Keep You My Secret
"...What is he doing?"
Pepper Potts smiles to herself and holds her clipboard to her chest before she glances at the dark-skinned man besides her. "Hello, Rhodey. In case it isn't obvious, Mister Stark is doing his work." It's true, too; the normally slacking, if not brilliant, Tony is bent over his desk, typing information rapidly on his computer. It's the kind of focus he displays only when someone close to him or the world is in peril. Well, it's kind of true Pepper thinks, holding back a laugh.
Running a hand over his head, the airman whistles, impressed. "Man, what did you bribe him with?"
"I didn't bribe him with anything," she replies, "but if you're really curious, than you should try looking outside." Rhodey just raises an eyebrow at all the secrecy and doesn't bother looking outside. After all, they are more than a few floors off the ground. He doesn't get a chance to interrogate her further because Tony suddenly slams his hands onto his desks and stands up.
"Ha! Done, done, and done. See for yourself, dearest Pepper." Sweeping a folder off of the desk, Tony smirks. "And all my meetings are over with, so I am off the hook for the rest of the day." Striding over to his pair of friends, he hands the folder over to Rhodey. "Rhodey, perfect timing as always! Here's the computer plans I promised the airforce. Now, if you'll excuse me..." Without missing a step, he moves around him, snapping his fingers and pointing them like guns as he winks. "I have a plane to fly. Ciao." Spinning on his heels, Tony trots down the stairs, shoes clacking on the steps, looking like a kid on Christmas morning.
Rhodey glances at Pepper. She smiles. They follow, of course.
Lingering at the windows which show the front steps of Stark Industries, they watch as Tony weaves through the crowds. Rhodey can't see anything special outside; there's just the usual businessmen arguing and chatting here and there, a few random bystanders, a girl reading a book, a guy selling bouquets... For a minute, Tony almost looks like he'll stop by and get some flowers. Probably going to give the guy way too much, too Rhodey thinks with a small grin; he knows his buddy well, and Tony is almost the perfect stereotype of a rich guy, except for the brilliant intellect, the dozens of suits of super technologically made armor in his house...
But then the young woman sitting on a stone bench looks up from her book and narrows her eyes into a glare that could kill an entire hospital. Her mouth opens, and she's obviously saying something... However, being behind glass and meters away, neither Rhodey or Pepper can hear her words.
Tony, fortunately, can.
"Stark, if you forget what I've been explicitly repeating to you for twenty-four hours, then this is off and you will never see me again. I will then proceed to-"
"-destroy everything I've ever worked hard for," Tony recites perfectly, finishing his walk over to the genderbent Zexion, "including my reputation and funds." Grinning, he stops in front of her and tips her chin up with his fingers. "More or less, anyway. Don't you know how to take a joke?"
Batting his hand away with a very lady-like sniff, Zexion replies, "This situation is not at all amusing from my point of view. I'm not finding any enjoyment from it all." As she stands up, she catches Tony's smirk.
"I don't think that's what you were thinking a few nights ago," he reminds her innocently, and has the lovely honor of having his toes stomped on 'by accident'.
"I'm hungry," she says bluntly. "Shouldn't you be treating me right now?"
Resisting the urge to rub his poor foot (maybe Zexion really had been a woman in a past life?), Tony just grins and wraps his arm around her shoulders. Strangely enough, she allows herself to be tugged closer to him. "That I should."
Of course, Tony has to have his own fun. That's why, some hours later, way off in Italy and long after they've stepped off of Tony's private jet, he's guiding the beautiful 'woman' by the hand, her eyes covered with a blindfold. They stand out, Zexion with her good sense of style and him in his obviously expensive suit. Of course, this isn't the busiest place in Italy... That probably accounts for some of it as well. With her nose twitching, Zexion frowns at him. "I swear, if I get hit by a car, or some horse," she murmurs, although the sentence is left unfinished. Tony smiles to himself. For some reason, Zexion has a very good sense of smell, and this place, while dirty in some places, is overrun even to him with the smells of food baking, flowers blooming, and a kind of happiness to everything.
"It'll be fine. After all, you have your own private super hero with you."
Zexion just 'hmph's to that, but she doesn't say anything else.
At long last, they reach their destination, and Tony seats Zexion before taking off her blindfold. A part of him expects her to raise an eyebrow, at best, at the sight of the table with two wineglasses and plates already prepared. He's caught off guard when Zexion almost immediately looks to the side, eyes wide a she takes in the sight of the Italian coast-line and all its gorgeous flowers blooming amongst green grass and before its blue, blue sea. Somehow, there's a strange nostalgia, a bizarre and so-soft something, in her eyes and Tony feels his lungs go breathless. When she says something, it takes a moment for his mind to process it.
"It's beautiful."
Somehow, Tony gets his tongue to work in the time it takes for him to be seated as well. "I know. I learned about this little place from an old friend of mine from college." Picking up the bottle of wine, he adds, "I didn't expect such a reaction, to be honest."
Folding her fingers together, Zexion rests her chin on top of her knuckles, eyes still focused on the view beyond their patio. "It just reminds me of my old hometown," she says softly, simply. "There were... many gardens there."
"I'd like to see it."
Her eyes close briefly. "...I would like you to see it one day as well." For some reason, Tony finds himself smiling at the agreement.
The rest of the dinner goes perfectly, just like he had planned it. After getting over her nostalgia, Zexion is instantly back to her usual witty self, smirking and bouncing ideas back and forth with him. It takes effort to get her to talk about her home, and Zexion keeps twisting them right back around until they end up talking about Rhodey's progress, or a new Ironman suit. Eventually, Tony gives up, although not before stealing a kiss and making a mental note to badger Zexion about it all on a later date. So caught up in having those lips against his, he doesn't notice when Zexion briefly digs her fingers into the white tablecloth or when she quickly and subtly smooths it over again.
He'll never find out about the Italian paparazzi that had been hiding in the bushes and fell unconscious due to 'mysterious reasons'.
As orange-gold washes over Italy, Tony reaches over with his foot to rub against her leg. "I've been meaning to ask you, but how have you been feeling?" They both know what he's talking about.
Swirling her wine about in her glass, Zexion shrugs nonchalantly. "I have long since recovered. It was only a little bit of blood." Beneath the table, her own leg twists about his so that they're both stuck. The small little amused smile beneath her bangs meets his perfectly.
Not wasting any more time, he reaches over for one of Zexion's hands, pulling her up to her feet; liquidly, she allows them to untwine from beneath the table. "Just one more stop to make," he promises her, amused that she's still holding her wineglass. Not that he can really say he's been much better on some occasions...
"Must we rush?" Zexion asks coolly after taking a sip. "You are wasting a trip to Italy, after all." Normally, it's impossible to tell when Zexion is fibbing, but for once, Tony takes a guess based on his gut instinct. It' is just a guess, but he's thinking Zexion likes remembering this mysterious hometown of hers.
Squeezing her hand, Tony promises solemnly, "You'll like this."
Staring into his eyes, Zexion takes her sweet time answering. At last- "Well, you've done well to follow through before," she concedes, gently placing down the wineglass.
Their next stop, even if it is in the middle of the night, is nowhere near as exotic as Italy: Nebraska.
When he steps out of the small jet, decked out completely in his trademark Ironman suit, Zexion gives a suffering sigh. "Why in the world do I trust you sometimes, Tony?" she asks, eying the suit warily.
"Because I'm charming and amazing in bed?" he shoots back, and doesn't miss Zexion's fond eyeroll. "Now, hold on tight." With that word of warning given, he picks her up and takes off. "Jarvas, set a course for Codename: Eddy." It's an odd name, but Tony doesn't mind. The name doesn't matter, it's what inside that does. Zexion keeps curiously quiet the whole way through, even when they arrive at what just looks like a giant hole and Tony lowers the two of them down into its depths.There's a small wiggle in his arms, and he let's the woman grow adjusted to the dim lighting while he sets her down on her own two feet.
The place isn't very amazing; it's just a shelter in the case that a nuclear war or the like would happen. Tony has enough confidence in Zexion that she'll realize this, and when she turns a questioning gaze to him, he flips up the front of his helmet. "Follow me." Being gifted with the insatiable curiosity most scientists have, Zexion does, never too far behind. At last, they reach a solid door, and Tony finally pauses, hesitating. "I've never shown anyone else this place before," he admits, somber although he doesn't realize it. "But... My father built this old shelter to protect something. I've told you how he always seemed distant to me, right? Hell, after a while, I almost felt he didn't care. But I found this place not long ago, when a kid got lost down here and I came to see what the deal was. And, well..." He gives an almost dry smile and pushes the door open. "See for yourself."
Unlike the rest of the bunker, the room is fully lit, revealing the plethora of different colors, all the different aspects of life. At first glance, they just seem like mere photographs, nothing special save for perhaps that they're all grand events... Graduations from highschool and college, parties, unveilings... Then one realizes who the focus of all these photographs is: Tony.
"He never made it to any of those events," the Stark heir says quietly, and Zexion feels something strange stir in her lungs; her mind recalls when she had smaller hands over a thick blank book and there were smiling red eyes...
"He cared more for you then you thought," she says quietly, and then everything lapses into a gentle kind of quiet.
They leave, eventually, with thin writer's fingers entwined with strong metal ones.
Back in the jet, Zexion watches as the world beneath them passes by so slowly, thoughts and memories tumbling through her head. For some reason, words don't need to be said right now, to discuss that hidden bunker. How strange. How is it that they know each other so deeply, she wonders, especially when she is rarely honest with her past? With her 'status'?
Maybe... Before it's too late, before she's in too deep-
What is this, I didn't expect it, will just bring in trouble-
"Since you showed something to me you've never shown anyone else before," she finds herself saying, "I suppose I'll have to do likewise for you."
She has a book she needs to borrow.
