I FEEL YOU || Sᴛᴇᴠᴇ Rᴏɢᴇʀꜱ

thirty two

Big Brain Time

"Do we really need to go to Tony?" I asked, nervously tapping the metal on my left shoulder with my fingers.

"What else do you suggest?" Natasha asked as she braided her hair "Who else could build a time machine?"

I sighed in defeat. For the tenth time. It's not that I didn't want to see him. I was just scared to. What if he changed, like, a lot? What if he's not the Tony I know? What if he doesn't want to see me?

Before I knew it, Natasha dragged me to the garage, Scott walking not far behind us. She unlocked one of the cars and sat in the driver's seat "Get in." she said, more like a...command.

I furrowed my brows at her strictness, but got in anyway. Was not going to fight Black Widow right now. I wasn't in the mood for that.

The drive was quite a long one. It was mostly in silence, the only one talking was Scott who was lying on the back seats casually asking questions about all the stuff that happened over the past five years. Nat was the one answering most of them, I was staring at the stuff surrounding us.

All of it: the trees, the houses, the sky, the people... It felt so...strange to be in a car just driving to a friend's house. Like a whole new experience. There's a lot of things that I did for the first time ever in this five year period. Some of them, I never thought were such a big deal. But doing stuff like eating a taco with Nat for the first time, that was something else. Or going hiking, or eating banana split for breakfast and pineapple pizza for dinner. The feeling of a new experience is just...quite priceless.

Soon enough we were driving towards a house in the middle of the woods. It was wooden, with a nice little porch and a garden behind it. That was Pepper's doing for sure. There was a little tent, a little table with some stools and some toys on a blanket too. So, he has a kid. I always thought he was more of a dog person. I looked around a bit more, eaten leaves on the bushes by the house. A deer wouldn't come so close, so he has a...goat? I squinted at the floor, looking for some type of feet imprints when a squeak of the wood caused me to look up and stop over-observing things.

He was there, standing on the porch, with his daughter in his arms. I smiled, he deserved this life.

He froze looking at us for a moment before turning around and continuing to walk towards the front door. I could tell he wasn't really looking forward to talking to us. He knew something was up. Nat motioned to Scott and I to follow and we were soon stepping onto the beautiful porch.

By the time we got there, the little one was already inside and Tony was already pouring us a drink.

"Hi." I smiled to him.

"Hi, An. I missed ya." he smiled back and hugged me. I missed him too.

"So, I see you've been good." Nat spoke up as soon as I pulled out of the hug.

"Yeah, I have." he nodded "Why are you here? I assume it's not for coffee."

I suddenly felt guilty for not visiting him all these years. I just...didn't want to be in his way. He took such good care of me and I could never give back what he gave to me. A new life. So I just left him alone to get his own one.

While I was overthinking his question, Scott already explained what happened to him and why we're here. Then Tony noticed I was being quiet. As usual.

"And you, An, what do you think about it?" he asked, snapping me out of my thoughts immediately.

"You know what I think." I looked up from the floor, now looking him in the eyes "I want them back. If there is even a slight possibility this could work, I want to try it."

He just sighed and nodded to my statement. 

"No, look" Scott laughed quietly "we know what it sounds like."

"Is there anything you could-" I started.

"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition." Tony interrupted me "Can we agree on that?"

None of us could really say anything to that.

"In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home." he clarified before we could ask him to.

"I did." Scott quickly said.

"No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke." Tony defended his statement "And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?

"A time heist?" Scott filled him in. I love his...I don't even know what to call it. I don't think it's the sense of humor, he sounded serious.

"Yeah, a time heist." Tony scoffed "Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?"

"The Stones are in the past. We can go back and get them." Scott remained persistent.

"We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back" Natasha added.

"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?" Tony asked, growing impatient.

I scoffed "Oh, c'mon. We can pull this off."

"Look" he looked me dead in the eye "I love you kid. However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist. I believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise."

I sighed. That really helped.

Scott was the first one to peak up again "Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott." Tony interrupted him "Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back To The Future?"

Scott scoffed, embarrassed "No."

"Good. You had me worried there. 'Cause that'd be horse shit." Tony explained "That's not how quantum physics works."

"Tony..." Nat remained persistent "We have to take a stand."

"We did stand. And yet, here we are." Tony responded and sat down in a chair behind him.

"I know you got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter." Scott sighed "But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did. And now, now we have a chance to bring her back. To bring everyone back. And you're telling me that you won't even-"

"That's right, Scott, I won't even." Tony interrupts him again "I got a kid."

And like on cue, a little girl ran out of the house and in his arms.

"Mommy told me to come and save you." she said as soon as she got in his lap.

"Good job. I'm saved." Tony said to her and then stood up and turned back to us "I wish you'd come here to ask me something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you guys, it was... Oh, and table's set for six."

"Tony, please." I begged "I'm really happy for you, but this is a second chance. A second chance for all of us."

"I got my second chance right here." he looked at me with sadness in his eyes, almost like he wanted to help "I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk bussiness, you can stay for lunch."

"Thank you, but we need to work on our plan." Natasha politely declined his offer "Now that you're off limits."

"Good luck." he said. And that was it.

We said goodbye and made our way back to the car.

"He's scared." Nat pointed out as she opened the car door.

"Well he does have a reason to be." I sighed "He does have something to lose."

"Yeah, but I mean, what are we gonna do? We need him." Scott looked back and forth between Nat and I , desperately wanting an explanation "What, are we gonna stop?"

"No, we just need to find a bigger brain." Natasha said and got in the car.

Scott pointed back at Tony's house, not believing what she just said "Bigger than his?"