Tony Stark was born into a world where there was a limit to how many words could be spoken a day.
Personally, he thinks that's utter bullshit.
(He's still working on a theory that evolution will deteriorate that spoken limit, but really!? Only a thousand words? There's so much to say with so little words!)
To have a limited amount of spoken words means that the words have to be used carefully.
When he was younger, Tony held on to his words closely. Howard Stark would have made sure Tony understood the importance of using his words during meetings. ("Having a voice when others already used there words makes you heard, Anthony." The man signed. It was routine to see his hands move in that familiar pattern every few days.)
Of course, Tony followed that rule to a certain point. As much as Howard was an ass, he understood that school taught students speech. Having Tony come home with his spoken words depleted wasn't surprising, so long as Tony wasn't heard speaking around his father he was safe to hear his voice.
As a boy, Tony would whisper 'goodnight' to Jarvis before he went to bed. Then, tucked in and with the covers pulled up to his shoulders, the prodigy would turn towards the window and begin counting the stars. He'd continue counting till his voice stopped him. Till he reached the end of his thousand words.
As Tony grew, he realised that not everyone was as meticulous about using their words.
College had been loud.
Everyone spoke. They used there words so carelessly. So freely. He could admit to himself that using his spoken words the way they did scared him. What if he needed them and Tony already reached his thousand word limit?
Still, the teen wondered, what would it be like to speak freely?
When Tony met Rhodey for the first time, he wasn't completely shocked to hear him speak aloud like his other peers did.
"I'm James Rhodes." The older teen said as he put a box of books down on his bed.
Tony wanted so badly to speak back, he realised. So he decided to.
It did take Tony a moment to prepare himself to speak. That doesn't mean, however, that he thought through his introduction.
"Yeah, hi. Hey, do you think that the cafeteria has donuts? Oh, I'm Anthony. I guess you should know that. Is that a poster of Tesla? That's so cool!" 971.
Rhodes stared at him for a while before laughing. "Come on, man. Let's go see if the caf has those donuts you want so badly."
He did it! He casually used his spoken words, for the first time.
It didn't mean that he wasn't careful with his limited words. Just that Tony didn't have to not use them. Tony knew the value of spoken words from his father but Rhodey was the person who heard Tony actually speak. He was the first to actually listen to the genius and would continue to for as long as his friend spoke to him.
A few years later would find Tony using his spoken words within a few hours.
"Don't leave me." Tony had curled himself around a headstone. "Don't leave me."
Mentally his mind supplied him with how many words he had left. 844.
He used 156 words. He begged Jarvis come back from the dead with 3 words repeatedly. Tony used 3 words in a phrase 52 times since he arrived and continued to use them until his throat was soar and his vocal cords reached the last thousand word.
Tony rarely, if ever, uses his words with Obie. He has J.A.R.V.I.S. to speak for him now, after all.
It's all for the better, truthfully. After discovering Obie's betrayal, Tony has never been more grateful that certain S.I. documents require Tony's voice to speak several passwords. (And solve some complicated equations. Tony is many things and paranoid is definitely one of them.)
After all, the genius hoards his spoken words like it's the most precious treasure given.
The only person that ever heard Tony speak his first and last word of the day would be Yinsin.
Happy understands Tony's thing with spoken words well enough. Which is why the mechanic feels comfortable enough to use the last of his spoken words with him. Happy never judged him when he prefers to sign or use J.A.R.V.I.S. to speak in the morning and then ramble away his words at the end of the day as he's driven home. Tony is always sure to save at least 3 words for Happy. Usually it's 'Thank you, Happy.' When it's particularly late or the weather is acting up and Happy refuses to take a guest room, Tony would just sigh and respond with 'Drive safe, Happy.'
Pepper is the first human, because Tony is adamant that his bots and J are living beings ("They have a soul, Pep!") to hear Tony speak.
Before the superheroes and threats to humanity involved itself with Tony, Pepper would always hear a variation of 'Hey, Pep!' And then before she left, it would be a variation of 'Is that all, Ms Potts?' and 'See you soon, Pepper.' Anything said in between was usually in ASL.
It wasn't until Pepper lived with Tony, that the genius used his vocal words at the very start of the day.
"Good morning, dear." He'd say, his voice warm and gravelly with disuse. It was Pepper's favorite phrase said.
The Avengers were often shocked when they did hear the hero speak. They heard his voice before, of course, with the many interviews and speeches the man did. It was different, however, when Tony addresses them directly.
Natasha never heard him speak to her directly when she was assigned to work under him. As the matter of fact, the first time he spoke aloud was when Tony found out she was a spy and he only said a single phrase to her. He kept silent when he was near her after that for a very long time.
It had caught Natasha off guard when the man had thrown nail polish and a bag of skittles towards her, not that she would admit it.
"What the fuck?" She signed, but the man ignored her in favor of turning the T.V. on and selecting the first episode of Desperate Housewives.
"Come on, Natashalie." Tony spoke, voice with a slight tremble from the lack of use. "It's practically a crime that you haven't watched this show."
It to Natasha a millisecond to snap out of her shock at hearing his voice. She let herself smile slightly at the warm tone she was addressed with.
"I just don't see how this show can be any entertaining." She said. Natasha mentally frowned at the slight Russian accent. "What does painting my nails have anything to do with this?"
Tony let out a exasperated sigh. "It's not for you. I never could paint my right hand well enough so I figured you could help."
Natasha thought she should tease the man more about making assumptions about her, but she was just happy to hear Tony's voice directed at her after so long.
Steve and Thor were the one's to stumble across Tony using his words. The captain hadn't really addressed anyone with his voice unless it was for a mission and the god had no such limit on his speech. (To say Tony was slightly jealous over that would be an understatement.)
Tony had been in the kitchen stirring a pot of tomato sauce, which in itself was exciting enough for the other two men because Tony's pasta was 'a gift of Valhalla to the mortals.'
What the men hadn't expected was to hear the genius sing quietly to himself the ballroom song from Cinderella. (Bruce had a soft spot for classic Disney, so much so that he was horrified to hear that Steve missed the release of Cinderella by a few years.)
Tony's voice was a soft warm timber, almost as though he was afraid to speak louder.
The man continued to quietly sing the song to himself repeatedly until he turned towards the men.
It wasn't until he turned that the super soldier noticed how sleepy Tony looked.
"Oh, hey guys. Dinner's almost done." Tony commented, still as quiet as he was before.
Thor carefully took the plates from the hero's hands. "Aye, Man of Iron. Since you prepared the meal, I'll place the plates."
"Oh but-"
"He's right, Tony." Steve gently guided Tony towards the living room. "We can take care of the rest. You just take a break for a bit, alright?"
Having settled onto the couch, the genius snuggled into the pillow and mumbled a soft, "Thanks."
If Tony woke up to being surrounded by his teammates watching a movie and a plate laid on the coffee table, he didn't say anything. Although, the warmth in his chest almost made the words escape his mouth.
It was Bruce that Tony didn't hold any regard into guarding his words.
As soon as the two were left in a room alone to examine the Tesseract, Tony had turned towards the older scientist and asked if he thought the Hulk could eat spicy food.
"What?" Bruce's blinked slowly at the random question.
"Yeah, you're right. Of course, the Hulk could eat spicy food but the real question is how spicy is considered too spicy for the Hulk?" Tony babbled away as he looked at the data.
Relaxing at the genius's voice, Bruce answered his questions patiently. Even if it was about a touchy subject, Bruce was happy to discuss the theories of the Hulks limits.
At least until Captain America came into the room and had it out with Tony for poking him.
When Tony met the Spider-boy he knew that he'll have to invest in hair dye soon. Maybe he'll try the silver hair. It works pretty well for Strange and maybe Pepper is into the silver fox look.
Tony would like to blame his deteriorating control of spoken words on Peter. (Pepper would argue that Tony is just using his words like everyone else on the planet. Rhodey would say that he was just being a dad)
"Look at this! This is going on the fridge- no, wait, I'm going to print a few copies to put around the communal floors and the penthouse." Tony's voice echoes through the walls.
Peter's followed at a lesser volume. "That's not really necessary."
"It's obsoletely necessary." The older man responded adamantly as they entered the communal living room. "My kid as perfect grades. All A's, is on the honor roll and is top of his year. This is going to be framed and saved in the Baby Book."
"Already saved, Sir. I ordered a frame for your office and workshop and several copies are currently being printed."
"See, J. knows how amazing you are."
Peter's face flushed red but didn't protest when Tony wrapped his arm around his shoulders and proceeded to brag about the boy to the heroes in the room.
Soon enough it was time for everyone to head to bed. Quick good nights were said by everyone, both signed and vocally.
"Goodnight kiddo." The mechanic said from the doorway of Peter's bedroom. "Sleep well, don't let the arachnids bite."
The teen, already situated on his bed comfortably, pouted. "It's still too soon for those jokes. You try to get bitten by a radioactive spider and then not be scared of them."
The man chuckled quietly and crossed the room to sit on the edge of the bed. "Sorry, kid. I'll be more considerate next time."
"I'm kidding, you don't have to do that." Then, quietly and self consciously, the boy asked him. "Can you stay for a little bit?"
The man frowned but scooted closer to the boy and laid down. "Bad dreams last night?"
"Yeah."
"Do you want to talk about them?"
There was a moment of hesitation. "It's just about the vulture again. Nothing too serious."
"If it wasn't too serious then you wouldn't be having nightmares about it."
Peter sighed and snuggled closer to his mentor. "It's about when the building fell on me."
"Oh."
"I tried to yell for help but I ran out of words."
"Oh..." Tony began to run his fingers through his kid's hair. "You're scared to run out again?"
"I'm scared to wake up without words to begin with."
"It's okay to be scared of that." Tony hesitated for a second. "I'm scared of not having enough words."
"Really?" Peter looked up at him. "Guess a thousand isn't really a lot?"
"It's not." He admitted. "But sometimes it's just enough for certain things."
"Do you ever wish for more words?"
"Always." The man pulled the blanket higher on the boy. "But I know that tomorrow I'll have a thousand again and what I don't say today can wait for tomorrow. Well, most things. Gotta save some words for important people to hear."
"How many words do you have left today?" Peter whispered, half asleep.
"About a hundred and twenty." 117.
"What are you going to do with them?"
"I'm going to use them to tell you that you're spectacular and amazing." 104.
Peter smiled and gave a sleepy laugh.
"I'm gonna use every single last one on you so you know I'm here." 90.
"I know you'll always be here."
"I'll try my best to be." 84. "Now hush, it's past baby spiders bedtime and I need to use all my words before the day's over." 65.
Peter buried himself under the blanket and snuggled closer to his parental figure, already drifting off to sleep.
"Don't worry, Pete. I'm right here. I'll do everything I can to keep you safe and protect you." 47.
"I know." Peter's voice was heavy with sleep. "You always do. Love you, dad."
It wasn't the first time he called Tony dad. It was, however, the first that he didn't leave the room after it happened.
"Love you too. So much." 42. "You're gonna do so many amazing things. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't realize it yet. You're gonna be the best of all of us." 18.
Tony yawned and began to drift his sleep. "I should probably ask May if I can name you my successor soon." 5.
The genius cuddled his kid protectively as he finally gave into sleep. "Love you to pieces, Peter." 0.