𝐒.𝐇.𝐈.𝐄.𝐋.𝐃. 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐑

TONY

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'He seems to be on some sort of human coalition spree,' Maria shared the gathered information from the colossal number of images on the smart board of the deck. All of these people were of different ethnicities and seemed to have gone missing in action in the past few days of Tony's black market ordeal. 

For a while, Tony had thought wars were obsolete. Guns, ammunition, the arms race—they were all part of an elaborate plan that had collapsed to shit a long time ago. For one nation to claim another for selfish needs through war or intellectual domination seemed like another mode of inhumanity; when all of the intellect Tony had was used for supporting the youth and building a safer place for his legacy to have a home in. 

'He's got Kashmiris, crazy crack separatists, Basques and even radicals from Peru,' she pointed out to Tony, just as he flipped through the images like in an endless slideshow. Some faces he could recognize and some wandered on the lines of delinquency. Tony bristled at the thought of another blast taking lives because of his old deeds.

'It's like an ideological Benetton ad,' Tony replied under his breath. 'He's gonna use them for modding if it weren't clear earlier.'

'Apparently hating SHIELD and hating Tony Stark brings together folks of all shapes and colours,' Maria added in with a biting smirk. 'You're like his new Jesus.'

'Making me feel close to God,' he mused, a little full of himself. 'I like that.'

From his periphery, a familiar woman caught his eye. A blonde who had offered to help him find Elle and whose name he couldn't place had sauntered in the same way he'd seen her last, with a laptop in hand. Right behind her came wandered in Elle, her pin-straight brunette hair hanging down the sides of her face and her blue eyes glinting with the golden evening glow on deck. If it weren't for a disturbance in his sight, he would've continued to gawk at her. What made Tony do a doubletake was the fact that she had ditched her cane and was using another man's arm. Specifically, Lincoln bloody Campbell.

'He's salvaging equipment underground,' Maria continued, oblivious to the fact that Tony wasn't paying attention. 'He's picked up scraps from the junk but now —uh, Stark?'

He lept out of his trance, forcing his eyes back on the board in front of him. 'Yes. That's Director Stark to you.'

'Unfortunately, Director Stark,' she said pensively, opting to forget his choke up and focusing on the matter at hand, 'the trackers are yet to come upon the grid. So, we'll have to wait.'

'That's what I'm known for, Miss Hill,' Tony said dryly, once again merging his wandering gaze to Elle, who had was leaning her back onto the metal railings which over-looked the workspace beyond in the deck. Her face was lit with a smile brighter than a toothpaste commercial and flicked her hair onto one side which he knew was a sentient action. Beside her, Lincoln looked proud of himself as he shared something with a smirk and eventually getting Elle to let out that charming laugh that she was known for. 

'Monitor every Stark Industries facility in the world,' he murmured, moving his eyes back to Maria's ever-suspicious eyes. 'Take JARVIS. You'll need him for the big OP around the corner.'

'Yessir.'

It's not that Lincoln Campbell, an Inhuman who could manipulate electricity and SHIELD agent, was any sort of a threat to Tony Stark, the man who knew all and did all, but insecurities were unformidable. Jealousy was something he thought he would never experience after seeing Rhodey in his own suit, but Elle was evoking something different. No, it wasn't possessiveness, it was something more. He couldn't place it. It twisted his gut and curled in his lungs; it wasn't worth a term.

'I do this,' Tony watched as the Inhuman raised his hand and let hover midair over the glowing portion of Elle's annoyingly thin shirt, 'ten times the size of that, I could send you on overdrive.'

From the tip of his finger, a dull blue spark-ignited connecting with the arc-reactor on her chest. If he were nearer he would hear it fizz but the sensation made Elle shrink into her shoulders and widen her eyes with a gasp.

'What was that?'

'There's a lot more where that came from,' he winked with a dumb, blonde charm.

'Ooh,' she said, amused. 'Got to try harder than that.'

And that was Tony's cue to cut in. Quickly.

'Honey, you know I realized something,' he spoke as suavely as possible, catching Elle's attention simply. There was a glint of excitement that had returned to the once sickened blue eyes, a slender hand reaching out to coil with his. He used this moment to gauge the adversary's reaction, his visage still a savvy mask of coolness. 

'If the world didn't suck so much, we'd all fall off.'

Elle laughed in a sudden outburst of emotion, turning her head to press her nose into the side of his arm. Tony prided himself with her reaction, angling his gaze back on the agent ahead.

'Easy, Buster,' she whispered to him pronto. Her introduction was curt. 'Uh, Tony. This is Lincoln. Lincoln, this is Tony.'

'Agent,' Tony nodded, forgoing the handshakes and whatnot. 'I see you've met my modded miracle.

'Surely, Mr Stark,' Campbell nodded at him, unfazed by his presence. People usually took his every movement as an establishment of dominance. That either meant Lincoln was an overpowering asshole or a cerebral peacenik. 'I'm assigned to assist in this upcoming mission of yours. Honestly, it's such an honour.'

Without him even having to make a move, Elle had snaked a hand over his waist and slid her palm into the front pockets of his jerkin. Tony caught onto this, shaking his head at beating himself up for such childish jealousy to even evolve in him.

'I know you,' he murmured out, narrowing an eye. 'HYDRA hostage incident? That was you.'

'In the flesh,' the agent said shortly, cut by his choice of incidents. 'Obviously, that's the last thing you would associate with me.'

'Yes because initiating an attack on the Iliad with an Inhuman team is more exemplary,' Tony said, slightly jutting out his lips in a perplexed yet innocent gesture. He turned his gaze on Elle's cautious eyes, who was probably wondering what the hell was going on. 'Agent Campbell here is ever the diplomatist, and decided to serve—'

'Did I do something,' interrupted Lincoln, his back straightened from the rails and staring back at Tony, 'to offend you? Because if this is about that then that's just a low blow.'

'All right,' Elle cut in with a hand over Tony's energy core, eyeing him with a glare. She flashed the agent an apologetic smile. 'Tony's having an electromagnetic migraine,' she ground her teeth back at him, 'so I'll just take it from here. See you around, agent.'

'Eleanor,' he smiled at her, lithely touching her elbow before he departed. He had a swagger to his walk, fisting his hands into his sports jacket and disappearing at the edge of the wall. Tony heaved out a sigh of relief.

'You know, we don't need gun control. We need idiot control,' Elle mused, an unamused pout on her lips. 'By idiot I mean, Tony Stark.'

He sighed, letting the insult slide. 'I'm telling you, Elle, the dude was onto you.'

'So what, Tony?' She gritted out. 'I can handle myself. And it's nice to know you trust me enough to not take care of a weapon-savvy agent who was hitting on me.'

'I didn't mean it like that,' he attempted to reason with her but only making it worse.

'Oh enlighten me, then,' she crossed her arms over her chest in a challenge. Tony tried to shy away from the fact that she looked more distracting when she was angry, standing his ground. 'I hope it's along the lines of testosterone and alpha male syndrome.'

'Why,' he started but dulled back to a whisper when she arched a perfect brow. 'What, no - okay, somewhat. Wait, don't go.'

She stopped shuffling away, looking at him. It was his turn to apologize, shaking his head fervently to wad off the ego ascent. 'I'm sorry. I was being unreasonable.'

'Tony—'

'And hormonal. Happy?'

'Yep?' 

Both of them turned their gazes onto the crisp-suited Happy Hogan who had just entered the deck, clamping a hand over the phone indicating that he was on a call. 'What's up?'

'I can't deal with this presently,' she shook her head, diverting the topic. Tony mentally sighed when she did, thanking the Gods above. 'We've still got no leads on Zeke.'

'Stane,' he said gravely. 'I'd prefer you stay on a last-name basis with your old flame.'

She scoffed. 'What, you're jealous of my loopy, psychopathological ex now?'

'Well... it's within my rights as your husband—ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Owwwww. I'm so turned on...'

'Ugh.'

She let go of her muscle-ripping pinch of his bicep and he hissed, rubbing on the soreness. Elle pressed down on the bridge of her nose. 

'I have no idea how I'm going to put up with you in the future.' 

'As I said,' he said, a smirk lifting his lips. 'It's all about intercourse.' Elle raised her fingers to pinch him and he shrunk to correct himself, 'It's all about contact, I meant contact!'

She blinked, dropping her hand. 'Not once have you said that.'

'What I mean is,' he rolled his eyes. 'I voluntarily put Stark tech out there. And one way or another it has to reach him. It will.'

'I know.' 

She let out a breath, her palm edging to the skin beside the reactor and kneading it gently. Tony knew that look on her face, the one that may look harmless but that really had the power to warp space-time continuum. It was the mask of all over-thinkers and he was not going to lie, he prized his own.

Taking her hand into his own, he brought it to his lips to press a soft kiss over it. This directed her attention back on him, a soft grin on her face as her dense blue darkened a shade. Elle looked lost at that moment, in the feel of his eyes on her and comforted momentarily, knowing that she wasn't alone in this fight. She had been gifted with this human being; wild and kind, different from what she was accustomed to.

'I can not believe you were jealous of some dull agent,' Elle whispered, amused. She reached out to skim her fingers over his cheeks. 'I have eyes for one man only.'

He inhaled sharply. 'Yeah.'

'And you have my mind, body and soul,' she reminded him with a grin. 

'Tell you what,' he murmured, shuffling closer so that he trapped her waist into the bannister. 'We'll do a getaway after this. For as long as you want. I promise—no suit, no garages. Just us, twenty-five by eight.'

She considered her option with a purse of her lips, snickering lightly. His heart stopped the second time that hour when her lips broke out into a gleaming, toothy smile and nodding in acceptance. 'Sounds transcendent.'

He blinked in confusion. 'This goes both ways, Elle.'

'As in?' She laughed. 'I'm making no promises.'

He was quick to fire back. 'So if the world was in a hand-held deal with aliens, you'd leave me alone on Bora-Bora and go write a story?'

'Without a doubt. You know I love you, though.'

'I was starting to overlook that. Reminder?' He lengthened out, leaning closer to steal a kiss to which she placed a finger over his lips and pushed him back. He was disappointed for a second, before rearranging his face into monotony. 

'Absolutely not,' she refused, 'seventy pairs of eyes and a world to save. Sleep on that.'

He showed his teeth in a try-hard gesture. 'With... you?'

'Your mother swallowed you, Tony.'

∞

[ update (18.01.2020): edited! ]