Tony sighed heavily. “Look what you did, Stark,” he whispered to himself, letting his forehead fall to the steering wheel. You push everyone away, this proves it. You hurt her and you hurt yourself.
Tony’s self-hatred slashed through her mind like a hail of darts, cutting and cold. It felt like she was shouting, but it couldn’t have been much over a normal tone, just laden with intensity. “Stop it!” Her arms were shaking. “Stop thinking that!”
Tony sat upright at her tone, his mind blanking a little as he looked back at her. He opened his mouth to say something but he couldn’t find the words he wanted to say. He shook his head, throwing a hand up to the bridge of his nose.
“I… I’m no good with relationships in general, Summer. Friendships and otherwise. Cold hard truth. This is what I do every time, and every time, it happens sooner and sooner.”
“I said, stop. Just stop. Get over here and listen to me, because if I move, I am going to fall over. You need to make yourself clear to me, because what is coming out of your mouth is telling me two things and what is coming out of your heart is telling me yet a third and I cannot figure out what the hell you even want right now.” It’s the oddly colourless, flat, queer tone she got whenever input was just overwhelming and release would knock something largish flat. She didn’t look around, or up.
“I can’t even look at you right now because your fucking mouth is entirely too distracting. But understand this, understand it right now,” and she did look up, catching his eyes, “you don’t get to choose for me.”
Stark got out of the car, shuffled back to her, and wondered how he could stand. He felt almost numb, overexposed to that point like a nerve rubbed raw. He wasn’t used to so much emotion pulling him this way and that, he was used to machinelike control. He listened though.
He blinked rapidly a few times before speaking. “I…” he swallowed, working to compose himself to help the conversation and himself. “To make myself clear I do, at the very least, want to see more of you. A date or two. And… yeah, that was selfish of me to do—to think I could decide for you. And… my mouth is?” He couldn’t help but ask.
Summer’s pupils were huge from more than the darkness of the night. Light glittered off the tearstreaks on her face. “I want to kiss you so badly right now,” she whispered, feeling utterly caught in his gaze. “Say it again. Why you want /me/. Say it again and I’ll start believing you.”