Lab Below Stark Industries, Friday Morning

[imafuturist]

It was safe to say that Tony too had not noticed anything strange today. Mostly because he rarely used a filter when working with JARVIS and had been working since the night prior with only a few coffee breaks.

On one hand, he was getting closer to finding where HYDRA currently was, but on the other.... sleep deprivation.

Choices, choices.

He took a sip of lukewarm coffee and fiddled with the code on a bot he'd designed to watch the traffic cameras in Queens. For the tenth time that hour.

Yeah.

[open for anyone lookin' for him!]

Comments

[fjordicswagger]

"It's not like I date," Tamsin said, rolling her eyes at him. "Don't be weird."

[imafuturist]

"Well, I do date," Tony replied. "And friends with benefits only works if no one gets hurt by it."

[fjordicswagger]

"Are you wingmanning for Jessica?" Tamsin asked, squinting at him. "I feel like I should be flattered, but I'm not actually a huge font of self-esteem."

Ugh. More drinks.

[imafuturist]

That explained so much about Tony's friendship with her! Like called to like.

"Yeah," Tony replied as he fiddled with the label of the bottle. "I'm preventing myself from hugging you because I don't need a black eye.

[fjordicswagger]

"Good thought," Tamsin said, nodding. "Even though now I kind of want a hug."

Uuuugh.

[imafuturist]

Now Tony had to go and wander closer like that hug was imminent. "Are you going to punch me?"

[fjordicswagger]

"I'm going to say yes, but I'll mean no if it doesn't last longer than twenty seconds," Tamsin said irritably.

[imafuturist]

"Understandable," Tony said cheerfully, with all the memory of his childhood to back him up as the truth.

So it was a brief hug, the no less meaningful.

[fjordicswagger]

Tamsin sat there grudgingly and took it. (She was glad to get it. She was incredibly irritated about it anyway.)

"Right, okay, done," she said, shifting away from his grabby arms as soon as he was leaving, too.

[imafuturist]

"I am going to ask you about this again on a day you can lie," Tony informed her, hopping up onto a work table to take another sip of whatever cheap booze he had.

[fjordicswagger]

"I appreciate it," Tamsin said, sipping her perfectly middle-of-the-road vodka, thank you. "Ugh. I hate this day. So much."

[imafuturist]

Former billionaire. Cheap was a relative term.

"It's pretty bad," he agreed. "Relationship ruining honesty is not something I want to deal with regularly."

[fjordicswagger]

"You even have relationships?" Tamsin said.

Hey, she didn't pay that much attention.

[imafuturist]

"Are you sure you're not from where I'm from?" he asked with a smile bordering on strained.

And it was avoiding a question! Followed by drinking to continue avoiding it by muttering into the bottle.

[fjordicswagger]

Tamsin shrugged. "No, I'm getting a superhero vibe off of you, and my world is more supernatural crap all over the place."

[imafuturist]

"Yeah, I try not to deal with magic when I can, but it's sort of becoming a thing because I can't get a message to Thor across the Bifrost. Which really is pretty, by the way," Tony rambled a bit helplessly to make up for sidestepping things before. "I don't know why I downplayed it to Steve. It's a bridge to other dimensions that's made out of rainbows and breaks the laws of physics. I just want to study it for a month."

[fjordicswagger]

"Did you just say Bifrost?" Tamsin said, squinting at him.

[imafuturist]

"Yeah," Tony replied. "Strange thinks it's locked up tight for some reason and went on about forces man wasn't meant to know when I asked him to push."

Look, his life was perfectly normal for this island.

[fjordicswagger]

"Huh," Tamsin said, sinking further back in her seat. "Wonder if Freya knows anything about that." Beat. "Not that I'd be able to find out."

[imafuturist]

"You know Freya?"

He'd feel bad about interrogating her like this soon enough.

[fjordicswagger]

"She... may have been my boss," Tamsin said, rubbing at the skin behind her ear. "At one point and ugh, do not use this power for evil, Stark."

[imafuturist]

"Right. Sorry." He was the worst at this now that the knowledge was there. "But not the same universe, so whatever you'd know might not even apply."

He rubbed at bridge of his nose to keep distracted. "Say something else so I can stop this."

[fjordicswagger]

Tamsin tilted her head. "You think Jessica likes me?"

Beat.

"Okay, I need to get better at improvising."

[imafuturist]

"Yes, I think she likes you," Tony said, so glad to be a topic not about his shit show of a life!

[fjordicswagger]

"Okay," Tamsin said.

A beat.

"Maybe I should just staple both of our mouths shut."