𝙰 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝙷𝙾𝙿𝙴.

chuckle aside, he stores the information aside. red. yeah, he can do red. maybe some blue, too. whatever it turns out to be, james will wake up in the morning to three variations of the energy shield. tony stark doesn’t sleep. and, besides, the thing’s going to be his, so he might as well have a hand in customizing it. he wonders if it’s a bit too early to hand it to him, he’s still a kid. guess he won’t find out how well it goes until he lets james use it.

“ carbon emissions are important, ”  he retorts with a bit of a cheeky smile.  “ but worry not, it’s got nothing to do with carbon emissions. this thing? it’s— well, it’s an energy shield. ”  he shifts, rolling his chair to the side so he can pull up the details. fingers tap along the odd-symbols that are his keyboard, pulling up old archival blueprints.  “ i originally made this for your dad. but the geezer he was, he preferred the vibranium shield. ”  there is an ache that rings through his bones, of old familiarity. he rolls his chair back.  “ since it didn’t end up being his thing, maybe it’ll be yours. what do you think? ”

      𝙶𝙷𝙾𝚂𝚃𝚂 𝙰𝚁𝙴 𝚆𝚁𝙸𝚃𝚃𝙴𝙽 𝙸𝙽𝚃𝙾 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙱𝙾𝚈’𝚂 𝙵𝙴𝙰𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙴𝚂 ...      mother, father, and all of those who came before them—              for a moment those ghosts twist in a forlorn expression,       𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚘𝚢’𝚜 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚏𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝚍𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚕𝚎 ...     sadness polluting once blinding features, but only for a moment as james stubbornly defies the hole in his chest ;        missing mother & father bandaged over with the hands of each one of his siblings...   

            a  heavy  sigh   escapes  her   rose   colored  lips  ,    ❝     no  doubt  about  it  :     ———  you   are   their  son .   ❞      it   was  not  as  if  the  fact   could  not  be     DETECTED    by   his  appearance   alone  …..  but   it  was   his     DETERMINATION   &   FIERCENESS     that   gave  clarity  .    ❝   look  kid ,    ———    i  do  not     DOUBT   YOU  OR   YOUR   SKILLS  .    but   i   don’t   think   this  is   something  you   should    want   to  be   apart  of  .    ❞          she  would  not  say  the  words  directly   :     but   she  would     never    have  the   heart   to  drag   a    CHILD ,    nor   someone  of  his  age   to  a   harm’s  way  .    

                                   *   𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖈𝖆𝖑𝖑  . /   @aegisly​ .

he remembers playing around with it many years ago.  it was a prototype, something he’d been considering to hand over to steve, but steve always preferred the physical, tangible, vibranium shield, so he tucked it away.  must’ve gotten lost while he’d been moving things around since pym found it.  old memories arise, brushing the collecting dust away.  old feelings come back, too, ebbing and flowing.  he misses all of them.  they’d once been a family, and they all fell apart.  but, for james——  well, maybe he’ll find a purpose with this that steve never found.

“ yeah, it is, ”  he confirms.  energy shield.  the low hum and the lights indicates that it still works, and, then again, he’d been the one to design it in the first place, so of course he’d been able to fix it up.  “ it’ll need a bit of a paint-job. ”  by paint-job, he means some more tuning up, to make it look… less of an ugly mess.  he sits back and smiles up at the kid, grabbing the nearby towel to wipe his hands.  “ you want a bit of a history lesson?  actually, it’s not even a history lesson, more like uh… a fun fact. ”

  “ 𝙼𝙰𝙺𝙴 𝙸𝚃 𝚁𝙴𝙳 ! “    red like his hair— like his fire, a spark amidst the arctic tundra.  spinning on the seat of the rotating stool he’d been perched at now for at least the past hour, the child grins unabashedly...     every one of his childish antics    unapologetic    as he hops down and brushes the dust from his trousers;          𝚑𝚎’𝚜 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚍𝚊𝚍,   stretching an arm over his head to get the tire out of his joints,   though he’d certainly inherited a few good genetics from his mother too...   bright hair unmistakable.