An Engineer's Quest
By Rey
Tony Stark is used to odd things, whether he is the one who instigates them or becomes their victim. He has never, ever been asked to help solve a missing-child case, though.
(The first Avengers film, spiralling quite out of joint with just one small tweak, begun from slightly before it. Beware of mushy feelings and sweet cuddliness!)
1. An Interesting Introduction
Anthony Edward Stark – playboy billionaire and genius extraordinaire – loves his tech, his women, his boos, his tech, Pepper and Happy and maybe Rhodey, his tech, his money… and does he say his tech? Even now, he is ensconced comfortably in his garage turned part-lab in his Malibu mansion, in his comfiest old clothes, bobbing and humming away with the full-volume music from his awesome collection of rock songs, while tinkering with his newest Iron Man design. He has instructed JARVIS, his awesome AI, whose awesomeness is eclipsed only by the said AI's inventor, which is – of course – one Tony Stark…. Well, that is, he has instructed J not to admit anybody in for audience with him for the duration of his hermitage in this garage-lab; not even the awesome Ms. Virginia "Pepper" Potts, and he tries not to think on how much her vengeance on him will hurt for this inconvenience.
Therefore, one would excuse him for… manly yelling out in surprise… when, as he wheels round on his battered-but-awesome office chair, his eyes land on somebody standing oh so casually on the farthest corner of the garage-lab.
"J!" he demands to the room at large, denying whole-heartedly in the meantime that it sounds pretty much like a squawk produced by Alvin the Chipmunk. "Why didn't you tell me?"
And, "My apologies, sir," comes the response from the nearest loudspeaker, even as the volume of the music gets turned down without his say-so.
Tony scowls fiercely. – The not-so-awesome-anymore AI dares to sound baffled, of all things. And who's given that insolent boy the command to turn down the volume of his precious, precious Black Sabbath?
He gets up from his chair, trains his bestest glare on the very, very uninvited guest, opens his mouth to berate the said uninvited guest before sending them away with blistering ears and maybe lots of pesky fines, and….
He closes his mouth again with a soft click of his teeth.
The intruder is not gorgeous, per se, but their diffrentness is something, and… and… and….
"Greetings, Mister Stark."
Tony shakes his head, but doesn't know – can't decide – what the movement signifies.
If he had only one word to describe the intruder, he would've picked "androgynous" as the first choice; because, yes, his short-circuited brain can't decide whether the said intruder is male or female; although, why in the world should he bother himself with the gender of a snooper?
His second choice would've been "intense." – Those green eyes!
His third would've been "huge;" although, to be fair, it's more like a slim person in the proportions of a giant than say, a body-builder kind of frame.
Although, then again, why would he think such a thought about such a person in such a situation?
And there are so many "although"s in his current vocabulary…. A real sign of short-circuiting, maybe?
He shakes his head again, and now notices how perturbed and… something else… the intruder looks beneath all that cool, dignified, closed-up bearing. "You…."
It's not often that his words fail him, and he tends to babble during periods of heightened emotions like now anyway, but it's nonetheless the fact that he can't even think at present.
And the intruder uses the chance well.