Battle Strategies | Tony Stark [1]

11

Athena wasn't sure if she were to thankful that Tony was adamantly not mentioning the huge elephant in the room, or concerned. She knew that a genius like him would no doubt have all kinds of questions that would even baffle her, but the man seemed adamant not say anything about the topic at all. All her previous attempts were cut off with him saying "no", "nope" or "sh". He was doing everything in his power to ignore the elephant and carry on working on his suit of armor. 

The more she thought about it, the more she realized that it was such a "Tony move". Pretend there was nothing wrong, and then hopefully nothing will go wrong. But that was something the other Tony would have done, the Tony who turned a blind eye to what ever havoc his weapons were creating. The Tony that left all the hard decisions to his employees and friends, the Tony who hadn't a care in the world. Slowly she came to the conclusion that perhaps Tony was actually scared of the answers he would get if he asked any questions, scared that he actually might not understand something, scared that he didn't actually know everything. Fear of the unknown. 

And that was exactly what she was, unknown. She wasn't the woman he thought her to be, her entire persona was a lie to him. He had no idea who she actually was, everything he knew about her was a lie and he didn't what was the truth anymore, and that was what was scared him. He wasn't sure anymore, he had no clear picture of her. Her image was once clear but now the image was blurred, corrupted by the truth. Truth is a dangerous thing.

Tony sighed, hundreds of thoughts racing across his mind as he attempted to work. It was distracting, he had too much to think about he couldn't concentrate. He threw the screwdriver that he was working with into a nearby tool box, and spun around in his chair to look at an exhausted Athena. He couldn't hold back the questions anymore, he couldn't handle not knowing, not having the answers. And he had to many unanswered questions that Google couldn't solve.

"Okay, I've got to ask." Tony's voice echoed through the shop, his face scrunched up as he tried to pick one of many questions that were crashing around in his head. For once he didn't know where to start, and that bothered him. Then one prominent question stuck out, it wasn't the most obvious one to start with but there was a touch of humor to it, if he voiced it in the right way. It was a little risky, and he knew he ran the risk of offending her but his mouth was moving before his brain had caught up with it. Maybe I shouldn't start with this one, yeah, okay don't - 

"Is there really that much incest or is that just the stories?"

Athena looked Tony blankly, before a small grin broke across her lips and Tony knew he was in the safe. "No but seriously? Should I be concerned?"

"You know that was perfectly normal back in the day. The Egyptians did it, it strengthened bloodlines apparently." Athena said nonchalantly, fighting the grin as Tony's contorted into a grimace. 

"Is that a yes?" He winced, the thought of it looking like it affected him greatly. 

Athena shrugged, the grin no longer hiding. "Back in the day. Not anymore, I don't think."

Tony looked more relaxed, but still looked at her concerned. "But did you..."

Athena scoffed, rolling her eyes at the man as he actually looked concerned. "You really don't know your mythology, do you?"

"Not particularly, no. Why?" Tony shrugged, no longer looking concerned but rather nonchalant. 

"The three virgin goddesses?" Athena tried, seeing if the hint rang any bells with him in amusement. 

"What about them?" Tony asked, clearly having no idea what they were actually talking about. "Wait, you're one of them?"

Athena nodded, smiling as his face paled slightly. "Me, Artemis and Hestia."