Chapter Text
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Tony met his soulmate while threatening a Norse god. Up until that point, Tony had thought it was a coincidence between the 'Rogers' over his heart and Steve Rogers, Howard's standard for everything. Tony thought it must have been a sick cosmic joke to have his soulmate as another reminder of how he couldn't measure up. He decided he didn't care and that if he ever married his soulmate their name would be changed pronto.
Tony's soulmark stood out in another way as well. There were two lines, two sentences. There were only a couple of thousand records of this throughout history and so was extremely rare. It could mean one of two things; either Tony had two soulmates or the two were both equally important, usually from the same conversation. Tony didn't understand soulmarks, who decides what's the most important thing you will ever say to your soulmate? There have been cases where it's extremely obvious as to why it was the most important thing, talks on kids or marriage or deep emotional bullshit. But there have been other cases where it was things like 'fetch the newspaper please' and yeah it could symbolise some emotional thing (like Tony's paranoia of having things handed to him), a deep trust for example, however Tony thought this was kinda moronic. It's all up for debate, it's not a solid science and the 'most important sentence' theory itself has only been favoured for a few hundred years or so, no matter that soulmarks have been investigated for nearly all of civilised human history, every one is fascinated with it.
Tony decides early on that he doesn't care. As he looks across his sternum and sees the two lines of delicate but clearly male scrawl 'Don't bullshit me Rogers, did you know?' and 'So was I' underneath it he thinks at least it's recognizable sentences he isn't likely to use more than once. He occasionally wonders how they could be said, probably in an argument. He thinks they'd get over it though. He doesn't often dwell on it as he knows he won't be able to find out an answer.
This perspective, however, changes over time. As Tony is betrayed and looked down upon by peers and employees and sinks further into Rhodey's absence from his side and his professional persona, he gets harder and more stubborn against anyone more than who he has with him. Obadiah tips the iceberg, with only the last part of the top line visible from the arc reactor, that betrayal turns him. He knows he won't be able to forgive anyone who lies and betrays him, not even his soulmate.
But Tony meets Steve Rogers next to a crazy Norse god wearing a deer helmet and starts the steady stream of internal screaming that lasts for years. He knows Steve's his soulmate but doesn't say anything. It's not like you could even see his mark anymore.
He dislikes the guy straight off, he's kind of a dick and he's so boring Tony is sure he wouldn't be able to spend a life together, Tony's too insomnia creating and Iron Man and Steve is too familial cuteness and Captain America.
The only good thing about that day is meeting Bruce Banner, Tony's a massive fan and Bruce is just the kind of person Tony wished his soulmate would be. But he's with Pepper so he doesn't say anything to either of them. They fight aliens and Tony wiggles a promise to come back out of Bruce as he drives him to the airport.
Pepper breaks up with him quickly. The stress of Iron Man and Tony's devotion to that more than her pushing her away.
Pepper shouts and Tony tries his best not to scream back or curl into himself.
"I cannot be the only one committed here, Tony," She shouts.
"I love you Pep but I love this too, you know that. You knew this when we got together," he states.
"I know Tony and I'm selfish enough to ask you to give it up but I know you need it so I'm going to do this instead," she pleaded.
"I know Pep, and I know it'll be better it just hurts," he sighs.
"I can't be the one they return the body to," she says and Tony keeps quiet as she leaves because his response would be 'they'll send it to Rhodey'.
Rhodey tells him that the Mandarin is American business, not superhero business. Tony knows this but he also knows this is way out of their league. Tony has more advanced tech than the military and JARVIS on their side.
Happy is injured and Tony hasn't talked to Pepper outside of business in over five months. He sees her at the hospital muttering about recovering quickly. Tony places guards outside and as he turns to leave Pepper tells him Happy is her soulmate. Tony is truly happy and smiles proudly at his friend.
"I'm guessing I'm the 'he' in question," as tells her, gesturing to her right leg where the words 'he means so much to both of us it's just short of physically painful to be around him sometimes' are scrawled in Happy's handwriting.
"His words are 'Pepper, it's what everyone who actually sees him thinks'" she laughs, pointing to his right forearm.
He hugs her and thinks it's the start of building back the bridges between them.
He walks out of the hospital to see reporters everywhere. He tries to stay calm and fails. Revenge is mentioned and he returns home. He is ambushed in his living room, they aim for a kidnapping, sending eight people to walk straight into his house, just before he planned to leave for Tennessee. He comes up to the living room when JARVIS tells him, waiting for the armour. He takes two down with odd weapons he keeps in the house but the rest easily over power him. He's on his knees when the first gauntlet comes and he punches the guy in front of him in the stomach. The rest of the armour catches up, hitting people as it comes and he flies out the house as soon as he can. The mark 47 being only a prototype, the flight power fails and he plummets into the ocean. His panic attack is horrific, screaming for JARVIS then blacking out.
He wakes up in the cold and drapes the armour to a phone booth, leaving a message on Happy's phone, he knows Pepper will check it.
"I'm alive," he says.
He finds an empty, quiet garage and breaks in, placing the iron man suit down so he can work on fixing his implants.
A small boy of around 10 walks in, light brown hair and wide eyes, carrying a potato gun.
Tony loves Harley. The kid is a shining light in Tony's boring, horrible, PTSD ridden world. Harley is so much like him, Tony almost thinks it's his kid.
Tony gives him a teaser-like weapon and they go out to investigate the crime scene. Nothing of is found there, just a missing shadow. Tony visits the wife.
"You're not the person who called me, are you?" She asks him. They are attacked and Tony makes her hide the folder quickly. AIM becomes a factor and strange people with glowing orange skin attack them. Tony runs, still in handcuffs, two people on his tail.
When the kid throws a snowball at an extremis guy, Tony's heart surges. He really wants to laugh but knows it would be distracting and unnecessary.
Harley is the third person to save him. The first being Jarvis and the second being Rhodey. Tony leaves but promises himself to come back.
He calls Harley for news on JARVIS, he is told to build something. That's what he does. He goes to a department store and builds makeshift tasers, guns and bombs, he invades the house where the Mandarin supposedly is.
He wakes tied to a bed and screaming. His skin is glowing orange and Aldrich speaks about mailing him desperate and injects him again. He tries calling the suit but it doesn't come, it isn't charged, his body is in so much pain, his cells trying to adapt to the extremis.
The watch beeps, meaning the suit is charged. One of the goons crushes it.
"You die first," he tells him, in just that kind of petty mood, panting as his body struggles. He calms down a bit, he can feel his body temperature slowly calming down and his face feels less hot, he imagines his eyes have gone back to brown.
He and Rhodey go to save the president but are too late. They save all the people though so Tony thinks it's a start.
Tony summoned all of his suits and can feel them in his very body, JARVIS talks in his head as his eyes blaze blue, Rhodey's questioning gaze is ignored.
"Give me a suit," he is asked.
"Sorry, they're only programmed to me," Tony states. "I got you," he insists.
He destroyed the extremis junkies quickly as Rhodey gets the president safe.
Tony destroys Killian with what he made out of him. The extremis thumping in his veins as his eyes turn blue, he laughs when it finishes.
"Blow all suits except mark 42, JARVIS," he asks, knowing he needs to calm down. One suit is enough.
Bruce comes back as Tony stabilizes extremis, becoming his science bro. Tony smiles more in the first week than the whole time since Loki.
Extremis builds on what the body has and Tony can feel everything electronic, he can talk to JARVIS in his head, he can perfect the Iron Man calling. He runs a bit hotter than normal but it doesn't affect him. When he actively uses lots of his power, his eyes turn blue otherwise they're brown, Tony says it's like Bruce and the Hulk's green eyes.
He keeps the Arc reactor partially because the light stabilizes him, he knows he's safe but mainly because if he took it out extremis would heal the hole before he got the shards out, there's no way to do it quick enough.
He kisses Bruce when Bruce doses through a ramble of Tony's, he slides on top of the man that contains the Hulk and laughs at him. Bruce kisses back and Tony grins.