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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"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."

She nodded. "Okay," she said. "I trust you."

She smiled up at him. "So if bad men come I can get help. Thank you!"

He smiled back at her and nodded. "Yes, if the bad men come you can get help."

Turning back to his workbench, Tony pointed at his computer monitor.

"Take a look at the screen here, I want to show you something."

She moved over towards him to be able to see the screen. "Okay."

Tony tapped a couple of keys on the keyboard and adjusted the depth on a nearby microscope and on the screen of the monitor popped up something that looked like a small ball with dozens of tiny little string coming out of it, all of them waving about.

"It's a nanite," he explained. "It's actually a robot. A tiny robot that's smaller than a single blood cell."

Rain watched the strings move with huge eyes. "It looks alive," she breathed.

"Not quite alive, just programmed," he said. "I'm trying to perfect them so that you can inject them into your body. If you get a cut, then the nanites could seal it up. Eventually they could even find cancer and destroy it."

She looked up at him, eyes wide again. "You could cure cancer? Someday? With your little robots? Oh, Mr. Stark!"

"That's the idea," he said, nodding. "Or at least one of them. But it's still very complicated and a work in progress."

"Can I help?" she asked. "With anything? Even tiny things? What you're doing is so important, I just... you shouldn't pay me to clean up and things. I'll do it just to help and find another job-job somewhere else!"

Tony couldn't help but smile again. She really was a sweet person, always thinking of others.

"Rain, I wouldn't have offered to pay you to clean my place if I didn't think you would do a job worth paying for," he told her. "If you want to help beyond that, I can definitely find things for you to do."

011: Embarrassed

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