Iron Love - Tony Stark X Reader

Chapter 13 - Aldrich Killian

It's been a couple years of Tony and I dating and it's been great.....well up until New York happened. I won't go into detail but we went under attack and Tony and other hero's had to save us. Tony had almost died.....it's been a stressful year.

I had moved in with him less than a year ago but it's different, I've noticed he hasn't been sleeping.

We've been occupied with a man named the Mandarin......it's been terrifying.

I've been occupied with the company...I resumed my position as CEO, but lately I've been thinking of quitting. I'm not suggesting that Tony would take care of me but I would like to make my own small business. But that would probably never happen...

As I was walking to my office, Happy meets up with me. "I put a memo in the toilet, come on. Tony has got them in his basement, they're wearing party hats. This is an asset that we can put to use."

"Uh-huh. So, you're suggesting that I replace the entire janitorial staff with robots?" I say as I was stopped to sign a file.

"What I'm saying is that the human element of Human Resources is our biggest point of vulnerability. We should start phasing it out immediately."

"What!?" I ask.

"Excuse me, Bambi." He says to another employee and looks for their badge.

"Did you just say that? Happy?"

"Yes." He smiles.

"Okay, I am thrilled that you're now the Head of Security, okay? It is the perfect position for you." I nod.

"Thank you."

"However..." I start but he interrupts me.

"I do appreciate it"

"Since you've taken the post..." he stops me again.

"You don't have to thank me."

"We've had a rise in staff complaints of three hundred percent." I nod.

"Thank you."

"That's not a compliment." I roll my eyes.

"That's not a compli...? It is a compliment! Clearly somebody's trying to hide something."

"I..."

"Excuse me." My assistant interrupts me.

"Yes?" I smile.

"Miss L/N, your four o'clock is here."

"Thank you." I nod.

"Did you clear this four o'clock with me?" Happy asks her.

"Happy, we'll talk about this later. But right now I have to go deal with this very annoying thing." I turn to walk to my office, Haooy opens the door for me.

"How so?"

"I used to work with him, and he used to ask me out all the time. So it's a little awkward." I whisper.

"I don't like the sound of that." We tune to see Aldrich Killian, he was wearing a really nice suit....he looked totally different.

"Y/N..." He smiles.

"Killian?"

"You look great. You look really great." He looks me up and down and walks towards me.

"God, you look...you look great. I... I...I can't... What on earth have you been doing?" I smile.

"Nothing fancy, just five years in the hands of physical therapists. And please, call me Aldrich."

"Uh...you were supposed to be issued a security badge." Happy interrupts.

"Happy, it's okay. We're good."

"You sure?" He asks.

"Yes. Stand down." I chuckle and sit down on the couch in my office. "It's very nice to see you, Killian." I smile as he sits on the other couch.

"After years dodging the President's ban on "immoral biotech research", my think tank now has a little something in the pipeline. It's an idea we like to call Extremis. I'm gonna turn your lights down." He dims the lights then holds in his hand three small metal balls. "Regard the human brain." He throws the balls onto the coffee table and as they roll and stop, they project a 3d image into the room, I stare up in amazement. "Uh...wait. Hold on, hold on. That's...that's the universe, my bad. But if I do that..." He presses his projector control which changes the 3d image.
"That's the brain. Strangely mimetic though, wouldn't you say?"

"Wow, that's amazing!" I stare in shock.

"Thanks, it's mine."

"What?" I look over confused

"This...you're inside my head. It's a..." He taps behind his ear, referring to something embedded inside his head. It's a live feed. Come on up, I'll prove it to you." Aldrich rises from the couch and stands on the coffee table. "Come on." He helps me up and pulls me up to stand on the coffee table next to him, I look around me in amazement.

"Now, pinch my arm. I can take it. Pinch me." I laugh and do as he says and immediately something lights up in the 3d image of Aldrich's brain.

"What is that?"

"It's the primary somatosensory cortex. It's the brain's pain center. But this is what I wanted to show you." He turns Me around and presses his projector control and starts changing and moving the image with his hand. "Now, Extremis harnesses our bioelectrical potential and it goes...here. This is essentially an empty slot, and what this tells us is that our mind, our entire DNA in fact, is destined to be upgraded."

"Wow." I smile.

Aldrich shuts the image off and turns on the lights, he helps me down and we sit again. "Imagine if you could hack into the hard drive of any living organism and recode its DNA."

"It would be incredible."

"Mm." He smiles.

"Unfortunately, to my ears it also sounds highly weaponizable. As in enhanced soldiers, private armies, and Tony is not..." I start.

"Tony. Tony. You know, I invited Tony to join AIM thirteen years ago, he turned me down. But something tells me now there is a new genius on the throne who doesn't have to answer to Tony anymore, and who has slightly less of an ego."

"It's gonna be a no, Aldrich. As much as I'd like to help you." I smile.

He gets up and helps me up again, I take a walk with him down stairs. "Well, I can't say that I'm not disappointed. But then as my father used to say, 'Failure is the fog through which we glimpse triumph.'"

"That's very deep." I smile as he holds the door open for me.

"Mm"

"And I have no idea what it means." I laugh.

"Well, me neither. He was kind of an idiot, my old man.....I'm sure I'll see you again, Y/N..."  Aldrich kisses me gently on the cheek and I watch him as he walks off, stunned.

I flinch as I see Happy walk over, "Happy..." I smile.

"The car is ready, if you're ready to go."

I glance back over to Aldrich then to Happy. "Yes. I just um... God, I forgot my... other thing, so... I'm just gonna..."

I didn't know why I felt so flustered but something about him set me off.