If You Were Here (Tony Stark x Reader)

Part 4

Tony watches your hologram pace the edge of the observation area. He suspects you do it for his benefit, since you can't actually have nervous ticks. It's just one of the tiny ways in which you try to be human. The little connections like that get to him.

<What's the point of using anesthesia?> you ask. <I can't feel anything that's going on down there.>

"It's just a precaution," Tony says.

<It seems like an unnecessary risk.>

"You don't know that." He leans into his chair, looping his arms over the backs of the seats beside him. "Maybe you'll be sucked back in at any moment. You don't really want to wake up with your skull missing."

Your hologram moves to the side of the observation room to peer into the surgical area below. Again, it's pointless. You can view the surgery perfectly well from the cameras placed there. This is you interacting. He's noticed that you do that when you're nervous. You put your hologram in his presence, seeking his attention.

"Dr. Cho is the best," he says, an attempt at reassurance. "She knows what she's doing."

<We should have tried harder to contact Strange. He's the top of the field.>

"Strange would have taken one look at your scan and written off the entire thing. You still look braindead on paper. At least Helen knows that you're real."

You grumble and the hologram sits in the seat next to Tony. It's bald now, an update you made that morning when Tony shaved your head for the surgery. He thought you would put up more of a fight, but you shrugged and assured him it wasn't the edgiest look you've ever had.

The surgery is painstaking, moving by inches and Tony contracts some of your antsy behavior. He would prefer to be in his lab, but, with the mesh created, there's nothing for him to do there now. He knew that you would be here, wanting to see how things turn out.

"So, what's the first thing you're going to do when you get your body back?" Tony asks. It's a loaded question. Will you stay? Will you leave me?

<Eat everything,> You say, completely circumventing his thoughts. <Just get really, really fat. I miss Thai food. And pizza. And eggrolls. And Dim Sum. Ooh, and ice cream cake.> Tony laughs and your hologram smiles, a sort of sheepish gesture.

"Your grandma will be happy to see you," he says. The words leave a bitter taste in his mouth. He tries not to dwell on the thought of what happens after this, when you leave and your laughter no longer fills the lab, when he can't count on your hologram popping up beside him the second he needs something.

<I suppose so.> Your hologram rests her chin in her hand. Behind her ear, revealed when Tony had run the razor over it, is a lotus flower tattoo. <I bet she was excited to meet an Avenger, huh?> Another playful smirk and Tony's heart clenches.

The anchor mesh that Tony created floats in a bath of sterile liquid, shimmering under the blaring lights of the surgical room. Dr. Cho removes the back of your skull, exposing your brain to the sterile air of the room. She places the mesh through the opening, allowing the material to sink into the folds of your brain.

"I'm going to need you to wear the Stark Industries logo for the rest of your life," Tony says. "I hope that's okay."

Your hologram smiles. <If this works, Tony, I will let you personally tattoo your logo on me wherever you like.>

"I'll hold you to that. Five by three inches. You think you have that much spare skin?"

<I can probably swing three by one, depending on how visible you want it.>