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Their first breakup is shouted words, broken glasses and Rhodey’s fist through the drywall. Tony feels a twinge of guilt for that—they should have been at his place, where the repairs would be his responsibility, not Rhodey’s. But then Rhodey’s hand would probably be broken instead.
Tony runs away from it for almost three hours, until his feet are numb, his lungs are burning, and his bad knee is grinding with every step. He feels like an idiot when he calls Jarvis from a pay phone, feels worse when he gets home and there’s a message, just one, on his answering machine. Rhodey just has to prove his point, be the responsible one, worry about Tony when only three hours ago Tony had driven him so far he’d lost control and has to punch something. He erases the message, still too angry to call back, and makes a limping detour past the bar to grab a half-full bottle of bourbon to take with him to the bathroom where Jarvis has a steaming bath full of Epsom salts waiting for him.
He doesn’t call Rhodey that night, or the next day, and then Rhodey’s gone. Deployed to the Middle East to sort out the shitstorm that’s the Gulf region and Tony pretends not to care while he keeps every television tuned to the news channels and snaps at Obie when he tries to drag him into production meetings. He writes letters to Rhodey and burns them in his garage. They give too much away. He doesn’t call Roberta but she sends him a short letter anyway—half a page of yellow legal paper detailing Rhodey’s last phone call and reassuring him that he’s alright. He wishes he knew how to thank her personally, but he doesn’t, so he flutters his eyelashes at Bambi Arborghast and gets her to organise a gift basket. He thinks Rhodey told him once that Roberta likes Broadway, and he passes that along.
Two months in he gets a postcard—a cartoon camel smoking a hookah—with Rhodey’s slanted scrawl on the back reading,
“Still alive. I miss you, you idiot. Send donuts. P.S. Mom loved the play.”
He laughs in sheer bloody nervous relief until he’s crying with it, and starts planning the most obnoxious care package he can.