Things I forgot to mention:

The idea of Tony in a blanket fort partly comes from the fic 'Why HYDRA Should Not Use FedEx'. That is the previously mentioned fic in which Jasper Sitwell accidentally finds out the Hydra thing is real, and not a prank. I recommend it, it's on AO3 and is only 15K.

Also this weekend I'm doing the 48 hour film festival!

Now have some crack.

Chapter Seventeen – Montage, Part Two

I didn't end up having to Astral Project.

Thank God.

In addition to all my other problems with Astral Projecting, I always get weird dreams after, too. Laxus has never had a problem with it and Lucy and Jellal actually like their dreams.

But mine, especially mixed with the Eris I used earlier for the illusion? That's not something I'm looking forward to.

And yeah, maybe that makes me a bit of a baby, but sleep is important to me.

And I don't like to linger on Freed's theory, either.

But anyway.

Corvus showed up a few minutes after three, and sighed at the look on my face. "What do you want?"

"Virgo," I answered.

"Why Virgo?" he asked.

"We need to look good while we break society," I explained.

Tony snorted.

"You're going to need to channel," Corvus warned me.

I made a face, but held out a hand. "Fine."

"What does he mean by 'channel'?" Tony asked. "Are you sharing magic?"

"Kinda," I admitted. "Lucy's powerful enough and has strong enough contracts that all of her Zodiacs and Platinums can come out on their own, and spend a general amount of time out of the Celestial World. Virgo can come out on her own, too, which she probably will-"

"Actually, Princess says she'll support her," Corvus said, his eyes closed as he concentrated on his hand and mentally spoke to Lucy.

I sighed. "If Lucy really wants to. Virgo might be out for a few days, if she wants to keep working."

"Princess does," Corvus said. "And Virgo will."

"Corvus, and even the other Platinums can travel as they want, like through his shadows," I continued explaining to Tony. "While Virgo can travel, it's not extremely long distances. She can burrow underground, but there's no point in doing that in New Mexico and coming here. What I'm doing is localizing a signal; sending out a flare, basically. She's coming to me and-"

I grunted as the Celestial Spirit Magic hit me.

I honestly don't know how Lucy does this shit.

"-and I prop open the gate," I finished, as Virgo's magical circle appeared, before she shimmered into existence.

I relaxed as Virgo took the burden and passed it back to Lucy. "And then once she's in the right place, they'll take the magic back."

Tony was staring at Virgo. "Oh my god. It all makes sense."

"What does?" I asked.

"Of all the fictional universes out there, you decided to jump into anime?" he asked, gesturing to Virgo.

"Don't make fun of me you cuddly cat loving science nerd!" I shouted at him.

"None of that is an insult," he deadpanned.

I deflated. "Yeah…but don't make fun of me. Some anime is great! And hilarious."

"You're really doing this?" he asked.

I glared at him. "Netflix is a thing now, right?"

He nodded.

"Good," I said. "We're having another sleepover tonight. And we're going to watch anime."

"Elle," he sighed.

"Give them a chance," I said. "Some of them are kinda weird, and they're written in a different style, but it's still really good and enjoyable."

Tony sighed. "Fine. Where are we going to watch it? It's not all on Netflix, right?"

I shook my head. "Probably not, no, especially since they won't have the one I want to start you with. Speaking of which-" I ducked into the kitchen and the other three followed me. Corvus and Virgo have been silently watching our conversation. "-You might want to get in on that. Netflix, I mean. Like buy it or whatever…Unless you want to make your own streaming service. It would probably be better."

"There's an idea," Tony muttered, and I swiped the island countertop so my To-Do list came up.

I quickly added 'Netflix' to the list, and looked up at the other three.

"Alright, we're going to go do some shopping," I said.

Virgo's eyes lit up. "Will you let me do adjustments, Elle-sama?"

"Virgo," I smiled at her. "I was actually thinking that we could just get the fabric. And that you could stitch it together yourself."

Her eyes brightened and she clasped her hands and let out an odd 'eep' sound, which is about the most excitement you'll ever get from her.

"Here's the situation," I said, leaning across the countertop. Tony came to my left and leaned across too, looking down at the countertop where I had opened the Internet. "Tony and I are going to a charity ball. We're going to spend less than $50-"

"$100." Tony corrected.

I rolled my eyes. "We're going to spend no more than a set amount per person to buy fabric and create our clothing to 1) completely blow everyone else out of the water and 2) to show them that they shouldn't waste a few thousand dollars for how they look at a charity ball."

Virgo was quiet. Contemplative. "What is the charity for?"

Corvus had left and Virgo had searched the internet on the countertop at the styles most people would wear to these balls.

"How will it be decorated?" she asked.

This is why Virgo is in charge of appearance. She thinks things through. I never would have thought of creating a theme and relating them together.

Then again, I'm the type of person who might completely glam up if I could pull it off, or maybe just come with jeans and a nice top, just to fuck with people.

"This one is for clean energy," Tony said. "So nature stuff, I guess? Because we've been promoting green energy, and since we're going to be building Stark Tower off of the arc reactor, it should help with pollution…"

Virgo nodded, not looking up from her searching as she swiped through pictures.

"Any requirements?" she asked. "Things you need to add or are not allowed?"

"No heels," I said immediately.

"I wouldn't mind some heels," Tony said, shrugging. "Well, platforms."

"He just wants to be taller than me if we dance," I said.

"If?" he asked.

I shrugged. "My dancing is horrible. We'll work on it."

"I can do that," Virgo said. "…Will you be treating these charity balls more as costume parties?"

I paused. "Uh…"

"Yes," Tony answered.

We looked at him.

"The one after this has to do with kids. When you started talking about the theme, I was thinking we could dress up, and dress up the kids, too, as fantasy and royalty and stuff."

He seemed flippant saying it, but I could tell he was a bit embarrassed and also worried about it.

I beamed at him. "That's a great idea! The kids will love it!" My smile got bigger. "And I've got a great idea, then, on what to do next time to show them up."

Virgo nodded. "I believe I have a plan. Shall we shop for fabric, Elle-sama?"

I nodded and took her arm, turning to Tony, who made sure he had his phone and his wallet before we teleported.

Several hours later, we finally left the fabric store.

Tony was obviously nervous with what we had bought.

"Tony," I said softly, taking his hands. "It should be fine. You've only seen the fabric."

"I know how it will work for you, but I don't know if it will work on me," Tony pointed out. "We're going to embarrass ourselves."

"So what?" I asked, pausing on our walk. "Tony, I don't care what other people think of me, unless they're people I care about. And you've been in the public eye forever, so this shouldn't bother you that much. You're Tony Stark. Iron Man. And they're going to make fun of you for wearing what you want? At your own benefit?"

He relaxed a bit. "I still don't see how this is going to work."

I shrugged. "I guess we'll just wait for the rest to unfold."

I had also mentioned getting stuff for me to build a costume for a secret identity, but Virgo and Tony have both said they'd be making it with stronger materials, and then they'd started arguing over Celestial Spirit clothes and adjustable Kevlar for armor. (So Virgo would be giving Tony some clothes for them to experiment with).

We left with our cloth for the ball (soon to be clothes) and stopped by a library really quickly (anime) before we returned to the Malibu house. Upon our arrival, a series of kittens came for us, meowing, having all woken up from their earlier nap.

"Are they out of food?" Tony asked worriedly.

I peered around the island to look at the full bowl floor. "Nope. Probably just want attention. Come here, guys."

Salem came towards me, as did Tom and Milo. Aslan, Simba, Snowball and Marie circled around Tony, Marie being particularly loud as he started giving her affection.

Duchess was observing Virgo, and after some odd sort of staredown between the two of them, Duchess finally came forward asking for attention. Virgo picked her up, and I stared at the way she was holding Duchess in her arms.

"Oh My God."

Tony looked up. "Elle? What is it?"

"Tony!" I happily swirled around, which caused some disgruntled meows before they returned to their purrs. "Do you realize what this means?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Tony said.

"Kittens are cute," I explained. "But you have a white cat."

He stared at me. "What?"

"And a goatee?" I reminded him. "And money?"

It still didn't sink in.

"And we're going to be taking over the world?"

Tony looked back and forth between me, and Duchess in Virgo's arms.

He burst out laughing, and even looked like he was having trouble breathing. Duchess hopped down from Virgo to check on him and lick his cheek.

"I am so taking you to the next board meeting," he wheezed, petting her. "Pepper will find that hilarious. And maybe the board will stop being such a pain in the ass."

"And I am so going to be there to watch their faces!" I said excitedly. "How's your evil laugh?"

It was already around dinner time when we had returned to the house, so Tony ordered pizza and we ate in front of the TV. Virgo ate with us, and also spent time sketching out what we'd wear with things we'd gotten for her from the art department of the store.

Unfortunately, the first anime I wanted to show Tony wasn't at the library – according to Jarvis, it wasn't even released yet, so we'd have to make do with my memories.

I loaded it up as we curled up in front of the TV under the blanket fort, Virgo sitting next to us while she measured her fabric and sketched out clothes. Though after a few of the kittens were eying up the fabric (Tom and Milo specifically, those troublemakers) she put it in the Celestial Spirit World so they wouldn't get any cat hair on it.

"You really think I'll like this?" Tony asked skeptically.

"Yes," I said. "Especially this one. It's about science! And it's also one of my favorites. So be quiet and eat your pizza."

He rolled his eyes and took an exaggerated bite of his pizza, drawing up some schematics with his hologram so he could work while we watched.

"Alright!" I said, starting it. "Also, don't recreate anything you see."

"I thought you said I can make anything?" he asked.

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should," I said darkly.

Tony went uncharacteristically quiet, and I gave him a hug.

"Come on," I said quietly. "Let's watch."

Several minutes in, Tony still wasn't very interested.

"Just a few episodes?" I asked him. "I know it can be a bit confusing at first."

"I'm not confused!" he paused. "So maybe I'm a little confused, but I'm confused on the characters and their interactions. Is all of this actually important? And this guy is just …nuts!"

"Pot, meet kettle," I pointed out to him, before nodding. "And yeah, it's all set up. You'll like it, just give it some time."

He sighed. "Alright."

Virgo smiled to herself as she sketched designs and ate the cake I had brought out.

Over nine and a half hours later, we finished watching Steins;Gate. I was once again in tears.

"Is everything we watch going to make you cry?" Tony asked.

"Yes," I said, wiping my eyes. "What did you think?"

"It was actually pretty good," he admitted. "I enjoyed it. The beginning was a bit weird…"

"That's kind of anime in general," I said. "You kinda need to wait for it to kick off. After a few episodes, then you realize you've been sucked in and it's actually good, just really weird. You just need to adjust to the writers' individual styles."

"I'm probably still not going to try it on my own," Tony said.

I shrugged. "That's fine, you're pretty busy. But I can filter them out so you only get the really good ones."

"The ones that will make you cry?" he asked wryly.

"Maybe."

"I suggest that you two get some sleep," Jarvis put in.

I sighed, glancing at the time. "Yeah, we probably should."

"It's not even four!" Tony said.

"And you have an appointment at the vet around noon," Jarvis reminded him.

"What?" Tony asked. "I didn't know that!"

"He told us before we started testing this morning, Tony," I sighed.

Tony was quiet as he searched his memory. "But you said the appointment was on Wednesday!"

"It is Wednesday," I said. "Now that it's past midnight, at least. What day did you think earlier was?"

"…Sunday?" he asked. "…maybe?"

"Well, it's now Wednesday, the 28th," I told him. "So we should get some sleep for the vet."

"But I'm comfy…" Tony whined as he stroked the kittens laying on him. "Can't we just watch more anime?"

He paused. "Wow, I never thought I'd say that aloud."

I snorted. "Trust me, if you went to college in a few years instead of in the eighties, you probably would. Around the time I died there was a bunch of memes on the internet about how college students watched a bunch of cartoons and Disney and anime. And that's what I heard the students say when I'd sneak into MIT, so…"

I paused, realizing what I said.

"Wait," Tony said, and the only reason he didn't sit up to look closer at me was because of the cats on top of him. "You snuck into MIT?"

I blushed and hid my face behind a kitten, who, coincidentally, was Marie, the same one Tony hid behind earlier. "…Maybe."

Tony started laughing, and I slowly lowered the kitten, who meowed at me until I laid her on my chest and pet her. She purred as she resumed her spot.

"What?" I asked, annoyed.

"You snuck into MIT!" he continued laughing. "That's great!"

I blushed some more. "Well, I told you, I was interested in psychology. So I might have snuck into a few lectures. It's a lot more difficult, too, because now they have these keycards and scanning and IDs."

Tony smiled. "No, I'm glad. The biggest part of paying for college is getting credit for it. You went because you wanted to learn. That's a good thing, Elle."

"It is?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. Absolutely. So, psychology, yeah?"

I shrugged. "It interested me. And it came in handy in Fiore, where they didn't exactly have a bunch of psychology texts. And considering most of the guilds' unfortunate backgrounds and odd relationships, it was kinda needed."

Tony nodded, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Alright, enough talking," I said, rolling my eyes. "We don't exactly need to get up if you're comfortable. I mean, we've already prepped the living room for the last sleepover," I shrugged. "And there are cats on us. And you also have really comfy couches. Might as well just sleep here tonight."

Tony shrugged. "Yeah, okay."

"Virgo?" I asked her, where she was switching between two sketches. "Are you going to go back to the Spirit World?"

She shook her head. "I will likely work on the clothes tonight."

"So she can stay up all night working?" Tony asked, unimpressed.

"Celestial Spirits don't sleep," I started, before pausing and thinking of Crux. "Well, most of them don't. A few of the Silver Keys do, but one of the stronger keys only really sleep if they're injured or mentally exhausted. The most Virgo would do to rest is go back to the spirit world, but…well, Lucy's spirits are like a part of the guild. So they'd come out to spend more and more time with everyone. They'd return to the Spirit World at the end of the day if they were tired or have done a lot of things, but Virgo has barely done anything."

Virgo nodded. "Elle-sama is correct. And Hime-sama would like the practice over her magical energy. It is not easy for wizards to practice magic freely in this society."

I nodded. "Yeah, it's like she's exercising her magic. It's kinda like a muscle, so it would actually kinda fit."

"Hime-sama…" Tony trailed off. "That's…Princess, right?"

We nodded.

"I only know a bit of Japanese," Tony admitted. "I've learned some other languages for business deals with other countries, now that Stark Industries has expanded into green energy, but Japan still doesn't like us. Not that I blame them, considering that Howard worked on the Manhattan Project."

"Ah," I said, a few things making sense.

Jarvis cleared his throat. "Sleep?"

"Sleep," I agreed, looking at Tony.

"Stark-san," Virgo started.

"Tony, please," he said.

She nodded. "Tony-san, may I tidy up while you rest? If I am thinking over designs, I might like to keep my hands busy."

"Um…" Tony thought.

"Virgo, why don't you stitch some runes into the bottoms of things?" I suggested. "Now that Tony has cats, they might scratch up the couch and stuff."

"They seem to be doing fine with the cat scratcher you got," Tony pointed out.

"It will likely get worse," Virgo put in. "Putting protection runes on your furniture should prevent it from being torn up by their claws."

Tony shrugged. "Eh, what the hell? You said that the runes will be hidden, right?"

Virgo and I nodded.

"Then it should be fine," he said. "And if you finish, I guess you can tidy up my lab if Elle will understand your system. It's kinda a mess."

"Oh," I said, the thought hitting me like a truck. I glared at Tony. "I fucking knew I forgot something. Have you switched out your reactor?"

He looked away. "…No."

"Tony!" I cried.

"What?" he asked. "I've been thinking if I should wear the new reactor during the day or night, and use the palladium the other time around."

I glared. "That's a shitty excuse and you know it. But to answer your question, I suggest that you wear the new one during the day. That way if you exert yourself or use the suit you're not going to be poisoning yourself."

Tony nodded. "Got it. I'll start wearing the new one tomorrow. Promise."

"I know you will," I glared at him. "Because Virgo is going to get it and leave it on the table, so it's the first thing you see when you wake up. You have no excuse."

Virgo bowed. "Understood, Elle-sama. Goodnight."

"'Night," I told her, and she swept out from under the pillow fort.

"'Night," Tony called after her, before looking at me. "I'll start wearing it tomorrow, alright?"

I nodded. "Alright. Goodnight, Tony."

"Goodnight."