Chapter 1: Come Home Soon!
Chapter Text
ARC ONE: For you, the sun will be shining
[Iron Man 1]
Life as a Stark couldn’t be farther from the norm.
Jeongguk never had a dull day in his life, everyday a new adventure he shared alongside his father, Tony Stark. The man responsible for the world’s largest weapon manufacturing company. The man responsible for so much that sometimes it made Jeongguk feel small. But Tony never made him feel small. He made Jeongguk feel like number one on his list at all times, so he tried to repay that favor by doing projects for him around the house.
One like he’s doing now in his little corner space in his dad’s workshop. He had made a little clock for his dad to put on his office desk and then grew bored of homework. He remembers running from his math assignment and down to a busy Tony, who only greeted him with ‘ Did you eat first? ’ before giving Jeongguk the task of building a remote control car.
It wasn’t really the first time he had built a remote control car, but he had broken the last one… Anyways, Jeongguk took great pride in his projects. He thought they made him more like his dad, which is all he’s ever wanted to be.
He screwed some wires into a panel, multiple colors overlapping as Jeongguk sticks his tongue out in concentration. Some music was playing softly, but he had stopped listening a while ago when he became so caught up in his building. His small desk was covered in spare parts and papers. Some for the project and some doodles from when he grew bored.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in bed?”
Jeongguk jumped in his seat with a yelp, not remembering hearing the beep of the door letting someone in. He sets down his screwdriver and looks up at the person who entered. Pepper Potts, his dad’s assistant, stands in front of his desk with her hands on her hips. Her eyebrows were set in a stern raise, but her eyes held a soft worry. Jeongguk did run from his babysitter to hide down here, so it was not shocking to see her worried.
“Um…” Jeongguk nervously looks anywhere but at Pepper, pushing his glasses back up his nose that had fallen when he had gotten spooked. “Maybe.”
“And why are you down here and not up in your room?”
“Well,” he gulped. “I was… waiting for Dad to get home.”
Pepper’s eyes softened and she let out a light sigh. She knew probably better than anyone how much Jeongguk looked up to his father. He still was not looking at anyone as he heard her heels click closer to his side of the desk. She leans her back against it as she moves her head to attempt to catch Jeongguk’s eyes, to no avail.
“Jeongguk, your dad’s gonna understand you had to go to sleep when he gets back. He knew it was gonna be late, anyways,” Pepper says.
“But,” Jeongguk finally looks up at Pepper with big eyes, “It’s the weekend, Ms. Pepper. Can’t I stay up a little longer?”
Pepper chuckles, somehow knowing he’d use his big, puppy eyes to get what he wanted. “I let you hide away in here for as long as I did because it was a weekend. You’ll see him in the morning.”
“I promised, though,” Jeongguk insists.
“He’s going to understand that little boys like you need their rest to grow big and strong,” Pepper says as she moves her hands to run it through Jeongguk’s unruly hair.
Jeongguk shakes his head to throw Pepper’s hand off, “I’m not five anymore.”
“Nine is still little, Jay,” Pepper teases as she stands back up to walk around the desk. “Here, I’ll make you a deal.”
“A deal?” Jeongguk raises an eyebrow.
“Mhm. You go to sleep, and I’ll make sure Jarvis wakes you up a little earlier so you can see your dad before he leaves again tomorrow.”
Jeongguk puts his hand to his chin, pretending to think about it. He knew Pepper was going to make sure he slept either way, so there was simply no arguing out of it. Even if it is the weekend.
“Okay,” Jeongguk sighed, “I’ll go to bed, I guess.”
“Remember to save your work.”
“I won’t make that mistake again, I swear!”
Jeongguk turns to the monitor in the corner of his desk and with a few clicks, Formula 1 is saved for tomorrow. He hops out of his chair and begins to follow behind Pepper. As they walk up the stairs of his home, Jeongguk brings his hands to either of his ears to fiddle with the little black devices in them. They were his hearing aids Tony had made him just a couple years ago, along with the glasses he wears. He turns the devices on and off, liking the buzz and ding they make when they turn on. It made him feel part robot.
Pepper opens the door up to Jeongguk’s room, the one on the highest floor at the end of the hallway, and lets Jeongguk walk in first before following him in. She sees Jeongguk’s hands on his ears and gently grabs hold of them to move them away.
“No playing with those, you know that,” Pepper lightly scolds, her words holding no heat. Jeongguk giggles and runs out of her hold and jumps onto his bed. “Get dressed for bed, please.”
Jeongguk playfully groans and slides off his bed. He walks over to his bedside table and in the drawer is a pair of headphones that he pulls out and sets on his bed before grabbing one of Tony’s old shirts he stole and some shorts. He holds them up to show Pepper, “Getting dressed.”
Pepper rolls her eyes and steps out of the room for Jeongguk to get dressed. It only takes him a second and Pepper walks back in to him already tucked in his bed, hands holding the headphones to his chest. Pepper makes her way over to the bed and sits on the edge beside Jeongguk before speaking, “Jarvis?”
“Yes, Ms. Potts?” The disembodied voice of Jeongguk’s home system, Jarvis, replies.
“Could you set Jeongguk’s alarm just a few minutes earlier tomorrow?” Pepper smiles as she watches Jeongguk’s smile widen.
“Certainly. Is 6:45 AM alright?” Jarvis confirms.
“Is that an okay time?” Pepper softly asks Jeongguk. She laughs as he nods enthusiastically. “The time works, Jarvis.”
“Wonderful,” was the last thing Jarvis said.
“Now, let’s get everything off and get some sleep, okay?” Pepper says as she reaches to take Jeongguk’s glasses off. He blinks a couple times to get his eyes adjusted as Pepper sets them on his bedside table. “You got the ears?” Jeongguk nods and goes to take off his hearing aids, but Pepper stops him for just a moment. “Hey, goodnight, Jay.”
Jeongguk smiles, finally feeling the effects of tiredness weighing on his bones. “Goodnight, Ms. Pepper. See you tomorrow.”
Pepper laughs, “Yeah, see you tomorrow.” She stands from the bed and gives him one last little smile before walking out the room, probably going home for the night.
Jeongguk turns off the aids and takes them out, setting them on the bedside table before putting the black, wireless headphones on, leaving the world noiseless. He reaches to turn off his lamp light and closes his eyes as he situates himself to lay down. His last thought he had before he fell asleep was that he hoped Tony wasn’t too upset that Jeongguk didn’t stay up for him to get home from Vegas.
All throughout the night, Jeongguk dreamed. He was never able to remember his dreams much when he woke up, but flashes of gold and yellow were always prevalent.
He sees two figures standing over him, their faces not visible, but their smiles shine panic. Those figures morph into one looming figure. Their face is not visible, but the way they stand is menacing and evil. That figure morphs into one that feels like comfort. Again, no visible face, but they held out a hand to Jeongguk. Every time he tries to take it, the figure again morphs into a smaller figure. This one was different from the other figures because he could see its face. It was always himself. His dream self always said the same thing.
You can’t save everyone. Not even you.
Then Jeongguk wakes up with no memory of any of it.
His headphones ding slightly as Jarvis’s voice filters through, “Good morning, Jeongguk. It is currently 6:45 AM and it is currently 72 degrees outside with a low today of 71 degrees…”
Jeongguk stopped listening with a groan, dreading even opening his eyes. He stumbly whacks his hand atop the bedside table, waving it around to find his glasses. He makes a satisfied noise when he feels them in his clutch and brings them closer to his face, putting them on before opening his eyes.
His vision adjusts fast to the glasses and the ceiling of his bedroom becomes clear. He lets Jarvis drone on for a bit as he wakes his mind up a little. His constantly overloaded senses begin to stir awake as his eyes still slightly strain even with the help of the glasses Tony made.
They were made to help part of his heightened senses gain some control. His sight is one of the worst, along with his hearing and sense of smell. He wasn’t born with it, unfortunately, so he’s been struggling for years to control it, hence the special devices. The glasses help keep his vision down to a normal human level of sight, the hearing aids allow him to go about his day with only slightly above average hearing and not being able to hear things from miles away, and the headphones he wears to sleep with no noise and only Jarvis to wake him.
He let Jarvis finish his alarm before sitting up and looking around his room, letting his thoughts come back to him. He suddenly gasped, remembering why he was up early in the first place.
“Jarvis!”
“Yes, Jeongguk?”
“Is my dad in the workshop?!”
“Yes… and he informed me to let you know he’s waiting for you.”
Jeongguk pushes the covers off of him and jumps out of bed. He hastily takes off his headphones and sticks the hearing aids in, turning them on before he runs to his closet. He chooses the first thing he touches, a black graphic tee, and then to his drawer, grabbing a pair of jeans. He quickly gets dressed, only stumbling a couple of times, then runs out the door on his way to the workshop.
He smiles widely as the loud noise of his father’s music fills his ears. He reaches up to put his code in, 090197 , and swings the door open.
“Dad!”
Tony turns around and immediately breaks out into a large smile. He sets down his tools and turns his chair around, opening his arms. “Hey, little man!”
Jeongguk giggles and jumps into his father’s arms, wrapping his smaller arms around his neck. He laughs as Tony grunts at the extra added weight, but moves his arms to pull him up further. He knows as he gets older, he gets a little too big to sit on his dad’s lap, but Tony never seems to complain and only hugs him tighter.
“I’m sad you couldn’t come to Vegas with me, but I was told I shouldn’t teach you to gamble young,” Tony says.
“But how will I know how to gamble in the future?” Jeongguk asks in return.
“That is exactly what I said,” Tony smiles, “God, you really are my kid.” He then moves Jeongguk off his lap, “Pepper tells me your Formula 1 project is coming along nicely. I’m excited to see what you’re doing.”
“I can’t wait to show you!” Jeongguk runs over to his corner desk, Tony swirling in his chair to watch him run over with a fond smile. “It’ll be done right when you get back, I promise.”
“You are the fast worker between the both of us.”
Jeongguk sits at his desk, opening up his computer before looking back up at Tony, who had picked up his own tools to start working again. “How was Vegas?”
“Boring,” Tony shrugged. “Adult stuff is boring, so you should never grow up.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Jeongguk drawled teasingly.
Tony only grins and turns the music back up, gesturing for Jeongguk to start working. They work for a little bit in their own little spaces. Tony mumbles things to Jarvis and Jeongguk hums along to the music as he tinkers with the inside of his remote control car.
Suddenly, Jeongguk was thrown out of his focus when the door suddenly opened and the music was turned down. He shoots his head up to see Pepper on the phone as she walks towards Tony, who sighs, a little peeved that his flow was interrupted.
“Please don’t turn down my music,” Tony mumbles, but Pepper ignores him and moves on.
“You are supposed to be halfway across the world right now,” Pepper sighs as she opens her book and clicks her pen. Tony paid no mind and continued tinkering.
“How’d she take it?”
“Like a champ,” Pepper sighs.
“Why are you trying to hustle me out of here?”
Jeongguk realizes Pepper isn't going to come over anytime soon and gets right back to work, but keeps an ear on their conversation.
“Your flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half ago,” Pepper informs.
“That’s funny, I thought with it being my plane and all, that it would just wait for me to get there,” Tony mumbled. Jeongguk giggled, making Tony glance up with a small smile. “Stop snooping, little creeper. Get back to work.” Jeongguk only giggles again and goes back to working. Tony sets down the piece he was working on and turns to face Pepper as he wipes his hands down of any grease. “Doesn’t it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane if it departs before you arrive?”
Jeongguk zones them out and moves on from tinkering to his drawing paper. He draws the outline of his little car and thinks of possible designs for it. Flames? Maybe, but he wasn’t sure if it would be too much like Tony’s project car. He didn’t want it to be plain looking, though. So, maybe flames would be the coolest option.
“Hey, little man,” Tony calls out. Jeongguk looks up to see him walking over to him, Pepper standing over by Tony’s desk with a soft smile. Tony wears a familiar smile, one Jeongguk has seen multiple times before Tony leaves on any kind of trip. No matter if the trip is only a day or two.
“Is it time for you to go already?” Jeongguk pouts.
“Well, I should’ve been gone a little while ago, but I promised to see you before I left again, so I pushed my time limit,” Tony whispers as he kneels down beside Jeongguk. “This is just a short little gig, just like last night. Rosa is still out of town, so Pepper will be by to keep an eye on you and Uncle Rhodey promised to pop in for a night, too. He said you owed him for the last Operation game you beat him at.”
Jeongguk giggled, trying to push away the negative thoughts of Tony leaving again. He knew Tony was trying to make him feel better about it, he always did, but Jeongguk still pouted even after a few hours of Tony leaving.
“I’m just trying to say…” Tony trailed off, finding what he wanted to say. “Be good.” He places a hand on Jeongguk’s shoulder and gives it a couple pats.
“I love you, too, Dad,” Jeongguk smiles.
Tony smiles back and opens his mouth to speak, but decided at the last second not to and just smiled. He stands up and gives one last look to Pepper before walking out the workshop. “Turn the lights off when you leave, JK.”
“Have fun, Dad!”
Pepper stops at the door before she follows and smiles at Jeongguk, “I’ll be back in about thirty minutes so I can finish some stuff for your dad. Do you want me to grab you something on the way back?”
“Hmm… Maybe a muffin?”
“Okay, I’ll be right back,” Pepper says, then points a finger teasingly at him. “Be good, Jay.”
Jeongguk giggles and turns right back to his drawing, smiling as he picks his perfect sketch. He was excited to show Tony all he had been working on.
Not knowing that he wouldn’t come back as soon as he promised…
Pepper had come back with hands full of breakfast for the both of them. A muffin, but also a chocolate donut along with a hot chocolate. She always gave him a little extra when Tony was gone with the excuse of ‘ what Tony doesn’t know won’t hurt him .’ Jeongguk just thinks Pepper is soft for him.
She left him alone in the lab for most of the day to let him finish up Formula 1 and when she came to check on him at lunch, around noon, he was driving it around the workshop.
She sets down some papers she was holding and claps, letting Jeongguk know she had entered the room. The little boy jumped up as he saw her and laughed. He ran around after the remote control car, cheering to Pepper that it was working and ready.
“That means it’s time for a lunch break!”
Jeongguk had pouted about leaving the workshop, but Pepper promised that such a feat of his finished project required a reward. That reward being the two of them going to get pizza.
They had gotten to a little pizza joint and while they were waiting for their food to be made, Jeongguk decided to bring out a surprise of his own.
When Pepper was telling him all about what could do the next day before Rhodey came to spend time with him, Jeongguk took a small box out of the small black bag he carried around. Without a word, he sets the box in front of Pepper.
Her previous words died out immediately as she looked down at the black box. On the top of it was a slightly wrinkled sticky note that read, ‘ Happy Birthday, Ms. Pepper .’
“Wha… What’s this?” Pepper looked up at Jeongguk. The boy is looking at his hands, wringing his fingers together to avoid Pepper seeing his pink cheeks. “How’d you know it was my birthday?”
“You… had mentioned it once… and I made a note of it…” Jeongguk mumbled, but Pepper heard him loud and clear. She smiles widely at him and looks back down to the box, taking the note off and opening it to see what was inside.
Pepper gasps at the sight of a gold banded watch staring right back at her. She looks at Jeongguk, who had looked at her when he heard her gasp, anticipation eating away at him. Her smile grows wider and laughs in disbelief.
“Jeongguk, I… Did you make this?” Pepper gently takes the watch out of the box and looks over it. On the back of the clock piece is engraved ‘ JJK 2009 .’ “Wow, I really… have no words.”
“In a good way…?” Jeongguk trailed off, his voice quiet, but a smile growing slowly.
Pepper clips the watch on and gives Jeongguk a fond smile, “In the best way.”
Jeongguk lets himself smile just as wide and laughs in relief that Pepper liked her gift. Last year, he had only made her a card, so he figured he should step up his game just a little. The two laugh and talk as their food comes and enjoy their lunch before heading back home.
Jeongguk is about to head back down to the workshop when Pepper stops him. He whines about making last minute checks to show Tony the toy car tomorrow, but Pepper forces him to stay in the living room just for a little while.
“Eyes off work for a little while and you can chill in here for a little while,” Pepper steers him to the couch. “Play some video games, I don’t care.”
Jeongguk raised an eyebrow, “You want me to play video games?”
“Did you finish your homework?”
“Yes.”
“Then today is a chill day.”
Jeongguk smiles and runs over to the television. In a little drawer beside a gaming console, his Nintendo DS sits charging. He unplugs it and rummages through the games he has before ultimately choosing Kirby Super Star Ultra . It was a newer game Tony had bought him and he had put off playing it until he finished some other games and saw now would be a good time to get it started.
Pepper is off doing some last minute work while Jeongguk sits around on the couch with his game. After a little while, Jeongguk has fallen asleep. Pepper comes back up into the living room to check up on him before leaving, but sees he’s already out when she gets there.
She smiles softly and brings a stray blanket up and over him, without trying to wake him up. She figures her plans could wait a little longer as Jeongguk rests. Even if she knows he’ll have trouble sleeping tonight probably. She gets up to make her way to the kitchen to maybe make Jeongguk a snack when he wakes up before her phone begins to ring.
She panics to pick it up, answering with a hushed ‘ hello? ’ as she looks over Jeongguk, who had thankfully not moved a muscle. She takes a moment to listen to the voice on the other side of the phone before she places a hand in front of her mouth in shock.
“Rhodey? What are you talking about?” She asks in disbelief. “How-What-What do I… What do I tell Jeongguk?” The voice speaks some more. “The door should be open…” Then she hangs up. She never takes her eyes off the little boy on the couch as she walks closer to him. She gently places a hand onto his shoulder, shaking him awake slightly. The boy whined and groaned, fighting to stay asleep. “Jeongguk, I need you to wake up now.”
Jeongguk opens his eyes to see the world fuzzy around him. He blinks wildly for a minute before he settles on Pepper beside him. She looks scared and her eyes are brimmed with tears. “What…?”
“Your Uncle Rhodey is almost here,” Pepper whispers. “We need to tell you something.”
“Why can’t you tell me now?” Jeongguk whispers back.
“He knows a little more than me… it’s about your dad.”
Jeongguk was wide awake now, sitting up to look down at Pepper, who was still kneeling on the floor. “What about my dad?”
He was then forced to wait impatiently for the next five minutes before his Uncle Rhodey arrived. He tapped his foot on the ground and kept his eyes firmly on his lap. Pepper tried to get him to say something, but Jeongguk stubbornly stayed silent.
Five minutes pass and Jarvis informs them overhead that Rhodey had just walked in the door. Jeongguk wants to jump up but he’s sat firmly on the couch, so he watches Pepper jump up and make her way to the man who just walked into the house. He hears them muttering to each other, both sounding frantic and stressed.
Then, Rhodey sighs and makes his way over to Jeongguk. He grunts lowly as he kneels down in front of the boy, tilting his head to attempt to make eye contact with him. Jeongguk slowly looks up from his lap and looks at Rhodey, eyes so panicked that it makes them look empty.
“Hey, Jay,” Rhodey whispers. He smiles small, trying to look much braver for Jeongguk than he really was at this moment. “So, Pepper told you anything yet?” The boy shakes his head. “Okay, well, I’m gonna need to listen to me and not say anything until I finish. Can you do that?”
“Is Dad okay?” Jeongguk asks instead.
Rhodey sighs and places both hands on Jeongguk’s knees. “He will be.”
“What?” Jeongguk’s spine went rigid. “What happened?”
“Something we couldn’t see got to some of our trucks and your dad was in one of those trucks. He was taken before we could get to him.”
“...He’s alive?”
“We,” Rhodey glances back at a teary-eyed Pepper before looking back at Jeongguk with a forced smile. “We believe so.”
“You… believe so?” Jeongguk’s voice began to raise. “What does that mean?”
“Jay,” Rhodey called out as he moved his hands to Jeongguk’s shoulders. “Hey, listen to me. We are doing everything we can to find him, alright? I got a really good team searching right now, but I need you to trust me.”
“Sorry,” Jeongguk muttered. He breaks eye contact with Rhodey and looks down to his lap.
Rhodey squeezes his shoulders with a small laugh. “No need to apologize. I just came here to tell you this, so that you could hear this from me. That you could hear that you can trust me and that I will find Tony.”
“I do,” Jeongguk looks back up at Rhodey. “I do trust you.”
Rhodey smiles, “That’s good to hear.” He then takes his hands from Jeongguk and stands up, walking over to Pepper, but gives Jeongguk one last look. “You need anything else, right now?” Jeongguk shakes his head and waves at his uncle as Pepper walks him out the door.
Jeongguk looks down to his lap again, letting all that Rhodey just told him wash over him. His eyes fill with tears and his hands become shaky. His chest feels heavy with dread as those unthinkable thoughts start swarming his head.
Tony was never gonna come back.
Why hadn’t he shown him the stupid toy car before he left?
Tony is dead.
My dad is dead.
I’m alone… again .
“...gguk… Hey! Jeongguk, listen to me!”
Jeongguk gasps and settles his eyes on Pepper, who hadn’t seen come back into the room. He breathes heavily and sharply, not quite being able to catch his breath. His mind was fuzzy, but it hurt to think. All he could think about was that his dad was in a lot of trouble right now and he could do nothing.
“Jeongguk, you need to listen to my voice!”
It hurts to listen, but Jeongguk forces himself to take a deep breath. After a couple, he recognizes the feeling of Pepper’s hands on his arms.
“I’m… listening.”
Pepper sighs in relief and moves to sit beside him on the couch, not letting go of his arms to pull him closer to her side. She holds him close to her and he finds it hard to hide his shaking shoulders. It becomes even harder when he makes ‘ shh ’ing noises and rubbing softly on his arms and back. He lets the hot waterfall of tears track down his cheeks as he huffs and cries quietly in Pepper’s arms.
“It’s gonna be okay…”
He knew his dad was one of the strongest people in the world, but having him away like this hurt more than any wound he had ever felt.
It’s gonna be okay…
Chapter 2: Dad's Home
Summary:
Tony's back!
Notes:
sorry the wait was so long, but i hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter Text
It has been three months already.
Three months have already gone by and Jeongguk has heard nothing about his dad.
After about a week of finding out Tony had been kidnapped, Jeongguk was expected to go back to normal life. Pepper had him go back to classes and Rosa, his actual babysitter, had come back from her vacation and helped Jeongguk transition back into classwork. No matter how much Jeongguk wanted to curl in his bed and never leave until his dad was brought home.
Pepper and Rhodey also didn’t share much with him about any updates. Sometimes, Jeongguk would try to ask Rhodey if anything was new, but the older man only would sigh and say they were close to finding him. For three months, they were close, but not close enough.
During these three months, though, Jeongguk can bring out at least one positive turnout. His Formula 1 project was finished and awaiting Tony near his desk. He also spent this on a Project Fix Up where he just tuned up his hearing aids and his glasses. Usually every few months Tony would recalibrate everything just in case Jeongguk’s senses had changed at all. That third month Tony was supposed to do this fix-up, but Jeongguk had seen him work on his equipment enough times over the years to know what to do. It just made him sad that he had to do this in the first place.
One day, Jeongguk remembers being brought home by Rosa from the library after finishing a big test and trudging down to Tony’s workshop. Sitting there at his desk, as if knowing he would come down here straight away, was Pepper.
He had put in his code to enter and stopped in his tracks right in front of the door. Pepper stayed seated and gave Jeongguk a small smile. It was when he started to walk closer that he noticed Pepper’s eyes were watery and red rings surrounded them.
“Ms. Pepper… Are you okay?” Jeongguk furrowed his eyebrows.
Pepper’s smile grew wider just a tad bit as she spoke up, “Yeah, I’m doing really good, Jay.”
Jeongguk kept the confused look on his face as he grabbed a stray stool and dragged it over to her. He sits down, “Then, why are you crying?”
Pepper scoots close enough to him to place her hands on his shoulders. She squeezes them as she says, “It’s a happy cry, I swear. And it’s good news for both of us.”
“Good news?”
“Uh huh,” Pepper lets him go and looks into his eyes, head-on. “Your Uncle Rhodey just called me with good news to tell you right away, but we’ve gotta wait for Happy to get here.” With a deep breath to push back the oncoming tears, she whispers, “They found Tony.”
For a few moments, Jeongguk was silent. It felt like his body was catching up with him and had no idea had to react at first. But soon, it hit him all at once and he felt his throat close up. “They…”
Pepper nodded with a watery laugh, “Yeah, your Dad’s coming home, Jay.”
Jeongguk jumped up from his chair, not caring that he had sent it rolling behind him, and jumped to hug Pepper in his excitement. He feels her laugh as she catches him, letting him stuff his wet face into the crook of her neck. They hold each other for a while, until Pepper gets the message from Happy Hogan that he’s here and ready to take them to Tony.
Pepper laughs as she watches Jeongguk run ahead of her to meet Happy at the car. Jeongguk jumps at an awaiting Happy, who kneels down to catch him and hold him up. He giggles as he wraps his arms around Happy’s neck and lets the man take him to his side of the car. He only lets go when Happy sits him down in the seat and closes the door as Pepper takes the seat beside him.
Happy grunts as he takes his place in the driver’s seat and rears his head around to smile at Jeongguk, “You ready to go get your Dad, JK?” The only response the man gets is a loud yell, making the two adults laugh and set the car in motion.
They drive for a little while with low music playing, minds running too fast to really listen to it anyways. Jeongguk looks at the passing scenery when he feels Pepper lay a hand on his arm. He looks over at her with a smile, to which she answers with her own.
“Hey, buddy,” Pepper calls all of his attention to her. “I know this is all exciting, but I need you to try to stay calm, okay? Your Dad has been gone for three months, he might need to be handled lightly. Can you do that?”
“Where has he been for all this time?” Jeongguk decides to ask.
Pepper opens her mouth before closing it immediately then opening it to say, “Somewhere far away, but it doesn’t matter anymore right now because he’s home and we need to get him back into the groove of things. We can do that, right?”
“Yeah,” Jeongguk quietly answers before his smile grows wider and his words become more excited. “I can’t wait to show him all I did!”
“I’m sure he can’t wait to see it, Jeongguk,” Pepper rubs his arm up and down.
“Will he,” Jeongguk’s smile dims just slightly, “Do you think he’ll like it, Ms. Pepper?”
Pepper leans in just close enough for him to hear her whisper confidently, “I think he’ll love it.”
Jeongguk’s spirit is brightened then and for the rest of the ride to the military base’s airport, he can’t seem to sit still. He wiggles and jitters even as Happy comes to open the door for him and when Pepper takes hold of his shoulders to hold him still. He can’t help but constantly wonder when Tony was going to show up and how much longer he was going to have be held captive in Pepper’s hands.
The waiting, thankfully, doesn’t take as long as he thought was going to as Pepper points out the plane coming in to land. He tries to jump and squirm, but Pepper only laughs and keeps him close. The plane soon lands and the back opens to reveal James Rhodes holding up a roughed-up Tony Stark, helping him walk down the ramp.
The first person Tony looks up and sees is Jeongguk, who squeals upon eye contact and wiggles out of Pepper’s loose hold to run in his direction, ignoring the stern warnings from the EMS workers. Jeongguk runs past everyone and meets Rhodey and Tony as they land on cement. Rhodey chuckles and motions for the medics to stand back as Jeongguk wraps his arms tightly around Tony’s waist, causing the man to let out a huff and chuckle.
Tony reaches his hand not in a cast to rest atop Jeongguk’s unruly hair. He almost cries as he runs his fingers through it, unable to believe he was here to hold him again after all this time. He struggles to fully stand by himself, but he is willing to do just about anything to have Jeongguk close right now.
Jeongguk slightly raises his head to where his chin rests on Tony’s stomach and smiles as he whispers, “I missed you, Dad.”
Tony looks down at him with watery eyes, “I missed you, too.” You have no idea how much I missed you. “You’ve been good for Pepper?”
Jeongguk nods with his limited ability to move, but then twists his body to look at Pepper, who stands near the car with a barely contained grin. “She missed you, too, you know?”
Tony lightly chuckles, “No, I didn’t.” He pats Jeongguk on the head before saying, “Why don’t we go see her?” He feels Jeongguk nod and let him go only for a moment to greet Rhodey. Tony begins to limp ahead of them as Jeongguk attaches himself to Rhodey.
“Thank you, Uncle Rhodey,” Jeongguk whispers, barely high enough for Rhodey to hear.
He feels Rhodey hug him around his shoulders, “I promised, didn’t I?” Jeongguk had no need to answer and let Rhodey move them to follow right behind Tony.
Jeongguk’s cheeks hurt with the amount of smiling he’s been doing as he watches Tony speak with Pepper, his heart feeling an unknown emotion as they interact. He’s always felt closer to Pepper than most adults that weren’t Tony, so it was always a special treat for moments like this. The soft moments.
“Hey, JK, you coming or staying?”
Jeongguk is pushed out of his thoughts as he hears Tony speak up towards him. He sees Pepper by her side of the car now with her uncontained smile, Happy already in the driver's seat, and Tony awaiting him by an open door. He looks at Rhodey with one last smile before running to Tony.
“Come on, you little rascal. Let’s get out of here,” Tony teases as he pushes Jeongguk lightly into the car. He hears him giggle as he follows him, leaving Jeongguk in between him and Pepper.
As he shuts the door, Happy looks over at him through the rear-view mirror and asks, “Where to, sir?”
“Take us to the hospital, please, Happy-”
“No.”
Pepper turned to Tony with furrowed brows, “No? Tony, you have to go to the hospital.”
“No is a complete answer.”
“The doctor has to look at you,” Pepper insists, but Tony refuses to even look in her direction.
“I don’t have to do anything,” Tony says, interrupting her start to a rant as he finally looks at her over Jeongguk’s head. “I’ve been in captivity for three months. There are two things I want to do. I want an American cheeseburger… and the other - “
“That’s enough of that,” Pepper shakes her head.
“ - is not what you think.” It was Pepper, now, who seemingly refused to look at Tony as he stared at her. “I want you to call for a press conference now.”
Pepper turns back to look at Tony in shock, “A press conference?” Tony affirms as he turns his head back to face the front, but puts an arm around Jeongguk’s shoulder, gently pulling him into his side and letting his son lie there. Jeongguk was quick to snuggle into his side and lean his head on Tony’s shoulder. “What on Earth for?”
“Hogan, drive,” Tony orders as he pointedly doesn’t answer. “Cheeseburger first.”
Jeongguk leans his head up just enough to see Tony’s face as he asks, “Can I have one, too?”
Tony looks down at his son, god, he really was here with him , and nods once and quick before looking in front of him. “Of course you can. How else are you going to stand still while I’m working?”
It wasn’t long before Tony and Jeongguk were fed that they arrived where Tony got his press conference. Happy pulls the car around a small round-a-bout and they come to a stop in front of a large group of cheering people.
Jeongguk nervously nibbles on his burger as he watches each person out of the window trying to get a glimpse of Tony Stark. A hand was placed on his shoulder, making him turn his attention to Tony, who only had been watching his anxious son. Jeongguk tries to smile, but as Tony gives him a look, he realizes that might not be what it looks like, so he stuffs his face and looks to his lap.
Tony sighs, “This will only be a couple minutes, okay? Just stay with Pepper and then afterwards, we get the whole day together.”
“Can we watch Star Wars ?” Jeongguk mumbles around a full mouth, but his eyes sparkling.
“We can do whatever you want,” Tony insists, but squeezes his shoulder. “ If you behave and stay with Pepper.”
“I know,” Jeongguk rolls his eyes. “I’m not a baby, Dad.”
He feels Pepper lean over his other side, “Nine is still little, though.” Jeongguk whips his head around to stick his tongue out at her, to which she just chuckles.
Before anyone could say anything else, Tony’s door was opened and letting in the sound of the loud cheers. Obadiah Stane, a man Jeongguk knew well, had stood right outside the car with his arms opened and a large smile on his face. Jeongguk stuffs his face one more time as he manages to catch his father’s quiet sigh before he steps out into Obadiah’s arms. He watches them exchange a few words before stepping out of the car himself and standing close to Tony’s side. He then catches Happy leading Pepper to their side of the car, holding out the fast food bag as Tony reaches behind him to grab a wrapped burger. As Tony takes a step away, Obadiah catches sight of the kid behind him.
“Hey, Little Man!” Obadiah cheers and pulls Jeongguk into a tight hug. He huffs and scrambles to wrap his arms around the man, but the hug is over quickly as Obadiah moves Jeongguk to stand beside him as they follow Tony. “I haven’t seen you in about a week! I was beginning to think you forgot me.”
The only reason Jeongguk let him hold onto him was the feeling of Pepper’s presence close behind him. He wasn’t ever sure why Obadiah gave him a weird feeling, he always just assumed it was because the man was loud and boisterous, but the shiver that runs down his spine as Obadiah squeezes him into a side hug feels different somehow.
Not questioning Jeongguk’s quiet nature, Obadiah continues, “I bet you were excited when Tony came home, huh? What are you guys planning to do after this?”
“We’re gonna watch Star Wars ,” Jeongguk answers dutifully.
Obadiah laughs, “You two love to watch those together. Well, that sounds fun! How’s your projects coming along?”
“I finished them last week.”
“Well, what the hell,” Obadiah jokingly uses his free hand to playfully flick Jeongguk’s forehead. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted Dad to see them first.”
“Ah,” Obadiah wistfully sighs, “the dad privilege.”
Jeongguk saw no need to continue their conversation as they walked into the building and he was moved to stand beside Pepper as Obadiah moved to walk with Tony. They turned down a hallway and Jeongguk unconsciously took a step closer to Pepper as cheers rang out as the crowd of reporters caught sight of Tony. He feels his chest tighten, but it alleviates a bit as Pepper places a hand on his shoulder. It wasn’t a commanding hand like Obadiah’s, but a soft, reassuring hand. It didn’t stop him, but just told him that she was there. Jeongguk liked that Pepper was close to him like this.
They stop near the back of the crowd as Tony walks to the podium on the elevated stage.
“Miss Potts?”
Jeongguk whipped his head to the stranger standing on the other side of Pepper. He wore a suit, much like all the reporters who clapped for Tony Stark’s return. He hears Pepper respond to him, but keeps her hand resting on Jeongguk.
“Can I speak to you for a moment?” The stranger asks.
“I’m not part of the press conference, but it’s about to begin right now,” Pepper gestures to the crowd and straightens her stance just a bit. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Jeongguk trying to sneakily lean past her to look at the stranger and has to fight to contain a smile.
“I’m not a reporter,” the stranger admits. “I’m Agent Phil Coulson, with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division,” he holds out a small card to Pepper, who immediately takes it, but then turns her eyes back up to the crowd.
Jeongguk furrowed his eyebrows, “That’s a long name.”
The stranger smiled warmly down at Jeongguk, but his eyes showed that he knows something Jeongguk doesn’t. “I know. We’re working on it.”
“You know,” Pepper calls the stranger’s attention back to her, “we’ve been approached already by the DOD, the FBI, the CIA…”
“We’re a separate division with a more specific focus,” the stranger says. “We need to debrief Mr. Stark about the circumstances of his escape.”
Jeongguk turns his head away from the stranger, already knowing he wasn’t going to enjoy this conversation.
“I’ll put something in the books, shall I?” Pepper smiles as she places her hand back onto Jeongguk’s shoulder from where it fell when she was talking to the stranger. Her hold grounded him to stay right next to her. He faintly hears the stranger thank her and step away as the room finally begins to settle.
Jeongguk looks to the podium, but only sees Obadiah standing behind it. He furrows his brows as he darts his eyes back and forth in an attempt to look for his father, but there were too many people much taller than him blocking his view. Obadiah clears his throat, but before he can begin to say anything, Tony’s voice pops up.
“Hey, would it be alright if everyone sat down?” At first, no one moved. Except Jeongguk, who slowly started to lower himself to the floor, but started hesitating as he saw no one else follow. “Why don’t you just sit down? That way you can see me, and I can… A little less formal and…”
Everyone starts to sit down and Jeongguk lets himself plop onto the floor into a criss-cross position. Pepper slowly sits beside him and Rhodey lowers himself into a kneel on Jeongguk’s other side.
“What’s up with the love-in?” Rhodey whispers, but his eyes remain wearily on Tony.
“Don’t look at me,” Pepper whispers back. “I don’t know what he’s up to.”
Jeongguk huffs, “Why couldn’t we do this later?”
Rhodey places a hand on Jeongguk’s head, “I think we’re all wondering the same thing, Kid.”
Jeongguk frowns as he watches his dad eat his burger and turn to Obadiah as he says, “Good to see you.” He watches his father’s friend put his hand on his shoulder and repeat the sentiment, but Tony had already moved on. “I never got to say goodbye to Dad.” Jeongguk can’t help but perk up a small bit.
It was rare in the Stark house that Tony brought up his father, Howard. Jeongguk, being curious and too much like Tony even if not blood-related, had asked JARVIS several questions about Tony’s father, to which the AI told the six-year-old all he knew about Howard Stark. But the only thing he would hear from Tony himself was when Tony thought he was alone and the not-so-silent promises to himself to never be a father like Howard was to him.
“I never got to say goodbye to my father,” Tony continued a little louder to make sure his voice was heard. “There’s questions that I would have asked him. I would have asked him how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts… Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels.”
Jeongguk feels his spine tense at the direction this might take, suddenly feeling nervous beyond belief. He scootches a miniscule amount closer to Pepper, and if she felt him move, she said nothing. He watches, even with how far he was, his father’s eyes darken out of focus, not really in the same room anymore.
“I saw young Americans killed,” Tony says, but his voice is not as loud as before. Some might not have noticed, but Jeongguk knows his father. “...with the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them.” Jeongguk feels his shoulders scrunch up. “And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability.”
As Tony paused, hesitant hands went up and voices quietly called out to Tony for questions, but Tony pointed to the man directly in front of him. The reporter asks, “What happened over there?” For just a moment, Tony Stark hesitated.
But it was also at that moment that he sprung up from where he sat and walked behind the podium, voice loud and booming as he answered. “I-I had my eyes opened! I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International - “ The crowd rises fast and all at once, yelling and cameras clicking louder than before. Jeongguk’s eyes widen and his head whips over to look at Pepper, who looks just as shocked. “ - until such a time as I can decide what the future of this company will be.”
Tony continues to speak, but Obadiah’s voice overtakes his and is gently shoved from the microphone. Jeongguk scrambles to his feet as Pepper does the same beside him, the two of them watching Tony blindly make his way in their direction. He watches his father stride with his usual confidence as people try to get his attention. Pepper’s free hand is clutching around Jeongguk’s shoulders, trying to keep him close as the room is buzzing with chaos.
“What we should take away from this,” Obadiah says as Tony makes eye contact with his son, “is that Tony’s back!” The silent conversation between son and father goes as most of them do. “And he’s healthier than ever!” Tony assures Jeongguk that he knows what he’s doing, even if Jeongguk can clearly see that it isn’t like that at the moment. But the one thing Jeongguk is confident about is how much he trusts Tony.
Pepper was quick to guide Jeongguk to Happy, who was already on his way to get the car ready. They follow Happy to the car and head to the Stark house, Tony slowly lollygagging behind. The car ride was silent as Tony’s head was thinking loud enough for everyone. After a quick pitstop, Happy drove them home.
At home, Pepper sat in a seat beside the couch, where Jeongguk was sitting and playing on his DS, trying to distract himself from the video Pepper had on.
“Stark Industries,” the host calls out. “I’ve got one recommendation! Ready? Ready? Abandon ship! Does the Hindenburg ring any bells?!” Pepper sighs as Jeongguk winces, both of them watching the man press buttons and yell on and on about Stark Industries. “Let me show you the new Stark Industries business plan!” Jeongguk flinches as the man takes a bat to a ceramic mug, instantly shattering loudly. “Look, that’s a weapons company that doesn’t make weapons!” More buttons pressed and sounds of explosions.
“ Pepper! ” The two flinch as Tony’s voice comes through the speaker in front of her. She was quick to turn down the video and listen to him. “ How big are your hands? ”
Her startled expression was quick to morph into surprise, “What?”
“ How big are your hands? ” Tony repeats.
“I don’t understand…”
“Get down here. I need you,” Tony signs off.
Pepper stutters then sighs and puts her laptop on the coffee table. She stands up and begins to walk towards where Jeongguk assumes is the workshop, where Tony has holed himself in for the past hour or more. But then she backtracks and turns to Jeongguk, giving him one stern Pepper look with a point of her finger as she says, “You. Stay here.” Without seeing if Jeongguk had responded, she turned back around to the direction of the workshop. If only she had kept her eyes on Jeongguk, she would have seen the immediate sparkle of mischief as he waited for her to round the corner before throwing his DS down next to him and jumping up to follow her.
His footsteps are silent as he makes his way down the stairs. He is careful as he looks around the corner and makes sure that both Pepper and Tony are distracted before he silently scurries over to the number pad and prays that his arrival wasn’t too loud. He winces as the door huffs loudly as it opens, but thankfully the adults were distracted enough not to hear it. He tiptoes closer to hear what they’re saying, but can only catch random words. It’s only when he is almost right behind Pepper that he hears his dad’s words trail off.
“ - into a little bit… of a… speed bump…” Jeongguk’s eyes glance up only to immediately catch Tony’s. His eyes widen as he notices he has been caught, but the corners of Tony’s lips quirk up in amusement, almost as if he had been expecting Jeongguk to be here. “I thought I just asked for Pepper, Little Shadow.”
Pepper gasps and whips around, “Jeongguk! I told you to stay upstairs!”
Seeing no use of hiding anymore, Jeongguk stands up straight and looks at Pepper head on. “You did. I decided to follow anyways.”
Pepper gives him her look as Tony chokingly laughs, bringing everyone's attention back to him. Jeongguk runs to stand beside Pepper to look over all the wires attached to his dad’s chest, but what really made his eyes widen was the giant glowing device in the middle of his chest.
“What… is that?” Jeongguk pointed between the device in Tony’s chest and the identical looking one in his hand.
“Oh, this,” Tony looks at the one in his hand, “this is keeping your old man’s heart beating.” He looks at Jeongguk, “That’s why I called for Pepper and not you, Nosey Nancy. The one currently in me can’t last forever, so…”
“...You’re replacing it,” Jeongguk finishes for him, which earns him a small smile and one short nod. “Wait, that’s in you ?!”
Tony seemed to realize the short amount of time he had was dwindling fast, so he turned to Pepper, who had kept quiet as Jeongguk had entered the room. “So, that speed bump I mentioned?” Pepper nods as she straightens her posture. “There’s an exposed wire under this device,” he informs as he begins to slowly lift the device in his chest with a soft click. “And it’s contacting the socket wall causing a little bit of a short.” Jeongguk and Pepper watch with matching winces of disgust as the device fully leaves Tony’s chest with a yank. “It’s fine.”
He hands over the old device to Pepper, who wearily takes it between her fingertips, “What do you want me to do?”
“Put that on the table over there,” Tony gestures to the table behind them. “That’s irrelevant.”
“Oh my God,” Pepper exclaims her disgust. Jeongguk couldn’t resist putting a hand over his mouth as he looked at the open cavity in his dad’s chest. The screens beeped a little faster as Tony became paler by the second.
“I want you to reach in, and you’re just gonna gently lift the wire out,” Tony instructs breathily.
Pepper turns back to stand at Tony’s side again and hesitantly lifts her hand to the hole in Tony’s chest .
Jeongguk leans an inch closer, “Is it safe?”
“Yeah, it should be fine.” The smile Tony gave him did not reassure him like he might have thought it would. “It’s like Operation. You just don’t let it touch the socket wall or it goes beep .”
“What do you mean Operation ?” Pepper mumbles as she tries to gauge just what the hell was happening.
“It’s just a game, nevermind. Just gently lift the wire.”
“Okay…” Pepper slowly puts her hand into the hole, but before her hand could fully enter, she hisses and pulls back. “You know, I-I don’t think I’m qualified to do this.”
“No, you’re fine,” Tony rushes to reassure. “You are the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I have ever met. You’re gonna do great.”
“I can do it,” Jeongguk slowly raises his hand.
Immediately, both adults turn their heads to Jeongguk and all but yell out, “No!”
His hand is quick to fall back to his side, “Okay… jeez.”
Pepper takes one big sigh and turns back to begin putting her hand in Tony’s chest, slowly sinking lower and lower until her hand hits something that makes the worst squelching sound Jeongguk has ever heard. “Oh, there’s pus!” Jeongguk was suddenly happy he wasn’t in Pepper’s place.
“It’s not pus,” Tony says. “It’s an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, not from my body.”
“It smells!”
“Yeah, it does.”
Jeongguk feels a phantom rock weigh down on his throat as he feels a retch coming, so he quickly places both hands over his mouth and squeezes his eyes shut, but then decides he is brave enough to peek through one. He can’t really retain what Pepper and Tony say, but he closes his eyes again when a loud buzzing sound fills the room and Tony lets out a yell. He then opens one when the yelling clams to whispers, but immediately regrets it when he sees the long copper wire Pepper holds in her wet hand.
“Okay, now make sure when you pull it out, you don’t -” Pepper yanks on the wire and pulls out a round piece of metal. “ - pull out the magnet! At the end of it! There it is. You just pulled it out.”
Pepper rushes to apologize as Jeongguk stares with wide eyes as the computers begin to beep much faster. “What’s happening?!”
“Nothing, I’m just going into cardiac arrest ‘cause you yanked it out like a trout…” Tony tries to jest even has his breath quickens.
“What? I thought you said this was safe!” Pepper raises her voice in her panic.
Tony ignores her as he holds up the new device toward her. “We gotta hurry. Take this, take this.” Pepper takes it in shock. “You gotta switch it out really quick.”
“Tony,” Pepper interrupts as she places a comforting hand on Tony’s shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. It’s gonna be okay. I’m gonna make this okay.”
“Is it? Let’s hope.”
Jeongguk couldn’t help but step closer as he heard the strain in Tony’s voice. Pepper had to hurry. He would not lose Tony, not after almost losing him for three months.
“Okay, you’re gonna attach it to the base plate. Make sure you…” Tony’s voice begins to trail off, but it is at that moment that Pepper gets it attached and he jolts up with a loud yell before everything settles. Everything settled, but Pepper and Jeongguk were breathing much faster. “Was that so hard? That was fun, right?” He then takes over where Pepper leaves off and clicks the device into place.
“Are you okay?” Pepper whispers.
“Yeah,” Tony nods like nothing of what just happened, happened . “I feel great. You okay?” He then begins to laugh and it almost brings tears to Jeongguk’s eyes as he finally realizes that Tony is okay . There is no danger anymore.
Pepper finally lets her shoulders drop as she struggles to contain her relieved smile. “Don’t ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again.”
“I don’t have anyone but you and Jay.”
For a long moment, nobody spoke. Jeongguk watches Tony only having eyes for the woman in front of him and lets a soft smile fall delicately onto his face. Sure, he was nine-years-old, but in no way was he dumb. He was Tony Stark’s kid after all.
“Anyway,” Tony sighs and sits up to make his way off the chair he was sitting on. Pepper turns around and wipes her hands of the clear goop that coated her fingers.
Pepper picks up the old device and asks Tony, “What do you want me to do with this?”
“That?” Tony looks over his shoulder for only a moment before deciding. “Destroy it. Incinerate it.”
“You don’t wanna keep it?” Pepper asks.
“Pepper, I’ve been called many things. Nostalgic is not one of them.”
Pepper lets out a quiet sigh, “Will that be all, Mr. Stark?”
“That will be all, Ms. Potts.” Pepper turns to leave the room, but not without sending Jeongguk a warm smile, him following her down here already forgiven and forgotten. Jeongguk sends her off with a wave and turns to watch his dad talk to one of his helping bots to clean up the mess on his desk. When Pepper leaves, Tony turns his attention to his son behind him. “For a second I thought you were gonna follow Pepper.”
Jeongguk shrugs, “I’ve been following her around for three months.” Tony lets out a small chuckle. “I’d like to be with you, if that’s okay.”
With no hesitation, Tony replies, “It’s always okay, Jay.” Then, he perked up some more and pointed in Jeongguk’s direction. “A little birdie told me you had something to show me.”
Jeongguk’s eyes widened, “I almost forgot!” He runs over to his own desk near the corner of the workshop and lugs a big box up off the floor. He grunts as he struggles to carry it back to where Tony was watching him with an amused expression.
“You need some help?” Tony raises an eyebrow.
“No,” Jeongguk struggles to get out, making Tony chuckle some more. It takes a few minutes, but eventually Jeongguk places the box in front of Tony and stands up straight with red cheeks and a little out of breath. “Here it is.”
Tony does a once over of the box, trying to contain his smile at the large red bow in a black box with a small tag that read, ‘ To Dad, From JK .’ “What is it?” Jeongguk’s face drops, but Tony laughs before he can say anything. “Kidding, I know what it is. Can I open it?” He nods and Tony kneels to the floor and begins to carefully take the bow off and open the box.
Inside sat a remote control car in the style of the very same car Tony had been working on in this workshop. The black with red flames donning the side, the likeness was uncanny. Tony lets out an impressed huff as he looks over it, then up at Jeongguk, then back down at the car.
“Do… Do you like it?” Jeongguk has to resist rocking back and forth on his heels as Tony doesn’t say a word.
At first, Tony didn’t speak. He picks up the remote that controls the car and looks over it before letting out an amused huff. He sets it back into the box before standing up and taking a few steps to kneel down in front of Jeongguk, placing his hands on his shoulders.
“This is the best gift anyone has ever gotten me,” Tony says with his voice soft and sincere. Jeongguk’s face breaks out into a large smile and he jumps at Tony, wrapping his arms around his neck to hold him close. Tony squeezes back just as hard and already begins to miss it as Jeongguk slowly pulls back. “So, what do you say we give her a test drive?” His question is answered with yell as Jeongguk rambles off to explain what he did and how it works.
Tony couldn’t be prouder.
They spend about an hour driving the car around before Tony says he has to be somewhere. He leaves Jeongguk in the workshop for another hour before he’s back, but his face is more determined and hard than it was when he left.
Jeongguk is drawing at his desk when Tony makes his way back to the workshop. He begins to walk to his own desk, but then stops suddenly and moves to stand right in front of Jeongguk.
“How do you feel about starting a new project?”
Jeongguk couldn’t be happier.
ScoutSugaKookie on Chapter 1 Sun 04 Dec 2022 12:03AM UTC
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softspiderman on Chapter 1 Tue 06 Dec 2022 06:55PM UTC
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Anony (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sun 18 Dec 2022 02:04PM UTC
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softspiderman on Chapter 1 Sun 18 Dec 2022 07:10PM UTC
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ScoutSugaKookie on Chapter 2 Sun 30 Apr 2023 09:33PM UTC
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softspiderman on Chapter 2 Tue 09 May 2023 08:06PM UTC
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Myepiphanymoon on Chapter 2 Fri 05 May 2023 10:33AM UTC
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softspiderman on Chapter 2 Tue 09 May 2023 08:07PM UTC
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3qoi7vu3 (Guest) on Chapter 2 Fri 30 Jun 2023 03:54PM UTC
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