Stolen - Tony Stark

3.

Stark Expo, 2013

Of course he would keep the Expo running. It was for the good of the future, wasn't it? And they sure needed it, after the Battle of New York and all.

The city had cleaned up pretty well, but scars from the battle were still present.  There they would always linger.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Pepper asked him countless times.  After New York, and, much more recently, all the business with the Mandarin, Tony had a lot of reasons to just cancel the Expo this year.  But it was an annual event and a lot of people were counting on it, and he wasn't about to let them down.

"I'll just keep things low-key this year," he assured her. "I'll just do my speech, nothing big, nothing fancy, and then leave them to it." 

"You don't have to do this, you know."

"Yeah, I do."

"Well, let me know if it all gets to be too much."

"Always looking out for me."

"Always."

The night was off to a pretty good start.  Tony gave his speech and, although a thrilling experience as always, he was glad to sneak off backstage with a glass of champagne afterwards.

He was just heading to the top floor of the venue to the special VIP gala,  when he got an alert from J.A.R.V.I.S.

"Hey J, what have you got for me? Something to make my night a little more exciting?"

"Perhaps.  Did you by chance send and invitation to Ms. Konstantin?"

"No, why?"

"Well it appears that she's here - she's currently being confronted by security on the floor below us."

"Kass is here?"

"Yes, Sir."

Tony sighed.  "When I said exciting, I didn't mean something like this. Fine, let's go see what's happening."

He stepped back onto the elevator and went down one floor, downing the rest of his champagne. Around the corner, he found them.

Kass had three security guards surrounding her. She was dressed in her usual stealth suit, kind of like Natasha's, but with more pieces and layers.  Paired with her raven hair, she could easily slip around unseen.

"Pardon me, ladies and gentlemen," Tony interjected.  "Is there a problem?"

"Tony!" Kass cried.  "See, I know him, we're on a first name basis!" she told the guards.  "Tell them!" she said, turning back to Tony.

"Sir, we caught her sneaking around. She doesn't have an entry ticket. We were just about to detain her in one of the boardrooms."

Tony was tempted to tell them he'd never seen this woman before. "That won't be necessary," he said instead.  "She's with me."

"Mr. Stark-"

"It's really no trouble.  Thank you for your services, but I'll handle things from here." He took Kass's arm and steered her away.

"I guess I owe you a 'thank you'," she admitted when they had left the guards.  "Where are we going?"

"I'm going to detain you in the boardroom myself."

"What?!" She wrenched her arm from his grasp and stopped walking.  

"You heard them, no ticket means no entry, which means you're breaking the rules." He collapsed into one of the leather chairs. "But you're good at that."