Ten

Tony was sat at the dining table with a tablet in front of him late the next morning when the clock swung to the ten o'clock mark. Despite it being relatively early in the day for most people, ten was a predominately late time for him to get up now. He supposed it had something to do with the 'transformation' but he couldn't be quite sure.

He had queried JARVIS as to whether he knew the reason for the sudden change in wing colour or the reason as to why his hair was more vibrant than a rainbow fish than normal, but for once the know-it-all-AI couldn't come up with a valid conclusion.

When the last chime had sung into the recesses of the area and the darkest pits of his mind, light and gentle footsteps approached him. The redhead that walked through and into the room wasn't the one he had anticipated however and almost instantly he picked his wings from the floor where they lay relaxed, drawing them backwards in a clear display of hostility.

"Natasha," Tony said in an even tone. She carried a cup of tea with her and Tony could smell the scent of jasmine and lemongrass. The Phoenix displayed her displeasure, battling against Tony's mind. He winced as she dug into a particularly painful part of his brain, knocking over another segment of his conscience.

He ignored it.

"Tony," Natasha replied in an equally calculated voice. She sat down two seats left of the chair opposite Tony and just stirred her tea with a spoon. The whole tower was silent bar the floors starting from the tenth from the top that were a hustling, bustling hive of activity.

The atmosphere in the room was odd, alternating between calm and awkward consecutively. It took a while but eventually, Tony sensed the subtle change in Natasha's body language and external frequency vibes.

She was plucking up courage.

Tony smiled at the notion of a super-assassin trying to find the gall to speak to him and obviously the small twitch of his lips made her relax more. Finally, after three more minutes of silence, she said:

"I know sorry can't cut it for you Tony."

"Maybe not." Tony agreed although his tone was neither vindictive nor accusing. Natasha looked up at him through large eyes, her face and pupils full of questions. She brushed past them.

"I do apologise, though. I know it's a bit of a pathetic attempt to gain your respect again after what's happened to you but ... it's hard really. I made a promise and I went back on it which I never do."

"But you did." Tony pointed out softly. Natasha raised one eyebrow almost as if she was warning him not to even try and tease her. He kept his expression neutral but there was a grin fighting his lips.

"I know I did, and I won't do it again. Ignoring you was wrong of me but I suppose I was pretty..." she trailed off, fighting a battle with her mind to produce a word that didn't sound pathetic or too blasé.

He provided it for her.

"Scared?"

"Yeah," she admitted, blowing out a breath from puffed cheeks "Which is odd 'cos I'm never usually scared. Worried, maybe, but scared is an odd feeling. I might have been scared of being scared," she admitted, running a hand through her short curls "But nevertheless it can't be an excuse for my actions. I'm awfully sorry for everything I've done and for not being there for you."

"You were, in some ways," Tony pointed out quietly. Natasha frowned gently, her expression pressing him to continue. He did so. "When I had the panic attack on the helicarrier I was trying to think rationally like you taught me how to ... let us say it didn't work because of old Fee-Fee here-" he tapped his head "-but you were the one who taught me how to cope,"

"It's still not me in person though," Natasha sighed, kicking her feet up and leaning back in her chair. Her cup of tea was cradled by pale fingers "I mean usually I'm the one who apologises first and gets the grudge over and done with before the fella's. But this time I'm last,"

"You are a girl and girl's hold grudges longer," Tony pointed out, the teasing evident in his tone. He was becoming much too forgiving recently but the smile that twitched onto Natasha's lips was worth it.

No point wallowing over a matter that happened in the past.

Especially not that one.

"I'm not saying I forgive you wholly, Tasha, but I've got to make compromises really because I don't want to wake up with a knife in my chest,"

"That's fair enough," Natasha said quietly, sipping at her tea. Tony smiled at her before going back to his tablet.

Twenty minutes later when he wandered out into the kitchen he found a large mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream, marshmallows and chocolate chips waiting for him. A note lay beside it and he smiled as he read it, glancing at the smiley and mirroring it with his lips.

Cheers.

Maria Stark announced that she had to go home approximately three days following Tony and the teams return to Stark Tower. Tony himself felt a heavy pang of sadness well up in the base of his gut at the news and she smiled, running a hand down his cheek.

"It has been wonderful to see you once again, Tony" she told him gently as they stood on the Iron Man launch pad.

"You're not coming back?" he asked. Maria tilted her head side to side and scrutinised him.

"I most certainly will in the foreseeable future – Thor will keep you updated upon myself and vice versa. He is in charge of replenishing your supply of ambrosia,"

"You can only get it in Vaendral?"

"Indeed. You will need to drink at least two pints a day to keep yourself going," she warned and Tony felt like she was chastising him for not eating his greens. He smiled, feeling much too emotional and sappy for Anthony Stark.

"Yes mum," Tony said with a small smile. He then wrapped his arms around his mother, trapping her in a warm embrace. She smiled and returned it, secretly bubbling with happiness at the small phrase she had only gotten to hear for a short while when he was a small boy.

Thor padded gently down the runway, stopping a little way off to allow the mother and son of extraordinary sorts their time together. It was strangely intimate in a way that included everybody and Thor felt that he didn't need to turn round and go back in.

Tony opened his eyes and Thor gazed into them: they were wild with sadness and passion and love and he remembered how Loki's used to be as such before the tables turned and he tipped straight off and into an abyss of darkness and evil.

Tony relished in his mother's embrace before untangled himself from his her arms and pressed a kiss to both of her cheeks, a customary greeting and farewell in Vaendral that Maria had warned him to learn before coming to visit.

"Farewell, mother."

"Farewell, Tony." Maria murmured back, taking Thor's arm and tipping her wings back and down so they were clamped firmly together to reduce drag. Thor looked upwards, raised his hammer and called upon Heimdall. A flash of blinding, multicoloured light later and they were gone.

Tony stood stationary for a moment before stretching his wings out, feeling the gentle currents of air that buffeted his thick, glossy feathers. Despite only getting to know his mother again for a short period it felt like a large void in his heart had been filled. Sure, they were odd beings and everything but there was still the intimacy of a mother/son bond he'd never gotten to experience.

And now that particular knot was tied, a golden thread in his heart and mind that brought together all three points of his life, a conflagration of ethnicities and races. Phoenix, human and Vaendralic.

He stood there for a long, long time just relishing in the rippling air waves over his skin and feather before, after taking a glance around at the team assembled behind him, he leant forwards and toppled over the edge.

Almost instantly the powerful updraft carried him directly sun-wards and he relaxed onto the currents of air as he was taken higher and higher above the city. Everything was so small and so insignificant from up here, like a tiny play-set viewed from two storeys high.

Dipping down, Tony returned to a top-of-skyscrapers level before turning sharply towards the East River. His speed was almost languid and from the corners of his eyes in his peripheral vision he could see people in the office blocks gawping at him. His feathers brushed against smooth glass and rough concrete offering new sensations to his equally new body.

Below, he could see innocent civilians looking up at him, pointing and some taking pictures of his flight and a smile stretched over his lips. He wasn't exactly being inconspicuous now about anything. It was almost like the Iron Man incident over again but with much bigger outcomes. As he drifted down to the East River where the air raced along the top of the glittering surface at breathtaking speeds, he wondered how he was meant to battle now.

In the Iron Man suit he was at a heavy advantage: he had the power of speed and electronics at every beck and call. With wings he still had flight and speed but he no longer had protective clothing: he didn't have a primary weapon either.

Also, Phoenix was a bit too destructive to call on each time and it also drained him of all of his energy. She had been battling him for a long, long time now and he was beginning to feel her effects day-in, day-out.

Tony's mind drifted back to the first day he got back from Afghanistan and as he tilted his wings so they brushed the sides of the cruiser, he smiled. Tipping and cupping his wings either side of him, Tony directed himself vertically, toes of his Converse and tips of his limbs kicking up a delicate spray of rainbow water vapour. It splattered his face with minuscule water droplets that ran down his smooth cheeks in rivers of molten silver, casting his face into an ethereal mask.

He alighted upon Manhattan Bridge and ruffled his feathers in agitation. The air was becoming increasingly humid and the water had clung to the underside of the remiges causing a downright uncomfortable sensation. Far away on the horizon he could see flashes of lightning, natural as opposed to Thor's wild fury that so often attack Stark Tower.

Tony sat down on the support tower and watched it approach with a sense of intrepidness crawling into his heart. He couldn't withstand the Phoenix for much longer now. Her power was overwhelming every part of his being, a force he couldn't hope to tame unless she worked with him. The only problem was that she didn't want to. Every waking hour was fought with soulful determination, every sense on high alert as she tried to worm her way through his mind to take over his body. Every sleeping dream was spent in the veil between awareness and unconsciousness for fear that Fee Fee would harm Pepper as she slept peacefully beside him.

He didn't feel the tears slip down his face until the rolled onto the metal and burnt their way through to the tarmac below.

Oh. Scumbag writer is back. Also, what's with the comma's, me? I don't know. I'll edit them. 'Ventually.

I laughed way too hard when I got 69 reviews. *immature dance* - and also, thank you:3

Mistakes are MY OWN YEAH.

Kermit x