Battle Strategies | Tony Stark [1]

FIVE

After the lunch date, Athena and Tony quickly fell back into their old habits. Athena was officially Tony's lab assistant again and their professional working relationship was anything but professional, it was flirty and deemed by most as inappropriate. Things were back to normal.

Athena was in one of the many rooms in the mansion that was being used as an office but wasn't actually an office, looking for a relevant piece of paperwork that she needed. She kicked off her heels and sat down on the floor as she opened yet another box full of folders and files. She really needed to organize a day with Pepper to go through all these boxes and organize them properly. The last person to go through these boxes was Tony, who evidently shoved whatever he could into the boxes and called it a day.

Once she finished looking through the current box in front of her, Athena finally decided to consult with Tony. Maybe he did have a logic to the order of the files and folders, one that was illogical but made perfect sense to him and he would be able to locate the paperwork she needed for her.

Athena left the office that wasn't actually an office and headed down to the gym where she could hear music blaring through the speakers. In the gym, Tony and Happy were circling each other with their gloved hands held in front of them, waiting for the opportune time to strike. Athena smirked to herself as she watched them silently for a moment before she spoke.

"Tony?" She called out, causing both men to jump in surprise. Neither were aware of her presence, something Tony noticed that seemed to happen a lot since she came back. "I need help finding some paperwork in your jungle of-"

"Yeah? What?" Tony said distractedly as he dodged Happy's weak attempt at a punch. "Sorry, can't at the moment."

"It'll only take a moment for you to-"

"Only a moment?" Tony laughed, looking at her like she was crazy. "It's a mess in there. It'd hours to find anything in it."

"Maybe you should tidy it, then." Athena suggested, rolling her eyes. "Look, I really need this paperwork-"

"No, no, no. I'm not CEO, anymore. That is now Pepper's job." Tony protested, completely unwillingly to do any type of cleaning.

"I'm not yet." Pepper said from behind Athena, walking quickly into the gym as if she was on a mission. "But the notary's here! So, can you please come sign the transfer paperwork? Then I will be CEO."

Tony and Happy continued on like neither Pepper or Athena had interrupted them. Tony rapidly punched at the boxing gloves that Happy was wearing as Happy defended himself. "I'm on Happy time."

Tony ducked as Happy sent a punch at Tony, protecting his head with his gloves. And then, Tony sent his own punches back, successfully hitting Happy in the padding around his torso before protecting his face again with the gloves. Happy sent another punch in Tony's direction which Tony blocked before Tony hit Happy in the face with his elbow followed by a quick apology. "Sorry."

"What the hell was that?" Happy snapped, holding his head in shock. Athena shook her head at them, typical boys.

"It's called mixed martial arts. It's been around for three weeks." Tony replied quickly, bouncing up and down on the spot.

"It's called dirty boxing, there's nothing new about it." Happy snarled back, genuinely upset with Tony, who still was bouncing on the spot.

"All right, put them up. Come on." Tony urged, itching to continue their boxing match.

Hearing footsteps approaching the gym, Athena glanced up waiting for who she presumed would be the notary. A woman with stunning curled red hair, dressed in black trousers and a slightly too tight white shirt walked in, with a folder in hand. Athena watched in amusement as the red haired woman caught Happy's attention, like the total man he was. Seeing that Happy was distracted by something behind him, Tony looked over his shoulder to see what he was looking at. Tony looked at the attractive woman behind him and instantly without realizing it he was comparing her to Athena.