Innocent Bystander | T. Stark ✔️

twelve ▼ a cloud of smoke

Juliet had never felt more exhilarated and terrified all at once. Living under the same roof as Tony meant seeing him and feeling a rush of mixed emotions every time.

She liked him. After the night of the party, she was willing to admit that. Admitting it meant ceaseless wondering and contemplating. Relationships always made her nervous; she never knew what would happen or how long it would last. There were too many questions without answers.

The next day, the two spent the morning dodging each other. Or, more accurately, Juliet spent the morning dodging Tony. She wanted to see him, she wanted to feel the wave of happiness she had when he held her hand; she just couldn't fathom how to approach him.

"Hey, Jules."

She looked up from her book to see Tony standing in front of the couch. Her heart thundered with excitement at the sight of his grin.

"Hey, Tony," she smiled, closing her book in her lap.

"You know, I was thinking and there's ton of old archives at Stark Industries from all past the projects. If we went down there we might be able to find something on extremis."

She nodded her eager agreement, becoming excited for more than one reason. Any progress on their mission to find out more about extremis and what was going on would be a gift to her sanity. Besides, seeing Stark Industries sounded like an exciting trip.

"Let's go, metal head."

▼

Stark Industries was massive. Juliet found herself becoming distracted by all of the state of the art technology the building housed, things that the employees probably thought of as normal and common. Everything was either colored bright white or deep black, from the leather sofas in the waiting areas to the shining floor tiles.

Happy met them at the front doors, greeting them after a young man with an unamused smile took Tony's car to park it.

"Tony," the man said with a wide grin. "It's about time you showed your face around here."

Tony clapped his shoulder as they passed through the glass doors into the cool atmosphere of the building. "I miss you, buddy. We need to catch up. Lunch, pedicures, the whole bit. But," Tony held up a hand. "Right now I need to look into something very important. Do you have a key card that'll get us into the old archives room?"

"Yeah, of course. I can get into any room I want-"

"That's great. I'm very happy for you and your new position, pal. But I'm going to need that key card."

"Sure, I'll take you guys down there."

Tony pursed his lips with a quick glance at Juliet. "I think we'll be alright, actually."

"This is my job, Tony. Let me do my job."

"You don't get paid to escort people around, I know that for a fact. Come on, give me the key card." Tony held out his hand expectantly. With a ragged sigh, Happy pulled his card from the front pocket of his shirt and held it out.

"Thanks, pal. You're a gem."

The room where all the old archives were kept was on the basement level. The elevator didn't go below the ground floor, so Tony and Juliet took the stairs in the drafty cement halls. The room was a small space filled with dusty filing cabinets and boxes.

"Scrapped projects from over fifteen years ago aren't important enough to be transferred to computers, so they stay in paper files," Tony explained as he held the door open for her. She was aware of how close she was to him as she passed him and entered the room.