FENRIR ※ Tony Stark [2]

14 - STING

"Trust me, I know the kid. As long as you don't make a fuss about it, he'll drop it soon enough."

Angie contemplated him for a few seconds, wondering if she was paranoid or if Tony was much too reckless. Either way, there wasn't much she could do now.

"Who is he really?" she finally asked, pursing her lips.

"Peter? He's a... well he's a pretty special kid."

"I figured," she quipped with a small smirk "Didn't peg you as a baby sitter."

"I haven't told you what he's special for," Tony remarked.

"No, but I can imagine. He fended me off earlier... No wonder you're keeping him around."

Tony chuckled "Don't let this hurt your ego. You haven't seen him shooting webs yet."

Angie gave him a very puzzled look, making Tony laugh loudly. He then spent the next twenty minutes giving her a quick exposé on Peter Parker: from an average high school kid who got bitten by a radioactive spider to getting recruited as an honorary Avenger. He even told her about the fight at the airport and the whole debacle with the Vulture.

At the end of it, Angie was glaring at Tony with a perplexed but amused look. She didn't say much and her lack of response after his detailed account was slightly surprising.

"Why are you looking at me like this?"

"No reason," she smiled "You surprise me, that's all."

"How so?"

"You took that kid under your wing when he had nobody. That's pretty noble of you."

Tony simply shrugged "I didn't do much. He's a great kid."

Angie could tell he was just being modest — which was not a common occurrence for Tony Stark. It was clear mentoring Peter meant much more to him that he let on.

"Still," she shrugged with a soft smile "I never took you for the mentor type, but it definitely suits you."

⁂

"Cause I shoot to thrill, and I'm ready to kill, and I can't get enough, and I can't get my thrill..."

Angie's foot tapped along the rhythm of the AC/DC song blasting through the speakers. Tony had the habit of playing his music at a deafening volume but after a while, she developed a certain appreciation for the ruckus of old rock bands.

She had spent most of the afternoon in Tony's lab and her traits hadn't relaxed since she started working on the little device laid out on the workshop table. It was a project they had talked about for a long time and although it was slightly ambitious to take it on herself, she was determined to make some progress on her own.

The project in question had to do with her infamous arm band — her Gecko, made by Tony himself — the device that gave her full control over her shapeshifting powers. Tony had always wanted to make it more practical. The plan was to turn it into a chip that she could implant directly under her skin rather than having it around her arm. Although the device had lasted Angie four whole years with minimal damage, the idea had quickly peaked her interest.

She was no expert in biotechnology but necessity had made her slightly less novice in the field. She had spent a long time on Xandar, one of the most technologically advanced planets in the universe, scraping by alongside several engineers and mechanics — she was bound to pick up a thing or two.

Tony was on the other side of the lab, putting the finishing touches on his latest suit. They hadn't talked much — not that it was possible to hear anything over the blaring music — but exchanged glances every now and then. It was nice to feel so at ease around him again.