Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or any of its characters and lines from the movie used in this story. What is written here is for entertainment purposes only. I do not make any profits from it.

A/N: Based on a tumblr post by van-dyne.

Thomas huddles near the thrown-out boxes by the street. It's almost dark and the wind is picking up. He can't remember the last time he was warm.

Maybe when daddy put up a playhouse right in the backyard. Thomas remembers helping him pitch a tent, connect it to a tunnel, and then move some toys from his room to the playhouse. That was fun.

Thomas had played under the summer heat while dad roasted hotdogs nearby.

They ate the warm food and drank cold lemonade. They lay down on the grass, looked up at the sky, and guessed the shapes of clouds.

Dad told him about how mommy was up there. During the day, she'd look like clouds and watch Thomas play, and during the night, she'd look like the stars and watch him sleep.

Thomas remembers falling asleep, snuggled against daddy, and then waking up alone.

There was dust all over him and daddy was gone.

He wasn't in the yard. He wasn't in the house either.

So, Thomas went to the neighbor's house but nobody was in there. And he went to the next house over, and the next house, until he didn't know how to get back home and nobody seemed to want to help him.

People said that aliens came and did something bad, that they made daddy and everybody else disappear.

Thomas doesn't know what to believe, so he sits there by his boxes and looks up at the sky. Mommy's watching him, at least.

Sometimes people give him food. Sometimes, he goes hungry. Sometimes—

"You okay there?"

Thomas snaps out of his thoughts and looks at the big kid standing in front of him.

"What's your name?" the big kid asks. He's the first one to do so since Thomas lost daddy.

Thomas says his name but his voice sounds weird, like a whisper but also rough.

The big kid smiles and sits down beside Thomas.

"I'm Harley."

"Hi," says Thomas and smiling back. It feels weird to smile too.

"Where's your mom and dad?"

"Mom's up there," Thomas points to the sky, "And dad's… he's lost. I can't find him."

Harley nods and Thomas sees that he looks sad, like he lost someone too.

Thomas puts a hand on Harley's knee to get a look at him better. "Did you lose your daddy too?"

Harley shakes his head. "No, he left. But I lost my mom and my sister."

Thomas nods in understanding. Sometimes, people left, they go away all on their own. And sometimes, they get lost but not because they want to be.

"So you're alone like me," states Thomas.

"I guess I am."

Thomas pats Harley's knee. Daddy does that to him sometimes. "That's ok. You can stay with me. I've got boxes but not a lot of food."

Harley smiles kindly. "Yeah? I've got food but not a lot of boxes. Wanna share?"

Thomas grins widely and nods.

"Come on, follow me."

Harley helps Thomas carry a folded-up box and they go down the alley, cross the road, walk past the high water tank, and walk inside what looks to be a woodshed.

Harley turns on the light and Thomas finds that it's not a woodshed at all but some sort of playhouse for bid kids!

There's a car inside (how did it fit through the door?), there's a small refrigerator (Thomas bets there's chocolate inside), there are planets hanging on the ceiling, and other toys on shelves that Thomas doesn't know the name of.

"This is so cool!" he cries, delighted.

They put down the box and Thomas walks around the playhouse, careful not to touch anything.

"Where'd you get all these?"

"From a friend," said Harley, taking a couple sandwiches out of the fridge. "He's a mechanic."

He hands one to Thomas and Thomas feels his stomach rumble but not in that painful way it usually does.

He takes a bite and then another and another.

Harley has to remind him to slow down or else he'll puke it all back out.

Thomas shakes his head arguing that there's no way he's gonna throw up this food. It's so good! But he eats slowly, anyway, just to be sure.

Afterwards, Harley shows him the bathroom and Thomas takes a bath for the first time in a long time.

He gets a change of clothes, hot chocolate too, and Thomas is warmer than he's ever been!

When he's clean, he sits by the sofa, leafing over a book on stars that he found on the floor.

"You like stars, huh?" Harley asks, coming over to sit with him.

Thomas nods. "Daddy said when mommy died, she went up to the sky. She becomes a cloud during the day and a star during the night and watches over me."

"I like that."

"Do you think that's what happened to the people that got lost? Like daddy and your mommy and your sister?"

Harley looks at Thomas for a long while and then he finally says, "Do you know what happened that day?"

Thomas shakes his head. "They said aliens came but I don't believe it."

Harley chuckles. "Well, you better because they did. They came down in their ship, spreading fear and chaos."

"And then what happened?"

"Do you know who Iron Man is?"

Thomas nods vigorously. "He's the bravest superhero!"

"Well, Iron Man fought the aliens and he drove them back to outer space. But space works differently than Earth does. He couldn't find a way to get back and without him to protect us here, people started disappearing. The aliens took them, turned them to dust because Iron Man wasn't there to stop them. They say that if you look at the stars, if you don't blink and look at them long enough, you'll see Iron Man flying, zooming past like a shooting star, trying to find a way to get back to Earth. And when he does, so will your dad and my mom and my sister and everybody else that disappeared."

Thomas stands quickly and runs to the window, looking out to the sky.

He looks back at Harley, pouting. "It's not dark yet."

Harley chuckles. "It will be in a few hours. Why don't you sit by me and help me write a letter to my friend?"

But Thomas doesn't move from the spot. He continues to look at the sky.

The clouds are there and he thinks, Mommy, please help Iron Man get home.

A/N: Next up we'll see how Pepper's doing.