Actions

Work Header

The Nightmares Don't Stop *ON HIATUS*

Summary:

The reader was offered a scholarship by the Maria Stark Foundation under the promise that she would intern under Tony Stark upon graduation. She is competing among other interns for a permanent position helping the Avengers. Past trauma is revealed, friends are made, and romances are started, but a big misunderstanding leads to the reader being hurt by someone she thought she trusted and maybe even loved.

 

ON HIATUS

Chapter Text

The move into the city wasn’t too bad, all things considered. Sure you were terrified to hail a cab because of all the taxi horror stories that had gone around the internet over the years, but the worst that happened was dropping one of your suitcases in a rain puddle outside your new apartment complex. It’s funny, the world is plagued by aliens, androids, and wizards; yet the truest monsters would always be mere humans. Humans know how to hit you where it hurts, how physical torment is not always the worst kind of torture, how exactly to break someone’s spirit. And my oh my, do you know what it’s like to be broken. You’ve never been one to dwell on the past. You don’t like to play the victim, even though many therapists have insisted that you are one . But hell, what do they know? They weren’t there, and no matter how many times or how well you can explain it, nobody can convince you that you didn’t deserve what happened.

‘Look at me,’ you thought, ‘saying I don’t like to dwell on the past and then going off on a mental tangent about that very thing.’

You were jostled out of your thoughts by the sound of some object being dropped and shattering on the floor above you followed by a rather loud argument.

‘Ah yes, the joys of the city,’ you thought sarcastically.

You had escaped that hellhole of your hometown in lieu of the Big Apple, hoping to find some distraction by pouring yourself into your new job. Your official job title was “personal assistant” under Tony Stark at the new Avengers compound. Your hours would no doubt be long and unpredictable, and the details of said job were a bit unclear, but honestly what could be worse than what you’ve already been through? You glance at your phone to check the time. You had arrived at noon and had just finished unpacking. Apparently it only took you one hour. You hadn’t many belongings to unpack into your studio apartment if you were being honest with yourself. You put your mattress on the floor in one corner, a power strip into the one wall socket, and plugged in your cell phone and new work-issued laptop. You dragged your wardrobe into the miraculously-functioning elevator and into your apartment where you neatly arranged your clothes into the drawers.

You were by no means rich, but you had enough to get by. You had managed to put yourself through community college for two years and then received a full ride to a well-known university in your hometown under the Maria Stark Foundation (MSF) which was founded by her son Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man. The one requirement was you would begin working for Mr. Stark in NYC as soon as you had finished college. Of course there had been minimum GPA requirements and the like, but you consistently received top marks and graduated with a 4.0 having majored in both computer science and chemical engineering. You also minored in physics, but that was more for fun than anything. Tony Stark was paying for your education- you were sure as hell going to take advantage of that! You and the rest of the MSF scholars would begin work in exactly one week. You had been offered a shared room with a roommate in Mr. Stark’s apartment complex for his MSF scholars, but you wouldn’t want to put anyone else through your terrible nighttime habits as a result of insomnia and (when you did sleep) nightmares that would render your throat raw from all of the screaming. No, it was much better this way. You weren’t exactly pleased with your small studio apartment that had animal droppings in one corner and three locks on the door, but you could make it work. After all, if this paid internship turned into a permanent job, you would surely be compensated handsomely and even be offered a room at the Avengers compound. It would just be a matter of hard work and patience. Plus, you already had a few days more to explore the city than the other interns who would move into their building later on in the week. You had no connections to your past, no expectations, and most importantly you had no limits. You were free and had an entirely new city to explore all on your own for a week. You could get yourself into all kinds of fun, that is, if you ever got brave enough to call yourself another cab…