irondad & spiderson oneshots

lxviii. mourning

this one is extra short, sorry!

Tony was pretty sure his son didn't know that he knew the boy cried himself to sleep every night.

It hurt him every single time he heard Peter trying to hide the fact that he was crying himself hoarse.

But he knew from the red eyes and dark circles. He knew from the tired smiles and distant eyes.

He knew because he did the exact same. And it was all because of Steve Rogers.

The man that used to be Steve Rogers-Stark. The man Peter used to call Pops.

The man that had helped Tony soothe the boy's nightmares and tuck him into bed. The man who'd promised never to leave.

The man who broke his promise. Tomy knew that fighting his dad along side his other dad couldn't have been fun.

Tony remembered when the Avengers had been a family. He remembered when Peter had happily called the team his aunts and uncles.

And he mourned it. He mourned his family and he mourned his happy son.

And as he lied in bed, staring at the ceiling every night, he ran his fingers over his left hand, where a ring used to sit.

Closing his eyes, he thought of the ring and the flip phone in the table a few feet away.

And he mourned what used to be.