iamthefirechild said: Summer crossed the floor at nearly a run, hugging Tony hard and burying her face in his chest. “I didn’t think I would miss you quite so much.”
Tony stumbled back half a step at the unexpected glomp, arms wrapping around her shoulders. “Good to see you, too,” he replied, leaning away enough to look at her.
She looked nearly as bad as when he’d come back from Malibu; dark-circled eyes, exhaustion slumping her shoulders, no sparkle. But she managed an honest, if small, smile for him, and let go. “Can I beg a massage from you? My family is nuts, and three days of eight of us in the old family home — ” she shook her head, sighing. “I just want to cuddle up close to you and kiss you and not think about it for a while. And I’ve got your present.”
“Yeah, I think I can manage that,” he replied, disentangling himself from her so he could pull on his shirt. Tony looked…as he ever looked when under stress; like he hadn’t been sleeping, but was doing his best to simply brush it under the rug. “Come on; to the couch with you,” he said, gesturing her out of the bedroom and to the couch. “Massage, then cuddling and whatnot, and maybe we can get you back to feeling human again.”
That drew a laugh from Summer; a bit strangled, but a laugh nonetheless. Rather than put her hair back up, she flopped down on the couch and yanked it all over the top of her head to tumble to the floor. Even that small stretch made sinews crackle in her shoulders, and she groaned a bit. “I’m trying to remember to ask,” she commented into the cushions. “How’m I doing?”