Heartlines | Steve Rogers

V

FIVE
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"Ow!"

"Forty-six."

"Ow!"

"Forty-seven."

"Ow!"

"Sir, please may I request just a few hours to calibrate..."

"Nope. Forty-eight." He continued. He let out a sound of pain quickly before shaking his arm and wiping the blood from it. "Micro-repeater implanting sequence complete."

"As you wish, sir. I've also prepared a safety briefing for you to entirely ignore." Jarvis replied, earning a laugh from Meredith who now stood in the doorway. She'd heard Tony yelling all evening, and she was coming to see what all the ruckus was about.

"Which I will. Alright, let's do this." He sniffed quickly before speaking again. "DUM-E. Hi, DUM-E. How did you get that cap on your head? You earned it. Hey! What are you doing out of the corner? You know what you did. Blood on my mat. Handle it."

Meredith left her spot at the doorway and followed him to the other side of the shop.

"Sir, may I remind you that you've been awake for nearly seventy-two hours?" Jarvis began. Tony, of course, ignored him. He did something goofy in front of the camera to make sure it was working.

"Focus up, ladies. Good evening, and welcome to the birthing suite. I am pleased to announce the imminent arrival of your bouncing, badass baby brother." He point to the camera. "Start right, then go wide. Stamp date and time. Mark 42, autonomous prehensile propulsion suit test. Initialize sequence."

He stood there, and Meredith watched. The armor on the table began to power up. He must've implemented the subcutaneous implants into his arm. She assumed he was pretty confident in it.

"Jarvis, drop my needle." He demanded, and he did so. Some type of funky Christmas music started to play. It was Christmas time, after all. Meredith and Tony weren't very fond of Christmas, seeing as it just reminded them of their parents' death, which happened just days before Christmas. Instead of celebrating the holidays, they were dealing with sadness, funerals, and the family business. But, that Christmas was when she received the best gift ever, and it was from Tony.

It was also a year after the Invasion of New York, and it was safe to say that Tony wasn't doing so well. It was obvious he was suffering from some type of anxiety disorder or PTSD after almost losing his life from saving the entirety of New York. Meredith wanted to help, but he wouldn't talk about it, no matter how hard she tried to get him to. They hadn't heard from Thor in so long, Bruce was off doing whatever he does, Natasha and Clint were on their own missions, and Steve wasn't to be heard from, either. At least, she hadn't heard from him. There were no massive threats and missions that all the Avengers were needed to take on, so they were all separated from each other. It was assumed that some of them kept touch, but most of them didn't. Then again, it was hard to keep in touch at times, especially with Thor. He came and went all the time. So, that left Meredith and Tony with a lot of time on their hands. Meredith was still co-CEO of Stark Industries, but Pepper mainly ran it. She was the perfect person for the job. With their time, they were working on perfecting their subcutaneous implants so they could summon their armor whenever they needed, seeing as it wasn't something you could easily carry around. Meredith chuckled as she watched Tony dance goofily to the music. He shot her a grin.

He attempted to summon the armor after a moment, but it wasn't working. Eventually, though, it did. He chuckled happily. It was in moments like these, where he figured out something new, that he smiled the brightest. "Alright, I think we got this. Send them all."