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Tweak says, "Make wishes on fall leaves."

Maya Jacobs is Felicia Hardy (crossyourpath) wrote in wariscoming,
@ 2012-01-04 21:15:00

Entry tags:

felicia hardy/black cat, pepper potts, tony stark/iron man

Who: Felicia Hardy, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts
What: Tony's got two beautiful women on his arm. Must be Tuesday
When: Not long after Pepper's post set up the meeting
Where: Some bar downtown
Rating: TBD, J for Jealousy and S for smug
Status: In Progress

Felicia really really had no wish to do this. To go with Tony and meet Pepper, have drinks while explaining just what the hell she'd found herself in the middle of. While he was all friendly with the woman that knew him better than anyone. The one he was supposed to wind up with after everything. Oh it wasn't perfect back home, nothing was. But Felicia should have thought about it before getting into anything with Tony. Redheads, like Mary Plain, like Pepper, redheads that were the ones the guys wanted to be with. The wives, not the blonde bombshell bit on the side that you never actually wanted as a girlfriend. This whole thing was going to be awkward and unpleasant and Felicia would fight the urge to scratch her rival's eyes out.

Because Pepper was a rival now. An annoyingly nice friendly pretty little redhead rival. The second annoyingly nice friendly pretty little redhead rival. But unlike Watson, this one had brains.

Rose of course told her different and Felicia loved her for it. But Rose was wrong, Felicia knew what she was to Tony, of course she did, she'd never expected more from Tony Stark than a fling, convenient booty call. Nothing more. Maybe they were friends, he was there for her when she needed it. When Danny was tearing her down for daring to try to help. Tony had been there for her. She'd cried on his shoulder more than once.

So she'd do it, she'd get in the limo, she'd drive to where Pepper was, help her pick out clothes that suited her and then she'd be the third wheel, edged out because now Pepper the peppy PA was here. Perfect Pepper that made Tony's life so much easier just by existing.

Still, Felicia dressed herself up. A black top and skirt combo that suited her very well and a jacket in a dark red. She looked good, she thought as she applied the last of her makeup and made her way out to the door to get in the waiting limo. Not that it would matter.

"So where is she meeting us?" she asked, sliding in beside Tony. If he wanted to make more of it than that, it would be up to him.

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builtwithscraps
2012-01-05 08:32 am UTC (link)

Though he was playing it entirely cool on the surface, Tony was more than excited that Pepper had been spit up by the seal. Disturbing imagery aside, Pepper had been a very important part of Tony's life before he'd turned up here. She had kept him in line and, maybe even more importantly, she seemed to know and understand him more than most people did. Whether or not that came with the job Tony wasn't entirely sure, but he liked it and he was about a hundred and ten percent convinced that there was not a single other person in the world that could take her place. And by claiming to be convinced of that fact, Tony was possibly - well, maybe possibly - willing to admit that he had tried to replace her. Ever since he'd gotten his money back, Tony had hired three different PA's, none of which had lasted more than a couple days at a time before he'd gotten exasperated with them and had dismissively given them a different position working alongside his other employees.

But now Pepper was here. She'd make things right again.

It wasn't just about the work either. Tony respected and cared for Pepper, which was more than he could say about most of the women he'd interacted with in the past. There was something special about her, something important ; Tony knew that much without question, because he felt a similar special importance with Felicia whenever he was around her, too. They were important women in his life and Tony was interested in seeing them meet for the first time. It was important that they did. It was even more important that they got along, because they mattered more to him than anyone else in this whole universe right now. Again: not something that Tony was going to up and admit right away, but there it was.

Dressed in an extremely expensive suit, Tony peered over at Felicia as she climbed into the back of the limo in a very attractive choice of attire. Flashing her a smirk, Tony extended the glass of scotch (also extremely expensive) that he'd poured prior to her dropping in her way before taking a drink from his own. "Not too far from here," Tony answered, tilting his head to the side to get a better look at the clothes that Felicia had put on. "Which is lucky. I want to see her as soon as possible for business reasons." Not because he had missed her. That would be silly.

...okay, fine. He missed her, but still. Shh.

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crossyourpath
2012-01-06 01:12 am UTC (link)

Business reasons. Sure that was it. Business. Not at all that Pepper Potts was the one woman that had ever gotten past the ego and gotten to know the real Tony. Felicia knew she'd come close a few times but now that Pepper was here it was gonna slip away from her just like it always did. So close to something good and as ever so far. But if that was the case why would he have invited her to meet Pepper, to come with him and help the woman settle in. If he was gonna just go running back to her, he'd never be so cruel as to make Felicia witness it happening would he? Either way she wasn't going to say no. If this was some plan she wanted to know.

And she wasn't gonna give up on this, whatever it was, without a fight.

Climbing into the car and taking the drink from him, Felicia promptly forgot all the reasons she'd been mad at him. That stupid smirk and the way he could just get to her without probably even planning it. Of course she knew it worked the other way round too. He couldn't stop staring at her which she had to admit she approved of. She just worried he was gonna do the same thing to the other women when they met her. She needed to know when Pepper was from. If she and Tony were an item yet, if Pepper wanted them to be and if Felicia needed to make her own intentions known. She'd do what she could for now of course.

She began by leaning over to get at some cashew nuts that had been placed on a little table at the side of the car giving him a wonderful view of her cleavage as she did. When she leaned back of course she was pressed a little nearer to him than she previously had been. "It's not too showy is it, I mean I didn't know where we were taking her for drinks and y'know, we have the money, we might as well look good for it."

Look better than her. Not that she was jealous of yet another redhead in her life. In her way.

Not at all.

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builtwithscraps
2012-01-06 05:09 am UTC (link)

She took the drink without protest. Good. They were going out for drinks, after all - there was no need for Felicia to hold out on the alcohol, particularly not when the alcohol in question was excellent in taste. A lot of things had changed ever since Tony had fallen through that seal. His fine choice in drinks of all shapes and sizes had not, which was something he considered a blessing more than anything else. Bar Pepper being here now, of course.

Thank you, you delightful, little cashews, Tony thought to himself, watching unashamedly as Felicia bent over to reach for the snack, leaving him with a fantastic view in the process. A little part of him was more than sure that Felicia had pulled that stunt on him on purpose, but who was he to complain? Did a homeless person complain when someone tossed a sandwich their way? Did a street performer protest when someone dropped a few dollars into their instrument case? Did a stripper build offense when one asked her for a lap dance that would inevitably put a wad of cash into her pocket? No, none of them complained. They all smiled, nodded, and said thank you and Tony Stark was going to do the very same whenever he found himself with a view like the one he was witnessing now.

A view that, unfortunately, ended far too soon for his tastes. He'd have to remedy that later.

"Showy? What? What's too showy?" Tony tried for casual and disinterested. "Oh, are we talking about your clothes? You look nice. It's a good look for you." The limo rounded a corner, bringing them closer to the cafe that they were due to meet Pepper at. Tony reached over and tugged at the collar of his suit. "I know I look fat in my Iron Man suit, but what about this one?"

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crossyourpath
2012-01-06 07:36 am UTC (link)

Well that had gone exactly as planned which she couldn't help but think helped her case. Could Pepper look as good as she could and did gentlemen really prefer blondes. Not that he was a gentlemen. ...well no that wasn't fair, he had his moments. He'd been there for her when she'd desperately needed a shoulder to cry on and he'd defended her honor. Tony Stark could be better than he liked to pretend sometimes. But Felicia needed to focus on more than that right now.

She shot him a dazzling smile as the limo turned the corner pulling along and up to the cafe where they were supposed to meet Pepper. He was all worried about how he looked in the suit and she couldn't help but be amused. If annoyed that he was worrying over his appearance for another woman.

"I usually look nice" she replied, ignoring the attitude he was trying to put across, like he didn't care. Of course he cared. She looked amazing and he knew it. As for him. Felicia reached over and fussed at the collar a little, setting it into its proper place. "You look fine, you look every dollar of what you paid for the suit. Happy? Or do you think Pepper will assume you let yourself go without her?" she asked, just a simple hint, without her was there a her. Was she about to go horribly third wheel?

Coming to a stop outside the cafe. Felicia Hardy took a deep breath to focus herself, and stepped out into the sunshine. Ugh, she was going to hate her, she was going to get to stand and watch a lovely sappy little reunion as Pepper assumed she could pick up where she left off with the boss. Who slept with their boss anyway? That was rule one of tacky no- no's.

Stupid redhead moneygrabbing little...

Ugh no, that wasn't fair either, she shouldn't assume. Tony wanted them to meet. He'd complimented her, he'd shamelessly stared. Maybe he wanted them to get along, maybe Pepper was like a sister to him and he wanted her to like his new girlfriend.

Or not. Not at all. In no way like a sister to him. Cousins maybe, weird creepy kissing cousins.

...Yeah, This could only go well

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_pepper
2012-01-06 08:47 am UTC (link)

Pepper was not entirely sure what to think right now. On the one hand... this place was insane - even if everyone was telling her the truth, and they weren’t actually insane, if all of this was true? Insane still fit as a descriptor, that was for sure. The more she heard them talk about it, the more convinced she became, though, that they were telling the truth. Too many of them were saying exactly the same things - if they were crazy or on drugs, wouldn’t there be at least a little discrepancy in their stories? Some detail one made up or left out that would be important, that would make the stories not match up? Something would have shown up, but so far there was nothing.

...and if she was honest, Tony’s presence actually made things a little clearer ...this time. Usually, he made everything infinitely more complicated than it had to be, and then threw some kind of weird logic at it once she finally had it sorted out, something that made it just that little bit less clear - but in this case, it helped to know that he was confirming all of the wild stories she’d been told when she first gotten here. She was sure he wouldn’t carry a joke on this long, and if he were drugged, surely she would have noticed the difference. He’d seemed normal - mostly. There was that little issue with the fact that he was apparently from the future, or something... that hadn’t made a lot of sense, but neither had much else, so she was assuming, for the moment, that the time-difference was part of this place’s general insanity.

Apparently it was a time-difference that made him go from kidnapped by terrorists and warlords in the middle of the desert somewhere to relatively safe, living in alternate-reality Lawrence, Kansas, recently returning to wealth - that was about the extent of what she understood the differences to be.

She stepped out of the glass cafe doors, into the frigid winter air (God how she missed home right now; even in the winter it was never this cold), when she saw the limo pull up, a smile already spreading across her face. Her eyes didn’t start to burn until the door opened, and she expected to see Tony stepping out - and instead it was that woman from the internet, the one who had said she knew Tony, and Pepper did her best to blink away the moisture that had collected at the edges of her vision (now was not the time to get sentimental and worry about you were kidnapped and I thought you were dead, not in the presence of one of Tony’s women), offering a different sort of smile, something a bit more professional and formal-social, bright but falling immediately back into her role as Mr. Stark’s Personal Assistant, meeting new people and making connections, no matter what sort of connections they were.

“Hello. Felicia, right?” That was what someone had said her name was, on that message board, anyway - she hoped he hadn’t been talking about someone else, but, well, times like this being accidentally rude wasn’t terribly inexcusable, she was sure. She offered one hand to the other woman, taking in her clothing with a very subtle glance; definitely Tony’s type, she’d been right about that, at least.

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