Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot. Maybe in my dreams for my birthday, please… LOL, enjoy and tell me whatcha think.

Chapter 14

Sometimes I wondered what my life would have been like if I hadn't met Tony Stark. The invisible voice coming from the ceiling was actually JARVIS, Tony's AI, inviting me to his lab. I shrugged, with difficulty and got out of the tub.

It didn't take me long to get dressed and make my way to the lab. He sat concentrating on whatever he was doing with the precision and tenacity of an Athena kid reading English or a Hephaestus kid with a particularly tricky project. Finally he looked up.

"You going to die," he said clearly and slowly, "Your going to die and you know it." Silence filled the room, changing with the occasional clinking of whatever he was working on. My brain was frozen on overload. How did I respond? What could I say to that? Panic smacked into me with the force of an eighteen-wheeler.

"How?" I requested, keeping thing simple for the time being. He smiled, the kind of smile I didn't expect from the man I had met downstairs. There was nothing happy-go-lucky about it at all.

"Because I know the way you act, I know that look you have," he replied, "I used to see it in the mirror. Reactor used to run on something that was poisoning me, if I took it out the shrapnel would kill me."

"You fixed it," I said neutrally, he nodded.

"Can yours be fixed?" he asked. I thought about it for a moment, wondering how to phrase it.

"There isn't anything wrong with me. I just know that I'll happen, I can feel it," I said finally, "You can't stop fate." He nodded in agreement, and I knew. He wasn't trying to get me to trust him; he wasn't trying to screw me over. He just recognised something in me that shouldn't have been there and helped me.

I thought it was strange, I supposed that really I was screaming silently… I didn't want to die. Then again the way things were progressing, the things I did to keep my family (and the world) safe, well I didn't want to live either. Tony Stark however, would be the only person to look up.

We had a strange friendship that formed in that instant. I didn't know it at the time, but he'd cover for me, help me and be the only person that I'd ever let see me shed a tear. I'd learn heaps of things from him, ranging from weaponry, to business running, cocktail making, science and engineering… and he didn't mind me. I suppose that's because I wasn't friends with Tony Stark, I was going to be friends with the Merchant of Death.

That night I had to sneak out to stop Kronos's demigods from setting the city alight. I went straight to Tony's lab and lay down on the couch.

"Close your eyes and pretend your sleeping," he said pulling a blanket over me and hiding my scorched clothes.

"How long has she been up here?" Coulson asked softly, obviously believing that I'd been up here the whole time. After he left I sat up and stretched.

"Thank you," I said crinkling nose at the state of my shirt. Then again when you get hit by fiery falling ceiling, that's bound to happen.

"There's a shower in that room over there," he said pointing. I nodded and got cleaned up. There was a whole bunch of things I had to think about. Mostly was I going to trust him? I wanted to. He was someone completely uninvolved and didn't have any preconceptions about how I should live my life; hell he already knew my biggest secret.

"Your hair isn't wet," he commented, "And you had to of washed it." I shrugged; I seemed to be doing a lot of that here.

"I'm good with water," I said, nodding my hair and making the liquid rise out of his glass and freeze before sliding back into the glass without making a mess.

"Cool," he said unfazed, something, which shocked me, "Come here." That marked the beginning of my first lesson in genius.

The next morning my head was spinning with concepts that I formerly thought that I didn't have the mental capacity to understand. There had even been reading and it made so many things make so much more sense than they did before.

"We need to get you enrolled in school," Steve commented at breakfast. The juice I was swallowing nearly sprayed over the table.

"Fuck no," I said hurriedly, "Me and schools don't mix. I've been expelled from every school I've ever been to. Not going to go."

"You need to have an education," he argued, "Don't you want to be around children of your own age?"

"No, they shit me," I replied honestly, "I'm not going and if gods couldn't make me go you have no chance."

"So how did you learn then?" Bruce asked curiously. I smiled.

"I went to Transylvania and spent two months after summer break with my tutor," I told him. Neglecting to mention that my tutor was Vladimir the Impaler, Count Dracula. I always enjoyed his unique lessons.

"For only two months?" Natasha asked horrified. I raised an eyebrow.

"I picked up everything else I needed during the year," I explained, "I was never in short of people to teach me things."

"Never the less you still need to go to school," Steve chided. Uncle Thor face-palmed, leaving just enough space to shovel in a pop tart.

"Are you gay?" I asked him. He coughed up the mouthful of drink he was having and looked startled.

"No," he protested vehemently. What the fuck? Oh yeah, forties morals…. Wanker. "Why would you ask me that?" he asked bright red.

"Because with that giant stick lodged up your ass I think you'd make an excellent one," I said smirking, "No school." Many people were stifling laughter around the table (or not bothering, coughTonycough) or looking scandalised.

"He's right," Bruce said reluctantly, "While it may not be school you still need an education." I snorted.

"Add up the total of PhD's in this house," I told them, "I'll manage." The discussion was ended when Uncle Thor went to talk with S.H.I.E.L.D. I couldn't help but wonder what shit they were going to feed him. They had no idea where Jane was, and if they did they weren't going to be able to get to her.

Oh, I did mention that I knew Jane? Right? I didn't… oh, my bad.

Hey there, been rereading what I've already written and my only thought was, Holy Fuck! I wrote this. I'm going for a five-chapter update in a day, it just keeps spilling out. review me, Pweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ease?!