mrtonystark (mrtonystark) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-09-28 13:48:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, caleb rivers, tony stark (iron man), yue katou |
Who: Katou, Tony and Caleb
What: Examining Katou’s arm, gift Gauntlets
When: Late August
Where: Stark Tower
Ratings/warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete
Tony Stark was in his lab. Not his office, no, though whoever came to see him would have to walk through his office to get into the lab. The door was open, though, and only someone who was supposed to be there could get out on the top floor. When the kid came, the secretary in the lobby would walk him to the elevator and use a magnetic key card to signal the elevator to take him up to Tony’s floor.
Up inside his office, Tony was tinkering around with a pair of gauntlets that he was making for one of his employees. Caleb had been a good sport--he’d sat still and waited while Tony made a plaster cast of his hands, without asking a question--and he deserved to have these perfect. Tony continued to tinker, unaware that someone had joined him.
Katou had never really been in a building that looked as big and as flashy like this. If he was the kind of person to feel self-conscious, he probably would have felt it then. As it was, despite the fact that his grubby cargo shorts, worn out band t-shirt with a large hole held together with safety pins, and black bandana that held back his hair didn’t really mesh with the feel of the place, he looked almost bored, and he certainly didn’t look self-conscious at the uncertain look that the secretary had given him.
He walked through Tony’s office and through to the lab. As quietly as he could, which was surprisingly quiet despite the Doc Martins, he came up behind the scientist, leaned over his shoulder so his mouth was practically right next to Tony’s ear, and asked “What are you working on?”
Tony was right. Caleb was super curious to see what he had done with those molds of his hands. Life had been a little crazy lately with his new dreams. He had gotten a bit behind on work so unfortunately all his time at work had been used actually working. But now he finally had a spare moment to go up to the lab.
“You here boss man?” Caleb said as he entered the lab. When he glanced up he saw not only Tony but Katou. He gave him a nod though his brows were knitted together in confusion. “I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?”
Tony had invited Caleb up to the lab, so when the other young man came in and whispered in his ear, it was only a little disconcerting that the voice was wrong. But Tony had assumed it would be his young IT Employee. “You’ll see,” he spoke, not at all surprised by the proximity or sudden appearance of the voice.
Then Caleb’s voice came from the doorway, and Tony turned to look. Huh. If that was Caleb… His eyes fell on Katou and his eyebrow quirked. It was the only movement on his otherwise blank face. He’d have to up his game. “Damn it, Jarvis, why didn’t you tell me I had a visitor?”
An electronic voice sounded from a speaker on the wall. “I was instructed not to interrupt you while you were--”
“Fine fine, we’ll talk about this later,” Tony cut it off with a sharp voice and a wave of his hand. He turned around to face both young men. Then he paused as his eyes moved from one to the other. It was ironic that both were here to talk to him about similar things. His eyes moved to Katou.
“Welcome to my lab,” Tony said, and held out a hand to Katou.
Katou glanced from where he was at Tony’s ear when he heard Caleb’s voice, and he burst into a grin at seeing his friend. He hadn’t expected to see Caleb here, but it definitely made what was bound to be a boring way to make a pile of money a lot more interesting.
“Thanks,” Katou said, briefly paying attention to Tony as he shook his hand with his non-mechanical hand, though most of his attention was now on Caleb. “S’up man? What’re you doing up here?” he asked, as if Caleb, the employee, wasn’t supposed to be up there but Katou totally was.
Honestly Caleb had no clue what he was doing up there. Other than that Tony had asked for him to come up. “Beats me,” Caleb said with a shrug looking from Katou over to Tony. “What am I doing up here?” he asked beyond curious to see what those molds had been about. But then he looked back over at Katou. “What are you doing up here?” he asked because well Caleb worked there and Katou certainly didn’t. Unless he was getting hired? That’d be pretty awesome.
“Pouring scotch.” Tony said, motioning toward the wet bar. “Three, if you please.” Caleb could make himself useful while Tony examined Katou’s arm, then they could swap. Because Tony didn’t want to split his attentions between the boys, so they’d have to settle for one at a time.
“You two know each other?” Tony added, releasing Katou’s arm. He could examine while they talked. Then he could pay the kid, and pay him well. He wanted to hear the story, but maybe after the pleasantries had finished and they were all sipping scotch.
Sa-weet. There was nothing better than free booze, especially if he was already getting paid for his efforts. He held out his arm for Tony to examine. “The T-man here’s just checking out my arm. And he’s not taking it apart,” he added pointedly to the man. The last time Katou had run into an overeager scientist it had been in his dream, and she had decided that she absolutely had to dissect him to figure out how his new body worked. He wondered if she got the chance after he’d finally bit the big one. “Caleb’s a pal of mine.”
Okay then. Apparently his boss had called him up to the lab to pour drinks. Not that Caleb minded if he was getting one himself. But he wanted to know what the hell Tony did with the molds of his hands. “You know I work in the tech department, not bartending right?” Caleb joked but still poured all three drinks handing one to Tony, another to Katou and keeping one for himself.
“No complaints, kid, you're getting booze on the clock,” Tony quipped at Caleb with a smirk. Then he accepted the glass and stopped before seeing it aside. “Now, Katou, can you come step over here?” There was a machine with a camera on a long arm that would scan Katou and his appendage. “And tell me about your limb?”
Katou took his drink, thanking Caleb for it swirled it a couple of times, and then took a sip. He had to remind himself that he probably didn’t want to knock the whole thing in one gulp right now. He headed over to the machine that Tony gestured to, and positioned his arm on it. “Whatdya wanna know?” Katou asked, raising an eyebrow. “Some crazy angel built it for me after I gave her my old arm. It’s got blades and shit,” he said, extending his claws, and then retracting them again.
Tony had a good point. Caleb wasn’t going to complain about being able to drink on the job. Especially if he got to stay up in the lab and watch him examine Katou’s arm. “Fair enough,” Caleb agreed walking closer to watch Katou show off his kick ass arm. “As long as you don’t send me back to work,” he added with a sip of his drink.
Tony didn’t seem to be prepared for the extension of the metal claws. He blinked at them, a little surprised, and turned to adjust the machines scanning Katou. “Can you do that again, please?” The readings were interesting. Tony’s machines weren’t really capable of this. He wished more than anything that he had his lab from the Dreams. But still.
“Nah, I’ve got a present for you after this,” Tony added, turning his eyes to Caleb. He gave the younger man something of a smile, but then got back to his readings. “...so, this angel… used magic? Or technology?”
With a thought and a slight twitch of his fingers, Katou extended his claws once again, this time leaving them out. “Technology, pretty sure,” Katou said. “She was real into sciencey stuff. Built big flying vessels and dissections and shit. But angels all got astral powers, so she might’ve put some of that in it. I mean, I was kinda outta it when she installed it.” He frowned. “And let’s face it, even if I wasn’t, I probably wouldn’t’ve given a shit. Why’s he get a gift? I want one.” What did it matter if he barely knew Tony at all.
It was actually pretty interesting to hear about Katou’s hand. Caleb never asked him much about it. So he’d just eavesdrop on their conversation while he drank on the job and waited for his gift. “Because Tony likes me better,” he responded to Katou’s question. Although he wasn’t entirely sure that was true he had a pretty good feeling. “Does this gift have anything to do with that gunk you made me stick my hands in?”
“Because he never charges me big piles of money to participate in my experiments.” Tony said, finishing up the readings on Katou’s arm. “There. I think I’ve got all the information that I need on this. You can put those away,” he said, nodding to the claws. Then he started to close the scanning programs on his many, various shapes and sizes of screens.
“This does, indeed, have something to do with the gunk I made you stick your hands in,” Tony replied to Caleb, now moving over to a pair of metal gauntlets on one of the tables nearby. He brought them over to set them in front of Caleb. They were forearm-length, silver matte finish metal, and connected via thick, metal wires to a battery pack.
Katou retracted the claws, then turned so he was leaning against the machine that Tony had just used to scan him, one hand in his pocket and the other lifting his scotch to his lips. “Yeah, I could see that,” he said to Caleb, in regards to Tony liking Caleb more than he liked Katou. “Maybe you ought to see if you can get piles of money out of him too,” he added with a smirk.
The idea of sticking his hands in gunk didn’t sound particularly appealing though. Maybe if that’s what it took to get free gifts, he’d pass.
“He already pays me piles of money,” Caleb replied to Katou with a smirk. Because well he did get paid well and it was definitely more money than Caleb ever thought he’d see in his life.
Caleb’s eyes widened when he saw the gauntlets. “Can I put them on?” he asked Tony. He was pretty sure that’s why his boss had brought them out but still. “What do they do?” he asked his voice full of excitement.
“Absolutely.” Tony nodded, motioning toward the gauntlets. “There’s a belt with an energy pack that goes around your waist, that powers them. They can send out bursts of energy, or streams. You’ll need to practice with them to get the motions right before I’ll let you take them out of the lab.” He moved closer so he could help Caleb get the belt on.
Okay, those gauntlets looked pretty cool. Now Katou really was a little jealous. It took him a moment to place them, but then he realized that they were the same kind of gloves that had been part of the Iron Man costume.
He leaned against a counter, arms crossed, as he watched Tony help Caleb get outfitted out with the gloves. “So what, can he like, fly with those things?”
Caleb couldn’t wait to try them out. He let Tony help him put them on. Once they were on he heard Katou mentioned flying and that was enough for Caleb. He was going to try these bad boys out right now. He hit one of the buttons assuming it was to fly, only it shot a stream of energy right as his bro. “Shit! Sorry!” Katou’d be okay though right? The guy was tough.
Tony jumped a little as the energy burst flew across the room. He reached up and pushed Caleb’s hand down so it was pointing at the floor--safety first?--and then turned to make sure that the other kid was okay. Not killed or something. Because that would be really bad. Pepper would be very upset with him for killing someone in his lab. “You should be able to fly. Eventually. And use them in case of another alien attack, or… whatever. Are you okay, Kid?” Tony asked, concerned about Katou.
Maybe if Katou had been expecting to be hit by an energy beam, he could have dodged it. Or at least prepared for it. As it was, the beam hit him straight in the chest and sent him crashing into some equipment behind him.
Stunned, he laid where he landed for a couple of minutes while he caught the breath that had been knocked from him. Thank fuck he wasn’t a normal human anymore, because he had the feeling that that would’ve hurt a lot more. He sat up, gingerly rubbing his chest. “Yeah, fine,” he said, frowning to himself. Probably better than whatever it was he had landed on, not that he cared too much. “You both owe me drinks though.”
Technically they had both just given him a drink. It was Tony’s alcohol but Caleb had poured. Still he wasn’t going to argue with the dude he just hit with a blast of energy. “After work,” Caleb promised Katou. “Which I guess I should get back to?” he looked over a Tony ready to take off the gauntlets. As excited as he was about them maybe he should get used to them with less people around. “I’ll be back to try these later though,” he added with a smirk as he removed the gauntlets.
Tony motioned for Caleb to keep the gauntlets pointed down at the floor, then moved over to help Katou up off the piece of million dollar machinery he’d just turned into scrap metal. With the help of Caleb, of course. He gave the younger man a clap on the shoulder, glad to see that he wasn’t really hurt. Then he came back over to Caleb and nodded. “They stay in the lab. Until you’re proficient enough to take them out. And I’ll be the judge of when that happens.”
Katou snorted. When Tony was the judge of that. He shot Caleb a half-sneaky glance, one that said ‘I’ll totally help you take these out for a test drive at some point without the old man’ from behind Tony’s back, though if Tony happened to glance at him it would turn into a too-innocent whistle very quickly. Because man, Katou would love to go flying with Caleb at some point. “Well, if I’m done getting my arm checked out and being shot with shit, I probably oughtta go too. How do I go about getting my cash?”
Caleb just smirked in response. He would be up for sneaking them out with Katou, once he got a better idea of how to use them. He didn’t want to seriously hurt anyone. “Come on,” Caleb said to Katou slowly making his way out of the lab. “I can show you my cubicle on the way out.”
There was absolutely no way the kids would be getting the gauntlets out of the lab without Tony knowing. “You can check in with the receptionist in the lobby. She’ll have your check in five minutes.” Tony said, and motioned for them to head on out.