tony stark whump

"shut up, tony."

Eventually, Rhodey managed to keep Tony in the room, and asked him what was wrong. But Tony wouldn't speak, couldn't speak. 

Rhodey realised what was wrong and felt ill.

It was that night that he did some obsessive researching and figured out that Tony might have selective mutism. He figured out he was the trigger, and then, when he reassured Tony enough, when he told Tony it was okay to speak, that he was sorry for shouting, he had eventually managed to coax Tony into speaking.

Tony cried, first, before he could finally say something. But then he did, and it was sorry. Rhodey cried with him and they had a long talk about Tony's childhood. Rhodey was patient when Tony stuttered, when he struggled to keep talking. He was patient and loving and kind, and that was what everyone else failed to be.

Rhodey told Tony he loved him that night, and that he wouldn't ever hurt him again.

He stayed true to his words.

Pepper was safe. Pepper was never mean. She got fed up of Tony on several occasions, and had told Tony to shut up before, but she never meant it in a bad way. She, like Rhodey, was patient. And she was safe.

Tony loved Pepper too. She was important to him.

But she didn't know about Tony's childhood, or that there was a chance that Tony had selective mutism. So she also didn't know what to do when she made Tony stop speaking.

It was the same case with Rhodey, with her. She didn't mean to hurt Tony. She was tired and spent far too much time in meetings. She wanted to sit down and take her heels off and relax, but she had to quickly sort one more thing out before she could.

"Can you summarise this for me, so I know a little bit about it before the meeting?" 

Tony was excited when she asked. He loved talking about his projects. Sometimes the things he built didn't spark much of an interest for him, because it was for the company and not a personal project. But this one was, and he was excited to have it out there, maybe, and have other people enjoy it.

So he rambled. He started talking about how excited he was, and then talked about the intricate structure and design, the functions and the aesthetics. He was even about to tap into the four-week business course he took for fun when he was fifteen, but then Pepper snapped.

"God, just shut up, Tony." Pepper yelled. "I asked for a short summary. I didn't ask you to explain the whole thing to me. I spend all day listening to men try to mansplain things to me, and that I can deal with because I know better than them. But you know I don't understand this, and you know that bothers me sometimes. I have had a long day, Tony, I do not need you making it longer."

Tony felt that panicky feeling start to bubble up in his throat. "Sorry. I'll- JARVIS can explain. He'll send an- an email."

"Forget it." Pepper walked away.

"I'm- so- so-r, so, fuck." Tony swallowed uncomfortably. That stupid feeling was coming back, and words were hard to say. He couldn't fucking speak. He hadn't felt like this since Obadiah died. It had been years since he struggled to speak.

"I've put up a holographic keyboard for you, sir. Is there anything you'd like me to do?"

JARVIS was aware of Tony's selective mutism. When Obadiah had ripped the reactor out of his chest, the last thing he said to Tony was to shut up. Obadiah knew what he'd done, and Tony ended up locked in his workshop, unable to form the words call Rhodey. JARVIS analysed the situation and came up with a diagnosis.