Chapter Text
Tony woke up with a start.
Deep breaths, sweaty face, heart beat so hard it felt like it was gonna burst through his chest. He sat in his bed, fingers gripping his brown locks as he tried to calm himself down.
Tony sits alone, heavy breathing the only sound that is in the otherwise silent room.
"Sir do you wish for me to run you some tea?" Tony almost jumps at his A.I's voice before he nods slowly.
"Yeah." He murmurs. "Can you schedule an Appointment with Layla too?"
"But of course sir."
--
Layla Shidmt has been a child and young adult therapist for 10 years and she's never met someone under 20 with so many problems.
Tony Stark is smart, good looking, and rich (all words that he himself used to describe himself). He has amazing friends from what he tells her. He is very in tune with his sexuality calling himself pansexual while most males in his situation tended to shrug off sexuality questions, he was very open with it. He seemed very sure and confident of himself and he was very good at masking his problems. Even from a young age.
When his mother died it was said he didn't even cry and that he carried on as if nothing happened (though he did reveal to her that he did indeed cry. A lot.) That alone was a sign of Dysthymia paired with the anxiety attacks he use to get and still gets was bad.
And then when his father died he almost completely shutdown. That's why he ended up sitting in front of her the first time a bored expression on his face asking every 5 minutes if he could leave and explaining how he didn't need this and how he's perfectly fine.
It only took two more sessions for him to sigh and say "They're not going to let me stop coming until I start talking to you about my problems right?"
It was a rhetorical question but that didn't stop her from answering yes.
Then he just spilled everything out.
They've come a long way from those first three meetings all those months ago.
He talks to her about everything now. About his parties, about how drunk he gets (this worries her but he says that he's not going over board), the beautiful girls (and rare boys) that he takes home with him and sometimes even what they do.
But today she wants to do something different so when Tony starts on another story about his weekend she interrupts him.
"How are your friends?" She asks raising a brow, her clipboard rested on one knee of her crossed legs.
"They're good, I guess." He says with a shrug. "Why? I thought that this was suppose to be about me."
"To know about you I must know what kind of people you are surrounded by." She says matter of factly a grin spreading on her face when he didn't try to rebut her. "Who are your closest friends?"
"Uhhhhhh Pepper, Rhodney, and probably kinda Steve." He answers.
"Probably kinda?" Layla asks a brow.
"It's complicated. Kind of."
She laughs before she shakes her head. "Okay in the order that you said them I want you to tell me what you like the most about them."
That surprises Tony and sits there for a second just thinking about each person.
"Pepper is probably the only one of my exgirlfriends who doesn't want to kill me." He starts after a few minutes. "I mean she wants to kill me sometimes but that's because I'm doing something dumb and it has nothing to do with me being a dick while dating her. She's really smart and beautiful and I trust her with every fiber of my being."
Layla whistles at that.
"Shut up I really do. She's like the closest thing I'll ever have to a sister. She was my therapist before you were. Pepper just means a lot to me." Tony finishes off with a small smile on his face.
"Are you sure you don't still have feelings for her?" She asks.
Tony's eyes widen and he shakes his head.
"Hell no! I just compared her to a sister."
"Alright. Alright." Layla said writing on her clipboard. "Now will you talk about Rhodey?"
It takes Tony less time to think of what the say about Rhodey.
"Rhodey is the reason I'm not dead right now. He's talked me out of doing so much stupid shit before Pepper was even a part of my life." Tony states. "He was with me when my mom died, when everyone left and said that I needed 'space' he stayed and treated me like a normal fucking person. I really needed that." He murmurs.
"Was he your shoulder to cry on?" Layla asks.
"He let me beat him at Mortal Kombat and that was just as good to me." Tony said with a grin.
"So now your kinda sorta friend Steve?" Layla asks with a teasing grin finishing off a sentence on her clipboard.
"Don't you have other patients or whatever?" Tony asks looking at the clock.
"We have 20 more minutes and stop stalling and just spill the beans." Layla said readjusting herself in her seat, her legs now tucked under herself.
"Steve is...he's like a god." Tony tries to choose his words carefully but then shakes his head as soon as the words come out of his mouth. "I mean it's like I'm a devil and he's a god. He's the light to my dark, the yin to my fucked up yan-"
"Tony you're not fucked up you just need help. Everyone needs help sometimes." Layla says softly.
"I know just-can we not talk about this? I think I'm gonna have an episode and I don't want to make that two times today." He murmurs.
"You had a panic attack today?" She asks.
"Yeah this morning I just woke up breathing hard and sweating. I probably had a nightmare of something but I don't remember what it was."
"Should I prescribe you something to help you sleep?" Layla asks already having a paper to fill out a prescription on.
Tony starts to shake his head no but then sighs and nods his head.
"Yeah it wouldn't hurt." He murmurs.
"JARVIS still has tattle tell mode on right?" Layla asks as she signs her name.
"That's JARVIS's normal mode trust me." Tony says with a laugh standing and taking the prescription note just as the timer on Layla's owl timer went off.
"Next week Saturday?" Layla asks as the young billionaire walks out the door.
"Unless I have a hangover or hanging with hot girl Doc." Tony says closing the door behind himself.
--
Layla goes over her notes later that night.
Pepper-Ex, he trusts her, possibly still into her?? not into her
Rhodey-Best friend, there when no one else was,
Steve-Tony is possibly jealous of him, opposite of Tony, considers him a friend despite those
She sighed and leaned back in her swivel chair. Tony Stark was going to be a hard one to figure out.