Weird. And dark.

Nice one, loved it, do you think you could continue it?

... I could see this happening, actually. O.o

Can you write more about this

No guess at all; Harry Potter

Love the name as most people said it reminds me of Harry Potter but I really hope you can do another one with the Avengers thoughts on the room.

Harry potter?

I love this story. I keep coming back to it, accidentally and on purpose.

And I love that you called it 'The Cupboard Under the Stairs'. I love how that title makes me think of Harry's cupboard in ways I hadn't really considered it before. It really is similar to Tony's room as you've written it here - the cupboard is one of the hallmarks of Harry's abuse by the Dursleys, but it was his safe space before Hogwarts. And even when he was going to Hogwarts, it was one of the only places in all the world where he can be just Harry. Not Harry-the-waste-of-space, not Harry-the-boy-who-lived. Just Harry, the kid who likes to read and play with spiders and study magic and write letters to his friends, the few people in the world who also know him as just Harry. Even in his room, he had to hide evidence of him being himself - he had to stow his letters and gifts under the loose floorboard, yet another cramped, dusty space full of cobwebs and spiders where the things that made him Harry were safe. The Dursleys locked his schoolbooks and supplies away in the cupboard, and I think that reinforced the dichotomy of that cupboard as a hallmark of the abuse he faced, and the cupboard as a safe space, now for the physical evidence of Harry being just-Harry-the-magical-student.

And, to bring it back to Tony (because I've spent all this time talking about a different character in a different universe...), I think Tony's struggling with that dichotomy. He sees that cramped cave as a hallmark of his captivity, but the cave was also his safe space while working to survive. He knew what he was doing there, and he knew how his life went every day he was in that cave and one of his captors didn't break schedule. He wasn't Tony-the-genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist, and he wasn't Tony-the-superhero-with-the-world-riding-on-his-shoulders. He was just Tony, the man who liked to make metal live and breathe and sing in his hands, whose thoughts and opinions and emotions could only go as far as the walls of that room.

I love how you express the dichotomy between what Tony thinks the room should mean to him, and what it actually means to him. And I've probably said the word 'dichotomy' a few too many times...

But oh well. I love this story. And I headcanon that everyone else knows about the room, even if they don't know what's in it. They know this is where Tony goes when he needs to be alone and disconnected from the world for a little while. They don't talk about it, but sometimes when Tony comes out, he finds that Steve is baking cookies, or Bruce is about to put in a Disney movie they both like, or Natasha is reading a book while JARVIS is playing AC/DC because it works really well as background music for this chapter.

This reminds me of my REALLY weird thing where Steve is terrified of dissapointing people and not living up to the 'image' of Captain America and occasionally has JARVIS bring the bathroom (only rooms without cameras, no snooping AIs to tell Tony or be disappointed themselves) to freezing levels and turns off the light, pretending he never thawed and Peggy and Howard and all the Commandos will find him any day now...

Wow. Deep.

Harry Potter?

its harry potter isnt it

Harry Potter of course! Maybe he has the same strategy?

Sudden thought..

What if Tony actually received a letter on his eleventh birthday but never came to Hogwarts? xD

Great read. :)

My guess is Harry Potter, which makes me wonder about Harry's reaction. I think he'd feel comfort from a small dark room. Because, despite all of the possibly abusive/definitely neglectful things that happened to him, the cupboard seems to have been, throughout his childhood, his safe place.

Also, I now want to know other Avengers' thoughts on this room...