TONY DIDN'T EXPECT TO RECEIVE A PHONE CALL FROM BIRDIE THREE DAYS BEFORE HALLOWEEN. He was in the new facility, working on organizing the rest of the items and talking to Rhodey on the phone when FRIDAY alerted him of an incoming call from Birdie, whom he had given his number to despite it being a breach of security.
"Is everything okay?" he asked, hands stilling from his work as he waited for her response, immediately on edge.
"I'm sorry, it's just—" she paused, as if taking a calming breath, before continuing, "Remy's hiding something from me and I was hoping you could try and get him to tell you what's wrong."
He paused for a moment, weighing her words carefully. "Is he not telling you?"
There was a sigh. "He doesn't tell me anything anymore. Look, I wouldn't be calling if I could fix it on my own, but he seems extremely upset and I don't want him to just bottle it up inside."
"What makes you think I could get him to talk?" he asked, sauntering around the large workspace, glancing at the various gadgets and screens he had strewn about.
Birdie made a noise in the back of her throat. "I wouldn't be calling if I didn't need your help." Tony had never heard anyone sound so pained in asking for help, and he had met some incredibly stubborn people.
"Is he home right now?" he asked, already starting to head out.
"Yes, I have to head back to the office and Stacey can't babysit. Can you get here soon, I need to go now." He could practically see her throwing on a jacket, looking tired and utterly dejected as she pressed the phone up to her ear.
"Already on my way," he called out, making his way to the garage, "Be there soon."
Another trip to the city. At least he was getting out.
º º º
"Thank you," Birdie breathed the moment she opened the door, only glancing at Tony for a moment as she let him in, "I really appreciate it, I just—" she paused, unsure of what to say, and Tony nodded, not wanting to force her to continue.
"It's no problem," he said lightly, looking towards the living room area where the TV was lit up, the sounds of a video game coming from the speakers, the bright colors filling his vision, contrasting the neutral tones of the rest of the room.
He turned back to Birdie, raising an eyebrow in silent question and she licked her red painted lips, glancing towards the couch for a moment before moving closer towards the man, whispering softly right into his ear.
"Try to get him to talk about Halloween. I got him to talk about his schoolwork, but he won't talk about Halloween." After repeating the last word one last time, she pulled away, taking a step back to keep a respectable distance between them.
He nodded silently, as if they were trying to sneak around the boy, very reminiscent of some of the missions he'd had to go on with the team, a thought that made him wince in pain that shot right to his heart.
"Good luck on your case," he said, just as she was about to leave, "I heard about it on the news."
She raised her eyebrows in surprise, giving him a small smile. "Thank you."
With that, she left, practically racing towards her car, Tony locking the door behind her before walking towards the couch, leaning against the back near Remy's head, watching the game for a few moments, neither saying anything, both focused on the TV, Remy being much more serious than Tony.
Finally, the man spoke, "You liking the game, kid?"
It took Remy a moment to reply. "Yeah, I really like it. Thank you."
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.
"Is this you on Halloween?" he asked, pointing to the picture of a younger looking Remy dressed as Iron Man, standing next to a slightly older boy dressed as Captain America.
Remy nodded, looking away and fidgeting in his seat, glancing over at his paused game and sighing. "Yeah."
"Who's the other kid, he looks like he's having fun," Tony asked, and he knew that was a low blow, but judging by the boy's hurt look he was at least getting somewhere.
"He's my cousin," he explained, "Ethan, he's thirteen now. I forget what year that was, but we went trick-or-treating together."
"Well, that's nice of him," Tony said, feigning a positive tone, "Are you going again together on Thursday?"
Remy shook his head stiffly. "No, he's going to a party with his friends. They're gonna skip school the next day, they already have permission and everything."
"And your mom doesn't want you skipping any more school," he finished, though he knew that it wasn't the case; Nicky would be proud of him, maybe he had a career in psychology waiting for him.
Remy winced, and Tony felt a pang of guilt for pushing him so far. "No, I wasn't invited. And Ethan doesn't wanna go trick-or-treating anymore, says it's for kids."
Tony had to bite his tongue to keep from referencing Peter as a way to defend Remy's case; the boy didn't have a side to defend and didn't seem like he particularly wanted to argue what his cousin had had to say.
"Are you upset about him not going trick-or-treating with you?" he asked, taking a seat again.
Remy scoffed. "No. I don't care about Halloween." There was the apathy Birdie had talked to him about before, apathy wasn't a strong suit of his.
"Are you upset that you weren't invited?" he pressed, "That you're gonna be alone?"
Remy jumped to his feet and threw the controller onto the couch, storming out and towards the hallway, slamming the door to his room. Tony just sat on the couch with his hands folded in his lap, sighing.
Well, at least now he had something to report back to Birdie. Unfortunately, he had a feeling the woman wouldn't want to come home to her son crying his eyes out. If it were any other time, he might just say that it wasn't necessarily his problem, but he caused this, so he might as well try to find some way to solve it.
After giving the boy some time to calm down, he stood up and went to the kitchen, searching around the freezer until he found a small tub of ice cream that was most likely for Birdie. He would just restock her supply the next time he was over, she wouldn't mind him giving it to the boy.
Grabbing two spoons, he made his way to the hallway, knocking on Remy's door. When there was no answer, he called out, "Kid. Can you let me in?"
No response.
He sighed and tried again. "I have ice cream."
There was the sound of muffled shuffling, the door opening a moment later. He let himself in, catching sight of the boy face down on his bed, face buried in his pillow, most likely trying to hide himself from the man.
"I'm sorry, kid, that's gotta sting," he sighed, sitting on the foot of the bed, unsure of how to comfort him; his father rarely—read: never—did, so no one could expect him to know how.
"I don't care," Remy said into his pillow, and Tony couldn't help but hear the catch in his voice, "It doesn't matter. I don't care. It's stupid."
Tony popped off the lid of the ice cream, reaching out and holding one of the spoons by the boy's head, waiting for a few moments until he sighed and picked it up, pushing himself up into a sitting position, sidling up next to Tony and taking a small piece of ice cream.
"It sucks having no friends. It hurts," Remy sniffed, resting his head against Tony's arm, taking another scoop of ice cream, "It fucking sucks."
Tony laughed softly at the boy's casual curse, tugging his arm out and wrapping it around him, rubbing his shoulder. "I'm sorry, kid. You'll find some friends, I promise."
"I don't care about friends," he cried, "I don't care about anything, it doesn't matter to me, it just sucks to be alone all the time, but I don't need friends, I don't care."
It was then that Tony realized that Remy truly wasn't capable of apathy. Rather, he was capable of such intense care that the only way to stay afloat was to force himself in a state of apathy that would, in time, break, revealing the mess of nerves and care that the boy was comprised of. It was a beautiful and tragic realization.
"It's okay to want people to care about you," Tony whispered, because that's what Nicky once told him and, despite how much he tried, he couldn't be rid of the thought.
Remy just sidled up against his side and ate ice cream, most likely not listening to a word Tony had just said. That was fine, the man wasn't so sure how he was supposed to comfort him anyways, though not for lack of trying. He couldn't imagine being this boy's parent, or a parent to any child for that matter, not yet, at least.
"Do you want to go trick-or-treating for Halloween?" he asked, "Because I know a kid who would love to go with you."
Remy shook his head. "It's not fun if you're not really good friends, that's what Ethan always says."
Tony didn't give himself time to wonder how he could have heard the boy say that and only wished that it was in a more positive connotation. "Do you want to watch some scary R-rated movies your mom would never approve of?"
The boy shrugged again. "I don't know. If you want to."
Tony sighed and finally took a scoop of ice cream, wishing that the boy wouldn't try to be apathetic; it didn't suit him, he wasn't a teenager yet. "You know, how about we just sit here and you can figure out what you want to do. Okay?"
Remy nodded, taking another bite of ice cream. "Okay."
Tony Stark wasn't ready to be a father just yet, but he'd get better. For this kid, he would.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Tony Stark isn't a bad dad by any means, but he's certainly not ready to be one, but that doesn't mean that he can't try and develop into being one, ya know? This story is gonna just have all the character development.
Speaking of which, we're gonna have a chapter for Birdie next time. I'm sorry I've been neglecting her, especially since she's the main character, but I've been showing Remy because he's the linking unit between Tony and Birdie and their motivation for a lot of their actions.
That's all I have to say so...thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!