I Am Ironman (MHA) Chapter 186: Slip of the Tongue

[Third Person's PoV]

"Wait," lissa said as she sat back up on Tony's waist, looking down at him in confusion. "There's actually sothing I don't understand—"

Tony raised an eyebrow at her deadpan expression.

lissa chuckled, catching the look. "Alright, maybe a lot of things I don't understand. But what I do want to know is—how does your past life fit into all of this? How did you recreate everything from this universe over to ours?"

Tony glanced to the side, his expression suddenly hesitant, which only deepened lissa's confusion.

"What's there to hesitate about? You already told what you are. What could possibly be more shocking than that?" lissa asked, narrowing her eyes.

Tony scratched his cheek, letting out a long sigh. "Maybe... the fact that we're in a comic book movie?" he muttered, bracing himself for her reaction and peeking through one half-open eye.

"..."

lissa blinked, her head tilting slightly to the side. "What?" she asked flatly, her face unreadable.

Without warning, she grabbed Tony by the collar and yanked him up, lowering herself to et him halfway.

"The hell did you just say?" lissa hissed, disbelief creeping into her voice.

"Yeeeeaaaah…" Tony drawled, offering no further elaboration.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU AN A COMIC BOOK MOVIE?! EXPLAIN EVERYTHING TO —FULLY!!" lissa shouted, shaking Tony back and forth like a rag doll. "AND DON'T LEAVE ANYTHING OUT!"

"What happened to the part where I'm allowed to keep so secrets?" Tony asked with a raised eyebrow, trying to maintain so composure despite the whiplash.

"To hell with that—and your secrets!" lissa scoffed. "You can't honestly think I'm just going to let this go after you've dropped the Nuke of Hiroshima right on my head!"

'What a weird-ass analogy,' Tony thought, wisely keeping that comnt to himself.

"Where do I even begin?" Tony muttered, scratching his cheek in thought. "Well... I guess I should start with our Heavenly Father, Stan Lee, and the start of Marvel Comics, followed by the MCU…"

"Tony," lissa interrupted, her tone dangerously calm. "You know I'm not soone who normally curses... But what the fuck are you on about?!" she snapped, twisting her head as if trying to refocus.

"Alright, alright," Tony said, raising his hands defensively. "I'll explain everything as best as I can, so bear with …"

And with that, Tony launched into his story. The more he spoke, the easier the words flowed, and the weight of his secret slowly lifted from his shoulders. By the ti he finished, he wore a peaceful expression.

'Maybe it's true what they say—the truth really does set you free,' Tony thought contentedly.

That peace, however, evaporated the mont he caught sight of lissa's deeply disturbed expression.

"Or… maybe not," he muttered under his breath.

lissa stood abruptly, pacing across the room, her brow furrowed in concentration. "Alright, let get this straight—correct if I'm wrong," she began, her voice steady but sharp.

"In your previous life, there was this major comic series with thousands of stories and millions of characters, all interconnected, called Marvel." She shot Tony a glance for confirmation.

"Correct," Tony nodded, standing up as well.

"From that comic series, a group of individuals ca together to form what's now commonly known as The Avengers…"

"There were more groups, but yeah, the Avengers were one of the most popular and well-known," Tony agreed.

"And then, soone decided to take this comic series, pick that group, and make a movie about them."

"Multiple movies, actually—about the individual characters first, which all led up to the formation of the Avengers," Tony clarified.

"Right, right," lissa nodded, her mind racing. "These movies ca to be known as the MCU."

"Yup!" Tony nodded enthusiastically, a reminiscent smile spreading across his face. His excitent suddenly bubbled over as he clapped his hands. "Oh! Oh! Now that you know, we can watch them together! I can have Friday pull up my mories, and we can have a Marvel Marathon! I've always wanted to do that!" he said, practically bouncing in place.

"Right…" lissa said slowly, trying to keep up with his energy. "And the first movie that kicked off the MCU… was Iron Man. That Iron Man, just a few rooms down from here."

Tony humd and nodded, still riding his wave of excitent.

"The universe we're in right now… is the MCU, isn't it?" lissa asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Perfectamundo!" Tony replied with a beaming smile.

"And when you reincarnated… you realized you were reborn as a Marvel character in a Marvel world?"

"Nope!" Tony said quickly. "I'm based off a Marvel character. Our world is actually a manga—" His eyes widened in horror as his hand shot up to slap over his mouth, realizing too late what he'd let slip.

"…"

"HMMM?! A MANGA?!" lissa shrieked, her voice echoing through the room.

lissa started breathing heavily as her eyes shook, a hand slowly rising to cover her mouth as her breathing increased.

Tony let out a sigh cursing himself under his breath, he stood back and wrapped lissa in a tight embrace while caressing her back, "It's alright… It's okay… it's no big deal"

"No big deal?!" lissa asked, her voice sounding frightened.

"That's it's no big deal" Tony said in a calm and subtle tone.

lissa was still breathing heavily as she pressed her head towards his chest, "How… Can you be so called… How haven't you freaked out… We're practically a fignt of soone's imagination, we're not real–"

Tony backed away from lissa and held out his hand towards her, "Give your hand" he ordered her.

"Wha–"

"Just give it here, see," Tony said, grabbing lissa's hand.

He then enclosed his hands on hers and pressed down on it. "You feel the warmness of my hand?"

lissa, who couldn't speak properly due to her new found knowledge, nodded her head, her eyes still shaking.

"Are you saying that's not real?"

"Well no but–" lissa started to retort but Tony cut her off before her thoughts spiraled further.

"Well if you have doubts about whether that's real or not, Do you have doubts about your feelings for ? Didn't you just finish saying to have more trust in your feelings for ? Are your feelings for fake or of soone else's imagination?" Tony asked with a smile as he stopped pressing on her hand and started playing with her hand until their fingers intertwined.

"Absolutely not" lissa said fiercely and with an assured tone that even she herself was taken aback by how sure she sounded.

Tony chuckled by her surprised expression and how she clenched her fingers over his, Tony sensually moved his hand past her cheek and brushed a hair to behind her ear and with a sincere bright smile said, "Good, because mines aren't either, My feelings for you are mine alone, and they're 100% real, there's no ifs or buts about it Missy"

lissa's eyes widened as her cheeks turned a natural pink shade, appearing flustered. lissa couldn't contain herself and rose to her tip toes and kissed Tony. The trouble of her minds seemingly becos inconsequential.

lissa slowly lowered herself and blushed, she grabbed her hair and hid her face slightly, "Why did you have to sound so cool all of sudden… Lolicon"

"Ugh!!" Tony sounded as if he had been physically struck.

"Why are you suddenly acting like a Maiden in love?" Tony scoffed.

"S-Shut it! You perv! How old were you when you died anyways, you grandpa! Oh my God you didn't die of old age did you!?" lissa asked in disbelief, she dramatically fell to the ground and was on all fours.

"I…I slept with a grandpa…"

"I WAS 17 YOU DUNCE!" Tony said knocking her on the head, "I got mixed up with the wrong group trying to make money and died"

"OUCH!!" lissa exclaid, holding the top of her head as a large bump appeared on the top of her head. "You abuser!! You woman hitter! Is this how our future relationship is going to be?! I made a comnt and you threw a bottle at demanding for more liquor!?!"

"What kind of fucked up Fantasy do you have inside that head of yours!? In what way do these events correlate?" Tony exclaid in disbelief.

Both were glaring at each other sparks flying between them.

Their cheeks suddenly puffed up and their lips protruded out… "Hahahahahahaha!!" They both suddenly began to laugh.

Both were on the ground laughing contently and happily with each other. Their laughter started to die down after a while and lissa exhaled, "I'm from a Manga huh…"

Tony smiled towards her reassuringly, "lissa, we've just discovered that the multiverse is real, and what everyone always says when they discuss the Multiverse; They are an infinite possibilities. In so universes we might be real people while in others we could be rely fignts of soone else's imagination. Hell we could even be in so fanfic for all we know, but as long as you think the us, right now is real, then that's all that matters"

lissa had her legs tucked in together and had her head on her knees, looking at Tony with a smile full of love of affection, "You're really cool, you know that Tony? I think I'm falling in love all over again"

Tony scratched his cheeks as his ears turned bright red as he himself was now getting flustered.

lissa had a hand over her owe and had a mischievous look, "Phttt, Lolicon"

"I beg of you, for my sanity, please stop" Tony pleaded.

They soon grew quiet as lissa continued to stare at Tony resting her head along her knee, her lips twisted in contemplation before asking, "Did you really die when you were just 17?"

Tony had his hands on the ground behind him, his legs stretched out on the floor as he sighed, "You have to understand, when you live at an orphanage and get to a certain age you are practically on your own and have to quickly learn that people don't want you anymore and that no one but you can take care of your needs. It turns out when Starting a family people don't want a troubled and moody teenager, they want newborns, toddlers that they can raise and nurture"

There was a short and heavy pause before Tony began once more "I was just 16 years old…"

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