Work Text:
Tony Stark hates to sleep. He’d rather avoid the nightmares and the vast emptiness every time he closes his eyes. He’d rather stay awake. Better to be awake and alive rather than embracing the cold sleep nearly choking him with reminders of past failures and regrets. To see a father staring at him with disdain, a dark cave, the stars mocking him in his fall, friends fall, a mother crying out her last breath. And all he does is just fall, fall, fall.
Wake up!
Wake up!
Wake up!
When he wakes, he hears FRIDAY announcing the weather for today, he sees DUM-E holding out a smoothie. And Tony knows he is awake, and feels warm.
Tony Strange hates being awake. He’d rather sleep to escape the nightmare he’s in now. Being chained to a man who once was called a friend, now husband. To be locked away from the world, away from friends, his work, his life. To live a secluded nightmare with a man who’s slowing killing him not by force or cruel words. But words of love and devotion, soft touches and promises of forever. He finds comfort in sleep to escape a warm embrace with eyes leaving him so cold. In dreams, he sees his freedom, his friends and he feels warm.
When he wakes, he finds his husband lying next to him smiling softly at him. He sees his wedding ring on his finger, a harsh reminder of his reality.
He feels cold and closes his eyes.