Disclaimer: I do no own Iron Man or the Avengers, or any of the works, just Anna and her bits.
Chapter 3
More School (Great!)
The couch in the living room was far more comfortable than the chair she had sat in before, and it was a lot easier to spread out all of her textbooks and notebooks around her on the cushions and the coffee table as she did her massive loads of homework that horrid afternoon.
School in Malibu was exactly like someone in the middle class would expect. The private school they were sending her too was filled with rich snobs that, if she wasn't undercover, Anna would never talk to in a million years. It was torturous. And the shear amount of homework she was given on her very first day was enough to make her want to quit school then and there. But she had a mission to accomplish, and she couldn't just abandon it on day two.
The work was far harder than even what Mr. Laureen handed out, the ass. After three hours of trying and miserably failing at trying to do her Trig homework, Anna wanted to throw it across the room into the fireplace to burn and never deal with again. She knew she couldn't possibly do that though, and figured this was a good chance to try and "bond" with Tony, even though it was against her gut telling her otherwise. Or maybe it was pride.
Anna walked down the stairs to the lab and stopped when she got to the glass wall and door. She hesitantly knocked, trying to get Tony's attention from his desk. She couldn't believe she was actually doing this. She knew she had to make her way into that tiny, tiny heart of his, but she was making herself look dumb by asking for help on her homework. Not that she was all that smart really, but she could play it off as she was. This would just shoot all of that effort down the drain.
"JARVIS? Can I go in to ask him something?" Anna asked nervously.
"I believe so, Miss O'Connell," JARVIS answered, unlocking the door for her.
Anna opened the door and quickly stepped in, catching Tony's attention. "Whatcha need, Alien?" Tony asked her.
Anna walked up behind him too look over his shoulder to see what he was up to. She had to admit, the shop was sick! Her interest was definitely peaked on what activities he was working on. "You busy?" she asked.
"Always." Tony grunted as he didn't even turn to look at her.
"Well….think you could take a break?" Anna mumbled, clutching her textbook and notebook to her chest tighter.
"Did God take a break? I don't think so." Tony grumbled.
"I'd hardly consider you God," Anna admitted.
"You are the few who don't." He said. "What do you want?"
"Help on my homework?" she offered, a sheepish smile on her face.
"...Homework? High school home work?" Tony asked. "Seriously? Did you just ask, The Tony Stark, THE IRON MAN...to help you on your Algebra?" Tony asked her. "That's like asking Einstein what two plus two is." He turned away. "My dad never helped me and I turned out great. So I pass that life lesson on to you." He said focusing on his work.
With each word that passed from his mouth to her ear, Anna's blood boiled. How could he think himself that far above her like that? How much of an ass was he? She knew Phil, her honorary uncle, had told her he was a jerk, but this was even worse than she ever could've imagined. "It's Trigonometry asshat," Anna growled. "And not everybody has your IQ, Dickwad. Fuck you. Forget I asked."
"I will completely forget you asked," Tony promised.
Anna turned away in a much worse mood than she had been when she went down there. And she'd remain that way until the next day.
"May I be so bold as to remind you that most people have difficulty with math homework in school," JARVIS reminded Tony.
"Yeah, and like I said, my dad never helped me and I got through it." Tony scoffed. "If you're so concerned JARVIS you help her."
Once again, after all long tiring day at school with all of the stacks of homework, Anna sat on the couch frustratingly erasing away at the Trig homework she was very much so struggling through. She had barely gotten her math homework done last night, staying up all night to finish it, and with her luck, that meant she completely failed the assignment. She dreaded getting it back tomorrow.
And again tonight, Anna sat there, already finished with her history, science, and English homework. Now all she was left with for the rest of the night was to make dinner and to struggle through her assignment. And of course, that most likely meant spending another all nighter on it. This mission isn't supposed to make me lose sleep!
Anna growled and pushed the book and notebook that were resting on her lap off and onto the floor frustrated. She rubbed her eyes and then dramatically laid down on the couch. With her arm draped across her eyes, Anna laid there for a good minute or so wallowing in her self pity. They just had to send me back to fucking school, didn't they. Agent Hill has got to be laughing at me right now.
"What's with the face, Alien?" Tony asked, having just come down the stair from his room..
"My name's Annie," she grumbled without even looking at the man.
Tony sighed slightly. "Fine. Annie, what's with the face?"
"I think God said 'Let there be light' and Satan said 'Let's put the alphabet in math.' That's what's with the face," Anna answered. She sat up, her elbows resting on her knees, which were tucked up under her butt, just to finally look at Tony. "I mean seriously! Can we go back in time and slap the person that came up with the idea to use imaginary numbers?"
Tony looked torn for a moment. He glanced to the stairs leading down to the lab, then back at Anna before he finally sighed and turned fully to the teen. "...Here," Tony said opening her work and scanning through it. "That right there, see it, can you see your mistake. Compare it to the problem on the page before it."
"No, they're completely different problems," Anna sighed. "
"No, they're not." Tony said as he sat down with her. "They're from the same branch of problems, just with small tweaks to them. The way I learned Math was I noticed patterns within my work and strung them together."
"My brain doesn't work that way," Anna admitted. "It's not that simple for me."
"Well then let's go over a few problems. I think you're overthinking everything, Alien. It's numbers." Tony said.
"My problem is always overthinking everything," she admitted. "But that's just it, it's not just numbers! It's letters too! Imaginary ones!"
"Then shut up and listen to me then." Tony said. "Those letters are hiding numbers. As if someone took out and number and hid it behind a letter, that's what you're trying to find." Tony said as he shoved a pen in her hand and grabbed one for himself.
And that was how the two of them spent the next two hours. Anna's homework was finished, and she even gained a little bit more understanding with from the way Tony explained it. She wouldn't admit it to anybody, but Tony was a far better teacher than one would've thought. Fair better than that Mr. What's-His-Face back in New York.
After Tony finished helping her, he retreated into the workshop once more, leaving Anna upstairs by herself. After watching a bit of TV, she moved to the kitchen to make dinner, something she found out Tony rarely had. Or rarely had food in general. That idiot would get too caught up in his own work and forget to eat.
So Anna was taking it upon herself to make two portions of garlic chicken and pasta for dinner, after checking in with JARVIS to make sure Tony actually like that. Anna was actually a very good cook too. After all, most of the time she lived on her own. Her mother couldn't cook. Her father wouldn't be caught dead in the kitchen, and her brother took after their mother. Then, of course, her parents passed away, and her brother remained in SHIELD, which meant he was never home. So Anna quickly learned how to cook and how to cook well.
Once the food was done, Anna took the two plates down the stairs to the lab. "JARVIS, could you get the door for me? My hands are a bit full," she said.
"Of course, Ms. O'Connell," he informed her.
"Thank you," she replied, entering through the door after JARVIS was oh so kind to open it for her. "Dinner time, Genius," Anna called out to Tony over the loud rock music blaring over the speakers.
"It better be 'out of this world, Alien.'" Tony rolled his eyes as he pushed away from the table in his rolly chair.
"I may not be good at Trig, but I am good at cooking," she said, handing him a plate before plopping down on the sofa by the TV in the lab. "You'll like it, if you know, you like food. But you're weird, so who knows if you're into that sort of thing."
"Nah, I run on batteries, but in order to pass for a human I eat." Tony shrugged as he flung himself into his chair.
"Riiiiiiiight," Anna chuckled, downing her own plate.
"I gotta make humans feel like they can succeed in some way..."
"Oh, just shut up and eat you food," Anna told him.
"Right..."he said.
The two fell into the silence that they were all too familiar with while being around each other. It allowed them to just eat in peace and to focus on their own thought. It wasn't until they were both done that Anna spoke up. "Well, did you like it?"
"I did. Good Job." Tony said shortly.
"Well, I guess there's one good thing about me being here, right?" Anna laughed. "At least you get a cook."
"Yeah there's something. So I guess you can stay if you make this at least once a week." Tony said.
"I'm not going to make the same thing every week," Anna laughed. "Variety. If I made it every week, you'd get tired of it."
"No. That's a rule. It's a rule now. Can't break the rules. I'm the adult." Tony said stubbornly.
"And I'm the rebellious teenager," she retorted.
"And I have an Iron Man suit. I win." Tony stated.
"I don't see how that really makes a difference in this argument," Anna laughed.
"It just does. It's the Iron Rule."
"There's no such thing!" Anna giggled. "You just made that up."
"Doesn't matter, it's a thing now."
"Oh please," Anna scoffed. "You're just being difficult now."
"I know." Tony said happily.
"You're all about being difficult, aren't you?"
"Yes. Yes I am."
"I'm starting to figure that out…" Anna muttered, rolling her eyes, though she did have a small, playful smirk on her lips.
Staying here is definitely going to be more interesting now.
Yay, so now Tony and Anna are on a little better terms. They're starting to tolerate each other, which is a very good sign. Maybe being there won't be as unbearable as she thinks! Anyway, I hope you guys liked the chapter! Let me know what you think.
Thanks go to the following individuals for their reviews in the previous chapters:
Fangirling007- I'm so happy you like the story and find it different!
Jedi Jelsa777- Lol I know! It's so funny. I owe that to StillDoll13.
