Random Starters

"Don’t pretend that I didn’t matter to you!" "Why do you care?" "You’re the one who left!" "Believe what you want." "You’re wrong." "You think you know everything about me, but you don’t." "I found this last night. Is it yours?" "I’m guilty." "How could you do that?" "Holy shit!" "If you ever loved me you’d let me go." "Love you? How could I ever love you? You’re broken and I’m not going to try and fix that." "Shut up!" "But you promised." "I’m going to just… leave then."

Imagine when you find your soulmate, your heart starts to glow red. Send me "♥" for my muses reaction to it happening when our muses meet.

Being home from boarding school for the summer wasn’t nearly as much fun when he was home alone with his nanny. Counting down the days until his parents returned home was boring, as was entertaining himself day after day. The nanny never wanted to let him go in his father’s lab or make giant airplane shaped pancakes for breakfast.

When he saw the limousine coming up the driveway to the house, he could barely contain himself, scooting down the steps as quickly as his nanny would let him, until he could hop to his feet and barrel across the yard. 

He locked his arms around his mother’s neck and clung, face buried in her hair. “You were gone forever!” he told her, leaning back to peer up at her face.

She held him tightly, rubbing circles on his back and ruffling his head of dark hair with a warm smile. When he pulled back, she did as well, grinning widely and brushing a strand of his bangs out of his eyes.

"I’m so sorry! I didn’t know that we’d be gone so long, otherwise I would’ve tried to reschedule some things. But hey, look what I gotcha." 

She reached into her bag, pulling out something which she then hid behind her back. “Okay, close your eyes.” She waited til he closed them, then setting an airplane pilot’s cap on his head. “We got to go on a plane, so I told the Pilot that we had our own Pilot back home. He told us to bring you this hat, so that you can be an honorary pilot, too.” 

She was warm, and she smelled as she always did, like home. He’d missed her, more than he felt like he could say out loud. But that was fine, because she always seemed to know, without him having to say it. His eyes widened and his head tipped, trying to see what she was pulling out for him, but she hid it, and he pouted dramatically before closing his eyes.

When he felt the hat settle on his head, his eyes shot open as his hands flew up to grab it, patting it as his pout transformed into a wide grin.

"Oh wow!" He pulled it off his head and looked at it, eyes wide and shining with excitement, and then he returned it to his head, tugging it down firmly over his messy hair. "He said that?" he asked excitedly. "I’m an honorary pilot?" He wished he could have gone on the trip just to get to talk to the pilot. He knew that he couldn’t be one, not really, because he had to be a Stark, and take over the company. His dad had told him that. But he could pretend all he wanted until then.

She smiled widely at his excitement, her face lighting up in delight. She was glad he was so happy--she'd been worried that he would be mad at her for being away so long, for leaving him alone. She really would have to spend the weekend making up for that.

Maria giggled, nodding at his question. "Yes, he did. His name was James Whitshire, I think. He was very nice, and his first officer was very kind, too. She told me to say hi. Yes, you are!" She smiled, placing a hand on his. "So, what would you like to do first this weekend, Captain Stark?" 

She knew it was probably not going to be possible for him to be a captain in the future, what with his Father's constant talk about the 'Stark Legacy'. Even if that was the case, she believed he could do anything he set his mind to. Tony was a smart boy, and eventually, if that was what he wanted, he would fly. She just knew it. 

{open}

"Oh, please, do say that again.” 

"I think you heard me the first time."

"I am not that old." She scowled at the other, squaring her shoulders. Just about 70 or so.

{open}

"I don’t think that’s what you’re supposed to do with that…"

"What? No, not— It’ll be fine Mom I promise—"

 She sighes. "Can't you leave at least one electronic in this household alone?"

"Last week it was the microwave. Now it's the stove! Do I need to get an electric fence or something around any things you can tinker with?"

Maria had been gone on a business trip with Howard for almost two months now. She had unfortunately been forced to leave Tony with the nanny, something that he didn’t appreciate very much. 

The whole time she sat in the car on the way home, she couldnt help from tapping her fingers on the car seat impatiently. She just wanted to get home, to see her baby again. 

When she stepped out of the car, Maria couldn’t help but give a wide smile and an excited noise when she saw her son bounding down the steps that led up to their mansion, the nanny standing very prim and proper beside the door. She hopped out of the limousine, kneeling on the ground with outstretched arms.

"Well hello there, little man!"

Being home from boarding school for the summer wasn’t nearly as much fun when he was home alone with his nanny. Counting down the days until his parents returned home was boring, as was entertaining himself day after day. The nanny never wanted to let him go in his father’s lab or make giant airplane shaped pancakes for breakfast.

When he saw the limousine coming up the driveway to the house, he could barely contain himself, scooting down the steps as quickly as his nanny would let him, until he could hop to his feet and barrel across the yard. 

He locked his arms around his mother’s neck and clung, face buried in her hair. “You were gone forever!” he told her, leaning back to peer up at her face.

She held him tightly, rubbing circles on his back and ruffling his head of dark hair with a warm smile. When he pulled back, she did as well, grinning widely and brushing a strand of his bangs out of his eyes.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know that we'd be gone so long, otherwise I would've tried to reschedule some things. But hey, look what I gotcha." 

She reached into her bag, pulling out something which she then hid behind her back. "Okay, close your eyes." She waited til he closed them, then setting an airplane pilot's cap on his head. "We got to go on a plane, so I told the Pilot that we had our own Pilot back home. He told us to bring you this hat, so that you can be an honorary pilot, too." 

                   I have ( s e e n ) the best of you.           And the worst of you

                                                             { And I choose b o t h. }

Her heart skipped a beat, and she stepped a bit closer, inspecting him closely, completely forgetting that he probably would not recognize her. 

"Anthony?"

"You….you don’t recognize me." She uttered, blinking, her eyes wide. Of course he doesn’t remember you, Maria, you left him. “I’m Maria Stark, Tony.”

Tony took a step back as the woman came up and examined him as if he were a bug under a magnifying glass.  There was something familiar in her face, and he was trying to figure out if he knew her when she told him who she was… Maria Stark?  For a moment he couldn’t place the name, and then he remembered…

He stepped back as if slapped.  ”Mom?”

She continued to stare at him, her bottom lip wobbling and her eyes beginning to turn red as she held back tears. "Tesoro, I'm so sorry. I've...I've found you." All the regret flowed back to her, all the shame and self-hatred. She abandoned her child. 

"I should never have left you."

Young man. His fists clench at the words, nails digging into his palm as he tries to keep in control. He hasn’t heard that term in years, not since… Well, it’s been a while. Yes, her story’s sad, but he can’t let any sort of emotion creep into this. He’s refusing to entertain the idea that this woman is his mother.

Well, not until she claims to have a toy from when he was a child. He turns at that, expecting to be able to refute it easily - although he’s rendered momentarily speechless when he sees the car. Oh, how he’d loved that thing. Given some of the best toys money could buy for his birthday, an over the top birthday party, and all he’d wanted to do was sit in the corner and play with his car.

He’d only given it out because Howard had snatched it off of him, forcing him to go and interact with the other children. That was when he’d learned not to show that he loved anything he owned. Pretending not to car about the car, he’d discarded it - until now he assumed it had been lost in one of the many rooms of the house.

Still cautious, he comes over, taking the car from the woman’s hands. He turns it over, fingers tracing over the words on the bottom. No one else knew there was anything there - it’s really his car. He looks up, every line of his body radiating tension. “Where did you get this?”

Her face falls even more, the sinking, drowning feeling threatening to overwhelm her at the sight of him attempting to ignore her. It was as if someone had stuck a knife in her heart. 

But then—he turns. Her hopes lift, her heart fluttering. Maybe the toy was a good idea to bring out. She remembered how his party had been filled with huge, dramatic, unimportant  presents. She’d thought that he might just want to have a normal toy for once, so she’d gone to the store to buy it for him a week before. 

At the party, she’d been quite glad to see him enjoying his toy. The other kids there were mostly just present for the cool decor, and the chance to say ‘I went to a Stark birthday’. She hadn’t seen Howard take it away, though, she had felt slightly scarred that he just discarded it like that. After Tony had walked away, she had hurried over and placed it in her bag. She’d often tried to return it to him, sometimes sneaking it somewhere he liked to go, but he never seemed to play with it. Eventually she just gave up, carrying it with her for safekeeping in case he ever changed his mind.

Now, she saw him walking towards her. She gladly handed him the car, giving him a gentle, teary smile. Maria sniffled, adjusting her hair and looking back and forth between the man and the car. “When you left it on that table like you didn’t want it, I thought maybe something happened so I took it into my purse. I kept trying to set it in different places near you for weeks, but you never did anything with it…so, I carried it in my purse for years, just in case you ever did want it.” 

"He told me it wasn’t fit for me," Tony answers quietly, turning the car over in his hands - as though doing to will wear away the pristine grooves, make it somehow less his. Less like his past coming back to him when he’s least prepared for it. "That it was time for me to put away childish things."

It’s almost funny, he thinks, how he’s gone along as though it was ever his father he could make proud. Always there, quiet and resolute in the background, had been his mother. The one person he could never bear to disappoint.

"How did you know I’d be here?" he asks simple as he can bear. There are a thousand more questions, but he’s seen too much to put any store in the belief that this is any more than an illusion.

She shook her head sadly. "I never knew that." A frown crossed her face, and she ran a hand through her dark hair. She continued to stare at him for a moment as he looked away. He looked so much like his father, it was ridiculous.

"If I had known you'd still wanted to play with it--goodness, I would have let you play for as long as you'd like. Childhood is a short-lived thing." Maria released a sigh, her eyes red from her previous crying. She swept her hands across her eyes with the back of her hand, taking a deep breath. She was calm now. She had Tony with her again, and everything was going to be alright.

"I can read, you know. There is that gigantic flashing sign with your name on it." She laughed, her eyes wrinkling around the corners and her shoulders shaking a bit. It was a real laugh--- or at least the closest she could ever get to one. "I have an apartment a few blocks away. S.H.I.E.L.D has been constantly trying to keep me away from here, but you know me. Nothing can keep me away from you if I can stop it, tesoro."

"Oh. I see, I apologize…I hadn’t been paying attent—" She stopped, looking up at the man. His face was so familiar. His eyes, his nose, his mouth, his height, everything. Yet she didn’t know him at all. "—tion." 

"Before I have to leave, do you know—does Anthony Stark work here?"

Tony was startled - very few people ever came to see him.  ”Uh, yes, that’s me, actually.  Can I help you with something?”  He didn’t know this woman.  Was he in some kind of trouble?

Her heart skipped a beat, and she stepped a bit closer, inspecting him closely, completely forgetting that he probably would not recognize her. 

"Anthony?"

"You....you don't recognize me." She uttered, blinking, her eyes wide. Of course he doesn't remember you, Maria, you left him. "I'm Maria Stark, Tony."

                                                We’re not  f i n e

                                           We’ll never be  o k a y

                         Broken things don’t deserve to be  h a p p y

"Um…you know S.H.I.E.L.D by now, I believe?"

"They saved my life, after the car wreck. Froze me…"

"Of course they did. 10 years of you being dead and all I had to do was look for my mother the human popsicle."

"Mi dispiace," he murmured, immediately regretting the harsh words. "That was rude of me. I didn’t …I’m sorry."

She contemplated for a moment. "10 years. I never meant to be gone so long--I'm so sorry."

"No, no, va tutto bene, cara. I deserve it."

Send me anons as my kid.