IMPORTANT: Rachel Douglas is not an original character. She is using an alias, yes, but she is a native to the Marvel Comics.
o.o.o.o.o
May 12, 2012
3:59 PM
Helicarrier
"You were planning on letting him watch Star Wars?" Coulson asked, arms folded where he stood across the table from Tony. Thor, seated near him, seemed bemused, not quite understanding what Star Wars was beyond a form of entertainment. "That doesn't exactly seem like the best choice."
"I thought better of it later." Tony grumbled. "Once I realized how badly some of it could probably trigger him, I decided to put it off for… a while."
"A while?"
"Year and a half at minimum." Tony shot back, arms crossed. He opened his mouth to continue, but was cut off by a cough from the end of the table. Turning, he saw a SHIELD medic standing there, nervously clutching a clipboard.
"Do you have something to tell us?" Fury asked after several seconds of the medic opening and closing their mouth silently, clearly unsure of how to word something.
"We've gotten the girl stabilized, but one of the children is demanding a large tub of water, and while we would draw a bath if we thought it could be beneficial, his wounds are too heavy for that to be safe at the moment." The medic finally let out in one big breath.
"Wait!" Tony cut her off, seeming far too excited. "I know this one! It's the kid with the sword, right? White hair, purple eyes, pointy teeth, etcetera?"
The medic nodded slowly.
"He's a Hozuki. The water will help. Some weird thing to do with his biology. Warning: he'll look like he's disappeared at first." Tony knew that much, at least; he'd outright demanded information on Sasuke's planned team when they'd first been collected.
"…understood." The medic nodded and scrawled something across her paper, though she looked doubtful of the verity of Tony's claims. "Also, one of the boys, Sasuke? He said he'll be coming up to see you in half an hour or so, and the taller boy will be coming with him."
"That'd be Juugo." Tony nodded. "Yeah, we'll be expecting him."
"You better hurry your story up before then, Stark." Fury ordered. "We don't have enough time for the details."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll hurry up. Anyway, I think I was about to talk about Rachel? Wait, no, the aftermath thingamajig first."
o.o.o.o.o
April 7, 2003
3:04 PM
Malibu
Tony got back a good six hours after he left, annoyed and socially exhausted, though he tried not to let it show as he walked up the stairs from the garage to the main floor. Behind him, Happy locked up the car and followed along; he'd been the first person to sign the NDA, after all.
Tony paused in the doorway to get a look at the situation before jumping in. Pepper was at the bar, laptop out and a glass of water (well, probably water; she was at a bar, yes, but she was also Pepper, and there was a kid in the room, so probably water). Sasuke was sitting in front of the TV, legs folded underneath him, staring at the screen in what appeared to be consternation. His eyes were flickering along the subtitles at a respectable rate, certainly better than most kids his age, and Tony realized that he'd come in just in time for the end of "The Daleks." Thinking back, Pepper had probably done some research and skipped the first mini-arc; "An Unearthly Child" might not have been the most child-friendly of arcs, especially not for a child like Sasuke.
"Guess who's back?" Tony said.
"Welcome back, Mr. Stark." Pepper didn't look up from the computer she was at, so Tony walked over to look at the files spread out next to her. They mostly looked like some kind of quarterly report, which Tony promptly ignored. Sasuke still hadn't turned away from the screen, so Tony took a seat next to Pepper and leaned against the bar.
"How was he?" Tony said lowly, not quite whispering.
"He woke up about an hour after you left. I made him breakfast and explained where you were, and he seemed… well, not disappointed, but sort of… vindictively resigned? It was kind of an 'I expected as much,' look." Pepper shook her head. "I looked up the first few episodes to make sure they were okay for him, and even though it said PG, I didn't really think the synopsis was all that promising for the first few episodes, so I explained that and I think he understood, given the way he rolled his eyes at me. The second… story? The story seemed better in that sense, so I had JARVIS put that on instead."
Tony rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, it's been a long time since I saw these; maybe I can show him the first arc in a year or two. Did the clothing you ordered arrive?"
"Yes, and I made sure to order through a proxy like you asked. Anyone looking at where the clothing goes will see it coming to me, and I can pass it off as being for one of my younger cousins." Pepper pulled out a printed list of clothing she'd ordered, most of it fairly plain and inoffensive, even to someone like Sasuke.
Tony grinned. "You're a lifesaver, Pep. Anyway, uh, it's not too late for lunch, right?"
"I'll order in. Any preferences?" Pepper already had her phone out, her other hand flipping through some easily-accessed PDF take-out menus on her laptop.
"Uh…" Tony glanced at Sasuke, then back at Pepper. "I could ask him? That would be a good idea, right? Make him feel at home or welcome or whatever, right?"
Pepper stamped down a grin. "Yes, it should."
"Right, um, I'll… I'll go get on that." Tony turned around and walked over to the couch, unceremoniously flopping down next to Sasuke, who flinched and subsequently stiffened, which Tony took note of for later interactions, because making Sasuke uncomfortable wasn't exactly on his list of fun things to do when bored.
(That list included things like inventing, explosions, and one-night stands.)
"So, I'm back." He said unnecessarily. "You have fun while I was gone?"
Sasuke glanced down at the phone that was still handling all the translations, then looked back up at Tony with what was probably supposed to be a dirty look, but on a seven-year-old, it just looked cute. Tony made a vague gesture with one hand, and the translation program showed up on the wall.
"This show is strange." Sasuke said, which was, at least, not particularly negative.
"So you enjoyed it?" Tony started running through possible replacement shows in his head. He doubted Sasuke would like any actual children's shows, but there had to be something fairly child-friendly that wasn't overtly condescending or—
"It was… acceptable. If I must watch something, I would not mind it being this." Sasuke's speech was stilted, even in Japanese (which Tony still only kind of understood and had to rely on JARVIS for full translation for), as though he was trying to sound older than he was. "When may I return to training?"
"…When you're not obsessed with training anymore." Tony answered. "Seriously, kid, you can do all the jogging and sit-ups you want, but I'm not comfortable letting you near a punching bag, let alone any actual sparring or whatever."
Sasuke's face clouded over, anger and disappointment and resentment and maybe even a bit of derision radiating out from him.
"In the meantime," Tony continued, "You can keep studying your other stuff. The reading and writing math and science and history stuff you brought with you? That's all fine. And you'll have time to learn English, too."
Sasuke pursed his lips, but that seemed to appease him, if only a little. He still seemed put out about not being able to keep practicing how to kill his brother, but—
"Actually, though, I took a look at some of your things, and while I understand why they'd frame it like that, since you're in ninja school and everything, I may be taking your math and science schooling into my own hands while you're here." Tony took in the look of indignation on Sasuke's face and… brushed it off. Yeah, making sure the kid was comfortable was important, but keeping the kid sane was a bit higher on the list. "Don't give me that look. All your problems are related to how to kill or incapacitate people or troop inventories. Besides, science and math are the areas I'm best in, and I'm already a super-genius, so, you know, you'll be learning from one of the best minds in the business."
Prodigies and genii rarely make for good teachers, he'd once heard.
Fuck that.
He'd make it work.
When Sasuke continued to just look at him, Tony sighed and stood up. "C'mon, kid. I'll show you my workshop. Maybe you'll see what I mean by science then."
Sasuke, for all his silent complaints regarding, well, everything, followed him.
o.o.o.o.o
April 7, 2003
3:27 PM
Malibu
Technology, for all that Tony loved it, wasn't everyone's schtick, and as a kid who'd grown up with less advanced tech than most western countries (ignoring the fact that the country he came from had a very healthy economy), Sasuke was pretty unused to all the stuff in Tony's workshop.
That didn't stop him from putting his angry glare back on after only a few seconds of astonishment. The plane and projectors and other tech were strange enough, but the robot arms really took the cake; that didn't mean Sasuke was going to let himself get carried away and surprised by every little thing.
Hence the ever-present brooding and glaring.
(Years later, when Sasuke was better-adjusted and more acceptable as a subject of teasing, Tony would inform him of the fact that he had what was commonly known as a resting bitch face.)
"Hey, DUM-E. Have you met Sasuke yet? Say hi." Tony rubbed a hand along DUM-E's outermost parts, checking for any loose parts or overheating. The habit was an old and usually useless one, but he still did it.
The robot arm swept around and, beeping in a pattern that seemed to connote some level of happiness, reached out and hovered just in front of Sasuke.
The boy just stared at it as though it were possessed.
"Go on, shake DUM-E's hand." Tony gestured, and Sasuke seemed to get what he meant without understanding the words themselves, because he reached out and shook DUM-E's hand anyway, an irritated look on his face.
"Great! Now, come over here, I've got spare paper and pencils and things because most people like that sort of thing for basic math, right? Anyway, show me what you got, and I'll see how much I need to teach you." Tony clapped his hands and rubbed them together, almost excited.
As it turned out, Tony had rather a lot to teach his nephew.
o.o.o.o.o
April 9, 2003
10:00 AM
Malibu
"Mr. Stark, it may be a good idea to stop fidgeting." Pepper whispered, watching as the car rolled up the drive. Pepper herself had taken care of the interview, to deflect suspicion from Tony (because as known as Pepper was in some circles, she certainly wasn't as high-profile as Tony himself).
"But what if the NDA isn't enough? Or if she's actually an assassin disguised as a nanny? Or if—"
"Breathe." Pepper reminded him, her polite yet distant smile, the one that said 'welcome to the mansion and please be aware of the fact that we can have you kicked out and sued to the moon and back if we need to,' still perfectly in place.
"Right." Tony muttered, his eyes tracking the woman that got out of the car on the drive. It wasn't an old car, but it certainly didn't scream money the way his did; it was a good car for casual outings with a kid that the public didn't need to know was important.
The woman herself had a similar look to her: pretty and reasonably young, but unassuming and easily looked over. Tan, with dark hair, hazel eyes, and nondescript bone structure, the woman just straddled the edge of racial ambiguity (though Tony would have put his money on either white, Latina, or some combination thereof).
She smiled and held out her hand as she reached the top of the steps, and Tony cautiously shook it. "You'd be Ms. Douglas, then?"
"Yes, that's me." The woman nodded, letting go. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person, Mr. Stark."
"Right." Tony glanced at Pepper, still wary. At a small nod from her, he mentally sighed and gestured at the door. "How about we go inside so you can meet my nephew?"
"That's perfectly fine with me." Ms. Douglas said, following several paces behind Tony and Pepper, hands clasped in front of her. Tony found her slightly creepy, but he found most people a little creepy when he first met them, because they were all artificially polite and smile-y and urgh.
(That was part of why Pepper had caught his interest at first, after all.)
Sasuke was sitting at the bar/kitchen counter, painstakingly filling out a language worksheet. He didn't look up until he finished whatever line he was working on, and Tony could see the suspicion in his eyes, even from where he was.
"If I may?" Ms. Douglas muttered, and Tony took a step forward, the translation program automatically flickering to life on the wall.
"Sasuke, this is Ms. Douglas. She's going to talk to you for a bit, and if you get along well enough, then she'll be taking care of you while I'm at work from now on." At work, which included inventing time and business trips and meetings with the government and board and, yeah, even the occasional night out.
Sasuke's eyes tracked over to the woman in question, and he nodded, face carefully blank. Tony would have been surprised, but he didn't doubt that the kid had been in situations where being polite to visitors was a necessity; Sasuke had been the son of a Clan Head, and in a place like Konoha, that was important.
"Hello, I am Douglas Rachel." The woman spoke and moved slowly and carefully, every move carefully calculated. "You are Uchiha Sasuke, correct?"
Sasuke was quick to recover from his shock, but not, Tony noted, quick enough to hide it. So, someone speaking Japanese was surprising enough to take Sasuke off guard? That… would need to be rectified.
In any case, Sasuke nodded as soon as he recovered. "You are going to be my… caretaker, yes?"
Ms. Douglas nodded. "I am currently the mostly likely to receive the position. I've taken care of children like you before."
Sasuke's expression became guarded far, far too quickly for a boy his age. "Like me how?"
"High profile children with memories of things no one should experience. Soldiers, too." Ms. Douglas's voice was low, and for all that Tony didn't really think bringing up Sasuke's traumas was a good idea, stating it so plainly and being so up-front about it was probably the best way to gain Sasuke's trust. "From what I've been told, you fit all those criteria, or will in the future."
Sasuke nodded, not taking his eyes off her. "I am in training to become a shinobi."
Ms. Douglas smiled and sat down next to him. "That's a difficult career path, I hear. Say, why don't you tell me about yourself for now? You can tell me all the things that numbers on papers and hearsay can't."
Tony leaned against the wall, arms crossed and fingers tapping out a nervous rhythm against his elbow. "You think this is a good idea?"
"She signed the NDA, Mr. Stark." Pepper reminded him, and it always amused him, how she kept calling him that even at the point where she'd been working for him long enough to have become one of his closest (only) friends. "And you need to hire a nanny if you want to get anything done. This is the best idea we have, and you know that."
Tony made a small noise in the back of his throat. Was it really his fault that he was this paranoid? He'd been kidnapped plenty as a kid, and the entire reason Sasuke ended up with Tony was because of the murder of hundreds of people. A little caution was healthy, really.
"They seem to be getting along, at least." Pepper noted, and Tony had to admit she was right. Sasuke wasn't exactly open, but he was talking about as freely as he did with Tony and Pepper, and that was a pretty good sign. He was actually talking more, if only because Ms. Douglas could speak his language.
"So… trial period, then? A week? A month?" Tony didn't know how long to make it. His own nannies had always quit pretty quickly, for a variety of reasons.
"I'd say two weeks." Pepper told him, sifting through some papers. "The bodyguards will be coming by the main building for interviews tomorrow. You can take care of those yourself, I presume?"
Tony gave an exaggerated shiver, but nodded. "Yeah, I can do it."
Pepper put a hand on his shoulder and smiled softly. "He'll be fine. Just keep doing what you've been doing for the past few days, hang out with him for a few hours a day, maybe more on weekends, and you'll be fine."
"…God, I hope you're right."
o.o.o.o.o
A/N: Guess who decided to pump out a chapter today? That's right. Me.
TWO THINGS:
ONE: Rachel Douglas is not an original character. She is using an alias, yes, but she is a native to the Marvel Comics.
TWO: I am considering posting this story to AO3 as well. What do you all think?
Anyway, sorry about the little blurb about Doctor Who. There will be more references in this story (Sasuke will be closeted about it as he gets older, but he will be a Whovian at heart), but Doctor Who will remain entirely fictional within the context of this 'verse; no Doctor Who crossovers here.
Ja ne,
Phoenix
