Shadowplay | Tony Stark

FIFTY SIX - COMPLIMENTS

Three more weeks passed. Life in the Campbell household was perfectly normal, whatever normal had become for that family, anyway.

Peter was still taking his online classes and had struck up a friendship with a boy his age that he'd ran into in a coffee shop one afternoon, both of them wearing the same geometry pun t-shirt that was clearly the only thing they needed to confirm that they had all the components to be great friends.

Tristan was happy going to daycare most days though now loved having Fridays at home with Tony, the two of them spending the entire day together doing whatever the three year old wanted.

While Tristan and Peter were both busy, Tony got to work on converting the old garage outside into a workspace for him. Although he had pretty much retired his suit for the time being and there were no threats to the planet locally or otherwise, Tony still needed something to do.

In between keeping the house clean and tidy, Tony turned the space Mila's father used as his getaway into his own, though was careful not to disturb the way Jack Campbell had left things too much. He still helped out with the green energy initiative that Stark Industries had been working on and spent his free time running ridiculous experiments and testing his own hypothesis purely to keep him from going insane.

As much as he loved his new life in the outskirts of Chicago, he couldn't completely give up his old life. Mila had been more than understanding when he'd proposed the idea of turning the garage into a lab, telling him that he could do whatever he wanted if it made him happy.

Working had always been the thing that made Tony Stark tick, but what had made him happy wasn't saving the world or discovering a new element, it was loving her.

Since the night Mila had crawled into bed beside him, they hadn't dared to be that close again. They'd had a brief conversation about things the following morning and Mila was incredibly apologetic about imposing herself on him the way that she did, and of course Tony was quick to dismiss her apologies, reassuring her that he was there for her whenever.

Despite that, it seemed to Tony like Mila had retreated into herself after that even more than she already had. They still hung out in the evenings and enjoyed spending Sundays together as a family, walking side by side behind the boys who ran ahead in the park, though their skin remained cold and untouched once more, a distance always between them.

Truthfully, Tony was struggling. He was doing everything he could to prove to Mila that he was committed to their family, that he was committed to his new life and not only that, but he loved his new life, too. He enjoyed being a father to both boys, picking Tristan up from daycare of dropping Peter off at his friend's house. He liked reading bedtime stories and pushing Tristan on swings in parks and going down the slide with him if he was too afraid to go on his own.

Tony loved the peace and quiet of not only the place he now called home, but the peace and quiet in his mind, too. It was calm for the first time in forever and he slept without disruption every single night, waking up with a smile on his face and energy in his lungs. He loved seeing Mila's pretty face beaming at him when he walked into a room and craved the scent of her perfume when she walked through the door after work, longing for their evenings together just so he could sit and talk to her, hear her voice and lose himself in her eyes.

He was a loving father and wanted to be a loving partner, too, but there was something holding Mila back. As much as Tony understood why she had her reservations, he felt like he had nothing else to give, wondering whether it was a matter of if she would ever love him the same way again, rather than when like he'd originally thought.

"I think your five o'clock is here."

Mila looked up from behind the desk when Carly walked past her with a fresh cup of coffee, handing it to her client before nodding in the direction of the front door.