Living My Best Life - Stony

twelve [end of part one]

*FOUR WEEKS PREVIOUSLY*

I was sat on the end of the couch with Tony stretched almost all the way across it (he was too short to have his head at one end and his feet at the other) and he was almost asleep.

"You know," he said wearily, "I'm gonna love this place."

"Yeah, maybe without all the boxes everywhere." Tony had finally bought an apartment. His parents had fully cut him off so just to spite them, he bought himself an apartment and got a job, he wasn't enjoying every moment of it, but he graduated early and tried to make the best of it.

"Steve?"

"Tony?"

"I know you miss your mom but she did what she thought was best."

"I know. I know." I felt a knot forming in the back of my throat. Talking about her was enough, let alone her funeral. She had heart failure while still in the coma and, well... there was no way of bringing her back. "She loved you like a son."

"And I loved her like a mom." I smiled and laid down too, crushing Tony's poor legs (he didn't care) and resting my head on his chest with my feet dangling precariously off the end of the sofa. He reached over me and grabbed a tv remote, turning it on and flicking it to the 6 o'clock news channel.

"Breaking news..."

"Some famous person's gonna have died, that's the only breaking news that ever happens here. Look, whoever it is, I don't care."

"Howard and Maria Stark found dead in a shooting on a highway." I quickly looked over at Tony. His eyes were filled with disbelief and his face was white as a sheet.

"So... maybe I do care."

*CURRENT TIME*

Tony took to drinking fast after his parents' death. And to be honest, I didn't wanna deal with it. I loved him, but he's always drunk and abusive towards himself and I couldn't stop him hurting himself and it pained me to see cuts and scars on his body so I made myself leave him be. And it felt awful, but it was the only thing I could do to save myself.

I also warned a few of our mutual friends about him and explained I couldn't be there which they completely understood, and went to live back in my mom's old apartment. And that was the last time I saw Tony Stark in a very, very long time.