than expected'?

"Nobody got injured, we're still alive, Stane is dead, it wasn't that bad after all" Athena explained. Pepper still didn't look entirely convinced, but noticing the agents slowly approaching them, Tony added: "Well, we should get going. I need to get out of this thing"

They stepped away a bit and Athena spread her wings once again, for the hopefully last time that day, wrapping her arm around Tony's waist. She took off without a warning, but Tony reacted quickly, wrapping his arms around Athena's neck.

Athena placed her free hand on Tony's back too, so that there was an even smaller chance of him falling down onto the busy streets full of people.

Tony looked away from the city below them and instead, looked up to meet Athena's gaze. He quickly looked back at the city though, when he noticed just how close their faces were, feeling his cheeks flush red.

They arrived at Tony's mansion shortly after, Athena managing to glide inside the workshop and land softly. The robots immediately got to work on getting Tony out of the suit, while Athena watched concerned. Last time wasn't exactly pleasant for Tony and now that the suit was damaged and he was injured, Athena was sure it would be a lot worse.

A few minutes later Tony was finally free of the suit, Athena teleporting both of them upstairs so they could sit down on Tony's comfy sofas.

"Where do you have the first aid kit?" Athena asked, looking around the room. "It's in the top drawer right behind you in the kitchen," JARVIS explained. "Thanks JARVIS" Athena thanked him and started to walk over to grab the first aid, but Tony grabbed her wrist, holding her back.

"Let me get it" Tony offered, but Athena knew he needed it more, a few scratches on her arms and legs having already nearly completely healed, so she teleported out of Tony's grasp in front of the drawer with the first aid kit in it.

Tony could only stare in shock. He still hadn't gotten used to the fact that Athena could teleport, quickly closing his mouth when he noticed Athena looking at him, chuckling slightly.

Athena also grabbed a wet towel before coming back to Tony, showing him the already fading scars of a few scratches on her arm "I'm pretty sure you need it more than me"

She reached up and cleaned the cut on Tony's cheek with the towel, showing that it looked worse than it actually was. Athena put the towel down and placed her hand on the cut again, only that this time her hand wasn't holding anything. She either didn't notice the way Tony's cheeks grew slightly red or just chose to ignore it.

"Wha-" Tony asked, but quickly shut up when Athena glared at him. "I'm using my powers to heal you so shut up, the cut is just going to open again if you talk before I'm finished healing it"

Tony could feel the pain slowly fading away, being replaced by a warmth that disappeared when Athena moved her hand away. Tony found himself already missing that warmth, longing to feel it again.

"Any other injuries?" Athena asked, completely ignoring the fact that her injuries still hurt, since she hadn't trained in ages. At least not against someone as strong as Stane with the suit.

"I'm fine but can you use that... healing magic thing on yourself too?" Tony reassured her, eyeing all the cuts and bruises on Athena's arms and face, who seemed to be the worst.

"It's worse than it seems. I just need to clean the blood away. Most of the cuts have already become scars" Athena stood up, slightly wincing in pain as she did so. "Welp, guess I better get home-"

"No you're not going back to your house. You're staying here tonight" Tony grabbed Athena's wrist, stopping her from leaving. He knew that if she wanted she could easily leave but the fact that she was still standing there was already a good thing.

"But-"
"Athena, you're injured. I'm not letting you leave like this. I mean, you probably could but please don't. Just stay here for tonight. You can use a spare room so you don't have to sleep in the same room as me-" Tony paused, realizing he was rambling.

He wanted to apologize, but seeing Athena smile fondly made him unable to say anything. He realized just how beautiful Athena was, with her long, black hair and dark skin that contrasted her blue eyes perfectly.

"It's fine, I don't wanna bother you-"

"You saved my life, it's the least I can do"

"Fine. I'll stay"

1079 words

I'm so sorry fo the late update but school is keeping me busy and also I rewatched Endgame today and I know that if I try to sleep now I'm just going to get bad dreams even if I probably should sleep. It's 00:24 now and I have school tomorrow.

Ehhh it's fineeeee, right? Right?