STARK STRUCK (Tony Stark × Reader)

21. Never Really Healed

What do you do when your best friend; someone you had a ensuring feeling that 'This one's the one,' defies your belief, and turns out to be just a really good impersonator this whole time?

Noone teaches us about betrayals, and there's no handbook titled '50 Ways To Deal With Betrayal'.

Well, I say it's high time this book be included in every syllabus, because friends know everything; from our insecurities, to our embarassment, to our lovers, to our crushes, to our failures, to our successes, to our family issues, to our bully issues, to our simping issues, EVERYTHING!

Basically, they have every single knife to go behind our backs and stab right into the spine. And it can hurt. A lot. If they choose the right knife. Because,

How scary is that friends are just strangers we randomly choose to trust, hoping that they would never turn their back on us?

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Y/n's POV

Right now

"Your dear old friend, in the flesh!" Ryan smiles at your hanging figure.

"You c-ch-cheat!" You struggle to control your tongue, and your tears which are starting to rim your eyelids.

"Quite the opposite actually. Do you know how hard it was to convince Shadow not to kill you? I had to count every reason why you could be useful to Blackhand."

You blink away, causing your tears to roll down your cheek.

"Awe, don't cry, Y/n/n, all this will soon be over and we can be friends, like we used to be. Just on the other side of the spectrum." He paces the floor, "you just have to accept the black hand I'm offering."

The hurt in your heart gushes up to your eyes, steaming out as tears.

"...n-never be like you." You mumble.

"Sorry?" He didn't hear the whisper.

"Oh, You will be." Your raging eyes meet his, and your words were loud and clear, you realise the drug's wearing off.

"Look I get it. You feel bad, that I kidnapped you. But I am just following the orders. Which we did in agency too. Except we were mere pawns for them. All the cared about was the mission, even if it cost lives. The mission was always the priority." He's explaining his perception. You are not easy to break, you never were, he knows what you craved all this time, "but it's different here. Each one of is valued. Heck! It's the reason you ended up here."

You furrow your eyebrows, trying to make sense of it all. "Let me clarify, you remember him?" He turns around, and you follow his direction of vision, to find someone walking towards you. Your expression soon changes into confusion infused with shock. Ryan continues, "Yuri Petrov, and because you kidnapped him, you ended up here. You see what we did there?"

"But he-" you try stating your confusion. Yuri smiles at you.

"I know I know, you left him in CIA, so how did he ended up here?" Ryan says, pausing to look between you and Petrov, "You're a curious girl, y/n. And honestly, I don't blame you. But that's exclusive content. If you wanna know you have to subscribe to Blackhand."

You say nothing. Ryan sighs audibly, nods at one of the men. The guy pulls one of the levers among the set situated in the right corner of the room, clinging all four of the chains open. You fall freely, hitting the ground with a thud. You weren't ready for the impact, making you groan.

Ryan walks upto you. You swing your arm to punch him in the gut, but your arm's weaker than you remember. He grabs your wrist before you could reach his face.