I have to say that I am really amazed by the great response that this story has gotten already. I had no idea how this story would be perceived, but I am happy that I can continue it. I won't say too much now, so let's get to the story.
Rhodey just stared at his long time friend. Tony Stark. He and Tony had been friends since childhood. Kevin Rhodes was a hardworking man that often required him to be away from home a lot, leaving his son to make friends with the local kids, one of whom visited the air force base often. Anthony Stark, nicknamed Tony, was often found playing with the other children on the army base while his father talked military weapons and development with the important officials.
Rhodey and Tony became fast friends, surprisingly as the two boys had almost nothing in common. Rhodey was quiet, reserved, much like his father, preferring to observe others. Tony, on the other hand, was loud and rambunctious, much rather wanting to get into mischief and build things out of everything he could get his hands on. Rhodey found himself often having to make sure that Tony didn't get into things that would get him or the both of them hurt or worst, in trouble with their fathers. That is why what happened next really shouldn't have surprised him at all.
"I'm sorry you did what?"
"Why are you not using your crutch? You know Dr. Chan told you that you should still be using it for the next few weeks until you are completely stable on your leg."
"I don't think I'm the unstable one here right now."
Tony sighed. "You told me to go out and meet women. I did."
"Yes. Meet them. And when you take them back to your house, kick them out the next morning. Politely."
"It's not permanent, Rhodey. It's just until she gets on her feet. Besides, you should have saw the place she was staying. No Stark lives in squalor."
Okay, so she wasn't living in squalor. The warehouse was actually quite large and warmly renovated. But it was a warehouse nonetheless, and in not the best of neighborhoods.
"No Stark? I thought you said that she was just one of many who were trying to have a come up on the Stark name. And now you're calling her a Stark?" Rhodey shook his head and chuckled shortly. "Look, clearly you're not in the right head space right now. You're confused, angry, dealing with a lot of hurt, and even some guilt about me losing my leg. You've even operated under much worse conditions. But right now you are out of control. Do you know anything about this woman?"
"She's 20. Semi-fresh out of the Marines. And we share the same sperm donor. That's all I need to know."
"All you need to know." Rhodey stared hard at Tony. "That's all you need to know. Do you even hear yourself? This is not the Tony that I know. The old Tony would have looked up every single thing he could illegally search for, down to the length of the nail on her pinky toe."
"That's a bit dramatic, don't you think?" Tony muttered picking at his own nails.
"Exactly!" Rhodey exclaimed. He waved his hands around in frustration. "It is dramatic, something that is your specialty. You're a dramatic man. You do the above and beyond, especially when people don't want you to."
"Then why are you so shocked that I'm having her move in with me. It seems a bit over the top, right?"
"Not over the top, careless. This is downright careless, and un-Tony. You're extra careful Tony, you have to be because of Iron Man. Why aren't you being so now? It can't just be because of what happened a while back. No, this is something else."
Tony ran a harsh hand through his hair. "Maybe it is careless, but for some reason that I can't explain I know she won't hurt me. She doesn't have some weird vendetta against me, or my dad, or superheroes in general. She's just some scared, lonely girl who's lost a lot. And I can relate."
"Fine! Then relate to her, not relocate her."
"She's my sister. I already had a DNA test done, she's Howard's daughter. And if by some chance she found a way to hack into the database of the DNA testing center, hack my email and change the results of the test before I could read them, she has tapes of him. Not a tape, tapes of Howard spending time with her and her mother before he...was murdered. He told that woman, Helen, that he and Maria were going to get a divorce. That they were already separated and just hadn't told me or the rest of the world yet. I don't know how much I believe him but he did seem to love her."
"Come on, this woman couldn't have been much older than mid-twenties to early thirties. What was she doing with some guy in his, what, sixties?" Rhodey laughed disbelievingly.
"I don't know! From what I can tell they really did have feelings for each other, and it was more than just lust. And, what, Hugh Heffner can do it and my dad can't?" Tony asked mocking offense.
"Yes. Nobody can do what the Heff does." Rhodey stated plainly.
Tony looked down at his beeping watch. "I have to go meet her and help her move some of her boxes over, via the suits. She's practically living out of these boxes so I'm just gonna have the other suits do it with me. You know how to reach me if you need me Rhodey."
Tony swaggered back out, ignoring Rhodey's calls.
"We're not done talking about this, Tony."
"You'll love her Rhodes."
"I still can't believe that you can just command all the suits like that. It's truly amazing. I mean, I heard you were smart but, wow." Hermione gazed in awe at the various colored armor walking in a line carrying boxes of her stuff into Tony's penthouse.
"Yeah well, most of the suits have been destroyed by either enemies, me, or my ex. So, I really just use some of them when I don't feel like running out and getting my dry cleaning or when I don't want to wait in lines to see movies."
Hermione snorted.
"Besides, there is really no use for them lately. Crime has been at a low recently, except for the petty crime every now and then. But I leave that up to the police force to handle."
Hermione. "Right, you and your team handles the big things. Aliens, sentient robots, and the like?"
Tony cleared his throat. "Sort of." Tony looked around the room when he noticed the suits staring at him, waiting for the next order. "Alright, get out of here. You no longer have any use for me."
Tony waved a hand and the suits took off in unison, organizing themselves into a formation and flying out the hatch in the wall. Tony clapped once, startling Hermione.
"Feeling like grabbing a bite."
Hermione shook her head. "I'm fine."
Tony raised a brow at the minute grumble he heard across the room. "Really?"
"I don't want to be a bother. Seriously, I can just go get something to eat. I'm pretty sure that you have other things to do. Important people to see, important technology to create."
"Trust me, helping you move out this morning was the most fun I've had in awhile." Tony replied bitterly.
Hermione frowned. "Sounds depressing."
"No kidding."
Hermione sighed. "Since you insist, I have been in the mood for a really good burger. I haven't had one in years."
Tony gaped at her. "You're lying. There's no way you haven't had a cheeseburger, or hamburger in years. This is America. That's all we eat."
Hermione's lips curled sarcastically, "I haven't exactly been in the country recently."
"They don't have burgers in England?"
Hermione bit her lip. "I spent most of my time at boarding school and they had...different tastes in food."
Tony nodded slowly, putting on his jacket. "Right. That boarding school again. How about you tell big brother all about it while I buy us a dozen whoppers."
Hermione's eyes widened at the spread in front of her.
"You really bought a dozen whoppers." She whispered incredulously.
"You thought I was kidding about that? Dig in." Tony motioned towards the pile of hamburgers around a mouth full of his whopper.
Hermione grimaced at his lack of table manners. Rolling her eyes and she grabbed a napkin and wiped away a bit of mustard that sat on the corner of his mustache. Tony froze at the casual gesture.
Hermione didn't even notice what she had done until she already begun opening her own burger and noticed that she heard no more movement from him.
"What?"
"Nothing." Tony cleared his throat.
Tony polished off a good three burgers before he coughed to get her attention.
"So tell me about your parents. Did your dad know about... you know?"
"Uh, yes and no. He knew of course that my birth father died before he entered the equation, but he had no idea of who he was."
"But your last name was Stark."
Hermione's eyes flickered up to his in surprise. "How did you know that?"
"Because as much as I don't always like to admit it, my father and I are actually a lot alike. He's much too arrogant to not have you be named after him. Especially if he considered you his world." His tone took a bitter twist at that word.
Hermione studiously ignored the bitterness in his voice and chewed her burger slowly before answering his unasked question.
"So?" Tony lifted an eyebrow.
Hermione sighed. "Did you know that your mom knew about us?"
Tony shook his head, eyes narrowing in thought. "If she did, she never let on to me about the affair." He snorted. "She was much too poised for that. My mother was the classic type, beauty with brains. She had a knack for business and never failed to keep a stoic face when around company. I have a feeling she knew more than most about nearly everything, so I wouldn't be surprised if she knew all about you and your mother."
Hermione snorted and took a sip of her water. "Well your mother and your father's mother kept close correspondence."
"My mother said that she got an anonymous call from someone about your death and when she tried to attend the funeral, your grandmother stopped her at the door. She told me that they had her wait in some containment center with no windows until after the funeral and then your grandmother came to talk to my mother. She told my mother that she had always known about the affair. She didn't care about Howard's affair because his marriage was mostly of convenience and it was expected of him. And she allowed it to continue as long as he kept it discreet, like Maria kept her many string of men. But showing up to his funeral in front of all his business partners was the opposite of discreet. In the end she forced my mother to leave, never tell anyone of their relationship, and to return everything of his—including my last name."
Tony leaned back in his chair thoughtfully chewing around his fourth burger. One hand poised near his mouth with the burger and the other tucked beneath the first, holding it up.
"My mother hid the tapes, packed up everything that she had left, and moved. She met my father two years later at the dentist. It was love at first sight." Hermione snorted. "All over again in her case I guess."
"My grandmother died two months after my dad's funeral. She and I didn't have a close relationship. And at that time I wasn't exactly a great person to be around. I was drinking, partying, and fucking my way across the country. And occasionally across the Atlantic when I was sober enough to charter a private plane."
He cleared his throat. "Either way, you don't have to worry about her anymore."
Hermione looked at Tony for a minute.
"My dad. The man who raised me... he was a good dad. I can't really speak for Howard, as I don't really remember him, but I was happy with my family. I wouldn't ask for another one."
It was quiet for a moment. Tony looked down and realized that in the time that he devoured four whoppers, she had only taken a bite out of her second.
"We really need to get your eating to the next level. You're really skinny."
Hermione cleared her throat and looked away. "I spent about a year with some comrades doing some really undercover operations. Food rationing was extremely low because everything was last minute. I guess old habits are hard to break."
"It's a good thing that I am very good at breaking things. Especially rules."
Hermione's eyes widened. "Absolutely not! Rules are put in place for a reason. I won't lie and say I haven't done my fair share of rule breaking, but only when absolutely necessary. Rules should not just be carelessly broken for fun."
Tony's eyebrows rose high on his forehead. "That's the most passion I have heard you speak with yet. You must be really passionate about rules." Tony stood up and looked through his wallet.
Hermione took the cue and stood up as well. "Of course. Rules are important."
"That fire you have there is great." Tony threw a few bills down. "Bad thing is my fire is bigger than yours. So have fun trying to stop me from breaking rules."
Hermione hurried after Tony.
"While I am around, you will not be breaking anything. Rules, body parts, and wind included."
Tony laughed throatily at the last command. "You'll be fun to keep around."
Tony lifted his wrist a pressed a button on a silver band around his wrist. Silver metal began surrounding his arms, reaching around his shoulders before branching out upwards to his head and downwards towards the expanse of his back and to his feet. Red and Gold metal began quickly filling in the suit covering the silver metal. When the Iron Man was completely covering Stark's body Tony lifted up the face plate.
His smirk brought Hermione out of her stupor. "One of these days you'll stop impressing me."
"Never going to happen," he boasted. He scooped her up and took off without giving her a chance to ask what he was doing.
"You are officially the worst superhero I have ever met!" Hermione huffed once Tony placed her back on two feet. They stopped at the entrance to a large mall that Hermione never heard of.
"And you would know how, exactly? Since I am the first superhero you have met." Tony smirked and walked past her, ignoring her pants and hoarse voice from screaming.
Hermione hurried after him, wagging a scolding finger in his direction.
"I need no other references besides you because I know that superheroes should not behave the way that you do."
Tony spun around and walked backwards, his smirk only growing. People half gaped and half glared at him, moving out of his way. Hermione threw them a tight smile in apology for his behavior.
"Well you are right about that. I am no superhero. I'm just a really good looking genius with more money than I should have possession of." Tony spun back around and walked forwards.
Hermione didn't argue with his assessment of himself. She's unconsciously tucked a wayward curl behind her ear and took in her surroundings while simultaneously cataloguing Tony's behavior. She hadn't lied to him earlier about old habits being hard to break. Her war days stuck with her and now she can't help but to keep an eye out for threats and being aware of nearest exits. She also paid very close attention to Tony, what he did, what he said, and what he didn't say. You could learn a lot about a person by what they didn't say.
Tony was an emotional and sympathetic eater, for example. She noticed that during her story earlier he would eat faster and slower depending on the level of emotion in her voice. She also picked up on how he took a bite every time she took one. She could tell he had a very large heart. But she knew the events months prior really screwed him over emotionally. She looked into it, everything about the Avengers Initiative that she could find before coming here and tracking him down. Of course she would. They didn't call her the Brightest of her Age for no reason.
What she couldn't find on her own, she had her man on the inside use his connections to find out. Apparently the Avengers team for about four years ago when a brother of one of the teammates decided he wanted to be king of the world. Destroyed a large portion of the city. This was after his the events surrounding Tony's creation of Iron Man and so-called villains with vendettas against him, and that Norse God situation in Mexico. Then the entire organization fails because of mole they didn't know they had. Not to mention the fact that they actually dropped a small country before their mini civil war. They were a large group of dysfunctional and bad ass individuals. And Hermione couldn't help but admire them. But they needed a lot of work.
"...but it's just not going to work here." Tony's voice brought her back to the present.
"Huh?"
Tony turned around and noticed that she had fell behind. He put an arm around her shoulder and dragged her like a ragdoll. He wasn't kidding about her being thin.
"I said we're going to get you a new wardrobe today. Whatever we don't find today we'll get online. But you're in desperate need of something new. Jeans and a hoodie are only okay for lounge days, which is every other Sunday. But not for everyday wear. I don't what you were used to in London, but it's not going to fly here in Cali."
Hermione self consciously pulled on the hem of her old hoodie.
"I've never really been one of those girls, Tony."
"One of what girls?"
"A girl who care a lot about her appearance. It's just not me."
Tony stopped and turned to face her. His eyes scanned her quickly before he nodded to himself.
"Yes you are. You want to know how I know?" Before Hermione could say anything he continued. "Because every girl is. Hell, every guy is too, they just all won't admit it. In this day and age people invest a lot in their looks. I'm not saying I want you to get plastic surgery done to completely change the way you look, because let's be honest it's been done way too many times before. Plus you're a natural beauty, Stark's usually are. But we're going to enhance all of your features, and I do mean all."
His eyes swept over her body. Oddly she wasn't uncomfortable with his roving eyes because she knew it was more in a clinical sense. But she still wasn't wholly comfortable with a 40 plus year old man staring at her in the center of a mall. Where other people were looking at them curiously as well.
She griped. "What?" His silence was beginning to annoy her.
"I think I've got it." Tony grabbed her hand and then dragged her into a store with a lot of mannequins and clothes on display. There were people of various ages in there and she saw two italicized letters on the storefront, but for the life of her she couldn't remember which ones. Tony was pulling her along too fast.
"This is where we are going to get some very basic shirts and jeans. I will allow you two new hoodies, but that is all. I want you to also look for a light jacket and one pair of sweatpants, you'll wear those when you're sick. I'll grab everything else."
And Tony swept off.
Somehow Tony came back with two armfuls of clothes, all in her size. He said he knew women's bodies, and she didn't argue with him. Tony then dragged her into multiple shoes stores where she was able to get shoes for every possible occasion, casual, athletic, and cocktail, and gala. Although when she would be going to a gala any time soon was beyond her. By the time four hours had rolled around Hermione was practically dead on her feed, hungry all over again, and ready to go back to his place.
"Are we done now?" She whined.
"Yes," he rolled his eyes. "We are done now. But you are not. I have done everything else for you, but you must now get your underwear. I usually don't mind going into trust ole' Vicky with women, but you're my sister. It's creepy."
He shoo'ed her into the store, ignoring her groans and protests.
"I don't need anything out of there."
"Yes you do."
"No I don't."
He continued to push her into the store, turning her back around whenever she tried to run.
"I'm not saying you have to get lingerie, because frankly, I don't want to know what you do or don't do with your flower. But you will need other basic, such as panties and bras. No matter what you say right now, you cannot convince me that you have enough or anything new from the past three years in that collection of yours."
Hermione stopped fighting after that.
"Come on Hermione," she murmured to herself. "If you could take down a deranged man with no nose you can buy some new panties—Wait! Is that someone's grandfather? Are they even allowed in here?"
"Excuse me miss," A voice behind her caused her to jump and give a little shriek. She startled the taller woman. She had long blonde hair and smelled really nice.
"I'm sorry." Hermione apologized. "I've just never been in one of these before. It's not usually my cup of tea—" Hermione snorted at her own pun. "What I mean is I typically go for simpler items, but my brother thinks I should wear more things like this versus the ones I usually wear."
The woman's face took on a look of horror. Hermione quickly realized her mistake.
"No! Oh no! I didn't mean it like—he's never seen my—it's not like that. You see I just met him and I'm from out of town I guess you can say and he's really into fashion and designer clothes. He just wants me to blend in with the other California natives." Hermione laughed nervously.
The woman gave her a small smile. "Right. Well, this section is all wrong for you then. Newbies are best starting out over here."
She followed the supermodel saleswoman to another section that didn't have as many people in it, save for a middle aged woman and a two teenage giggling girls.
"These are your classic briefs, hipsters, and bikini cut panties. On the other side are some control briefs, but you're tiny, I doubt you'll need them. Over there are the simple tangas, g-strings, and thongs. Everything is organized by size and then again by color within the sizes. Let me know if you need any further assistance. My name is Kandice with a K." And then the woman flounced away.
Hermione stood stock still wondering what just happened. Her memory was impeccable, she had trained it to be so, but even she had a bit of trouble figuring out how to navigate her way around. In the end Hermione needed Kandice's assistance seven more times. She wasn't sure which kind of underwear would be the most comfortable so she got a bunch in every cut. Kandice had to call 'Sarah with an H' over to take her bra measurements. Suffice to say, Hermione learned a lot more about her body today than she ever has before.
Rhodey looked down at his phone with a look of concern.
"Stark here. Can't come to the phone right now because I have a new sister who doesn't know how to cook."
"Must you advertise my business constantly?"
"Bunny, hush. Don't you see your big brother on the phone right now?"
"Stop calling me that."
Tony hasn't been nearly impossible to reach out to for the past couple of weeks. Rhodey worried over how fast this relationship was moving and didn't want to see Tony hurt again so soon. He feared that this time, he wouldn't be able to recover. He just prayed to whatever God there was out there that this woman wouldn't hurt him.
What did you guys think? I love to write about Hermione and Tony's brother-sister bonding sessions. Their characters have a lot of similarities and just enough differences to create the perfect sibling relationship.
Any questions or comments you know where to leave them. Until next time.
