Happy 4th of July, everyone! Here's a new chapter to celebrate!~Lovely

-Infinity Heart

-Paring(s): Tony Stark/OC

-Rated: T for language and slight adult situations

-Movie-based

Disclaimer: I don't own Iron Man. The characters belong to Marvel studios and Stan Lee. I only own the OCs used


Chapter Eight:

"Bonding Over Metal"

"..A long night spent with your most obvious weakness,

You start shaking at the thought,

You are everything I want,

Because you are everything I'm not.."

~MakeDamnSure, Taking Back Sunday

Once dressed, Tegan got to work on creating the bases of Mark II right away. She sat at the computer, typing codes fast while Tony talked on about how he wanted the suit to look and what to have. With her help, she was able to make a modernized model of the suit from those suggestions in less than an hour.

"What do you think?" the young woman asked, showing her caregiver a side by side of the old and new suit. "Shall we machine the parts?"

He leaned over her shoulder, studying the screen. "Hmph. Not bad for a bunch of ones and zeros." He smiled at her. "Sure, get it rolling."

A grin formed on her face as she happily complied. When each parts were made and accounted for, they began working from the bottom—starting with the flight thruster boots. The female genius created the left one while Stark did the other. They sat across from each other at the work bench, talking causally now and then. Hayes liked that he wasn't hovering over her, making sure she was doing everything right, and actually trusting her abilities. Though, once in a while, she couldn't help but ask his opinion of her progress. He would glance it over and nod his head approvingly or giving helpful input. For once, he was treating her as his equal and she loved it.

Tegan also loved watching the billionaire work. She always had since being a kid; remembering the many times she'd sit and observe him working on his various cars. It was him that helped her understand the art of car building and made her become a mechanic just like himself. So she wasn't surprise to find herself looking away from her work and stare at him..but on how often she wanted to stand close.

For example, one day when they were almost finished on the boots, just putting the last finishing touches. Her grey eyes drifted up and landed on the man who sat across from her. Like herself, Tony prefer to wear tank tops a lot when working. But while she was nothing but pale, slender arms, he was tan and had decent sized biceps and triceps. The heiress briefly glared at her model skinny, twig-limbs and their lack of forming any muscle no matter how much she worked out. The young woman looked away when hearing the genius speak, thinking he was talking to her but was actually to Dummy. The mechanical arm was holding a magnifying glass for its creator to see the inner wiring better. She, herself, was wearing odd-looking goggles to help with that which she lifted up to watch the interaction.

"Next. Up. Not the boot, Dummy. Right here. You got me?" The female prodigy chuckled softly. It was always funny and cute when she saw him speaking to his machines like people. The habit had rubbed off on her over the years as well.

"You're of no benefit at all." Tony insulted, annoyed.

"Aw, don't be mean to Dummy." Tegan scolded with a smile, "He's trying his best."

"Well, his best is getting on my nerves." came another annoyed reply from the man. She chuckled again and stood, walking over to them.

"I'll take that, Dummy. Go have a break." Hayes told the machine, taking the magnifying glass. She addressed her caregiver then. "Where do you want it?"

"Up here." he responded simply, indicting to the top of the boot. Since she was slightly taller than him and had longer arms, the female genius stood behind him and reached around to hold the glass at the spot he wanted without getting in his way too much. She observed quietly as he worked but her gaze soon moved to look at his face. Stark, she always noticed, had a habit of biting his lower lip and his brows would furrow when concentrating. The young woman usually resisted the urge to pull his lip away but this time didn't. She reacted before able to stop herself. Her free hand moved up and cupped his chin; his beard prickling her skin pleasantly. Using her thumb only, she gently removed his lip from between his teeth. He glanced at her then, his brown eyes wide and questioning.

"You do that too much," she murmured, "That your lip might bleed one day. A cute but bad habit.."

"You think it's cute..?" the playboy queried lowly; his gaze half-hooded now.

She nodded, not meeting his gaze. "So does Pepper. She always tries not to giggle when seeing you do it. I, on the other hand, try to resist not pulling it away."

"Why didn't you stop this time?" Her shoulders gave a little shrug before she finally looked at him. They stared into each others' eyes for a long while. Tegan broke the silence, speaking softly.

"Where..do you want me?"

Tony startled and stammered out, "W-What?"

"Where do you want me?" she repeated, raising a brow. "The magnifying glass?"

"Ah." He chuckled nervously. "Down by the toe.." She listened and he got back to work, both lost in their confusing thoughts after that. Besides their awkward moments, there were hilarious ones too. One happen when the two were testing the hand controls to the thrusters. She stood off to the side to film. Tony stood on a pad in the middle of the garage with the boots on and controls in hands.

"Okay, let's do this right." he announced, "Start mark, half a meter, and back and center." He turned to their favorite but unreliable mechanical arm then. "Dummy, look alive. You're on standby for fire safety." His gaze landed on Tegan. "Teg, you rolling?"

"We're rolling!" she grinned, giving a thumbs' up.

"Okay. Active hand controls." Tony said, getting adjusted. "We're gonna start off nice and easy. We're gonna see if ten percent thrust capacity achieves lift." The young woman blinked, thinking she heard wrong until he started counting down.

"Uh, Tony, I don't—" But it was too late. The billionaire pressed on the controls and was sent up and flying back right into the wall hard before dropping down to the floor again. Tegan almost dropped the camera as she rushed over to see if he was alright. When the fog from the fire extinguisher that Dummy sprayed cleared, she saw Tony on the floor, groaning but alive.

She knelt beside him. "You alright?"

"Never better." he wheezed painfully.

"I was going to tell you that ten percent thrust capacity might not be wise." the heiress smirked, trying not to laugh.

"Wish you said so sooner. Then I wouldn't be hurting and covered in fire extinguisher foam."

"True, but the plus side, maybe we can put this on YouTube and see how many hits you get." she joked, felling back cackling when her caregiver gave her an unamused expression. From the moment they started living together, they always got along great when surrounded by machine parts and metal.


A week had passed and the two geniuses were now working on stabilizers in the suit's arms. Tony was trying one on while Tegan sat on his stool, drinking a bottle of Cola.

"Can I have some of that?" he asked her nonchalantly.

"Sure, sure." she replied, getting up and handing him it. "Don't backwash, okay?"

"Just because you mention it, I'm going to now."

"You suck.." He went to give her a smirk when noticing Pepper coming down the stairs to the garage. The young woman followed his gaze and smiled, going over to meet the other woman by the door. She came in carrying a few papers and a brown paper wrapped box. Stark briefly heard their soft conversation.

"Is that it?"

"Sure is. Took long enough for it to come."

"Great! Put it on the table here. I'll show it to him later."

His assistant placed the items down before speaking to him. "I've been buzzing you. Did you hear the intercom?"

"Yeah, everything's.." Tony said automatically but paused, "What?"

"Obadiah's upstairs." Pepper told, earning a groan from Tegan. "What would you like me to tell him?"

"Great, great. I'll be right up." he answered, lifting his right arm covered with the stabilizer and holding it out in front of him.

"I thought you said you were done making weapons." the strawberry-blonde said in a disapproving tone.

"It is. This is a flight stabilizer. It's completely harmless." Stark reassured before testing it. Whirring was heard as it booted up before firing out quickly, sending him shooting back. Potts panicked in surprise while Hayes sighed, shaking her head.

"Harmless, huh?" his successor questioned sarcastically.

"..I didn't expect that." came his lame response. After assuring Pepper that he was okay and sending her back upstairs, the female prodigy helped him up and out of the stabilizer before heading to the living room. Obadiah sat at the piano, playing a tune while Potts was on the couch, typing on her laptop.

"How'd it go?" Tony asked his partner. Stane had been at in New York that day for a meeting about the company. Before he could answer, Tony noticed the pizza on the table that the younger woman was currently getting a slice from. "It went that bad, huh?"

"Just because I brought pizza back from New York," Obadiah denied, "Doesn't mean it went bad."

"Uh-huh, sure doesn't." the billionaire said, joining his assistant and successor. He opened the pizza box. It was cheese; his favorite. Yeah, it had been bad..

"Oh, boy.." he muttered under his breath, taking one. Tegan patted him on the back understandingly.

"It would have gone better if you were there." noted Stane.

"You told me to lay low. That's what I've been doing." Tony reminded, "I lay low, and you take care of all.."

"Hey, come on. In public. The press." the older man told, coming over to join the others. "This was a board of directors meeting."

The two geniuses stared at him in disbelief. "This was a board of directors meeting?"

"The board is claiming you have post-traumatic stress. They're filing an injunction."

"A what?"

"They want to lock you out."

"Why, 'cause the stocks dipped forty points?" Stark questioned, irritated. "We knew that was gonna happen."

"Fifty-six and a half.." deadpanned Hayes and Potts behind him.

He turned towards them. "It doesn't matter. We own the controlling interest in the company." The young woman shrugged while the other gave him a skeptical look.

"Tony, the board has rights too." Obadiah said calmly, "They're making the case that you and your new direction isn't in the company's best interest."

"I'm being responsible!" the billionaire snapped, "That's a new direction for me—for the company." The others stared at him then, smirking. "I mean, me on the company's behalf being responsible for the way that..This is great." He stood, pulling the heiress up as well and taking the box of pizza too.

"Oh, come on. Tony..Tony." called Stane.

"We'll be in the shop." Tony ignored him but he followed.

"Hey, hey! Hey, Tony. Listen. I'm trying to turn this thing around," he said, "But you gotta give me something. Something to pitch them." He pointed to the arc reactor. "Let me have the engineers analyze that. You know, draw up some specs."

"No. No, absolutely not."

"It'll give me a bone to throw to the boys in New York!"

"This one stays with me." Stark told firmly, "That's it, Obie. Forget it."

"All right, well, this stays with me then." Obadiah took the pizza box then. "Go on, here, you can have a piece."

"Thank you!" Hayes took two slices before skipping toward the stairs. Tony laughed, following her.

"You mind if I come down there and see what you're doing?"

"Good night, Obie." The billionaire went down the steps first but Tegan stayed, looking at Stane curiously. The older man smiled at her innocently and she returned it with a glare and frown before heading down as well.

"He's being more noisy than usual.." she thought suspiciously, "I'll have to keep an eye on him."


"Day eleven, test thirty seven, configuration two-point-zero. For lack of a better option," Tony stated, glancing at Dummy. The duo were film testing again—with both the thrusters and stabilizers that time. "Dummy is still on fire safety. If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college."

"No, he won't." Tegan assured the machine motherly.

"Don't contradict me in front of him." he exasperated, "He needs to get the point." She just stuck her tongue out at him as a response. He shook his head.

"Alright, nice and easy. Seriously, just gonna start off with one percent thrust capacity." He didn't need to look to see the smug expression on the young woman's face. "And three, two, one.." The thrusters and stabilizers kicked on and lifted him into the air where he floated for less than a minute before going back down.

The heiress grinned excitedly behind the camera. "So far, so good."

"Let's hope it stays that way." he smiled, glancing briefly at Dummy which was following his every move intently. "Please don't follow me around with it either, 'cause I feel like I'm gonna catch on fire spontaneously. Just stand down! If something happens, than come in." The machine slumped forward sadly. "And again, let's bring it up to two-point-five. Three, two, one.." That time Stark rose higher and was moving around the garage, trying to figure out how to steer with them. He headed away from the pad and ended up over his cars unfortunately, looking to his successor nervously.

"Okay, this is where I don't want to be!"

"Uh, just keep moving! You're doing great!" He passed over them safely but started flying by the female prodigy to his desk, causing papers and other items to stir and fall off the table. Using the stabilizers just before hitting the wall, the billionaire was sent backwards, going back over the desk and towards Tegan again. She followed with the camera diligently; an expression of amazement ever present on her face.

He laughed uneasily down at her. "Could be worse! Could be worse! We're fine! Okay." Returning to his starting mark, Tony finally got the hang of it, hovering a bit until landing. He sighed with relief before noticing Dummy raising up to spray him. His creator quickly told him no and the machine slumped again.

The genius turned to the other. "Yeah, I can fly.."

"Which is amazing~!" Hayes sang, hopping over excitedly. "Less than two weeks and look how far we are. All that's needed to do now is a test run of the full suit."

"Couldn't have done it without you, kiddo." Tony complimented with a tousle of her hair.

She quickly tried to fix herself; a habit deeply ingrained. "Oh, don't flatter me. You could have done this just as quick by yourself." He now stood by his disarrayed desk, removing the thrusters and stabilizers.

"True, but it's more fun with your help. I haven't gotten excited to make something in a long time."

"I know." the young woman smiled warmly, standing beside him. "It's good to see that inventive tinkle in your eyes again." She grew quiet then; her smile fading as while she pondered. Her sudden silence made the man glance at her.

"What?"

"Why are you doing this?"

His brow raised. "I believe, from my good memory, I've told you the reason already."

"Yes, but not in detail." Grey eyes rolled. "You've said this isn't for the military and that in your hands, it will do you some good." The female genius met his gaze. "But what are you going to do with this once the suit is done? What's your plan?" Stark stared at her for awhile before sighing, turning away.

"To tell the truth, I haven't really thought that far." he informed, scratching the back of his head. "Just going with the flow, I guess."

"Well, just don't lose sight of what's important, okay?" Tegan requested.

"I think I'll remember, so long as you're there to remind me." Tony smirked. She chuckled with a shake of her head, walking away to get back to work. He watched her—something he'd been doing a lot recently.

Hayes wasn't the only one trying their best not to act on their impulses over the weeks of working together. Tony struggled greatly. He had never thought of Tegan as a daughter. She was just a kid who needed someone to look out for them. He knew what it was like to not have your parents around, even when they were alive, that's why he let her live with him. It was fun in the beginning but when the young woman got older, things changed.

The billionaire began noticing how beautiful she had became, seeing her in a whole new light. It was then that he put a distance between them; why he treated her as a kid..He didn't want to fall for her..There was many reasons why it was wrong for him too. There was their obvious age difference. The fact that he practically raised the kid himself with Pepper's help and that she was his successor. But the biggest was he himself. With the reputation he had, her being with him wouldn't make life any easier for her, so he believed.

Even with the distance he created, she would somehow chisel a way through to him but he would just rebuild and push her away again. Though that was a different story now. Since his kidnapping, Stark had been wanting to become closer to her again. He was glad they were working and hanging out together like in their younger years. But there was still that line he couldn't cross even though he wanted to do more. So he had a hard time but was able to manage..or so he thought.


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