The Seventh Stone (Stony Marvel Story)

(Chapter 3)

I woke up to a blazing headache and loud pounding on my lab door. I groaned, smacking my temple with the palm of my head before getting up to let in whoever's impatience ass that was about to destroy my, may I add, very expensive and elegant door.

... What? I paid a lot for that shit you know.

The door opened to an annoyed-looking Clint. His short hair was slicked back in a mohawk, his bow tightly gripped in his hands. "I have been standing here," he breathed in, "for THIRTY MINUTES!" I snickered at the lack of serenity in his voice, and Clint took back the anger as soon as he saw my bloodshot, dried out eyes. "Oh Jesus Tony, I'm sorry. Was I... interrupting something?"

"Nah, I needed something loud and obnoxious to snap me out of it."

Clint groaned. "May I add, the haircut? Stunning. Surprised Bruce did not bust his mighty large balls for that. Of course, I would, but ever since your not-so-delightful encounter this fine moment of almost breaking DOWN MY FUCKING DOOR..."

"Alright, Tony, enough," Clint laughed, shaking his mohawk all around. "The team and I wanted you to meet someone who actually came by today, someone who might be able to fix everything." The last part of his sentence did not register in my brain. "I'm sorry... repeat the last part again."

"Someone came today who could reverse the snap."

I snorted. " Did Thor come by? He's been quite animate lately, with all of that alcohol intake."

"No, Tony, I'm serious. We didn't believe him as well at first, but then he showed us this quantum realm thing..."

"Quantum realm? You mean like, time travel shit? Has Thor been giving YOU his drinks recently?"

"It's a real thing, and he says that you can help cause..."

I put up a hand, and Clint groaned and stopped talking. "Listen, I know what the theory of the quantum realm is," I said. "I'm not stupid. I'm saying it's impossible over what we want to do. Do you know how EXACT our timing would have to be? It's just impossible, Clint, I'm sorry." I then quickly added, "Maybe he's from the wizard convention Strange was from. They're all hippie weirdos over there."

"What if you talk to him?" Clint asked. "Maybe you'll change your mind when he tells you the amazing discoveries he's had there. I mean, this guy saved this girl who was living there for like a zillion years and BOOM brought her back." I just continued to stare.

Clint sighed. "Please, Tony. Do it for us. Do it for Peter, do it for your family, do it for Rogers."

My heart already started beating cold when Clint brought up the kid but felt stabbed by an electrocuted icicle when he mentioned Steve. Something must've registered on my face, because the next thing I knew Clint was grinning and dragging me down the hall to meet drunk wizard man.

I closed my eyes and reminded myself to breathe. For Steve, I told myself.

For Steve.

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The man was carelessly eating a taco, his legs curled up next to his overturn posture. His hair was disheveled, eyes focused on not the taco but all around, darting from the ceiling to the floor to the vibranium masses stocked heavily in the corner. He frowned at the mess the taco was making, for the lettuce was going EVERYWHERE. Has this man never eaten a taco before?

I was not sure how long I could have him around for. We used to have Taco Tuesday before the snap and I always meant to bring it back.

Tacos were one of Steve's favorites.

"Can I help you?" I asked cautiously, and he jumped, dropping the entire taco on the floor. I already regretted stepping out of the lab.

"OH... ah, jeez," he leaned down to clean up the gigantic mess he made. "I'm sorry about the, uh.." he looked down at the exploded taco, up to my displeased expression, and down to the taco again. "This was not how I planned our first encounter to be."

"Yeah, and I didn't plan for one at all," I snarled. The man seemed taken aback but slightly amused. He stood up, wiped his hands on the sides of his very messy jeans, and stuck out a hand. "I'm Scott Lang, and I have a few ideas about the..."

"Time travel," I finished. Scott nodded eagerly, reaching into his pocket to retrieve a large piece of paper. "The info of how the quantum realm works, I have it all here. I was told that you are an expert in this type of field, and I was wondering if you could, you know..."

He put the papers in my hand. I looked up at him and read complete enthusiasm in his eyes. He had faith, an ignited light that the rest of us Avengers had lost. He was a new hope, and suddenly, almost for a split of a second, I considered the idea. Really, truly considered.

Realization ran me over like a truck soon after. I hesitantly opened up the paper, staring at wild numbers and scattered lines. None of this made any sense. "Oh. Oh wow. Astonishing. Really believable math, love the x and y thing going on here. Or a sad excuse of attempting to pretend to match up to even a slight degree of my intelligence, cause, hate to break it to you, Lang, but this x and y bullshit doesn't even exist. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to put that one together." I said it to seem like I had believed it, but nothing could be any stupider than all the mistakes I had made.

"C'mon Tony, you didn't even look at the back," Scott pleaded. I simply dropped the sad excuse of a drawing of maybe a house, outer space, not sure. "I don't have time for this," I muttered, shooting up and heading back to the lab. "Tony... Tony WAIT."

Nothing would stop my fast-moving feet until Scott yelled, "Steve wanted you to see this."

My feet slammed on the breaks. I almost went headfirst through the glass door.

I spun around and, without another word, snatched the paper right out of his hands and flipped it over to the back. Scott wasn't kidding, for it was not hard to distinguish Cap's terrible, scrawny handwriting that took up half of the page.

The note was dated a year before the snap. Rogers was out in Wakanda, looking for Bucky. I was tucked away in my lab, building Peter suits. The Avengers has split apart (again) and we were not on the best of speaking terms.

Tony,

I know what you're thinking; Steve, how could you tell me you didn't make friends without me jumping along and ruining it.

It's a joke, you better be laughing.

I think you should consider meeting this guy named Scott,. You and he do a lot of similar science work that I'll never be able to understand. After all of the hell we've been through, I doubt you would want another moment with me.

I'm still sorry for everything that happened, and I know sorry isn't going to mean anything anymore. However, Scott really is a good guy and I think you'll get a kick out of him. Just don't kick him out alive, he doesn't have immunity to your sarcastic ass yet.

Who knows, maybe you guys can save the world or something.

I miss you, Tony, a lot actually, and I hope this reaches you in good times.

Best regards,

Cap. Steve Rogers

I wasn't laughing: I was almost in tears. I closed the letter carefully, taking a deep breath.

I miss you, Tony, a lot actually

I knew exactly what had to be done. Turning to Scott and finally being pleased by his presence, I sighed.

"We're saving the world."