Iron-Hawk Short Stories

Worry [MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH]

AN: Another major character death also Jason's back!

"Hey, quickly get your Dad. I don't want to be late for our reservation." Tony Stark muttered as he picked up his blazer from the chair.

"Pa..." Ezra mumbled and stared at his father with mellow eyes. "Dad hasn't been around for years."

"What do you mean?" Stark scoffed as he turned around to face his son.

"Dad died ten years ago." Ezra's stomach sank as he watched his father's facial expression drop. "A-Are you okay?" Tony forced a smile and nodded before he turned around to face the mirror once again. "We don't have to go out tonight."

"N-No, my mind sort of ran off. I'm sorry." Stark muttered and ran his hand through his hair. "It would be a waste to cancel a good reservation." Tonight was Jason's birthday and they had decided to eat at a restaurant. "It's really been that long huh?"

Ezra smiled sadly and gave a brief nod, "I'll go grab Jason and we can go?" The adult just nodded and watched as his son left the room. Tony let out a shaky breath as he sat down in his chair, he placed his head in his hands and remained silent.

The death of his partner had never been easy on him. For years he blamed himself for not being able to save him. Clint Barton had gotten captured and killed by the enemy. For months the enemy sent Stark clips of Barton being tortured before one day they killed him with no notice. They found his body at a SHIELD compound as if the enemy continued to taunt Stark.

[THAT DAY]

"Tony." Steve Rogers stopped Stark from moving forward with a palm to the chest. "You don't want to go in there."

"He's my husband! I don't care how bad it is!" Stark shouted as tears stung his eyes, Rogers breathed out and continued to stare at his friend. "Steve, please, it's my fault this happened to him." The soldier simply nodded and stepped out of the way.

They had found Barton's body in his own office at SHIELD. Stark stepped into the crime scene and felt nauseous as he saw the body. Barton was seated in his chair with a knife wound running across his trachea. Behind him on the glass wall was writing written in blood. It simply read:

YOU KILLED ME

Stark swallowed nervously and took steps closer towards the body. With each step it seemed that gravity was getting heavier and heavier.

"Jesus Christ." Tony whispered and saw Rogers step beside him. "No alarms went off? How did they get his body in here?"

"We're still working on that, whoever did this, they knew what they were doing." Rogers concluded, Stark assumed they used Barton's blood for the writing. "Best conclusion is an inside job"

"This is my fault." Stark said, "This is all my god damn fault."

"You tried your best to find him." Rogers reassured, "He wouldn't want you beating yourself up like this."

The engineer nodded, "L-Let's just get him out of here. Clean this all up." Stark turned around and left the room.

[...]

"Thought you might want this." Rogers informed as he handed Stark the dog-tags that Barton had always worn. The genius stared at the blank dog-tags that he had designed for his partner. When Barton wore it, Stark could keep track of his heartbeat from anywhere in his world. Call him paranoid but he always wanted to ensure that his partner was well. Aside from that it could store data much like a hard drive.