Go home

Tony’s drive home from New Horizons is completely silent.

The good news, at least, was that nothing seemed to be out of place as far as his personal life was concerned. He’d called his bank, checked the car key his other self brought to work before the accident, gotten in touch with his landlord and all of it was just as he’d remembered it before yesterday. But the thoughts now swimming through his head are impossible to shake.

He’s a fake, an impostor. Someone who looks just like this world's Tony but isn’t. His parents aren’t his own and neither are his friends. He’s stolen another man’s life and is wearing him like a suit all the while everyone in the place he used to belong is burying a stranger themselves. Tony supposes that if he were more cynical about the situation, all the zeroes that are attached to the check in his glove box should be some small comfort to his predicament.

By the time he’s cashed his check and made his way back to his apartment complex, Tony can already feel the heat of the afternoon sun beginning to bake the interior of his car. He’s sweating bullets by the time he finally shuts off the engine and pulls open the door simply from sitting inside of it without the A/C on. Grumbling to himself about the inevitable larger electric bill that’ll come from repeating the same thing once he’s inside, he begins to trudge his way across the neatly trimmed lawn and onto the paved walkway back to his room on autopilot. Tony hardly realizes he’s already made it to the stairwell when the sound of a creaking door greets his ears before he can reach his floor.

“Oh, hey, Tony.”

Tony’s ears perk up immediately and he skips the last few steps onto the landing. There, locking the door to her apartment and giving him a brief sideways glance, is his next door neighbor Katie Yang. It takes her only a moment before she turns around again, flashing him a wide smile. She’s clad in a dark blue short sleeve running shirt, along with pink shorts, a single raven-colored braid sitting on…

Tony blinks.

Katie’s been obsessed with fitness ever since they started high school together (a consequence of being bullied so much in middle school, he’s sure, when she was one of the chubbiest girls in school) and while he’s tried not to stare at her too much in the past, she’s always kept her figure trimmed and fit. But in whatever new reality he’s stepped into, that’s rather an understatement. Her biceps are easily the size of his palm – along with the outline of her abs visible against the fabric of her shirt – and her short shorts do little to cover up her thick, powerful looking legs with noticeable veins along them. Strong as she was before, this is completely beyond what he’s used to with her.

“…Earth to Tony. Coming in, this is earth.”

Snapping out of his reverie, Tony shakes his head and rubs at his eyes.

“Sorry about that. Job kept me out all day yesterday…”

“That new tech company, right?”

The second thing he notices is that Katie, too, has a deeper voice than he recalls from (and he has to mentally get used to noting it) his reality. Of course, that’s far secondary to her other, more noticeable differences but at least it doesn’t catch him off guard.

“Mm hm. I’ve been going there for a while. Pay’s pretty good… they gave me a nice fat check for the all nighter.”

“I was going to say you look like a zombie,” Katie laughs, taking a moment to readjust her glasses. “But I doubt you need me to tell you that when you had the whole ride home to look in the mirror.”

“Stress didn’t help either, lemme tell ya.”

Tony pauses, wondering just how much he should let Katie know. They’ve been friends ever since he could remember and had managed to stay in touch the longest out of anyone he knew aside from Zach. If he could confide in anyone, it was them. Yet part of him still felt that there was no way to broach the topic. After all, what way was there to talk about it that didn’t have him sounding like he was insane? Playing along, just as Zimmerman had stressed, was a far easier solution.

“…I think they might shut it down soon.”

Katie winces sympathetically and reaches out to pat Tony on the shoulder.

“Why’s that?”

“Complications with their business model,” Tony says offhandedly. “I just don’t think it’s gonna be sustainable for them in the long run.”

“That’s the story of a lot of new start ups, you know? Have a big idea and then find out you can’t work it out like you thought you could.”

‘Oh, it worked out alright. A little too well, actually…’

“I’m sure everyone there isn’t in any trouble; they’ll end up on their feet. Remains to be seen if I will, though.”

“Let me know if you need help, okay?” Katie says seriously. “You’re my best friend; I’ll try to find you a job at the software company I’m at if I have to, somehow. I don’t want you searching for months on end again. Seeing you like that…” She shakes her head, sighing. “…It hurt too. You were so depressed.”

“Sure thing. Where would I be without a guardian angel, huh?”

Katie shoves Tony playfully and he almost finds himself flat on his ass from the deceptive behind it.

“Sweet talking me won’t make the hiring process any easier, y’know.”

“Can’t hurt, though, can it?”

A faint blush appears on Katie’s cheeks. Tony has to admit, he’s had a crush on Katie for as long as he can remember. A teasing remark there, a compliment there – they’d never progressed beyond that and Tony wonders just what it is stopping him. Perhaps he was afraid he’d ruin what they had or maybe he’d simply found his own cowardice more acceptable than the humiliation of being turned down.

“I’ll let you get some beauty sleep, Prince Charming. I was heading out to the gym anyway. Maybe someday you’ll even join me, eh?”

Tony’s about to respond when he notices, ever so slightly, a faint outline against the nylon of Katie’s shorts. If he weren’t busy rummaging through his own pockets, eyes cast downwards to try and excavate his keys, he might never have noticed it at all.

“Trying to stand out here and give me a lecture when you’re not ironing your clothes? For shame, Katie.”

“Huh?”

Tony, finally fishing the offending item out, points to her clothing.

“Short’s are looking pretty bunched up if you ask me.”

Katie’s face flushes an even brighter shade of crimson as she hurries past Tony, beginning to make her way down the steps.

“I’ll see you around, Tony.”

“Right…”

Tony frowns at her strange reaction, before shaking it off and moving towards his door. Shoving the key into the lock, he stumbles across the threshold of his apartment. He almost forgets to remove his shoes as he lands face first onto the moldering couch. Even though he’s only been awake half the day already, Tony feels like he could fall asleep at any moment.