Hello. Thanks for the reviews.

I'm french. So bear with me for the mistakes. But tell me, if there were too many.

Disclaimer : Nothing belongs to me, except Sam. Because Sam is cool !

It has been one week since Tony had settled in a Hotel in Oregon. The place was quite luxurious and his room had a nice view on the mountains. Besides, it wasn't so far from the Café where Sam and he had breakfast every morning. This girl managed to have him up at seven. He was himself surprised.

Sitting at a table, his cap on his head not to wanting to people to know who he really was, he was patiently waiting for her while he was reading the press.

It was 7:20 am when the door opened and Sam quickly walked into the coffee. As usual, she was slightly wet. In Medford, it rained a quite regularly and when it happened, Sam appeared to be someone who didn't carry an umbrella, seeming to prefer to get soaked by the rain.

He put down his newspapers.

"Hey Tony!" She greeted as she sat down in front of him and took off her scarf.

In his hands, there were two drinks; the coffee for him and the other one for her. "Hot cocoa with a bit of vanilla."

"Thanks!" She was glad that he remembered what she had for breakfast. It meant that somehow he paid attention to her. She took a few sips of her cocoa before asking. "So, what's your plan for today?"

He swallowed what he had in his mouth and replied. "I had to call Happy to make sure to sure everything is fine at Stark Industries but he assured me he was handling everything."

She frowned, a pancake in her hand. "Happy? Your chauffeur is running your company! Are you serious?"

"Very serious !" He said. He definitely didn't see how this situation seemed ridiculous. "He is pretty good. He's got nimble fingers."

"What about your assistant?" Sam asked not knowing that it was very sensitive subject right now. "You're Iron Man. You need an assistant."

"I had one," He quickly replied. He cleared his throat. "But she left a week ago. I thought she was my friend but she left me." She clearly heard sadness through his words but it was quickly replaced by his legendary humor. "I'm amazed that she managed to stick around me for so long though. I'm sure she couldn't stand to watch this handsome face of mine anymore. My beauty was eating her alive. I know it."

She laughed, unsure if he was now joking or being serious. It was hard to follow him sometimes but yet, she found him funny. "So I guess it's time for you to find another assistant and maybe - time to go home. Your hair is starting to curl with all that rain."

"Nope. I'm sticking around a little bit. I'm starting to like the town." He was lying and he didn't even try to hide it. "Plus, you could be my assistant. Hey, do you want to be my assistant? No sexual harassment. I promise. You're far too young."

She rolled her eyes at his remarks. "You don't like here I can tell. You hate when it's raining!" He was about to reply but she carried on. "Don't deny it. Yesterday you had a shirt saying Rain is a bitch!" This made him smirk like evil child. "And you said it yourself. I'm far too young to be sexual harassed by you and I'm also far too young to work for you."

"You're a tough businesswoman, Princess!"

"Don't flat me." She smirked but her smile quickly disappeared when she noticed that she was going to be late if she didn't hurry. "Holy shit! I'm going to be late."

"Language Sammy!" He falsely reprimanded. "I can drive you to school you know."

She got up as he was eating up.

"I know you can," She nodded, putting her scarf on again. "But bus is fine. And I actually don't really want people to know I'm friend with a stranger – stranger who is by the way Iron Man himself. For once I have someone nice to talk to I'm not going to share."

She brightly smiled and Tony felt his heart melt. At this moment, he thought that if he had had a little sister, he would have wanted her to be just like Sam.

"Don't worry, Sammy. I'm not into sharing either."

She laughed and took the cap off his head. "You're ridiculous with this. It suits me better."

He strongly disagreed and she laughed even more. She left with his cap on her head and he felt like an idiot at smiling like that.

Sam sighed heavily as she looked through the window. The day seemed to spend very slowly. And now, she began thinking days have started spending even more slowly since Tony came into her life.

She found him nice and loved having him and his humor around. He didn't judge her. But still, he didn't know a lot of things about her. He was very secretive about his life and so was she.

Suddenly, she felt her phone vibrating and she immediately read the message from Tony.

Aren't you supposed to listen to the teacher?

She smiled. So now, you're spying on me! This is called harassment, Tony!

I only promised for the "sexual" part, Princess. Not for the others versions of harassment.

She chuckled. Where are you?

Waiting for you outside. Don't make me wait too long. Tony Stark doesn't wait. People wait for me, not the other way around.

She rolled her eyes but he couldn't know this. You and your damn standars!

Language! And don't roll you eyes : )

She gasped. How did you know I rolled my eyes?

You had some bad habits that I did notice. Hurry your ass up. I'm tired of waiting.

She was about to give him one of her nasty remarks but the bell rang off.

I'm coming, Tony-Bee.

"You're mad at me?" He asked her after fifteen minutes. She hasn't said anything since she got into the car and it was going to drive him crazy. He couldn't stand silence.

But there was no response.

"Are you going to be mad and stay quiet for a long time?"

Still no response.

"Seriously! Sam, you can't be mad because people wanted me to give them some autographs."

She looked at him angrily and snapped a bit harder than she thought she would in the first place. "It's not about you giving autographs. It's about me being with you while you were giving your fucking autographs. I'm nobody in this town. I'm nobody in that stupid high school and I was okay with that till a while ago. Now, people know that I know you and they're going to pretend to be my friends to get to know you." She turned away. "I wanted to be nobody. It's easier this way. I don't know anybody. And nobody knows me. End of the story."

Tony remained silent for a moment, trying to understand what she meant. But he didn't. "Why are you such a loner?"

"Why are you so narcissistic?"

He didn't say anything back, not wanting to get into a fight with her. She was mad. And he got it.

"Because when you're alone it may be difficult but it is also easier. No one gets hurt. Don't get attached and no one will get hurt. That's what was told a long time ago."

That was all she said. But Tony guessed there was a lot more. A lot of unspoken things who were hurting her in some ways.

"Sam, I happen to be a real jerk sometimes but if you need to talk, I'm a good listener, you know." He smiled to her but she still had on her eyes on the road.

She didn't turn to look at him when she replied. "There's nothing to talk about."

"You sure?"

"Positive." She nodded, bit her lips and looked at him. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap earlier."

"I forgive you!" And he quickly added. "But you have to make it up to me!"

She frowned at his condition. "Shoot!"

"You owe me an ice-cream!"

"What brat you are!"

And they laughed out loud.

The previous conversation was now closed and forgotten.

Currently sitting on the roof of Tony's car, Sam and he were eating their ice-creams while the sun was setting down. The sky shone of its yellow and orange colors while the birds flew over the landscape. They still could smell the light fragance of the rain upon the asphalte, upon the grass. It was sweet, and soft. Like a fresh wind.

"This icre-cream tastes amazingly." Tony exclaimed between two mouthfuls."Why don't we have that in California?"

She moistened her lips and chuckled. "I'm pretty sure you've got chocolate cream in California."

"Are you sure?"

"Hum pretty sure!"

"Anyway. It tastes better when you're on a vacation." He concluded.

She smiled at him and at the bit of ice cream he had on the tip of his noise. "You're right. Vacation is the best time ever."

And the statement was quite true. Things are better when people took time to really look at them, to really tast them, smell them. And vacation sounded to be the best moment to do that.

"You should know by now that I'm always right." He teased and she stunk out her tongue. "Very charming and very mature..." He tousled her hair and then, she tried to push his hand away. However, the gesture made her lose her balance and she was about to fall off the roof but Tony caught her arm. "Gotcha!"

"Idiot!" She hit him when she was back on the roof. "I could have died."

He couldn't help but laugh at this remark very Stark-ish."Such a drama queen!"

She ignored him as she fastened her hair with an elastic band. His gaze fell from her face to her neck and he noticed a mark on her neck. It was nasty scar though it wasn't so visible - since he hadn't seen it till now but it couldn't be unnoticed if someone had a eye on her.

The scar was thin, quite even, and rather long. As if it had been by a knife. A small knife handled by an expert in dissection or in torture. Tony violently grabbed her wrist and her eyes snapped up at him. "How did you get that?"

"What?" She asked confused.

He brought his hand to her neck, his finger slippering on the mark. "That. How did you get it?"

For one moment, she tought to lie to him. However, the idea quickly dissapeared and she honestly replied him. "When I was six, some people tried to get to my... to my sister. So they kidnapped me and treated me as a bargain chip to make her come to them. I had some bad times with them until she arrived. They actually weren't the nicest people in the world."

He listened to her, certain that she had expressly kept some parts - probably unpleasant ones relating to her bad times - of her story to herself.

"I'm sorry." He really felt sorry for her. He didn't know how many unsaid things that she was keeping quiet but he knew there were a lot.

She put her head on his shoulder. "Not your fault."

He cleared his throat and touched instinctively his ARC reactor. "I created this in Afghanistan when terrorists kidnapped me. They wanted me to recreate one of the arms that I used to make. I refused, of course, and they tortured me as well. And the only thing that was keeping me alive was a car battery. Then, I created the ARC reactor and a sort of suit that helped me to get out of that mess."

She had heard his story before. Every American had heard it but hearing the story from Tony himself gave her a lot to think about. He had suffered - and so had she - but she could tell that scars were deeper for him. Pain was more present. His humor and his nonchalance were his mask.

"I'm sorry." She kissed his cheek. "But you're alive. And thanks to the suit and this ARC reactor you're the hero of a lot people. That isn't for nothing." She stopped and then got up on the roof and raised her hands up to the sky. "You're born to do great things, Tony Stark!"

He smiled at her madness. She was a bit crazy, she was very pretty and he found himself liking her. She shone, even in the darkest places. She was like a sunshine, like a little lost star within his lightless world.

Tony needs a friend. Sam needs a friend. So they can be friends together, right ?

A review to tell me what you think. Should I go on or not ? It's up to you !

-LaChiquita.