wynnesome

[FIC COLLABORATION] last night of sadness
Team Kill fill for the 2022 SteveTony Games ( stevetonygames )
Work Type: Fic -- wynnesome (outline); Loran_Arameri (author);  Aimily (beta/editor); Kiyaar (posting prep - title/summary/tags)
Universe: Ultimates
Bingo Square: Matchmaking
Challenge: Pass It On
Content Warnings: terminal illness (cancer); MCD

"A fluffy deathfic collab." Brainstorming in the Discord, my original idea was this:

What if there's a fic where tumor-Anthony kills Tony. Like becomes a boy, and then murders him.
Or else, Tony dies of the cancer and Anthony murdering him is the form in which he perceives/experiences it?

After some expressions of pain from a few people (yay!), Loran suggested, "Ant could come collect him? Like friendly?"

She felt she could and would like to write a fic to explore that idea, and I said I could outline it. So the collaboration began, under the original working title "Sweet Reaper," and turned into this fic.

OUTLINE for last night of sadness:

-- After Steve's canonical death, Tony's cancer returns.

-- This means that tumor-child Anthony is back, too.

-- Father and son are joyfully reunited, and talk through their anger and trauma at the way Reed had effectively destroyed Ant and tortured Tony before (Reed literally and brutally tore their family apart).

-- Tony does die of the cancer, but it's a happy kind of dying because Ant then serves as a benevolent reaper, taking him to some type of soul-world afterlife, where they are both reunited with other-dad Steve, and all is beautiful and happy.

-- Tony and Steve get an eternal "five more minutes" together, and Ant is more real in this plane than he could be as a tumor child.

-- It's "dying as a happily ever after."

-- Other canon points/references to be included by Loran as she finds relevant.