[1] Lions Inside | Tony Stark

twelve

[Jade]

Jade turned another page in her book as Tony continued to train boxing with Happy. She couldn't exactly blame him for doing some hand-to-hand fighting since otherwise, he couldn't do much in a fight, which was shown when Ryder decided to strike.

Tony suddenly elbows Happy in the face, making Jade let out a laugh at his surprised face. "What the hell was that?"

"It's called mixed martial arts. It's been around for," Tony went quiet for a moment, thinking about it, "the weeks."

Though Happy didn't want to believe him. "It's called dirty boxing, there's nothing new about it."

Jade cod hear footsteps approaching and since it couldn't be Tony, Pepper or Happy, she quickly transformed herself into a dog.

Her book fell to the ground with a small 'thud' and she jumped down to put it on the table instead, not wanting it to get ruined.

A beautiful woman walked through the door, drawing the attention of both Tony and Happy. Tony shot a worried look towards Jade, the relief evident on his face when he saw that she was a dog.

Happy tried to get Tony to continue the training, but he kicked Happy and sent him crashing into the corner of the ring, ending the fight. "That's it, I'm done. What's your name lady?"

"Rushman. Natalie Rushman." The woman informed them.

Tony convinced her to come into the ring and get a lesson with Happy. Jade sat down on the floor beside Tony as he sat down in the chair beside Pepper.

They bicker about Tony wanting her as an assistant before he asked how to spell Natalie's name and started googling her on the screen in the glass table. Googling was a fairly new term for Jade, but Tony taught it to her while giving her a quick run-through of everything important in the last century.

They kept talking about her and Jade noticed that Natalie was looking over instead of paying attention to Happy.

He swung at Natalie to get her attention, but instead of hitting her she grabbed his arm. She proceeded to put her legs around his neck and made him fall down to the floor.

Pepper became very startled and let out an 'oh my God' while Jade let out a bark in surprise.

Tony called it a 'TKO' and Natalie left soon after getting Tony's fingerprints.

He turned to Pepper before saying, "I want one."

She only gave him a firm look. "No. Besides you've got one over there." She said, nodding her head towards a now human Jade.

Tony waved his hand at her. "She's not the same thing."

Jade scoffed at him, making him turn towards her. "What, just because I'm not a model and I don't speak Latin?"

"No, because I think of you as one of my very few friends. And besides, you don't need to be a model to look pretty." For a moment, Jade was aback by -what she guessed- was a rare compliment.

"But if you want some of this," he said, using his hand to gesture his body, "you're gonna have to wait a while. I'm saving it for a special time."

Jade shook her head at him as she picked up her book to check so that the pages weren't folded, frowning when she found that one was.

"Well, you're going to have to wait longer than what you've planned because I don't want any of that."

Tony gave a smug smile towards Happy and Pepper as he spoke. "She's in denial, eventually she'll want a piece of Stark."