Close Your Eyes

Dasha carefully watched the screen as she watched a large man stalk into the racing strip, her light brown eyes widened as he continued to walk with a dominant nature. Suddenly, his orange attire was singed off by the electricity wrapping around his contraption and before she knew it, he flicked his wrist causing the whip to take a chunk off the car that was speeding towards him.

"Dasha!" Her head quickly whipped around to see Happy signaling the Iron Man case towards her beckoning her to come help.

She stood up, slightly in a trance before she sped off alongside Happy and Pepper. Pepper quickly sat in the passenger seat while Dasha sat in the back with the case in hand. Her hands shook as she clutched on the case.

"Hang on!" Happy hollered in warning as he pressed on the gas pedal.

"Hang on to what?!" Dasha fumed, feeling her heart thunder in her ribcage, her nails scraped onto the case when the car swerved onto the track. Hearing Pepper scream in surprise let her know that at least she wasn't the only one that was terrified.

Dasha never dreamed that she would be a part of something like this. Why did she agree to accompany Tony? For better pay? That was part of the answer and she wished she had the rage inside of her to scold Tony or better yet bash his fucking face in, but her heart leapt every time Happy dodged one of the oncoming cars.

Why did she have to be so stupid?!

The woman snapped back to reality when Pepper demanded the key for the case. "It's in my pocket!" Dumbly, Happy turned to grab the key from his pocket. Pepper screamed at the oncoming car having Happy focus on the wheel while she grabbed the key.

"Dasha!" She looked into the blue eyes of the woman in front of her, "Help me try to find the keys!"

Letting one of her hands go of the case, she scooted up as she fumbled around Happy's pockets to find the key. "This is not what I had in mind." Happy muttered before he cursed unintelligently. "Hey!" Happy jumped at the sudden graze, "That is not a key!"

"Sorry." Pepper sheepishly smiled.

Finally finding the key, relief swept through the group as Happy finally turned to see the man stalking towards Tony. Dasha held onto Pepper's seat as she felt the car pull her when it accelerated and rammed into the man.

Another scream fell from Pepper's lips as they all stared in shock at the man pressed up against the car. Dasha finally let out a breath, her eyes darting around as she finally caught Tony's gaze. Something swept over her as she saw that he was okay, other than that gash on his cheek, he looked fine.

When he jumped down from the fence, her ears seem to muffle the exchange between Happy and Tony and the horrified screams that were coming from Pepper. Dasha watched as Tony's lips moved, he leaned forward as he talked to Happy before his eyes caught hers again. His lips started to move again and yet she couldn't understand what he was saying.

As she felt a gloved hand graze her cheek, she sat there in shock watching Tony look towards Happy again before an annoyed look past his face when he looked over to Pepper.

Taking a deep breath, Tony disappeared to only appear on the other side of the car. His hand clasped onto the handle, pulling the door towards him and before he could take a step the door was slashed in half. Another scream filled the air; Dasha recognized it being Pepper's.

Then when her head was jerked violently back into the car seat before flying forward, she got over her intensive shock to realize that Happy was ramming the now conscious man into the fence. With Tony's encouraging words to his driver, he stepped closer to the car as he reached out towards Dasha.

"Dash! Give me the case!"

When her head spun towards his direction, he repeated his command as it finally got through to her. Gripping the case tightly, she lolled it forward to give it to him, but the jerk of the car ramming forward caused it to fly back into the seat.

The sudden motion of the car going back and forth caused Tony to grow annoyed. His body relaxed as he rolled his eyes while he casually tried to grab the case that was jerking out of Dasha's hand every moment he was close to it. "Dasha! Just throw me the case!"

Before she can retort, a whipping sound caused her to cower in fright. A scream ripped through her throat when one of the whips cut through the middle of the car and nicked her arm. Through gnashing teeth, she gripped her arm as the man slashed the car again, this time carving out the left side of the car leaving it wide open for her to throw the case to Tony.

"Dasha!" Dasha turned through blurry eyes, squeezing them shut she threw the case as far as she could before leaning back into the seat again.

"Oh my God!" If Dasha had the strength she could tell Pepper to keep it down from all the shouting. The hoarseness emitted from Pepper's throat as she asked if Dasha was alright. Her lips parted to answer she stopped herself when the car skidded to safety by none other than Tony in his now Iron Man clad suit.

The panic that was risen from Pepper jumpstarted again as she climbed over the seat to get to Dasha. "Are you alright? Oh my God! Happy, she's bleeding!"

"Pepper," Dasha gritted her teeth. "I'm alright." Despite her heart still hammering in her chest she glanced at her wound to see that it was only a few inches deep and was in need of stitches. Nothing too serious; when she voiced her opinion Pepper almost shrieked in an outrage.

"Nothing too serious?! Your arm Dasha! Nothing looks fine!"

With another look at her right arm, she saw that Pepper was indeed right. The gash was indeed bubbling and started to redden from the burn it received. Maybe the way she saw it the first time was her way of dealing with the stinging pain.

"We need to get her to the hospital!"

"No one is going to the hospit-" her demand was cut short when Tony was flung onto the car hood before being dragged onto the floor with the whip wrapped around his head.

Tony wrapped his fingers around the whip to release himself, but the sparks continued to fly in protest. As he knelt down as if he was trying to solve the problem that way, he lifted himself up and started to immerse himself around the whips bringing the man closer to him.

Within a minute or so, the man was now on the ground, defeated as Tony yanked out the reactor from the center of his body.

Dasha watched the man being dragged away to have him…laughing? She couldn't comprehend what he was laughing about as her eyes were solely on Tony's battered and sooty suit. Climbing out of the car with one hand clutching her wound to stop the bleeding, she automatically started to walk over to Tony.

"Tony." She whispered.

She didn't know how loud she was speaking with her ear drums being slightly deafened by the horrific screams Pepper emitted from her throat for God knows how long. It seems as if he heard somehow, he turned around as she could feel the concern seep through his voice asking if she was okay.

Pursing her bruised lip, her eyes peered up into his without an answer. Her heart clearly still drumming in her ears as the blood continued to rush across her body. It took her mind to notice that she was safe, but her eyes kept watch on the hysterical man that was finally out of sight before she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Tony…are you fucking insane? What kind of stunt was that? Were you trying to get yourself killed? If you weren't in that God damn suit I would have ripped you a new one!"

"Glad to hear that you were concerned." His voice drawled out from the suit.

Dasha's brow twitched as a growl ripped through her throat, "You son of a-" Happy pulled Dasha away from Tony before she actually tore the suit off of him just to beat him. The high pitch sirens suddenly filled her ears as Happy muttered for her to calm down.

The infuriated woman pulled away from the man, "Calm down? How can I calm down when I was inches away from being split in half by some fucking nut job that thought electric whips would be fun to throw around!"

Happy placed a hand on her back, rubbing it in a soothing motion noticing the slight quiver. Happy glanced at Pepper who was another basher and slapped Tony's helmet. With the two of them occupied, he lowered his voice in a soft murmur, "Sorry to put you through all this Dash. It was never his intention to pull you into this."

Dasha licked her lip before she let Happy console her as one of the EMT's raced towards them. "I know." She muttered back before she followed the EMT to tend to her wound. Dasha ignored Tony as she sat in the back step of the ambulance truck as they stuck a needle to numb the area where she was wounded.

She flinched when the EMT gave no warning; with a small glare she huffed when she heard him speak in his native tongue as he stitched her up. She raised a brow when Tony pulled his head back from the EMT that was trying to look at his wound. Now that he was back in his driving suit, he smacked the EMT's hand away as he signaled that he was fine.

"It's protocol Tony." Pepper sighed. "Just let him check your wound."

"Did you forget I hired Dasha for this very reason? Dash," His eyes glanced over to hers within moments. "You need to check this out before we leave. Don't want to scar this pretty face of mine." Cue the eye roll from Dasha.

He grinned as he let out a breath of relief to see that she was alright. Despite her being hunched over, her arm being tended to by the EMT and her head turned to avoid looking at the needle being pulled in and out of her flesh, she looked fine.

And that was enough for him.

[1]

Dasha's eyes fluttered shut as she relaxed in the plush seat; if she could say that she was more than happy to fly home after that overbearing trip then yes she was ecstatic.

Except for the fact that the ass face of a Senator was holding another conference stating more evidence as to why Tony should give up his suit. Maneuvering in her seat, she finally had silence when it was suddenly muted.

To think that Tony and Pepper left her alone for three hours was just magnificent. Pepper was that overly worried mother hen, checking up on her every second asking if she could make her any more comfortable. The red head was acting as if Dasha almost died.

Actually, yes she almost did.

Then a sobering thought hit her when she realized that Tony has been unnaturally quiet this whole time. Their flight was still going to be unbelievably long, but without Tony hovering over her like Pepper felt a bit off to her.

Finally heavy footsteps perked her mind as she slowly opened her eyes to see Tony sitting across from her with a dish in his hand. He placed the lidded dish on the table between them before he hooked his fingers into the hole and pulled off the lid to reveal the delicious dish that was on display for her.

Her brow quirked at the cocky billionaire, "For me?"

"Yep."

Dasha leaned forward as she caught a whiff of the aroma encircling her nostrils; cautiously she took the fork beside the plate and prodded the dish. "Who made this?" She hoped it wasn't some flight attendant that made this. The last time turned out to be a complete disaster.

"I did." The undertone of his voice exudes confidence along with that cocky smirk that she so desperately wanted to smack off his face.

Wanting to kick him off his pedestal, she hummed in agreement. "I could tell. The sides are burned." Dasha poked the meat to see that the black sides were indeed burned.

"Hey, I worked three hours on this. I think a reward is in order."

"What reward? I didn't make you do anything, ass face." She grumbled. Her annoyance started to bubble as she waited for the retort to come rushing back. Instead, she was met with silence. This has been happening a lot more lately than usual.

Every time she got into it with Tony, he didn't take the bait as long as he used to. Their bickering didn't last more than a few minutes and then after her quick snap, he wouldn't fight anymore as if he lost interest or gave up.

Dasha looked over to Tony to see a somber look on his face, his eyes flickered with conflict. Dasha suddenly felt like a bitch. She always did when Tony quit their fights out of nowhere. Straightening up without moving her right arm as much, she asked, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Okay, it didn't come out as gentle as she wanted.

"Nothing." He quickly responded.

It was out of habit, with all the repetitive questions that circled around him when Pepper and Happy asked it fell out of his lips when Dasha finally took a stab at it. He watched as she gnawed on the inside of her cheek as if she didn't believe him. It wouldn't surprise him if she didn't.

"Bullshit." She hissed. "Something is wrong and for someone who usually loves fighting with me you sure give up pretty quickly. Now fess up."

"I was thinking about cancelling my birthday party. Why would I need to be surrounded by all those people when all I want is to get a birthday present from you." He wiggled his brows in insinuation. "I have been a good boy lately so I think it's time to finally give me what I want."

Dasha's jaw tightened, "Give you what you want? I don't have to get you jack."

"I wouldn't want your friend there with us. It would kill the mood, don't you think?" He smirked as he watched Dasha glare daggers at him in her seat.

Dasha slowed her breathing as she felt voices rushing through her head again. Closing her eyes, she took another slow breath to compose herself. That's what Tony wanted, to piss her off. To rile her up to distract her from the current problem that she was trying to get behind.

Sadly, it was easier to stir Dasha in the wrong direction that it has been with Happy and Pepper.

When she felt her blood pressure going down, she opened her eyes to see an empty seat beside her. She furrowed her eyes in confusion before she turned to see Tony sitting beside her. A small glare crossed her eyes as she opened her mouth to scold him, but it quickly diminished when he said her name in such a soft tone.

"Dasha."

She focused in as she caught his eyes once more. His dark brown eyes holding something that she didn't see before when he was teasing her. This time around it held something different.

"Dash," Tony licked his lower lip before he leaned onto the arm rest that separated them. Her eyes flickered from the arm rest to his face as if thinking what she should remove first. "We should get away for a while."

"Wasn't this a vacation?"

"No it wasn't. It would be if it was just me and you. We should go someplace where we can just…relax. Enjoy ourselves for a little while before heading back."

Dasha leaned back to avoid him hearing the pounding of her own heart. Her own feelings were betraying her as his soft tone was easily sweeping her away. Maybe it had to do with the almost death defying experienced they just encountered and her overly concern for Tony when he was attacked to have her actually consider his motives.

"I don't think so." Dasha reeled herself in before she dove into something she would regret. "We should head back and if you want to relax then you can relax at home."

Tony shook his head in defiance, "It's not the same. I don't want Pepper, Happy or JARVIS around while I relax. All I want around me is you. Can't you do that for me? I'll give you a bonus if you go with me."

The doctor gave him a deadpanned expression, "I'm not some hooker you can pay off."

"That's right." Tony grinned at the realization. "You're my girlfriend. It's your obligation to go with me."

"Why do you have to drag me everywhere? Can't you just relax by yourself?" Tony gave her a look as it clicked in her head before she scrunched up her nose in disgust. "You are fucking disgusting." Shaking her head, she turned to see that Pepper was eating the same meal that was prepared for her and luckily the red head hasn't croaked.

A warm calloused hand grasped her own, bringing her back into her senses when he laced his fingers with hers. "I don't want to be alone." Dasha wasn't sure if she heard correctly, but the sadness mixed into his voice really was pulling on her heart.

With an ounce of compassion, she squeezed his hand in comfort. "Everything is going to be okay." She didn't know why she said it, but somehow it seems to fit the situation. The tenderness in her eyes threw Tony off seeing it was the first time that she ever showed something other than irritation.

The long pause that went on between the two went unnoticed as Tony's voice settled Pepper back into her seat. "Ya know it would make me feel better if my girlfriend ate the meal I prepared for her instead of letting it sit there. You really know how to make your boyfriend feel like complete shit."

Dasha rolled her eyes as her nails grabbed a patch of his skin and squeezed harshly. Tony yelped as he whined, "What was that for?"

"For being a twit." She grumbled taking a forkful of the meal and shoving it down her throat. The cold meal met her throat and instead of cringing like she expected, it was somewhat decent for a billionaire.

"Pretty good, huh?"

Dasha ignored him as she cut off the burned pieces and placed it into a neat pile in the corner of her plate. She silently ate her meal while her right hand was still intertwined with Tony's knowing full well that he still needed that sense of comfort.

[2]

"Please take a seat my friend." Hammer grinned as he saw the large man taking a seat with watchful eyes. "Dig in. What do we have today, Jack?" His kindness seems to shine through as he coaxed the man in front of him to relax and enjoy the meal prepared for them.

"Salmon, Mr. Hammer." The waiter cautiously placed the plate down in front of the prisoner as Justin calmly started to ease into conversation. He almost chuckled when the waiter almost threw the napkin down on the man's lap.

"I always prefer dessert before my meal. I had this flown in from San Francisco." He licked his vanilla covered lips as he continued, "I have a huge sweet tooth as like you have a sweet tooth for Tony Stark." That seems to catch the tattooed man's attention. Flickers of interest pass through him.

"When you stepped into the track in front of God and everybody, I was just like…wow." His eyes widened in emphasis at how impressive he was at the cold hearted man that only had eyes set on one person and ignored everyone else on the track. "You spoke to me is what you did. And I know that you knew that I would be listening."

With all the praise that Hammer has been giving to the man, he made a quick suggestion as his hand flailed about. "I wouldn't have walked out there and just killed the guy. I think, if I may you go after his legacy. Go after the ones that he cares about more so his lover. That is what you kill. You hit him low, where it hurts and I think we will both be satisfied with the outcome. You and me are lot alike in a lot of ways. The only difference between you and I is that I have resources. I think, if I may need my resources." Hammer knew he was drawing a fine line with the man adding polite suggestions to ease the tension that seems to be building.

"Someone behind you. A benefactor. I would like to be that guy." Hammer pointed at himself with a look of interest.

With a small pause, the prisoner chuckled lightly before talking in his native tongue. Hammer nodded his head slightly before sharing his confusion as to what the man just said.

"Do you speak English? I could get a translator if you need one. I don't know if you understood what I just said." He felt like he was in a rut, after all of what he said he felt like he just wasted his breath on the guy that didn't understand a word he was saying.

"I understand." His thick Russian accent peaked as Hammer smiled in relief.

"Good. Very good indeed."