ii.

I hate Tony Stark.

"Here's your coffee," I mutter, slamming it on the desk and miraculously not breaking it. Yes, coffee, as in I'm apparently his coffee girl. I'm going to kill him at some point. It'll happen.

"You didn't spit in this, did you?" He asks, raising an eyebrow and picking it up.

"That would have been a good idea." I mutter to myself.

He smirks and takes a drink. "By the way, we need to talk."

I pause. "About?"

"You mom being in the hospital," I tense, and he continues calmly. "I paid her bills and moved her to a better hospital."

I have no words. "Why?"

"I felt like it. Don't sound so surprised." He sets the mug down. "And you're adopted?"

"You went through my past?" I snap, contemplating the best way to kill him.

"Actually I went through your records," He keeps his eyes trained on me while I curse under my breath in Russian. "You could have told me about your mother. I would have paid for it and you would still have a job."

"Fetching coffee," I mutter under my breath.

He smirks. "By the way, you didn't tell me you were fluent in Russian." I glare at him, and he looks a little terrified for a split second before it disappears back to smugness. "No worries. I know someone who's also from Russia and speaks the lingo. You guys would probably get along." He mutters under his breath. "You're both terrifying."

I pretend I didn't hear him. "You know someone from Russia?" I ask curiously.

He nods. "She's pretty…intimidating, but I think you'd like her. Her name's Natasha."

I nod once.

"You know, now that I think about it, her family died too." I snap my attention to him, and he smiles, glad to have me looking at him. "Her parents and sister died too."

Wow. There must have been a lot of fires in Russia. "Interesting."

"You gonna ignore me all day or start working?" He asks, handing me a tablet. I take it from him and scan it calmly. "Happy knows he needs to drive you around, so don't worry about anything other than finishing that list."

I raise an eyebrow. "Where do I even get this stuff?"

"What?" He asks, already working.

"I think I need to quit," I say, setting it down like it's on fire.

"What?" He asks seriously, turning to look at me.

"I can't do this. I don't even know what this stuff is." I say quietly, not looking at him.

"Hey," He says forcefully, surprising me into looking at him. "Don't bail on me. You need the money, right?"

I send him a dark glare.

"For you, and you mom, and whatever else," He clarifies. "Part of the job is getting coffee and things I want. I need a personal assistant, not a coffee girl."

I let out a breath, nodding. "Can you at least tell me what some of this stuff is?"

He grins, taking the tablet back. "All you had to do was ask."

I whack him in the back of the head.

…

"You need to spend less time here, Alisa." My mother chides, still connected to the oxygen. "You won't go well at your job if you keep worrying about me."

"I'm fine, Mom," I say, smiling and taking her hand. "How do you feel?"

"Better, but… I want to make sure you're prepared for when I go."

"Mom," I say firmly. "You're going to be fine."

"It's terminal," She says firmly.

"You're going to be fine."

She huffs irritably. "Stubborn."

"Thanks," I say lightly.

She pauses. "This man, Mr. Stark… how did he find out I was sick?"

He's a nosy asshole. "I guess he found out when he ran a background check."

"He did that after he hired you?" She asks, surprised.

I shrug. "He's a little…" Stupid. "Different."

She smiles. "Tony Stark?"

I pause. "Yeah…?"

Her grin widens. "He must really like you then."

"He just wants to tick off his ex," I say, waving it off. "But I'm working hard enough to earn it."

She raises an eyebrow, but doesn't comment.

"Besides," I say lightly, grinning. "I like proving people wrong."

She snorts. "You would try to prove the grass is pink if you could."

I make a face. "I hate pink."

"I know," She says, smiling.

I sigh and grab my burger from the fast food joint. It's gonna be a long night.

…

"You think I'll like your new employee?" Natasha Romanoff asks, raising an eyebrow.

He keeps working. "Yeah, you're both terrifying."

She raises a single brow. "You think I'm terrifying?"

"I mean that in the nicest way," He backtracks.

She smirks darkly. "I think I could tolerate that. Who is it?"

"Her name is Alisa Matthews." He says, changing something on the blueprints.

She frowns. "Alisa…"

"Something wrong?" He asks absently.

She shakes her head. "Nothing. I used to know someone with that name." She pauses. "Are you creating another suit?"

"Uh huh," He says, still working. "JARVIS, run a check."

"Yes, sir."

"You make too many of those things," She says, scowling.

He picks up a stray invention and tinkers with it. "Funny, she said the same thing."

"Good, you hired someone with a brain."

He sighs. "Just go back to you ninja assassin stuff, Romanoff."

…

"She checked into a hospital?" The man asks, staring out the window.

"Yes, sir. She's dying."

"Interesting," He muses. "And the girl?"

"Still with her. We have reason to believe she's working for Tony Stark."

He scowls. "Does he know?"

"Not yet, sir, but he will soon enough."

The man lets out a growl. "She should have never taken her from us. She would have been a valuable asset. Two in the same place…"

"If I may interrupt, sir, it may have been better that she escaped. Had she followed Natalia's devices-"

The man spins around, firing once, and the guard drops to the ground in a dead heap.

"What were you saying?" He asks lightly, lowering his gun.