Holly Potter and the Midlife Crisis (Hp x Mcu) by Enigmaris

Chapter 48: It's Something Like Closure

Summary:

Tony can't stop hugging his mom. Nothing else matters and he never wants to let go.

If Tony were to describe his brain to anyone else, he'd say his brain was like a horse. A very good, expensive horse. The kind that looked like it could run forever and jump the highest barriers and do all the best tricks. A beautiful racehorse of a brain.

Except horses suck.

If a racehorse runs too long it's lungs will just start hemorrhaging for no real reason. Horses literally evolved so that they were constantly standing on their toes and it seemed like their bones were made of glass. One injury could destroy a horse's ability to live. Overall, they were not a species meant to do anything other than run and eat grass and they still managed to do that poorly.

All of this was to say that Tony's brain was meant to invent things. And he could invent things quite well. But if he worked too long his brain started to twist in on itself and any amount of emotional strain lamed him like a horse's broken leg. Ask Tony to build an Iron Man suit out of scrap? No problem. Ask him to deal with the emotional trauma of Afghanistan and Tony would tell you to go fuck yourself.

So, when faced with the undeniable fact that he was hugging his own mother.

Tony's brain did the only thing it could do.

It shut down.

He just stayed there on his knees clinging to his mom while his brain tried and failed to reboot itself.

The ghost he was holding smelt just like his mom's preferred perfume, like roses. Tony hadn't smelt that smell in so long, he'd thought he'd forgotten it but he hadn't. It stung his nose with its potency, bringing with it memory after memory of his childhood. He could feel his mom's arms around him, one on the back of his neck playing with the hair at his nape. The other was at the small of his back pulling him close.

"Mom." He breathed.

"Tony. Darling." She said, her voice the same as it had been that day. Still ever so fond of him, ever so loving. "It's alright, I'm here."

"Mom." Tony repeated, his brain couldn't find any other words.

"Just let it out darling." She soothed. "I'm not going anywhere."

But you did. You did go somewhere. The Winter Soldier took you from me.

Tony just clung to her for a little while, crying into the hollow of her neck and wondering how this was even impossible. It was undeniably his mom. There was no way Holly would be able to fake her, she'd never met her, never even seen a picture. This was his mother. He'd only had his mom and Jarvis as support in his childhood, well them and Aunt Peggy he supposed. But none of them had ever come close to his mom. His mom had been the one to hold him after nightmares, the one to comfort him after his dad yelled, the one who understood.

He'd missed her so much and he'd hated his dad for taking her away.

It hadn't even been him.

It had been Steve's old friend.

It had been Hydra.

"Mom." He tried to explain.

"I've missed you too baby." She promised. "I'm so proud of you, of everything you've become."

"What?" Tony asked.

"You didn't think I wouldn't keep watching over you?" She asked. "I wasn't there all the time, there are some things that a young man doesn't want his mother to see, but I was there for all the important bits."