Broken Lullaby ▷ Tony Stark | ✓

10 - TOUGH LOVE

REMY WOULDN'T GET BETTER UNTIL THE END OF THE WEEK.

It wasn't surprising to anyone, except maybe Tony, that it took the boy so long to get better. Ever since he was a baby, if he got sick the problem would linger longer than it would for most, leaving him bedridden and emotional. But it was because of the pattern that they were able to tell if he was getting better.

At first, he started out happy, a kind of incoherent, drugged kind of happy where he had so much energy, yet was unable to move at all. Over time, he would grow to be tired, dizzy, the kind of sick that most people experienced.

But towards the last leg of his sickness, he would get cranky.

"This is stupid!" he shouted, flinging the medicine cup out of Birdie's hands, sending it flying across his room, spilling the liquid everywhere.

It was Wednesday and Birdie instantly knew that the boy was going to be better by Friday. She had taken a tally of the days he had been sick and his moods on each day, he would be fine by the end of the week; she just had to brave through the last phase.

"You can't just throw things, what if it destroyed something? And this is expensive," Birdie shouted back, anger flaring for a brief moment at Remy's shout and the sight of the purple liquid covering his desk and floor.

"I don't want it!" he screamed, hitting his bed with his hand.

"You need it to get better, now I'm not gonna ask you again—" Birdie began, forcing herself to calm down, already too used to his moods.

"You're just like Mark!" he shouted, throwing his pillow at her, looking at her with nothing but hate in his eyes.

She hit the pillow away numbly, staring at him in a mixture of shock and disgust. Schooling her features, she left the room without another word, her ears ringing as she went to her room, slamming the door behind her.

She sighed as she fell against her bed, just staring up at the ceiling. She hadn't gone into work, having been convinced by everyone to just take a day and take care of her son. Of course, she had to choose the time when Remy wanted her around the least.

She sighed and grabbed her laptop, deciding to just do some work while she was alone; when Remy was cranky, he just wanted to be left alone, often heard shouting abuse to BUDDY who never took anything personally, also used to the boy's moods and deleting their conversation from his immediate memory.

Remy could be incredibly cruel if he put his mind to it.

A few hours later, the doorbell rang.

Sighing, she stood up, wiping away the stray tears as she made her way to the door, opening it to find Tony smiling tiredly at her, holding a bouquet of roses. She raised her eyebrows as she let him in, too shocked and emotionally drained to try and piece together everything on her own.

"Are you just gonna come by every day?" she asked, covering her mouth immediately after, "I am so sorry, I shouldn't have—"

"No, it's fine, I don't blame you," he said, handing the bouquet towards her, "That's not really the plan, but BUDDY had alerted me that you and Remy got into a fight, so I dropped by to see if I could do something."

She tried to smile as she took it, feeling herself start to cry as his words echoed in her ear. "He said he was like Mark, that's just...that's just not fair."

Tony winced, glancing away. "I'll try talking to him."

"No," Birdie said immediately, grabbing his arm, "Don't. When he gets like this, he just talks without thinking, he doesn't mean anything by it, but he can be very cruel and very specific."