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cap_ironman2011-01-02 07:27 pm
cap_ironman_fe) wrote in cap_ironman2011-01-02 07:27 pm
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Title: A Fate Worse Than Death - comm prompt #15
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
flufflenecharka
Summary: Steve loves Tony. Tony can't love.
Pairings/Characters: Steve/Tony undertones heavy throughout, past Tony/OC.
Word Count: 735
A/N: I am fighting the urge to do a big long fic involving Tony, Tony's grandfather, the Slender Man Mythos, and Steve's relationship with Tony. But I have no time or steady access to a computer. So have this ficlet instead.
Universe: Slender Man Mythos/616 Marvelverse crossover.
Rating: T
Warnings: Death, angst, and eldritch abomination/dark magic.
Beta: None. Once again, it shows.
Everything Tony Stark loves dies.
He’s heard it called the Kiss of Death, and he wants to laugh, only he’s afraid that if he does he’ll start to sob until he breaks. So instead he puts on that mask of not giving a shit that he’s wearing more and more often now, and he doesn’t comment on the concept aloud. In his head, though, he thinks that it’s very much the story of his life. Moments like this he wishes he had someone he could spill his guts to, but he’s not sure anyone would understand what he means when he says he’s got a curse on him.
It’s a literal, given by a cult curse, and it can’t be broken except through extremely stupid methods. All options involve murder. Tony hasn’t sunk that low yet, and damn if he’s letting some stupid thing Howard Stark the First was involved in years ago scar him for life. He gets laid plenty, then he pushes them away if they start to get close to him, if he starts to really feel all those corny little symptoms that mean he’s in love. He knows what will happen if he doesn’t.
After all, he wasn’t aware of the curse until he saw it in action.
Turns out that, even with all the protection in the world, some forces were beyond his ability to fight. Fate manifested itself in the form of an eldritch monster he tried not to think about, because thinking about it summoned it, and it was already following him enough of the time. It ensured that the Stark family suffered for whatever it was Tony’s grandfather had done that pissed it off so royally. The family records of what had happened were vague, except for the curse outline. That had been remarkably detailed. Tony tries not to think about all this very often, or else he’ll have nightmares.
Seth Krailie was a good guy. Intense, quiet, compassionate, artsy. He didn’t deserve what happened to him. He was a paranormal investigator. He thought he could break the curse, and Tony was so broken himself after the loss of his mother that he more or less fell into the man’s arms. He literally did, one night, sobbing, drunk like an idiot, and he remembered warmth and the smell of that suede jacket Seth always wore, remembered tangling his fingers in orange-blonde hair and pressing himself close just so he wouldn’t feel so crushingly alone. He remembered being aware, then, of a presence lingering nearby. It was evil, pure and real, tangible, and Tony had begged him to leave then. But Seth wouldn’t leave until he had broken the curse; he was part of a network of people who Tony might have once derided as needing a life, people who investigated this insane bullshit for a living. This was important work and it could help people and he… for reasons Tony never understood, Seth loved him. Too much, it turned out.
Tony had thought he was broken without his parents.
He didn’t know what that word meant until he found Seth’s body lying in the ditch.
That was when he realized that this particular creature wanted to make the Starks miserable. That was apparently the first order of business. Killing them was not a priority. It could have done that whenever it wanted. What it really wanted, more than their deaths, was to make them suffer. Tony began to get used to that as a fact of life. He thought he was getting pretty good at avoiding showing how much he cared, at hiding what was there under the surface, and then he met Steve.
Steve gets past the walls Tony has built up. His words pierce through the mental armor. He can bring Tony back out of a depressive spiral with sheer will power. He cares. It’s obvious that he does, even if Tony’s a wreck and he could do better. He loves him, tries to protect him, wants to keep him safe. And Tony is scared because he feels the cold and nightmarish presence lingering, watching, waiting to see if it should take Steve too.
So when Steve says he loves Tony, Tony backs up as if he’s been struck, and shakes his head slowly, apologetically. He hopes the tears in his eyes aren’t too obvious.
“I don’t love you, Steve.”
Because everything I love dies.
Author:
flufflenecharkaSummary: Steve loves Tony. Tony can't love.
Pairings/Characters: Steve/Tony undertones heavy throughout, past Tony/OC.
Word Count: 735
A/N: I am fighting the urge to do a big long fic involving Tony, Tony's grandfather, the Slender Man Mythos, and Steve's relationship with Tony. But I have no time or steady access to a computer. So have this ficlet instead.
Universe: Slender Man Mythos/616 Marvelverse crossover.
Rating: T
Warnings: Death, angst, and eldritch abomination/dark magic.
Beta: None. Once again, it shows.
Everything Tony Stark loves dies.
He’s heard it called the Kiss of Death, and he wants to laugh, only he’s afraid that if he does he’ll start to sob until he breaks. So instead he puts on that mask of not giving a shit that he’s wearing more and more often now, and he doesn’t comment on the concept aloud. In his head, though, he thinks that it’s very much the story of his life. Moments like this he wishes he had someone he could spill his guts to, but he’s not sure anyone would understand what he means when he says he’s got a curse on him.
It’s a literal, given by a cult curse, and it can’t be broken except through extremely stupid methods. All options involve murder. Tony hasn’t sunk that low yet, and damn if he’s letting some stupid thing Howard Stark the First was involved in years ago scar him for life. He gets laid plenty, then he pushes them away if they start to get close to him, if he starts to really feel all those corny little symptoms that mean he’s in love. He knows what will happen if he doesn’t.
After all, he wasn’t aware of the curse until he saw it in action.
Turns out that, even with all the protection in the world, some forces were beyond his ability to fight. Fate manifested itself in the form of an eldritch monster he tried not to think about, because thinking about it summoned it, and it was already following him enough of the time. It ensured that the Stark family suffered for whatever it was Tony’s grandfather had done that pissed it off so royally. The family records of what had happened were vague, except for the curse outline. That had been remarkably detailed. Tony tries not to think about all this very often, or else he’ll have nightmares.
Seth Krailie was a good guy. Intense, quiet, compassionate, artsy. He didn’t deserve what happened to him. He was a paranormal investigator. He thought he could break the curse, and Tony was so broken himself after the loss of his mother that he more or less fell into the man’s arms. He literally did, one night, sobbing, drunk like an idiot, and he remembered warmth and the smell of that suede jacket Seth always wore, remembered tangling his fingers in orange-blonde hair and pressing himself close just so he wouldn’t feel so crushingly alone. He remembered being aware, then, of a presence lingering nearby. It was evil, pure and real, tangible, and Tony had begged him to leave then. But Seth wouldn’t leave until he had broken the curse; he was part of a network of people who Tony might have once derided as needing a life, people who investigated this insane bullshit for a living. This was important work and it could help people and he… for reasons Tony never understood, Seth loved him. Too much, it turned out.
Tony had thought he was broken without his parents.
He didn’t know what that word meant until he found Seth’s body lying in the ditch.
That was when he realized that this particular creature wanted to make the Starks miserable. That was apparently the first order of business. Killing them was not a priority. It could have done that whenever it wanted. What it really wanted, more than their deaths, was to make them suffer. Tony began to get used to that as a fact of life. He thought he was getting pretty good at avoiding showing how much he cared, at hiding what was there under the surface, and then he met Steve.
Steve gets past the walls Tony has built up. His words pierce through the mental armor. He can bring Tony back out of a depressive spiral with sheer will power. He cares. It’s obvious that he does, even if Tony’s a wreck and he could do better. He loves him, tries to protect him, wants to keep him safe. And Tony is scared because he feels the cold and nightmarish presence lingering, watching, waiting to see if it should take Steve too.
So when Steve says he loves Tony, Tony backs up as if he’s been struck, and shakes his head slowly, apologetically. He hopes the tears in his eyes aren’t too obvious.
“I don’t love you, Steve.”
Because everything I love dies.
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