ext_222752 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
theredreaper.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
tampered2008-08-20 12:31 am
theredreaper.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2008-08-20 12:31 am
Log; Complete
When; August 20th, Evening
Rating; PG-13
Characters; Tony Stark (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
morethanasuit) and Catrina Arthur (theredreaper)
Summary; Cat promised she'd let Tony teach her formal dancing...
Log;
Cat felt a little insecure and reluctant as she made her way to Tony's apartment. It had been days since they'd last seen each other, though they'd spoken on the network, and the last time had been when they'd, well. Had sex.
She pushed the memories of that aside, firmly reminding herself that they weren't going to do that again. She wasn't sure how to feel about seeing him again, now, but she had agreed to let him teach her how to dance and while it hadn't been an explicit promise, she wouldn't go back on her word.
Before she knew it, she found herself at his front door and, after a short pause and hesitation, she knocked.
Tony was glad that Cat had agreed to come over and let him teach her to dance more formally. He wouldn't have pressed her if she had declined, but he was glad that she didn't. Especially since she needed to get out and do something that wasn't work, sparring, or drinking. Tony recognized those signs and knew what they meant and it was not good.
The door slid open and he smiled at her. She looked good. Really good. He couldn't help but remember just what she looked like without any clothes on at all, the feel of her body pressed against his and her lips kissing him...
Tony realized this might be harder than he thought.
"I'm glad you came, Cat," he told her, which was the truth. Despite how awkward things might get, he was glad to see her.
Cat walked into the apartment, looking around. She hadn't really paid attention to any details the last time she'd been there, after the curse when-- Why did every thought lately lead back to Tony and her and sex?
"Yeah. Hi Tony." She mustered up a small smile. Despite her reluctance to come, she was happy to see him. Did she really have to punish herself for sleeping with him? They were both adults, surely they'd manage.
And besides, formal dancing was something that interested her and learning it certainly wouldn't hurt.
He was thankful for the small smile, it made him feel a bit better about the whole thing. He was sure that eventually any of the weirdness they felt over having slept together would completely vanish. They just had to give it time and get familiar with each others company again.
"Look, before we get started there's something I wanted you to know," Tony told her. It was something he had been thinking about for a while now, about telling Cat, and he trusted her enough that he wanted her to know.
Cat tilted her head, studying him. She tried to figure out what he could possibly want to tell her, but while she didn't exactly come up blank, the possibilities her mind was providing her with were not things she would really allow herself to contemplate.
"What is it?"
"It's probably better if I just show you," Tony confessed. Okay, it probably wouldn't have been just as easy to explain it but a small part of Tony just wanted an excuse to strip in front of Cat.
"Just... trust me and don't freak out okay?" he asked, even has he started to pull his shirt off over his head. Already the golden undersheath was coming over his skin from the hollow of his bones, coating over him like a second skin.
Cat frowned, licking her suddenly dry lips and fighting the urge to stare at Tony's chest. She couldn't really help it, though, remembering the feel of it under her fingers, the warmth of his skin and the hard planes of muscle under it.
And then he asked her not to freak out. In Cat's experience, that kind of request usually wasn't good news. It meant whatever was about to come would most likely make her want to freak out.
And did she trust Tony? That was a question she couldn't just answer immediately. Nevertheless, she nodded - albeit a bit warily. "Okay."
When Tony's clothes were completely stripped off and he was just in the undersheath he gave her a bit of a mischievous smile. A single mental command and the armor that had been in the back room suddenly flew forward and snapped in place. One second Tony Stark had been standing there and the next he was Iron Man.
"Surprise."
Cat blinked and then slowly dropped the defensive stance she'd adopted when things had suddenly come flying towards them. "But," she said and then stopped because she had no idea how to continue that sentence, her mind drawing a blank.
She stared at Iron Man, eyes wide. "Tony?"
The frown crept back onto her features. "But I've seen the two of you at the same time," she uttered. This didn't make any sense.
Alright, Tony was enjoying this just a bit too much. He liked putting Cat off balance because... well probably because he was flirting with her a bit. Plus, she was so uptight most of the time.
"I can operate it remotely," he told her. To back up his words, the armor came off of him again and reassembled into the full suit next to him. It raised a hand and waved to her.
If anything, her frown deepened. She slowly walked around the armor and, after a moment of hesitation and a quick glance towards Tony, put one hand on it. The metal was cold under her hands. "How does it work?" she inquired.
"I told you how my DNA was rewritten?" he said. "It was rewritten to be more compatible with the armor. My old version had all the computer systems on board. Now... I am the computer systems. It links directly to my brain so it moves by thought and all the things it sees and experiences I do too."
It was hard to explain to someone just how being in two places at once worked, but that was as close to describing it as he could do. The armor was a really, really, high tech remote control toy, so to speak.
"You're a computer system?" Cat latched onto that part, her voice carrying a slightly hysterical edge as her mind provided images she didn't much like. She'd never drawn blood, had she? Did he have blood? Was he even human? Had she slept with a robot?
She had to take a deep breath and remind herself that it wasn't what someone was but their actions that made them good or bad. Tony was still the same guy he'd been before.
Only he was someone else, too.
"Well, it's a little more complex than that," Tony said. The way Cat had said it was almost... well, it wasn't a compliment.
"The human brain is really just a very sophisticated computer anyways," he explained. "It runs on electronic impulses the same as a processor. I've just had the way my brain works tweaked just a bit so that it can directly interface with electronics. I'm still flesh and blood, I promise."
Cat had to admit that she was out of her depth here. She didn't really know anything about neurology or the way a brain worked and could be.. tweaked.
For a moment, Cat thought about taking out one of her knives and making sure he was really saying the truth. The wounds would heal quickly... She left her all of her knives where they were, taking his word for it and nodding slightly. "Okay," she said again, though she still couldn't really wrap her mind around it.
"You don't really believe me," Tony said. "Or at least you're not really sure."
Tony couldn't really blame her, at least not much. Of course, with the fact that she wasn't exactly a normal human herself he thought maybe she would grant him a bit of a benefit of the doubt.
"Would it help if I proved it to you?" he asked.
"I.." Cat blushed a little, feeling bad for her lack of trust in him. After all, he'd proven his trust by telling - showing - her about his second identity as Iron Man.Still, she couldn't change her own paranoia and she'd rather know for certain. It was always safer that way.
"Would you?" She finally asked.
Tony refused to let his disappointment at her lack of trust show on her face. For a moment he almost said that he wouldn't, but he couldn't bring himself to be that cruel. Besides, it wouldn't really take much to show her. And it's not like he hadn't been through worse.
"Here, watch," he said, holding his hand out. The Iron Man armor raised its own hand out palm forward and there was a brief flash of light. Tony grunted at the pain, because where his hand was a moment ago was nothing but bone and tendon. Already though his body was repairing itself as first muscle and blood and then eventually skin formed.
"Human all the way down to the bone," he quipped to her.
"Oh God, Tony!" In a flash of movement too fast for the human eye, Cat was by Tony's side, one hand coming to rest on his arm, well over the injured part. She watched his hand repair itself with wide eyes, her desire for a proof completely forgotten as worry and guilt took over.
"I didn't mean," she started, running her fingers softly over the back of his hand once he had a hand again, touching each of his fingers, but without exerting any pressure. She'd thought he would maybe cut his palm, spare a couple drops of blood. Not this. "Are you okay?"
Tony couldn't deny that Cat's concern was nice to see. He also couldn't deny that he had partly done something so extreme to try and make her feel a little guilty. He had never once asked her about her abilities and accepted her without question so it stung a bit that she hadn't done the same. It was petty but... he never said he wasn't above such things.
"I'm fine," he told her, smiling and wiggling his fingers in proof. "One of the serial killers a while back dissolved me in acid down to nothing but my skeleton, so this was nothing."
"But it hurt you," Cat immediately protested, not letting go of his hand just yet. She didn't mind hurting him while sparring, that was just a part of it, even though she did try not to cause any serious injury to him, but this just felt.. wrong. Worse, somehow, than if she'd inflicted the injury herself.
Her hold on his hand tightened when he mentioned what had happened to him, her jaw setting into hard and angry lines - angry at the serial killer, angry at herself that she had let it come to this just now, angry that she hadn't been around to protect him. It seemed stupid, wanting to protect him, wanting to make sure he was safe and unhurt, especially now that he'd just shown her that he was Iron Man and perfectly capable of protecting himself, but there it was. And the fact that he could just bounce back from any kind of injury didn't really help, either.
Tony noticed the set of her jaw at his words and that she didn't let go of his hand. He didn't know if she was mad at him for his stupid little stunt a moment ago or mad at something or someone else for one of the things he had mentioned.
"Not as bad as you'd think," he said, which wasn't entirely a lie since it was still pretty painful. "Nerve endings weren't even there for part of it. But I didn't want you have to doubt at all. Not that what you just saw as all that natural of course but I'm not some cyborg or anything like that."
"Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt left at all, now," she uttered darkly and then immediately felt bad again. Dropping her gaze, she took a step back, then another one, reluctantly letting go of his hand as well.
"I didn't mean for you to prove it in... that way, but.. Thanks, Tony. For doing it at all." She swallowed, closing her eyes for a second. "And for telling me."
She still wasn't sure what to make of the fact that he was Iron Man as well as Tony Stark, but for now, that conflict had been pushed to the back of her mind.
"You're welcome," he said, deciding it was best to just drop the subject of him blasting his hand to nothing. "You're a close friend and I just... learned a long time ago that it's better to share a secret like that with someone close to you than keep trying to hide it. Of course, the fact that I don't have to rush off to change into the armor at random times makes things easier."
His words, his calling her a close friend reminded her that she actually did have friends in the City. It wasn't something that had happened very often before and she had to smile a little. She couldn't deny her attraction to Tony - though she could try - but that angle couldn't lead anywhere. She couldn't let it. His friendship, though, was something she could enjoy. The thought filled her with warmth.
"I probably wouldn't have taken very well to discovering it randomly." She wasn't sure she ever would have, but with the City and curses, one never knew.
"So, that's the big secret," he said as he began to get dressed again. As he did the armor headed out the back room, where it would go back into his briefcase while it wasn't needed at the moment. If it was needed, he would send it out remotely. He wanted to stay here with Cat.
"I'm sorry if I just destroyed the carefree, billionaire playboy image you might have had of me by revealing that I'm also a superhero."
Cat watched Tony get dressed, her frown disappearing. "I never really thought of you as a carefree billionaire playboy," she admitted. There'd be flashes of that persona, but overall, he'd been too focused, too honest. At least she hoped what she saw as honesty was real.
So he was a superhero? Like in the movies? That would take some getting used to.
"So... What, exactly can you do?"
"Honestly? The same as I told you I did before," Tony explained. Of course, in his world, his identity wasn't a secret, so that changed things a bit.
"I'm the Director of SHIELD, the... military branch of the United Nations. The only difference is that I'm a bit more hands on involved in some of the operations."
Cat nodded to that, combining the knowledge of what he could do with what she'd seen Iron Man do on the job. It was weird to think that all the time she'd worked with Iron Man - which hadn't been all that often, granted - it had been Tony behind it all.
She rubbed a hand over her face. "You don't happen to have any Gin & Tonic, do you?"
"Yes, but you don't need it," Tony told her. Harsh, but he wasn't letting her take the easy way out, even if it was a placebo affect. "You'll have enough to think about when we start dancing anyways. This is what you'll be learning."
He nodded to a section of the wall and dimmed the lights a bit, the wall suddenly lighting up and showing a video of two people dancing.
"It's called the chacha."
Cat played with the thought of talking him into letting her have a Gin & Tonic, but in the end decided against it. Wasn't like she needed it, after all.
When the video came on - and his remote control of all things suddenly made so much more sense - she watched closely, fingers already tapping to the beat against her thigh. She could probably imitate the way they moved easily, she thought. Chacha, okay. She'd heard of that one before, too.
"Okay, so how do I do this?" she asked, moving to stand in front of Tony, but with ample space between them.
Tony didn't think anything of the space between them. Or at least, he tried not to. It was one of the reasons he had chosen the chacha, the dance could be done with a relative amount of space between you and your partner without things being awkward.
"We'll start really basic," Tony assured her, reaching out to put his right hand on her back, just under the shoulder blade and taking her hand in his other one. "Just a few basic steps."
Cat copied the pose she'd seen in the video, putting one hand on his shoulder and stepping a bit closer - not close enough for the space between them to diminish much, but closer nonetheless.
"That's probably a good idea. Starting basic." She nodded. How had they done it in the video? She looked at Tony, waiting for him to explain it to her, even though she had to admit she didn't like having to be taught. Usually, it was her who explained moves to other people - soldiers, FBI agents and so on. But she'd have to accept the limitations of her own knowledge here.
"Okay," Tony began. "So first you're going to step back, putting your weight to the foot in the back..."
For the next while Tony led her through the basic steps of the chacha. Nothing too fancy or elaborate but enough that they would be able to build on what she knew later. Also, concentrating on teaching and learning allowed them, or at least Tony, to get reacquainted with having her relatively close to him without feeling awkward. It was a nice feeling.
"You're picking this up very quickly," he told her when they finally stopped for a break.
Cat did as he said, but especially at the beginning, she had trouble following his lead. It wasn't the steps, those were simple enough and came easy to her, but giving up control and handing it over to Tony, that was a different matter altogether. Still, as they continued she grew more relaxed, trusting that Tony knew what he was doing. It was a weird feeling, letting someone take over and control her movements like that, with just a lifting of the wrist or a bit of pressure on her back, but once she'd gotten used to it, she came to like it.
Cat pushed a strand of hair that had fallen from her braid back behind the ear. "It's not hard to move like that," she shrugged, pointing at the wall where the video had been.
"No, it's not really," Tony admitted. Of course, he'd never admit that he was awful at it at first. No reason she had to know that. "The trick is making it look like you're not thinking about it. I'm sure you'll have that down in no time."
In all honesty, Tony was pretty sure fairly soon Cat was going to be at least as good as he was and possibly better. The woman could find a beat and move to it in an instant. Maybe he'd teach her a non-Latin dance too.
"I think I can do that. Kinda like this type of dancing," Cat admitted, her lips curling into the ghost of a smile. It didn't come quite as naturally to her as club dancing had, but it was less suggestive and that certainly helped. Besides, if there was one thing she had learnt it was how to control her body and dancing relied on just that, didn't it?
"It is pretty fun," Tony said, nodding in agreement. He didn't get to do it nearly often enough, as the types of girls he spent time with usually didn't take the time to learn something like the chacha. Either that, or it was strictly knowing how to slow dance at high society soirées. For a moment he imagined Cat at a soirée like that. He couldn't help but smile.
"But it does take pratice. How ofter a week are you able to meet?"
Cat quickly did a mental run-down of her week, but most of her days only consisted of going to work and then either going to the gym or drinking at the Lux. And aside from the couple of times that she trained people, she didn't have anything that wasn't decided spontaneously, anyway.
Still, even though technically, it would have been possible to meet up with Tony nearly every evening of the week to practise and the idea was tempting, she figured he'd get sick of her pretty quickly and she wasn't sure it was such a good idea in the first place. She was trying to keep her distance, after all. Even if she wasn't doing a very good job with that.
"Maybe once or twice a week?" she finally suggested, shrugging a little. She'd probably still end up sparring with Tony on other nights, anyway.
"Once or twice a week would be fantastic," he said, smiling to let her know that he was fine with that much time. Once or twice a week would be nice. Not that he wouldn't have enjoyed more but he could imagine Cat would get sick of him if it was more than that, especially since they would probably get together and spar still. At least he hoped they would.
"Oh, and before I forget..." Tony went to a nearby shelf and grabbed something from it before turning back to face her. "Here's your knife, the one that got left in the car."
Cat gave him a quick smile, both in relief that he seemed fine with meeting her to practise dancing and for giving her the knife back. Even though the mention of the car and the memory of what, exactly, they'd been doing in that car (and after) made her blush a little.
"Thanks." She took the knife, bending down to slip it into one of the custom made slings her boots had for knives and stakes.
Tony didn't miss the blush that came to Cat's cheeks but wisely didn't remark on it. He didn't need to be kicked across the room or anything like that. Speaking of which, Tony had something he wanted to ask Cat.
"So," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "How would you like to go spar? Only this time I get to wear the armor."
Cat tilted her head, thinking about that for a moment. He'd probably be much stronger in the armor, she calculated, able to do real damage to her as well - and hitting metal was not something she particularly enjoyed. She didn't think the armor would dent easily, either. It would probably really reverse their roles. Her only advantage might be the speed - unless the armor could help him with that, too.
Still, it would be interesting and Tony probably deserved it, too. "Okay."
A mischievous smile crossed Tony's lips as she agreed to spar him while allowing him to wear the Iron Man armor. That was definitely an advantage for him. He had been able to follow Cat's moves before but his body just hadn't been fast enough to do much about it, even with his "Spider-Sense." The armor would change all that though.
"Alright," he said. "Do you want to go to the police station and use their mat or go out to the forest or beach? I think the more room we have the better."
"Beach sounds good." Maybe they could go swimming after to cool off a bit. It would certainly be more fun than a shower. On the other hand, seeing Tony half naked might not be such a good idea, even if Cat wanted to. Especially since she wanted to.
The quality of that smile didn't promise anything good for Cat. Still, it would be interesting. "Just don't break any bones. I don't heal quite as fast as you do."
"I promise, I'll be as careful as possible to not break any bones," he said. And he doubted he would, he had gotten good at holding back when necessary as Iron Man.
"Do you need to swing by your place to get anything? If not, we can just fly directly to the beach."
"Depends," Cat shrugged. "Are we going to go swimming after or will you drop me off back at the apartment after so that I can take a shower?"
She had to suppress the hopeful note in her voice and the hope she felt. There was no point hoping because nothing would happen between Tony and her again. She wouldn't let it.
"Now that you mention it, a swim would be really nice," he confessed. How long had it been since he last just went swimming in the ocean just to enjoy himself? That was actually a really good idea.
"I'll have to grab a pair of trunks. And do you even own a swimsuit?" Tony asked.
Cat blinked and then had to shake her head when she realised that actually, no, she didn't. Not in this place. It hadn't really been high on her list of things to buy when she'd first arrived here.
"We could go swimming another time, or. Or go shopping, I guess." She'd prefer the latter, but she'd leave the choice to Tony. If he wanted to go spar right away, she was okay with that.
"Why don't we get you a swimsuit first," Tony told her. Of course, his motivations were entirely pure and had nothing to do with badly wanting to see Cat in a swimsuit. He wasn't going to get his hopes up that she'd model some for him, but at least seeing her in one would be fantastic.
"It's not like I've got any terribly pressing business to get to right after the spar."
Cat couldn't hide the smile. She hadn't been swimming in ages and it had been years since she'd even been to the sea, much less swam in it. And the image of Tony in trunks was tempting as well.
"That works for me." She quickly checked for her wallet and then nodded. "I'm ready to go if you are."
Tony's own smile mirrored Cat's. This was good. Them having fun was good, it made things that much easier between them. They were adults. They could be mostly naked around each other after having great sex and not have it be weird.
"Just let me grab the armor and a pair of trunks," he said before disappearing into the back. A moment later he returned with a briefcase and a pair of swim trunks with a couple of towels hung over his arm.
"Alright, I'm ready to go."
Cat looked at the briefcase, thought back to the fully assembled armor and looked at the briefcase again. "Does the armor fit in there?" she asked, suppressing the doubtful tone in her voice. She'd doubted Tony enough tonight, but it was... weird. The briefcase wasn't that big.
"We gonna take your car?"
"It does," he said, not blaming her at all for her skepticism. It did seems a little crazy when you viewed the suit fully assembled. "The suit isn't actually traditional metal. It's a pliable crystalline material with a molecular structure that can collimate into super-hard planes upon the application of an electrical field. And yeah, we'll take the car. Do you want to drive?"
"I'll just pretend that made any sense at all to me." Cat didn't know a thing about physics - hell, she'd never even gotten to finish college, thanks to a certain vampire and his plans of a vampire food delivery service.
She perked up at the mention of the car. Did she want to drive? "You'd let me?" This time, she didn't even attempt suppressing any hopefulness in her tone.
"What I mean is that the suit..." Tony hesitated. As much as he'd love to give a science lesson he thought now as probably not the time for it. "Fits into the briefcase if it needs to, yeah."
At the mention of driving the car Cat's expression looked like a kid at Christmas. Which was understandable. How messed up was Tony that he didn't get like that every time he drove the car?
"It's all yours to drive if you want it."
"Of course I want to drive it!" Cat loved that car. How often did you get to see a flying car outside of a movie? Never. And the chance to drive one... Cat certainly wouldn't say no to that. "It's a flying car!"
This felt a little like the first time she'd seen Bones lift his bike up with one arm and carry it, only this was much better. She'd get to drive a flying car. "I don't need some kind of piloting licence, do I?"
Why weren't they leaving already? Cat walked to the door and out of the apartment, asking where he'd parked the car over her shoulder.
Tony just laughed at her enthusiasm, glad to see that she was enjoying the idea so much. He wasn't sure how much he'd like her enthusiam once they started flying, but there wouldn't be a time when he couldn't take over control if necessary.
"No, no special license, just try not to run into anything," he told her.
Cat smirked at him. "Scared I'll scratch the paint job?" She wasn't a reckless driver, never had been, and she couldn't imagine a flying car would change that much, but then again, it was a flying car and she'd never flown anything before.
"I promise not to run into anything if I can absolutely help it."
"It doesn't have a paint job, actually," Tony told her. "It has a skin on it that depending on the amount of current you run through it, the color adjusts. So you can actually change the color of the car to your whim."
Alright, so maybe that explanation wasn't necessary, but he wanted to point out that it was a color-changing flying car. Not just your run of the mill flying car.
"And I'd prefer you not run into anything because it will probably damage whatever you run into," he explained as they came to the car, the doors of it opening automatically.
Cat blinked and stared at the car. "It changes colour, too," she repeated, running a hand along the car's side before sliding in and putting her hands on the steering wheel with a smile.
"I'll do my best not to cause any damage, either," she promised. "So how do I do this?"
Tony slid in next to her and shut the doors, settling back against the plus interior of the car as he turned to Cat. The controls were simple and he hadn't met anyone who didn't get the hang of them fairly quickly.
"Pulling back on the wheel makes it go up," he explained. "Pushing forward makes it go down. Left is left, right is right, the gas and brake work normally."
Cat nodded, memorising the instructions before starting the car and moving it out of its parking space. The first thing she did was pull back the wheel to make the car go up. She grinned when it did.
"I like your car, Tony!"
Driving it even distracted her from the fact that the last time she'd been in it, she'd sat in Tony's lap. She did spare a quick glance for the backseat, though.
Tony noticed her glance to the backseat, but ignored it. It was easier to pretend it didn't happen. Maybe she was just checking back there for... something.
"I'm rather fond of it too," he told her, smiling at the look on her face. She hadn't looked this happy since they were dancing in the club.
Cat was never going to look at that backseat the same again. But then, she wasn't looking at Tony the same again, either, now that she knew what he looked like naked, what he felt like inside of her. Even if she tried to, it didn't work.
"I can't think of anyone who wouldn't like it. Except for someone who's scared of flying, maybe."
Rating; PG-13
Characters; Tony Stark (
morethanasuit) and Catrina Arthur (theredreaper)Summary; Cat promised she'd let Tony teach her formal dancing...
Log;
Cat felt a little insecure and reluctant as she made her way to Tony's apartment. It had been days since they'd last seen each other, though they'd spoken on the network, and the last time had been when they'd, well. Had sex.
She pushed the memories of that aside, firmly reminding herself that they weren't going to do that again. She wasn't sure how to feel about seeing him again, now, but she had agreed to let him teach her how to dance and while it hadn't been an explicit promise, she wouldn't go back on her word.
Before she knew it, she found herself at his front door and, after a short pause and hesitation, she knocked.
Tony was glad that Cat had agreed to come over and let him teach her to dance more formally. He wouldn't have pressed her if she had declined, but he was glad that she didn't. Especially since she needed to get out and do something that wasn't work, sparring, or drinking. Tony recognized those signs and knew what they meant and it was not good.
The door slid open and he smiled at her. She looked good. Really good. He couldn't help but remember just what she looked like without any clothes on at all, the feel of her body pressed against his and her lips kissing him...
Tony realized this might be harder than he thought.
"I'm glad you came, Cat," he told her, which was the truth. Despite how awkward things might get, he was glad to see her.
Cat walked into the apartment, looking around. She hadn't really paid attention to any details the last time she'd been there, after the curse when-- Why did every thought lately lead back to Tony and her and sex?
"Yeah. Hi Tony." She mustered up a small smile. Despite her reluctance to come, she was happy to see him. Did she really have to punish herself for sleeping with him? They were both adults, surely they'd manage.
And besides, formal dancing was something that interested her and learning it certainly wouldn't hurt.
He was thankful for the small smile, it made him feel a bit better about the whole thing. He was sure that eventually any of the weirdness they felt over having slept together would completely vanish. They just had to give it time and get familiar with each others company again.
"Look, before we get started there's something I wanted you to know," Tony told her. It was something he had been thinking about for a while now, about telling Cat, and he trusted her enough that he wanted her to know.
Cat tilted her head, studying him. She tried to figure out what he could possibly want to tell her, but while she didn't exactly come up blank, the possibilities her mind was providing her with were not things she would really allow herself to contemplate.
"What is it?"
"It's probably better if I just show you," Tony confessed. Okay, it probably wouldn't have been just as easy to explain it but a small part of Tony just wanted an excuse to strip in front of Cat.
"Just... trust me and don't freak out okay?" he asked, even has he started to pull his shirt off over his head. Already the golden undersheath was coming over his skin from the hollow of his bones, coating over him like a second skin.
Cat frowned, licking her suddenly dry lips and fighting the urge to stare at Tony's chest. She couldn't really help it, though, remembering the feel of it under her fingers, the warmth of his skin and the hard planes of muscle under it.
And then he asked her not to freak out. In Cat's experience, that kind of request usually wasn't good news. It meant whatever was about to come would most likely make her want to freak out.
And did she trust Tony? That was a question she couldn't just answer immediately. Nevertheless, she nodded - albeit a bit warily. "Okay."
When Tony's clothes were completely stripped off and he was just in the undersheath he gave her a bit of a mischievous smile. A single mental command and the armor that had been in the back room suddenly flew forward and snapped in place. One second Tony Stark had been standing there and the next he was Iron Man.
"Surprise."
Cat blinked and then slowly dropped the defensive stance she'd adopted when things had suddenly come flying towards them. "But," she said and then stopped because she had no idea how to continue that sentence, her mind drawing a blank.
She stared at Iron Man, eyes wide. "Tony?"
The frown crept back onto her features. "But I've seen the two of you at the same time," she uttered. This didn't make any sense.
Alright, Tony was enjoying this just a bit too much. He liked putting Cat off balance because... well probably because he was flirting with her a bit. Plus, she was so uptight most of the time.
"I can operate it remotely," he told her. To back up his words, the armor came off of him again and reassembled into the full suit next to him. It raised a hand and waved to her.
If anything, her frown deepened. She slowly walked around the armor and, after a moment of hesitation and a quick glance towards Tony, put one hand on it. The metal was cold under her hands. "How does it work?" she inquired.
"I told you how my DNA was rewritten?" he said. "It was rewritten to be more compatible with the armor. My old version had all the computer systems on board. Now... I am the computer systems. It links directly to my brain so it moves by thought and all the things it sees and experiences I do too."
It was hard to explain to someone just how being in two places at once worked, but that was as close to describing it as he could do. The armor was a really, really, high tech remote control toy, so to speak.
"You're a computer system?" Cat latched onto that part, her voice carrying a slightly hysterical edge as her mind provided images she didn't much like. She'd never drawn blood, had she? Did he have blood? Was he even human? Had she slept with a robot?
She had to take a deep breath and remind herself that it wasn't what someone was but their actions that made them good or bad. Tony was still the same guy he'd been before.
Only he was someone else, too.
"Well, it's a little more complex than that," Tony said. The way Cat had said it was almost... well, it wasn't a compliment.
"The human brain is really just a very sophisticated computer anyways," he explained. "It runs on electronic impulses the same as a processor. I've just had the way my brain works tweaked just a bit so that it can directly interface with electronics. I'm still flesh and blood, I promise."
Cat had to admit that she was out of her depth here. She didn't really know anything about neurology or the way a brain worked and could be.. tweaked.
For a moment, Cat thought about taking out one of her knives and making sure he was really saying the truth. The wounds would heal quickly... She left her all of her knives where they were, taking his word for it and nodding slightly. "Okay," she said again, though she still couldn't really wrap her mind around it.
"You don't really believe me," Tony said. "Or at least you're not really sure."
Tony couldn't really blame her, at least not much. Of course, with the fact that she wasn't exactly a normal human herself he thought maybe she would grant him a bit of a benefit of the doubt.
"Would it help if I proved it to you?" he asked.
"I.." Cat blushed a little, feeling bad for her lack of trust in him. After all, he'd proven his trust by telling - showing - her about his second identity as Iron Man.Still, she couldn't change her own paranoia and she'd rather know for certain. It was always safer that way.
"Would you?" She finally asked.
Tony refused to let his disappointment at her lack of trust show on her face. For a moment he almost said that he wouldn't, but he couldn't bring himself to be that cruel. Besides, it wouldn't really take much to show her. And it's not like he hadn't been through worse.
"Here, watch," he said, holding his hand out. The Iron Man armor raised its own hand out palm forward and there was a brief flash of light. Tony grunted at the pain, because where his hand was a moment ago was nothing but bone and tendon. Already though his body was repairing itself as first muscle and blood and then eventually skin formed.
"Human all the way down to the bone," he quipped to her.
"Oh God, Tony!" In a flash of movement too fast for the human eye, Cat was by Tony's side, one hand coming to rest on his arm, well over the injured part. She watched his hand repair itself with wide eyes, her desire for a proof completely forgotten as worry and guilt took over.
"I didn't mean," she started, running her fingers softly over the back of his hand once he had a hand again, touching each of his fingers, but without exerting any pressure. She'd thought he would maybe cut his palm, spare a couple drops of blood. Not this. "Are you okay?"
Tony couldn't deny that Cat's concern was nice to see. He also couldn't deny that he had partly done something so extreme to try and make her feel a little guilty. He had never once asked her about her abilities and accepted her without question so it stung a bit that she hadn't done the same. It was petty but... he never said he wasn't above such things.
"I'm fine," he told her, smiling and wiggling his fingers in proof. "One of the serial killers a while back dissolved me in acid down to nothing but my skeleton, so this was nothing."
"But it hurt you," Cat immediately protested, not letting go of his hand just yet. She didn't mind hurting him while sparring, that was just a part of it, even though she did try not to cause any serious injury to him, but this just felt.. wrong. Worse, somehow, than if she'd inflicted the injury herself.
Her hold on his hand tightened when he mentioned what had happened to him, her jaw setting into hard and angry lines - angry at the serial killer, angry at herself that she had let it come to this just now, angry that she hadn't been around to protect him. It seemed stupid, wanting to protect him, wanting to make sure he was safe and unhurt, especially now that he'd just shown her that he was Iron Man and perfectly capable of protecting himself, but there it was. And the fact that he could just bounce back from any kind of injury didn't really help, either.
Tony noticed the set of her jaw at his words and that she didn't let go of his hand. He didn't know if she was mad at him for his stupid little stunt a moment ago or mad at something or someone else for one of the things he had mentioned.
"Not as bad as you'd think," he said, which wasn't entirely a lie since it was still pretty painful. "Nerve endings weren't even there for part of it. But I didn't want you have to doubt at all. Not that what you just saw as all that natural of course but I'm not some cyborg or anything like that."
"Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt left at all, now," she uttered darkly and then immediately felt bad again. Dropping her gaze, she took a step back, then another one, reluctantly letting go of his hand as well.
"I didn't mean for you to prove it in... that way, but.. Thanks, Tony. For doing it at all." She swallowed, closing her eyes for a second. "And for telling me."
She still wasn't sure what to make of the fact that he was Iron Man as well as Tony Stark, but for now, that conflict had been pushed to the back of her mind.
"You're welcome," he said, deciding it was best to just drop the subject of him blasting his hand to nothing. "You're a close friend and I just... learned a long time ago that it's better to share a secret like that with someone close to you than keep trying to hide it. Of course, the fact that I don't have to rush off to change into the armor at random times makes things easier."
His words, his calling her a close friend reminded her that she actually did have friends in the City. It wasn't something that had happened very often before and she had to smile a little. She couldn't deny her attraction to Tony - though she could try - but that angle couldn't lead anywhere. She couldn't let it. His friendship, though, was something she could enjoy. The thought filled her with warmth.
"I probably wouldn't have taken very well to discovering it randomly." She wasn't sure she ever would have, but with the City and curses, one never knew.
"So, that's the big secret," he said as he began to get dressed again. As he did the armor headed out the back room, where it would go back into his briefcase while it wasn't needed at the moment. If it was needed, he would send it out remotely. He wanted to stay here with Cat.
"I'm sorry if I just destroyed the carefree, billionaire playboy image you might have had of me by revealing that I'm also a superhero."
Cat watched Tony get dressed, her frown disappearing. "I never really thought of you as a carefree billionaire playboy," she admitted. There'd be flashes of that persona, but overall, he'd been too focused, too honest. At least she hoped what she saw as honesty was real.
So he was a superhero? Like in the movies? That would take some getting used to.
"So... What, exactly can you do?"
"Honestly? The same as I told you I did before," Tony explained. Of course, in his world, his identity wasn't a secret, so that changed things a bit.
"I'm the Director of SHIELD, the... military branch of the United Nations. The only difference is that I'm a bit more hands on involved in some of the operations."
Cat nodded to that, combining the knowledge of what he could do with what she'd seen Iron Man do on the job. It was weird to think that all the time she'd worked with Iron Man - which hadn't been all that often, granted - it had been Tony behind it all.
She rubbed a hand over her face. "You don't happen to have any Gin & Tonic, do you?"
"Yes, but you don't need it," Tony told her. Harsh, but he wasn't letting her take the easy way out, even if it was a placebo affect. "You'll have enough to think about when we start dancing anyways. This is what you'll be learning."
He nodded to a section of the wall and dimmed the lights a bit, the wall suddenly lighting up and showing a video of two people dancing.
"It's called the chacha."
Cat played with the thought of talking him into letting her have a Gin & Tonic, but in the end decided against it. Wasn't like she needed it, after all.
When the video came on - and his remote control of all things suddenly made so much more sense - she watched closely, fingers already tapping to the beat against her thigh. She could probably imitate the way they moved easily, she thought. Chacha, okay. She'd heard of that one before, too.
"Okay, so how do I do this?" she asked, moving to stand in front of Tony, but with ample space between them.
Tony didn't think anything of the space between them. Or at least, he tried not to. It was one of the reasons he had chosen the chacha, the dance could be done with a relative amount of space between you and your partner without things being awkward.
"We'll start really basic," Tony assured her, reaching out to put his right hand on her back, just under the shoulder blade and taking her hand in his other one. "Just a few basic steps."
Cat copied the pose she'd seen in the video, putting one hand on his shoulder and stepping a bit closer - not close enough for the space between them to diminish much, but closer nonetheless.
"That's probably a good idea. Starting basic." She nodded. How had they done it in the video? She looked at Tony, waiting for him to explain it to her, even though she had to admit she didn't like having to be taught. Usually, it was her who explained moves to other people - soldiers, FBI agents and so on. But she'd have to accept the limitations of her own knowledge here.
"Okay," Tony began. "So first you're going to step back, putting your weight to the foot in the back..."
For the next while Tony led her through the basic steps of the chacha. Nothing too fancy or elaborate but enough that they would be able to build on what she knew later. Also, concentrating on teaching and learning allowed them, or at least Tony, to get reacquainted with having her relatively close to him without feeling awkward. It was a nice feeling.
"You're picking this up very quickly," he told her when they finally stopped for a break.
Cat did as he said, but especially at the beginning, she had trouble following his lead. It wasn't the steps, those were simple enough and came easy to her, but giving up control and handing it over to Tony, that was a different matter altogether. Still, as they continued she grew more relaxed, trusting that Tony knew what he was doing. It was a weird feeling, letting someone take over and control her movements like that, with just a lifting of the wrist or a bit of pressure on her back, but once she'd gotten used to it, she came to like it.
Cat pushed a strand of hair that had fallen from her braid back behind the ear. "It's not hard to move like that," she shrugged, pointing at the wall where the video had been.
"No, it's not really," Tony admitted. Of course, he'd never admit that he was awful at it at first. No reason she had to know that. "The trick is making it look like you're not thinking about it. I'm sure you'll have that down in no time."
In all honesty, Tony was pretty sure fairly soon Cat was going to be at least as good as he was and possibly better. The woman could find a beat and move to it in an instant. Maybe he'd teach her a non-Latin dance too.
"I think I can do that. Kinda like this type of dancing," Cat admitted, her lips curling into the ghost of a smile. It didn't come quite as naturally to her as club dancing had, but it was less suggestive and that certainly helped. Besides, if there was one thing she had learnt it was how to control her body and dancing relied on just that, didn't it?
"It is pretty fun," Tony said, nodding in agreement. He didn't get to do it nearly often enough, as the types of girls he spent time with usually didn't take the time to learn something like the chacha. Either that, or it was strictly knowing how to slow dance at high society soirées. For a moment he imagined Cat at a soirée like that. He couldn't help but smile.
"But it does take pratice. How ofter a week are you able to meet?"
Cat quickly did a mental run-down of her week, but most of her days only consisted of going to work and then either going to the gym or drinking at the Lux. And aside from the couple of times that she trained people, she didn't have anything that wasn't decided spontaneously, anyway.
Still, even though technically, it would have been possible to meet up with Tony nearly every evening of the week to practise and the idea was tempting, she figured he'd get sick of her pretty quickly and she wasn't sure it was such a good idea in the first place. She was trying to keep her distance, after all. Even if she wasn't doing a very good job with that.
"Maybe once or twice a week?" she finally suggested, shrugging a little. She'd probably still end up sparring with Tony on other nights, anyway.
"Once or twice a week would be fantastic," he said, smiling to let her know that he was fine with that much time. Once or twice a week would be nice. Not that he wouldn't have enjoyed more but he could imagine Cat would get sick of him if it was more than that, especially since they would probably get together and spar still. At least he hoped they would.
"Oh, and before I forget..." Tony went to a nearby shelf and grabbed something from it before turning back to face her. "Here's your knife, the one that got left in the car."
Cat gave him a quick smile, both in relief that he seemed fine with meeting her to practise dancing and for giving her the knife back. Even though the mention of the car and the memory of what, exactly, they'd been doing in that car (and after) made her blush a little.
"Thanks." She took the knife, bending down to slip it into one of the custom made slings her boots had for knives and stakes.
Tony didn't miss the blush that came to Cat's cheeks but wisely didn't remark on it. He didn't need to be kicked across the room or anything like that. Speaking of which, Tony had something he wanted to ask Cat.
"So," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "How would you like to go spar? Only this time I get to wear the armor."
Cat tilted her head, thinking about that for a moment. He'd probably be much stronger in the armor, she calculated, able to do real damage to her as well - and hitting metal was not something she particularly enjoyed. She didn't think the armor would dent easily, either. It would probably really reverse their roles. Her only advantage might be the speed - unless the armor could help him with that, too.
Still, it would be interesting and Tony probably deserved it, too. "Okay."
A mischievous smile crossed Tony's lips as she agreed to spar him while allowing him to wear the Iron Man armor. That was definitely an advantage for him. He had been able to follow Cat's moves before but his body just hadn't been fast enough to do much about it, even with his "Spider-Sense." The armor would change all that though.
"Alright," he said. "Do you want to go to the police station and use their mat or go out to the forest or beach? I think the more room we have the better."
"Beach sounds good." Maybe they could go swimming after to cool off a bit. It would certainly be more fun than a shower. On the other hand, seeing Tony half naked might not be such a good idea, even if Cat wanted to. Especially since she wanted to.
The quality of that smile didn't promise anything good for Cat. Still, it would be interesting. "Just don't break any bones. I don't heal quite as fast as you do."
"I promise, I'll be as careful as possible to not break any bones," he said. And he doubted he would, he had gotten good at holding back when necessary as Iron Man.
"Do you need to swing by your place to get anything? If not, we can just fly directly to the beach."
"Depends," Cat shrugged. "Are we going to go swimming after or will you drop me off back at the apartment after so that I can take a shower?"
She had to suppress the hopeful note in her voice and the hope she felt. There was no point hoping because nothing would happen between Tony and her again. She wouldn't let it.
"Now that you mention it, a swim would be really nice," he confessed. How long had it been since he last just went swimming in the ocean just to enjoy himself? That was actually a really good idea.
"I'll have to grab a pair of trunks. And do you even own a swimsuit?" Tony asked.
Cat blinked and then had to shake her head when she realised that actually, no, she didn't. Not in this place. It hadn't really been high on her list of things to buy when she'd first arrived here.
"We could go swimming another time, or. Or go shopping, I guess." She'd prefer the latter, but she'd leave the choice to Tony. If he wanted to go spar right away, she was okay with that.
"Why don't we get you a swimsuit first," Tony told her. Of course, his motivations were entirely pure and had nothing to do with badly wanting to see Cat in a swimsuit. He wasn't going to get his hopes up that she'd model some for him, but at least seeing her in one would be fantastic.
"It's not like I've got any terribly pressing business to get to right after the spar."
Cat couldn't hide the smile. She hadn't been swimming in ages and it had been years since she'd even been to the sea, much less swam in it. And the image of Tony in trunks was tempting as well.
"That works for me." She quickly checked for her wallet and then nodded. "I'm ready to go if you are."
Tony's own smile mirrored Cat's. This was good. Them having fun was good, it made things that much easier between them. They were adults. They could be mostly naked around each other after having great sex and not have it be weird.
"Just let me grab the armor and a pair of trunks," he said before disappearing into the back. A moment later he returned with a briefcase and a pair of swim trunks with a couple of towels hung over his arm.
"Alright, I'm ready to go."
Cat looked at the briefcase, thought back to the fully assembled armor and looked at the briefcase again. "Does the armor fit in there?" she asked, suppressing the doubtful tone in her voice. She'd doubted Tony enough tonight, but it was... weird. The briefcase wasn't that big.
"We gonna take your car?"
"It does," he said, not blaming her at all for her skepticism. It did seems a little crazy when you viewed the suit fully assembled. "The suit isn't actually traditional metal. It's a pliable crystalline material with a molecular structure that can collimate into super-hard planes upon the application of an electrical field. And yeah, we'll take the car. Do you want to drive?"
"I'll just pretend that made any sense at all to me." Cat didn't know a thing about physics - hell, she'd never even gotten to finish college, thanks to a certain vampire and his plans of a vampire food delivery service.
She perked up at the mention of the car. Did she want to drive? "You'd let me?" This time, she didn't even attempt suppressing any hopefulness in her tone.
"What I mean is that the suit..." Tony hesitated. As much as he'd love to give a science lesson he thought now as probably not the time for it. "Fits into the briefcase if it needs to, yeah."
At the mention of driving the car Cat's expression looked like a kid at Christmas. Which was understandable. How messed up was Tony that he didn't get like that every time he drove the car?
"It's all yours to drive if you want it."
"Of course I want to drive it!" Cat loved that car. How often did you get to see a flying car outside of a movie? Never. And the chance to drive one... Cat certainly wouldn't say no to that. "It's a flying car!"
This felt a little like the first time she'd seen Bones lift his bike up with one arm and carry it, only this was much better. She'd get to drive a flying car. "I don't need some kind of piloting licence, do I?"
Why weren't they leaving already? Cat walked to the door and out of the apartment, asking where he'd parked the car over her shoulder.
Tony just laughed at her enthusiasm, glad to see that she was enjoying the idea so much. He wasn't sure how much he'd like her enthusiam once they started flying, but there wouldn't be a time when he couldn't take over control if necessary.
"No, no special license, just try not to run into anything," he told her.
Cat smirked at him. "Scared I'll scratch the paint job?" She wasn't a reckless driver, never had been, and she couldn't imagine a flying car would change that much, but then again, it was a flying car and she'd never flown anything before.
"I promise not to run into anything if I can absolutely help it."
"It doesn't have a paint job, actually," Tony told her. "It has a skin on it that depending on the amount of current you run through it, the color adjusts. So you can actually change the color of the car to your whim."
Alright, so maybe that explanation wasn't necessary, but he wanted to point out that it was a color-changing flying car. Not just your run of the mill flying car.
"And I'd prefer you not run into anything because it will probably damage whatever you run into," he explained as they came to the car, the doors of it opening automatically.
Cat blinked and stared at the car. "It changes colour, too," she repeated, running a hand along the car's side before sliding in and putting her hands on the steering wheel with a smile.
"I'll do my best not to cause any damage, either," she promised. "So how do I do this?"
Tony slid in next to her and shut the doors, settling back against the plus interior of the car as he turned to Cat. The controls were simple and he hadn't met anyone who didn't get the hang of them fairly quickly.
"Pulling back on the wheel makes it go up," he explained. "Pushing forward makes it go down. Left is left, right is right, the gas and brake work normally."
Cat nodded, memorising the instructions before starting the car and moving it out of its parking space. The first thing she did was pull back the wheel to make the car go up. She grinned when it did.
"I like your car, Tony!"
Driving it even distracted her from the fact that the last time she'd been in it, she'd sat in Tony's lap. She did spare a quick glance for the backseat, though.
Tony noticed her glance to the backseat, but ignored it. It was easier to pretend it didn't happen. Maybe she was just checking back there for... something.
"I'm rather fond of it too," he told her, smiling at the look on her face. She hadn't looked this happy since they were dancing in the club.
Cat was never going to look at that backseat the same again. But then, she wasn't looking at Tony the same again, either, now that she knew what he looked like naked, what he felt like inside of her. Even if she tried to, it didn't work.
"I can't think of anyone who wouldn't like it. Except for someone who's scared of flying, maybe."
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"Do you have a preference?" he said with a bit of a shrug. "I don't mind waiting in the car so long as you're not going to take forever."
That was a lie of course. If she took a while he would just access his computer at home and do some work. He'd prefer to come and watch her try on several suits, but he doubted she would be up for that.
Cat shrugged. "I don't mind either way. I'll just grab one that fits." She never really took all that long when it came to shopping. The time she'd gone with Pepper had been an exception. Before that, she'd never just looked around and tried things on without absolutely needing them and having every intention of buying them if they fit. It had been an interesting experience, but she wouldn't do that now. Wouldn't want to make Tony wait.
"Just grab one that fits?" Tony eyed her skeptically. Clearly, this woman needed his help buying a bathing suit. It was almost a moral responsibility for him to find her one that complimented her figure and complexion.
"Good god woman," he said as the car doors opened and he slid out of his seat. "I'd better go with you. There's no telling what you'll walk out with."
Cat made a face at him. "It's just a swimsuit, Tony. Not like I'm gonna walk into a club full of vampires with it trying to get my job done or anything."
She gestured vaguely, with no real purpose behind it but to convey that it really didn't matter what kind of swimsuit she got. Nevertheless, she couldn't deny the pleased little flutter in her stomach.
"You have an obligation," Tony said as they began to walk in the direction of the shops. "An obligation to people who would kill to look as gorgeous as you do to get a flattering swimsuit."
He hoped that she didn't mind the compliment and if she did... well, tough, he wasn't going to stop complimenting her just because they had slept together. She was a big girl, she could learn to handle it if she already couldn't.
"Besides, why should you look your best just for vampires?" he asked, glancing over at her. "You should look good because you're beautiful and deserve to enjoy that fact."
Cat didn't mind the compliment at all, even though it made her blush again. Why was it that she could take vampires talking dirty to her without batting an eyelash, but not Tony's compliments?
Either way, Tony's compliments made her feel good about herself, as did the looks he sometimes threw her. She liked it.
"An obligation, huh?" Cat didn't think that logic really worked out. His second remark hit closer to home, though. "I just--" she didn't really care all that much about her own looks, outside of using them to her advantage when it came to hunting vampires. "... Fine. You can pick a swimsuit for me, how's that?"
"That sounds perfectly fine to me," he said, struggling not to give her a wolfish grin, no matter how badly he wanted to. She must be awful trusting of him to let him select a swimsuit for her. Either that or she was far, far less modest than he thought she might be when not "on the job."
When they found an store that would have a large selection of swimsuits they headed in. Tony immediately went to the most risque looking swimsuits he could find. Not that he was going to select one, but he wanted to see Cat's reaction to them since most were little more than just string.
Cat followed him and, when she realised where he was headed and what kind of swimsuits they were looking at, she shook her head, resisting the urge to bury her face in her hands and blush again.
"Tony!" Her tone indignant, she barely managed not to pout. "I get the right to veto, just so that we're clear on that."
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Tony looked at her and gave her a bit of a mock pout and a dramatic sigh as he moved away from those swimsuits. When he got closer to her though, he chuckled.
"I wasn't going to pick one of those for you," he confessed. "I just wanted to see your reaction."
Without saying anything more, Tony began to look at the other swimsuits, concentrating on the ones that were black. Black was definitely the color that would look best on her. Finally he selected a one piece suit with an interesting cut and a modest two piece.
"Here, try these on," he told her.
Cat looked at the two swimsuits he'd chosen and nodded. Those were okay, she'd voluntarily show herself on a public beach in those.
"Okay." She took the swimsuits from Tony and disappeared in the changing rooms, stripping down and trying on first the one piece suit and then the other. Both fit. She bit her lip, hesitating for a moment before sticking her head out and calling for Tony.
Tony heard her call out and headed over to where she had gone into the changing rooms. If she needed another size or something like that, he could grab those for her. Although he didn't think he had guessed wrong.
"Are they not the right size?" he asked, a concerned look on his face. "I was pretty sure I got it right."
For a moment, Cat was left wondering how he'd guessed her size in the first place, but she pushed that thought back in favour of dealing with the problem at hand.
"They are the right size, I just can't decide which one to take." Her look turned just a little sly; she wasn't actually trying to tease Tony, but... Okay, maybe she was. He'd teased her so often, he deserved it. "I thought since you're picking the swimsuit, you should get to decide."
"So here's the first one." She came out in the tankini first, slowly twirling around once before going back into the changing room and changing quickly. "And here's the second one." She did the same thing again, only this time in the one piece suit that left her sides free.
"Which one d'you like better?" she asked, tilting her head and leaning against the frame of the door to the changing room, hips canted just a little to the side.
Tony watched with rapt fascination as Cat modeled the swimsuits for him. He wished that he had chosen more than just two, now. He could definitely go for watching her turn around in a few more swimsuits. And then, when she leaned against the frame of the changing rooms with her hips like that...
Tony swallowed hard once to find his voice. "Definitely that one," he told her. "Definitely that one."
Now, Cat couldn't keep herself from blushing, nor could she hide the pleased smile tugging on the corners of her mouth. Tony's attention and his obvious admiration made her feel really good, like she was truly beautiful. She definitely enjoyed that.
"Okay. This one, then." She threw him another quick grin before disappearing in the changing room again, coming out a bit later with the swimsuit in question thrown over her arm.
Tony enjoyed the blush on Cat's cheeks but he didn't say anything because his own admiration of the way she looked in the suit was so overtly obvious. Tony had seen a lot of beautiful women, but Cat was... exquisite and exotic without coming off as aloof.
Once the swimsuit was paid for they headed back out to the car and Tony waited for Cat to take off again.
Cat put the bag with the swimsuit in the back of the car, where Tony's trunks and the towels already lay, and started the car again. The simple excitement of getting to drive a flying car hadn't subsided yet and she was grinning by the time they'd come off the ground.
She made the car touch down at the beach again, near a stretch of it that was deserted completely. Wouldn't do to have an audience for their sparring match, after all.
Tony was impressed with how well Cat handled the car. Maybe he'd build her one. He did have Saya's old car and it wouldn't take much to use that as a base for a new one. It might be a fun surprise too.
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Cat watched the suit assemble until it was Iron Man standing in front of her and no longer Tony. Only they were the same person. That was still weird.
She shifted into a defensive stance, figuring she wouldn't have much luck trying to cause any damage to the suit unless she found a weakness or button to turn it off. But knowing Tony, the thing probably didn't have anything like that.
"I promise, no energy blasts or anything like that," he told her. Of course, he didn't say that's because he wouldn't even need those.
The suit hovered just a few inches off the sand, which was important for what he wanted to do next. The footprints would kind of give things away. Smiling behind the mask Tony began the fight.
"Alright, let's do this..." he said. And then completely disappeared from sight.
"I'd appreciate that," Cat muttered darkly, tensing up as she waited for him to attack - and then he disappeared. She didn't lower her stance, but looked around somewhat distractedly nonetheless. "What the--"
Okay. That was... Could be become invisible? It hadn't said anything like that in Iron Man's files in the police station.
"Boo," Tony said, appearing again behind her. He still didn't hit her though, mostly because he didn't want to so much as bruise her when he knew she was going to be putting on that swimsuit in a bit.
In a flash, Cat had twirled around to face him again, her leg kicking out and connecting with the armor over his chest, intent on driving him back.
Tony let the kick hit his chest, mostly just to drive home the point that he wasnt' afraid to let her hit him. He moved back a small bit from the force of the impact but that was it. It felt good to not hurt after she hit him.
"Just so you know, I'm going to hold back quite a bit," he told her before taking a swing at her shoulder. He made sure to alter the current in the armor on his fist so that at least it wouldn't feel like getting hit with metal.
Just like Cat had expected. While she could easily kick Tony's ass outside the armor, Iron Man was another matter entirely. She managed to avoid the punch, but barely. Was he holding back on speed as well?
"Figured you would." From the moment he'd suggested sparring in suit, she'd expected to get beaten up quite a bit. That was okay, after all the times she'd done it to him, he deserved a little pay-back. It was still going to hurt.
Damn it, this was hard. Any harder or faster and he'd hurt Cat more than he wanted too. But right now she was able to dodge his blows so he couldn't land anything. Maybe he'd try something else instead. Moving quickly towards her he reached out and grabbed one of her wrists.
With a twist of his hand he spun her around, grabbing her other wrist as he did so. In just a few seconds he had both of her hands pinned behind her back in an unyielding grip.
Cat strained against his hold, twisting and arching to no avail. He was quite definitely a lot stronger than her like this. Had he not been in armor, she would have managed to free herself. Stamping her heels down on his foot might have worked, or something similar. But like this, there wasn't anything she could do.
She stopped struggling, craning her neck to look at him, even though she couldn't see his face behind the mask.
Tony opened up the visor on the mask so that she could see his face. He tried not to look too smug or pleased at getting her in this position. It was the least he could do since she never looked too smug or pleased while kicking his ass.
"To my credit," he said. "I didn't fly you out over the ocean and drop you."
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At least now she could see him - and, even though he was trying to hide it, she could see how much it pleased him to best her this once. She didn't mind all that much. Her pride had taken worse beatings, she could live with being outmuscled by someone like Tony, or rather, Iron Man.
"That's very true, it would be a shame if it didn't get to see any action today," he stated, letting go of her hands (and closing the visor just in case she tried a surprise attack) and backed away a bit.
"So are you ready to go swimming or would you like to spar a bit longer. I can let you swing a lot and miss me quite a bit if you'd like."
Cat stepped back from him, stretching her shoulders and arms a bit as they were protesting against having been held at an unnatural angle.
"I don't mind, whichever you prefer." She wasn't particularly keen on hitting metal, but if Tony wanted to get some hits in to even out the score between them, she was fine with that as well.
"Alright, I think I prefer the swimming option," he told her. When given a choice, Tony would always prefer to see Cat in less clothing, so it was really a no brainer. Even if they were just friends Tony couldn't deny the fact that Cat was gorgeous and he enjoyed seeing gorgeous women in swimsuits.
Already the armor was moving off of him, assembling itself again before flying off as Tony began to pull on his trunks.
"You can use the car to change if you want."
Cat nodded thankfully. For a moment, she'd wondered where to change, and even though the stretch of beach they were on was deserted and she mostly trusted Tony not to look if she told him not to, she still preferred changing in the car. Besides, her swimsuit was in there, anyway. And it had tinted windows.
She disappeared into the car, quickly changing and neatly folding her dress, leaving her boots in the leg room. The swimsuit really did leave a large portion of her sides free.
The sand felt good under her bare feet when she got back out of the car again, though, and for a moment, she just tilted her head up to the sun and enjoyed it.
Once she was out of the car Tony grabbed his trunks out of the back and slipped them on, the undersheath disappearing immediately after. He took a moment to just admire Cat as she enjoyed the sun. The more he saw of her just enjoying something the more he wanted to help her enjoy things.
"I can't remember the last time I went to the beach just to have fun," he confessed.
"It's been ... twenty years or so for me, I think." She remembered going to the beach once with her mother and her grandparents, when she was still a child, but after that... She'd never gotten around to it. Every once in a while she'd felt the vague urge to, especially after seeing pictures of long stretches of white sand and blue ocean.
Slowly, she walked to the edge of the water, letting it wash around her feet and ankles to judge how cold it was.
"I should have brought a beach ball or a frisbee," Tony confessed. Briefly he considered having the armor grab one and bring it, but that seemed a bit much, even for him.
Tony walked over next to her, standing in ankle deep water as the sand slowly disappeared beneath his feet. It was an oddly peaceful moment considering just a few moments ago they had been sparring.
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She waded in somewhat deeper, until the water came up to her knees, and turned to him. Barely hiding her grin, she leaned down and splashed water into his direction. They'd come to have fun, hadn't they?
Tony gave her an exaggerated look of shock and horror as she splashed him with water. There was no way Cat had just done that. That was downright playful of her.
"I know you didn't just splash me," he said, crossing his arms. "I'm sure it was just some wayward dolphin or something."
Cat nodded very earnestly. "Of course it was."
She took another step forward and then another one until the water reached to mid-thigh. With a last glance over her shoulder to Tony, she dived head first into the waves, coming up a moment later spluttering and shaking her hair out of her eyes.
"Right, because otherwise it meant you were being playful," he said as she dove into the water. "And that would mean the world was ending."
He watched her come up out of the water and tried not to stare too much. Not that he felt anyone could blame him for staring, really. A moment later he dove into the water as well, swimming a ways out before coming up for air.
"Wow, the water is wonderful."
Cat swam out until she couldn't reach the ground anymore even if she stretched and then stopped, treating water and looking at Tony.
"It really is." It wasn't too cold and held the same colour the ocean in those pictures she'd studied. And the view of the beach with the City behind it was breathtaking. Cat almost wished she had a camera.
Tony took a deep breath and dove as far under the water as he could and swam towards Cat. The water was clear and her skin pale enough that he could easily see her legs. Smiling to himself he reached out and grabbed an ankle, tickling her foot as quickly as he could before she inevitably kicked him.
And Cat did kick him for that. It was a mostly instinctual action, but she probably would have done it if she'd had time to think, too. "Tony!" she protested, splashing more water into his general direction.
She'd probably feel ridiculous thinking about this later, but for now, she was having fun and didn't much care that they were behaving like a couple of kids - or rather, teenagers.
The kick propelled down up and away and he still couldn't help but laugh as he surface, flashing her a smile as he began to tread water.
"What?" he asked, wide eyed and innocent as he got. "It was a playful dolphin, I'm sure."
Cat rolled her eyes at that, but stop the grin playing around her lips. "I'm not buying the innocent act, Tony." She figured she'd repay him in kind, though, diving under and grabbing hold of his hip and shoulder, pushing him under water.
Tony merely had time you yelp and take a breath before Cat pushed him under water. This was not a fight he could win, but at least he could have fun with it. Since he was already close to her he grabbed a hold of her and began to move his fingers over her sides. Maybe Cat was ticklish.
That earned him another shove as she quickly wriggled out of his grip, trying to suppress the sudden laughter. They should have bought the swimsuit that didn't leave her sides free, she thought. At least that one would have offered some kind of protection, if very little.
Tony surfaced with a broad grin on his face as he took several breaths of air. Now that was an interesting little secret.
"Hah," he cried, giving her a slightly predatory grin. "You are ticklish."
"I am not!" Cat glared, bringing a bit of distance between them. Merely a precaution, really. All the while, even with the glare, she couldn't stop grinning. When was the last time she'd just had fun like this, relaxing and laughing and not behaving her age at all? She couldn't remember and for once, her conscience didn't bug her about it, so she intended to make the best of it.
"Then come here," he said, crooking a finger at her as he began to slowly move towards her. Tony was enjoying himself too much. Any bit of awkwardness between them had vanished for the moment. He was just having a good time with someone he cared about. And it felt good.
"Let me test that claim."
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"I know, but you love it," he countered, picking up his pace a bit so that he could catch up to her. Not that she couldn't probably get away from him with ease. When he was close enough he reached out with his hands again, just about touching her sides.
"So," he said, only just now conscious of how very close he was to her. "Prove you're not."
Smiling, his fingers began to move lightly over her sides.
Cat bit down on her lower lip and looked away to hide the laughter that was bubbling up again. And for a while, she even managed to reign it in, but in the end, she didn't succeed. Giggling and laughing, she took Tony's hands in hers and pushed them away, pressing her head against Tony's shoulder to muffle the laughter.
She was aware of their proximity, but firmly told herself that it was all just friendly. She could have been doing the same thing with Tate - only she never would have, so that comparison didn't quite work out.
Tony just laughed as Cat finally couldn't hold out anymore and laughed into his shoulder. Which felt good. He was amazed at how good comfortable intimacy was with her when there wasn't a huge build up of sexual tension. Because there wasn't any tension like that between them right now, he told himself.
"I promise, it'll be our little secret," he told her, chuckling a bit in the vicinity of her ear.
"You better not tell anyone, Tony, or I'll catch you without the armor and hurt you!" She didn't mean that, of course, and her continuous laughter probably gave that away.
A little reluctantly, she moved away. It was the right thing to do, though. Keep this on a strictly friendly basis, because that was all they were. She looked back to the beach, realising that they had swam and drifted off quite a long way from the car.
"Hey, Tony." She threw him another grin. "Race you to the car?"
Tony glared at her for a for a moment, Cat knew very well that she could swim a hell of a lot faster than he could. Still, Tony was not one to back down from a challenge. He just needed a little incentive.
"What does the winner get?"
"I don't know, Tony. What do you think the winner should get?" Yes, she knew she could swim faster than he could, but it wouldn't be the first time he surprised her, so she didn't allow herself to count the victory as given. That kind of attitude only lead to mistakes.
"How about loser cooks a meal for the winner?" he suggested. He had no idea what her culinary skills were like though, so that might still be a punishment for him even if he did win. Still, it was the company more than the food that he wanted.
"It can even be Mac 'N Cheese if that's the limit of your abilities."
"I can cook," Cat said in an affronted tone, though she was still in too good a mood to really feel that way. Her mother and her grandparents had seen to it, though, that she while she'd never be a great cook, she could manage a passable meal without burning anything. "As long as you're not looking for five star cuisine, anyway."
Tony had had five star cuisine before and really, it didn't taste all that different from three star cuisine. Besides, it was the five star company that he really cared about.
"No, just a meal is all," he told her before giving her a wink. "But you'd better swim fast."
With that, Tony took off towards the car.
Cat opened her mouth, starting to say something, but instead shut it and dove into the waves, soon catching up and getting ahead of Tony. She didn't swim quite as fast as she could, but almost.
By the time she'd nearly reached the beach, there was a good bit of distance between them.
Tony swam at a steady pace, but certainly not as all out as he could have. It was evident fairly early on that he couldn't outswim her, she was just too strong and fast. But that was fine, Tony knew that his greatest asset was always his mind.
So when she was far enough ahead and almost to the beach he took control of the car remotely. It rose up quickly and flew over the water... right to Tony. With a smug smile on his face he reached up and touched the car.
"I win."
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Tony hung onto the car and just grinned as it headed back towards Cat. He didn't let go of it until he was close to her again. It really was unfair, but so was how adorable she looked standing there and pouting.
"Maybe, but you just said it was a race to the car. You should have been more clear."
Cat was still pouting and glaring at him, but she really didn't mean it. She could admit to being outsmarted, too. "Next time, I'll be more careful with what I say."
She shrugged, making her way out of the water completely. "So, guess I owe you a meal, huh?"
"Yup," was Tony's reply as he waiting in the water just a bit longer. Not because he liked the water but because he liked watching Cat walk away. Especially in that bathing suit. After a moment though he gave a reluctant sigh and got out as well, grabbing the towels from the now landed car and handing one to her.
"You can make it before one of the dancing lessons."
Cat took the towel from him, opening her braid and raking her fingers through the wet hair before rubbing it dry with the towel, leaving it to stick up from her head in weird angles. Why hadn't she brought a brush? She tried to smooth it down with both hands, finally giving up and just drying off the rest of her body.
"Okay. You gonna come over to my place, then, or am I just bringing the food over?"
"You can bring it over if you want," he told her as he did his best to dry himself off. He noticed her hair sticking up at some odd angles and stepped forward, combing his fingers through her hair to try and get it straightened out.
"It might be easier that way than having your roommates there while we're trying to dance," he added. "Or you can come over early and make it at my place."
Cat held herself perfectly still while he worked on her hair, though she couldn't quite decide where to look. Away? At his chest? Even though the latter was by far more tempting, she chose to stare over his shoulder at the beach.
"I guess I'll come over early. The food would only grow cold on the way to your place." And while she didn't think Squall would comment if they were dancing there, she still preferred Tony's place.
"Alright, coming over early it is," he said with a nod before finishing the final adjustments on Cat's hair. It looked a bit better. Not that she looked bad, of course. He didn't think it was possible for her to look bad. Reluctantly Tony stepped back once her hair was adjusted and glanced over at the car.
"Are you ready to head back just yet?"
Cat smiled a little, loosely tying the hair up in a ponytail again so that it would't get in the way. "Thanks," she uttered softly. It was nice, the way they were together right now. The easy companionship, the laughter... Cat enjoyed that, a lot.
"If you give me a minute to change back into my clothes."
"Alright, but if we wait just a bit we'll be able to see the sunset," Tony suggested with a bit of a shrug. As nonchalant as he seemed though he really hoped that she would agree to it. It seemed like the perfect ending to the day.
"And when was the last time you laid out at the beach and watched the sun set?"
Cat looked out over the sea. "I've never done that."
She smiled. Seemed there were a lot of firsts today - first time formal dancing, first time losing a sparring match with Tony, first time watching the sunset at th beach.
"I'll just change quickly." She threw Tony another glance and then disappeared into the car, putting on her dress again and folding the wet swimsuit into the towel so that it wouldn't drip on anything. She left her boots off, though. The sand was too nice to put on shoes.
Tony didn't sulk about Cat changing back until she was back in the car and out of sight, but he supposed that he couldn't blame her for feeling more comfortable in her regular clothes. Tony though was staying in his trunks.
By the time she had come out he had already found a place on the sand to sit and stare off towards the setting sun. Glancing over his shoulder, he smiled at her.
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Cat sat down next to him, not close enough that they were pressed up against each other, but close enough that their arms were touching. She smiled back at him. "I am relaxing and enjoying myself," she said truthfully.
It was getting easier to relax around Tony, too. Despite whatever awkwardness there might have been, she'd come to trust Tony. Not with everything, as her question whether he was human earlier on had shown, but with herself. And that was something she couldn't say about many people.
Tony made no move to press any closer to her, although he did enjoy the feel of her arm against his. It almost made him laugh, how he wanted to feel her close to him in some way that he would be be satisfied with her arm against his. But he was satisfied with that. Cat was the type of person where you were happy to take what she gave.
"Good, I'm glad," he said, and he really meant it. "I can't tell you the last time I just enjoyed myself before coming here."
Cat's smile widened. She was happy. It was a weird realisation, because she hadn't felt just content with things the way they were in a long time, always wishing for something else - wishing for a good friend, wishing for Bones, wishing for something.
Now? There were still things she wanted, but they didn't have the same urgency. She was happy to sit here with Tony and just watch the sun set, spar with him or dance or swim. The thought of Bones still made her sad, but it was more a regret that things had gone the way they had, no longer the intense feeling of missing a part of herself.
"We should do this more often," she said, quietly.
Tony was quiet for just a moment after her statement, not saying anything. She had made it clear that they wouldn't, couldn't, be anything more than just friends. But... couldn't they be very close friends? It wasn't as if Tony was unused to a situation like that, and some of his best friends came from relationships like that. And damn it, he really liked Cat. Really liked being with her and the way she made him feel.
"Yeah, we definitely should," Tony agreed, smiling a bit as he leaned over, playfully bumping into her.
His hesitation made Cat unsure - had she gone too far, asked for too much? Or did he not want to spend more time with her? She wouldn't blame him, she knew she could be a bitch and, hell, he'd blasted his own hand off because of her today.
Still, when he replied, relief flooded through her and made her feel lightheaded. She nudged him with her shoulder, the smile coming back to her face.
She leaned against him now, not saying anything, her head turned towards the setting sun.
Tony leaned back against Cat. For the time being he chose to just ignore any thoughts of awkwardness or "should we be doing this?" that came to mind. This wasn't going to lead to sex, neither of them would let that, so they could just enjoy the proximity of each other. Besides, it would ruin the moment if they weren't close.
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