they're broken, but better together

10)Oh, you can't hear me cry See my dreams all die...

It's thundering and pouring rain outside as they lay cuddled together watching a movie on his laptop when a resounding boom cracks. Tony gets up and goes to peer out the door to see what it was. He hopes it wasn't a breaker box.

As he opens the door he sees his dog with a note attached to his collar. Looking up and down the corridor he sees a man running away and a car in the parking lot.

It's them, his ex and Rhodey. How they found him he doesn't know. He never told Jarvis where he was going to live. He's chilled to the bone now. They were able to find him when he doesn't want to be found much less recognized. That's why he let his beard grow all the way but not long and bushy. He let his hair become longer and show the grey streaks in it. Tasha says he looks like a lumberjack which he can see.

He takes the cold shivering dog inside the apartment and leads him to the bedroom. His dog's scared, shaking so hard from fear and the thundering rain. He detaches the note from the collar and reads it.

"Oh Anthony, you stupid fool. You always run that's why you're like you are now. I hope you have a stock pile of money seeing as STARK Industries wants me to close unnecessary stuff. Glad I'm the CEO now huh? Also, I see you decided to shack up with Natasha or Natalie whatever that stupid whore's name is. Now I see why your parents left you. You're a weak, pathetic, little boy with daddy issues. You can't even keep a girl. Gosh, I see why your dad liked Steve over you. Steve was more of a son to him then you ever were. Even when Steve was a scrawny man he had more strength and courage than you. Ha!, you always were nothing but a crappy mistake. Here's your stupid mutt. I hated the thing since when you brought it to the tower and kept it. The mutt sure can take a beating though much better than you. Keep it, Rhodes hates it as much as me anyways."
Your wonderful "ex-girlfriend/CEO"
-Virginia Potts

He feels hot tears running down his face as he finishes reading the note. She beat his dog since she hated him and wanted to make him feel pain. She knew how much he cares for Chekov and knew that it would hurt him. She called him a mistake and insulted the one person who ever cared about him. The only person who came back and helped him out his life back together after Steve destroyed it and Pepper believed that she had the audacity to verbally abuse him when he never did anything wrong to her. He simply loved her but now he's fearful of her and Rhodes. Now she's going to close his bank account and leave him with nothing. He'll be back out on the street soon.

Tasha sees when he starts to try and curl in on himself but she won't let him. He's strong and she knows it. Taking the note out of his hands she reads it and slowly feels the rage coming over her. She doesn't care that she was called a whore but she does care about Tony and Chekov. He shouldn't be abused like this. She knows that his parents are a soft spot as well as his dog. Shes surprised to find out that she is also one of his soft spots. She's saddened that Pepper believes that she can abuse him, knowing that Howard did the same to him as a child. Now he has self esteem issues along with PTSD. It's only been about a 4 years since he flew the nuke into space and she realized that she loves him. Now that ex of his is going to leave him with nothing.

Pepper hurt his dog. She beat him all because she hated him. He can't look at his puppy without feeling shame for leaving him to stay with her when he choose to run after finding out that he was being cheated on. He thought that she would take care of his dog when he left but instead she took out her anger on him. If he took Chekov with him he wouldn't have suffered at her and Rhodey's hands. Now Chekov's terrified when someone approaches him. He backs up and curls into himself as though shielding himself from an attack. Tony gently touches Chekov's face and Chekov licks him. He's ok with Tony.

Tasha, watching Tony, sees how he interacts with his puppy. She can tell that the puppy is a runt from a litter. He's so small like Tony when he's around the rest of the guys. Tony becomes the runt around the rest of the avengers. The little beagle crawls over to her and lays down by her chest and drifts off to sleep. Little snores come from his mouth as Tony watches him with a small smile on his face. Chekov already trusts her to not hurt him.

He's so tired. Tired of fighting and building a wall to block off his emotions. A bone deep exhaustion and he wants to sleep. He wants to sleep just once with no nightmares. He crawls under the blankets and lays on his back with Chekov's feet on his arm and his head near Tasha's chest. Both the little beagle and the broken man have laid claimed to Tasha. Chekov claims her as family and Tony claims her to be his. He knows that he will probably have nightmares but since she's there and Chekov close by they won't be as bad as when he's alone.

She knows that he might have nightmares but she hopes that he won't. He's already had enough pain over these last few days with his ex verbally abusing him and beating his puppy to his PTSD kicking in at times when it shouldn't. She grabs the blankets and covers the three of them and he wraps his arms around them. Chekov's snoring helps him fall asleep with the steady breathing.

She watches him as he sleeps. The lines that normally mare his forehead are gone when he's sleep. He looks younger than his actual age when he's curled into her sleeping. The best sleep he actually got was when Tasha curled herself into his chest and he wrapped his arm around her, her protector, her mate.

All three, Tony Tasha and Chekov were curled up under the blankets in the bedroom. The thunder outside went from loud and booming to a gentle rain while they slept.

There were no nightmares that night.

So Cold- Ben Cocks