Christmas at Jane's
Chapter 4: Tony Upgrades the iPod
Weak sunlight shone upon Jane's house, peeking through the blinds and filtering through the thin curtains. Darcy had decided that sunlight in December was worse than rain. When would it begin to snow?
Apparently, not very soon. She looked outside again and sighed in disappointment.
"Darce, please get the door for me!" came Jane's voice (she was working on something important in her study), accompanied by a loud knocking sound.
"I'M COMING!"
Darcy stood up, put down her book (it was a new one, a novel about journeys and dwarves and a wizard), and checked herself quickly in the mirror.
Glasses not crooked, hair tolerable, and eyes round as ever.
Darcy groaned, wishing for the hundredth time that she was as petite and pretty as Jane, and made her way to the door.
She opened it.
"Oh. Hello, Mr. Stark," she said.
"Tony," sighed Tony.
"In your dreams. What do you want? The party's not for a very long time, so it better be good."
"I was just dropping off your iPod!" Tony raised his hands defensively. "And I'm here with some news, too. Besides, quit being so grouchy. I already have a girlfriend, if you hadn't noticed. And it makes me feel old when you call me Mr. Stark."
"Thanks for upgrading my iPod," said Darcy, after rolling her eyes. "Come in."
Tony obliged, hanging up his coat on a hook and removing his waterproof shoes.
Darcy led him to the living room, and Jane joined them shortly.
"Your tenant was just denting my dignity," said Tony. "I hope you two are happy about that."
"Tin Can Man don't appreciate a dented dignity," quipped Darcy. "Anyway, Jane, Tony has some news for us. I can't imagine what."
"All right. Well –"
"First, Tony," said Jane, interrupting, "Darcy is also my assistant and an intern, not only a tenant. The only way she earns money is through her job at Starbucks."
"Starbucks? Oh. Thank you for the information. May I carry on?"
"Go ahead."
"Well, Pepper's gone out shopping, and Legolas and Anne of Green Gables are on a date. Did I mention that Steve and Bruce are hibernating in their dens? Or that Bruce snores like a bear and Steve snuffles? Even with two doses of my strongest coffee?"
"Get on with it, Stark!"
"Sorry. But the news is, I've decided to do a bit of contribution to your house for the party, and I was wondering if I could get some ideas."
Darcy and Jane snorted simultaneously.
"Tony Stark, interior designer?"
"Really, Tony, you know you can't decorate to save your life."
"And did you just call Hawky and Tasha 'Legolas' and 'Anne of Green Gables'?"
Tony pouted.
"And I thought you had faith in me," he grumped. "I'll just take a look around and find some inspiration. Party's on the first floor, right?"
"Uh-huh. Second floor's off limits. That's my library and Jane's study."
"Okay."
With that, Tony put on a pair of glasses, pulled out some sort of tablet, and began to scribble on its screen with a tablet pen.
Darcy went back to her seat and continued reading her book, stopping twice to refill her cup of tea and grab an apple.
Morning turned into afternoon and Tony left, bringing with him thousands of sketches and ideas as well as notes about what colours would go with the paint and whether Christmas lights were necessary or not. Jane volunteered to make lunch, and pretty soon, lots of great smells were distracting Darcy from The Hobbit.
"What're you making?" she called.
"Food," said Jane.
As Darcy ate, she became sure that Jane hadn't been using a recipe. When she asked, Jane shrugged.
"Don't need one. At least it tastes good."
And that was a point that could not be argued.
Jane and Darcy settled themselves on the couch, each with their laptop (Jane typing up some sort of report, Darcy uploading pictures on Facebook).
"Good Saturday," said Darcy.
"Mmm-hmm."
Darcy skimmed through the news feed and found herself getting bored.
"No one's been updating anything," she grumbled.
Jane stopped typing, and sighed. "That's because last time you checked was thirty minutes ago, Darcy."
Darcy couldn't disagree with that, either.
So she turned off her computer and took out her iPod in order to examine it.
Tony had done a pretty good job. The outside looked the same, basically, except for an inscription on the back ("Property of Darcy Lewis"). He had changed the colour from grey-black to metallic light green (green being Darcy's favourite colour), as well as giving the iPod a few more buttons.
She turned it on and was slightly amazed, to say the least. There were lots of new features, components, and… songs.
How does Stark know what songs I like?
Darcy didn't spend long trying to figure it out. She crossed her legs, wrapped a wooly blanket around her shoulders, and accidentally clicked something on her iPod.
Whoops.
She was about to press the menu button when she realized that these were… videos. At least fifty of them. They were all categorized by date, with strange names.
Darcy pressed on 'TONY TRIES TO BAKE A PIE'.
Then, after a bout of mad giggling (Tony had tried to force-feed his horrid pie to all the Avengers), she chose several others.
"Jane! Look at this! I got my own collection of mini-movies: The Embarrassing Moments of the Avengers!"
Jane, suddenly interested, blinked.
"What?"
Then:
"Is that really 'HAWKEYE SLIPS ON A BANANA'?"
"Yes! We need to set a date for a great movie night, since there's so many of these! And I bet Bruce won't be very happy about a recording with him attempting to play hide-and-seek with everyone else. Good grief, it turns out the Avengers aren't as mature as they seem!"
Oh gosh. I bet Jarvis recorded all these. Or Phil. Or some agent.
Darcy was giddy with excitement. It was probably the best Christmas present Tony had ever given her.
As Darcy pressed 'STEVE ENCOUNTERS A TRAMPOLINE', she suddenly felt weird. A strange rippling ran through her spine and her eyes felt a little itchy. Jane obviously was experiencing the same thing, because she was rubbing at her own eyes.
"This is weird," said Darcy.
And that was when the whole world exploded into light.