Prompt# 351 – Parched - Room for Improvement/ extra - Tekia – Exalted/the Avengers

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Room for Improvement (extra)
Fandom: the Avengers/ Exalted
Prompt: parched
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Summary: After coming home Exalted, Tony has plans and ideas all but pouring out of his ears. Back in Creation, there was magic everywhere, and a little hard work wasn’t going to stop him from finding those wells of magic in his own world.


He sought out Iron Dust, having JARVIS warning him beforehand if the man was with anybody else. Luckily, only Bruce was with him, and Tony had no problems allowing Bruce into his own problems. The two men were bent over a low table in Bruce’s lab, a black paper laid out before them, chalk dust marring the surface and their arms.
Tony pulled up a chair when they merely glanced at him before going back to their star charts. He folded his arms on the table and propped his chin on his folded arms.
“What’s this?”
“My star chart,” Iron Dust said in a murmur, his eyes perusing the lines and dots on the paper.
Interest captured, Tony sat up to peer at the paper, but it was all Greek to him. He shot a glance to Bruce. “What’s it say?”
Bruce’s eyes went wide, shot between Tony and Iron Dust, and then back to the paper. He licked his lips and hesitated before he pointed to a random line. “This is the year of his birth?”
Iron Dust nodded and touched his fingertip to Bruce’s before following the line to a set of stars. “This star?”
“That’s your birth star,” he said, sure of his response. “Mercury, a planet, actually.”
Iron Dust sniffed in disapproval, and Tony grinned. “It really is a planet,” he said in agreement. “We’ve sent probes and everything to it.”
Iron Dust didn’t quite glare, but it was a near thing. He dismissed Tony and tapped the star. Bruce touched his finger to the star and traced an invisible line to another star. “This represents your mate’s star?”
Iron Dust nodded, and Tony leaned down to puzzle out any information. Nope, still Greek. Well, lines and dots. They meant nothing to him. He grinned at Bruce. “You’ve learned a lot so quickly.”
Bruce nodded, but kept his eyes glued to the star chart. He followed the second star’s line until it connected with the first line. “This is your union, and this star is your child’s.” He looked up at Iron Dust, suddenly compassion in his eyes. “This is your loss.” He pointed where the line thinned.
“Yes. What is this?” Iron Dust pushed on, pointing to where the line strengthened.
“Your second breath. This is where you found your path.” He followed the line, spiraling inward until it wasn’t anymore. “After that, I can’t tell what happens.”
Iron Dust nodded. “Just so. My life is shadowed. And not even the stars can see my fate.”
“Because you’re outside of fate,” Tony said, leaning back and folding his arms behind his head. “That’s what you mean when you said not even heaven can see what you’re doing. It’s not written in the stars.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Can you see the past in the stars too? Well, clearly,” Tony said before they could answer. “But way back into the past? Like, my past incarnation?”
Iron Dust leaned back in his chair and regarded Tony steadily for a long moment before he spoke. “What questions do you have?”
“Who was I? Before?”
“Why?”
Tony shrugged. “Something’s bugging me, and I think it has to do with my past incarnation.”
“How do you know that’s what it is?” Bruce asked.
Tony dropped his arms until he could rest his elbows on the table and haunch over them. “Because the emotions I’m feeling have nothing to do with what I am going through. I’m feeling emotions that are not my own.”
Iron Dust’s eyes narrowed. “What do you feel?”
“Melancholy. Regret. Sorrow.”
Bruce’s brows went up. “And you don’t think those are your own emotions?”
Tony forced a nonchalant grin. “Before my second breath, yes, those would be mine. But since I’ve come back, what have I to feel this terrible about? I have a new family that supports me, friends that like me, and I feel happy.” He touched a hand to his chest, covering his reactor. “I’m not sad, but these emotions persist.”
“Depression?”
Tony shook his head. “These emotions are not mine.” He turned to Iron Dust. “Are they?”
He shook his head. “Perhaps. There really is no way to know unless you know more about your past self.”
“Which brings us back to my question. Can you scry anything from my star?”
Bruce made a move to pull out a new black paper, but Iron Dust’s next words froze his hand, inches from the papers. “It wouldn’t be what you’d want.” He dusted his hands and stood. “All of the memories of your past lives are stored in your soul. What you want to do, is unlock those memories. But, if you do unlock them, make sure you know what you’re getting into. Bruce, why don’t you make a chart for his star anyway, and we’ll see what’s in store for him?”
Bruce nodded and shifted the papers until a clean page was lying at the top. He plucked the chalk up from where it had rolled to the side and began a basic outline. “We can find your star by using your birthdate,” he started, hand still moving. Iron Dust came to stand over him. After the basic outline of the chart was made, Bruce paused and looked up at Iron Dust.
Iron Dust took the chalk from his fingers and leaned over the table. He quickly and efficiently added to the chart, his motions sure and decisive. Bruce watched, awe spilling over his features.
“These stars are those that are near yours.”
“How do you know-“ Tony started but Bruce turned to him, cutting in.
“He has the night sky memorized. That’s what he does when he’s on the roof, memorizing the stars.”
Tony stared at him, nonplused. “That’s… That’s awesome.” Tony and Bruce shared a grin before turning back to the star chart taking form under Iron Dust’s talented hand. Bruce worried his bottom lip as he tried to decipher the chart while Tony licked his lips and looked around the lab.
“How long have the two of you been down here?”
“Not long,” Bruce said, never taking his eyes from the chart. “Just a few hours.”
“Nothing to eat down here?”
Bruce shot him a look. “In my lab? You really want to eat food that’s been in my lab?”
“Yeah, on second thought, no.” He shoved to his feet and started for the door. “Let me fetch drinks for us. I’m parched and also haven’t eaten in, like, two hours.”
“Glutton,” Bruce murmured. Tony waved his hand in dismissal as the elevator doors closed behind him. Once alone, he allowed a shiver to course over his skin.
He trusted both Iron Dust and Bruce with everything he had, everything he was, but it was very different to stand next to them as they disassembled his life like a textbook. Whatever secrets that he had buried in his past were going to be laid bare, if not before Bruce, then before Iron Dust’s clever eyes.
They hadn’t talked about his family nearly at all. He had no doubt that Iron Dust suspected something about his childhood, but the man had never asked, and Tony hadn’t offered. With this star chart, Tony was sure that every nightmare Tony had had was going to be open for Iron Dust to make him relive.
Or, he could prove to be cruel and use this information against him.
Not that he would, despite White Song’s warnings to the contrary. Tony quickly wiped a hand over his face to erase the emotions from his face before the doors opened to the common floor, lease someone be there and see.
Thankfully, the kitchen was empty and he quickly snatched up a bag of treats and bottles of juice. His hand hovered over the long neck bottles of beer for a long moment before he clenched his fist and gathered up the juices.
Bruce was finishing the chart when Tony returned. He now had a dusting of chalk on his nose, and Tony swallowed his fears and pasted on a smile. “How’s it going?”
Bruce looked up, surprised at Tony’s return. “Good, I guess.”
“You guess?”
Iron Dust resumed his seat opposite Bruce as Tony settled between the two. He handed out the juices,
pausing to open Iron Dust’s for him.
“Bruce is a human, and thus cannot see that which is beyond his level of comprehension.”
Bruce made a face, resigned to Iron Dust’s obliviousness. Insults rolled off his tongue without him ever realizing that others could find offence at his words. Tony shared an understanding look with him. At least he was merely a child to Iron Dust. As a human, Bruce rated somewhere around the level of a bug or a particularly clever pet.
Iron Dust didn’t miss their look and caught Bruce’s gaze. “No offence intended. There are just some things that are out of the ken of humans.”
Bruce nodded his acceptance of the apology and waved him on.
Iron Dust pointed to the chart. “What can you read from this?”
Bruce looked down, looking a bit apprehensive. He licked his lips before he began. He pointed. “This is your start, brighter than the stars around it because fate has its eyes on you.”
“Creepy.”
They both ignored him and he took a deep draft of the juice. If he pretended hard enough, he could maybe make himself think he was drunk enough for this.
“This indicates that you suffered a loss. Your parents, I assume.”
Tony nodded, and found that he was staring not at the chart, but at Iron Dust who had his eyes on the chart, calmly reading that which Bruce and Tony couldn’t see.
“This shows a strong influence on your life.” Bruce tapped a smaller star next to his own, the line of that star’s path nearly merging with his for most of the length of his star’s path. Tony’s thoughts went to Obie, but Iron Dust opened his lips.
“Your lover, Pepper. Her star is very bright as well, not nearly as resplendent as yours, but quite brighter than the average human’s.”
Tony’s eyes zeroed in on Pepper’s star, a smile tugging at his lips. “What does that mean?”
“It means that she’s a very worthy mate for an exalt.”
“I’m sure she’ll love to hear that.”
Iron Dust looked up at him, one brow slightly arched. “It means that she is strong and will stand beside you instead of fleeing with push comes to shove.”
“It means she has your respect and approval,” Tony said, archly.
“Indeed. Continue, Bruce.”