You Can't Call It That!

Rock On.

It was staring at him.

In truth, he probably wouldn’t have noticed it at all, not in the organised chaos that was his workshop. Sitting on the corner of his workbench, half tucked into a pile of messy connections and wire, it could have gone unseen for months. Probably would have, except for the serendipitous chance that his hand would brush over the unfamiliar shock of fuzz as it wandered, searching blindly for one of the many mugs of caffeine in varying states of coolness.

Drawn from his musings by the feel of wrongdoesntbelongwhatisthatfuzzy beneath his hand, he’d looked over, curious, and seen it.

The bright shock of purple/blue fuzz, over solid black, had befuddled him for a moment, his mind racing to rememberfigureguess exactly what it was. Apart from the purple fuzz, the only other discernible detail were two small, white circles, flat, but a little raised, like a bubble resting against a surface. The two black dots inside the ‘bubbles’ kind of reminded him of beady little–

That’s about when he’d realized that the thing had eyes.

And it had been staring at him ever since.

He’d been studiously ignoring its presence; the whole thing just stank of Barton, and Tony was far too busy to deal with whatever juvenile crap the overgrown 12 year old was plaguing him with today.

That was maybe a bit harsh, especially considering Tony’s own maturity level was lucky to reach twelve on a good day, but with the 17 upgrades pending for SI, as well as the update SHIELD was demanding he finalize by this time tomorrow, Tony really was extremely busy.

And the stupid little thing on the edge of the bench was the proving to be Tony’s worst type of distraction.

Curiosity. 

With a frustrated snort he finally dropped the spanner onto the table with a thud and swiveling his stool, he reached for the offending object.

 

It nestled into the palm of his hand like it had been specifically chosen to fit there. Cool to the touch, but already warming against his skin, the little object was weightier than he’d expected, a solid presence as he brought it closer to his face.

And in lifting it, revealed the little note on the bench beneath.

Everyone should have a pet,

A friend of all their own,

No matter if you’re very young,

Or almost fully grown,

 

I may not bark or purr,

And I certainly do not sing

I do not have a tail to wag

But I’m really just the thing.

 

I have been taught to sit,

And I know how to stay,

I can even roll-over,

If you send a nudge my way.

 

But my talents don’t end here,

There’s so much more to me,

I am completely awesome,

I offer comfort, you see.

 

I’ll listen to all your problems,

And you can tell me all your woes,

I promise to pay attention,

Through all your highs and lows

 

I offer love and acceptance,

And I never, ever judge,

My devotion is rock-steady

My loyalty won’t budge

 

But while I am incredible,

And our bond is a lock,

I’m not infallible,

I’m just your new pet rock.

 

So if you ever need more,

A friendship that is true,

Know you can turn to the one,

Who gave me to you.