"I hope this gets more exciting than your soil sample collection," Stark told Eva as security unlocked the gate of the New York Botanical Garden for them. Stark Industries had just announced a series of charity partnerships, and since this place was one of them the man himself had decided to get his green-fingered friend-of-a-friend to show him around the place. Eva doubted he was doing this with the rest of the partnerships. As a matter of fact, she suspected he was only doing it out of a promise that he had probably made to Vision before he left with Wanda to keep an eye on his best friend. Not that Eva was in any position to judge – she'd only agreed to come because she had promised Vision pretty much the exact same thing.

"My soil sample collection's actually really interesting," Eva replied. "I'm probably the only person to have some Wakandan – stop making that face."

"What face?" Tony asked, innocently.

"That face," she said, jabbing a finger in it.

"That's just my face! I'm here to learn. Why would I antagonize you if the reason I'm here is your sage wisdom and charming companionship?"

"I hate you."

"That's cute. Ooh," he added as she glared at him, "look at that pretty flower."

"It's not a flower."

"What?"

"No. It's just a really colorful leaf."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Eva lied. "Come on. I'll show you round."

Stark had closed the entire gardens so that, apart from his entourage, they had it to themselves. He was extra like that. "So," he said, as they ambled around the lily pond. "Why trees? Why not music or memes or whatever it is the kids are up to these days?"

"To piss off my parents," she replied. He smiled and nodded, as though he knew exactly what she meant. "I grew up in a city in the middle of Texas. Greenery wasn't, like, something I was used to. There was this park, McKinney Falls, that was like a completely different world to the rest of my life. Proper forests and rivers and waterfalls that you could hike across. It's lovely. Only part of my old home I really miss. It was, like… an escape. And I sorta learnt to love it for all the reasons it was different to everywhere else. Trees are my happy place…

"Sorry. That sounds dumb."

"No," said Tony quietly, "it doesn't."

"You're a tinker," she said. "Alvie Kennings told me about it. When you don't wanna think, you go down to your garage and hide in what you know."

"That's a little invasive – hang on," he said, "how do you know Alvie Kennings?"

"She's my mate," said Eva. "You know her 'cause of Athena, right? All the Hydra information leak stuff? She said she helped find Bucky Barnes."

"Hmm," he said, non-committally.

"Although I don't see how she knew so much about you from that…" Eva continued, thinking aloud. It wasn't until Tony took a sudden interest in a particularly large lily pad that she began to get suspicious. "Hang on. How else do you know her?"

"She… interned under me."

"Under you? Figuratively or literally?"

"Both," Stark replied, and Eva stared at him in horror. "What? You asked."

"I wish I hadn't." That makes me feel a little bit better about that wizard doctor, she added to herself. Man, we all need to meet some new people.

"Don't worry, Boothby. It's all water under a very old bridge. What's this?"

"Rothschild's Orchid," she said. "It's super-duper rare."

"D'you think Pepper would like it?"

"Yeah, but they're worth hundreds and thousands of pounds. You can't just –"

"Already bought it," Tony replied, putting his phone back in his pocket.

"Did I mention that I hate you, Stark?"

"So many times, Kresk. So many times."

A/N you cannot IMAGINE my delight when the Infinity War writers said that the film starts three years after Civil War. That means there's SO MUCH MORE SPACE-TIME for coffee run chapters before everything gets all... sad.