Chapter 28

Ray was ready for the party in her dark blue backless dress. Her appearance was perfect for a millionaire playboy's sister and the future heir of Stark Industries and her attitude was in perfect match with it, witty and pretty. Anyone could fall on for the fourteen year old. No wonder she already had a huge fan followings. Right now, Ray was struggling to choose the right shoes she could wear. Just then John entered. "Miss Stark, I have your things ready for the party. Everything you asked for is here."

"Thanks John." She replied still staring at the huge rack of shoes.

"Whoa Ray! You have a huge collection of shoes!" he exclaimed.

"Hmm... two less than Pepper." She subconsciously replied.

"Wow!"

"John, do you think you can help me in choosing the right heels for tonight?"

"I...I can try." Replied John as he walked towards the huge shoe rack, browsing his eyes on each one of them before stopping on the white heels. "How about these?" he asked.

"Umm..not bad." Replied Ray kind of acknowledging his choice. "Nice." She said

"And Ray, can I tell me something else?"

"Shoot it." She said carrying on with wearing her shoes.

"Put a darker shade of lipstick. It'll look nice on you." he said before leaving making Ray blush a bit.

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As the black Audi pulled into the red carpet both Ray and Tony were ready with their best practiced smile that looked more natural than their real smiles, after all, they were great fakers. Ray took s long breath before getting down as cameras flashed at her. Being a Stark, she had been literally living in it. Though she wasn't too fond of the media, she didn't hate it either.

Ray felt Tony's arm go around her waist and the other through Pepper's as they posed for the camera. Ray's smile grew wider, this time a real one, realising how complete they looked with each other. She loved the feeling of being together.

As Tony guided Ray trough the crowd, they were greeted by Mr. Thompson and his son Flash. (A/N: If you are a marvel fan, I'm sure you know who he is!) "Mr. Thompson!" Tony greeted with a fake smile as he pulled Ray towards him instinctively. He hated both the Thompsons for two reasons. One, both the Thompsons had a bag full of attitude and they believed they were same as the Starks though their inventions were all primary and Flash who is exactly as old as Ray was still in school studying in school with normal boys and girls. Two, Flash had been flirting with Ray ever since he had attained an age and Tony knew even his father supported it. They wanted to come in relationship with the Starks for their money and Tony knew that they could do anything for it.

"Mr. Stark, so nice to meet you again." He said. "You too Miss. Stark and Miss. Potts."

"It's a pleasure." Said Pepper as Ray just responded with the smile. She wasn't in the mood to talk to them.

Tony finished the chat in a nutshell before pulling both his girls towards the other direction. "I hate that son of a bitch!" Tony exclaimed when they were away from them near the bar. "Me too." Ray agreed. Pepper smiled looking at the irritated faces of the Starks. "Don't smile; you got us into this shit." Ray told Pepper. "Hey, don't dump all the duties on me. You guys were supposed to help me." Pepper replied. "Anyways, I need to go to and meet those delegates."

"They are just CEOs of some companies that are invited here" Tony said.

"Yeah, the ones we do business with." Pepper replied in a very obvious tone. "You guys joining?"

"I am not the CEO. What's the use?" Tony said with a sly smile making Pepper roll her eyes as she turned to Ray. "I do the research stuff. I have no work there." Ray said backing off.

"Fine!" said Pepper before walking towards them.

Tony turned towards the bartender. "I need a Vodka Martini. Make it dirty.", he said.

"Need something else?" asked the bartender turning towards Ray.

"Umm..." Ray was about to say before Tony spoke for her. "She'll take a light one. With more orange juice." Tony said.

"Can I please order my own drink?" Ray asked in an annoyed tone.

"No. That's the only thing that is suitable for you to drink." He said as Ray rolled her eyes and the bartender placed their order on the bar table.

"Stop being such an asshole." Ray said.

"Language!" Tony said.

Pepper was talking with a guy Ray knew as Mr. James Murray, the CEO of Murray Enterprises. He was a good looking person and the perfect example of a gentleman, like the ones from fairytales. Though neither Tony wasn't a fantasy person, he couldn't deny the amount of chivalry the man gave out. Moreover, Tony knew that he wasn't the kind of guy that suits as a hero of a fairytale. He was a playboy after all! Ray noticed Tony staring at James. "Feeling jealous, bro?" Ray joked.

"Nah!" he said breaking out of his trance though it was very evident from his face that he didn't like it when Pepper talked with him. "Well, he is a nice guy." Ray went on with her teasing. She found it quite amusing that Tony Stark, the billionaire, playboy, who rules the heart of so many girls, felt insecure when his girl talked to other guys. "Shut up, Ray!" he said knowing exactly what his sister was doing. "Awe, come on! She's just talking to her!" she exclaimed.

"No... There is nothing like that!"

"Tony... it's all over your face!"

"Actually, it's just that, I really didn't want to lose her."

Ray smiled at him before chirping out, "You know what, go and steal her!"

"What?"

"Go and steal her!" she pushed him to their direction. Tony gave her a 'are-you-sure' look before making his way towards them.

Ray turned around and took a sip of the sip that Tony ordered for her and filched. It was too sweet. She didn't like it. "Want me to buy one for you?" she turned around to find flash standing behind. She mentally screamed. "No." She said trying to hide her irritation.

"Come on! One drink wouldn't matter."

"No thanks. I buy my own drink." She replied.

"Oh, so would you like to dance?"

"No please!" she said this time showing him a bit of irritation though she maintained a smiling face considering the amount press around the place. She didn't want to end up on the front page of the news paper next day. "That would be the last thing I would like to do."

"Oh please!" he said pulling her she tried to move away but she had nothing to do. She looked around to find her brother and to her dissatisfaction, he wasn't there, neither was Pepper. 'They had to make out now?' she mentally cursed. Ray felt him place his hands on her waist and rubbing them as he slowly moved to her bare back. This time she cursed her dress. As e went further she stepped on flash's foot with heels. "Oops! Did it hurt?" she said with an evil grin and flash knew that she had done it intentionally but he smiled and kept on touching her below her hair. She wanted to punch him but the fucking press was around her. "You know what, we should meet some time, somewhere alone." He said.

"Oh yes, so that I can beat the shit out of you without the press knowing." She said this time hitting him harder on his foot. "Aah!" he exclaimed but was too stubborn to leave. Ray was now feeling uncomfortable with Flash. She looked around and to her relief found Tony and Pepper come out of the balcony. Pepper was blushing frantically while Tony had a wide smirk pasted around his face. 'Must have kissed.' She mentally thought.

As Tony's eyes shifted to his sister he flinched. 'What the fuck?' he thought as Ray gave him a 'help-me' look and he was there on his duty of rescuing her. "Thompson, that's enough of a dance. Can I have my sister back?" Tony asked in a polite tone but glaring at Flash at the same time.

"More like, stealing." He said in a joking tone but Tony didn't give a fuck.

"No, cause she in no condition can be yours. So just back off." She said pulling Ray towards him and shooing Flash away. "Shall we?" Tony asked Ray as she quite happily accepted his offer to dance. "You okay?" Tony asked while dancing. "Yeah, I survived him." Ray replied in a joking tone. "So how was it?" she asked changing the topic.

"Alright, you noticed?" Tony asked kind of shocked.

"Of course I did!"

"It was good." He said smiling.

"Just good?" Ray teased. Tony just smiled wider making Ray grin.

Ray kept staring at her brother. He looked so happy. She always wanted him to stay like that. Not take all the responsibilities, the load of the whole world on his shoulders. It made her heart ache, that the person she loved so much, the person she could die for, her brother, her only family was dying. He was so close to death and she could do nothing about it. Ray restrained the tears that were trying to well out of her eyes. She didn't want to cry. She didn't want to ruin the moment.

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Tony couldn't sleep. Ever since he learnt about the palladium poisoning his blood. He took out his blood tester and checked his blood, 67% blood toxicity, it read. He took a deep breath before walking down to his garage only to find Ray sitting there in front of her computers.

Ray had analysed herself. The only explanation she had for hearing ultrasonic sound is that maybe when she had been in the accident, her audibility limit was altered somehow. So she sat there recording her stats. "Voila," she called, "sound level 20000Hz." She said as the sound of 20kHz rushed into her eardrums through the earphone. It was only played for a fraction of second. It was the highest audible sound a normal human being could hear but his could have made them deaf. But in her case, she could take it, though she felt it was quite loud. "500+, louder." She said she could bear that too. "1000+" she said. "Umm...ma'am, I would prefer you should do this step by step." Said the A.I. "Voila, what are the chances that I would listen to you?"

"Negligible ma'am." She replied

"Then what are we waiting for? Do it!" she said as a loud sound rushed into her ear canal. She wasn't ready for this and fell on the floor taking off the ear phones off her ears. "Fuck!" she said holding her head. She could hear her head buzzing and it was aching.

"Ray!" Tony, who had been watching her all the while approached her and helped her get up. "Are you okay?" he asked

"Tone, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"What are you doing?!" he crossed questioned.

"I...I was just ... working." She replied still holding her ears.

"You okay?" he asked in a worried tone.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said sitting back on the chair with a thud and lifting her legs on the seat.

"Do you have a headache."

"I said I'm fine!"

"Why are you doing this?"

"I am doing what?"

"Why aren't you telling me your problems?" Tony asked in accusing tone. He hated it when Rat kept things from him. "Let me help you!" Ray rolled her eyes. She wasn't in the mood to listen to her brother giving her lectures on what is good for her. "Why wouldn't you tell me?" he said again this time in a softer tone.

"Did you?" she said accusingly looking at him, right into his eyes. Tony could still see the anger, the annoyance, the hurt still flutter in her eyes for a moment before she looked away maybe to hide the tears that had welled up in her eyes. "Sorry, just forget it." She mumbled. "You can help." She flipped the virtual screen towards him before walking in the other direction but Tony kept staring at her. He was aware of the fact that his sister was hurt. And the only reason behind that was he himself. But he also knew that he had nothing that he could do about it. He deeply sighed before looking into the screen in front of him.

Ray and Tony worked for hours. Tony was shocked to read Ray's data. She had been subjected to a huge amount of radiation while she was in the blast, so much that anyone could have been dead. But she had survived it and walked out with a few radiation burns that were gone now leaving her skin flawless again. All that it concluded that Ray's audibility limit had extended to a range of 2000Hz on both the extremes but she couldn't bear the sound when it exceeded 1000 on the higher extreme. "Cool!" ray exclaimed reading her own stats. Even Tony knowing the seriousness of the situation, couldn't deny that it was pretty amazing that his sister could hear the sounds of nature that no one else could. "Yeah, but it's pretty late now. You should go to sleep." Tony said as Ray nodded though she doubted if she could sleep without her pills specially with the headache.

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Don't kill me. I know, I'm late again but what can I possibly do? No matter how much we hate it, studied are important and I need to do it. Anyways, you must have noticed the past few chapters are a little Ray-Tony centred. These are important. Don't worry I have a long story planned out. And you will get a few twists in the plot too. So just stick with me.

So Spiderman Homecomings' release date is near. Though I have my exams from 3rd July. I have to wait till the 14th till I can watch the film. Can't wait!

Anyways, I guess I'll update next after the exams. I'm going to be quite busy.

Please review cause it means a lot. Tell me how you feel and if you want me to add something to the story. I'll surely read your suggestions.

Bye till then!

Love you all!

ImaginationsUnleashed