Chapter 4: Early 2009
Music Recommendation : The Man Who Sold The World by Nirvana
Dear Harry,
There are no words to describe how worried I am about you. How worried everyone is. I know Kingsley, Ron and Hermione know where you are. They do know something they're trying to hide but they don't understand the depth of my worry. No one can. Except you.
I worry not for myself but for Teddy. He has been a wreck since you left. He knows still that you're on a mission and that something is wrong since you have not returned. Everyone keeps telling him not to worry but he has always been a perceptive child. He knows they're hiding the truth from him - only he thinks that the truth is that you're dead and everyone else is in on it. To be honest, I don't know if you are alive at all or in any state to read this letter, but if you are, I urge you to come home.
If you don't, your Godson will worry himself to death. His appetite has taken a hit since the last few months. He only asks about you occasionally, only asks me - right before he goes to bed. There is nothing physically wrong with him but I know that you're the cause of his decline. He sleeps with the stuffed wolf you bought him a few years ago - I don't know where he dug it out from but he's been keeping it around for the last few months. And he's a ten year old boy soon to start Hogwarts.
I don't know why you left, I don't care why you left, if you even did. I do know that you love your godson more than anyone in the world and he has to mean more to you than any other reason which made you leave. If you don't reply or return, and I happen to find out where you are, I will not care for any of your explanations Potter, I will make your life hell and make sure you never see you godson again, I swear it on the blood of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black that still runs through my veins.
Andromeda Tonks
The letter drove such a chill through Harry that he felt his brain go numb for a few seconds, the only words standing out were never see you godson again. He didn't remember how he went through the rest of the day. He didn't remember how he even got to Andy's door the next morning. But he did.
And she was shocked to see him at 5 in the morning but she let him in and let him cry on her shoulder for a good five minutes and let him see Teddy soon. The boy was thinner than he remembered but his face lit up with such happiness that Harry never wanted to leave. He chatted away and held his boy in his lap for about three hours, before he let up and asked to tell Uncle George about him. Then came the tricky part.
He surprisingly didn't have a hard time convincing Andy to hide the meeting from everyone. She just listened to him stuttering about not wanting the others to know because he was not comfortable with talking to anyone else, looking at him all suspicious and worried but still not asking the question outright. Andy promised, and though Teddy asked a lot of questions, he was quick to promise the same when Harry clarified that he couldn't continue these visits otherwise. Harry worried about it - Teddy would soon start going to Hogwarts and start asking even more questions and Harry would have to answer them. And eventually, he knew Teddy would figure it out. He was a smart kid. Too smart.
He ended up exchanging two years worth of gossip with Andromeda. Everything she could think of, with Teddy helping her along with little tid-bits here and there - most of them about Victorie Weasley and how she was his favourite Weasley this year taking over from Uncle George for last year.
He also learned that Teddy still loved to sport his mothers bubblegum pink hair, though he had developed a rather bookwormish spirit like his father too. He'd also cultivated a rather wonderful habit of morphing his face into someone else' and mocking them by saying horrible things about themselves. Harry laughed like it was the most hilarious thing he had seen when he did an impression of Andy. He was proud of his Godson's particular achievement and he told him that.
He also learned that Ron and Hermione avoided talking about him, dodging the topic like it was the plague. Kingsley was less hostile but equally unrelenting when anyone asked him questions. Harry was inwardly thankful to the three- though he still felt pangs of guilt, regret and sometimes simply pain when he thought about what he'd done to Ron and Hermione. Some fishing also brought it to his attention that Ron was planning on retiring from the Auror office soon and that Hermione had let it slip that she was getting transferred to the Department of Mysteries soon. It made alarms go off in Harry's head - but he curbed his instinct to worry and think the worst of the situation. He wouldn't think about it until it was necessary.
He ended up staying at Andy's place for three days, spending his time surrounded by bliss and happiness and his two favourite people in the world, before he had to go back to his new world. He thought about contacting someone but then realised that he hadn't bothered to bring his phone with him, as it would have frizzed out as soon as he entered the house.
He did remember the trip back - it was highly inconvenient to stop at 5 different places around the world to get back, and to take breaks between apparation since he couldn't push himself. Technically, he could but he didn't want to test those waters just yet. So it took him another full day to get back to California, and when he did - it was to numerous messages and missed calls and texts from his staff and from a few other friends - mainly Pepper, Happy, Alex, Clara and Justin. He slept for a while first, coming back to his house made him realise how lucky he had been that the start of May had been spent at Andy's. He didn't know how he could have handled that particular day alone.
After four days of his mysterious absence, it was almost a surprise that no one had filed a missing person report but he suspected Justin might have talked to someone - like Caramel or Pepper, to make sure they did nothing of the sort. He owed the man a beer. Instead of calling and informing like he should have, he texted Caramel and the rest of the staff instead, hoping they would just reach out to the rest.
The days progressed into weeks and he was getting better with handling sleep and sleepless nights because of his days spent with Teddy, though Pepper remained frosty with him for a week after he returned and only relented after he made a trip to Stark Industries personally. He could have sworn it was a set up by Pepper and Caramel, who had now successfully replaced Ginny and Hermione's roles in his life. Mostly Ginny though, because as much as he didn't want to admit it to himself - he missed Hermione more. And Ron even more than her.
The trip to Stark Industries was humiliating to say the least. He'd found out from Happy that Pepper was at the Headquarters so he'd had to drive all the way down to the city on his bike. He liked the ride, even though he got many weird looks on the road and the traffic was impossible. He'd seen the tall, bald man who had come in with Tony all the way back in March, and he had only looked down at Harry and his bike, offering no greeting or sign of acknowledgement. Harry was used to being not recognised but the way the man looked at him - it just made his skin prickle. He ignored the guy and went inside though, and Pepper had been thrown off to say the least, when the lady at the reception had called her to ask about some "Harry from the coffee shop" who wanted to meet her. The lady had raised an eyebrow at him and stared for a while before he went up to meet Pepper.
He'd ignored the uncomfortable feeling though, and just grinned at Pepper in her office and handed her her two favourite drinks (warming charms were bloody useful), with extra cream. Her eyes looked a bit misty but she talked to him fine after that, chatted for a while in her office, ignoring a few calls and messages. He let himself out after fifteen minutes of distracting her, even though she insisted that he was welcome there all the time. Especially if he was going to bring her coffee everytime.
May melted into June as the world grew hotter around them, the kids at the cafe started to wonder why he didn't wear short sleeves - nothing that showed skin above half his forearms. It was pretty puzzling to them, but they knew better than to ask since he was now an expert at dodging the questions he didn't want to answer. So they mostly ended up grumbling silently among themselves. That, however, didn't stop Caramel from asking, and prodding him time to time, hoping that he'd explode eventually.
It was one of those days, and he was about to snap at her soon and hole up in his office to write a letter to Andy, when the door to the cafe dinged open and he instinctively looked to check if it was someone he knew. And well, he kind of did.
It was Stark, in all his suited and booted glory, hair styled up with a minimal amount of gel and an undoubtedly limited edition Starkphone beeping away in his hand as he typed hurriedly on it.
"So you're Harry, huh? How old are you again? Well, I'd have searched but looks like your files are sealed by somebody high up. So what's your background - ISI? KGB? Are you a vet? NSA? Ex-CIA? MI5 or MI6? Come on tell me - why'd you drop out? You're too young though - can't be more than 25-"
"I am more than 25."
Harry's brain had pretty much short-circuited the moment Stark had opened his mouth and asked how old he was. No one was supposed to know that - and the man had done a search on him? What was trying to do - become James Bond? Not to mention that was a huge invasion of his privacy and then he had starting listing intelligence agencies as if he already knew something was wrong about him.
The words Harry said came out on instinct, a defence mechanism targeted purely to make him stop. Harry was going to turn thirty next year, and it didn't help that he still looked twenty. But then his brain processed the rest of the words and he realised his documents were sealed? Was that Justin trying to protect his identity from the MACUSA Headquarters in America or had Kingsley run a hand through muggle affairs for him? This made no sense - he'd have to confirm with Justin if his documents were really sealed.
Stark wouldn't lie about this though - since his ego seemed to have taken a pretty big hit with the knowledge. His mouth was currently hanging open in between the sentence Harry had interrupted, but he recovered quickly and scoffed immediately, "I don't believe you. Where's the proof?"
"There is no proof. Would you like a coffee, Mr. Stark?" Harry replied immediately, swallowing his nervousness and replacing it with a bored look at the guy's incessant questioning.
"Wha- No. I don't want a coffee. Don't bullshit me about the age thing - you absolutely can't be more than twenty. No offence but you're tiny, kid. And that motorcycle outside - do you even fit on that thing? Do your feet even touch the road?"
Harry gave a very put upon sigh, ignoring Caramel who had abruptly slowed down her work to listen to Stark going on.
"Yes the bike is mine. Yes I fit on it and yes, my feet do touch the road. And you're one to call me short - how many inches are your heels again? I'm sure they're taller than Pepper's, Mr. Stark. I wouldn't go calling me tiny."
Stark blanched at the heels comment, and Harry pressed his lips together to try not to grin. He heard Caramel subtly trying to cover a laugh with a cough.
"Well, aren't you a smartass." Stark muttered after fumbling for a few seconds and scowling at him. After a beat, he seemed to decide it was a useless topic to continue and changed track, "So what about the modification on the bike? Don't tell me you did that too - 'cause I refuse to believe a midget handled that bike alone. Now don't go calling me a midget - I'm taller than you." Stark said with an over top puff of his chest, acting very much like a five year old competing with a friend.
Harry let out a surprised laugh at the man and a part of him wanted to ask Stark to remove his shoes and measure his height then and there, but he soon realised that he probably was a few inches shorter than Stark without his shoes.
"Don't go on his height," Jade said, appearing out of nowhere, probably to punch in a new order, "He's a ball of fire on the bad days - should see him barking at us in the morning rush. Honestly, no value of us working our asses off-" Jade stopped as he took a look at he was talking to, and promptly stopped in between his sentence.
"Oh. You're Tony Stark." He said with a rather weak breath, then looked at Harry with wide eyes, probably realising what he had been saying.
"That I am. Thanks for reminding me." Stark replied without missing a beat, which made Harry and Caramel snort simultaneously and Jade to go a bright shade of pink.
"Right. I - I meant- I mean I mean to say - I'll just - I'll go now. Enjoy your coffee." Jade squeaked out eventually, and hurried off to the storage room for a breather.
Stark was smirking in the direction Jade had disappeared, then turned back to Harry, "So what about that bike?"
Harry wanted, badly, to ask Stark what the hell Stark was doing here since the man hadn't ordered a coffee till now, but he hesitated. He couldn't very well ask Stark to get out, the man was a millionaire after all, and Harry loved his little joint since sometimes it seemed to be the only thing holding him sane. So he sucked up his impatience and replied to the dark haired man.
"What about it?" He said, barely stopping from high-fiving himself at the annoyed look on Stark's face.
"You're a little shit aren't you- Wait, what's your last name?" Stark asked, another question Harry didn't want to answer.
"My Godfather gifted me the bike but it was destroyed in an accident. My Unc- a friend rebuilt it for me and added some modifications. That's why it looks different. Now would you like some coffee or do you want to use the loo?" Harry said, not answering the most recent question in a completely unsubtle way.
Stark raised his eyebrows at him and stared for a second, before shaking his head, "Real subtle, kid."
He seemed to have got the memo that he wasn't welcome though, so he smirked charmingly at Caramel, who seemed to be thrown off with the sudden attention. He gave her his order and Harry barely controlled his laughter at the blush on her face and her unusual quietness while processing it.
"Well, can't really say t'was a pleasure to meet you, but maybe I can ride that bike sometime?" Stark said after a while, as Caramel handed him his coffee.
Before he could even think of answering politely, Harry had scoffed in the man's face, "You wish."
Stark had smirked again, and left with a short "Later, kid", leaving Harry with a weird sense of instability that came with his mouth running off on it's own when he talked to Stark, trying to keep up with the man. He'd heard that the man was a genius but he hadn't realised that it came with the implication of the guy being able to jabber continuously in the most annoying fashion ever. Especially when it came to getting information he wanted - which made Harry realise that this surprise visit wasn't going to be a solitary occurrence.
The next time he saw Pepper, he'd give her a free drink for dealing with this man every single say.
A week later and he still hadn't heard back from Justin. Pepper, however did drop off by the cafe to apologise on Tony's behalf - explaining that he didn't really realise the meaning of privacy, especially when it came to outsiders. Harry had quickly ensured her that he wasn't offended, even though personally, it had made him put his guard up around Pepper too. He didn't want to think what Stark would have found out if the files hadn't been sealed. He didn't even know what exactly was on the files that were sealed.
Eventually though, things turned back to normal; Caramel, for some reason, teased him about being so at ease with The Tony Stark. Pepper agreed with her, which made Harry twitch in his seat. It was one time - they'd talked just once and already he felt like never meeting the man again. It was mostly because he could relate too well to Stark's condition since the man represented the part of himself that was left back in London. He could have set up a business and he was already famous - this would have been his lifestyle if he'd been a little more ready to ignore the obvious situation of his oncoming immortality. And just like Stark, he had no family. Maybe Pepper's opinions were finally getting to his head.
That reminded him, Pepper had been complaining about Harry's bike causing a bad influence on Tony, to which Harry had taken heavy offence - "Hey! My bike had nothing to do with your boss' pigheadedness!"
Stark had apparently started hunting for a Bonneville in trash markets, so that he could restore it himself. Harry very much doubted that Stark would be able to keep himself from including some high-tech function or the other, completely butchering the authenticity of the bike. Pepper had simply replied that her boss was a literal child in these situations, so it was better to just let him do what he wanted. With that, she'd also asked him to do her a favor and allow Stark to ride his bike once, to which Harry had simply growled out a "No way".
Whatever the case was, he wasn't looking forward to the day when Stark would make an appearance again, which he did in September. It was a hot day, sweat broke out on bodies very quickly, and everyone avoided going outside. The colder refreshments were more in order, even though many still preferred their beverages caffeinated in some twisted way. He hadn't expected even Pepper or Happy to drop by - much less Stark himself.
The man was dressed in a grey AC/DC shirt, his muscles bulging and a cap on his head, as if trying to avoid attention. But the shop was rather dull that day. There was no rush, the work was going lazy so Clark had decided to take a break and was in the storage room, napping or something. It was just Caramel, Jon, Jade and Harry in house, almost everyone looking up at Stark when he entered with a ding of the bell. He made his way through the jumble of furniture with a shit eating grin, but Harry beat him to the punch before he even opened his mouth to ask.
"The answer's still no, Stark. How'd you bribe Pepper, by the way? Extra bonus? Paid vacation?"
Stark promptly scowled, before tugging a beanie towards Harry's desk and throwing himself on it. He kicked his shows up on another armchair, while Caramel abandoned cleaning the coffee machine to come to Stark for his order.
"Hello Mr. Stark! What can I get you?" She said with a charming, flirty smile. It matched Stark's own replying grin every bit in charm and fakeness, they'd be a perfect match if not for the age gap of ten or something years. That made Harry think of Lupin and Tonks. No no - that wasn't the right direction to go today.
He'd missed Stark's reply but the man was now looking at him with a grin again, so whatever was to come out of his idiotic mouth couldn't really be good.
"Would it kill you to be sweet for once? I thought Brits were supposed to be super polite and shit?"
Jon snorted from his place on the counter he was propped up on, "Yeah we were under that misconception too. Wait till you see him on a busy day - cursing left and right like a damn sailor-"
"SO I'm not polite sometimes! Big deal. It's only when you kids make me lose my shit with your damn incompetence. Can't handle five orders at one time - how am I supposed to keep things running if you're gonna whine just with that?"
Jon decided to chime in just then, "Well, excuse me for being precise with my baking Mister-I'm-Going-To-Leave-My-Cafe-In-The-Hands-of-an-Inexperienced-Twenty-Year-Old-and-Sleep-In-My-Office!"
What the - Harry definitely did not sleep in his office everyday. It was just that he slept a bit better surrounded by the paperwork. And Caramel was more than experienced at handling the complete load of work. And sure enough-
"Oi! Who're you calling inexperienced?! You only know how to bake! Like a fucking pussy! What are you - a twelve year old girl? Baking and whining and pissing rainbows-"
Jon stood up from his seat looking rather red and Harry knew Caramel had gone a bit far with the baking comment. Stark was holding his stomach laughing, rubbing his hands on his face to scrub away tears as Jon and Caramel jabbed the insults at each other.
"Cara - apologise to your brother. That was low." Harry said, feeling ridiculously old and grandpa-like, scolding his employees. All of them knew that Caramel was wrong on this one. She always made a low blow. Stark was still wheezing a bit in the background but quieted it down to a huff.
"Sorry. Whatever. Shouldn't have said that. Lil' fucker. Thinks he can get away with calling me inexperienced…" Caramel's voice eventually died away into hostile little mutters, her hands making a little more noise than necessary as she banged about irritably.
Stark snorted again, "Lordy - do you guys pull this everyday? Do you like record it and put on a show for the customers or is this just a one time thing? Is that why it's so rushed sometimes?"
Harry scoffed lightly as Jon sat back with another magazine. Jade was still moving about the few customers, taking orders when anyone new arrived.
"No, Mr. Stark. Nothing like that. They're cousins, they just bicker a lot. I have to interfere very rarely - Jade is the most level headed. Of all of us, to be honest. He handles it." He replied lowly with a chuckle.
"Cousins, huh? Couldn't have called it." Stark said eventually, looking over at Jon sitting on the counter. There was a tone of masked longing there that Harry couldn't help but catch.
"Yeah." He replied in the same tone quietly. He could relate.
"Your coffee, Sir." Caramel came over, carrying a cup of the strongest coffee he'd seen her make in a while, and handed it to Stark. He sat up, and Harry noticed a cut on his cheekbone that he was surprised he hadn't noticed before.
"What happened with that?" Harry asked curiously, mostly without thinking, because this conversation with Stark was going rather smoothly. The man wasn't being a pain in the arse. Yet.
"Oh this." Stark replied absently, fingers grazing the cut, "Tripped over an engine in the lab. I was drunk. No big deal." He said, waving a hand, but then looked at Harry with renewed interest.
"That reminds me though - how much do you want for the bike?"
"What?"
"Yeah. The bike. How much do you want for it? I want to buy."
"What? No way! That's my - are you kidding? 'Cause I can't tell."
"No I'm not kidding, Greeny. I'm a hundred percent serious. I want to buy it." That was impossible. This man was absolutely impossible. Obviously he'd spoken too soon about Stark's tendencies to be a cocky little bastard. Had Harry not told him that it was his Godfather's? Had he accidentally somehow insinuated that he wanted to sell it?
'"It's not for sale, Mr. Stark." Harry finally ground out with difficulty. If Stark thought he could win this round with his stupid money, he was sorely mistaken.
"Well, settle down there kiddo. I'm just pitching - give me a number. Come on." He was unfazed. Tony Stark was a huge dimwit who apparently couldn't take no for an answer. Well, he'd have to learn new habits then.
"I said No. It belonged to my Godfather. It's not for fucking sale, Stark. Back off." His jaw was stuck together and was he biting out his words - but he couldn't help it. This man was such a huge dickhead it was impossible to deal with him straight headed. The look Stark was giving him now was of shrewd wonder, and… And maybe a little soft?
"Sentimental value, huh? Should've said so." He quipped finally, and relaxed backwards again, keeping his eyes on Harry curiously. Harry felt himself shifting under his dark gaze again.
"I did. The last time you came asking about it, I mentioned that."
"Huh. My bad. Must've forgotten." Stark said in an all too airy voice, and Harry couldn't decide if he was lying or not.
"Should've paid attention then, shouldn't you?" Harry found himself muttering uncomfortably, Stark's eyes were still trained on him. Harry could practically hear the cogs turning his mind. He was a brilliant man sure, but the man had a bit of a problem - in that he was a little batshit crazy. Though by extension, that kinda applied to him too. Huh.
'So don't you have like a company to run or something, Mr. Stark? In fact - where is Pepper? Or Happy? One of them is always with you, as far as I know.' Harry said eventually, after about a minute of silence and staring eyes. The cafe was buzzing around them and everyone was carrying on with work, except for Stark and Harry, who seemed to be a part of some weird silent mental battle thing.
Stark laughed outright at his question and finally, freaking finally removed his rather creepy gaze from him. "Call me Tony. I have to call you by your first name so it's only fair you get to do it too." Stark - Tony said, placing his cup by the side of Harry's desk and raising his arms over his head to stretch.
"As for Pepper and Happy - I escaped custody for a day. No office work and I was down in the lab and I wanted coffee so I drove out here. Thought why not give the bike a try. They'll probably be going mad finding me. Shit'll hit the fan if Pepper finds out I came here and bothered you." He grinned at Harry lazily, doing a few more practice stretches.
"God, can't imagine what you two bond about that makes her so nervous about me meeting you… It's like I'm a five year old told to watch my tongue in front of Grandpa."
Harry snorted loudly at that - that was exactly what he'd been feeling like. "Well you are a five year old. But I'm definitely not a gramps. She wants to keep an eye on you so that you don't go corrupting me."
It's Stark's turn- Tony's turn to scoff. "Yes because you're so sweet and flipping innocent. Everyone knows you're a little shit who's managed to crawl his way into my innocent assistant's heart. Don't know how you managed that by the way. Couldn't have been your sweet talking abilities cuz you don't have any."
Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Tony was already grinning triumphantly, subtly high-fiving Caramel and winking at Jon. Finally, Harry could only purse his lips and scoff, muttering a half-hearted "Fuck you".
Stark didn't leave it at one visit and proceeded to hound the shit out of Harry. Harry was rather reluctant to warm up to him, something he made clear with the constant jabbing at the millionaire's ego and making sure to know that he wasn't welcome. The man was relentless though, and after Harry had ended up snorting coffee all over his expensive dress shirt (Stark was grabbing a shake before a party - Harry had no idea why) when Stark told a particularly corny joke, Harry decided he'd had enough. Stark wasn't going to stop visiting and annoying him, obviously - the man actually ordered food and drink whenever he came by so Harry couldn't exactly complaint to Pepper. That would be regarded as whining.
So he decided to save himself the trouble and just let things be. He couldn't very well stop things from happening and being annoying Harry just seemed to give the man some sick pleasure so he just stuck his to his usual display of impatience.
September whirled it's way into December in no time and the weather calmed down and stopped trying to kill Harry. Harry remembered that the dress shirt incident was somewhere in December because he had been wearing long sleeves and Tony had pointed out that he'd finally gotten away the whole summer without anyone finding out what was going on with the sleeves.
It was things like these that made Harry often uncomfortable in the man's presence. As if his secretary wasn't enough, Stark was cut from the same rope and they were both apparently observant little shits. Pepper was still visiting often, apologising on behalf of Tony sometimes and mostly bearing a message or two from the man himself.
Stark's visits, thankfully, were often panned out at the rate of twice a month or less, so Harry was rather relieved when he didn't show up anytime in January. Especially since Jade had gone on a rather extended holiday to meet his friends in New York and the cafe was suffering through a bit more chaotic period than usual. Jade had studied Law at New York University for two years and had made some good friends in the year above his, before transferring to California because of some issue with his parents.
Harry had never asked about it, so he didn't say anything when Jade asked for an extended holiday either. A part of him worried about what would happen if Jade made up with his parents or whatever, but then he scoffed at himself the next second. That was nothing to worry over - Jade was his employee, he shouldn't be thinking like that.
The guy was a lot happier when he returned, with the news that his friends had promised to visit him soon. Harry was just happy to get him back since Caramel and Jon's fights were putting him off a lot, and everything became a little bit unmanageable without him.
In the blink of an eye, it was the end of April and Harry's mind had started clouding with apprehension again. May would come soon. Something he hadn't realised last year was that May also brought along Pepper and Tony's birthdays, and one from Clark or Jon - he couldn't remember. Anyway, he remembered thinking about it in the last week of April, when suddenly, his phone was blaring out in the middle of the cafe, on an already loud evening.
It was an unknown number, so Harry hesitated for a second before answering, deciding not to panic just yet. His worry was futile though, because the voice on the other end was too familiar.
"Hey Harry, I was wondering if you're free tomorrow. I need some help... with this thing. I mean not really - I guess you can say no and I should probably ask Happy but I think you know her better. Happy kinda does too but y'know how he is sometimes. Plus, I need to keep this a secret so I thought it's better if you pick... I mean, I picked already. I mean almost - Argh! Look, what I'm saying is can you come down to the house tomorrow evening? I'd send a car but I'd rather you just come on your bike - maybe I'll get a chance with it or something. Or not - however you say. I mean this is kinda important and I can't trust - I mean just come down tomorrow and I'll explain-"
"Are you doing drugs or something, Tony?"
"Wait - Isn't this on voicemail?! I thought this was going on voicemail-!"
"You were going to leave me all that on voicemail? Are you insane-?"
"Damn it - and everyone heard I suppose. Your staff is so nosy, I swear to God-"
"Hey! Who're you calling nosy-?!"
"Cut it out, Jon!"
"Harry, can you or can you not be there tomorrow? This is important-"
"What kind of important? I don't want to be guinea pig for any experiment or anything else related to my bike or so help me God, I will-"
"No no no no it's nothing like that - It's... It's - I want some help with planning Pepper's birthday!"
Fingers crossed! I hope I haven't lost it and the writing and all's still acceptable. Review please! I'm dying to know what y'all think about the new developments! Also we're starting Iron Man soon, but before that, next chapter'll probably have some more Teddy. No promises though!
