Lamborghini | Tony Stark

THIRTY NINE - YOURS FOREVER, T

Only six days had passed but Tony felt as though he'd lived through a thousand lifetimes in those short number of hours. He hadn't slept at all, and if he had, he couldn't remember. Fear kept his eyes wide open even when they begged to close for just a few minutes, and his heart racing in competition with his mind made it almost impossible for him to switch off.

He lay beneath the covers of his bed with a t-shirt he'd let Sasha borrow one time, the scent of her perfume still clinging to the fabric the same way his hands did, though as the days turned to nights, it slowly began to fade.

Tony was heartbroken. He couldn't eat or drink unless somebody forced him to and the guilt had surpassed even the level that Peter felt. The young boy had been round at the Stark Tower every day since he broke the news to Tony, helping in any way he could to bring Sasha home safely. He thought he felt guilt, though when he looked into the eyes of Tony, he realised that whatever he felt didn't come close.

There was a vacancy in Tony's mind and in his face. He was there in physical form but spiritually, his mind was somewhere else. Peter began to worry about him, feeling an immense pressure that now not only did he have to save Sasha, he had to save Tony, too.

As Tony worked tirelessly to try and find something, anything to help lead them in the direction of finding Sasha, a haunting from his own past began to creep up on him. He wondered if she was warm enough and in shelter, if she'd been chained up or left to roam free behind bars. He cursed himself when he thought about whether she was hurt or not, whether she was lying in pain on a cold, hard ground with dried tears on her cheeks because she had none left to cry.

He'd seen Sasha broken and bruised in a hospital bed and had decided instantly he never wanted to see her hurt again, promising to her and to himself that he would protect her from the world and everything in it. Though Tony soon realised that he shouldn't have made a promise he couldn't keep, now knowing that this promise had been broken by his own hand.

"Hey," Natasha knocked on the glass door of the room Tony was in, pushing it open with a gentle smile and a paper bag in her hand, "Can I come in?"

"Sure." Tony said, staring at the hologram of Sasha's apartment that surrounded him, analysing every small detail in hopes of finding a lead.

"Brought you some food, you need to eat."

Nat threw herself down by a table in the corner, pulling out a chicken sandwich and fries from the bag and dusting her hands on her thighs.

"Not hungry."

Natasha just scoffed, "I didn't ask if you were hungry. I said you need to eat."

Tony said nothing for a moment, still immersed deeply in his surroundings. He stared at the hologram for a little while longer before swiping the whole thing to the side and walking over to the table, sitting down beside his friend and tossing a French fry into his mouth.

"You've not been sleeping, have you?"

"Didn't sleep anyway. Not when she wasn't with me."

Nat had seen Tony take a hit before, in fact, she'd seen him take multiple. Each time he'd been knocked down, she'd watched him get back up somehow stronger than he was before, rising above everything and ending it all with a smile on his face.

That time, however, things were different. There was no hope in his eyes anymore, no life. Tony was being worn down more by the minute, the soul-destroying level of pain crushing his lungs slowly but surely, his heart wrapped in barbed wire with a tension tightening each day.

"What if she's dead?"

"You can't afford to think like that, Tony."

Natasha tried her best to keep her friend's spirits up, though he just shook his head, picking at the food in front of him with his eyes staring blankly at the wall.