Time »ScarletVision«

➤ VIII

         — As Tony continued to pace, Rhodey continued to watch him, sighing as he moved swiftly across the floors of his lab. "Tony, stressing yourself out like this is only going to make things worse. You need to remain calm, or else you're going to make bad decisions," Rhodey tried explaining. Tony was having none of it.

Ever since Vision went MIA, Tony was rather hysterical. For the first two or so days, Tony decided to give Vision his space. He said he needed to experience the world on his own, and Tony respected that. But when Tony started to attempt to reach out, he would receive a message saying that his messages could not forward to the now humanized AI. Since Sam Wilson said he had no idea where he had gone (thanks to contact via Rhodey) and Tony refused to contact Nat and Steve out of spite, there was no one else he could go to.

"How am I supposed to calm down, Rhodes? He could be hurt. Someone could have been tracking him while he was out because they recognized his intellect or something. Anything. I have no idea. He could have got rained on," Tony rambled on, trying to throw in humor (as always) for the sake of light-shed, but only made his worrying worse. "Tony, Vision's exterior protects him from the eleme-" "I know, Rhodey. Jesus, I'm just a bit worried," Tony interrupted.

Rhodey sighed, pretty much accepting the fact that everything he said was most likely going to go in one of Tony's ear and out the other. While Tony was busy not listening to him, he thought he might as well make the best of it.

"Have you ever thought about trying to contact Steve...?" Rhodey asked hesitantly. Tony looked up and stared at him, almost in disgust, but also with pain evident in his eyes. "...No," Tony said, his voice barely over a mumble, "I can't do it. I know he said I could if I needed it, but...no! I don't even need him. I don't need him...I can handle this on my own."

Rhodey practically rolled his eyes. If he wasn't so stubborn, he thought.

He debated for a moment bringing up the fact that, if Tony could really handle this on his own, he would not be there and there would not be a half empty bottle of scotch sitting on the far desk in the corner that Tony didn't know Rhodey had seen, but he decided against it. He figured Tony was in enough turmoil. It'd be rude to say 'I told you so' at a moment like this.

"Alright, Tony. You know I'll be keeping an eye out and I'll stay in touch, of course, but I think you need a little time to yourself to sort your priorities," Rhodey said, taking slow steps towards to the room's exit, subtly hinting at the fact that calling Steve was probably a very good idea.

"Wait," Tony said harshly, putting Rhodey dead in his tracks. The two stood in silence as Tony gathered the words that he wanted to stay.

"Promise me...you will stay in contact, right? And you are not giving up on this, right?" Tony finally came up with. "Of course I'll be looking. I care about him, too, you know. Besides, when have I not had your back?" Rhodey responded. Tony smiled, nodding slightly.

"You're right."

After Rhodey left  Avengers' HQ, Tony found his way to Pepper in their shared room. She was on her laptop, doing god knows what, and Tony plopped down hard on the bed, shoving his face in a pillow. Pepper was almost scared to ask.

She set her laptop on the floor, moving closer to Tony, softly rubbing his back in a comforting way. "No luck?" she asked, knowing that 'no' was the answer, but not really knowing how else to react. "No luck," Tony mumbled into the pillow, repeating the words of his fiancee. Pepper sighed as she continued to rub his back, gathering up the correct words to say. "You've contacted everyone? Sam, Rhodey, Steve-"

"Pep, you know how I feel about Mr. Star Spangled. If Sam doesn't know, I doubt he does," Tony attempted to persuade. Pepper, being as smart as she is, knew that this was not going to cut it. If he really wanted Vision back, he would have to do better. Not contacting Steve over this feud was going to far. Much too far. There wasn't even a reason to object him as much as Tony did.