The Last Page

Chapter 2

(Avila P.O.V)

Avila kicked open the door to the house. Carol wasn't home yet, she had a feeling that her roommate was at that other guy's house—what was his name? Lieutenant Josh Rod or something. Avila walked into the kitchen, setting down her armfuls of groceries, and began to contemplate whether Carol would more appreciate coming home to lasagna or beef pie, before remembering what she was wearing and stalking off to change.

As she took off the dress and carefully hung it up, she thought about last night. She knew she shouldn't be offended, Tony was a player and everyone knew it, but still she was. She was offended by the way Tony brushed her off, she was offended by the way Pepper looked down on her coldly, she was offended by the way this morning's scenario was so routine for them.

Avila sat down on the bed in her underwear and put her head in her hands, letting out an annoyed "ughhhhh".

"T'sup, Avie?"

"Hi, Carol." Avila didn't look up as she reached out and grabbed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

"Did you spend the night at Tony's place?"

"Yeah. Did you spend the night at—"

"No. I wanted to, but James just dropped me off a block away from home. I went clubbing."

"Carol, it's 10 am."

"Don't be prudent. I guess it didn't go well for you either?"

"Look, I don't wanna talk about it."

"'Kay."

"Lasagna or beef pie?"

"Lasagna, of course."

Avila got up and walked into the kitchen. She poured apples in a bowl for a crumble later, put the sugar on the spice rack, stocked everything neatly away in the right place, and began unpacking the lasagna ingredients.

Carol came in to disrupt her being domesticated by juggling three apples, and dropping them all. A golden streak plucked them out of the air and placed them back in the bowl. Carol didn't blink. Avila walked over to the sink to wash her hands.

"You know you shouldn't be surprised."

Avila jumped, which was unusual, because nothing in her OWN HOUSE usually made her do that. "Um. Yeah. I mean. Um."

"You know that he's, like, into girls in that way?"

"Yeahhhh..." the word ended in a long sigh.

Carol started to say something else, but Avila suddenly banged the kitchen knife down on the lasagna noodles loudly and she politely shut up, instead focusing on stealing apples to juggle and drop.

Avila laid down a lasagna noodle, then lathered on the ragu. Another noodle, more meat. Carol turned on the oven and stared moodily at the light inside. Their conversation didn't extend farther than: "pass the cheese." Avila slid the tray of finished lasagna into the oven and Carol closed it, punching in a time that Avila didn't see but instantly trusted. She pulled over a mixing bowl to start on the apple crumble as Carol started banging open drawers, yanking out cutlery and plates, doing it so forcefully that they rattled. They seldom got like this, but when they did, Avila generally found it awful. She poured flour in a bowl, cracked two eggs, added in water and sugar, then threw in some milk for good measure. Being of an experimenting nature, she scooped in some butter to see if the pastry would taste better.

"That's not the recipe." Was Carol SCOFFING at her?

"I know. I'm experimenting."

"You should dump that."

"It might taste better. More buttery."

Carol rolled her eyes disdainfully and turned away, waving a hand dismissively. Avila stuck her tongue out when Carol's back was turned, then continued to knead the dough.

(Tony P.O.V)

"Oh heyyy, Rhodey."

Rhodey leaned against the workdesk, something Tony was forever asking him not to do in case there were dangerous tools on it.

"Tony, uh, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah. Shoot."

"Did Avila stay here last night?"

"Yeah. Did Carol—"

"No. Should I have invited her? Like, I thought she might not want to. I was nervous, like. So I just dropped her off at her house."

"Rhodey. Bad move."

"You think?"

"I know."

Rhodey rubbed his forehead and sighed.

"We could go to their house."

"What?"

"Jarvis hacked into the Pentagon. We got their address."

"They?"

"Yeah. Carol and Avila live together."

"You just wanna see Avila."

"Maybe." Tony looked up, a glint in his eyes, "But doesn't the prospect of apologizing to Carol seem inviting, Rhodey?"

"Hell no. I'll do something stupid again."

"Well, I'll be there."

"That's even worse."

Rhodey stepped forward and peered at Tony closely. "You're serious about this, aren't you? And if I say no...you'll drag me to their place anyway."

Tony grinned. "Righto. The car's here. You coming?"

It wasn't a question, though.

The car stopped. Tony didn't get out, nor did Rhodey. With the engine off, the cicadas' constant "zhhhhhh-ahhh, zhhhhh-ahhh"  started to get annoying.

Rhodey whistled. "Holy crap, they must have as much money as you, Tones."

Tony made a noise which was partly a "ha", partly a "huh", and partly a "hhhh", then pushed open the car door.

"Wait up. Tony. Crap, are you wearing Armani?"

"Yeah. I told you to change before we left."

"I didn't bring anything to your place to change into."

"You could have borrowed some of mine..."

"I couldn't."

"Why?"

"Tony, that's mean."

"No, seriously. Why?"

Rhodey gritted his teeth and forced it out. "Because I'm a good two inches shorter than you. Happy?"

"Hell yeah." Tony grinned, pushing the front gate.

As he did, a hologram materialized in front of them and Tony (embarrassingly) jumped back with a squeak.

A robotic voice asked, "Who are you? Identify yourself."

Tony stared into the hologram screen at himself. It was a camera. He removed his sunglasses (Ray Ban, he'd gone full posh this time).

"Tony Stark. And Lieutenant James Rhodes."

There was a pause. Like a really, really long pause. Rhodey started walking back to the car. In fact, he'd already gotten the door open when the gates swung open alarmingly fast, without creaking even a little bit.

"And now?" Rhodey stared at the house like it might eat him.

Tony shrugged. "I guess we go in."