MCU AU: Crossed Wires (Part One)

Title: Crossed Wires (Part One)
Characters: Tony, Howard, Jarvis, Stane, Maria, Peggy, dæmons
Rating: PG-13
Warnings/Triggers: swearing, bullying, a child running away, assumptions of kidnap and worries related to it, family dysfunction/drama, brief reference to the non-tragic death of a spouse
Spoilers: Basic ones for the structure and past of the Stark family as laid out in the Iron Man movies, and Captain America related media
Pairings: Howard/Maria
Word Count 6,177
Summary: Tony runs away from school, leading Howard to realize just how out of touch he is with his son.
Author's notes: As always seems to be the case, this stemmed from conversations with joonscribble, because she brings all the plot bunnies to my door, apparently. A big thanks to her for nattering with me and allowing me the borrowing of Dejeni and some of her headcanon.

This is a very long story, for which I apologize. I didn't worry too much about keeping the POV switches of equal length or number, and Jarvis decided he'd step in for a random part at the end, so apologies for the sort of odd narration style, too. I've split it into two parts, but both parts are still long.

It's set in 1978. Tony is 8 years-old, and Howard around 58 years-old, I'm guessing, and Jarvis probably around 60? The MCU dates are very flimsy.

For reference: Dejeni (A raccoon), Haddie, and Kinga (a maned wolf). Demira is unsettled, and so changes form several times, but her mentioned favourites are hummingbird, otter and platypus.

Knowledge of His Dark Materials is not required. All that's necessary to know is that, in this world, humans' souls live outside of their bodies in the form of animals. There's an excellent primer here.

This is part one, part two is here

( I think you need a better plan. )

MCU AU: Crossed Wires (Part Two)

Title: Crossed Wires (Part Two)
Characters: Tony, Howard, Jarvis, Stane, Maria, Peggy, dæmons
Rating: PG-13
Warnings/Triggers: swearing, bullying, a child running away, assumptions of kidnap and worries related to it, family dysfunction/drama, implications of alcoholism, brief reference to the non-tragic death of a spouse
Spoilers: Basic ones for the structure and past of the Stark family as laid out in the Iron Man movies, and Captain America related media.
Pairings: Howard/Maria
Word Count 7,692
Summary: Tony runs away from school, leading Howard to realize just how out of touch he is with his son.
Author's notes: This is part two, part one is here.

Brief note, because I realize I never made this clear anywhere, Haddie's full name is 'Hendrina', but she doesn't get called that, ever. Except by Jarvis, at the end of this fic, which I realize is a bit out of nowhere, but he decided to do it and I said he could.

( You never listen to me! )