livingmyths | 011: Embarrassed

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011: Embarrassed

I'm feeling really pretty foolish today, but, judging from the other things I saw, at least I wasn't the only one and I was luckier than some people.

Abby, thank you for taking such good care of me. And please forget everything I said about - well, about practically everything.

Mr. Stark, I'm really sorry I didn't show up to work yesterday. I know it was supposed to be my first day and all, but I... really wasn't myself. I'm at the library right now, but if you still want me I can come today.

Anybody else, well, I'm kind of gonna be working in the most out-of-the-way places I can in the library.

And is it really true that Ianto's gone? He was so nice to me. I'm gonna really, really miss him, if it's true.

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"Well, it might take a while to explain them all," he said with a chuckle as the armor started to disassemble and he reached for his normal clothes.

"But we can definitely make a start of it."

She laughed in delight as the armor came apart and narrowly managed to keep herself from reaching out to touch the golden sheath that covered him.

"Oh, I like that! It's like magic. Is it magic?"

Tony gave a bit of a snort at the mention of magic, although he was slightly flattered that it was so incredible she thought that's what it might be.

"No, it's not magic," he said. "The individual pieces of armor have tiny repulsors on them that let them fly. My car works on similar technology."

Rain thought lots of things were magic. And hoped lots of other things were.

"You have a car that flies?"

The delight and excitement of that was clear on her face.

"I do," he said with a nod. "We'll have to go for a drive sometime. We can get far enough away from the City and you can drive it. It's a lot of fun."

Tony pulled on the last of his clothes and the golden skin disappeared back into his pores. The Iron Man armor was also full assembled off of him and Tony couldn't help but have it turn and wave to Rain.

She smiled. "Oh, that would be wonderful! If you really don't mind."

Her eyes went wide when the armor waved to her and she looked quickly between it and Mr. Stark, suddenly uncertain of what her mind and eyes were telling her despite what she'd seen.

"I wouldn't mind at all," he promised her. "It would be fun."

He turned and watched the exchange between Rain and the armor, finding the situation slightly surreal as he could see it through both his yes and the armor's.

"There's no one in there," he said, remotely flipping up the face plate of the helmet to reveal the empty shell. "But I can control it remotely. Think of it as a very fancy remote control car."

Rain beamed. "I would like that then!"

When the faceplate flipped up she nodded. "There's nothing in there - it's not thinking anything. It's just... strange to have my friend wave to me when he's not really there."

Tony realized that Rain was still having a bit of a problem reconciling the fact that he was Iron Man. Well, that was fine, sometimes Tony had trouble with that fact.

"I could always put an image of myself inside of him, but I don't think that's what you're talking about."

It was hard for her to explain how it felt.

"No, it's... I don't hear him there. I hear you, but you're not in there, you just..." she rubbed at her head. "I don't know. It's like a thread between you, maybe?"

"That's probably because we are connected," he told her. It might be easiest for her if he explain how he was different.

"My brain, my entire body, is literally a computer. I can connected to computer devices with my brain. So even right now, I could be typing things out on my computer and flying my car. I connect to the armor in the same way."

She wondered if she listened hard if she'd be able to tell if Mr. Stark was doing any of those things. But that would be terribly rude of her to do.

"You're a computer?" she said slowly. "You... you sound different, but you don't feel like a machine. I don't - didn't - think I could hear machines, but I can hear you."

She shook her head. "Magic is easier to understand."

"Not a literal computer," he said, pausing a moment to think of how he could explain it. "More like my brain is compatible with computers and I can connect to them. I'm still very much human, just not in the exact same way everyone else is."

Tony chuckled a bit and shook his head. Dr. Strange might disagree with her.

"I promise, magic has rules and laws the same as science."

"Like you have a connection to everything built in," Rain said slowly and nodded. "That makes sense."

She laughed. "Magic is like science? I know if you do magic, the old ones always say you have to behave the right way but nobody said it's like science."

"That's exactly it," Tony said, glad that she understood.

"Well, don't you have to behave the right way to make science work?" he asked. "Some of the people I've met, like Thor, do magic so instinctively that they don't realize they're following the laws. People like Doctor Strange are more aware of it though."

"No, like behave right," she said. "Like be a good person and not use it to hurt people or bad things will happen to you. You don't have to be a good person to do math or something."

After a moment she added, "But I guess bad people do magic stuff too and they hurt people so... I don't know. It's all very confusing."

"I don't think that magic is good or bad," Tony said. "I think like most things, it's just something that you can use for good or bad. I could be wrong though, I'm no magician."

In reality, Tony hated magic. Mostly because he couldn't do it. He understood science. He could do science. Not so much magic, though.

"Oh, before I forget, I have something for you," he told her, waving her to follow him. "It's in the workroom."

Rain nodded. "Me neither. Sometimes I imagine I am, though."

"For me?" her eyes widened. "What could you possibly have for me?"

"You can read emotions," Tony reminded her. "If you practiced, you might be able to do more. You'd be like a magician."

Tony led her back into the workshop area of his apartment, which was the one place that was perfectly immaculate, even with all the tools and equipment that was there. He grabbed a batter off of the workbench and handed it to her.

"This is for you."

"I could be like a magician?" Her tone was awestruck. "But I'm not supposed to listen. It's rude."

She took the thing he gave her, turning it over in her hands. "Thank you," she said. "What is it?"

"If you practice more, you could probably control it better," he told her. "And use it to help people. You could find missing people or maybe even learn to use it to send calming thoughts to others."

Tony reached out and pressed both ends of the battery, which caused the little nub on top to flash.

"It's to keep you safe. If you press both end of it, it turns on a signal to me. If you're ever in danger or need me, you press it and I'll know where you are and come to you."

"I'd like to help people," Rain admitted shyly. "I really really would. You think I could do that? Calm people and find people and things?"

Her eyes went wide and she stared up at him in disbelief. "For me? You'd come find me if I was in trouble?" She held it close to her chest. "For reals?"

"I think there's no telling what you could learn to do if you practiced," he assured her. "And I know from experience the more people practice, the easier it gets for them to block things out."

Tony just smiled broadly at her and nodded. She really had no idea how special she was. "I would do everything I could to come help you if you were in trouble, Rain."

That sounded promising. "You mean, if I learn more about what to do I won't listen accidentally so much? That would be good. But how do I practice? I can't just go listen to people!"

She stared at him for another moment and to her great dismay and embarrassment, felt her eyes begin to fill. "Thank you," she whispered, holding onto it tightly. "Thank you so much."

"We'll figure out something," he assured her. This was more something that Sue or Charles could help with, but Tony wasn't going to just sit by and do nothing.

"You're welcome, Rain. It's the least I can do, I don't want to see anything bad happen to you."

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