"Boss?" asked the AI out of nowhere.
"Friday?"
The young AI sounded unsure. Since Tony had her up and running, she had been dealing with the people in SI more than with him or his little team. She was still learning the ropes. Jarvis was teaching her a lot. Friday was growing faster than Tony would have ever thought possible. All of his AIS were like siblings and the genius was so very proud of his children.
"Miss Van Dyne is trying to contact you through Stark Industries' channels. She said and I quote 'Why did he give me his number if he never picks up the damn phone?'"
Tony took his phone out of his pocket and checked the screen quickly. Before the battle, he had been putting the sound off, asking as well for Jarvis not to notify him of any call or texts. It was not the place or time to be distracted by a telemarketer while all his attention should have been on the fight. To be fair, if one of those managed to get his personal number, they would deserve a conversation but also a hacking. They would be obviously too good just to work in that branch. After that, everything had just gone too fast to actually think about his phone. His own fault really. Hope had tried to call him five times already. She had probably given up and tried to reach him another way. They had to give it to her. It worked.
"Patch her through my phone baby girl."
Tony moved a little on the side of the group. His attitude was a little childish there, he knew that. His relationship with Hope was just starting again. The feelings were new, raw. This was a little thing he had just for himself for once. His friends would never get in his way or berate him for wanting another friendship or perhaps something more with Hope. The entire world always seemed to know everytime he was meeting someone, friend or foe. Privacy was hard to get by for him ever since his father had put him on that stage at age four with his little circuit board he had just built.
To have a relationship with Pepper had been easy in a way. Everybody was expecting it. Rhodey was almost pushing for it. Happy thought she was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Of course, Tony had had sex with his PAs before but Afghanistan had changed him. For the better he had hoped. In a way, they knew each other too much for the relationship to work out, he had realised that now. There was no mystery between them anymore, no little tit bits to find out. What she didn't know by herself, the press was happy to provide her. Pepper had seen too much during his infamous years to be surprised or shocked by anything he did.
Hope wasn't calling him for him, not in the way he would have wanted anyway. She needed to talk about Hank and what he had been doing being her back. It concerned them and what was happening right now. The timing was perfect. Tony could hear in her voice how angry she actually was. Shield was really making friends wherever they went apparently. Hope was already on their way to the tower. She wanted in.
"My father has created a suit that can be of help. My idiot of a father thinks I can't use it but what does that fool really know?"
Tony wasn't about to argue with her, especially considering how angry she was. He wasn't about to stop somebody from using a suit to fight their battles. He was using them himself on the regular, be it in a neat Armani suit or in the Iron Man armour. He would not be a hypocrite there but would always do his best to protect the people around him doing that though. Tony didn't care about the technology in itself all that much. Of course, he was curious about it. He was a scientist after all. He loved nothing more than losing himself in the research and the unknown.
Friendship and love had always counted more than anything else to him. Or the lack thereof. Building weapons at the age of twelve was to please his father. Whatever he did was never enough. It took Tony too many years to realise that his father would never love him, not the way it mattered anyway.
