Chapter 15 - Into The Limelight


James made sure to inform anyone that wanted to stop him that he was taking the day off — though he didn't say why, since he wanted to make sure that he caught Kari's big opening to her book tour.

Finding a parking spot close to the opening was rough; Salem Center hadn't been that busy in years, and James had to park at the edges of the complex just to work his way through a busy and excitable crowd. The bookstore was buzzing, and it was hard to hear what was going on just from the level of noise.

But, once he managed to squeeze his way inside, he had to smile when he saw the excited grin that Kari was wearing as she bounced on the balls of her feet, chatting with her mother and the bookstore owner before they let the public closer to start the signings.

He'd brought his camera — since that was the whole reason for the surprise if he could manage it. He had the camera up and had snapped a few shots across the way when she turned and glanced at the crowd in general. James was sure he'd been busted, but there was no moment where she paused or waved, so he was confident he was blending in well enough.

He managed to get a few good shots from several different angles, including one that he was sure Kate was going to melt over when he caught her mid-laugh, with her hair falling down over one shoulder. He didn't even need to put it in processing. He was sure that was the winner.

But before he could work toward the front of the crowd to say hello as he'd planned, Lucas stepped up next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. There was just something about the way he stood a little too close when there was plenty of room otherwise, insisting on not just touching her, but keeping a grip and crowding her. Puffing up his chest whenever someone got closer than he was comfortable with.

All at once, the whole thing put a bad taste in James' mouth, and he took a step back. He knew she liked the guy and that she'd been pretty happy over the last few months, but the possessive way that Lucas was standing and asserting himself was a little too close to what he considered marking territory for James to appreciate. He honestly hadn't had Kari pegged for the kind of girl that liked that kind of behavior - but she'd have to be blind to overlook it when it was so brazen.

He took a quick look around the shop, and when he saw how packed it was, he decided the best thing he could do was to just back off and let her do her thing without any kind of fuss.

He was entirely sure he was going to have to have a word with Lucas about his mannerisms — even if the guy was insecure, there was no reason to project that out to Kari. But again … maybe that was over the line.

Once he got out of the bookshop, he took a moment to head down to the cafe and grab a cup so he could sit down and sift through the pictures. He almost laughed when he realized that his timing had been perfect — not one shot included the insecure stoner boyfriend. But there were a few wonderful ones of Kari with her mother looking so proud she looked as though she might burst.

He thought it all over on the way back home with his coffee in hand, then zipped to his room to upload his photos and get to work … not that there was much work to be done.

As soon as he had the shots on his laptop, he sent the best ones to Kate with a subject line of 'Think you might want to use these? - Keep it to YOUR EYES ONLY' before he closed it up and sat back to finish his coffee in peace.

Of course, when Kate saw the email, after the book signing had gone off wonderfully, she broke into a huge grin and immediately opened it up, grinning wider and wider with every image she saw.

She was glad that James had warned her in the subject not to share it, because she might have showed Kari that James had come to the opening She knew that her daughter was disappointed James hadn't been able to make it. But this? Was so much better.

She picked out her favorite picture and put it in a new email to her production manager so that they could get it on the dust cover of the next print run in the "about the author" section, and then, she looked through a few more of the pictures to see what she could send to her public relations team.

By the time Kari even saw the first of the pictures, she was already packing up for the next wing of the tour, but she knew immediately not only where it had been taken but who had taken it.

Of course, by then, it had been long enough for James that he absolutely wasn't expecting it when, in the middle of his cooldown from his daily workout, there was suddenly a fuzzy elf tackling him to the ground in a hug.

"Hi," James said, though her hair was in his face.

She beamed at him and wrapped him up tighter. "Why didn't you say hi to me at the signing?" she asked, hitting him in the arm. "Mom sent me the new dust jacket. I know that was you behind the camera, you sneaky little — ugh!"

"You were busy," he said reasonably.

"Not too busy to say hello!" she argued.

"I'm gonna go ahead and disagree," he said. "Because I was there, and obviously, you and I can say hello anytime. That was a one-time deal for a lot of those people."

Kari made a show of pouting at him. "Stop making sense," she said before she kissed his cheek anyway. "But thanks for coming anyway. It means a lot to me."

"Wasn't gonna miss it," James said. "Not when I know it was a big deal for you."

"I am so lucky to have a friend like you," she said, shaking her head before she finally let him up and then hugged him properly.

"The rest of them are in the usual place," James said.

"You spoil me," she giggled, then teleported off to go see them, leaving James shaking his head at her enthusiasm before he went back to what he was doing before he got bowled over.


James hadn't gone back to SI yet — and it was nearly time for the joint birthday party. So, Tony had decided enough was enough. He made his way down to the mansion that weekend and, after spending a few hours with Maria, he managed to track down where James was finishing off a good spar with Chance.

Chance looked up when he saw Tony and waved with one hand, the other holding a water bottle. "Hey, look, James, your other team wants a piece."

James looked over with a little smirk. "You ready to start sparring without the armor for a change?" he had to ask.

Tony held up both of his hands. "Ah, no. That's not why I came."

"Too bad; I'm all warmed up now," James laughed as Chance shoved his shoulder hard.

"Actually," Tony said, "I'm here to talk shop. So, if you two are done playing alpha male…"

"I don't remember playing alpha male," James said, frowning at Chance. "Was that what we were supposed to do?"

"I didn't get the memo either," Chance said, looking perfectly wide-eyed. "Huh. Weird."

"So what? Um … start with … ah … you wanna go with puffed up chests and growls or dive right into snarls and big fight? Lock horns … something."

"Well, I can't do the growls and snarls, but I can do sneers and a passable imitation of Daken…"

"Yeah, that … doesn't pass as alpha," James laughed. "Though I have a theory on the blue that Jana's been wearing?"

"If you say something about it bringing out his eyes, I'm going to go ahead and disown you. From your own family," Chance teased.

"No, no," James said as Tony watched them going back and forth. "I was going to say I think he's been borrowing it to color things. He can actually be the blue butt baboon." He gestured with both hands. "And then … they'd match."

Chance snorted out loud. "That is not a mental image I need," he said, waving him off.

"Yeah, but you can't ditch it now," James said. "It's stuck in there."

"I know; it's so frustrating," Chance said, pulling a face. "I blame you."

Tony shook his head at the two of them. "Can you avoid the mental torture for two minutes?" he asked James.

James pointedly looked at the clock. "Just two."

Tony smirked. "My own fault for setting a time limit," he said, half to himself before he tipped his head at Chance. "Mind if I borrow him?"

"Not his keeper," Chance said with a smirk, though he did head for the exit. "James, if he makes a move on you, neuter him."

"I'll have your mom break out the puppet when I describe what happened," James called back.

Chance smirked before he ducked out, and Tony turned to James at last. "So." He cleared his throat and looked like he couldn't decide where to begin before he scrubbed a hand over his face and just handed James something pulled up on his phone. "Got a new position for you, if you're interested."

"I thought I wasn't trustworthy?" James said with a little frown, though it was just a matter-of-fact statement.

Tony let out a little noise from the back of his throat. "Look." He shook his head and looked like he didn't want to have this conversation, but he went forward with a muttered, "I lost my temper."

"Yeah, a little," James agreed.

"And I… may have overstated things," Tony said. "You're a big part of SI and my family, so… I overreacted, okay? There. I said it."

"I wasn't fishing, Tony," James said.

Tony made another sort of noise. "Yeah. Well. Anyway. If you want it, that's what I was gonna offer you once you hit twenty-one, and it's close enough, so… look it over, huh?"

"You ever gonna spar with me?"

"Ah, no. I don't need to spar to know you'll wipe the floor with me," Tony said, shaking his head.

"Like I'd actually work you over," James said with a little scoff.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Would you just look at the position?" he said. "I want to make the announcement and secure SI's future, but you should look it over first. Howard already said he'd be interested in taking over Pepper's role, but I need a brilliant mind in development…."

James watched him for a long moment before he let out a sigh and started to look it over. "I'm trying very hard not to be a smartass."

Tony shook his head. "Good, I'm being serious here. Can't think of anyone else that I'd trust with it — well, outside of Howard, but you know he doesn't want to do the R&D side of things, not really."

"Which is probably good for him, since he's touch and go with his notations," James said, still looking over the whole thing with an ever deepening frown.

"Yeah, I keep telling him I can't read half his stuff, and you should see how fast he goes through Post-Its," Tony chuckled.

"I have — it was worse when he tried to record his notes. Got sidetracked partway through."

Tony laughed at that. "Yeah, but you two work well together. And I know I'm not gonna live forever, so… gotta secure the legacy." He rubbed a hand over his face. "I'm serious, James. I think this is the best option. Really. I know you can do it; that's why I keep pushing you so hard to reach that potential."

"Yeah, I know," James said. "And that's better than the alternative, I think."

Tony nodded and then cleared his throat. "So, what do you say?" he asked. "Come be the better version of me?"

James met his gaze for a moment. "Might be really bad timing."

"Why is that?" Tony asked with a frown. "Is it because of that sketchbook that your bestie put out? Because I gotta be honest with you: as far as artistic interpretation goes, that really leans into to your humanity. So to speak."

"You've seen it," James said, frowning slightly.

"Kinda hard to miss when it's on the morning news," Tony pointed out. "Pretty sure everyone's seen that sketch. Hard to misinterpret who it is or what was going on, too. As far as I'm concerned, those sketches just illustrate how on-the-level Cyclops was being with the Security Council."

James let out a breath and got very quiet for a long moment as he weighed it out further. He didn't look up at Tony when he spoke again, soft and understated. "I can't promise perfection."

"I'm just asking for your best," Tony said, shifting so that he was turned toward him, and matching his tone. "You think I don't know stuff is gonna blow up in your face sometimes?" He tapped his chest above the blue circle. "I know it will. Give me credit here. Just promise you won't do anything stupid on purpose and we're set."

James nodded as he thought it over. "Yeah, Dad already handled that part. Just bad judgment, not … anything beyond that."

Tony seemed to honestly relax at that. "Oh. Good. Yes. Right. Then we're all good here."

James shook his head at that. "I'll send you the book."

Tony smirked. "Give it to me in person at your new office, huh?"

"You're sure about this?" James said.

Tony grinned and spread his arms out wide. "Kid, why do you think I've been pushing you so much? Been looking toward the future, and there's no one better suited to it."

It took a few more moments, but finally, James nodded. "Okay."

Tony grinned and threw an arm around James' shoulders. "Great. I'll have this drawn up, then, and we can get that all squared away — after your birthday. Obviously."

"You're coming for that, right?" James asked. "Because I'm told that I'm going to regret it."

"Twenty-one? Yeah." Tony laughed outright. "I'm definitely coming for that."

"Perfect," he said in a sarcastic tone. "Dad's got plans. It's only mildly concerning."

"Might want to up your level of concern there, kiddo."

He shrugged openly. "Hey. It's my dad. He's not going to kill me."

"Yeah, but …" Tony just laughed. "Never mind. You'll see," he said,waving his hand before he headed off again.


Chance was smirking as he headed back to his and Elin's room, his hands in his pockets. He hoped that Tony was able to get through to James, because he knew how much of a disaster that whole thing had been, and it felt totally avoidable.

He had just hit the hallway that led to his suite when he saw Charlie walking with Liliana in hand, and he smiled and waved her down with a cheerful, "Needed some baby time?"

"Matthew had a blow-out, so I offered to take Liliana while Elin cleaned him up," Charlie said, bouncing Liliana on her hip with an easy smile.

"Took the easy job, huh?"

"I offered to take the hard job, but Elin handed me Liliana and practically shoved me out the door," Charlie admitted.

"Yeah, um, the china doll treatment is part of the problem, you know?" Chance said, then jerked his head for Charlie to follow him so they could talk away from the door.

"I'm just trying to help," Charlie said. "And I know, I know, you're going to say I should keep my nose out. But holding a baby for parents of twins is actually helpful!"

"Yeah, I know. This isn't about — well, it is a little bit about that," Chance said, correcting himself at the last minute. "It's just…" He sighed. "Something Elin and I have been talking about has been rattling around my head. And…" He rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't want to sound like I'm blaming you, because I'm not. And you weren't the only one doing it. But every time someone would tell me to back off or treat her carefully, it only made me feel like I was doing something wrong. And it pissed her off, too. Like I was being coached on how to handle a delicate flower, you know?"

"I was only trying to…" Charlie let herself drift off, knowing what that sounded like.

"I know. And for the record? You were right, and we weren't on the same page." Chance let his breath out. "But maybe we could have realized that if…" He sighed again. "Look, from our perspective, it kinda seemed like everyone was telling me to back off, and that would have been a rejection to her. You know that. And to her, watching me take other people's advice instead of talking to her…" He gestured vaguely. "We're working a lot of things out. And we're getting back to where we used to be. But part of that is realizing that we were both feeling outside pressure."

"I'm sorry," Charlie said in a breath.

Chance stepped forward and pulled her into a one-armed hug. "It's okay," he promised. "You weren't the only one doing it, either. I just…"

"Yeah. I'm still sorry," Charlie said, and Chance hugged her a bit tighter for it. "I'm glad you're doing better, though."

"Helps to have support," he promised.

"Love you too," Charlie said.