[1] Lions Inside | Tony Stark

twenty six

[Jade]

The following couple of weeks had been going great for Jade's healing, it even got so good that she could walk on her own and hide the slight limping she had received.

Even though everything seemed to be as great as it could be something still lingered in Jade's mind, and she knew it lingered in Tony's too. After she woke up neither of them spoke of the kiss that had happened just before the battle, and this is what made their silence awkward. Both knew about it, but neither of them wanted to be the one to bring it up. This made Jade start to feel trapped in her own home.

She had barely gone out alone in her human form since she met Tony and that made her think about challenging herself. The only thing keeping her from walking out of the door was her fear of being discovered, though that seemed both less and more plausible. Threatening Ryder to leave her alone made it less plausible, but teaming up with the Avengers made the chances go up a pretty big amount. Though at this pace she would choose getting discovered over the slightly awkward moments with Tony.

She walked over to where he was working on a new suit, and by now that collection was just getting bigger and bigger.

"I need some money." The question stopped Tony's movements and he looked up at her in surprise.

"Money? What for?"

She took a deep breath, knowing this would be the last chance to back out, but she had to. She couldn't just depend on going around with Tony for the rest of her life.

"I want to go out, maybe buy something for myself. And since I don't have a source of income I hoped I could borrow some money from you?"

He looked taken aback for a second, knowing that she had never asked for money before this day since he usually asked Jarvis to order things or just bought them himself when he was in town.

"Yeah, sure." He picked up his wallet from his pocket and she could see he tried to look casual while he spoke. "Where do you plan on going? Maybe a secret rendezvous point? How much do you need? Do you want me to come with you?"

"No I- I want to this myself. I need to do this myself. I can't just stay inside for the rest of my life, I have to start doing things by myself."

He gave her a worrying look but agreed to let her go with a nod as he handed her the money. She could only stare at the number in awe, 100.

"This is too much."

Tony just smiled and waved his hand at her as if to say 'you don't know what you're saying'. "I'm Tony Stark, honey. I don't think giving you that will lower my net worth."

"I don't even know what to do with this much money."

By now Tony had turned back to his suit and looked it over as his hand search for the right tool so he could fix whatever the problem was.

"You already said it, go buy something nice for yourself."

She gave him a smile before walking out of the room. She stared at the money in her hands as she took a deep breath. Is she really doing this? Yes, yes she is.

-

Walking through the streets of New York was something she had never done before, at least not in this scale. She still felt hesitant being with so many humans while not knowing their intents, but she calmed down once she realized how many people just didn't care.

At first, she didn't dare to go further than a street or two away from the tower and only going into a small clothing store when there seemed to be little to no other costumers inside. But after some time she gathered enough confidence to go further away after several times telling herself 'You've fought with the Avengers and you even have superpowers! Why would you ever feel afraid of going into some stores without anyone else?'.