[Closed] If The Forge Isn't Warm Enough

[stitch_witch]

WHO: Lark, Tony Stark
WHERE: Tony's Forge
WHAT: An Early Equinox Gift
WHEN: December 10th
WARNINGS: Outrageous flirting and unresolved sexual tension?

Warmth. This was a gift that Lark often believed in when the turning of seasons approached. There was always a need for more warmth where she was from, after all. A hearth could only keep so much of Discipline Cottage warm in the winter, even with other enchantments to keep the warmth there. For some people it was easier, of course, like Frostpine and Kirel, because the forge continued to radiate heat even after the embers died down. And those near the kitchens too.

But Lark? She'd definitely made a decision about how to keep warmth there for someone she was connected with, and perhaps slightly beholden to for the power of needles and the like.

Which was why Lark was there now, arriving at the forge with her hands full of a lovely gray knitted fabric.

Comments

[stitch_witch]

"No, because I would die for nothing," Lark answered quite honestly. "To do what they did would require the power of at least ten mages, all caught in a single person. Which would mean power theft. Which would kill the mages, and possibly the one taking the power. The children should not have been able to do what they did. But their magics are great, beyond even the level I can achieve with the same gift when it comes to Sandry, and myself with a good many additional years of training and experience working with it, and being the best there is in the world with it, before Sandry. And even then, even with four young mages whose power should not have joined in the way it had, it still took an artifact level magical item of their own construction AND my energy AND that of a magic storing tree that was centuries old to just barely bring them back."

And in the months after all of them were almost too drained to live. And Rosethorn was like one with a brain shock. She had not fully recovered from it.

"I would never attempt what they did. No one sane and aware of what they are doing would. Sometimes people go where you are not yet meant to follow. This too is life."

[in_extremis]

The confidence with which Lark delivered that answer left Tony unbalanced again, sure it would have been perfectly normal for someone to say they would put their life on the line for the kids they raised at least, and while she continued to explain the amount of effort it took those kids to perform this miracle like Tony could even begin to understand the actual weight of 'power theft' or anything else, he was wondering if he really was the abnormal one and how he could possibly ask anyone else how often they thought about dying without suffering through that same look Lark had just treated him to.

At least twice a day had to be the minimum. Right?

He had to blink, realizing he was relieved for once to have someone talking about magic at him since they very quickly were not talking about him anymore, and he tried to piece together as much as possible from all of that information he did not want to listen to to answer, "Okay, but--a trinket and a tree and everybody holding hands, that doesn't sound like a steep price to pay for somebody's life. These kids managed it, and you taught them that, they didn't guess their way into the tree thing, shouldn't you be proud of that?"

cw: suicide reference

[stitch_witch]

"Tony," Lark said, giving him a look like a teacher very disappointed that someone didn't understand a lesson that had been given. "I taught them to never try that. And yes, they guessed their way to the shakkan. Am I glad for what they returned to me? Yes. Do I also know that I spent months tending to the children because the attempt nearly killed them? No. And do I applaud what amounts to attempted suicide?"

Her glare clearly said she did not. Don't make her tie you up if you try something stupid, Tony.

[in_extremis]

Petulantly, Tony returned, "Lark," like he didn't see the disappointed look, and only melted slightly with the revelation of those kids struggling through a long recovery. Okay, maybe he could see a little bit why the incident had been traumatic when she put that out there. It wasn't all magic trees. Still, her glare only made him rally, aware now that he might not have been trying to defend the kids only after he insisted, "It's not suicide, though, not when it's for someone else. Not when the life they are saving is worth--...more."

[stitch_witch]

"It's suicide," Lark insists. "To attempt, and I use that word specifically because save for the children there have only ever been attempts and they have all failed, then you die for nothing. You die and aren't there for those who love you. You die and you aren't there to protect those who need you in the future. You die and you don't come back. THe most important thing you can do for those who you love and who have passed is to live."

[in_extremis]

"No. Not nothing, not if there's a chance--" Tony started to interrupt, because there was a chance however much Lark was trying to convince him otherwise. Those kids had found it. She had him clamming up again, though, one hand flexing restlessly at his side and the other rubbing the centre of his chest, clearly frustrated but effectively shamed by her very rational point about dying making you gone. That did put him on edge, very aware that a miscalculation meant he wouldn't be there for the next time something went wrong, but he was still bristling and pointed out, "And all of the people who love the person I let die? They're not any less important than the couple of people who'll show up for the sandwiches at my funeral." He put his hands up then to clarify the position he was arguing from, because he didn't want her leaving here thinking it was a judgmental one; "I'm not saying I think you should put your life in the line like that, not if you don't think you'll make the trip back. You're right, it doesn't sound easy, and I don't hold it against anyone who won't jump into a burning building to save their cats. I'm not...I'm not trying to tell you that you should have done the tree thing."

[stitch_witch]

"For a clear genius, you're quite foolish, Tony Stark."

She didn't have his full name so she couldn't use it. But the way she said it in the moment, it was CLEARLY meant to be her chiding him as someone using a full name would.

"I would jump into a burning building to save a child or a pet. I would give my every breath of life to save an innocent. But I would n o do it when that method was fated to lose. There was less chance for the children to succeed than there are grains of sand on every beach in the world put together. There is difference between self sacrifice and letting yourself die because you no longer wish to live."

[in_extremis]

The weighty insult made Tony give a small wince, but he was nodding even as he turned fitfully back toward his bench where he could at least have a shoulder to Lark, sure, he'd heard that a few times before and had no argument. What was he doing before she got here? His meticulously organized list of the 52 most pressing projects was not helping him decide where his hands should land.

"You know you're one of the best," he agreed eventually. "Of course your world is worse off without you. We'd be worse off without you. Colder, definitely."

[stitch_witch]

Oh Tony, poor sweet man. She rises and moves to rest a hand on Tony's cheek.

"You're worth a lot to the world too."

[in_extremis]

Her approach was tracked with a suspicious sidelong glance, and Tony winced again as she raised a hand like he sooner expected to be hurt, though he didn't withdraw. For a moment, he remained tense under that touch, his anxious hands effectively stilled but clearly questioning how much he deserved it, then his cheek was warming with a new squirming awkwardness with Lark's reassurance. They weren't supposed to be talking about him. "World would be a dull place without its fools," he smirked, withdrawing then so she didn't start pinching or something in punishment for using her own words, and he could try to breeze through, "Really, thank you for the blanket. I feel like--I didn't properly appreciate it, before you told me all this, what you were really giving me, who was giving it to me."

[stitch_witch]

"The world would be a dull place with out its noble-hearted geniuses," Lark corrects. And he might have withdrawn but she dod move back in, and go onto her tiptoes, to kiss his brow.

He deserved the reassurance that she cared.

"I was giving you warmth, Tony. Something to keep the chill away. I do that for my people. The ones I care about. So don't go leaving me just yet. The blanket wouldn't even get used. Please use it. It's spelled to keep warmth in. Make yourself a cup of tea, sit down, enjoy the blanket, and remember: love yourself. Before you can save the world, you must love yourself."