tampered | Log; Completed

Log; Completed

When; Friday evening (06/13)
Rating; PG-13
Characters; Toshiko Sato

warped_inside and Tony Stark

morethanasuit
Summary; An evening out
Log;

After a week of being cooped up in the hospital and then the flat, Tosh was more than ready to get out. The fact that getting out involved dinner with Tony only made it that much more gratifying. She'd left word with her flatmates, made sure she was wearing something flattering (and the earrings he'd given her) and hurried out to meet him at the designated time, at Angelo Amore.

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"You would think aliens would learn after all those failed attempts, wouldn't you?" Tony asked. "Or I guess it just makes them that much more insistent."

"Maybe just say they're a gang of punks with a motif?" Tony quipped. "You could send some of your own people running around with fish heads. I'm thinking... angel fish for you."

"Except that apparently they don't share information very well," Tosh pointed out. "There does come a point when it would be nice to just be able to say 'look, stop already, all right?' But we haven't got to that place just yet."

She laughed, and blushed a little, at Tony's joke. "We have an extensive list of explanations we utilize, although we hadn't thought of going around impersonating the aliens as a way to throw people off. Not sure angel fish is entirely appropriate for me, but since I appreciate the compliment, I won't make you pick another."

"Well, they certainly communicate in ours. I think mostly we just pissed them off and now its a matter of honor for them to come after us," he admitted.

"You could hire a group to do just that," he suggested. "A clean up crew just to make all that sort of thing look like f

"And put me out of a job?" Tosh exclaimed, laughing again. "Hiding the bodies is part of my job description, don't go giving it away to someone else."

She said it jokingly, but it was true literally as well as figuratively. "One of the things I'm responsible for is making sure all the appropriate misinformation gets to the right people. I can be quite creative with it."

Tony raised an eyebrow. Hiding bodies? That was pretty impressive. They had whole divisions in SHIELD devoted to that. Just one person must have a lot to do.

"What's one of your more creative solutions to it?" Tony asked.

Tosh picked up her glass and settled thoughtfully back in her chair for a moment. "Well, there was one time we actually used the body of an assassin we'd captured to get us inside a secret laboratory compound. I'm rather proud of that one. Disposed of the body and got us past a guarded checkpoint all in one go."

"Aliens and assassins?" Tony asked, leaning forward and looking even more interested. "Covert infiltration? Please tell me you put on one of those tight, all black leather outfits and that there are pictures available?"

"Tony!" Tosh rolled her eyes at the bit about the leather outfit, but she was smiling. "I wore the same thing I always were in the field, jeans and a leather coat. No, I don't own a tight black leather outfit and no, there aren't any pictures. That's something Martha'd carry off a lot better, anyway."

"Oh I know know about that," he said with a broad smile. "I think I'd need to see you in one though to make any accurate sort of observation. Maybe you should get one. When's your birthday?"

"Afraid you've got a while yet, it's not until September. But isn't that really more of something that suits your birthday," she added teasingly.

"August," Tony said, his eyes lighting up as he gave her a wink. "And I know a great tailor of that's what you're planning on getting me. It would be a very thoughtful present too."

Tosh glanced away for a second, blushing. She could imagine Gwen doing something like that, for Rhys. But her?

Well, maybe being in the City was good excuse to occasionally do something a little bit mad, that no one would ever expect of her. That was the whole point of what everyone kept telling her to do, getting out and enjoying new experiences now that she had the chance.

"We'll see," she demurred, looking sideways up at Tony, and then laughing. "You're going to be a bad influence on me, I can tell."

Tony really liked that particular smile and blush on Toshiko. For some reason he enjoyed making women blush. Tosh did it particularly well though. He bet there was a lot of things like leather body suits that she hadn't done that he'd love to get her to do.

"Well, that depends on what consider bad," Tony replied. "You might find you like it."

"Oh, anything you'd put into the category of 'things I shouldn't tell my mother'," Tosh laughed. "But I'm not saying I mind very much, either."

Which she didn't. The last four years had been full of experiences she'd never imagined, and Tosh figured there was no reason to stop now.

Tony pursed his lips in thought at that answer. Never knowing a mother he never really knew how to qualify that. The closest thing he had mas maybe Peter's Aunt May and he definitely wouldn't tell her about anything like that.

"Well I'm glad you don't mind too much," Tony said with a smile. "And if your mother ever comes I promise my lips are sealed."

"I hope my mum never winds up here," Tosh said softly, looking away for just a second. The remark reminded her of how fleeting her time in the City might be, how very possible it was that Tony could be whisked back to his own home at any moment.

Then she looked back and smiled at him. "She wouldn't approve of you at all, except that she'd probably be enough over the moon that I have a social life that she'd overlook it. Although it does remind me that I really don't know enough about you. I'll have to find a way to get you to talk more about where you come from."

Tony noticed the flash of... something in Tosh's face but didn't press the issue. He wasn't very good at handling those types of things on a personal level.

"You know, I've always found myself very responsive to questions," he told her.

Tosh wasn't about to go any deeper into what was behind that flash anyway, not right now. She was more interested in enjoying the evening, and frankly in finding out more about Tony.

"All right, um...tell me about someone from home. A friend or, someone interesting. You can tell a lot about a person by their friends."

Tony hesitated for a moment, trying to think just which of the people he worked with he would consider friends. There was Happy... but he wasn't ready to talk about how he had killed his longest friend... and Pepper was out by extension.

"I have a friend named Jim Rhodes," Tony said, smiling a bit as he thought back on Rhodes. "We've been through a lot and no matter how many times we fight he's always there for me. Usually when I don't even deserve it."

"Bet he thinks you deserve it, even if you don't," Tosh remarked, leaning her chin on her hand and listening with interest. She liked that little smile on Tony's face, liked seeing the look in his eyes when he was thinking on something that made him happy.

"Sounds like a wonderful friend to have. Do you miss him?"

Tony gave her a skeptical look. Sometimes he wondered if Rhodes didn't help him because that was the kind of guy he was and not because Tony was worth the help in the end.

"I do, although I've been so busy at home lately that I don't have a lot of time for him. Or anyone else, really."

Tosh would have understood exactly how that felt, if she'd known Tony's thoughts. She certainly understood what it was like for work to get in the way of everything else, and she reached across the table for his hand.

"Good that you're here and have time for a bit of a holiday then, huh?"

He chuckled and squeezed her hand, thankful for her comfort. It was nice to have someone offer it, even if they might not had they known everything that he'd done.

"I would be much better if I didn't have so much back home to worry about," he said. "But I have to say, the company here is wonderful."

If Tony believed that about Tosh, then he didn't know her quite well enough yet.

"Well, if the time theory I hear batted about it correct, you don't need to worry, because it'll all be there when you get back. Almost a perfect sort of arrangement, isn't it?" She smiled warmly at his compliment. "I have to agree, there are some pretty amazing people here."

"Hopefully that's true but even a day away could mean disaster," he said. While a whole day might not be true he did feel like things were hanging on by a thread at him and he was the only one sometimes who really knew which thread needed to be saved.

"But since I'm doing all I can to get back then I'll enjoy all the pleasantries this place has to offer."

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