Chapter 24

Tony has come down by the time she's almost done cooking. He sniffs the air with a smile before walking towards her and looking at what's on the oven. "Risotto, huh?"

"Yeah, you didn't have any mushrooms, so I made a simple one without it." She turned around, one fist resting on her waist. "You need to buy more vegetables. After all, you still have got the arc reactor in your chest."

He waves his hand. "Don't worry about it."

"I know you didn't want to go to the hospital at first because of how you thought you had more important thing to deal with."

"I did have other important stuff that needed my attention, don't you remember?"

"Yeah, you did. However, now you've got more time. Shouldn't you go to one, now?" Tony looks mulish, but she can feel an undercurrent of fear and worry. "Look, at least do a blood test and some x-rays to see how bad it is."

That does give her a reaction. He turns around, ignoring her to sniff more closely the risotto. She can't see his face, with him looking away from her, but she feels his guilt clearly. She doesn't know how to ask for more information, so she decides to give up and go with honesty.

"Remember how I told you I didn't like Obadiah because of the emotions he gave off?"

Tony turns his head around until she can see his profile. "Yes? By the way, it's a pretty wonderful ability. It would be perfect if we needed to know the intentions of others or needed to interrogate someone, because if you can know how they feel—"

He stops as he seems to realize what's she has been getting at. He turns around completely and looks at her, raising an eyebrow.

She nods. "I can feel your guilt. So, tell me what you know about your condition."

"Have I called it a 'wonderful ability'? I was lying, because that's not fair at all." Pursing his lips, he goes to grab two plates to serve the food. "I'm not that bad, actually. So you don't need to fret that lil pretty head of yours."

She deadpans at him. "I can tell you're lying."

"Ouch. I felt that lack of trust."

"I do trust you." She says with a smile. "If you can tell me, while looking into my eyes, that you are going to be okay and I don't need to worry. I'll trust you."

She will trust him, that's true. It will disappoint her, as it will show he doesn't trust her enough.

Tony looks unsure. He looks at her earnest expression and sighs. "There's nothing you can help with, though. You will probably feel frustrated. Still wanna know?"

"If the alternative is you suffering alone, then yes. Besides, even if I can't help you with whatever you have, I can probably help with the symptoms, right?"

Tony nods slowly with a slight smile before unbuttoning his shirt until they see the arc reactor. "See this chip here? Well, this is a palladium, and it's what powers the reactor into maintaining the shards from puncturing my heart. It's also slowly killing me."

She leans forwards, fearing to see the black veins she knows will soon appear when the toxicity is stronger. "It's poisonous, I get?"

"Yup." He says popping the 'p'. "But don't worry, I've got Jarvis running the data to see which other element could go instead of palladium."

"You can always try to discover another element," she throws the suggestion at him, wanting to know what he thinks about it. He just waves.

"Nah. First let Jarvis try."

She raises an eyebrow at him. "What are you going to do in the meantime?"

He shrugged as started serving the food. "Maybe try to do some good with my suit."

"Isn't it wrong of you to work with the suit when what powers it is the palladium?"

"Maybe, but I cannot do nothing, right?"

Rolling her eyes, she slapped lightly on his arm. "Create new things so your company's stocks don't plunge again. That will keep you busy."

"But that's boring. I just need to create new, better models for everything that's mainstream."

"If you really want something interesting. Try to discover an unknown element for you to play with. Or are you saying you can't?"

"Of course I can," he says, puffing up his chest. "And don't think I don't know what you're trying to do."

"What am I trying to do?"

"You want me to not wear my suit," he sounds annoyed.

She shakes her head, though he's not completely wrong. "I know it's now a part of you and futile of me to tell you what to do. But I admit, I wish for you to wear it less. Also, I don't want you to stress yourself while you wait for Jarvis' results. That's why I want you to keep busy."

"Oh."

"Oh, indeed."

He sighs before grabbing both plates and going to the table. "Okay, okay. I'll try to not stress myself and I'll tone down the use of the suit. A little."

She smiles, a touch exasperated, but still follows behind him. She sits on the leather-covered chair, the risotto in front of her. She kind of feels glad that she found the clean underwear inside the room Tony put aside for her as she can already picture feeling uncomfortable while sitting without it.

Tony's t-shirt is long, but not that long. And she hates the feeling of skin on leather.

"So, are we going to train with the new form you used?" Tony says as soon as he sits down. "I can send the info to Fury now, without adding the new moves you have of the new forms."

Humming, she eats a spoonful. She uses the time of chewing to think about what she wants to do next. "I think it would be better to print that info and give it to him, instead of sending it online. I don't trust what others would do if they find about what I'm capable of."

"But you trust Fury?" The doubt in his tone was palpable.

"No, not yet. He's a spy, after all. I trust he has got a bottom line and that he's paranoid and emphatic enough to understand my position."

"Huh. Well, those are you abilities so I will trust you will be safe wherever he sends you out to train."

She smiles at him. "Thank you for your trust, Tony."

"Sure, sure," he says airily, before clearing his throat and looking at her solemnly. "Now we've got another mission to do."

Wait. Hasn't she slept for, like, a couple of hours? How did they have a mission already?

"What is it?"

.

.

Reviews fill my soul with motivation! Also, if you wanna read up to 8 chapters ahead, go to my p-a-treon/JorieDS

Btw, I created a Twitter a while ago and I'm finally using it. If you want to read updates on my writing life, feel free to visit it: @DshaGuila