And Then I Wrote Marvel

Malfunction (Tony Stark x Reader)

Guess where this one came from? That's right, another dream!

"Do you like it?" Tony asked nervously. The blue and silver suit was either a hit or miss with you and your overwhelming claustrophobia.

"I-I--um," you tried to reply, your voice shaking. Your breaths were becoming heavier, the already tight space closing in on you.

"I knew it," he said dejectedly. "I'm sorry, (Y/N). I just thought it would be cool to have you up there next to me."

"No, no, it'll just take some getting used to," you tried to assure him. Claustrophobia crippled you severely, but your fear of heights was non-existent. Flying around in one of Tony's suits had appealed to one side of you, but terrified the other. "I think I'd be better if my face wasn't covered." As you said the words, the silver and blue helmet mask folded back into the suit, and you found that you were slightly relieved.

"Better?" FRIDAY checked.

"Much. Thank you."

"All in a day's work, miss."

"Okay," you exhaled, placing your arms akimbo. "Let's just walk around a little bit."

"Whatever you want," he encouraged. He got into his suit, for good measure, and tried to intertwine his fingers with yours, but you were still a novice. After a few awkward moments of failed attempts to hold hands, he instead offered you his elbow, which you gladly took.

He took graceful strides, while your steps were uncoordinated and clunky. You must have looked like quite the pair, walking around the lab levels of the Avengers tower. 15 minutes later, you'd decided that you'd had enough for one day, and the two of you put your suits up.

"How was it?" Tony inquired hopefully. "Not too bad?"

You kissed his cheek, and gave him a small grin. "Not too bad at all."
--
A black cat that a certain blonde Asgardian liked to keep in his room had one goal every night: escape Thor's quarters and get into the lab. The lab was an exciting place for a feline such as himself. Plenty of shiny things to stare at, play with, break, or just plain knock over.

Over the course of a week, you and Tony had been working on getting more used to the suit. You'd expressed your interest in flying, and he was right behind the effort to get you ready to. He was so excited, in fact, that he'd been tweaking little things in the display and other details, anything to make you more comfortable.

He'd fallen asleep on the work table that night, glasses still on his face and precision tools in his hand. The suit was still out in the open instead of put where the cat couldn't get it, and Lokitty, as Thor called him, took full advantage of the opportunity.
--
Today was the day. You were ready. Suppressing the claustrophobia had become almost second nature, though it was certainly still there. As you readied yourself to fly for the first time, you confided your last remaining fears in Tony.

"So, I, uh, just let the suit do its thing?"

He chuckled lightheartedly. "FRIDAY'll take good care of you. Or, at least, she'd better."

"Never fear, the AI is here," you muttered.

"And I always will be, Miss." You and Tony both laughed at FRIDAY's characteristically impeccable timing. "Now, are you ready to go?"

"As ready as I'll ever be. Let's do this thing."

Flying was just as exhilarating as you had imagined. Though you couldn't physically feel the wind around you or anything else that would assumedly accompany soaring through the air as you were, you experienced true freedom up in the sky, away from the irksome troubles of man.

You closed your eyes to better pretend that you were doing this by your own powers. It was like jumping off a swing, but staying suspended. Nothing around you changed, but you could sense panic around you as, unbeknownst to you, the jets in your boots flickered, and you began to fall.

Your eyes snapped open.

"Tony! What the heck is going on?! I'm falling! That's definitely not supposed to be happening! Tony?" You weren't getting any response. "Tony?"

The sudden failure of your boots had catalyzed a chain reaction of system shutdown. The arc reactor was still working just fine, but the power that it was supplying was getting nowhere. The communication lines were down.

"(Y/N)? (Y/N), answer me! What's going on?" Tony worried, rushing down to stop your fall. He didn't know what was happening, either. "FRIDAY, can you get through to her?"

"I've been shut out from the system entirely, sir. Her boots failed, and in only a matter of seconds, I had no control."

He swore under his breath and torpedoed down to see if he could catch you. He blinked, and your suit turned gray and more bulky. The situation was all too similar to one just a few years ago.

No. He wasn't going to let that happen to you.

Wiring in the lining of the armor around your stomach busted. Small, smoking pieces of metal debris embedded themselves into your stomach. Your legs drew up to your midsection instinctively, and you continued falling like a cannonball.

After what seemed like too long, Tony caught up with you, and the force of slamming down into his arms knocked the breath out of you. He got you quickly to the top of the tower, where he tore the suit off of you, piece by piece.

"(Y/N), you're going to be fine, okay? Are you listening?" he asked, almost as panicked as you were.

In your extremely shocked state, it was all you your do to give a small nod. You were shaking violently all over. All you wanted was a warm hug and your boyfriend telling you that everything was okay. He couldn't do that, though, and still be truthful. There was no certainty in anything regarding your life at the moment.

Tony uncovered your stomach and gasped at the amount of blood that he saw. He was having a panic attack of his own, and was having trouble keeping himself in the present. His hands shook as he lifted your bloodstained shirt to see various burns and cuts littering the skin of your stomach.

"Oh, gosh, no," he whispered.

That was when your body decided that enough was enough, and you passed out cold. "Heck, no," he said, more frantically. He picked you up and carried you into the building, where he cried out, "Banner! FRIDAY, tell Banner that I need his help."
--
You woke hours later in a dimly lit room. The darkness of the window panes clued you into the fact that it was very late. Your whole body ached, especially your stomach and ribs, and except for your left hand. It was warm.

You looked over at it and realized why it didn't hurt. Tony had fallen asleep holding it. The thought filled you with comfort, and you could almost imagine that you weren't in so much pain.

You weren't about to wake him up, so you relaxed, waiting for sleep to come again. It didn't, but you were given plenty of time to think of all the ways that would be best to convince Tony that this wasn't his fault. He was probably blaming himself in his dreams right then, and that had to stop.

It was about an hour or so past daybreak when Tony woke to your thumb gently caressing the back of his hand.

"(Y/N)? How are you feeling?"

"Fine," you lied. "My stomach hurts, but that's it."

"You have quite a few broken ribs, second and third degree burns on your stomach, and you had to have a few stitches where debris from the suit was embedded."

"Tony--"

"I know, I know. It wasn't my fault."

"You've accepted that quickly. What's made you believe that so fast?"

"It was Thor's stupid cat," he said darkly.

"That makes sense." He hated the cat with a passion, and blamed everything he could on it. You knew the cat's habits, so you understood that he wasn't just saying that it was its fault. "I'll help you plot against Lokitty," you backed him, giving his hand a squeeze.

He kissed you sweetly on the cheek. "I love you so much."