biggerstick | (no subject)

[closes his eyes and leans back, looking exhausted]

Agent Romanoff was happy to see me.

. . . what the heck did you say to her, Tony?

[opens his eyes and looks at him]

What? Nothing, nothing! She was proving a point, sort of. Let's face it, she's probably wanted to punch me since she met me a couple of years back. I'm honestly surprised it's taken this long.

That's right. Sometimes I forget you have a history with SHIELD.

She was working at Stark Industries undercover... probably for months. I don't even know why Fury wanted an eye on me to begin with, either because I was unpredictable or they knew about the palladium, or because he wanted to use me to figure out badassium. Maybe a combination of everything.

. . .

She didn't seem too happy to see Bucky.

Yeah, she knows about him. I don't know if she's met him or if she just has whatever SHIELD had.

It's fine though, I explained, she's smart. Once she gets to know him a little she'll be less paranoid.

She knows him. So I don't know about that, Tony.

I explained, she won't do anything. You can relax.

[ nods, though it's . . . not very relaxed. ]

[sits up a bit]

Honestly Steve, it's not going to be a problem unless— [stops, his eyes falling on the bracelet he's wearing. And then he practically jumps up, heading to his working area]

JARVIS new project. Steve, how do you feel about accessorizing?

Uh.

Are we making an incursion into the jewelry business, sir?

[Tony is already poking at a screen]

Yes, one is either a ring or a bracelet... or a subcutaneous implant, but that'd probably freak him out. [he turns to Steve expectantly] What do you think?

I think I'd like to know what you're thinking.

I miss Banner. He'd be following.

[points at the screen, but there's nothing coherent in it yet so he turns to Steve with a sigh]

I was thinking, Natasha isn't going to do anything unless Bucky suddenly turns into the other guy. And that's stressful for both of you because we don't have a time-frame for that. We can't mark our calendars and wait for it, and if it happens when you two are not in the same general area it's gonna get problematic.

So, I can make something. Simple technology, if Bucky's pulse disappears it can warn you. So, accessories. Are you following now?

I'm following.

Either ring or bracelet, your call. It'd go on the hand he's supposedly losing, and you can get whatever you want. I can have it warn JARVIS too, if you want.

You can draw them, make it something more personal than a high-tech alarm. Getting the specs ready will take me a few hours anyway.

[ raises an eyebrow a little at that suggestion, though his expression is mostly just considering. ]

. . . bracelets will be just fine.

Do you have somewhere else to be?

I'm all yours.

Seriously, draw them. JARVIS can scan it when you're done and save me the effort. Besides if you leave it up to me I'll just decorate them with Iron Man motifs.

Are you sure you don't wanna insist?

[ but he's already picking up his sketchpad and sitting down with it. ]

I can paint them gold and red.

[calling the bot in the corner]

Slick, come on time-out over. You're on cleaning duty, chop chop.

[ shakes his head with a small smile, settling in but not drawing anything just yet. ]

. . . if it alerts Jarvis, he just tells you?

Yeah, usually. I'd know as soon as you did. He could also sound an alarm but I'm not sure this is something we'd want made public.

...

Plus, if the alarm gets set off because he took it off it'd be embarrassing.