Athena pushed Tony's hands away from the keyboard, entering her own equations into the software, discarding his previous ones that she knew weren't going to work for what he wanted. Tony stood up from his seat, letting Athena take it instead as she continued to type furiously into the computer. Nodding subconsciously along with what she was typing, he reached over her shoulder for his cup of coffee, taking a large gulp before passing it off to Athena, who finished the dark liquid without much thought.
As she finished, Tony moved the prints over to the table to look at them in a holographic form. Tony stood on one side of the table, and Athena stood on the other, both studying the exploded view of holographic arm before Tony started playing around with it. Athena gestured him to spin it, which he complied to. Seeing at what she was getting at, he adds in the needed parts and then brings the arm together. Tony reached his arm over the holographic arm piece before reaching into it. Athena grinned as it fitted over his arm like a second skin.
The workbench then proceeded to become a bomb shell, as the two worked furiously on building the actual arm piece. Wires, screwdrivers and pieces of metals littered the workbench and floor as time went on, and slowly the arm piece became reality. Tony closed the arm piece over his own arm, as Athena crouched so she could tighten everything into place. "Hold still."
"I am!" Tony responded, impatiently waiting for her to carry out the task.
Neither noticed the sound of heels clicking down the stairs, as they bickered. Athena tightened the arm piece but jumped as Tony cried out. "Too tight!"
"Sorry!" Athena backtracked, loosening it a little.
"Up two. All right, set that." Tony ordered.
"Yeah, yeah. I've got it." Athena mumbled as she did as she was told. Tony looked up suddenly, and Athena realized that Pepper was in the workshop with coffee and a parcel. Athena discarded what she was doing and jumped up to greet Pepper.
"Pepper!" Athena smiled, giving the woman a hug before zoning in on the parcel. "Thank you for doing that for me, Pep."
"Oh, it was no trouble." Pepper smiled, as Athena took the parcel excitedly, along with the coffee. As Athena grabbed a piece of scrap paper to write on, Pepper spoke to Tony.
"I've been buzzing you. Did you hear the intercom?"
"Yeah, everything's... What?" Tony looked up, distractedly. He was still fiddling with the arm piece that Athena had abandoned earlier.
"Obadiah's upstairs." Pepper announced.
"Great!" Both Athena and Tony said, though Athena said it entirely sarcastically.
"What would you like me to tell him?"
"Great. I'll be right up." Tony replied, lifting his arm with the arm piece. "And so will Athena."
Athena narrowed her eyes at him, placing the paper she was writing on onto the parcel. Tony knew she didn't particularly enjoy Obadiah's company.
"Okay." Tony breathed before opening his hand to reveal a flight stabilizer.
"I thought you said you were done making weapons." Pepper asked him, innocently while she walked closer to observe.
"It is. This is a flight stabilizer. It's completely harmless." Tony claimed, before hitting a button to activate the flight stabilizer, resulting with him flying backwards into the wall behind him. Athena giggled as Pepper gasped in shock. Tony groaned. "I didn't expect that."
Athena giggles turned into a laugh as she helped Tony of the ground, brushing dust from his hair. "Let's not keep Obadiah waiting any longer."
After taking the arm piece from his arm, Tony and Athena followed Pepper up the stairs to meet Obadiah. The piano was finally getting some love, as Obadiah played a piece of music. Tony blinked slightly surprised at the sound of the piano before speaking to his fatherly figure. "How'd it go?"
Obadiah glanced up from the piano to look at Tony, who had wandered over to the coffee table where a pizza box lay but didn't say anything, which Tony took as something bad. "It went that bad, huh?"
"Just because I brought pizza back from New York- doesn't mean it went bad." Obadiah claimed, never pausing in his playing.
"Sure doesn't." Tony opened the pizza box as Athena sat down on the couch beside him, taking a slice of pizza for herself. "Oh, boy."
"It would have gone better if you were there." Obadiah stated, pausing.
Tony made a noise of disagreement. "You told me to lay low. That's what I've been doing. I lay low, and you take care of all..."
"Hey, come on. In public. The press." Obadiah moved from the piano, taking his drink with him and sat down beside Tony on the steps up to the piano. "This was a board of directors meeting."
"This was a board of directors meeting?" Tony asked him, surprised. Athena sighed, and finished her slice of pizza.
"The board is claiming you have post traumatic stress." Obadiah explained to him. "They're filing an injunction."
"A what?" Tony asked him in shock.
"They want to lock you out." Obadiah continued, looking sympathetic.
"Why, 'cause the stocks dipped 40 points? We knew that was gonna happen." Tony argued.
"Fifty-six and a half." Pepper piped in, looking away from her laptop screen briefly.
"It doesn't matter. We own the controlling interest in the company." Tony snapped at Pepper, before looking at Athena for help. "Back me up, Athena."
"I dunno, Tony..." Athena looked at him helplessly.
"Tony, the board has rights, too. They're making the case that you and your new direction isn't in the company's best interest." Obadiah told him.
"I'm being responsible! That's a new direction for me, for the company." Tony stumbled, not meaning to say himself. Obadiah looked at him in amusement as he continued floundering over his words. "I mean, me on the company's behalf being responsible for the way that... This is great."
With the last three words, Tony suddenly got up and brought the pizza box with him in the direction of the workshop.
"Oh, come on. Tony." Obadiah called out after him.
"Tony." Athena called out to him as he walked bristly away.
"I'll be in the shop. Athena come on!" Tony ordered.
"Hey, hey! Hey, Tony. Listen." Obadiah hurried after him, grabbing his shoulder to stop him. "I'm trying to turn this thing around, but you gotta give me something. Something to pitch them." Obadiah gestured to his chest. "Let me have the engineers analyze that. You know, draw up some specs."
"No. No, absolutely not." Tony protested.
"It'll give me a bone to throw the boys in New York!"
"This one stays with me."
"That's it, Obie. Forget it."
"All right, well, this stays with me, then." Obadiah took the pizza box from Tony, before opening it. "Go on, here, you can have a piece. Take two."
"Thank you." Tony took two. "Come on, Athena!"
"You mind if I come down there and see what you two are doing?" Obadiah asked him, as Tony descended the stairs.
"Good night, Obie."
Athena sighed and brushed the invisible crumbs from her lap, before groaning as her phone went off. Taking the phone from her pocket, she glared at the familiar number that had been calling her constantly in the last few days. "Agent Coulson?"
"Athena." Coulson greeted back. "I've been hoping we could talk."
Athena looked around her, noticing Obadiah's curious look. "Now?"
"No, perhaps in a few days time." He answered. "We have a few interesting things to discuss."
"Fine." Was all Athena said before she hung up.
"In trouble?" Obadiah asked her, his eyes studying her.
"I can't imagine so." Athena replied stiffly, before descending the stairs to the workshop. Tapping the password, she headed straight for Tony. "You need to sleep tonight. I am not letting you stay up this time."
Tony glanced up lazily at her. "You okay? You seem stressed."
"Tony, you have been working obsessively. You're body needs to sleep." Athena argued, ignoring his question.
"Hey, there's two of us in this." Tony stood up, crossing his arms. "You're not innocent in the sleep department either."
I don't need as much sleep as you though.
"Well, then. I have a solution. We both go to sleep." Athena snapped her, her patience suddenly disappearing.
"Okay, okay. Hold up!" Tony gripped her shoulders. "Something is bothering you. Talk now."
"There's nothing to talk about!" Athena snapped.
"Clearly there is." Tony argued, rolling his eyes. "What? Did I do something?"
"Other than not sleep?" Athena snarled, her eyes narrowing.
"Oh, no!" Tony took a step back, his own eyes narrowing. "This has nothing to do with me not sleeping. This is about you. Is it your brother? Is he bothering you?"
"No!" Athena screeched at him.
"Then what is it!" Tony yelled back at her.
"I'm going to bed!" Athena yelled back at him, but didn't get anywhere as Tony grabbed her arm, pulling her back.
"Not until you tell me what's wrong." Tony said softly.
Athena took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "I feel like something bad is about to happen."
"Nothing bad is going to happen to you. Trust me." Tony cupped her cheeks, Athena's eyes subconsciously closing at the action.
"It's not me I'm worried about." She whispered, her eyes slowly opening to meet his mocha brown colored ones. Tony said nothing, only pressing his lips against her forehead.
"Trust me, nothing bad is going to happen."