A/N - Now, I know a lot of you are looking forward to Steve's reaction to the information JARVIS managed to dig up on Danny, and that'll come next chapter. Danny's parents aren't neglectful, not really, they're just unobservant. Really unobservant. Remember that time where Sam and Tucker had to dress up as Danny and pretend their face got ripped off? Yeah, Jack and Maddie didn't realize that wasn't Danny. Unobservant.
Danny's got very good manners. You can't spend time around Vlad and Frostbite and Dora without picking some up.
We'll meet another major character in this chapter, so enjoy.
Chapter Five
Business Rivals Meet
Those fifteen minutes were some of the weirdest of his life. Three minutes after excusing himself from conversation with Vlad and his Mom, Danny literally ran into Tony. He had been speed walking away from a group of older ladies who had thought he was the cutest thing since corgi puppies and wanted to pinch his cheeks and feed him hor'dourves. Old ladies were apparently the same no matter where you went. The only old lady who hadn't done anything like that was Sam's grandma Ida.
So, while looking over his shoulder, Danny sped up and ran right into the billionaire he had spent the afternoon with, playing video games. Thankfully, Tony was adept at not spilling his drink, or the teen would've felt immensely guilty for the collision. As it was, he was still pretty apologetic to the other man.
"Oh, sorry, Tony! I didn't mean to run into you, I was just esc... um, politely hurrying away from some older ladies. They can be scary when they want to," Danny apologized, head ducked in embarrassment. He had changed the wording of his sentence when he noticed a pretty red-headed lady standing in front of Tony.
She seemed familiar from somewhere, probably a magazine or tabloid he had glanced at. Her stance was strong despite being a thin, delicate-looking woman, and she had an air of professionalism about her. He flashed a polite smile and looked to the billionaire for introductions.
Tony patted him on the shoulder with an understanding grimace. "Hey, squirt. This," he gestured to his lady friend, "is Pepper Potts. My CEO. She's the one we have to behave for, 'cause she can be scary when she's angry."
Pepper smiled sweetly. "All women can, Tony. It's part of how we get men like you to do what you're supposed to, and not what you want to." She offered a hand to Danny in greeting.
Danny felt his manners training from Vlad and Clockwork (surprisingly enough) kick in, and took her hand, gently pressing his lips to it. "Danny Fenton. Nice to meet you, Miss Potts. Tony mentioned you before, you seem to be a very capable person."
She blushed and smoothed down her dress when he released her hand. "Thank you, you're such a sweet boy. How did you and Tony meet? Forgive me, but you don't really seem to be the type of person he'd hang around with," she replied.
Danny frowned. "No, I'm not, really. I accidentally roped him into programming a robot for me during a competition at Stark Expo," he answered. Then he glanced at Tony. "Why did you decide to hang out with me?"
Tony was still a little surprised by Danny's greeting to Pepper, and was brought back to reality by the teenager's question. "Your talent for engineering. You've got a lot of potential, didn't I say that? You're just untrained. When I brought you back to the Tower, I was going to show you my workshop, and maybe give you some pointers."
The raven-haired teen nodded in understanding. "But then you got distracted, and needed some time to process what you learned, so we ended up playing video games with Steve all afternoon. Got it."
Pepper looked mildly surprised, but after years around Tony, she had learned to roll with the punches, so to speak. "Well, at least you didn't get into trouble. Remember, Tony, no giving Danny alcohol, and try to avoid clubbing, will you? He doesn't look twenty-one, I'd rather not risk you getting him arrested."
Crossing his arms, Tony let out an indignant huff. "I know, Pepper. I wasn't gonna do anything like that with him! Besides, even if I wanted to, Cap wouldn't let me. I just know he's gonna mother-hen Danny until he leaves."
The red-head opened her mouth to make another teasing comment when a familiar face strolled up to the trio. She blinked, and forced a smile. "Oh, hello, Mr. Masters. How are you liking the party so far?"
Danny rolled his eyes as Tony stuck out his tongue at Pepper when she wasn't paying attention. If Vlad was involved, Pepper would probably be the only person there actually acting like an adult, before long.
"Little badger, you didn't tell me you were... acquainted with Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts," Vlad commented, eyebrows rising. He smirked at the annoyed glare the teen sent him. Turning to Pepper, he replied smoothly, "It's a lovely party, and I was pleasantly surprised to see some old friends here. Daniel's parents are attending Stark Expo as lectures, aren't they?"
Tony watched the interaction between Danny and Vlad with interest, trying to puzzle out the best way to annoy the other man. Danny seemed annoyed at the over-familiarity Vlad was showing towards him, so Tony wrapped an arm around the teen's shoulders and smirked.
"We met at the Expo earlier today. Built a robot, played video games, I bought him a new Armani suit. He's a lot of fun. You're a family friend, then?" Tony replied to Vlad's earlier question about them knowing each other. If the twitch in the other billionaire's left eye was any indicator, he had succeeded in his endeavor.
Danny noticed this, too, and chuckled quietly. "Yeah, Tony programmed a robot for me, since programming was always Tucker's specialty. He's gonna teach me a bit about engineering so I can improve my skills."
It was the word 'teach' that did it. Vlad's polite, forced smile melted into an angry glare, directed solely at Tony. Danny didn't hold any real malice towards the other halfa, but he still hadn't accepted Vlad's constant offers of apprenticeship. It was easy to tease the other halfa with what Tony had mentioned.
Pepper, bless her heart, saw an incoming fistfight (that would have escalated into something much more dangerous, given that both participants were supers), and quickly stepped between the two rival billionaires. She checked her watch and sighed in relief.
"Hey, how about we all go and sit down? It's just about time for dinner," she pressed, grabbing Danny herself. To him, she whispered, "Do you want to sit with me? I don't know if we can find your parents before it's time to order."
Danny nodded quickly. "Good thinking back there," he muttered. "Let me tell you, you do not want a fight between those two. I've heard what Tony can do when he suits up, and they're both good with sarcasm. It'd be a snark-fest-turned-superpowered-fistfight."
The woman just gave him an odd look and accepted that. "You seem close with Masters. Is he really a family friend? I didn't know he had any friends. He reminds me of Tony, just colder and more manipulative. Maybe more controlled, too."
"Yeah, he and my parents were friends in college. I used to hate him, but we worked out our differences a couple years ago," he answered. "He wants me to be his apprentice, so the whole 'teaching' thing is a sore point for him. I probably shouldn't have used that to antagonize him, but it was too tempting."
She nodded slowly and gave him a serious look. "I don't know much about Vlad Masters or your relationship with him, but he's always seemed kind of lonely to me. You probably hurt him a bit by taking Tony's offer and throwing it in his face."
Danny ducked his head in shame. Now that she pointed it out... Pepper was right. That was a really mean thing to do. He wasn't fourteen anymore, he was better than that.
"Now, you're young, and human." He mentally snorted at the second part. "You make mistakes, but you can learn from them. You have time to grow and change before you're expected to do everything perfectly, all the time. Just, try to understand how Mr. Masters might feel. You said you worked things out, so it shouldn't be that hard to apologize later."
Pepper made a lot of sense. In a way, she reminded Danny of his older sister, and not just in appearance. She had the responsible wisdom he had missed when Jazz went off to college. It was refreshing.
"Thanks," Danny sighed, sincerity lacing his voice. "I needed that. Sometimes it's hard to remember that enemies, even if they're your allies now, have feelings just like you do."
He missed her shocked expression as he sat down at the table, so he didn't realize just how much more he had given away. With the implications from earlier that Vlad had powers or some kind of technology that could give him powers, like Tony, and the statement that implied the two of them had been enemies once upon a time, things began to click about the older teen that hadn't occurred to Pepper before.
Steve wasn't the only one who felt a need to research the teen's background.
The duo's escape from the billionaire rivals didn't last long, though. Both of them joined Pepper and Danny at their table, glaring daggers at each other until the food arrived. Conversation was non-existent, and Danny spent most of the wait texting Tucker about what happened to him that day.
Tucker was thrilled that his best friend had gotten to hang out with the Tony Stark, genius inventor, coder, and Iron Man. He was insanely envious, but very proud of Danny for being good enough to catch Tony's attention. He agreed to update Sam on the situation, and found it hilarious that Vlad and Tony nearly got into a fistfight because of Danny.
When the food arrived, some of the tension eased. The blue-eyed teen actually felt it safe enough to talk to the people he was seated with. He had a few bites of his very tender steak and smiled shyly at the table occupants.
"So, you two obviously don't like each other," Danny commented, gesturing to Vlad and Tony. The two stopped glaring at the other to look curiously at Danny.
"Why are you trying to make a business alliance?" he asked.
Vlad sent a dirty look at Tony before answering Danny's question. "I'm not making a business alliance with Stark, I'm making one with Ms. Potts and Stark Industries. There is a slight difference that makes it tolerable to myself, but it's a nuance I wouldn't expect you to understand just yet, Daniel."
Danny frowned, and threw back, "Why not? I've picked up a lot from you over the past three years, and lessons with... the resident history buff have polished some of that. I may not like business politics, but at least I understand most of it."
Vlad blinked at that. "You've been having lessons with Cl-" he exclaimed, cutting himself off before he could give anything away. Tony and Pepper might've played it off as an odd nickname, but Pepper was very intuitive and clever. He didn't want to risk it.
The teen nodded seriously. "Yeah, he is my guardian there, after all. He has a responsibility to teach me about the history of that place." He glanced over at Tony and Pepper, coming up with a good explanation. "Summer camp I usually go to. My favorite counselor is a history buff, and history involves a lot of politics."
Tony knew there was something off about that. "You've only been to camp once, though."
Danny grimaced. He forgot that registering for camps and things would show up if the billionaire dug deep enough. "That you know of," he replied quietly. Maybe that would make Tony unsure of what he'd discovered. Or it would make him dig deeper. Who knew? Not Danny, that's for sure.
Vlad sighed. "Alright, little badger, finish your food. We can talk more about business after we're done, if that's what you'd like," he drawled, gently scooping up some of his creamy soup. That interaction had sucked the remaining tension out of the air, and drained some of the energy from both halfas. They were tired of fighting each other.
Danny just nodded placidly and continued eating. Tony and Pepper shared a concerned glance, and the rest of their meal was spent in silence.
When it came time to go back to socializing, the teen turned down Tony's offer of an early escape. Besides the fact that he didn't have any energy left to spend with people, be them new friends or not, he wanted to apologize to Vlad before either of them left.
"I'll be at the Expo again," Danny said. "If you still want to hang out with me, we can exchange phone numbers, but I'm a little too tired tonight. I've also got something I have to do before I leave, so I'll go back with my parents. They're probably about ready to head out, too."
The genius frowned, but accepted Danny's decision. "Alright, squirt. I'll come get you tomorrow, and then you can see my workshop. I bet Steve would be disappointed if I didn't bring you back, anyway."
The teen chuckled tiredly. "Yeah. See you tomorrow."
Tony watched him disappear into the crowd of party-goers, surprised at how fast the teen could blend in and vanish. He wondered if he should introduce Danny to Natasha, briefly, before deciding that that was a really bad idea. If he was this good at disappearing now... he didn't really want to see what training would allow the kid to do.
The genius turned back to find Pepper, Danny's comment "that you know of" floating around in his mind.
