stark raving hazelnuts

Title: The 'Why' We Fight
Author: starkravinghazelnuts (aka falsecaterpillar)
Universe: MCU (hypothetical post-Avengers: Endgame)
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 2230
Warnings: (Past) Major Character Death. Body Trauma.
Author's Note: 1/2 gift for southpauz who requested this prompt: "[Pepperony or (not yet established)Stony // any rating you deem appropriate // MCU] the Avengers all work together and take down Thanos. In the end, Tony is the only one able to wield the Infinity Gauntlet and brings everyone back. It's at a great personal risk to Tony and could easily kill him, but he still does it. Bonus points if when everyone gets back the Avengers get to see and react to Peter returning and freaking out over Tony's ""corpse"". Bonus bonus points if in the end Tony is unable to use/loses his left arm afterward." I didn't fit in all the bonuses for this one, but it is a story about the aftermath of Tony using the Infinity Gauntlet at great personal risk. As a note, I did write two stories for you, and the other one fits the prompt much closer, haha! But I couldn't resist.

~

‘I’m here.’

It was a simple mental ping, checking to see if there was something there. With nothing but nothingness all around him, it was comforting to know at least he had his thoughts.

‘And I am…’ It took a moment to find his name in the knot that was his brain. 'Tony. Tony Stark.’

Excitement and revulsion hammered in his chest at the discovery. He brushed it off, not caring to examine why he felt so conflicted about his identity. His next thought surfaced as a question and came before he could mull over whether he wanted it answered.

‘So. What happened?’

Tony's mind had always been terribly efficient at solving puzzles. When other toddlers were trying to slot a circle through a square peg, he’d been assembling 1,000-piece puzzles of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. The pieces of 'What happened?’ effortlessly slid back into place from a tangle of broken sounds and images, but the moment they started to form a clear picture, he shook his head to jar them loose again.

Okay, so he definitely didn't want to remember. Big nope to memories. Those were bad.