James, for the first time since Tony’s known him, bursts out in a howling laughter. It’s shocking and great and Tony lits up and he has to laugh a bit with him because that sound is like the nicest thing he has heard in a really long time. It’s sweet, and James throws his head back and he has wrinkles around his eyes and he scrunches his nose and it’s so careless and joyful that Tony wants to cry a bit, and right now James is the most beautiful and familiar thing he has seen, and he saw this often because—
Because.
His thoughts halt at this point, and Tony has to mentally backpedal a bit. Yes, James is familiar - of course, he is, they practically lived together for months now, it would be weird if he wasn’t familiar, why is that a big deal?
Because this sensation’s older than that, it has more prelude than that, and Tony finally really looks at James and the true impact of the realization hits him like that tank’s missile did not so long ago. He… he knew James.
He knew him before he was James, before he was Scary Kidnapper Guy, before everything.
He knew him since he was a little kid, he knew James before he knew how to read a book or build a circuit board. He just knew him by another name.
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My two contributions to @menatiera beautiful story Still Alive for this year’s WinterIron Bang
The first is cover art done in watercolours if anyone was wondering about the difference.
Also go check out the amazing pieces that @araydre made for this as well! (Or just in general. Their art is awesome)
