Hey, thanks for all the amazing reviews! I really appreciate them. Please keep them coming. Sorry for not writing in so long but I planned on writing this weekend, but had a violent allergy attack and almost had to go to the hospital. But I am recovering and you deserve a chapter, so here ya go!

XxxxxX

Harmony listened to the light sound of Tony's footsteps down the long hallway until they echoed into nothingness. She sat silently in the room, still clutching her ragged suitcase between icy fingers. It was like her dad was there; all over again, telling her she didn't deserve the opportunity. Like he was there, yelling at her, telling her he wish she'd never been born, and that it was all her fault her mother had left them.

She couldn't count the nights she had cried herself to sleep, rubbing ointment on the countless wounds on her face and arms. She had always been a problem. As if she hadn't learned it soon enough that a man could never fulfill her, she remembered her countless nights trying to fulfill their needs. The nights always ended with her sobbing into the carpet silently, silently calling herself a dirty slut.

Time seemed to slow, and Harmony felt tears spring to her eyes. This opportunity would be no different. She lay back on the bed silently, her suitcase clattering noisily to the floor, eyes fluttering shut.

It seemed like only minutes, but her watch told her it had been several hours when a knock loudly clanged on the door.

"Come in," Harmony said, sitting up.

"Hi," Tony stepped inside, rubbing the back of his neck . "I'm really sorry about that…ahem. That…uh, thing. You know? I was just a little…blindsided. See, my assistant, Pepper Potts-"

"You don't have to explain," Harmony snapped. "I completely understand."

"You…do?" Tony blinked.

"Of course," Harmony took in a deep breath. She knew she was about to say or do something she'd regret, but she didn't care. "You don't want me here."

"Uh-"

"You wish I was gone, you're pissed you're gonna have to spend ALL summer with a stupid little girl like me. And first mistake I make you're shipping me out of here," Harmony jerked up her chin sharply in anger. "Understood."

With a loud sniff, she snatched her suitcase off the bed and flounced into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.

Tony was in total shock. He wasn't expecting THAT. Why did all the beautiful women have to be so damn hotheaded? There was more then met the eye to this girl, a deep burning bitterness and fiery spirit. Tony was torn between being disappointed at this development, and being a little happily surprised. Snoopily, Tony wandered around the room a bit, glancing at her suitcase, professional looking gray backpack and change of clothes she had laid out. Tasteful, yet casual. With a loud squeak and whir of water, the shower coughed to life in the bathroom. Good, he had more time. Tony quickly unzipped the front pocket of her backpack and slid his hand inside.

Several objects were inside. An iPhone, a birthday card and several other various items, neatly positioned. He opened the card. Inside it said, "Happy Birthday. Sorry what happened between us. Please come back. I really miss you. Love, Carter." Tony shoved the card back into the envelope. Who was Carter? He wondered what had happened between them. He slid his hand a little deeper into the pocket and his fingers found the hard leather case of something. A notebook? He pulled it out – it was a photo album. Bingo.

Flipping it open, he thumbed through the pages. First photo was a young girl with a shy smile in front of a small house in a run-down neighbor with a small brown dog next to her. Something was written in tiny handwriting at the bottom. "I will never go back."

How interesting. Yes, surely, Harmony had some deep, burning secrets. Next picture was her with a young man. She looked about 18, and the man had a snarling smile, and his arm around her shoulder possessively. Maybe this was Carter. The rest of the pages simply held other photos of men, some crossed out and hateful notes written upon, and a folded admission paper to Harvard, and a picture of her graduating suma-cum-laud from Yale. A female Einstein.

Tony had seen all he wanted to. He carefully arranged all the items back in her backpack and zipped it closed. He wasn't in the habit of going through people's belongings, but maybe this was an exception. He needed to know more about this girl, and he guessed she wasn't a open-up-and talk type.

XxxxX

It was almost an hour later when Harmony made an appearance. Tony was working silently in his lab on his physics-molecular project. It was his pet project and was trying to beat out other companies with it to gain a contract with Reinman and Stein Corporations.

Tony turned to look at the girl, almost slinking into the room. Her long hair hung down almost to her waist, falling in wet waves over her back, reminding him of some exotic, wild horse. She didn't say anything, simply sat on a stool next to Tony. He decided he would let her speak first. He continued to study the holographic image on his table and absentmindedly write equations in his notebook.

"Tony," she finally spoke, "I'm sorry, but-"

"I forgive you," Tony smiled.

"What?" Harmony frowned.

"What?" Tony sniffed. She still smelled strongly of strawberries, even more so. It must have been her shampoo.

"I was trying to say, 'I'm sorry, but you did that equation wrong'." She replied sourly.

"Huh?" Tony glanced down at the pad. Less than 12 hours with this girl and she had a unpleasant attitude and a smarty-pants mindset. How frustrating.

"Yes. You have the velocity as 53m/b. Its 78. You didn't calculate the density over mass," she cleared her throat and rest her chin on her hand.

"Oh," Tony scribbled out the problem. "Who cares." He looked away intentionally and ignored her.

Harmony stood up and crossed the room to the iron man suit and stood before it in awe.

"So…you're really Iron Man," she said softly.

"No, it's not me, it's my maid. Yes, it's me." Tony was thankful to make some sort of connection.

"Never seen the suit before. I mean, in person," Harmony said, "What does it do? I mean, I know what it does…but…you know. But…what does it do…exactly?"
Tony tossed his gloves off and shut his notebook. With a crooked smile, he replied huskily,

"Want to see?"

XxxxX

Well, yes, a premature fight and makeup, but it's just a prequel to further fights and makeups. Anyways, please leave comments! Just think what's gonna happen when Pepper gets back! The more you review the more I write, so please review. Me likey reviews, and lots of them!
Hope you're enjoying the story. I hope to have an update up soon.

RomanceDoneWrite