It was a publicity stunt, the high and mighty Tony Stark visiting orphanages while in New York City to review the final purchase of the plot for Stark Tower.

Natasha (Natalie Rushman these days) could see that he had no real interest in the kids, it was more that Pepper had said it would be a good idea and with her looming promotion to CEO of Stark Industries, she was the boss. She'd decided that the with Stark Expo coming up they needed good press, and the more the better.

Stark was like a whirlwind, he came in to the often derelict, or overcrowded buildings, threw money at the owners, sprinkled advanced Starkphones amongst kids that could barely read and was gone before anyone could ask questions.

As the personal assistant to Pepper Potts, Stark wrangling was part of her job description, so she was sent to herd him between destinations, try to make sure he didn't offend anyone too badly and apologize when he did. It gave her a good opportunity to keep tabs on him so it wasn't all downside, but visiting orphanages was its own special kind of torture. It was one thing to watch Clint and Laura and their little monsters but seeing the hopeful eyes of some thirty or so kids and telling them she wasn't there to adopt them (she wouldn't trust herself with a kid even if she wanted to) brought back uncomfortable memories. She'd been like them once, begging for a savior, anyone to take her from the hell that was the Red Room.

It was at their last stop, St. Frances' in Queens, that something interesting happened. It had started like the others, the matron gushing about how generous Stark was being and how much it meant to the kids. Natasha could see he was barely paying attention and the plastic smile on his face didn't fool anyone, but he was nodding and making all the right noises and not channeling his inner sarcastic dick, so she took a moment to listen to her instincts and snoop around.

She wasn't looking for anything untoward, just cataloguing exits and entry points and being an observer. It had been trained into her particularly harshly to always be watchful, to notice the small details that didn't fit into the pattern. It was this that lead her to the room in the back that looked to be set up for play. There was only one person there, a little boy that couldn't have been more than eight or so, who was concentrating intently on drawing. As silent as she could be, she moved across the room and looked over his shoulder to see what he was working on.

It was a drawing of Iron Man, and she mentally rolled her eyes for not expecting that, but it was almost photo realistic. The proportions were right, the shading well done and the background just out of focus. This kid had some serious talent, especially working with a sketch pad and a pencil.

She had only been watching for a few moments when the kid looked up at her and froze. He was cute, in a sort of helpless way, big blue eyes, short brown hair and graphite smudges on his hands and cheeks. It was the look on his face that struck out at her though, more curious than afraid.

"You're very good at that, do you draw often?" She asked, hoping she could manage an interaction that would let her walk away without tears or yelling. She already had one man-child to babysit and didn't have the slightest clue how to deal with real kids without backup. Natasha most certainly wasn't expecting the way his face lit up or the word vomit that came as an answer.

"Yeah!, I mean- uh I like to draw and the mother says its good to practice and she keeps telling me that I should try new things. This one is Iron Man but I also did- uh Captain 'Merica from all those boring shows at school and the view out the window from my room and, and- lemme show ya!" The words came tumbling out of his mouth and bunched together and she couldn't help the small quirk of her lips at his exuberance. He clearly was excited to show off his work and humoring him seemed harmless, so she crouched down as he flipped back through his pad of his earlier works.

"This one is the Empire State building, from when we went on a field trip as a class last week, and- uh this one is a broken watch that I found by the dumpster outside the school and this one is the nice lady who gives us candy when the doctors visit and and-" As he rambled on and on about his work it became obvious he'd had few occasions where someone was interested and willing to listen. Really though he was quite good, astounding even for someone of his age.

"Those are all very good, I think Mr. Stark would be very impressed by your Iron Man drawing if you wanted to show him." After almost ten minutes of babble Natasha figured she'd humored him enough and really needed to get back to Stark and make sure he hadn't done something stupid.

"You- uh you think so? He'd really like it?" The kid's eyes had an excited shine to them and he looked at her like she hung the moon, which made her uncomfortable for reasons she didn't want to think about.

"I'm sure he would, in fact you had better hurry if you want to catch him before he leaves, Mr. Stark is a very busy man, but I'm sure he has a few minutes to spare." It was incredible how easily she was able to speak bullshit like that with a straight face, Stark was probably itching for a reason to leave and seemed even more uncomfortable around kids than she felt.

With the way the kid ran off to the front of the orphanage in hopes of catching Stark Natasha knew this would be amusing to watch.

"Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark! I was drawing in the back and the uh- the pretty lady with the red hair said it was pretty good and that I should show you and uh- here's Iron Man-" She was right, this was very amusing. Watching Stark try to keep up with the kids babble, all while juggling his phone, coffee and the drawing that was being shoved into his hand had to be the highlight of the day.

"That's uh- good kid, who? -oh Natalie- Huh looks like you can draw pretty well. How bout we trade, I'll uh- take this picture and uh here a brand new Starkphone-" Watching Stark try to fend off this kid all while trying to leave and just escape was both pitiful and hilarious, and watching the kid light-up at the offered tech was even better.

After a much needed save from the matron, they finally left St. Francis, and Stark had a ridiculously relieved look when Happy finally appeared with the car, only to panic when he couldn't find his phone. Natasha realized that Stark had actually given his own phone to that kid with the drawings and couldn't help the laugh that escaped at his vehement refusal to go back in, that he would just make a new better one.

It was when Stark took a moment to look at the picture that she noticed something she hadn't before, down at the bottom in neat cursive script, the boy had actually signed his work.

Peter Parker, how interesting.