Who: Katou and Tony When: Recently Where: Air What: Flying Rating/Warnings: Lowish, warnings for Katou’s mouth Status: Complete
The first few days after Katou’s sister had gifted him a motorcycle, Katou had absolutely ridden it to school and had been glad to do it. It was exciting and kind of awesome. But Katou had to wake up a whole lot earlier in the morning if he intended to get to school by driving there, and it wasn’t long before Katou decided that flying to school really was the easiest way to go about it. Sure, it was kind of tiring flying all that way, but it was a more leisurely trip than when he was stuck in early morning traffic, and it definitely made him feel less like murdering people first thing in the morning. And he managed to get to sleep in longer.
He was lazily flying home from school now, in no real rush. He made sure to keep above the cloud cover, two of his wings flapping slowly to keep him aloft, and the third being used almost as a rudder of sorts.
Tony’s scans of the area had picked up a small(ish), unidentified object. It looked like a person. With wings. But couldn’t be, could it? Then again, this was Orange County. It could have been anything. So he donned the suit to go investigate one morning. It was a short flight, and then his viewfinder zoomed in.
Seriously?
“You some kind of angel?” Tony asked after flying closer. He kept the visor down.
Katou pulled up short when… something came at him. He hovered in the air, taking a long look at the guy. Or machine. Whatever the hell it was. He kind of hoped that it wasn’t some new secret government droid that was checking the skies, because getting into it with the government seemed like kind of a pain in the ass. “You some kinda robot?” he asked after a moment.
“Some kind.” Tony replied. He turned to hover, too, using the foot propulsion to keep himself upright, the hand propulsion to keep himself steady. It was getting easier and easier to control the suit, the more he Dreamed. He raised an eyebrow, though, of course the younger man couldn’t see it.
“This some sort of Valarnet thing?” Tony added. “Because I know all about those.”
“You’re a sharp one,” Katou said, only a little mockingly. He had nearly rolled his eyes, but it occurred to him that just because he didn’t know anyone with special powers who wasn’t also on the Network didn’t mean they didn’t exist. “Pretty sweet dream gift, wouldn’t you say? Take it the tin man is a dream gift too?” He frowned. “Am I even talking to an actual person right now?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Tony said, turning a slow circle around the other man. He was scanning the wings, the prostetic… and he was impressed. “What is that? Your arm. What’s it made from?” Not of this Earth, was it?
Katou glanced at his arm, though he knew exactly what Tony was talking about. “Iuno,” he said, shrugging, palms facing the sky, his prosthetic limb moving just as smoothly as his natural one. “Magic and angel dust for all I know. I just got it installed, it’s not like I built the damn thing.”
“Came from your Dreams, then? Or is there someone around here who dabbles in magic and angel dust?” Tony asked, his voice coming out a bit mechanical through the suit. He was very interested in the other man’s arm--wanted to bring it to his lab so he could x-ray it.
Katou raised an eyebrow, and then reached for a cigarette. He managed to light one and put the rest in his pocket without dropping anything, which was kind of a relief. He’d dropped cigarette packs from the sky before and it was always kind of tragic. “Who the hell’s asking? Momma always told me not to talk to robots.”
“I’m Iron Man. Jesus, man, you don’t know who Iron Man is?” Tony asked. He was going to have to do something about that. Could he do something similar in this world that he did in his Dreams? Get in the press, start the superhero gig, make a name for himself? Maybe. Maybe not.
“I’m gonna have to talk to those PR lackeys about this.”
Katou eyed up the man in the iron suit, and then it clicked. This was that one superhero they were making all the movies about lately. Caleb had actually mentioned that he worked for this guy. He’d even camped out in his body for a bit.
It was a little disconcerting knowing there was some movie character in front of him. “Right, right, you’re that dude who does that thing, ain’tcha?” What that thing was, Katou wasn’t really sure. “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard of you. Your little outfit thing come from the dreams too?”
“That dude who does that thing.” Tony repeated, frowning. This wasn’t fun anymore. The interest he’d had in the guy’s arm and wings was… okay, it was still there. But he would really have to figure out how to get the name out there. It was weird to Dream all the time about living in a world where Iron Man is a household name, to waking up in a world where people didn’t even know who he was.
“Yes, well, the materials don’t exist in this world, so.” Tony shrugged. It was a little weird to see the Iron Man suit shrug.
Katou heard the frown in Tony’s voice, and he smirked. “What, am I wrong?” he asked innocently, taking a drag of his cigarette. He really didn’t know what Tony Stark and the Iron Man did, but he was mostly just teasing at this point. “My buddy says that he gotta wear your suit once.” While he’d been in Tony’s body. That detail wasn’t important right now. “You offering joy rides in that thing? Because that seems kinda badass.”
“Your buddy.” Tony asked. It wasn’t really a question, though. He didn’t quite believe it--but then again, there were a handful of people in Orange County who had had a chance with the Iron Man suit, so it was possible that this synthetic angel knew one of them. “No. No joyrides.” Tony was selfish like that. “What about you? You take people for rides?”
The grin that crossed Katou’s face at Tony’s question could only be described as ‘predatory.’ “Yeah I do,” Katou said, tilting his chin a little. “Why, you wanna take me for a spin? I mean, I usually don’t offer ‘til I see people’s faces, but for you, Tin Man, I’ll make an exception.” Then he winked.
Part of him wondered if he should be teasing his buddy’s employer like this, but then he realized that Tony Stark never need to know that Katou’s friend was Caleb. Besides, who fired people based on their friends anyway?
Tony nearly rolled his eyes. Okay, he did roll his eyes a little. “Pass. Thanks. But if you're ever interested in showing off that arm, I'd like to take a better look.” He would likely regret that offer if the guy was going to hit on him like that. Sigh. That was one of the only problems with being Tony Stark. Literally everyone wanted him.
“Why, so you can experiment on it?” Katou asked dryly. Why did everyone want to experiment on him? He frowned thoughtfully. “Though, guess so long as you don’t break it, you can look at it as long as you want. Provided I get something out of it.”
“No experiments, just observation.” Tony replied. He could absolutely understand where the kid was coming from. With an arm like that he was probably subject to a lot of speculation. Any scientist or inventor worth his salt would be interested. “And what would you want out of it?”
Observation? So what, he just wanted to look at it? He was looking at it right now. “A pile of cash,” because obviously anyone who owned something as big as Stark Industries had a bunch of it lying around. Probably in heaps in his living room so he could dive into them like it was autumn. Katou was about 90% certain that’s what he’d do if he had tons of money. “Or a ride in your nifty Tin Man cosplay. I’m fine with either.”
“I’ll consult with our accounting department, and get back to you.” There was no way Tony was going to let this punk kid anywhere near his suit. Unless it was on the other side of a blaster. But the gobs of cash he could probably swing. In the name of research, of course. “What’s your name, kid?”
Katou grinned. He hadn’t thought it would be that easy, but maybe now he could afford a bulletproof front window for his house. Going through three windows in less than a year was a little much, even for him, and cleaning it up was a bigger pain in the ass than he’d been expecting. “Name’s Katou,” he said. “I’m on that Network thingy if you wanted to set up a date.” Another wink.
“Pleasure, Katou.” Tony said, leaving his visor down. “I’ll be in touch. Fly safe.” And then he turned to fly back to Stark Tower, taking a long, roundabout way of it. He wanted to fly over the ocean for a bit, to meditate.