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sofreakinmanyfandoms · 6 years

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November 22 - A Tingle and an Itch

I probably should have made the 22nd’s fic a Thanksgiving one, but my brain was in the mood for a soulmate!AU instead.

So - soulmate!AU in which soulmates have each other’s signatures somewhere on their body. That soulmark acts up when they get near their soulmate until their first kiss.

Word count: 1863

Warnings: None

Pairing: Tony Stark X Reader

You shifted the stack of files in your arms as you navigated the overly-busy hallway. For your second day, you felt like your boss was requiring an awful lot of you. That was to be expected, though, when you worked for someone like Pepper Potts.

Two months ago when you’d been let go from your last job because the company went under, you’d applied to be Ms. Potts’s assistant on a whim. It was a high-profile job for an assistant, one that would ensure you could get a good job after if you ended up deciding to switch fields, and since she used to be an assistant herself you would be sure she would have absolutely fair expectations for what a human could do.

You’d forgotten she had been the golden standard for assistants.

Not that she asked you to do anything unreasonable as part of your job, but after your first day she expected you to know her schedule backwards and forwards and be able to handle what she threw your way. It was taking every ounce of organizational skill you had; your poor apartment hadn’t been unpacked yet beyond absolute essentials because you had no motivation left beyond stuffing your face with takeout and falling asleep when you got home at night.

The absolute worst part, however, was knowing your soulmate was somewhere in the building and you didn’t have time to search for them around doing your job.

Like everyone, you had a soulmark – your soulmate’s signature was scrawled across your skin. Yours was on the inside of your left ankle, and try as you might you couldn’t decipher it. (You were maybe sixty percent sure the first name was Anthony, but all you could make out of the rest of it was the initials E and S.) When you got within a certain distance of your soulmate, your mark would get a tingling buzz to it that supposedly went away the first time you kissed them. Whenever you were at work, your soulmark tingled almost constantly. It made doing your job that much harder when you had to fight the urge to run through the whole building until you found them.

Then again, you reminded yourself, as long as you worked in the same building, odds were that you’d run into them eventually. Maybe they’d be the one who got time to look and found you! It had to happen eventually. Soulmates were inevitable.

----------

Tony was trying to listen to what Pepper was saying, really he was, but the constant itch on his collarbone was terribly distracting. His soulmark had been acting up the whole work day for almost a week now except for the two times when he’d had to go out for an Avengers call.

(Which had been a blessing, really, since fighting off weird chimera things was hard enough without that distraction.)

“Tony, pay attention.”

His head shot up from where he’d be trying to sneak a glance at his mark. “I am, Pepper dear, really I am. Just a small itch. It’s nothing. It’s not like it’s making it hard, impossible really, to focus on anything except for oh hell it’s getting worse –”

Tony cut off his rant at a knock on the door because Pepper shot him a look before she called for the person to enter. That and damn, he didn’t know his soulmark could hurt that badly.

----------

The tingle in your ankle had reached epic proportions as you entered with the paperwork Pepper had requested you bring to her office. Walking was becoming rather difficult, but you somehow managed to keep your expression neutral, an accomplishment you were even more proud of when you realized Mr. Stark was also in the room.

“The contracts you requested, Ms. Potts,” you confirmed as you passed the stack of files to her.

“Thank you, Y/N,” she told you. “Can you take a seat, please? I’ll need you to run these to legal once they’re signed.”

“Of course.” You sat and absently crossed your legs, most of your attention focused on not showing just how much pain you were in.

Pepper flipped open the files and signed where she needed to, passing them to Mr. Stark when she was done. He signed them rather absently, seeming far more focused on scratching what must have been a highly persistent itch than he was on what he was doing or even what Pepper was telling him.

Brave man, you couldn’t help thinking. Even if his name was on the company, you had a hard time imagining anyone being comfortable enough with Ms. Potts to outright ignore her.

Your boss slid the now signed contracts back to you and dismissed you with a nod. As you shifted to get up your mark twinged, and although you managed to keep your expression neutral your first step wobbled a little. Pepper didn’t catch it because she was again facing Mr. Stark, but he was staring at you with far more intensity than you were expecting.

To your relief, the tingling in your mark faded a bit as you made your way to the floor where legal was located. You must have been pretty close to your soulmate for it to have been that intense.

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“Tony! I can’t believe you’re ignoring me to stare at my assistant! Who am I kidding, of course I can believe it. I really shouldn’t be surprised with how long I’ve know you. I’m warning you, stay away –”

“Pep,” Tony interrupted, absently rubbing at his mark where the itching had started to fade as he kept staring at the door, “I know that you know me well enough you’re not going to want to believe this, but I think I saw my signature on her ankle.”

Pepper gaped at him for a moment, before collecting herself.

“Tony,” she said softly, “are you sure?”

“My soulmark’s been bothering me since Monday and it was by far the worst it’s ever been when she was just in here. Yeah, Pep, I’m sure.”

“Well,” she straightened up and shot him a look he knew meant what she was about to say was law, “Monday was her first day. I’ll find out for you. You are not to go anywhere near her until I do. We do not need a sexual harassment suite in the making.” Pepper paused in the doorway as she exited, sighing and turning back to shoot him a rueful look. “I really liked working with this one.”

Tony felt the smile spread across his face once she was out of the room.

Maybe now he could get rid of that damn itch.

----------

Your boss was waiting for you when you arrived back at your desk.

“I’m going to ask you two questions,” she said as soon as you entered the room. “I don’t want to, but if I don’t ask them, someone else will, and he’ll be much creepier in how he does it, I’m sure. If the answer is no I’ll pass it on and it will not affect your job in any way. If the answer is yes, we’ll figure it out.” Pepper took a deep breath and held out a piece of paper to you. “Is the signature on the bottom the same as your soulmark, and is it on your ankle?”

You froze when you saw the familiar scrawl across the bottom.

“Is that a yes?” she asked you softly after a few moments of silence. All you could bring yourself to do was nod.

Pepper sighed. “He was right, then.” She set the paper aside and took your hands in hers. “I take it you know your soulmate works here? You’ve felt in in your mark?”

You shook your head, then realized what that would look like. “Oh, um, yes, I knew that from day one. I just haven’t had time to figure out who it was. I promise I would never use company time for personal business,” you rushed to assure her.

“I appreciate that,” she said with a smile, “but you’re about to on my orders. You’ve realized by now that I know who your soulmate is.” It wasn’t a question. “Do you want me to tell you who it is or just direct you to them? I know that the pain of a soulmark is intense when you’re close to them, so you won’t exactly have time to process who it is when you see them, but I don’t want to take away the surprise if you’d rather find out face to face.”

You worried your lower lip as you considered her offer. “I’m guessing the fact that you’re even offering means it’s someone I’ll know well enough be surprised to be paired with?” She nodded. “I… I think I’d still like to find out in person.”

“I understand,” she said, and from her eyes you knew she did. “Take care of them for me, okay? They’ll be waiting for you back in the conference room we were in earlier.”

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You weren’t an idiot. As soon as you’d realized what Pepper was asking you, you’d known who your soulmate was. The pain you’d felt when you’d brought her the papers made sense.

It was honestly annoying that you hadn’t realized sooner. Anthony E. S… Anthony Edward Stark.

Tony Stark.

You were working in his building, for goodness sake; the name and the times your mark tingled should have been enough of a clue.

Your soulmark was nearing the point of pain again as you reached the conference room door. Before entering, you paused and reminded yourself that just because you were pretty sure you knew who was on the other side of that door didn’t mean you weren’t wrong.

You weren’t wrong.

Tony’s eyes shot to yours as you entered, his hand again pressed over his right collar bone where you assumed his mark must be.

“I… I know I’m probably not what you were hoping for,” he said hesitantly as you stood in the doorway. “I’m older than you by a bit, unless you look remarkably young for your age in which case great job, and I’m kind of a mess which meeting you honestly probably won’t change too much. I mean, I’m still gonna forget to sleep and spend hours in my workshop and, and leave for dangerous Avengers stuff… I’m not safe, and being with me wouldn’t be safe, and I understand if you want to turn around and walk out that door again –”

“Oh, shut up and kiss me already,” you interrupted breathlessly, and then you were meeting in the middle and his arms were around you and his lips were on yours. The tingle from your mark spread through your whole body, the pain an immense wave of pleasure as you angled your head to deepen the kiss and he pulled your body closer to his. You were both gasping for breath when you finally had to pull back.

“Hi,” he said with a grin, “I’m Tony.”

“Hi, Tony,” you replied with a smile of your own, “I’m Y/N. Nice to meet you.”

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sofreakinmanyfandoms · 6 years

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November 8 - Always a Child

I’m gonna turn this into a series some day, I swear. There’s just only so much I can fit into a one-shot if I have to write it in one day.

Word count: 2738

Warnings: None

Pairing: Tony Stark X Reader

Picture is not mine, but it is of RDJ when he was five, so thank you, Google.

“Stop acting like a child, Tony. I’m busy.”

“But Y/N,” your boyfriend whined, tipping over and letting his head crash into your shoulder, “I’m so bored. JARVIS won’t let me into my lab.”

“If I may remind you, Sir,” the AI cut in, “the artifact you left in there is still letting off a strange smoke-like substance and the ventilation system in place for similar emergencies has not been able to remove all of it because it is out in the open. Allowing you to access your lab would go against every safety protocol you programmed for me.”

“My mistake,” Tony grumbled, rubbing his face into your neck in a manner not entirely unlike a cat.

You let your eyes flicker to him before looking back to your laptop. “Thank you, JARVIS, for keeping this idiot safe.”

“It’s my pleasure, Ms. Y/N.”

Tony let out a rather undignified whine. “I’m still bored here. Pay attention to me.”

You pulled your eyes away from your work and let them meet his as best they could for how close his face was to yours.

“You’re a grown man, Tony. Find something to do on your own. It’s your own fault I have to work anyway, pulling that stunt at the party last night. I swear, accepting the job of being your publicist is the worst decision I’ve ever made.”

“It got you a boyfriend,” he muttered into your shoulder. “That’s not so bad.”

“It is at the moment!” You let your full exasperation bleed into your voice. “Seriously, Tony, this isn’t something I can put off, and you’re just making it take longer! Come back in an hour, but until then find something to keep yourself occupied like the adult you’re supposed to be.”

With a huff, Tony pushed himself off the couch and sulked off towards his lab.

“JARVIS, if I wear a gas mask and safety suit can I go into my lab?”

“Once you are fully suited up, if there is no way the substance could reach you, then yes, I would let you back in.”

“Cool. Where’s that stuff stored?”

“At the present, Sir, you keep all of your safety gear in your lab.”

Tony groaned. “Not the smartest move on my part. Okay, what if I wore my suit? I’ve got a few models that aren’t in the lab, and one of them has a full air filtration system included.”

“That would be an acceptable substitute.”

“Awesome. Send it here, please.” Tony stepped into the suit once it arrived and slipped into the lab.

“Okay,” he said, more to himself than to JARVIS, “let’s get this thing contained.” It took a few minutes, but he got it enclosed in a box with a tube pumping the smoke directly into the ventilation system, allowing him to take the suit off and step into his lab.

“JARVIS, what’s the composition of the smoke?”

“According to preliminary analysis, it appears to be an alien compound of unknown elements in smoke form. Would you like to take a sample for further analysis?”

“Yes, I’ll get to that in a moment. What about the box itself?”

“It appears to be just that, Sir: a box. Enough of the compound has come out of it that it either produces it internally or, as seems more likely based on the fact it didn’t release anything until it was here, it is reacting to something in its surroundings. Perhaps a chemical response to something in the lab?”

“If that’s what’s causing it, it should stop soon now that it’s contained.”

“That would be a logical assumption, Sir.”

“All right.” Tony rubbed his hands together and headed for the safety gear he was not going to only keep in the lab from now on. “I’ll get suited up and take a sample. You’ve got all of that stuff in a containment tank?”

“Yes, Sir. I won’t dispose of it unless it is absolutely proven safe.”

Tony slipped into a biohazard suit and grabbed a couple of vials with stoppers before heading into the side room where the containment tank with the alien compound was located. He filled both vials from the tank, flipping on the ventilation when some of the smoke escaped into the room.

“Damn it,” he muttered as one of the vials slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor. He reached to pick up the stopper from the mess – no point in wasting that just because he needed a new vial – when a piece of glass caught the suit and ripped it open.

“JARVIS,” he said, realizing something was wrong, “I don’t feel so good…”

The last thing he registered before blacking out was the armor scooping him up and getting him out of that room.

----------

You shut your laptop with a sigh, glad to finally have your work done. You were about to get up to check on Tony when JARVIS requested your attention.

“Excuse me, Ms. Y/N, I hate to alarm you but something has happened to Sir. I’ve already contacted the Avengers. It will take them a few hours to get here from New York, but they are on their way.”

If the Avengers had already been contacted, this was not a “miss-stepped on the stairs” type happened. At least JARVIS hadn’t said he’d called an ambulance.

“What happened, JARVIS?” you asked, standing.

“Sir was in his lab when his biohazard suit was breached. The alien compound seems to have reverted him to a much younger age.”

You froze mid-step. “How much younger?”

“Sir appears to be around five years old.”

----------

You peeked through the windowed wall of the lab to see a tiny, naked, squirming brunet sitting on one of Tony’s workbenches. He was pressing an oxygen mask to his face and being guarded by one of the suits.

“Tony?” you called softly, entering the room.

He put down the mask and cocked his head at you. “That’s me. Who are you?”

“My name’s Y/N,” you told him, coming over and standing in front of him.

This was awkward. Your boyfriend is a small child. What were you supposed to do in this situation?

“You’re pretty,” Tony announced. “Can I marry you when I grow up?” Before you could even process his question, he continued, “The voice in the ceiling told me I passed out and someone would be coming to take care of me. Is that you?”

That question was more manageable.

“Yes, for now. There’s a group of people who are coming to figure out why you passed out” (I mean, really, how were you supposed to explain this to a five-year-old, even if he can build a circuit board?) “and they’ll be here in a few hours. I’m going to take care of you until then.”

“Cool,” little Tony said, standing on the table and launching himself into your arms. “I’m hungry. Can I have spaghetti?”

“Sure sweetie,” you managed. “Let’s go upstairs and I’ll make you some spaghetti.”

----------

Five-year-old Tony loved spaghetti. He also was significantly messier than adult Tony when eating. Good thing he didn’t have any clothes to get dirty. You ran him a bath as soon as lunch was over and let him play with your StarkPad in the tub – good thing Tony’d made it waterproof – while you figured some stuff out, namely what he was going to wear when he got out. Fortunately JARVIS was already on it; clothing in Tony’s current size was delivered while you were pouring through your closet for something that would stay on his child-sized body.

Turns out, JARVIS had a good sense of what child Tony would like, not just what would fit him. Tony dug through the bags excitedly, choosing a t-rex shirt, jeans, and underwear with tiny beakers on them. You tried to get him to wear socks, but he preferred to run around barefoot and he was just as stubborn when fun-sized as when full-sized.

Keeping him occupied after getting dressed was significantly easier. You took him back to the lab and after making sure all his current projects were put away let him go ham, building whatever he wanted. DUM-E was his new best friend in just a few minutes, bringing him whatever tool he asked for. Tony couldn’t stop giggling at the bot’s antics, and by the time the team showed up there was a smaller remote-controlled version of DUM-E following both Tony and the larger bot around.

You stood outside the lab with Steve, Bruce, and Natasha, watching your juniorized boyfriend playing with his robotic friends.

“So… that’s what happened, as far as I can gather from what JARVIS told me.”

“I can confirm Ms. Y/N is correct. That is what happened to Sir.”

“Okay,” Bruce rubbed a hand over his face. “So, I’m gonna need to study some of this compound to see if I can reverse its effects.”

“We can’t send you in for a sample,” Steve said with a frown. “If you get miniaturized too, we won’t have anyone left to work on this.”

Nat smirked. “Send Clint. He’ll be the most harmless as a kid out of any of us if anything happens to him.”

“If I may interrupt your brainstorming,” JARVIS cut in, “there was an extra tube filled with a sample in the containment room. I sent one of the suits to retrieve it and it is waiting for Doctor Banner in his lab.”

“Right, I’ll get on that, and I’ll call Helen Cho for backup.” Bruce made his escape to the bio lab Tony had built for him when rebuilding his Malibu residence.

“So, until Doctor Banner has the cure…” Steve trailed off, eyes returning to the child playing fetch with DUM-E

“Yeah, I know,” you said softly. “He’s still Tony. He still has so much curiosity and energy. But he’s more innocent, too, like the world hasn’t broken him yet.”

“In his mind it hasn’t,” Natasha added, then asked, “He seems okay. If he’s stuck as a kid for a little while it’ll be hard for the rest of us, but he’ll be alright.”

You nodded. “It’s more than we could have hoped for, I suppose.”

Your small conference was interrupted by a smaller head poking out of the lab.

“Y/N, Y/N, come see what I taught DUM-E to do!”

“I’m coming, Tony. Just give me a minute, sweetie,” you smiled at the boy. Glancing at Steve and Nat, you started toward the lab. “If you guys think of anything that would make this easier, I’d appreciate it. I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle babysitting duties this whole time.”

“I’m sure Clint won’t mind taking a turn later.”

Steve gave Natasha a skeptical look. “You’re really good at volunteering Clint for stuff he doesn’t know about.”

She shrugged and tossed her head. “What can I say? It’s one of my special talents.”

---------

“The end.” You closed the book and set it aside before reaching to run your fingers through Tony’s hair. “Now it’s time for you to sleep.”

“Aw, just one more, please?” the boy pled with you. “I’ll go to sleep after that!”

You couldn’t help but laugh at how hopeful he looked. “You said that before I read this one. Nope, mister, it’s time for you to get some sleep. You’ve got a big day tomorrow. You’ll be hanging out with Clint and Steve while I’m at work.”

The little Tony snuggled up against you in your big bed that seemed even larger than usual with a child instead of another adult pressed against you. “Do you really have to go to work?”

“Yes,” you told him. “That’s what being an adult is like.”

“But Clint and Steve won’t have to go to work.”

“Clint and Steve have a different job than I do,” you said, snuggling under the covers and wrapping your arms around him. “I won’t be all day, though. I’ll only be gone a few hours, and then I’ll do the rest of my work on my laptop while hanging out with you.”

Tony sighed as his eyes started drooping. “Okay. Y/N?”

“Yes, Tony?”

“Thanks for letting me have a sleepover with you. I’ve never gotten to have a sleepover before.”

“It’s my pleasure, Tony,” you smiled at the little boy. “My room is your room.”

----------

It was two weeks before Bruce and Helen found a cure, and by the time they found it little Tony had all the Avengers wrapped around his little finger. He would laugh and ask questions and get into trouble but get right back out of it with his big grin and puppy eyes.

“Are you sure we have to turn him back?” Clint asked, protesting when Natasha elbowed him.

“Yes, Clint,” Steve gave him the patented look of disappointment, “we have to turn him back. We’re not leaving Tony as a child forever.”

“He’s more fun when he’s a kid though,” the archer complained. “He actually thinks I’m cool.”

Bruce passed you a small canister with a breathing mask on the end. “Since he inhaled the original compound, we made the cure something he has to inhale as well. Just fit the mask over his mouth and depress the button for one second. Make sure he’s sitting down when he breathes it in, though; he’ll probably black out for a moment like he did the first time.”

You nodded and took the canister into the lab, where Tony was engaging in his favorite activity – playing with DUM-E. The rest of the team watched from the other side of the glass.

“Hey, Tony,” you called, motioning the boy over. “I need you to sit next to me on the couch, okay? Bruce figured out why you passed out a couple weeks ago, and this will make you better. You just have to breathe it in.”

“Okay,” he piped cheerfully, launching himself onto seat next to you. “But first you have to answer the question I asked you when we first met. Can I marry you when I grow up?”

Your heart melted a little and you hoped one day you and he would have a little boy just like this. “If you still want to marry me when you grow up, then yes, you may.”

“Cool.” He flashed you a cheeky grin, and then he was reaching for the canister. When you got the mask over his mouth, you pressed the button, and in just over the time it took to blink, you had an unconscious yet fully-grown Tony next to you again.

----------

“You’re telling me I lost two weeks of my life?” Tony asked as Bruce gave him a thorough physical.

“Not lost it, per say,” Steve explained, “you were just…different.”

Tony narrowed his eyes at the soldier. “Different how?”

“Smaller,” Clint piped up, “and much cuter. You were five.”

Your boyfriend’s eyes shot to yours and you nodded. “I can confirm the whole thing, except for the cuter part. You’re still cute.”

Clint pantomimed gagging as Natasha dragged him and Steve out of the room. Bruce followed them as soon as he finished his examination.

“You’re back to normal now,” he told Tony on his way out the door. “But stay away from that smoke.”

“Speaking of,” you said.

“I have sealed all smoke in a solid drum it cannot escape,” JARVIS informed you both, “and the box is sealed up as well.”

Tony leaned back on the couch and you let him pull you into his arms.

“So…I guess having a tiny Tony running around probably put you off kids forever.”

“I don’t know,” you said, snuggling into his chest, “it was kind of nice. Not as nice as this, but I think I’d enjoy getting to have both. Only if you wanted to, though.”

“If I wanted to?” Tony asked, pulling back and looking at you in amazement. “You’d be willing to commit to that with me? I’d be a terrible father.”

“No,” you told him firmly, “you had a terrible father. That doesn’t mean you’ll be one. If anything, it means you already know what not to do.”

Tony pulled you back in, resting his chin on your head and running his hands up and down your arm.

“I guess I wouldn’t mind giving parenthood a shot if you were the one who did it with me.”

“Is that an invitation?” you asked slyly, running your hand along his thigh. “It was a long two weeks, you know.”

His eyes blew wide and he scooped you all the way into his arms, standing and heading for the stairs.

“Well, it certainly is now.”

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