(Barely) Controlled Chaos #5

(Barely) Controlled Chaos #5

Follows on directly from part 4

Warnings for this part: none

November 1991, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Every day for the next week, Rhodes joined him on the bench and they threw their lunches to the birds.  The Taillow came back day after day, getting brave enough to sit on the bench and wait for them, even sitting on Tony’s shoulder and taking food from his hand.  Tony grinned at that, and Rhodes grinned back at him, and maybe he had a friend now.  They talked to each other like friends; Tony a little more reserved to begin with, because he still wasn’t sure that this wasn’t some kind of trick, but Rhodes joked and complained with him, and he didn’t seem to care that Tony was Tony Stark, son of a billionaire weapons developer.  By the end of the week, Tony had called him ‘Rhodey’, which had made the older boy pull a face and complain, so naturally that became his new name.  Rhodey called him ‘Tones’ in response, which Tony hated but also kind of loved at the same time, because even his father had never given him a nickname beyond ‘Tony’, and that wasn’t a nickname, that was because ‘Anthony’ took too long to say.

So, yeah, Tony had a friend.  Two, if he counted Taillow, which he was starting to. (One more day…)

The following week, Tony was sitting on their bench, hand-feeding Taillow crumbs of a cake that Jarvis had made and had delivered to him, when Rhodey came up to him with a penguin Pokémon in tow.  It was just tall enough to rest against Rhodey’s thigh, two ridges running along its head resting either side of his leg.  Tony smiled at them both and waved at the Pokémon, which regarded him coolly.  Rhodey rested a hand on its head.

“Tones, this is Pippi.  He’s a Prinplup; we grew up together.  Pippi, this is Tony.”

Pippi gave a low chirp and leaned closer to Rhodey.  The Taillow on Tony’s shoulder chirped back and hopped onto the bench to inspect the newcomer.  Rhodey managed to manoeuvre so that he could sit down, and grinned at Tony.

“He doesn’t usually come out the dorm; he doesn’t like people much, but the weather is starting to get colder and there’s a chance it might rain later, so he agreed to come meet you.”

Tony blinked.  Those two weather conditions were usually considered bad things by most people, but he supposed that from a penguin’s point of view, it was just what he’d want.  He shrugged and nodded.

“Hi, Pippi.”

Pippi ignored him; he was eye-to-eye with Taillow and Tony wasn’t sure what to make of the situation.  Rhodey didn’t seem too worried by it, so he relaxed and offered some of his sandwich to the penguin.  Taillow stole it, then hopped onto the other Pokémon’s head and ate it, chirping.  Rhodey laughed.

“Made a friend, Pip?”

Pippi flapped his wings and took the fish Rhodey offered him.  “Do you have any Pokémon?” he asked Tony casually, pulling his own lunch from his bag.  Tony felt his mood drop and shrugged, eyeing Taillow surreptitiously.

“My mother had a Persian, but it died a few years ago.”  That seemed a safe thing to say, and it didn’t invite a whole host of questions either.  Tony didn’t feel like explaining the aversion that all living things seemed to have to him, Rhodey excepted.

“I’m sorry,” Rhodey said, sounding it, and patted Pippi on the beak.  Taillow jumped onto Rhodey’s hand and flapped its wings.  He smiled at it and scratched the top of its head with the pad of his index finger.  “But hey, maybe something’ll come along.”

Tony nodded and changed the topic; he couldn’t tell you what they’d spent the rest of their time discussing, because he was too busy trying not to look at the way Taillow was flitting between Rhodey and Pippi, and when they stood up as Rhodey’s next class started, the way Taillow went with them, riding on the Prinplup’s head.  Tony smiled, because its wasn’t Rhodey’s fault that Pokémon didn’t like him, so he wished his friend a good day, then as soon as they were out of sight the blew off the rest of his classes, locked himself in the robotics lab and made unnecessary repairs to Dummy’s arm, stroking the bot and feeling sorry for himself.  The robot flexed its claw and tilted its camera to one side, then whirred and bent over Tony in what it probably intended as a hug.  Tony closed his eyes patted it.

“At lease I’ve got you, Dummy,” he whispered.  The bot whistled and hugged him tighter.

(Barely) Controlled Chaos #6

Follows on directly from part 5

Warnings for this part: none

November 1991, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

He was on his way back to his dorm when he heard it.  It was dark, cold and raining, and Tony was clad in a pair of jeans that were more hole than denim and a too-thin t-shirt that bore the evidence of his late night working in the robotics lab.  He was frankly surprised that he could hear anything over the sound of his own teeth chattering, but he was sure he had.  He paused his stride and listened carefully.  Yes, there it was again; a high-pitched, almost inaudible yip.

Tony turned in the direction he thought the sound was coming from; there was an alley to his right that seemed to be the source.  It wasn’t wide enough to be a walkthrough for the general populous – it was a three-foot-wide gap between two university buildings rather than an actual pathway – but Tony had used it before to get from one class to another when he was running late and could actually be bothered to go.  He squinted down it, but it was too dark to see if there was anybody there or not.

“Hello?” he called, just in case.  The only reply was another, slightly louder yip.  Tony narrowed his eyes, debating the wisdom of checking it out.  Well, it wasn’t like he could get any wetter, and this was a very elaborate set-up for one of his dorm-mates’ let’s-mess-with-the-kid pranks; usually they just tripped him up and stole his stuff.  Decided, he shuffled closer to the alley and peered down it, calling out again.

The yip this time came from below him.  He looked down, and saw a huge pair of brown eyes looking up at him from a sodden, skinny Pokémon.  Tony knelt slowly so as not to startle the creature and gently reached toward it.

“Hey there, are you ok?” he asked soothingly, ignoring the shirt sticking to his back.  The animal shivered violently and sneezed, crawling closer until its nose touched Tony’s knee.  He rested his hand on its back, hoping it wasn’t about to turn around and bite him.  It shivered under his palm, cold and soaked to the skin, but didn’t move otherwise.  Tony could feel its ribs bumping against his fingertips.  He sighed and pulled his shirt off, shivering as the night air made intimate acquaintance with his bare skin, and carefully tucked it around the Pokémon, picking it up and tucking the material under its paws.

“It’s alright, let’s get you dry, shall we?” he said to it, pulling it into his body and hoping that any warmth left in him might transfer to the creature.  He finished his jog back to his dorm, doing his best not to jostle the Pokémon, and for once didn’t run into any of his jackass dorm-mates.  He put the Pokémon down on his bed, ignoring the damp patch that spread over his sheets, and found a dry towel in the bottom of his closet.  Gently, he unwrapped the animal and dried it off, telling it what he was doing so it didn’t startle.  After it was no longer dripping, Tony ran the towel over his own hair and chest before throwing it onto the floor.  The Pokémon sneezed again and climbed onto his lap, huddling against his stomach in a little ball.  He petted it carefully, making soothing sounds until it stopped shivering.

It blinked up at him with huge brown eyes, and Tony realised what it was.  “Lillipup,” he said aloud, and the little dog yipped at him and wagged its skinny tail a few times.  Tony smiled down at it.

“You’ll be alright now; it’s safe here.  I’ll go find some food and you can sleep here, if you want?”

It yipped again and rolled off his knees, so Tony got up and traipsed into the communal kitchen.  He didn’t keep food in there, but the others did, and unless he wanted to try to feed day-old pizza to the ill puppy, he needed to raid the fridge.  He pulled it open and found a plate with the remains of somebody’s chicken dinner on it.  He grinned and stole a handful of the meat before slipping back to his room.

The Lillipup ate from his hand happily, and all the chicken was gone in seconds.  The dog still looked starved, but at least it was dry and warm now.  Tony spared a minute to change out of his sodden jeans into something more comfortable to sleep in, then pulled off the wet top bed sheet and slid under the remaining layers.  He patted the pillow beside his head gently, and the Pokémon wobbled its way up, curling up beside him.  He arranged the sheets so that the creature was at least partly covered, hoping that he’d done enough for it.  He wasn’t sure what else he could do; it needed food and sleep, but he wasn’t a physician and couldn’t tell more than that.

Not that it really mattered, because the dog would be gone in the morning.  Pokémon never stayed with Tony for too long, so there was no point getting too attached to this little one now.  He leaned over and cracked the window open just enough so the Lillipup could crawl through when it woke, then curled up and closed his eyes.

When he woke, Lillipup was curled up against his chest, awake and looking at Tony.  It yipped when it saw his eyes were open and stood up, licking him on the nose.  Tony blinked at it.  “You’re still here…”

The dog rolled its eyes at him and yipped again, wobbling down the bed so that he could sit up.  He did so, staring.  It wagged its tail and licked his hand, eyes never leaving Tony’s face.  Slowly, a smile spread across his face.

“You’re still here.”  It was a statement this time.  The dog wagged its tail faster.  With a grin, Tony got out of bed and dressed, then stole some more chicken for Lillipup.  At the first chance he got, he’d take it to a nurse, but until then he let himself pat it and reassure himself that it was really there.

It had chosen to stay with him.  Today was officially the best goddamned day of his life.

Odd Things To Happen At Work #6

So, working last night, and I got proposed to.  By a random stranger.  Again.

Just.  Why.

(Barely) Controlled Chaos # 19

Follows on from last part, so read that first.

Warnings for this part: violence, attempted mugging, weaponry, drunkeness

September 1997, Stark Industries Main office, New York

Tony pulled the girls against a wall, taking the hard surface against his own back while they writhed against his front, and grinned into their mouths.  Three hands grabbed against his stomach, sliding under his shirt, and another pulled at his hair.  He moaned at the sensation.

That was when the cold click of a gun being cocked ruined Tony’s night.

All three of them stopped moving instantly, the hands against his skin freezing in place, nails digging into his ribcage as the fingers formed an involuntary fist.  The barrel of the gun poked between the girl’s heads, pointed at Tony’s nose.  One of the brunettes squeaked in fear.  Tony wasn’t sure if he wished they would scream or not; it would draw attention from the two fucking huge bouncers just up the road, but it also might startle the guy on the other end of the gun, and Tony did not want that.  He liked his face the way it was, it didn’t need a hole between his eyes.

The man pushed one of the girls away from Tony, further into the alleyway, and she fell against the brick wall with a small cry.  Tony bit his lip as the gun pressed flush against his forehead, lifting his hands away from the other girl to show that he was unarmed.  The gun pressed harder against him, and he froze.

“Whoa, easy…”

“Shut up,” the gunman ordered, voice low in what was probably an attempt to not draw attention from the bouncers.  He used his free hand to pull the other girl towards him; she screamed, but he snapped the gun under her chin, and she muffled the noise quickly.  He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pressed his free hand across her lips.  “Not a sound, bitch.”

She nodded, and the gun returned to its previous position.  Tony pressed closer against the wall, which was currently the only thing holding him upright.  Alcohol plus far too much adrenaline was making his knees shake, and also appeared to have gotten his fight-or-flight response stuck on ‘oh-shit-this-is-bad’.

Muffled whimpers from the two girls, and the tear tracks running down their faces told Tony that they were in the same position.  At least it wasn’t just him.

The gunman was talking again.  Tony tried to pay attention, uncrossing his eyes from their focus on the end of the gun and looking at the man beyond.  It was dark, and Tony was very drunk and scared, so he made out dark hair and pale skin, but that was about it.  Damnit.  He hated being fuzzy on details.  He forced his eyes to focus, and saw the man’s mouth moving.

Right, he was talking.  What was he saying?

“…money, now!”

Of course.  He was Howard fucking Stark’s son; everybody and their dog knew who he was, and they all knew he was a billionaire.  He really should have expected this.  Thinking about it, he was kind of surprised he hadn’t been mugged before.

“Now!”

Tony flinched, then winced as the movement knocked his skull against the wall.  He reached down to his jeans pocket, trying to remember which one his wallet was in, when the little light filtering into the alley from the main road suddenly cut off.  The gunman turned his attention in that direction, and the gun lowered an inch.  Tony sucked in a breath and shot his gaze sideways.  He couldn’t see properly – there was a gun blocking a lot of his view – but he thought he recognised the blurry shape as one of the bouncers from the nightclub.  He really hoped it was, and that this wasn’t some kind of backup for the mugger.

“Want to back up there?” the newcomer asked, tone light, and Tony knew that voice; it was the bouncer who’d wished him a good night.  His knees folded in relief, and he slid to the floor, the wall no longer adequate enough to keep him upright.  He was a little busy being relieved and staring at the floor to follow exactly what happened next, but a high-pitched scream caught his attention, and he looked up to see the bouncer supporting the girl that had been held hostage with one arm while holding the gunman against the wall with the other.  The gun was on the floor by Tony’s feet.  The girl to his right burst into noisy tears; Tony felt quite like joining her, but wasn’t quite drunk enough to give in to the impulse.

Another bouncer joined their rescuer, taking the gunman off his hands, and the first bouncer sat the girl he was holding on the floor next to Tony so he could call the police.  She curled against his side and cried into his shoulder, the other girl crawling up against his other side and burying her head in his lap, tears soaking into his jeans.  Tony sighed and let his head fall back against the wall, closing his eyes as the adrenaline flushed from his system, leaving him exhausted.

THIS is amazing

Best thing I’ve ever seen.

omfg funniest thing i have watched in a long time,love it

everytime i see this - REBLOGGED LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER.

OMG THE DRAG QUEENS LAWL

THE END O.M.G LOL

SPREAD THIS LIKE HERPES CHILDREN.