His Guardian Angel

Tony slipped down the wall, his head hanging low so it was cradled between his knees. It hadn't been that long since he had bid Steve and Thor goodbye; since he had stepped back from the Avengers. He had thought he could handle it; that he could protect people. How wrong he had been.

He raised his head up until it smacked against the wall. A few tears gathered in the corner of his eyes, but he ignored them. His head was still filled with the screams of Ultron's victims, he couldn't drown them out; with music or with alcohol. He wished Pepper was there with him, maybe he could drown out the noise with her moans. Then again he doubted that for more than one reason. He had fucked up again, disappointed again her again. It was what he did, it was what he would always do. He figured it was only a matter of time before he fucked her up too.

Taking a breath in, he raised a hand to run through his hair and stopped at a slight scrape against his scalp. He pulled his hand down in front of his, his eyes landing on the small pendant that had worked its way from beneath his cuff. He huffed out a mirthless laugh and peeled back his sleeve until the small chain around his wrist was revealed. Carefully, he flicked the clasp and gathered the chain in his hand.

His eyes traced every inch of the small silver bracelet, even though he knew it by heart. The chain was old, and many times he had had to replace the clasp and the extension that allowed it to fit him. There was a single pendant that hung from the chain, only about half the size of his thumb. He smiled as he ran a single finger over the silver horse, the tears at the corner of his eyes finally falling.

Many years had passed since he had been given the bracelet, but he could still recall every detail of that cool New York afternoon.

Twenty-Three Years Ago

Tony practically ran from the boardroom, his hands clasped tightly into fists. He hated this, hated dealing with men who still only saw a child. They didn't want him, not really, they wanted a Stark as a figurehead. He knew if he let them, they would take over. They wanted him to stand in front of the cameras, smile and flirt, sign papers with Stark, and to keep his mouth shut on everything else. That was not him though, and he would be damned if he allowed some crusty old men push him to the sidelines.

Rounding a corner, Tony made his way down the building and out one of the back doors. The building butted up against the law offices next to it, leaving a small alcove only big enough for a dumpster and himself. Uncaring of his suit, he slid down until he sat on the ground, his back pressed against the brick wall. He pulled a flask from inside his jacket, twisted it open, and took a long pull from it.

"Oh!"

Tony pulled the flask from his mouth, startled by the small, squeaky voice. He stared at the child in front of him, wondering what the hell she was doing there. She couldn't have been more than five or six years old, and was dressed like rainbow vomit. He was pretty sure the girl had picked out her own clothes, as no adult could ever have come up with the combination she was wearing.

"Oh, yourself." Tony blinked at the brightness of the girl's clothing; Rainbow Brite shirt, a safety yellow skirt, My Little Pony tights, and a pair of bright pink sneakers with Care Bears printed on the sides. She even had her hair pulled up into swishy pig-tails with large pink pom-poms. She looked like an eighties Saturday morning puked up on her. "You know the eighties ended a couple of years ago, right?"

"What?" The girl scrunched her nose up like she had caught a whiff of something gross, before shaking her head. "What's your name?"

Tony eyed the child wearily, he was never keen on kids… and it had nothing to do with the pregnancy scare Vicky, or Mandy, whatever, had. It was just that children always made him uneasy, he knew he was supposed to be all nice and shit to them, but he always ended up saying the wrong thing.

"Tony, what's yours?" Uneasy or not, he wasn't bastard enough to just ignore her.

"Cool." The girl bobbed her head a couple of times, sending the pom-poms swishing around her head. "I'm Darcy."

"Do your parents know you're out here, Darcy?" He pretty much doubted it, but there were some parents….

"No…" Darcy shuffled her feet, kicking the toe of one shoe against the ground.

"Don't you think you should tell them?" What he really wanted to say was 'get lost,' but like he said, he wasn't that much of a bastard.

"But I'm booooored!" Darcy scrunched her nose up again. It made her lips pucker and her eyes squint. "All adults want to talk about is work, it's boring."

"So you thought an alley would be more fun?" Tony raised one brow at the girl. Most of the kids her age that he knew were the children of SI partners, and they all talked incessantly about cartoons and ponies. Not one of them had even an eighth of an attitude as this girl.

"Better than in there, everything is so, so, so blah. And it smells like old people." Darcy produced a sucker from somewhere behind her back, tore off the wrapping and stuck the whole purple thing into her mouth. As though she had known him her whole life, she took the few steps towards Tony and sat down beside him.

"And what do old people smell like?" He should probably get up and escort her back to her parents, but the girl was actually amusing. He figured he needed a bit of a distraction.

"Like old pee and toothpaste." Darcy shivered as she took another full mouth lick of her sucker. She looked over at the man next to her, and after a thoughtful look she pulled another sucker out and handed it to him.

Tony took the candy, peeled the wrapper off and stuck the thing in his mouth. Hm, chocolate. "So, do I smell like that? I'm old."

"You're not OLD old, just oldish. You smell like…" Darcy tapped a finger against her lips a moment before looking him straight in the eye and answering. "…like pepper and, um, what did Daddy call it, Scottish?"

"Scotch, it's an old person drink." Tony quickly twisted the cap back onto his flask and stowed it away in his jacket.

"Yeah, that. I tasted it once when Daddy wasn't looking. It doesn't taste as good as it smells." Darcy stuck the sucker back into her mouth as though to get rid of the memory of the drink.

Tony laughed and shook his head. "It takes some getting used to."

"Whatever." Darcy looked around her, her eyes taking in everything in the little alcove. "Why are you out here? Bored too?"

"Ah, you could say that." Tony bit against the sucker in his mouth, chipping off a small shard to crunch between his teeth.

"You upset?" Darcy scooted until she could look at Tony without twisting her neck.

"What makes you think that?" Tony twirled the sucker between his fingers, his eyes focused on that and not the girl beside him.

"You were drinking scotch, that was what was in that silver thing wasn't it?" Darcy didn't allow Tony to answer before continuing on. "Daddy only drinks that stuff when he's upset. He smelled like it for weeks after Nanny died."

"You're a perceptive little brat." Maybe it was the scotch, but Tony felt words bubbling up his throat. The fact that he had only taken one drink in the past several hours was ignored as Tony looked down at the child beside him. "I'm having some problems with people."

"What kind of problems? 'Cause maybe I can help, my teacher says I'm really good at problem solving." Darcy pulled an empty wrapper out of her skirt and covered the rest of her sucker. She put the candy away and turned her focus completely on the man beside her.

"I… well… look…" Tony blinked down at Darcy, the girl looked so serious like she actually thought she could help him. Something in his chest squeezed, but he ignored it. "I have a job to do, but these people won't let me do it. They want to do it themselves and think just because my dad is no longer here they can take the job away from me." He has no idea why he told her that, but as Darcy tapped a figure against her lips all he could do was shake his head at the child's antics.

"How about your mommy? When people upset me and Daddy isn't there, Mommy saves me." Darcy tucked her hands together in her lap, her fingers pulling at the bright fabric.

"She's gone too." Tony felt the familiar burn in the back of his throat, but ignored it and simply focused on the girl beside him.

"Oh…" Darcy hung her head, her teeth digging into the flesh of her lower lip. She was quiet for a moment before pulling something off her wrist and handing it over.

Tony looked down at the silver chain hanging from his fingers. It was small, obviously made for a child's wrist. "What's this?"

"Something to protect you." Darcy gave a small smile as Tony traced a finger over the silver chain. "Nanny gave that to me before she died. She said as long as I wore it, I would be safe."

Swallowing hard, Tony reached out his hand with the bracelet and tried to give the thing back. Only Darcy crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.

"No givesies-backsies." Darcy set her jaw and raised her chin, just daring him to argue with her.

"Darcy, I can't take this." Tony sighed when he realized the girl wasn't going to take the thing from him. "Why are you giving this to me anyway?"

"I have a mommy and a daddy to protect me, but you don't. You need that more than me." Darcy bit her lip again, seemed to think before she nodded her head as though she had just made a decision.

"You're manipulative." Tony turned his head away before the girl could see the shine of tears in his eyes.

"It's for your own good." Darcy reached out a hand and flicked Tony's jacket with a couple of fingers.

"It is, is it?" Tony huffed out a laugh and shook his head.

"That's what Mommy says when Daddy calls her that." Darcy twisted until she sat on her knees, still facing Tony. "I think Nanny would want you to have that anyway."

"You think so?" Turning back to look at the girl, he allowed a small smile to spread across his face.

"I know so. If she was here right now she would've given it to you herself."

"What else would she do if she was here right now?" Tony twisted the bracelet in his hand until the small horse pendant was between his thumb and finger.

"She would wrap you up in a blanket and give you hot chocolate and cookies." Darcy scooted as close as she could to Tony. "And she would give you a hug. Just like this."

Tony startled as little arms wrapped themselves around his shoulders, pulling him into a little body. Darcy squeezed him tightly, pressing a smacking kiss against his hair. She pulled back after a moment, a big smile on her face. Tony just felt like he had had his heart ripped out of his chest and shoved down his throat.

"DARCY! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Darcy jumped up and dusted off her skirt as she looked at the door of the other building. "Shoot! I better go before Daddy takes away my ice-cream tonight."

Tony laughed and ignored a couple of tears that spilled down the side of his face. "Well, we wouldn't want that."

"No, Mommy just bought double-chocolate crunch, it's my favorite." Darcy headed for the door, her hands twisting behind her trying to dust off the dirt from her skirt.

"Hey!" Tony wasn't sure what he was doing, only that he couldn't let her leave without saying something. "Do me a favor will you? Listen to your mom and dad from now on about not wandering off."

"Aw man, but…" Darcy scrunched up her nose again, arms crossed over her chest.

Tony held up the bracelet and shook it a bit. "You gave me this, remember? Now you only have your mom and dad to protect you, and they can't do that if you don't listen to them."

"You're manipulative." Darcy stuck her tongue out at Tony.

"It's for your own good." Tony was expecting the girl to balk, but she just shook her head before standing in front of him again. He remained still as she reached out and placed her hands on each side of his face, pulled him in and placed a kiss against his brow.

He was silent as he watched her leave, the door closing with a quiet click. He looked down at the bracelet in his hand. He knew he couldn't keep it, in a few days she would realize what she had done and be upset about it. He figured he would wait a bit and then go after her parents, covertly hand the bracelet back to them and be done with it. If over the next couple of days he kept putting it off, well, he just ignored that.

Present Day

Tony closed his eyes, his thumb running over and over the pendant. He had never really worked all that hard to find the girl's parents, and after a couple of months he gave up the pretense completely. He had kept the bracelet all those years, wore it constantly. Sometimes it was hidden beneath his cuffs, and sometimes hanging from a chain hidden under his shirt. It didn't matter where, only that he wore it.

The bracelet had been through everything with him, abductions, alien attacks, wornholes, evil robots, everything. It had become a sort of talisman he supposed. Maybe not a good-luck charm, he hadn't had much good luck, but it was something.

He didn't talk about the bracelet, in fact Rhodey was the only one he ever told the story to, and that had been a drunken accident…

Fifteen Years Ago

Tony leaned back against the couch, his eyes closing as he allowed the music to wash over him. Most of the guests had already left, and those that hadn't were passed out drunk throughout the house. It was a pretty typical Saturday night, which meant that Rhodey had yet to leave.

His friend was over by the bar, trying to chat up some blonde from accounting. Tony shook his head, the girl had blanked out ten minutes ago. He turned his head away from the disaster that was his friend, and took another pull from the bottle in his hand.

His eyes landed on the pendant that was just peeking out of his shirt cuff, and he placed the bottle on the table beside him. He edged the pendant out further so he could run his thumb and forefinger over it.

"She must be one hell of a girl to make you smile like that." Rhodey plopped down next to Tony, a bottle of beer in his hand.

"It's not what you think." Tony went to stuff the pendant back into his sleeve, only to have the man next to him grab his hand and pull it to him.

"Oh, and why else would you wear a horse charm? Come on, who is she?" Rhodey ignored the way his friend was glowering at him, and just took a gulp of his beer.

"My Guardian Angel." Tony blinked a couple of times, trying to think back on how much he really had to drink because he had never actually called the girl that outside of his head.

Rhodey snorted out a laugh, a bit of beer splattering along his pant leg. "She must've been really good."

"Shut the fuck up, Rhodes. She's five, or she was, it's been a while now so…" Tony did a mental count and blinked, she would probably be thirteen by now.

"Right, man, that is a story I think you need to tell me now, because I'm not…"

"Fucking hell, Rhodes, what the fuck?" Tony pulled his arm back and once again hid the bracelet. He took a drink from the bottle before giving a small sigh. "It was a few years ago when I was still having trouble with the Board. I got pissed and stomped off. I ended up in the alley, and this girl shows up." Tony laughs a bit as he remembered her outfit.

"Really, you met a five year old in an alley?" There was a note to Rhodey's voice that made it sound as though he didn't believe his friend, but he didn't say anything more.

"Her parents were in the building next door and she got bored." Tony closed his eyes, he could still remember how the girl had squared her shoulders, how she had shown him more care than he had been given in years.

"Alright, so how did you get the charm? 'Cause I've got to say, I've been curious about that damn thing." Rhodey placed his beer on the coffee table, a small amount inside the bottle swishing around.

"A gift, she wanted to protect me. Can you imagine that, some little girl that had never met me before gave me her bracelet because she wanted to protect me?" He still couldn't believe it, didn't think he ever would.

Rhodey was silent, and for a while Tony thought he had fallen asleep. Finally, Rhodes sat up fully and ran a hand over his head. He looked at the man beside him, shook his head and smiled wide. "So you do have a heart?"

"Shut the fuck up." Tony stood from the couch, taking a moment to steady himself before he turned back to his friend. "If you ever tell anyone about this, I will kill you and make it look like an accident."

"No one would believe me anyway." Rhodey laughed when Tony flipped him the bird and stumbled out of the room.

Present Day

Rhodey had kept his promise, and since that day Tony had never spoken about it again. He had even refused to tell Pepper about it, even though the woman had asked about it a few times. He was sure she thought it was some memento of an old lover, most people did. At least Pepper didn't seem to resent it. She had realized early on how important it was to him, and made sure that he had it somewhere on him before he went anywhere.

Tony often thought about that girl, her face blurred by time, but the warmth and caring of her hug still as vivid as the day it happened. He wondered how she was, had she kept her promise to him, if she was even still alive. After Loki's attack he had worried that she might have been in the city, might have been right in the way and died. Even with all his curiosity he had never tried to find her. He was sure even without her last name he could find her, he had enough contacts. There was just this part of him that wanted her to remain that little girl in the bright clothing, that bit of innocence he held onto all those years.

After an hour Tony slowly stood from the floor and headed off towards his penthouse. He was tired, completely wrung out from everything that had happened in the past few years. He figured it was time for him to get some rest.

When he made it to his rooms, he dropped his suit along the floor with little thought. He climbed directly into his bed, his arm tucked against his chest, the pendant held tightly in his hand. As he drifted off he gave a whispered prayer, a plea and a thanks to his Guardian Angel.

Author's Note: Ok, so I started this a little bit ago and just now have had time to post it. There is more to this, but I will post it separately. For those of you that are not a fan of Darcy/Tony romantic relationship just stick to this story, as the others will be romance…. But don't worry, nothing creepy underage stuff, the next bit takes place after AOU.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media

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