Steel Meets Iron

Chapter 20

"Are you letting me win?" Raven asked Clint.

"Why would I let you win?"

"Because you're losing," she moved a chess piece. "Check."

Clint rubbed his temple, everyone had been rotating on babysitting duties since surgery. Raven had been moved to private room where she had to spend two weeks minimum until she was clear to go home. Normally Tony was constantly there, he didn't care if it was Steve watching her he never left her side, and it was beginning to show. Last night Pepper had finally managed to drag him home for at least one night, which left him alone with Raven.

Raven was a easy kid to look after, if you were prepared. She liked board games, cards, coloring or reading, in between her cartoons. She was seemingly independent but she liked company, she often checked to make sure he was still there. She was easily absorbed in tasks, like Tony, but childishly wanted someone with her. It suited him fine, he wasn't much of a Barbie guy. Until she begged him to play a round of chess, which she was winning.

"I'm not letting you win," he stated studying the board.

"Oh, then you're just bad at this." Her tone would have been snarky if not for those big sympathetic eyes. "You can pick the next game." She countered his inevitable move, "Checkmate." She smiled satisfied. "Tony always let's me win."

"Does he?" Clint wondered. "How do you know?"

"He has a fake thinking face," she explained putting away the board and pieces. "He scratches he's face when he's faking it."

"And how do you know that?" He was enjoying her little deduction.

"When he's working he never does that." She tried to mimic Tony's face. "He stares really hard and when he gets tired he rubs his face and sighs."

Clint nodded, in another circumstance she would have been recruited to be a spy. Couldn't tell Tony that though, any mention of her intelligence made him a bigger son a bitch than usual. He and Nat guessed it was because of Fury who saw potential in Raven if she ever were to become affiliated with S.H.I.E.L.D., she had Stark's intellect and none of his unbearable attitude. She did have that nasty temper and had deep emotional issues. Everyone knew that they were a defensive mechanism but it still caught them off guard, Tony hated acknowledging it while Pepper tread carefully on the subject for Tony's sake. They sensed Fury's preoccupation with her, anyone with Stark's level of intellect and exposure to their organization made him wary.

Raven was a genius but she didn't flaunt it, that was the biggest difference between the two Starks. Tony was flashy while Raven was subtle and sneaky. The second biggest difference was her love for art, he had watched the girl go through pages upon pages drawing and coloring. Tony was a man of science and technology while she loved colors and music.

Fury didn't acknowledge those differences. He saw the bare facts, a young Stark who kept secrets better than her father. Dangerous intelligence hindered by a child's desires, pettiness and poor judgment.

"Can I draw you?" Raven asked him.

"What?"

"Can I draw you?" She repeated.

"Sure. Why?" He pondered for the sake of conversation. She liked to chat.

"I like your eyes."

"My eyes?"

"Ah huh," she grabbed some colors, "they're sort of blue and green like the sea. Is that why Natasha likes you?"

He stared at her, he had been warned about this.

"Why do you figure that?"

"Girls like pretty boys, just like boys like pretty girls. Natasha's very pretty." She began sketching with a pencil.