Broken Lullaby ▷ Tony Stark | ✓

12 - IT GETS BETTER

No wonder Birdie was worried. Tony had never heard the boy speak with so little emotion, apathy never being a concept he would ever associate with a boy, much less hear it in his words. While he hadn't known the boy for very long, it was clear to even him that something was wrong.

"How've you been catching up on school?" he asked, toeing off his shoes before making his way towards the front of the couch, sitting down and settling onto the cushions.

"I got all my homework turned in when I went back," the boy explained, fingers flying over the controller as he responded, eyes never leaving the screen.

"Well, good for you," Tony hummed, pulling out his phone, searching for a news article, "I saw that you had some fun before you got back, though." He pointed towards the security camera footage showing the blurry image of a small boy wreaking havoc in M&M World.

Remy didn't look at the footage, but Tony caught sight of the slight raise of his lips. "I know nothing about that. But that kid looks like he's having fun."

Tony couldn't help but chuckle as he pocketed his phone; sounds like him when he was that age. He sighed, running his hands over his pants. "So, kid, what're the plans for the rest of the week, anything interesting happening?"

Remy shook his head, shrugging. "No, I don't think so. Just school. The usual."

Tony treated his next question like he would be trying to diffuse a bomb. "What about Halloween? I know a kid who's been talking non-stop about it, what about you?"

Remy stiffened for a moment, movements stalling, before he went back to playing, his posture more rigid and his fingers flying over the controller at an erratic, more frantic pace. Tony glanced at the screen for a moment, raising his eyebrows at just how good the boy was at the game.

"It's not a shooting game," he pointed out, trying to get the boy to ease up, "That's interesting."

"Why would I want to play a game where killing people is the only way to win?" he immediately replied, "What am I learning from that? That if you have a gun you have all the power? No, thanks."

Tony raised his eyebrows in surprise. "How old are you?"

Remy sighed. "I watch the news. I mean, I don't understand everything, but I know it's not okay to hurt people. I don't like bullies, I don't care who they are."

Tony was instantly reminded of Steve. It didn't surprise him much, Remy was small and had all the fire that his own father used to constantly describe to him whenever he tried and failed to try and get Tony to be just like America's greatest hero. It filled him with a sour taste in his mouth thinking about his father, but a sharp pain in his chest when he thought about Steve. He should check in on him again, he hadn't done it much since he helped him relocate back once General Ross finally moved on to other focuses.

"Did you just quote Captain America?" he asked instead, because he needed to find some way to pull back to the main topic.

Remy smiled. "Yeah. I always liked you more, but Cap is super cool. He's...he's not really bad, is he?"

Tony worried on his bottom lip, unsure of how to respond. But, finally, he said, "No, kid, he's not. He's made a lot of mistakes, but so have the rest of us. He's a good guy."

"Are you friends again?" Remy pressed, going so far as to look up from his game, raising his head to look the man in the eye, and Tony had never seen such hope in the eyes of someone so young about something that didn't concern him at all.

He sighed, glancing around the room. "We're working on it kid."

A picture on the wall caught his eye. Standing up and walking towards it, he was glad that he was incapable of looking at the kid when he replied, because everything just seemed to fall into place at that very moment.