A/N: I've decided to upload all my fics into a single account. eye of the beholder until let the walls break down were originally only uploaded to my AO3 account, callingthequits. Then I went back to my roots and thought, "Hey, why not post it on Fanfiction too?" so here I am.

Aurum is the Latin name for gold.

He's alone.

There's no Pepper, who's in Los Angeles but is promising to be back as soon as she gets her business done. There's no Happy, who he gave a day off and is probably cruising along the dark streets with sunglasses on. There's no Rhodey, who is off doing may-only-God-know-what in the name of all good American citizens everywhere, and there's no Avengers, but he honestly doesn't care about them. There's no Bruce, who is asleep in his bed a floor above, and not likely to wake unless it's been half a week. Jarvis is silent and his bots are at the charging station; there's nothing here, and nobody to see.

The lights are off, and Tony is in the darkness, holding the one thing that used to give him light.

He looks at the old arc reactor, an eyebrow raised and lips pursued, and he turns it over. He tests the weight of it in his hands, lets his fingers trail over its glass, and lets his eyes rest in the comfort of having blue on his skin again. He takes a breath, sharply, and chuckles. It is a bitter sound that echoes in the silent room.

"Look at you, gathering dust." Tony smiles, but it is frayed at the edges and looks sad. It would be rather pathetic, he muses, if anyone could see him like this. Sentimentality has never been a thing he's been fond of, but it's funny how poetic the whole ordeal could seem. Of course, finding the old thing was an accident. He was looking for a screwdriver, because he never bothers to organize, when his hand brushed over the glass.

He never used that particular reactor, but he remembers building it; remembers the feel of vibranium under his palm, can still see the blue highlighting all the small scars on his hand. Tony's fingers ghost over the metal, then the glass, and for a second it's not dark anymore. For a second he can remember the bright glare of sunlight, the harsh heat of his repulsors, and the freedom in flying in the skies, a speedy blur of red and gold-

"Sir?" Jarvis says, quietly. Tony blinks out of his daze, shakes his head a bit, and takes a few seconds to breathe. He puts the arc reactor back on the table, dusty and unused as it should be, and Jarvis turns on the lights. "Miss Potts has arrived."

"Tony?" It's Pepper, beautiful, darling, Pepper, and he looks up to see her blinding smile. "Mr. Stark, are you coherent?"

"Yes, dear," He grins, and he takes her hand in his. The other, he uses to brush away her fiery hair. "I'll have you know that I haven't even exploded anything, and Jarvis can testify to that, right J?"

"Not yet," Jarvis says, and Pepper looks at him with a smug twitch on her lips. Tony watches the way the light makes her hair shine, how it plays in her blue eyes, and he watches the way the light glints on her golden necklace. The hand on her neck lowers to hold it, the little piece of shrapnel that led to this. The little piece of shrapnel that led to her.

Although he cannot see it, too engrossed with the necklace, Pepper smiles softly at him as her hand squeezes his, warm and real. He looks up at that, brown meeting blue, and she kisses him.

When she pulls away, Pepper whispers, "Let's go to bed."

And Tony looks at her, the light making her seem golden, and he grins. "Yeah, we should probably sleep." He takes her hand and squeezes back.