Glass Heart

Finally dry and having untangled her wild curly brown hair, Scarlett slipped back into the black dress that fit her in all the wrong places. Now that she was once again comfortable in her own skin it felt even more awkward. Unfortunately there were no other options and unless she wanted to treat the Stark house like the Playboy Mansion she would just have to deal with it. The woman in the mirror looked more like the one she’d remembered but there was still something a little bit off.

What was missing? What had changed?

Staring lost in her thoughts Scarlett couldn't see anything amiss so she turned away.

She found that people wasted far too much time on their reflections. While she took pride in her appearance she had always only done so because it had been an asset. Scarlett was sure she had to do very little to impress Tony Stark. She was pretty sure he would flirt with nearly anything with a sexual organ, so she didn't waste the effort. Towel hanging over her arm, unsure of what she should do with it in this strange house, she walked out of the bathroom to complete the next task that Pepper had laid out for her.

Tony looked up from the pile of magazines in his lap and the complex order form he’d been working on and smiled brightly. For a moment, Scarlett though he’d perhaps have some kind words for her but instead he turned back to his order form and spoke to Jarvis.

“You were right Jarvis, I underestimated her. Change the sizes.” Tony turned away from the order form as the sizes corrected themselves automatically. Mentally deflating, Scarlett rolled her eyes and tossed her wet towel at Tony. It was the very least he deserved. Making a face of distaste, Tony threw the towel onto the floor and then kicked it away from him, wiping his hands off on his pants.

“It’s lucky I got dressed before I came out of that bathroom. I didn’t expect you to be sitting here waiting for me like a puppy.”

“It’s rather unlucky if you ask me.” Tony sighed dramatically, truly devastated.

“Are you really barking up this tree again?” Scarlett walked past him and looked out the window. The ocean was wild below, crashing along the cliffs. What an amazing view. She’d forgotten what it was like to see the ocean. The world was a beautiful place. She hadn't seen daylight in weeks and before that nothing but desert for years.

“Barking? Are you really comparing me to a dog? Twice in five minutes. That doesn’t seem fair.”

“Are you actually denying that you are? I thought you were making a point to be one.” Scarlett scoffed, reaching to brush her fingers over the fragile tissue on her leg that sorely needed caring for. Ever since she’d let the area air dry it’d become itchy and irritated and while she’d tried her best not to scratch at it, it had become an increasingly difficult task.

“Look, look…” Tony made an attempt to put the magazines back into the neat pile that Pepper had left them in only to watch them sliding over each other into a messy heap. Eventually giving up on straightening the pile he turned away from the bed and stood next to Scarlett in front of the window. “I think that we got off on the wrong…” Tony was interrupted by the sound of the magazines hitting the floor.

Eye twitching in annoyance, Tony didn’t turn away from the window. Scarlett on the other hand, did and walked over to the pile of magazines scattered about the floor. Kneeling down she grabbed the magazines and stacked them up neatly. Watching her out of the corner of his eye, Tony tried to see what Jarvis had mentioned in his lab.

Was she really suffering from some form of post traumatic stress? She didn’t seem stressed. In fact, she seemed eerily calm. Tony tried to recall how it’d felt for him when he’d come back from Afghanistan. Was he as calm as she was? To be fair he wouldn't compare himself to most people. His composure had been remarkably astounding considering the circumstances, as far as he was concerned.

“Don’t bother, they’re just going to… slip-slide all over the damn place.” Tony tried to grab the magazines from her hands but pouted as she turned away, magazines still in hand. Scarlett placed the pile of magazines neatly on the end table near the head of the bed. The magazines stayed neatly stacked in their place.

“You were saying?”

“Of course they stay for you. Must have needed a woman’s touch or something…” Tony poked the top of the pile of the magazines suspiciously, waiting for them to slide and fall the way they’d done for him. “Oh come on, really?” He pushed at the pile and still it stayed neatly stacked on the nightstand.

“This is actually distracting you?” Scarlett mocked, resting her hand on her hip, her leg visibly trembling from the effort of standing for so long. Tony glanced back at her. He hadn't realized that he'd lost his train of thought. That happened to him quite frequently.

“Yeah, I guess it was.” Tony stretched to his full height again, half expecting the magazines to slide off of the nightstand behind him out of spite. He was slightly disappointed when they didn’t.

“You certainly have the attention span of a small animal...” Scarlett wasn’t going to let on that she was amused by how easily distracted Tony Stark seemed to be. It was a wonder he got anything done.

“Come on, to be fair that magazine thing was pretty suspect, right?” Tony laughed, pointing to the magazines accusingly.

“It wasn’t. You stacked them spine to spine, of course they’re going to slide.” Scarlett sat down on the bed. Tony watched her curiously and then reached across the bed to drag the first aid kit he’d had Pepper retrieve from his basement laboratory closer to them.

“That looks pretty painful.” Tony pointed to the burn on her leg while opening the first aid kit.

“Stop ogling my thigh, I can take care of it on my own.” Scarlett snatched the first aid kit from his grasp and pulled out the necessary items to wrap her wound with. Tony put his hands into his pockets momentarily, then removed a vial of the biochemical serum he’d formulated to counteract the chemical burns she’d received in the explosion in Africa.

“I’m only half ogling, which I think is fair considering that I’m helping you with it. It’s my reward.” Tony shook the bottle of chemicals in front of her as if to tell her she couldn’t do this without his assistance. Reaching toward him in an attempt to snatch the bottle, Scarlett glared threateningly at Tony when he pulled it out of her reach.

“Give it.” Scarlett held her palm up and pointed to it with her other hand. Her arm was sore but the pain in her thigh was distracting her from her other wounds. That had been the only benefit to the wound on her thigh.

“You don’t know what you’re doing and your hands are shaking. It would be irresponsible to let you handle chemicals!” Tony grabbed her wrist and pushed her hand closer to her face so she could see the suspect trembling.

“I don’t need steady hands to wrap a wound.” Scarlett twisted her wrist out of his grip and then winced in annoyance at the stinging in her arm.

“Okay, hold on. Just hold on one second okay?” Tony, still holding the bottle securely, held up both of his middle fingers as an example of just how long she should hold on.

“Holding,” Scarlett muttered impatiently.

“I think that you and I got off on the wrong foot.” Tony immediately silenced Scarlett when she went to object by holding up those two fingers again. “I get that you’re upset with me for having essentially, as my assistant put it so eloquently, kidnapped you.”

“So you’re admitting that you kidnapped me?” Scarlett put her objecting hand down and tapped her good leg with annoyance, mostly to stop the trembling her hand was doing.

“Will you just listen to me for a second without adding in some sassy remark? You’re as bad as I am!” Tony scolded her again then sat down on the bed next to her. Tilting his head to the side, he attempted to give her a sympathetic smile though he was unsure of how successful he was. It wasn’t like he spent most of his time trying to relate with anyone. In fact, it was generally something he never did. He just hoped he wasn’t coming off as sarcastic.

“Fine. I’ll let you talk.”

“As I was saying…” Tony cleared his throat and straightened his back. “I know that whatever happened in Africa had to have been traumatic. I can imagine that you wouldn’t want to relive that, particularly for someone you don’t know or like very …”

“You think that I’m traumatized? Seriously, Stark? You shouldn’t make assumptions about what you have little to no insight to! For all you know I was working for them willingly or I was doing something just as devious as they were. So maybe you should go back to being a perverted asshole instead of making assumptions about what I was doing. Stick to your strengths.”

“I’m not making assumptions. That would make me an ass.” Tony pointed out, speaking over her. This had not panned out the way he had expected it to. Scarlett reached very suddenly over him to grab for the bottle of serum from his hand. He switched the serum into his left hand and held it out of her reach.

“You are an ass, Stark and that was a stupid analogy. What are you: a sixteen year old girl defending your opinions?” Scarlett pulled her arms away before Tony could grab her and pull her further.

“First of all, it’s Tony and secondly I thought it was a pretty perfect analogy…” Tony, brow furrowed in concentration, held his hand up again to defend himself.

“Stop, okay?” Scarlett held both of her hands up defensively and exhaled deeply in an attempt to relieve the built up tension between them. Tony stopped as he was asked to for once, which astounded them both. He thought that admitting to the wrong he’d done would at least put her in a better mood. “You’re right. We got off on the wrong foot.” Tony looked surprised by her revelation and put his hands down. It was best to let her speak even though he had a thousand things to say that he was sure were more interesting than what she was going to lecture him with. “What happened to me in Africa wasn’t exactly what I'd signed up for. So maybe I am a little shaken. As I’ve already told you multiple times in a rather hot-headed and explicit manner I’ve always resented you and your corporation. So this isn't exactly ideal either.”

“Yeah, that I gathered from the ranting. Despite what you think, I actually listen.” Tony couldn’t help but smile a little.

“When I woke up and found myself in your debt I can't say I was happy about it.” Scarlett shook her head and pushed her curly hair out of her face. Tony was hanging on her every word and Scarlett was inwardly pleased.

“I get it. So when I offered you that job I pretty much offered you a loaded gun, didn’t I?” Tony had definitely not been expecting her to bend to his will. In fact, he wasn’t sure how to react now that she was no longer fighting him. Was he supposed to comfort her? He had a feeling that would backfire. How was he supposed to comfort her without groping?

Surely, it would be an impossible task.

“Yeah, you did. I don’t like you. I don’t like Stark Industries. While I appreciate that you didn’t leave me to die in the desert or let me writhe in misery until the chemicals slowly killed me in the hospital… it doesn’t change the fact that I know all about you and your sordid history.” Scarlett glanced at the wound on her leg and concentrated hard on not itching at it or putting some kind of soothing hand on it. It was a lot harder than she expected.

“May I?” Tony pointed to her leg. Scarlett contemplated letting him wrap the wound on her leg for an agonizing few moments. The medicine he’d put on it earlier when she’d first woken up had helped a great deal. She had no doubt that it would help again. Finally she nodded.

Tony would have to use all of his willpower to keep from finding a way to look up her dress while he performed the task. Cocking his head to the side to analyze the situation he put down the vial of chemicals, slipped his hands onto her sides and urged her so she was further back on the bed. “Can you sit sideways or something… hike the dress up above the burn but…” Tony winced, grimaced, then hung his head in disappointment as he continued on. “But try not to flash me. I guess. Unless you want to. Which I’d be totally okay with and wouldn’t think less of you for… in fact, I’d probably think more of you.”

“I know exactly what you’d think of me. Something tells me that’s unavoidable anyway but I would prefer you not see my panties, again.”

“Did I see them once before?” Tony played innocent as Scarlett adjusted her legs so she was seated on her side and hiked the skirt of the dress up above the burn on her thigh.

“Don’t play dumb, you watched me on the cameras in your lab.” Scarlett mocked, looking down at the comforter so she didn’t have the urge to scold Tony every time he got too grabby while he was taking care of the burn on her thigh.

Realizing she was serious about letting him take care of the wound, Tony grabbed a cloth and poured some antiseptic on it then began to carefully brush it over the fragile looking flesh on her leg. Scarlett blinked several times, seeing black spots in her vision from the pain of the antiseptic stinging at her wound.

“You’re not upset about it?” Tony looked surprised, paying far more attention to her thigh than anything else. He had to remind himself every few seconds that sex was out of the question. This wasn't foreplay. It was helping. He was helping.

At least for the time being.

“Oh, I’m livid.” Scarlett didn’t have the energy to mock him. All her remaining focus went to pain management. She'd always had an exceptionally high pain tolerance. “But, I also knew you were going to do it, so it’s not like I was unaware. You have boundary issues.”

“Well, you were kind of a bitch, so I figured…” Tony shrugged nonchalantly, applying the serum in the unlabeled bottle to the wound on her leg. Scarlett was hoping it’d make her feel better, but instead she laid her head on the bed and concentrated on not passing out or throwing up. Both seemed like incredibly difficult tasks. Why wasn’t this making her feel better like before? Why couldn't she keep it under control?

“Yeah, well can you blame me? Are you almost done?” Scarlett spoke shortly.

“Are you alright?” Tony finally let his gaze move away from her thigh as he let the chemical sit on her skin. The color drained from her face. “Hell,” He leaned over and touched her cheek. “You’re all clammy. Does it hurt that bad?” Scarlett shooed his hands away from her face and forced herself to lean on her elbow. Taking slow deep breaths she regained her composure the best she could. How embarrassing it was to be this ill in front of anyone.

“Don’t fret over me, I’m fine. It stings. That's all. I wasn’t prepared. My stomach is very unhappy. I haven't had anything really to eat since you found me. And before then the cuisine wasn't exactly the recommended calorie amount.” Scarlett grimaced, half annoyed that she was feeling ill from the mere cleaning of her wound. It had to be the lack of food. Nothing else made sense.

“Well, don’t pass out. The only passing out women do here is from satisfaction.” Tony sat back up and continued to work on her thigh, concentrating as hard as he could to finish it quickly. If she didn’t want the attention that came with feeling ill, he wouldn’t baby her. “Here…” Tony reached into the first aid kit he’d had prepared for his own wounds and pulled out a needle. “You don’t have any weird allergies right? Probably should’ve asked that earlier before I started administering medication.”

“No, I don’t need anything.” Scarlett drifted off as he stuck the needle into her skin near her wound and blinked in surprise at the fact that he’d gone ahead and done it regardless of her objections. Seeing spots in her vision once again from the sudden pain of the needle, she did her best to shake it off. Pain was not going to get the best of her.

“Painkillers. Seems only fair that you find some relief after this.” Tony tossed the needle back into the first aid kit and then started to wrap the burn.

“You don’t listen worth a damn, do you?” Scarlett was admittedly relieved that he’d administered something for the pain but wasn’t going to tell him that.

“Pepper says something like that but I’m not quite sure… Always tune her out halfway through.” Tony smiled knowingly. Scarlett rolled her eyes at him.

“You’re an ass.”

“That has already been established.” Tony finished wrapping the wound on her thigh, readjusted her skirt for her and then smacked her playfully on the backside. “All better.” Scarlett jumped. If nothing else, it had definitely snapped her out of the exhaustion she’d been threatening to give into. Sitting up straight, she quickly grabbed his wrist and narrowed her eyes at him. “Too much?”

“Far too much.” Scarlett readjusted the way she’d been seated and let go of his wrist, which Tony shook in surprise.

“For someone who looked like she was about to puke all over my bed, you sure have quite the grip.”

“Call it instinct.” Scarlett straightened her dress and narrowed her eyes. “I’m going to get you back for that.”

“But I was so incredibly well behaved!” Tony argued with a hint of a smirk on his lips. “You have to admit, I didn’t do most of the dirty things I was thinking of doing, so… I should get credit, I think.”

“So you’re arguing you should be rewarded for bad behavior because you didn't give into worse behavior?”

“Yes.” Tony said without a second thought. “But come on, let me look at the other ones.” Tony grabbed for her wrist, which she twisted away again.

“No, I let you work on my leg because you had that magic serum or whatever the hell is in that bottle but I can handle the rest.” Scarlett grabbed the first aid kit before he could take it out of her reach and started to clean up the area around the graze on her arm.

“You’re no fun.” Tony smiled then sat fidgeting in place, glancing back at the magazines on the nightstand next to the bed, bewitched by how they hadn’t slid even an inch.

“So now what, Stark?” Scarlett wrapped the wound on her arm without looking up at him.

“Now what?” Tony turned his attention back to her, unsure of what she meant.

“Where do we go from here?” Scarlett finished with her arm and decided to risk the wound on her side being left as just stitches against cloth. While she was sure she would regret it later, right now she wasn’t going to offer Tony anymore sneak peeks.

“Oh. That.” Tony thought about it curiously then nudged her shoulder. “Also, it’s Tony. Are you sure you don't have a concussion?”

“I’m still here, so I’m starting to wonder about that myself.” Scarlett scooted back to the edge of the bed, resting her bare feet on the floor. “So what should I do? Should I leave?” Scarlett looked at her feet, trying to portray through body language that she wasn’t ready to go. She didn’t want Tony to think she wanted to stay with him for any other reason than the desire for company. If this worked out to her advantage, he would be intrigued enough to ask her to stay as his guest.

“We don’t think about it yet.” Tony sat lost in thought. He could kick her out and send her on her way. However she was still interesting and if nothing else, Tony wanted to see how things played out. Now that they’d agreed that they were both being rotten, she’d only gotten more interesting. Scarlett looked to Tony in surprise. She was beginning to think she’d chosen the wrong career; acting was clearly her strong suit. Then again, it wasn’t like it was hard to convince Tony Stark that women wanted to be in his company.

“Then what do we think about if not that?” Scarlett seemed skeptical.

“When I was being held captive,” Tony cleared his throat, making it clear he didn’t often talk about such things, “there were many things I thought I’d miss in the beginning but wound up not missing at all.” Tony glanced away from the woman, fiddling with the bottle of chemicals so he had something to do with his hands. “Instead there was a huge laundry list of things that I did miss, none of them that I expected.”

Tony didn’t bother to elaborate on what he meant by that. He couldn’t help but consider the things his companion in captivity had told him. He was the man with everything and nothing. Yinsen had told him not to waste his life and while Tony was still working to figure out what that meant, he wasn’t going to let anyone know that. Yinsen had been the most valuable companion that Tony had ever had.

He hadn’t even told Pepper about the man he’d grown so close to, the man who had essentially saved his life by hooking that car battery up to the magnet in his chest that had temporarily kept the shrapnel from reaching his heart. “So what is it you missed the most while you were being held by MedCo?” Turning his attention back to Scarlett, he tried not to look too curious. If she answered this, it would give him an answer to his suspicions.

It would mean she had been a prisoner rather than a willing participant to MedCo’s game.

Weighing her answers carefully, Scarlett considered becoming defensive but instead decided that the best way to play her hand would be to fold, for once.

“Food.” Scarlett laughed at last. “Good food too. It’s not like the food in the places I worked was the best before that. You can’t trust a lot of the crops growing down there and the best restaurants were near the shore. I rarely got to see the shore and hadn’t seen daylight for quite awhile before you found me.” Scarlett considered. Before Tony could come up with a response, she continued. “And scotch. I really missed good scotch. Hell, I even missed bad scotch. Sometimes I even missed rum.”

“Scotch? You missed liquor more than anything?” Tony seemed skeptical of this, but listened as she, surprisingly, offered an explanation. He’d found out more about her in the last ten minutes than he’d had in hours.

“There was a guard who watched over me while I was there.” Scarlett stood, the clammy feeling of illness having passed now that the painkillers kicked in. “I made a pretty big joke of it all at first and he’d taken pity on me and brought me some vodka. I think he thought I was funny.” Scarlett frowned, recalling Sergei. Why had he meant so much to her? Maybe he had been the only light in that place. Could it be that she was willing to be somewhat honest with Tony suddenly? While she wasn’t planning on revealing more than she had to, she saw no harm in telling him small details that would work in her favor.

“Vodka, huh?”

“It doesn’t matter how desperate for a drink one is, bad vodka still tastes like rubbing alcohol. Plus, I’m a scotch girl. I’m afraid I'm a bit spoiled sometimes.” Tony couldn’t help but laugh out loud joining her near the window.

“So, food and liquor? Well you happen to be in luck. I have this bottle of Highland Park 36 year I’ve been dying to crack open and trust me… if you’re looking for good scotch you’re in the right place.” Tony smirked, turning away from the beautiful ocean view to face the lovely woman who had regained her color.

“I’ll be the judge of that.” Scarlett shook her head. “Just because I was in captivity doesn’t mean I’m not picky.”

“Oh, is that a dare?” Tony took a step closer, narrowing his eyes playfully. Even when she wasn’t fighting with him he found her intriguing and was grateful to not have to be on his guard every few seconds.

“I do believe it is, Mr. Stark.” Scarlett pursed her lips, but didn’t back down. She hated that she actually found him charming. If she didn’t know a damn thing about him then he’d be exactly the type of guy she’d let pick her up in a bar. Unfortunately she knew him all too well and there was next to no ignoring what he’d done. While she found him handsome, she could live without the facial hair. She’d always been into clean cut and clean shaven men before this moment. The beard he wore was iconic though, if nothing else.

“You know what? Let’s save the Highland Park for another night and instead… make a night of this.”

“Are you threatened that I might not like the taste of your scotch, Stark?” Scarlett knew that he had to have been using all of his willpower to keep from making sexual innuendos out of everything. The way he was shifting in front of her, she could tell he was uncomfortable. It was oddly satisfying.

“Trust me, many women have tasted my scotch and they were never disappointed.” Tony smirked. He couldn't resist one little innuendo. Or a few big ones. “Plus, it’s Tony. Please, call me Tony, that’s my name. I feel like you’re yelling at me every time you call me by my last name.” Tony pled.

“I told you, I’ll be the judge on the subject of scotch… and besides that, I enjoy watching you squirm, Stark. I’ll call you what I want to call you.” Scarlett wasn’t sure if she really was calling him Stark simply to irritate him or if she was trying to keep that gap between them so she wouldn’t form any sort of emotional bond. If she was suffering from any hint of post traumatic stress disorder, the last thing she wanted to do was succumb to the need to be comforted by someone.

“Unless you’re riding me like a wild stallion and calling me a bad boy, I don’t approve of you trying to make me squirm.” Tony held up his hands and widened his eyes playfully. “But don’t let me limit your imagination, I’m pretty much open to anything.”

“You’re gross.”

“Telling me that repeatedly isn’t really going to change much of anything. You keep giving me opportunities and I'm going to keep taking them.” Tony smirked, hoping he was sending her mind right into the gutter alongside his.

“Well, I plan on continuing to remind you that you are disgusting so that those around us may be reminded that just because you’re a Stark doesn’t mean the things you say are any less reprehensible.”

“You’re going to ruin all my fun, aren’t you?” Tony wanted to see how close he could get to her before she physically pushed him away. If nothing else, it was fun to test her limits. He was like a child with a new toy, and he was going to play with it until it broke.

“Stark, I do believe you’ve gotten off track again.” Scarlett wasn’t going to back down, but if Tony got close enough she was most certainly capable of pushing him off of her. While she willing to lure him into bed it was only out of absolute necessity. She was explore every avenue available first.

“That’s what you do to me see, you just… distract me and I keep getting caught up in other things…” Tony’s eyes were no longer on her face, so Scarlett snapped her fingers to get his attention.

“Up here. Focus.” Scarlett was starting to get used to fighting off the constant sexual tension he’d been trying to form between them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t something he was completely fabricating which had frustrated her. But now that she’d had time to recover and felt remarkably better thanks to the medicine he’d given her, she was handling him far more maturely and naturally.

“Oh, yes… As I was saying, let’s ditch the Highland Park for the night and make a real… outing of this, hmm? Get out of this stuffy mansion, get some drinks, get a real dinner for you…”

“I’m not going on a date with you, Stark.” Scarlett scolded immediately.

“You owe me dinner for manhandling my robot, if I recall. Come on, it’s just dinner and drinks. Nothing too serious.”

“Which you hope is going to lead to something else.” Scarlett rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers as she noticed his gaze wandering once again. “Up here, Stark!”

“Why? I mean appealing eyes and face and all but not as interesting…” Tony drifted then cleared his throat. “Come on, the last thing you want to do is sit here in my house and fall into a bottle! You’re bound to end up in my bed if you take that route. Really, I’m trying to save you from me.”

“Right, I’m sure that’s what it is.” Scarlett contemplated the idea of going out to get something real to eat. She was starving. Part of her was scared to eat and had been avoiding it. The last time she'd gone this long without food it had been a disaster. Eating had made her sick. What Tony was wrong about was what the alcohol would do to her. She was worried about simply hanging about his mansion and drinking, but only because she had no food in her system to counteract the effects of the alcohol.

Being drunk around Tony Stark wasn’t an option.

“If you want the truth, I’d prefer you having fun if I get you into bed.”

“If, being the key word. At least you finally admitted it’s not a certainty.”

“You’re hard to read… I can’t… see what’s going on in your head.” Tony looked away for a moment, rubbed his goatee and turned back to her. “It’s refreshing.”

“I’m sure it is. Regardless Stark, you’re getting off track again. Maybe you’re not a dog… but rather an excitable puppy.”

“That implies you think I’m cute.”

“It also implies that you piss all over the floor. So what’s your point?” Scarlett smirked playfully.

“Come on! Dinner, drinks, it’ll be nice. Maybe even some dancing?” Tony grinned and bobbed his head in a dancing motion. “It’ll be fun. I promise. One night out on the town with me and you’ll forget you even had troubles.” Tony enticed, though Scarlett wasn’t sure if his dancing had in fact lured her into going with him or worked against him. Either way, she’d found it amusing. Even cute. Again, like a puppy.

Scarlett considered agreeing to go, shuffled in her bare feet, looked out the window at the ocean and then back at Tony.

“You know you want to. Come on, give in…” Tony coaxed, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“Fine.” Scarlett relented. Tony was immensely pleased but before he could rejoice, she pointed an accusing finger at him. “But this isn’t a date and if you even think about making a move on me Stark, then I’m going to break something very, very important to you.”

“Uh huh, uh huh.” Tony nodded his head while she spoke, talking over the very end of her statement. “I wouldn’t dream of it. I mean, I’m a perfect gentleman. I have no idea what you’re implying.”

“Your artificially intelligent computer is more chivalrous than you are.”

“I programmed him to be like me. By definition you just complimented me. So, thank you.” Tony cocked an eyebrow curiously.

“Just goes to show what a bitch free will can be.” Scarlett shook her head. “So we have a deal?”

“Yes, we have a deal. This isn’t a date and I can’t have your panties unless you throw them at me with want. I get it. Though, by definition…”

“There’s little to no chance of that ever happening, Stark.”

“By definition,” Tony cleared his throat and spoke over Scarlett, “dinner and drinks that you’re being treated to can be considered a date.”

“It can also be considered payment to keep me quiet since you kidnapped me.” Scarlett continued and turned away from him, peeking around the room in hopes that Pepper had left her with some shoes she could wear out and about.

“You also said that there was little to no chance, that’s not no chance Scarlett. I think you like me. You know… secretly, deep down inside that cold, frigid heart of yours.” Tony grinned, following her and watching her as she walked.

“Don’t push me Stark. It’s a turn of phrase.”

“I don’t care. I’m taking it and running with it.” Tony shook his head.

“If we’re going out in public I need shoes.” Scarlett finally gave up on her search for heels to match her dress. “I don’t know what the hell happened to the ones I had originally but they’re not here and I don’t care if you’re a Stark and any venue will let you in no matter what your company looks like… I need shoes.” In a way Scarlett was searching for something normal. As much as she hated to admit it, she was overwhelmed.

“You do. We’ll stop on the way. Get you something else to wear too. No offense but that dress fits you in all the wrong ways.”

“Oh, really? You still stare at me every time I move so I think the dress must be doing me a few favors.” Scarlett headed toward the bathroom, leaving the door open as she went to address her rebellious hair once again.

“With a body like that? No matter what you’re wearing there’s something to look at. Leave the hair down, it looks all… afterglow-sexy like that.” Tony cocked his head to the side, peering passed the door to the bathroom to watch the woman prepare herself to go out.

“I’ll do what I like.” Scarlett responded simply.

“I don’t know if I can let you keep it up and off your neck like that. It’s a crime to everyone around you.”

“Stark.” Scarlett said shortly without turning around.

“Okay, I get it. And it’s Tony!” Tony started toward the door, hands in his pockets again. “I’ve got to get changed anyway. I’ll have Happy and Pepper meet us later. Does that make you feel better about going out with me?”

“Oh yes, I don’t know how I would’ve possibly resisted jumping you without a chaperone.” Scarlett rolled her eyes.

“Don’t toy with me, woman.” Tony smirked. “Leave your hair down.” He whispered again.

“Go away.” Scarlett heard the bedroom door close and sighed heavily as she leaned against the counter in the bathroom. “That was better.” Scarlett nodded her head after a moment of looking at herself in the mirror. “Jarvis, I need makeup.”