When she woke up the next morning, her apartment had the stillness not of someone being in there who was remarkably silent, but of empty rooms and cool pre-dawn light. Yawning, she dragged the duvet through with her to the kitchen, where a flask was sat on the counter with a post-it note attached. It was quite pretty, cursive handwriting, but almost like it had been typed in that repeated letters were identical.
I checked your apartment for possessed dolls and psychopathic killers before I left, but did not find any. Also, I made you tea.
-V
She grinned, and held a hand to the flask- it was still warm. Then, looking up, she saw the clock.
"Oh, crap!"
Twenty minutes later, after having dressed at top speed and sprinted down avenues and back alleys, she barrelled into the coffee shop and over the counter, grabbed her apron from the back, and near collapsed in front of the next customer.
"Need a moment, short round?"
"I'm not that short," she panted. "Good morning Mr Stark, how can I help you today?"
"Well, I'll let you get your breath back, and then you can guess."
"You're all I need," she muttered, and he beamed behind his sunglasses. Grumpily, she grabbed a shot cup from the shelf.
"So," said Stark, "I hear you're being a bad influence on my butler."
"Ex butler. Now fellow superhero," she corrected him. "Pretty badass too, by the looks of it."
Stark huffed. "I'm badass."
"Sure you are, sweetheart." She slammed his espresso on the counter in front of him.
"Somebody got up on the wrong side of bed this morning," Stark remarked, swiping his card.
She scowled. "Somebody hasn't got the patience for arrogant billionaires with fancy suits this morning."
"Whoa!" Stark raised his hands in the air. "Clearly I shouldn't've poked the bear."
Sighing, she tapped a couple of buttons on the card machine. "I'm sorry, sir, I shouldn't have snapped. Drink's on the house."
"Right. Because I totally would've noticed my pocket getting lighter otherwise."
"Have a nice day, Mr Stark."
"I was planning on it."
She rubbed her eye with the heel of her palm, blinked a couple of times, and prepared herself for the next customer.
A/N and, after eight chapters, the great Tony Stark finally makes an appearance. And we also see evidence that Eva is not a morning person.