Ava blinked a few times, and looked around. She was in a comfortable bed, in a plain room. She thought for a moment that maybe she was in heaven. Then the door opened, and a tall man stepped in. Ava recognized him from the news, the largest name in clean energy and all that. She frowned at him. "What happened?"

He crossed his arms over his chest. "I saved you."

Ava expected the normal butterflies in her stomach at the prospect of talking to a stranger, but for some reason she felt very confident all of a sudden. She spoke with an accusing tone. "You saved me."

He tilted his head. "...yes…?"

Ava mimicked him, crossing her arms over her chest. "Well, did you consider the fact that I most obviously didn't want to be saved? Why did you interfere?"

Tony frowned. "I thought you were pushed."

Ava sat up. "Well, now that you know that isn't true, you need to take responsibility." She saw the confusion on his face, and decided to make it simpler. "You need to kill me."

Tony's eyes widened. "What? I'm not going to kill an innocent kid, what the hell?"

Ava wasn't sure why she felt so uncharacteristically bold. It was like when she stepped off the bridge a part of her did die. She ignored the part of her brain that seemed eager to discover how much she had changed. Nothing was different. "Well, I wouldn't be so innocent if I attacked you, right?"

Before Tony could respond, she launched herself at him. But she was almost a foot shorter than him, and weighed half as much as him. Plus the long trek to the bridge after that short brush with death had tired her out. Even taking him by surprise, he easily deflected her, and instinctually pushed her away. His strength was much greater than hers, and she flew into the wall.

He winced, a guilty look on his face. He didn't expect her to pop back up. "Well, I attacked you. Doesn't that mean you have to kill me now? Isn't that in the superhero handbook or something?"

Tony sighed with exasperation. He just wanted to help out, he hadn't signed up to take on crazy. That was more Pepper's area of expertise, and she was off in Paris, at some conference or another. He left the room, slamming the door behind him. "Jarvis, I want this room on lockdown. Our guest isn't to leave, okay?"

The disembodied voice answered. "Sir, isn't that akin to kidnapping?"

"Just do it." Tony grouched. He took the elevator down to the living room, and poured himself a glass of scotch. He plopped down on the couch. He didn't even know the girl's name, and like Jarvis said, this was technically kidnapping. But it was for her own good. "Jarvis, show me the feed from the guest room."

He had many guest rooms, but the AI wasn't stupid. The blank television screen turned on, and Tony had a good view of the room. The girl was sitting on the bed, her knees drawn up to her chest. There were tears sliding down her cheeks, and that made Tony feel uncomfortable. He never knew what to do when he saw anyone cry, especially kids. And this girl couldn't be any older than twelve or thirteen. He saw her lips moving, and wondered what she was saying to herself.

"Sound too."

He was now able to hear her as well as if he was standing right next to her. "-can too. But wouldn't you feel better just letting me out of here?"

Tony frowned when he heard his AI respond. "I'm afraid that I cannot go against Master Stark."

The girl sighed. She turned towards the camera, and Tony got the eery feeling that she was looking right at him. Then she looked away. "Why am I still here?"

Jarvis had the decency to sound uncomfortable. "I believe that Master Stark thinks he is protecting you from yourself by keeping you here."

She snorted. "Huh. So he doesn't want to talk?"

Tony thought she almost sounded a little disappointed. Before he could hear the response, he swallowed the remaining contents of his glass, then went back upstairs. He entered the room. "Hey, you hungry?"

The girl's eyes narrowed, and she stared at him suspiciously. "Is this a trick?"

He shook his head, and held up his hands in mock surrender. She shrugged, and got up to follow him. He had been planning to bring some food up to her, but if she was willing to talk, then that was even better. He tried to start the conversation as they walked. "So, what's your name?"

She looked startled for a moment before getting a blank look on her face. Tony felt a little jealous. He had yet to perfect the art of not showing off his emotions. "Ava."

They stepped into the elevator. "Do you have a last name?"

She snorted. "Nope."

Tony glanced down at her, and took in her appearance. She had some scrapes and bruises, and her hair was all over the place. Her clothes were a little dirty, too, but it was easy to see that they were expensive. Tony had an eye for costly things. "What do you want?"

He pretended not to notice as she looked up at him through thick eyelashes. She had such a shocked and innocent look, like no one had done something so simple as ask her what she wanted to eat before. He felt uncomfortable again at the thought that maybe she hadn't. Ava shrugged. "I don't care. Whatever's the least amount of trouble, I guess."

They walked in awkward silence towards the kitchen. Tony gestured for her to take a seat in one of the barstools. She had pull herself up a little bit, the way that small children would climb up. He had been planning on ordering some take out or something, but when he heard her stomach growl, he knew that would be too slow.

And based on the way her clothes hung off of her, she could definitely use some food. He opened the fridge and pulled out some eggs and milk, and then turned on the stove. After he had cracked the eggs in a bowl and whisked them together with a few other things, he popped a couple pieces of bread into the toaster, and pulled out another package from the fridge. He heard the sound of a smothered giggle, and turned around.

Ava's shoulders were shaking. As much as it annoyed him to be the butt of whatever joke was going through her mind, he was relieved to see that she was actually capable of smiling. He pretended to sound offended. "What's so funny?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. I just never expected the invincible Iron Man to be so… domestic."

Tony rolled his eyes, and turned back to the stove. Once everything was prepared, he divided all the food between two plates. He set one down in front of Ava, and left the other in front of himself. She glanced down at the food then back at him. He sighed overdramatically, and put a forkful of eggs in his mouth. That seemed to convince Ava that it was okay, and she followed suit.

He watched as she took tiny mouthfuls, and nibbled at the toast and bacon. She pushed the plate away after a few minutes, and it looked practically untouched. Tony had a feeling that it was petulance so much as she was actually full. Which was really rather sad. So instead of lecturing her about not wasting food, he pulled her plate forward and finished off what was left.

Her mouth opened a little in surprise. She grumbled under her breath, "Domestic and a pig."

And Tony couldn't help chuckling at that. She slid back onto her bare feet, and Tony took in the sight of her ragged clothes. He wanted to give her something cleaner to wear, but even Pepper's stuff would be too big on the child. But at least they would be closer than his own. "Hey, do you want to borrow some clean clothes or something?"

For a moment she looked tempted, but then Ava shook her head. "Nah, it would be a waste of your nice clean clothes to be on a dead body."

Tony shook his head. It was definitely for her protection to keep her here. And considering her last attempt, he decided it would be safer to stick to the lower floors of the tower. "Want to watch a movie or something?" Ava shook her head. "How about playing a game?"

Ava raised one eyebrow like she was daring Tony to suggest one more thing. Geez, he would have to learn where girls got taught that look, because Pepper had it down pretty well too. "How about a board game?"

The side of Tony's mouth quirked up. She wasn't serious, was she? No one played board games anymore. And he had way better games to play, on a console he had invented and perfected himself. "How about a virtual board game?"

Ava shrugged. "There's literally no point to a board game that has no board."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Fine, a board game it." He pulled out his Stark phone, and quickly looked up the number to the closest toy store. He called, and only had to wait a few rings before it was answered.

"Ringo's Games and More, how may I help you today?"

Tony glanced over at Ava, and she was staring at him, a smirk plastered on his face. "Uh, yes, hi, I was wondering if you have any good old fashioned board games?"

"Of course, sir. Was there any game in particular that you were searching for?"

He looked at Ava. Her peculiar green eyes seemed to be laughing at him. Well, if they were going old fashioned, they might as well go with the classic board game. "Monopoly."

The clerk stifled a laugh. "Of course, we have several different themed Monopoly games in stock-"

"Just the classic version will be fine."

He started to give his address, but the clerk said that they don't deliver. He finished giving the address, and the clerk was suddenly very eager to comply. "There should be someone arriving with the game shortly." Then Tony hung up, and looked at Ava.

She just shrugged. "I'm impressed. I almost expected you to insist we play a fake version on your computer."

After a few minutes of silence, no less awkward than before, Jarvis announced that the guy from the game store had arrived. Tony answered the door, accepted the game, and gave the clerk a hundred dollars as a tip.

He held up the game. "Where do you want to play?"

Ava looked around, pretending like she had to think about it. But Tony could tell that she already had a destination in mind. "In there." She pointed into the sitting room, with the lovely white carpet that matched the white couch. She marched in and threw herself down on the couch, wiggling around to get comfortable, and getting dirt on his designer couch in the process.

He sat down next to her, and pulled the coffee table closer. He tore of the packaging, then opened the box, and dumped out all of the pieces. "So, here's the deal. At the end of each round, whoever rolled the higher amount on the dice gets to ask the other any question of their choice." He saw Ava's look, and quickly added, "And the one who was asked has to answer truthfully."

Ava sighed, but her eyes glittered in amusement. "Fine. Let the games begin." And Tony had the strange feeling that she was the one who was going to benefit most from this.