Have I told you there's no one else above you?
Fill my heart with gladness, take away all my sadness
Ease my troubles, that's what you do

For the morning sun in all it's glory
Meets the day with hope and comfort too
You fill my life with laughter, somehow you make it better
Ease my troubles, that's what you do

There's a love less defined
And its yours and its mine
Like the sun
And at the end of the day
We should give thanks and pray
To the one, to the one

Have I Told You Lately, by Rod Stewart, from the album Vagabond Heart, released in 1991

Sparrow was used to having something on her back while in dragon form, as she put it. Countless times, she had been their personal plane, dropping HYDRA soldiers into mission areas, leading various sieges as their aerial support. Sometimes this had involved carrying them, or specifically large boxes filled with soldiers, other times they would ride her into battle, commanding her from the position on her back. So, it was safe to say, she was very much used to it.

And even if she wasn't, it's not like she'd ever complain. There was no point, and several other people had higher priorities then hers. And when Tony had needed a way to get to where he planned to propose to Pepper- a location which had some bad memories for her, but where didn't?- she had offered her services. It would be the first, non-HYDRA, flight where she would have a passenger. Or passengers in this case.

Tony had, initially, been very much against the idea, because he said she was a human being and didn't deserve to be treated like a carry horse. He had seemed to have some animosity regarding that. Still, Sparrow insisted. The least she could do was make sure it went well, and she wanted someone to have a happy ending. So that was why she found herself nestled in Tony's garage during her free time. Peter was using the distraction to work on JARVIS, under the guise of doing his coursework.

The workshop, although big, was too cluttered with desks and the like for her to truly fit, so Tony had moved his cars so they were parked to the side, and she laid down, so Tony could comfortably work. He babbled on in an endearing way, being careful of what he was doing, and warning her of any movements he would suddenly make. She appreciated the effort.

"I just need to measure how big the spines are so I can cut around them... maybe make them as handholds.."

As soon as he said that, she flattened down her spines, so that they ran neatly along her back, but were no longer standing up rigid. The discomfort was mild, something she had gotten used to over the years. It was hardly even noticeable. She turned her scaled neck to face Tony, who was bending over a large strip of leather, which looked incredibly expensive.

It was like an upscaled horse saddle, but the colour black, with an outer line that bulged out ever so slightly. It wasn't complete, as there were no footholds nor handholds, and there wasn't a specific way to attach it or sit on it, but he had plenty of time to do that.

"Huh, that's pretty nifty."

He adjusted it slightly, so it rubbed less against her scales. They were thick, yet light. She didn't feel much on them, to be honest. Tony scribbled down a few things, despite having an AI to do things for him, and stepped back a little. He seemed to admire his rough work, before knocking on the scales experimentally, and in curiosity. Tony softly muttered something under his breath, that seemed to sound like, to her keen hearing 'what's this stuff made of?' before directing a question to her.

"Is that alright?

She nodded, blinking her eyes as she turned to look at it, ruffling her winds from where they were tucked in neatly. It chafed a little around the wings, making them irritated a little as she tried to rotate them around, but she wasn't going to mention it.

It wasn't like she was going to wear it for a long period of time, and besides, it was a hassle. Sparrow had thought she had a good poker face, well, she knew she did because she'd had to keep secrets and be able to lie for years, but Tony either saw or deduced that it was affecting her wings.

"I'll narrow that around the wing joint. Shouldn't interfere with your wings so much then. You mind rolling over so I can see your stomach? I need to see if I need to add a stabilising strap there, or if I need to find an alternate place to tie it."

Tucking her wings in, she rolled onto her side, leaving her stomach exposed, in all its unscaled glory. Tony hummed, before draping a piece of fabric over where her hind legs were, and where her tail reached out. There wasn't exactly anything there to cover up, which left Sparrow momentarily confused, until Tony explained, shrugging his shoulders as he measured the width of her stomach.

"Want to keep your modesty. Pep and Nat would kill me if I didn't. Now... I can fit a strap there.. but this area is largely unprotected.."

The last part of that sentence wasn't directed at her. He'd drifted off into a half mumble, as he carefully examined, and poked parts of her stomach. She'd keep the memories of experimentation as they tried to make her completely invulnerable in this form, to herself. That was something he didn't need to know. Pity was unnecessary to her because it was something she was used to. That, and a lot of things.

"Do these scales come off?"

Extending a claw, she tapped out a message in Morse Code, being her only way of communicating in those form. Well, she could write a message by scratching marks into the ground, but she didn't want to tarnish the floor. That would probably be annoying.

"Yes. If damaged. Or sometimes I malt. Sometimes I need to pick themselves off myself so new ones grow in."

He didn't need to know that her scales hadn't originally been black. That her spines weren't the colour they were now. That she had been a light blue and white dragon initially, but experiment after experiment had changed her colours, her strengths, and her durability. He didn't need to know that. Demonstrating her statement, she turned around, and carefully used a claw to carve out one of her slightly older scales.

This was a failure on her part, because she should have done this after the Ultron incident, and gotten rid of any damaged scales. But she hadn't, so she might as well do it now. The scale came clean off with minimal pain, and she nudged it towards Tony as another one grew back almost instantly, soft and pale in colouring.

It takes about five minutes for them to come back. They harden and become darker in colour.

As Tony worked, she chipped away a few more of her scales, so that her scaled coat was untainted once more. Tony took a few more measurements, before asking her to roll back over, onto her other side so he could measure the space on her back. She did so, removing the dodgy scales on the other side that she hadn't been able to access before.

"So what do you do with those scales?"

They normally got taken away. Would be the honest answer. Sometimes HYDRA would ask her to go through her scales, just so they could use them for weapons. Fortunately, most of those weapons had died out, after they realised they wouldn't be beneficial for gun making, and would be unnecessary for bullets. Sometimes they did it just for the sake of torturing Sparrow. So, she kept it relatively sugar-coated, she believed the term was.

Burnt them. Melted them down.

Tony was looking at the pile curiously, eyes flicking to it as he continued to take measurements, before tapping her on the side and allowing her to sit back up in a lying down position. He nodded towards her, signifying that she could turn back, so she did, as Tony looked away.

She slipped some clothes back on. Tony turned around once she was dressed, and looked at the pile of scales. She trusted Tony, and he had given her a home, a work suit, and treated her like a human. So, she extended something she thought he'd like, very much.

"Would you like them? You have to get them really hot in order to do much with them."

Tony looked surprised, before his face was hidden by a carefully constructed mask that Sparrow recognised all too well. She nudged the scales with her foot, almost trying to tempt Tony with them. Otherwise, they would just go to waste.

"No, I can't. You should dispose of them."

"No. I'd rather you did something good with them."

They looked at one another before she kicked them over to Tony. He sighed, and rubbed his tired eyes, before picking them up, almost staggering under the weight of them. They were light yes, but had a heavy density, and when he was trying to pick twenty of them up at once... well.

She picked half of them up with ease and followed behind Tony to his workshop, where he would no doubt be working on the saddle through restless days and nights. Tony said something that Sparrow wanted to correct but knew it was pointless because he sounded so resigned that she knew it would take more than one phrase to break it. She would know from experience.

"If there's anything you need to know about me Sparrow, it's that I'm not a good person."

Something about that sentence didn't sit right with Sparrow. Despite knowing that Tony had been on HYDRA's watchlist, she knew very little about the man himself. Almost nothing, in fact. And Sparrow didn't like not knowing things.

So, once he was finished, and since she had nothing else on the agenda, she had gone up to her room, sitting at her wooden desk on her comfortable chair. She quickly turned it on, and as it booted up, she grabbed her notebook out from inside her desk, flicking it open to a free page, which there wasn't very many of by this extent.

"FRIDAY? Could you please play some music?"

The AI didn't answer, but sure enough, some music played over the speakers as she typed in her password. The familiar home screen that was Windows 10 displayed, along with her background of the Avengers logo. It was certainly more cheerful than anything she could have put up. It was some kind of upbeat song playing, with the drums practically shaking the floor, and the guitars shattering windows.

That was called.. hyperbole? According to Peter? So, the first thing she did was search Anthony Stark in the search engine. It came up with a Wikipedia page, which wasn't surprising. Although, she doubted that anything that would cement why he acted the way he did, would be on there. 'Anthony "Tony" Edward Stark was born to Howard and Maria Stark on May 29, 1970.'

She wrote that down in her articulate handwriting, bullet pointing various facts that she picked up. Looking at the calendar pinned on the wall, she walked over to it, and marked Tony's birthday on it with a clear marker. Or rather, she marked it on her 2020 calendar. Paper calendars, in her opinion, were much better than digital ones. Scrolling down a little bit further, there wasn't much else, other than information on Obadiah Stane, who she knew from HYDRA.

Not that she knew him personally, or even being under his command, but she remembered the big upheaval there was when he had been killed. She hadn't known, however, that he and Tony knew one another, much less the fact that Obadiah was his Godfather- after searching what a Godfather was. With all that information written down, she moved onto other websites, but there wasn't much more available to her.

SHIELD files were a no-go because she was strictly prohibited to access them, and she wasn't about to get into trouble if it wasn't necessary. Sighing, she folded away her notebook, putting it back in her desk, as she decided to settle down to program some basic programs. It would keep her occupied for a little while.

After a few hours had passed, in which she had a meeting with her therapist, learned more about programming, and listened to some music. At about half-four, FRIDAY alerted her that she was wanted downstairs. So, she headed down to the garage yet again, where Tony was waiting, along with Dum-E, U, and Butterfingers, who was carrying a black saddle amongst themselves. She couldn't see it clearly from where she was, design-wise, but she didn't care how it looked. She wasn't a particularly self-conscious person.

"Ah, Sparrow. This is the primary design- still ready to be improved, but enough of a baseline. I'd just like to check my measurements, in the unlikely event they are wrong."

Nodding, Tony turned away again, as did the bots, as she undressed and shifted for the second time in a day. As Tony turned back around, the bots hovered around her, beeping like they usually did, as they threw the saddle on her. Moving her wings out of the way, Tony strapped the straps under her wings, not rubbing against them in any way or form, yet remaining secure.

Looking at the saddle, she could see that it had an outline, made out of what looked to be a scaly design. Two handles, made of whatever material he had used, were in the middle, meaning there were two spaces for passengers. Underneath the saddle, there seemed to be some kind of fabric, which separated the saddle from the scales. Rolling over, Tony secured the three straps underneath her stomach, as she could feel him tightening the buckles. She rolled back over on his command, as he tapped it, moving away.

"That feel okay? No accidental amputations or anything?"

She nodded, baring her teeth in what she hoped to be a smile. That was a calming gesture, wasn't it? Tony didn't look like he was about to run away screaming, so she must have been somewhat on the mark. She rotated her wings around, coiled her tail, and stood up, pacing a few paces. It was so light, that it was difficult to even feel it on her body.

Sparrow was going a bit stir-crazy- that being the best way to explain it- and wanted to stretch. She needed to keep up with her drills, and her agility, and not become idle. Enemies would not wait for her to become idle. And despite her lack of wanting to fight, old habits died hard, and her rigorous routines were something she couldn't shake.

Plus, to protect Bucky, Peter, Tony, and by extension May Parker, Harold Hogan, and Pepper Potts, she had to be in peak form, always. That meant no breaks. So, as Tony moved to unstrap the saddle, she shuffled away, stretching out her murdering claws, and tapping out a message.

The only way to fully test it is to take a flight within the maximum parameters.

Tony shrugged, nodding in slight agreement. Sparrow, despite the cautiousness instilled in her- no, not cautiousness, cynicism and paranoia- by HYDRA, trusted anything Tony made implicitly. Even after Ultron, which to this day, Sparrow would argue wasn't just his fault. Stretching her neck out, and making sure not to tense her claws into the garage floor too much, she tapped out another message as the bots chased one another round, skirting around the cars and the two of them.

So let's go for a flight. I need to get reused to having passengers again.

"Are you sure about that Sparrow? It already seems derogatory as it is.. considering that you are a human, just like us after all. How are we going to get out and up into the sky without drawing attention to ourselves?"

She nodded slowly, before tapping an answer out. What she said was both truths and lies in ample form. She would never forget how to fly with a passenger, and she had carried much more than two passengers before, but she equally wanted to practise as to not risk damaging Tony's proposal.

It was planned for three days from now, and Sparrow was going to do everything she could to make sure it could go off without a hitch. The whole actual proposal was, like Tony had requested, going to be on the down-low, but they would, if everything went smoothly, announce it in a press conference a few weeks later.

It's not derogatory. I have the freedom of choice, and I am choosing to do this. I will handle getting up into the sky undetected and breathing. Meet me on the roof with Peter, if you don't mind.

"If you're sure.."

Tony walked towards the elevator, letting out a shrill whistle, causing the bots to wheel towards him and cram in the elevator with him. Once the doors had shut, she focused the air around her, solidifying it around her. FRIDAY opened the garage door, and she carefully manoeuvred herself out, managing not to hit anything on her exit. The air around her reflected the light around her so it just reflected the blue skies and not her black scales.

As long as she didn't bump into anyone, or get too close, it would work just fine. Once she was out, clear of oncoming cars and civilians, she coiled her hind legs before jumping into the air, flapping her wings to get uplift. Before long, she shot up into the air, feeling oddly free for the first time during a flight, and shot up to the roof, before carefully descending, giving a clear boundary around the Arc Reactor.

The last thing the world needed was for it to be damaged because of her carelessness. A few minutes passed, before the elevator opened, revealing Tony and Peter, dressed casually. They walked out onto the middle of the roof, looking around. She dropped her manipulation of the air, just as Peter was about to walk right into her.

"That's so cool but defies so many scientific laws."

Sparrow shrugged, the best she could in this form, before trying to make a joke, in an attempt to make Peter more comfortable. Whether it would come across as such, however, was something else entirely. It was a difficult thing to commune, especially when you weren't speaking English. Still, she was a creative person- or so she had been told- and could problem-solve on the fly.

Most of the things I do- giant dragon, remember?

Peter's brown eyes widened, before smiling and laughing a little. She bowed down, closer to the floor, as they clambered up on her back, the two of them still looking a little cautious. Manipulating the air yet again, she conjured two bubbles of air to go around the two of their heads, to stop them from getting hypoxia, before making sure they were holding on tightly.

Then she launched herself into the air, more lightly this time, as she could practically feel Peter sticking to her, with his unique sticking ability. Taking to the sky, she flew in a large circle, at a nice, slow, and steady pace. It was a nice flight she liked to think, with both Tony and Peter relaxing a little.

Upon their request, she sped up and did a few 'tricks' as Peter put it, before ultimately landing back down at Stark Tower late evening. Everything was going well, for once in Sparrow's life. But she didn't know that it would soon come crashing down in a heap of fire and flame.

Author's Note

Hello all!

I've got to be quick- heading to a sleepover in forty mins. Hope you all have had a good Xmas!

QOTW: What is your favourite Christmas Time food?

Pannetone. Hands down. It's an Italian bread with fruit through it and its delicious.

See you all next week and thanks for reading!

~Cait