[ hiatus ] 𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐒 ━━ 𝐏. 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐑

𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞

༻ ❁ ༺

3:47 AM

          SUDDENLY, TONY SAT UP, sitting bolt upright in the large queen bed. As he struggled to regain control of his breathing, drops of sweat peppered his forehead and fell down his temples.

"JARVIS, lights," he ordered, out of breath. The thin covers had been shoved off his body by his shaking hands.

"At present, it's forty-seven minutes past three in the morning, sir. Is everything alright?" asked JARVIS

"Yeah, yeah. I'm good." He was having flashbacks of his encounters in Afghanistan for the third night that week. Tonight was, however, strange. This was the first time that Tony woke up in bed alone. That morning, Pepper had left to attend an over-night conference at Seattle University, and that night, Tony desperately missed her presence next to him.

Concluding that sleep would elude him that night, Tony got up from his bed and walked straight down the hallway to his daughter's bedroom. He felt an overbearing urge to check on her. 

As he leaned around the ajar door and saw Charlotte sleeping peacefully, hugging her yellow teddy bear tight to her, the urge was satisfied. At the base of the bed, her blanket was discarded; he gently placed her back under the blanket, planting a kiss on her forehead.

As he stood in the room, his thoughts turned sentimental. Charlotte was the most important person in his life, on par with Pepper. But he also knew that he had people in his life that he had to protect-like Rhodey. 

Even though the Colonel turned his back on him a few days ago, he understood how important Rhodey was not only to him but his daughter. As was Happy; although he was a seemingly new addition to the circle, Tony's bodyguard slash driver had grown on him at a fast rate; he knew that he could count on Happy with not only his life but his families too.

After standing by the door for another ten minutes, Tony decided to go back to bed and try to sleep.

༻ ❁ ༺

9:43 AM

As Charlotte got up that morning, she lay for at least another twenty minutes in her bed. The morning by the ocean had been brisk and breezy, even at the height of the summer; she snuggled close to her blankets before eventually getting out of bed .