A Meeting of Minds
"I'm putting up a trio of kids? I don't even like kids," Tony protested, ignoring the fact the trio could hear him.
"They're not normal children…er." Coulson smiled. Not at all nervously. Which made Tony frown. "They're not children, they're adults."
"Whatever. When I was their age, I was taking over the reins of Stark Enterprises." Tony waved off Coulson's argument.
"Yeah? Well, we were fighting to keep our country from being destroyed by a homunculus that had swallowed god!"
Damn. The kid had good ears. Tony slowly turned around, his eyebrows rising as he peered at the three. The long haired young man was on his feet, pointing at Tony. "You have no idea what we've been through – absolutely none. So don't just brush us off!"
Tony kept staring at him, and the kid bristled more. Pursing his mouth, Tony nodded. "Okay. Okay. So you've had a hard time."
"Damn right we did."
"I just don't see," Tony put his hands behind his back, "why you should be brought here, to my home." He emphasized the noun, giving Coulson a look. Coulson returned a smile that absolutely defined the word 'bland'. "My home," he repeated, as if it didn't get through.
"Colonel Fury thought that they'd be more comfortable here than anywhere else."
"Why?" Tony asked, exasperated.
A loud, reverberating squeal echoed up from downstairs, and Tony turned around, realizing the girl was missing. Where had she gotten off to? "What? The hell?" he asked, as both young men winced, giving each other matching horrified looks. "My workshop!" He ran down the stairs, not caring, or realizing, the kids and Coulson were behind him.
What he found shocked him – the girl had somehow managed to get past Jarvis – he'd have to talk to the A.I. about how she'd accomplished that – and she was in his workshop, running her hands over Butterfingers, like she'd never seen a robot before. Dummy was actually sulking, waiting for his turn. "What? What?" Tony stopped in the middle of the room, thunderstruck.
"That's why," Coulson said, his grin reminiscent of a viper's. Or maybe a Stark. "Miss Rockbell is an accomplished engineer. Colonel Fury thought she might be more comfortable here." Spinning on his heel, he started back up the stairs.
The girl turned around, eyes glowing. "Did you ever think of making the fingers more articulated? If they're your assistants here, wouldn't it be better if they were able to hold more delicate items?"
Tony blinked twice. "Damn." Okay, now he knew why these kids were here. Still didn't mean he wasn't going to yell at Fury about it, though.