Dear Dad,
I never thought this day would come, but now I'm living in a world without you. I blame myself, if I built the missile you would've been spared. I'm so sorry dad. I'm sorry for everything. The pain that I've caused you, the stress, I hate that I didn't live up to your expectations. Please come back. Please. I don't know what to do now. The love of my life found someone else, My suit got destroyed, and now you're gone. But oh my god, I hate you so much sometimes. You would always hurt my feelings, always, everything you'd say. I wish you'd tell me that you loved me, because I feel like you don't. I won't ever be able to find out now. Gelid's father spared me the details on how he killed you, I'm sure it was tragic and painful... I wish you didn't go through that, nobody deserves that pain. I have nothing else to say besides why? Why? Why were you so mean to me? Why was I always a failure to you and not to others? Why did you hate me? Why did you never apologize? What the fuck did I do wrong? I'll forgive you, I want to hear you apologize. Dad, I love you, I miss you, I hate you, and I wish I could've been better for you.
As quick as Tony jotted the words, he crumbled the paper and threw it across his room to Stephen's old side. He collapsed into his desk. He had written over 14 letters ever since the death of his father. Howard's death hit Tony like a truck. It's been a week since the defeat of Howard Stark and the defeat of the conniving father of Gelid. The Ancient One, Iron Man, Stephen, the Avengers, and other sorcerers took him down. Unfortunately, Tony's suit got sacrificed in the middle of the fight, it was crushed by the enemies' power.
"Was that number 9?" Stephen was in the room! Tony didn't notice before. Stephen attempted to be cheerful for his sad friend. Tony sniffled into the desk, "14, actually..." He muttered, not lifting his head up for clearer words. "Wow, 14?" Stephen struggled to smile at Tony, it was hard seeing him upset. He made his way over to his friend, he gently massaged Tony's shoulders. Stephen roughly sighed over him, "How are you feeling?"
"Amazing! I could jump in excitement right now!" Tony sarcastically retorted. Stephen usually is salty to Tony's retorts, but he let it go due to the circumstance. "Do you... want to talk about it?" Stephen questioned.
Tony lifted his head up, "Why? You'd probably leave me mid-conversation like how you left me during my toughest time." He pushed Stephen's hands off of him.
Stephen stepped back, "Tony... that was a different situation."
"Just leave, I don't need you... Clearly you don't need me. Why are we even friends? Or are we friends? Either way, I don't care... I don't want to see you again."
"Alright then."
——
3 months... yes, you heard me, 3 months of no contact with each other. There were only 3 months left of school! 3 months left of each other... Stephen didn't check up on Tony, he had no idea what was going on with him now. They're supposed to go on a cruise in a week, which was planned a long time ago. Stephen woke up beside his beloved, Christine. He reached over for his phone on Christine's nightstand. His phone was blown up with texts by Bruce. He groaned and swept his hair out of his face, he didn't feel like responding to Bruce, who was worried about where Stephen was. He forgot to tell Bruce he'd be staying the night with his girlfriend.
He sat up and realized that he was sleeping on his cloak, "Oh my- was I sleeping on you?" He whispered to his artifact. The cloak slowly got up, as if it was sleepy. It latched on to Stephen's back and hugged him with it's collar. He snickered and went into the kitchen.
He prepared himself a coffee and sat down, he opened the texts Bruce sent him.
Bruce
Stephen!
Oh my god
Stephen where are you?
I need your help
It's an emergency!
Stephen's eyes grew. An emergency? He hoped Bruce was okay by now! Stephen went back into his dorm with the help of his magic. He ran up to Bruce, who was sleeping. "Bruce, are you alright? I'm so sorry."
Bruce took awhile to wake up, his eyes heavily opened. "Mghh... Stephen?" He leaned up. "I stayed overnight at Christine's. I didn't see your texts..." Stephen lied, he did see Bruce's texts but he didn't read them before.
Bruce stretched his arms, "Oh, it's fine."
"What was the emergency?"
"Uhm... well... I have a date tonight and I don't know what to do. This is my first date."
Stephen covered his mouth in disbelief, "You have a date!? Who is it?" He was intrigued. Bruce rubbed the back of his neck, "Well... okay so, you've met him before back with the ice man who was Tony's enemy. He's Thor..."
"Thor? Thor Odison? The oddly attractive god?"
"Yes, him. We talked a lot after the fight and we had a connection."
"Wow... you're going on a date with Thor? You're so lucky." Stephen blushed while talking under his breath. Bruce pursed his lips, "I-I know right! He was the one who asked me out!"
"Who would've known... you're about to go on a date with Thor! You need to get a suit, we'll go over protocols, you can't mess this up man."
Bruce jumped up and went into his closet, "I got a suit actually! I bought it yesterday." He took it off of the hanger and showed his friend. It was obviously a cheap suit. "Hm... stay right here." Stephen went into his closet, he took out an expensive suit Tony gave him awhile back. "Here, I want you to have this." Stephen said while giving the fine suit to Bruce.
Bruce was shocked, the suit went over 3k! He firmly grasped it into his fingers, "Woahh... are you sure? This is... this is so expensive, Stephen. How did you get this?"
Stephen's smile dropped as he remembered his moments with Tony.
I'll buy you another suit, I promise.
Alright then... I can't wait (Chapter 9)
"Stephen?"
Stephen blinked back into the moment, "Sorry, I was just..." He cleared his throat, "Tony gave me this suit, my other one got ruined. I have no use for it anymore, so I figured you should have it."
Bruce hung the suit up, "W-Wow! Are you sure?"
"Positive. After you and Thor breakup, give the suit to a friend who's about to date someone." He teased.
Bruce lifted an eyebrow. "That was a joke." Stephen said after noticing Bruce's confusion. Bruce curved a little smile, a ding came from his phone. "Thor is texting me!" Stephen gathered around Bruce, they hovered over his phone. "What is he saying?" Stephen asked, he was very intrigued with Bruce's love life.
"He's saying... uh... he doesn't know how to text so I don't know what it says." Bruce said.
"Hell... urrr... broooze?" Stephen tried to make out the words. "I don't know..." Bruce sent a heart emoji, "Maybe he can text in emojis."
A voice recording popped up, "He recorded a message!" Bruce exclaimed while clicking the recording.
"Hello? Can you hear me? I think you can... ah, so I don't know how to use the texting feature. Forgive me if my words don't make sense, I prefer the voice feature. Let me know if you get this message." Thor said in the recording.
Bruce and Stephen snickered like two little kids. "I got the message Thor! How are you man? Are you excited for tonight?" Bruce asked while recording his voice.
Just before Bruce was about to stop recording, Stephen chimed in, "Bruce loveeess you!"
"Stephen!" The recording got sent. "Oh no no no!" Bruce wasn't able to delete the message, he nudged Stephen away, "That wasn't cool."
Stephen was laughing away. Bruce turned away from him, Thor sent another recording.
"Was that the wizard? Tell him I said hi! Also I'm doing great and I'm very excited for tonight."
Bruce melted with relief, Thor didn't care to acknowledge Stephen's obnoxious joke.