Always Been You | Tony Stark

Captiolo (26) Ventisei ~ Avengers Initiative

"Good to go on this end. The rest is up to you." Tony's voice came over the comms, the live video of his face shown on one of the holographic screens in front of me.

"You disconnected the transmission lines properly? Are we off the grid?"

"Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy."

"Well, assuming the arc reactor takes over and it actually works." I sassed a bit.

"I assume." Tony sassed back, making me smirk. "Light her up, Lynn."

"How does it look?" I asked after turning the Stark Tower power on completely.

"Like Christmas, but with more...me."

"You've got to go wider on the public awareness campaign. You need to do some press. I'm in DC with Pepper tomorrow, we're working on the zoning for the next three buildings."

"Peg, you're killing me. The moment, remember? Enjoy the moment."

"Get in here and I will." I flirted, hearing Tony's suit on its little landing pad.

"Levels are holding steady, I think," I said as Tony walked toward me.

"Of course they are. I was directly involved. Which brings me to my next question. How does it feel, to be a genius?" Tony threw his earpiece on the table I was at, the tower's levels being projected in front of me.

"Well, I really wouldn't know, now would I?" I smiled, turning off the projection and turning towards Tony, leaning on the counter behind me.

"What do you mean? All this," He waved his finger around before pointing at me. "Came from you."

"No, all this," I copied his hand movements from a second ago. "Came from that." I pointed at the reactor in Tony's chest.

"Give yourself some credit. Please." Tony put his hands on my arms. "Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself, like, 12% of the credit."

"12%?"

"An argument can be made for 15."

"12% of my baby?" I laughed, amazed at what I was hearing, and walked away from him and towards the living area close by.

"Well, I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted the heavy things. And, sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you."

"Ooh." I took the champagne out of the bucket of ice, grabbed one of the glasses, and poured it.

"My private elevator..."

"You mean our elevator?"

"It-it was teeming with sweaty workmen. I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later, aren't I?" Tony asked as he sat with me.

"Not gonna be that subtle."

"I'll tell you what. The next building is gonna say "Lynn" on the tower."

"On the lease." I went to clink my glass with Tony's, only for him to hiss and pull his glass away.

"Call Pepper. Can you bunk over?"

"Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid my protocols are being overridden." Jarvis's voice rang out.

"Mr. Stark, we need to talk." Another voice came from Tony's phone.

"Um," Tony made a face at me as he picked up his phone, showing Coulson's picture. "You have reached the real-life model decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message." I chuckled at Tony's words.

"This is urgent."

"Then leave it urgently," Tony said as the elevator doors opened, revealing Coulson, bringing his phone down from his ear. "Security breach. It's on you."

"Mr. Stark."

"Phil! Come in." I greeted the man, grabbing my glass and going to meet him.

"Phil?"

"I can't stay."

"Uh, his first name is "Agent." Tony pointed at the suit-clad man, walking behind me.

"Come on in. We're celebrating."

"Which is why he can't stay."

"We need you to look this over as soon as possible." Phil held a tablet out in front of us.

"I don't like being handed things."

"That's fine because I love to be handed things. So, let's trade." I smiled, grabbing the tablet from Phil and handing him my champagne. I then grabbed Tony's glass and shoved the tablet in front of him, making him grab it. "Thank you." I smiled as I drank from his glass.

"Official consulting hours are between 8 and 5... every other Thursday."

"This isn't a consultation."

"Is this about the Avengers?" I asked the agent, who gave me a look. "Which I know nothing about."

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought," Tony said as he attached the tablet to its stand. "And I didn't even qualify."

"I didn't know that either." I shrugged, glancing behind me to see Tony walk towards one of the tables.

"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others."

"That I did know." I smiled.

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore," Coulson told Tony.

"Whatever. Miss. Lynn, got a second?" Tony motioned me over.

"Sorry, just a second." I apologized to Phil, walking over to Stark.

"You know, I thought we were having a moment," Tony said, not looking up at me as he messed with the screen in front of him.

"I was having 12% of a moment," I said, making Tony glance at me. "This seems serious. Phil's pretty shaken." I looked back at the agent.

"How would you know if it's... Why is he "Phil"?" Tony stared at me, looking back at the man in front of the elevator.

"He helped out when Nat was training me a bit. What is all this?" I got the man beside me back on track.

"This is..." Tony enlarged the screen, making what was on the small screen pop up in front of us, showing several different people with their photos and videos of them in different types of fights.

"Is that... is that Natasha and your aunt Olivia?" I pointed to the two women's profiles.

I watched both old and new footage of Olivia fighting different men, taking down every one of them without a problem, Natasha's own footage being very similar to Olivia's.

"Yep," Tony mumbled, looking through all the profiles as well.

"And that woman has powers..." I mumbled, watching the video of the other red head, her light blue powers sworling around her as she seemed to duplicate herself, while parts of her original body seemed to disappear before a bullet or weapon even came near. 

"I'm going to get Pepper to get us to take the jet to DC tonight. I'll tell her to bring Morgan, too. Can make it a girls' trip."

"Tomorrow." Tony tried to argue.

"Tonight. You have homework. You have a lot of homework." I argued back.

"Well, what if I...didn't?" Tony trailed off, looking at me.

"If you didn't?"

"Yeah."

"You mean when you've finished?" Tony nodded his head. "Well, um, then..." I started whispering in Tony's ear.

"Square deal. Fly safe." He smirked as I pulled away.

I leaned in and gave Tony a kiss, him automatically reciprocating.

"Work hard." I smiled as I pulled away. "So any chance you're driving by LaGuardia?" I asked Coulson as I walked in his direction.

"I can drop you." He nodded.

"Fantastic. Oh, and I want to hear about the cellist. Is that still a thing?"

"She moved back to Portland."

"What?" I gasped as we stepped into the elevator. "Boo! I was really rooting for you two."

"Yeah, well. It can't be helped." Phil shrugged.

"Oh, come on, don't say that. If it was meant to be, you'll figure it out." I nudged his shoulder.