Changes | Marvel

SEVEN. Court Hearings and Green

"Tony?" I ask quietly, finding myself awake at three in the morning at the sound of something breaking in the kitchen. I groggily walk into the room rubbing my eyes, seeing my brother sweeping up some glass on the floor.

"Stay there," He warns me tensely, "Too much glass. What are you doing awake?" I watch him sweep up the pieces into a pan which he then tips into the bin.

"The glass woke me up." I lie, feeling my gut twist at the action. He stands up, looking at me with a raised eyebrow due to sensing my lie.

"You don't wake up at the sound of your alarm. What are you doing awake?" He asks again, picking me up which I then put my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. I hadn't seen him since the convention and when he had to head off to court. He must have come in earlier since Rhodey was already gone and no one else was home.

"I had a nightmare..." I tell him, my cheeks flushing with embarrassment. He doesn't say anything, only brings me back into my room and lays me down on the bed and tucking the duvet over me tightly.

"About the reactors?" He questions quietly, lying down next to me. We both sit in silence, just staring up at my roof that was only visible due to the moonlight reflecting in the ocean water. "We're going to be fine." He tells me quietly, but I bite my lip not wanting to share my feelings at this time.

"Okay." I simply say, turning around so I could rest my head on his shoulder and fall back to sleep. I knew Tony must have been drinking because I could smell the alcohol on him, but I didn't mind. I just wanted to get some sleep without worrying about my brother and if he was dead or alive.

---

"You couldn't just stay quiet and professionally answer the questions? Tony we're getting so much shit for what you did." It was obviously the next morning as I hear Pepper's voice echo through the walls from downstairs.

"Oh, come on, look at the bright side and see how many people loved that I put that ginger in his place." I heard Tony respond with a raised voice. I quickly get up and redo my hair that had fallen out of my hair tie during the night, heading downstairs to see what was happening.

"I know the suit means a lot to you, but the company is going to suffer at your actions." I saw Pepper sitting down with a bunch of files in front of her, looking stressed.

"What happened?" I ask, interrupting their little argument. What has Tony done now? "Tony, what did you do?" I face my brother who was dressed for the day but looked half-asleep, coffee in hand.

"I said a couple of things to Senator Stern, it was nothing." He waves his hand. I raise an eyebrow seeing Pepper grow red as if she wanted to explode, so I quickly walked the other way and instead turned on the TV knowing that it would probably be somewhere. As expected, a news channel was showing highlights from the court session and calling Tony "reckless" yet "brave". I guess that's positive, right? The scene switches to a close up of Tony's face as he stares under the table, on his phone as the Senator tried to talk to him.

"Mr. Stark, could we pick up now where we left off?" The senator was tapping the gavel against the stand, trying to get Tony's attention. "Mr. Stark. Please."

"Yes, dear?" Tony answers sarcastically, making people in the room laugh. I continue watching many of the highlights, Tony's babbling to the senator as he tries to convince everyone that he was just a man who owned a suit that kind of had the energy to fly. When Hammer walked into the room, I almost lost it though as I have heard multiple stories about him; none of them were good. He was egotistical – worse than Tony and thought that he deserved all the praise over his creations when they were all pieces of shit technology. Then Rhodey walked in and his words were twisted to suit the Senator's preferences, but Tony turned it around once more and hacked into the monitor to show off Justin Hammer's work in creating his own Iron Man suit (a failure, mind you).