Another Avenger: Firefly

10

I was sat across the table from Tony who had calmly pulled me away from the fireplace when I didn't give him an answer. For a while, he just sat there looking between me and my hands as if he were trying to make sense of what he'd just seen.

"Show me." He said, pointing to my fingers. When I didn't move he repeated himself.

"Show me Clarissa or I swear to god-"

"Show you what?" I asked innocently, acting as though I hadn't done anything wrong.

"I'm not blind, I know what I saw." He said as a dark shadow started to appear across his eyes.

"I think you're mistaken." I said casually, leaning back against the chair and admiring my nails.

"So you wouldn't mind if I told the others about my little confusion?" He asked, trying to alert something in me. I met his eyes quickly.

"Go for it." I said, not afraid. I knew they wouldn't believe him over me even if they'd known him longer.

"Maybe I'll tell Cap first, he seems to get on with you well." He sat back and looked slightly above my head "I'm sure he'll find it charming to know he's been lied to yet again, by you."

"Lied to? Again? Tony what are you on about?"

"Miss Clarissa Birdy, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, 24 years old." He said quietly.

"What's that got to do with me lying to Steve?"

"You may have fooled Natasha, and believe me that's a hard thing to do so needless to say I'm impressed but you can't lie past me."

"I'm not lying about anything." I said, slowly becoming unnerved by his words. The waver in my voice caught his attention and his eyes snapped back to mine. The intense stare was once more enough for me to look away from him and fiddle with nothing on the table.

"So you're telling me you've been an agent for 7 years? From England? Brought in at 17 by Coulson and Fury personally?"

"Yes that's exactly what happened." I said confidently.

"Hm-" he smiled. I could tell he had something up his sleeve and I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to receive it.

"What's going on Tony." I said to break the long pause he had intended for.

"It took me a while to realise who you were at first actually. When you first approached us on the hellicarier I didn't even recognise you."

"So we've met before?" I asked, trying to recall ever meeting him before New York,

"Not exactly. You see, 7 years ago was about 3 years before I became Iron Man and I was at the prime of my life. Partied, drank, made a bunch of money. But I was still in the weapons buisness. I was trying to make the most powerful weapon I could so that we would never need to fire more than one shot before the enemy were down-"

"What's this got to do with anything?" I leaned in, intrigued by his story. He came forward and faced me so that there were only a few inches between us.

"I researched endlessly for different forms of weaponary and machines so that I could out-do them. During my research I came acrossed a classifed file detained by the C.I.A that was never released to the public. Of course with my skills, it was easy to access." His slow warm breath against my face was driving me to the verge on insanity in the moment. I just wanted to slap the smug grin off his cheeks and get to the point.

"So?" I asked impatiently. As if it were possible, he moved even closer to me and grabbed my hands, giving me a very clear fake smile.

"The file was about a young girl. Her name was L.A. Palmer." He pronounced every word clearly as he watched the information sink in. I could feel my face drain of all colour while his smile slowly dissapeared. I'd given him the reaction he'd wanted. Snapping back to reality for a moment I pulled my hands out from his and lifted one of them swiftly to swing across his face. The sound of my palm coming into contact with his skin was enough to wake up every single person in the house, but for the moment I didn't care.