Imagine If You Assembled The Avengers: Volume 3

Crystallized (Part 1) (Stark x reader)

You've applied the pressure
To have me crystallized
And you've got the faith
That I could bring paradise

I'll forgive and forget
Before I'm paralyzed
Do I have to keep up the pace
To keep you satisfied

The phone in your hand was pressed tightly to your cheek, almost as if the warmth from the light in its screen could give you comfort despite all that you had lost. No, perhaps lost wasn't the correct choice of phrase; it was what you were giving up willingly. You didn't deserve that comfort, you believed, which is why you had made this call in the first place. You didn't deserve to hear the voice on the other end of the line, the voice that could soothe away your worst nightmares and the voice that had carried the words of promises to love you no matter what challenges came your way. It was a voice that still carried that promise and that hurt even more.

It was Tony's voice, and it tore away at your heart like a dull, serrated knife wielded by a raging blind man.

"Are you coming home today?"

"You asked me that yesterday too, Tony."

"Well, it's a new day, new question. Or, old question, I suppose...but new line of questioning. Yeah, the point is still the same, I get that, but how about if I phrase it differently? Maybe something like, will you please come home because I can't stand it here without you and I've eaten the last of the Rocky Road and FRIDAY refuses to buy me more? Nat has threatened everyone else with bodily harm if they get me any, and Vision has made it very, agonizingly clear that I've gained exactly 5.3 pounds since you left. Sweetheart, please come home before Steve comes up with some insane workout plan for me."

He was rambling again, which felt like a positive change from the flat, nearly non-verbal Tony that you had spoken to only two days prior. You had been separated from your husband for nearly a week now, so a positive sound in his voice was completely unexpected. "You sound different," you admitted to him quietly, "it's better."

"Than what?"

"Than Depressed Tony."

"Shit, I'm still depressed. It's compensatory, so don't get attached to a notion built on illusion. I took a few acting classes back in college and I guess it stuck."

Silence was your only reply; it wasn't that you didn't know what to say, because there was plenty that could find your voice. It was that everything had been said so many times before that it would just be a rehashing of pain already felt and issues left unresolved once anger would inevitably take over your tone. Fighting with Tony was both exhausting and entertaining, in the cruelest of ways; he was a master of levity in the worst situations, but he was also a genius when it came to cutting deep. The bastard remembered everything, never hesitating to pull a dagger from his vault at the most unexpected times, and you'd been stabbed plenty.

"I'll call you tomorrow, Tony." You were just about to disconnect before he could interrupt, but of course, he knew that would be your play.

"Why?"

"I'm...I'm sorry?"

"Why call me tomorrow if your answer hasn't changed, (Y/N)? If you're not coming home, then why bother? If you're done with me...with us, then you're done, right? So, tell you what, just text me when you make up your mind."

Before you could utter a single syllable in reply, he used your own tactics against you, and the line went dead.