#ABBY I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH THANK YOUUU

[just-fandomthings]

touch telepath au? im v curious abt that!!!

Ahhh thank you, Abby!! 💜 admittedly, I wrote a little idea for this au back in August…and then completely forgot it existed 😅 but this idea has so much potential for an angsty fic…

uhh so I initially only had a few paragraphs of notes jotted down for this au idea, but as I was transferring them here, an actual story began to take shape in my mind?? I may or may not have an actual outline for this now (thank you so much, Abby, the credit for inspiring me absolutely goes to you 💜) 

So, here’s a little something I wrote:

Tony is a touch telepath--

This leaves him touch-starved, for how can he touch anyone when doing so will mean knowing what they’re thinking/feeling? His touch telepathy is his greatest secret, has been ever since Howard and Maria realized when he was three. He grows up keeping to himself, making a show but never letting people close--

And then there’s Rhodey. Rhodey is safe. 

Tony has felt safe before - in his mother’s arms, when he was with Jarvis and Ana. Whenever Aunt Peggy came for a visit. To a somewhat lesser extent, with Obie, whenever he came over when Tony was growing up. But Rhodey...

Rhodey is safe. He is the first person Tony chooses to tell; for a long time, he is the only person Tony tells. 

Then there’s Sunset, who used him for technological advancements for her own gain. And Tiberius, who used their friendship against him, getting the media to see him as a playboy alcoholic and nothing else. 

It’s not the first time Tony heard someone’s thoughts while they were hurting him (every kidnapping let him know exactly what his captors had planned for him, which, while did help him escape, did also let him know exactly what his captors had planned for him) but it’s the first of many betrayals. 

He learns the pain of remembering is worse when the ghost of their touch to his skin brings back the force of their cruel intent.

Sex is... well. It’s easier to just have one-night stands, where people care more about how good he is in bed, than about him himself. It hurts less, in the long run. 

Or so he tells himself. 

At least it prevents him from getting betrayed again. 

And then comes Pepper. 

Pepper, he slowly comes to realize, is safe. So is Happy. 

Afghanistan is...

The phantom touch of Yinsen’s hand will haunt him every time he allows himself to shake someone’s hand for the rest of his life. Even in Afghanistan, even at their first conscious encounter, after everything Yinsen knew he was responsible for, Yinsen had cared for him when they’d shook hands. 

Rhodey is the only one he allows to treat him on the plane ride home. 

Everything else about Afghanistan is better unsaid.

Obie touches him only twice when he takes the reactor from his chest. Once, on the back of his head, as he gently guides his head to the backrest of the sofa. It’s a painfully tender gesture; the final bow. 

The second is an iron-clad grip to his chin that forces him to meet his eyes. 

That’s when he realizes Obie never cared about him at all.