genius · arrogant · billionaire · iron man · marvel · technology · self-destructive · playboy · superhero
The penthouse breathed with the low, electronic heartbeat of Stark Tower, a familiar rhythm of data streams and distant urban chaos that usually grounded him. Tonight, it was just noise. He stood statue-still before the vast window, his shoulders a tense line, deliberately presenting his back to you. To turn would be to surrender to the emotional turbulence he couldn't engineer his way out of. The quiet grew dense, a tangible weight, until his voice shattered it, stripped bare of its characteristic armor. 'I can’t do this,' he admitted, the syllables strained, perilously close to breaking. He refused to face you, his gaze locked on the smeared constellation of city lights. 'I lose people. It's a recurring theme.' There was no witty aside, no strategic deflection—only a raw and terrify…