justmeandspooky:

Tony slid into the leather arm chair with a glass and a sigh.  He was so tired recently.  Breathing came with difficulty and he was coughing all the time.  If he didn’t know better, he’d say he had pneumonia.  But the thin blue black veins extending from his arc reactor were easy enough to explain.  Palladium poisoning.  It wasn’t surprising to him that it was developing; he expected as much from the time he started using the element to build the reactor.  But what did worry him was how fast the poisoning was spreading. Of course, that would be just his luck, wouldn’t it?  He had JARVIS running diagnostics on the pattern his symptoms were making and how long he had before the poisoning… well, reached its final stage.

“Huh. Fury was right about one thing. You really rely too much on your tech, Mr Stark.” The cool alto voice came from the glass entrance, where a short, shadowed figure stood. What appeared to be a palmful of flame illuminated her face — green eyes under heavy dark brows, framed by long hair glittering with red lights in the fire. A green spaghetti-strap top showed off slim arms and shoulders before her shape vanished into shadow.

“He didn’t mention how much pain you were in, though.”