Never let it be said that Tony Stark didn't care about his employees. Which was why, he was currently sitting the hospital room (again) wondering what he did to deserve having the people he cared about get hurt. Tony ran a hand through his dark locks and let out a frustrated growl.

He looked over at Hotaru's still form in the bed, watching her chest slowly fall and rise. She was lucky that the thick steel door of the stairwell had taken the brunt of the force. Compared to Happy who walked away from an Extremis explosion with myriad of cuts, bruises and lacerations, Hotaru had come away with several serious burns on her arms, a broken leg, bruised ribs and being knocked unconscious.

Why she had been in the stairwell and not behind her desk where the force field would have protected her, Tony didn't know. And he refused to acknowledge the possibility that she didn't trust what he had built.

"Goddamnit Hotaru," Tony cursed. Why was she in the stairwell? He clenched his fist; his nails digging in so deeply, he was beginning to tear skin.

"You should go home and get some rest."

Tony flew out of his seat, startled. Turning around he saw Kai standing there. "Don't do that Kai," Tony scowled, his heart pounding. "It's already bad enough that Clint and Natasha do it. You don't need to add to my paranoia."

"I was here first," Kai said, sticking out his tongue.

Tony noted that the usual light hearted tone that Kai possessed was lacking. Even under the dim lights of the hospital room, he could see the dark circles under Kai's eyes, the tension in his shoulders and the missing smile. That made Tony shift uncomfortably. For as long as he could remember, there was never a time when Kai didn't possess a cheery smile and a positive outlook. Not even the time they had met amidst bloodied weapons and dead bodies. Hotaru's unbreakable calmness and Kai's positive attitude had been some of the constants Tony had come to rely on. Much like how JARVIS would always have his back, that Pepper was damn good at what she did and that his wits would always get him out of trouble. It was a bit frightening really to see that vanish, rocking his already rapidly changing world.

"I'm sorry," Tony blurted out, trying to break the tension.

Kai's eyebrow raised. "For what? Unless you're apologizing for the foam explosion in the cafeteria. I haven't had a chance to track down the culprit yet."

"No," Tony interrupted. "I'm sorry for this." He gestured backwards, at Hotaru's unconscious body. She continued on sleeping, unaware.

"Oh," Kai said, energy draining from his voice again. He seemed to shrink in size, nothing like the tall proud ninja he normally was. Then with a heavy sigh he said, "That's not really your fault you know."

"How is it not?" Tony snapped. He had made himself a bigger target by adding gasoline to the fire when he challenged a terrorist and his walking human bombs. True, if he hadn't gotten involved, they would have had a dead president and a new terrorist controlled puppet leading their nation. It was also probably true that Tony still would have gotten involved once Rhodey's suit had been compromised but it still meant too many people he cared about were getting caught in the crossfire. First Happy, Pepper, then his bots and now Hotaru. What next? His teammates? Oh wait they already had a bunch of crap handed to them. Tony let out an angry snarl and paced the length of the room.

Kai gave him a crooked smile, unphased by Tony's mood. "It would be a lie if I didn't say she was used to this stuff happening." He sat down in the chair next to the one Tony had been sitting in and motioned for Tony to join him.

"Let it go boss," Kai continued. "It's not your fault. We don't even know why the guy was there. He could have been looking for a cure and not looking to blow up the lobby." Kai shook his head. "The dead don't speak, well not normally," Kai said in a wryly tone.

Tony unclenched his fists, relaxing. Kai could joke. That was a good sign. It did nothing to relieve his guilt but it was a start.

"The point is," Kai carried on, "you need to let it go. If you start blaming yourself for every little thing, you'll drive yourself crazy."

Privately, Tony thought it was a little late for that.

"Beside this is not the worse Hotaru has been through."

Tony gave Kai a bewildered look. "She's unconscious," he pointed out. "They're not sure when she's going to wake up." It goes unsaid that 'If she will ever wake up'. That was pretty serious in Tony's book. Cuts would heal, bones will mend, but trauma to the head was always tricky.

Kai turned to look at him. "She's alive," he said in a grave tone. "That's better than the last time it was this serious."

Tilting his head, Tony gave Kai a confused look. Begrudgingly, Kai began to explain. "It was two nights before our wedding. The situation was serious. By the time I had gotten us out of it, she had lost so much blood. By the time I had gotten her to the hospital, she stopped breathing. It took them four minutes and twenty seven seconds to bring her back. The longest moment in my life," Kai said quietly. Then he broke out in a large grin. "The fact that two days later she still agreed to marry me never ceases to amaze me."

Tony stared in amazement and couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face. He ducked his head, rubbing his mouth to conceal the smile. Kai and Hotaru rarely spoke much about their lives before he had met them. There was some stories that Tony pieced together from all the hints they dropped. Unfortunately there was no way to confirm it as most of the incidents happened between secret ninja clans that didn't exist on paper. It was nice that they trusted him with the little tidbits of their shadowy lives.

"How do you two cope?" Tony asked in wondered.

Kai shrugged. "I don't, not really at least. Hotaru and Aero are what get me through the day. The clan does have therapists that everyone is required to see after every mission or once a month if there are no incidents." Kai paused for a moment to think. "Assuming that is, if you ever make it past a month without any incidents of course. It's never happened to me yet. One of them had to move here when Hotaru and I permanently moved to America. I know Hotaru occasionally visits, but only if she feels like she needs it, and honestly that's pretty rare. She does go to the one the company provides but more because Seika won't take no for an answer and it's mandatory.

I'm not sure how exactly she does it, but I'm fairly certain that none of this really phases her because she's used to it. All the kidnappings, waking up in hospitals, alien attacks, they're just facts of life for her and she treats them all as 'Here we go again. Just another day' in her mind. She accepts it as is and moves on."

"You almost make it sound like Hotaru's the secret ninja and you're the average joe that she married," Tony couldn't help but point out.

Kai laughed. "Ever look up Hotaru's records boss?"

Tony had. It was a standard thing to do when he had hired them. Kai's, of course, was notably bare, stripped of all but the basic information. Half of which, if not all, was probably false information.

On the other hand, Hotaru's records were normal. Two loving parents that died in a car accident while she was in college, just a year before she met Kai. A normal high school in which Hotaru had been class president. A traditional four year standard college from which Hotaru had graduated with honors from with a degree in English and a minor in Math (which Tony found quite quirky but it was Hotaru). Tony had assumed her life had gotten interesting after she met Kai. How she had adapted to it so well was a mystery that Tony had yet to understand.

"It was pretty normal," Tony replied, wondering if he had missed something since Kai was asking. "Almost like every other sane normal person in this country, minus the car accident that killed her parents." His tone held a touch of bitterness, knowing the all too familiar sudden loss. Tony wasn't on the best of terms with his parents but to just lose them in an instant without warning was jarring.

"Tsk, tsk," Kai lightly teased. "You didn't dig deep enough for once. Apparently her life has been pretty eventful, even before she met me. She's been a witness and hostage to some thirty different bank robberies and crimes, been kidnapped because she resembled a rich heiress, had her roommate come out as a mutant, had a phantom thief regularly crash on her balcony and taken a trip to a parallel universe where she is empress of an empire. I think she was joking about the last one but she said with such a serious face that I can't be sure."

Silence hung in the room. Tony wasn't sure he believed it either. "You've got to be kidding me," he finally said in disbelief, godsmacked. There was no way.

Kai shrugged. "Hotaru told me her life is actually more predictable now that she's married me. Now it's just get kidnapped by ninjas or get robbed in the lobby at work. It's all clockwork. Nothing like before where she could be walking down the street and something happens. Some people live very eventful lives. Yours is not any different."

There... was some truth to that. One could only described as Tony's life as interesting.

"But a trip to a parallel universe?" Tony asked in disbelief.

Kai laughed. "You should really ask her about that one day. It's a really interesting story. I told her she should write a book about it."

How did someone as normal as Hotaru get pulled into a parallel universe? Then again, these days, it was clear that nothing was impossible anymore.

"Feel better boss?" Kai asked.

"Yeah." The air in the room seemed lighter. Tony still felt the heavy burden of guilt but it wasn't as crushing. There was light at the end of the tunnel and he had confidence that Hotaru would recover. She was such a fighter.

"Good. Now go home and get some rest," Kai ordered. "I'll stay."

Reluctantly, Tony stood up. "If you need anything..." he trailed off.

"I'll call," Kai promised.

With a nod, Tony turned to leave. He was halfway out the door when another thought occurred to him. "Hey Kai? What about your kid?" he asked, turning back towards his janitor.

Kai smiled. "I left Aero in the very capable hands of Agent Coulson."

Tony paused, a feeling of horror settling in the pit of his stomach. "I haven't child proofed the Avengers living area." There was never a need to.

"So I've been told."

"And you've been teaching your kid all your secret sneaky moves haven't you?" Tony felt his despair double. He wished he could wipe that smug smirk on Kai's face.

"Yup."

"Are you seriously telling me that your ninja baby is running around at the top of my tower under the watchful eyes of three Shield agents, a Hulk, an alien god and soldier out of time?" That sounded like a recipe for disaster. Tony hoped the tower was still standing when he returned back.

"Yup."

Tony stood there, mouth agape, trying to form a coherent sentence. Anything to ask what Kai had been thinking. Kai smiled wider. Eventually he gave up and closed his eyes. He rubbed his forehead.

"I… Nevermind. Good night Kai."

"Night boss."


Hey look! I'm updating and it hasn't been a week yet!

Haha, anyways, it really warms my heart that most of you guys didn't want me to kill off Hotaru. The thought hadn't crossed my mind, but well it means a lot to me that you guys like her so much.

A couple people have asked, but I feel like I should inform you guys that I haven't seen Captain America 2: Winter Solider yet. D: I'm not sure if I'll be able to either. (ImeanIcouldstreamitfromtheinternetsomewherebutuntilthen….) As such the movie currently doesn't… fit anywhere in this universe yet. Everyone told me it was so good and I've managed to avoid most of the spoilers but –grabby hands- If I manage to sit down to watch the movie we'll see how it fits into this universe. But as of right now I don't have any plans.

I did however see The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I'm not okay. I am heavily in denial about the ending. But Peter, Peter, Peter is apparently determined to be in this universe so now I have a 5 page story about Peter in this universe. It might go longer instead of a one shot but I'm on the fence whether to treat it as

1) it happens after TASM2. Canon basically.

2) it happened after TASM1 and ignores TASM2 completely.

3) it happens after TASM2 but diverges from the ending. Again I'm in denial okay?

4) a rewrite of TASM2 because everyone deserves a happy ending yes yes? That includes Harry.

Any suggestions/opinions?

And lastly, the inspiration for this universe has returned at full blast. I have lots of ideas but very little direction as to where to go next. Is there anything in particular you guys want to see or employees you want to see more? (I do tend to favor the Yamashitas over the others…). I make no promises to actually write them.

Drop me a prompt at my tumblr: (remove spaces) seitosokusha . tumblr . com or via PM/review. :3