XI.

Tony watched as she never once considered putting down the tank lid. He knew from prior experience that they were just about one of the heaviest things a woman could throw at him. And it being porcelain and easily shattered didn't mean less pain. Sadly, it usually meant more. And that was his cue to not even open the visor on his helmet. Porcelain shards in his face? No thanks.

Instead, he went over and grabbed her phone out from under a chair. She didn't follow, and he wasn't all that surprised. If she was as old as they claimed and had been with S.H.I.E.L.D. for as long as they said, he would have been disappointed if she reacted in such ways. He turned the screen on and, again, wasn't surprised when there wasn't a lock screen. As if she would be with the times enough at her age to do such simple privacy measures.

He answered the phone. "She's still here. Give us a few minutes and we'll be back at the tower."

"No, we won't," was her muffled reply. He grinned. He always did like it when a woman played hard to get with him. It was a fun game, one that usually required him to actually think of ways to get a woman to see things his way. They rarely won.

He walked back over to the bathroom, tossing her phone onto her couch, only to find her not there. Instead she retreated into her bedroom and had a bow in her hands, arrow trained on him. "You know, I see where your brother learned his warm welcomes from."

She rolled her eyes, but he wasn't fooled. She never took her focus off him. "We can be welcoming. When the person is deserving of it."

"Am I not deserving?" he asked, mock hurt lacing his voice and putting a hand over his heart. "After I went to all this trouble to save your brother from assassins in Washington—"

"That he had already evaded," she interjected. But he carried on like he didn't hear.

"And then, I graciously gave him a job with a security level high enough to make the government nervous—"

"Likely at the urging of Hill."

"And now, I've gone to all this trouble to track down his illusive and beautiful sister just so he can talk to her. All out of the goodness of my heart."

In response, she snorted. But it did get her to lower the bow. Tony wasn't sure if he liked that, as it either meant she wasn't going to harm or she didn't see him as a threat worth threatening anymore. "No, it's not. It's because Hill is scared and has you all scared."

"I'm not scared." He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm curious."

"Now I'm scared," she said and he laughed.

"So there is a sense of humor underneath the hostility! Good to know, good to know."

She slung her bow over her shoulder, arrow still in her hand. "That doesn't mean I'm going to come with you. Tell Souta to forget I was even here."

And she walked passed him without a glance. Walked past him. He crossed his arms and watched her go, stopping only to pick up the bag she had been staring at when he first arrived. Given the entire situation and how he found her, he felt he was pretty correct in thinking that she was trying to figure out her exit strategy. That baggie likely held a few different lives and enough cash to skip out the country with it.

It was so amusing to him that she thought it would be that easy.

He opened up her kitchen window, looking down to make sure he had the right side. There was only one way in and out of her shitty little apartment building, and he was pretty sure he thought he didn't know that. If there was one thing their conversation told him, it was that she thought so little of him to underestimate him.

And, sure enough, she stepped outside, glancing around briefly before heading toward the nearest subway. "JARVIS, prep for arrival with the kid's sister in a couple of minutes."

When he received confirmation from the A.I., he jumped out the window, activating his thrusters when he lost enough altitude. Before she could react, he had already weaved his way through the afternoon rush and grabbed her. He only hoped he made it to the Tower fast enough to save himself from some of her physical wrath he knew would be coming, if only because he knew women so well. And he knew exactly how to piss them off.

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