" when we first met and didn't know we would fall in love "

Chapter 1:

Two Broken Lost Souls

Love was already hard to begin with. But it's even harder when the person you love just happens to be one of the richest and smartest men in the entire world. Even harder when that person just as well closes down to the name of Anthony Edward Stark.

She met him when she didn't know what love was.

After all, she was no more than a ten-year-old girl.

She had gone to meet Howard and Maria Stark with her father because her mother procured yet another appointment at the hospital.

She wasn't indeed supposed to be there but she decided to tag along with her father because her nanny had called in sick just that day.

She walked down the lasting hallway with her dad, and that's when she saw him- a proud boy next to a proud man.

She had known who he was- of course she did, but this was the first time she regarded him in a way which wasn't on television showcasing his dignified face and his lavish life-style- or what seemed to represent his permanent look of unutterable disgust at the world.

For the first time since she discovered who this boy was, he looked authentic... real as he stared at her in a demeaning way.

"Hi!" She had positively gone to him, her usual self ever so cheer, "I am Annabeth!"

It was as if he was carefully analyzing her ten-year-old self before finally bringing out his steadying hand and saying carefully, "Stark. Tony Stark."

Then started a lifelong friendship that nobody could ever be ready for- one of heartbreak and everlasting love.

Tony soon, without a doubt became a constant in her life, she noticed, when her father started to disappear at night and her mother remained oblivious to the shattered family.

He came instantly without a explicit warning and sometimes left as fast as he came, making a mess of her complex emotions and practical life.

Not that Annabeth really minded.

He naturally became the most substantial part of her modest life, even if he merely stayed for a fleeting odd moment.

All because he willingly stayed.

He was there to encourage her with the math she didn't understand in the sixth grade, he was there to allegedly punch the dull boy who kept typically hitting on her in freshman year, and when she got drunk for the first time, he was right next to her awkwardly holding her hair as she puked her guts out.

He was there for her.

She was also there for him, from his successful graduation at MIT to befriending James Rhodes and to the tragic death of Maria and Howard Stark- she was there.

After all, that was the promise they traditionally made to each other.

With Tony, she fell steadfast and hard. It was quick. A look into his eyes that were brown and hazel and gorgeous and so many other things all at once, and suddenly she was lost with no desire to be found.

"Love, love, love... and in the end, what is it good for? absolutely nothing."

[ 1995 ]

Tony groaned as she fell fiercely on his magnificent bed the precise moment she entered his familiar room. The fifteen-year-old boy in question groaned, knowing Jarvis will say something about improper behavior for young ladies and gentlemen.

Annabeth would get away with it, though.

She always did.

"To-ny," the gorgeous girl sighed wistfully, "I am tired."

"Then sleep," Tony modestly replied bored and then added, "on your own bed which is in your own house."

"No."

Tony merely rolled his intelligent eyes undoubtedly knowing she wasn't leaving anytime promptly.

"Don't you have any homework?" He interrogated her a few minutes later as he tinkered on his polished desk with a new project, even though he was reasonably thinking about hurling it away.

"Yeah," Annabeth replied thoughtfully from her glorious place on the bed, "Algebra."

Tony hummed.

"I am sure it's easy."

"But not everyone can be a genius like you, Tones," she would accurately say, a little bitter but still proud, "And I just want to spend time with you."

"But we are constantly together."

She then sat up with a profound seriousness on her earnest face that always sent Tony's ample stomach to complex knots.

"You're going to go away soon," she whispered gently.

"I'll be back every holiday, Annie," he smilingly assured her, but he likewise experienced a mighty wave of sadness wash over him as the thought of leaving Annabeth for MIT washed over him.

"Yeah, but what- what if you get a new best friend?"

"Yeah?"

She hummed- yes.

Annabeth fell back on the bed, her sparkling eyes on the decorated ceiling.

"I will never have a better best friend than you, Annie," Tony promised faithfully, "I will love you for two infinities."

Annabeth giggled hysterically, "that doesn't make sense Tones."

Tony also smiled.

"I thought I was the genius?"

Annabeth intentionally threw a plump pillow at him, "Don't get cocky."

After a while, Tony had gotten up and fetched a golden ring which contained a tiny red stone in embedded to it.

"What's that?" She had questioned, and the boy smiled serenely at her quizzical expression.

"A promise."

"Huh?" That had realistically been her genius reply.

She keenly watched as he smiled radiantly and put in on her finger- "I am gonna marry you someday."

"Tony! We are thirteen!"

Tony frowned thoughtfully, "So?"

Annabeth laughed but then looked back at the lovely ring, "But- I can't accept that."

"I know you like it," Tony sought his best to convince.

He cautiously watched, nervous regarding her reaction and sighed contentedly in evident relief when he observed a huge smile on her face appear prominently.

"Okay," she justly said and then in an accusing tone typically added, "As long as you don't throw that away. What's it called anyways?"

She was pointing eagerly at his project and he grinned- his ambitious plans for incinerating it disappearing instantly.

"He is called Dum-E and," and then Tony tipped his imaginary cow boy hat.

In a terrible Southern accent he said- "as you say, Ma'am."

At that intimate moment in the peaceful lives of two radically extraordinary individuals, neither of them knew the incredible amount of historical importance that was held as Anthony Stark promised his compassionate heart and she accepted.

She loved him and he loved her. But it is never that simple.

Good things don't last forever.

She was just about to be happy when everything in her life was demolished.

She found out she was pregnant the same day Howard and Maria Stark died.

And then almost nine months later, she gave birth to her and Tony's stillborn son.

She couldn't stay after that horrific night in August 2000 which she did not clearly remember.

Annabeth couldn't stay, especially not when her alcoholic father abandoned them and her beloved mother was diagnosed with possible cancer.

Annabeth said goodbye to Medical School, to realistically being Mrs. Stark, to Tony, to Peter James Stark and to Malibu.

With hardly any sufficient money left and an ill mother, she overwhelmingly said hello to London... but then that was the thing about Tony and Annabeth. Falling in love with each other was a mistake- but somehow, it seemed as if that in the darkest of nights when the rest of the world was sound asleep, they made the same mistake, again and again.

Annabeth was busy in London, missing something that she once had, but couldn't remember.
Tony was all over the world, building his multi-billionaire company, missing something that he never really had, but could still remember clearly. They were similar in a lot of ways.

And it destroyed her.

It soon started to eat her up, the thinking, remembering, overthinking- feeling.

Loving.

A love for the past, for a life lost long ago- yet to her it soon seemed as if only moments had passed.

Love for the people, some changed, some dead.

Love for the woman that she used to be... but that woman wasn't dead- no, she was merely lost under the debris of the mistakes and burdens she had undertaken. He could save her. This was just a mere fact, like the sky is blue, the grass is green and if there was someone on Earth that could save Annabeth, it was someone that was broken just as her.

Tony Stark.

The universe was a funny thing, it had a way of bringing missing puzzle pieces back together and it seemed as if this shattered woman was the next thing they were planning to save.

ENEWS: More news have arrived on the recent divorce of Lumont Pierce and Andrea Carter. Their nineteen year old daughter, Annabeth has decided to take her mother for treatment in London.
Annabeth Pierce was seen getting into a fight with her father. It is not a secret that the teenager is more fond of her mother but there are more things hidden and eNews will do their best to uncover them just for you!

More like these:-

Is Tony Stark the next American Mastermind?

What really happened between Annabeth Pierce and Tony Stark?

Was Captain America just a show man in tights?

Tap for more ...