Fic: In Another's Eyes (Chapter Four
Title: In Another’s Eyes
Fandom: The Avengers (AU-Cinematic Universe)
Characters: Antonia “Toni” Stark, Steve Rogers, others.
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Toni/Steve
Warnings: Mentions of Non-Con, bondage
Summary: A stalker is targeting Toni, which skews how she sees herself and how she allows others to see her.
( Chapter One) ( Chapter Two) ( Chapter Three)
Chapter Four:
Steve sat down on one of the bar stools around the island and watched as Toni looked through her cupboards. Watching her cook was like watching her down in her workshop. She moved quickly but efficiently, gathering everything she needed from one section before moving onto the next. She grabbed vegetables, herbs, noodles, hamburger and started combining things together in pots, pans, blenders. She had skills with a knife; frankly, it was quite terrifying.
“Have you read my file?” she asked as she worked on chopping some tomatoes.
“Can’t say that I have,” he admitted. Someone had offered to let him see said file, to “let him know what he was getting into” but he had declined. He liked finding things out on his own.
“Good,” she continued. “It’s all crap anyway. I would know, I put it together. Do you like garlic?” Before he could answer, she picked up a clove and peeled off the skin. “About… two years ago? Yeah, it was about that. I got kidnapped. Stark Enterprises sold weapons back then, I was demonstrating one and the military convoy I was with took a hit… I took one too.” She tapped the blue light with her knife before starting to chop the garlic. “This arc reactor-that’s what it’s called, by the way-doesn’t just power the Iron Man suit. It keeps the shrapnel, from one of my own weapons, from moving into my heart and killing me.” She tossed the garlic into a blender with the tomatoes and some cooking wine, giving it a few quick pulses before dumping it into a pan on the back of the stove. “Take it out and I might last an hour. Used to be ten minutes, but I’ve made some upgrades since then.”
“My god, Toni,” Steve managed to say. “How the hell did you manage to install that thing?”
“I didn’t! Not the original, that was another guy…” She quickly grabbed an onion and started chopping it. “Fellow prisoner, Doctor Ho Yinsen… he did it. All I did was figure out a better power source.” She was crying-probably why she started chopping onions, so she could hide it-but Steve knew better than to point that out when she had a knife in her hand. “He helped me build the first Iron Man suit! We were supposed to be building a Jericho, that’s the missile I was demonstrating, for this terrorist group. Called themselves the Ten Rings. Catchy, eh?” Steve shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t want to make it for them, told them to fuck off…” Her chops became slower. “But they were able to talk me into it.” Steve’s jaw dropped slightly.
“You mean they..?”
“Yeah, they did,” she said quickly. She turned towards him, looking like she was fighting to maintain her composure. “You’re the only other person alive that knows that. I swear, if Pepper or Rhodey try to get me to open up about this, I will skin you and turn your hide into stilettoes.” She was pointing the knife at him; definitely terrifying.
“Won’t say a word,” he promised. He felt sick to his stomach; those bastards had raped her until she agreed to make the missile. He felt his hands clenching into fists, his knuckles turning white… her voice snapped him out of it.
“Yinsen died to get me out of there.” Her voice was soft, sorrowful. Never before would Steve have imagined such tenderness to come from her. “The last thing he said to me was that I was given a second chance… and I better not waste it.”
“Wow…” Toni went into a silent cooking mode for a few minutes, stirring the tomato concoction, adding elbow noodles to a pot of boiling water, frying the hamburger. Steve couldn’t help wondering if he should get her to say more; had she ever talked about this before? Would it help her any? Before he could say anything, she started talking again.
“I got home and shut down the weapons division of Stark Enterprises,” she informed him, still cooking away. “A lot of crazy stuff happened in there that I won’t get into-guy I thought I could trust tried to murder me and steal the company, met Coulson and Fury, told the world that I was Iron Man…”
“Why Iron Man?” Steve asked suddenly. “Not trying to be… what’s the word, sexist? But… Toni, you’re a girl.”
“Hard to tell in the suit though!” she said with a laugh. “When I made the announcement, everyone was already using Iron Man. I thought it was kinda catchy, even if it wasn’t completely accurate, and… hell, I’m a Sabbath fan, so why not?” Steve made a mental note to find out what a “Sabbath” fan was (he was pretty sure it had nothing to do with religion, but that was it). “Before that though, the telling everyone; I’m at home. Obie-the guy I thought I could trust-had just gotten me shut out of my own company after I found out he was selling my weapons to terrorists. I’m on the couch, working on one of my gloves and on TV…” She shook her head. “What do I see? The same canyon I had been held captive in. People in the surrounding villages are being killed, their homes destroyed… and who else do I see? The same fucking bastards that kidnapped me.” She was quiet again, but just for a moment. “I won’t say I became Iron Man completely because I wanted to change, that I wanted to become a better person. Part of it was revenge.”
“Revenge?” he asked, trying not to sound judgmental. She didn’t seem to take it that way; just looked at him and smiled.
“Best form of revenge is success, ain’t it?” she asked. He nodded. “Since that day, I have been successful at saving the world. And that helps me. It gets me through most days.” Somewhere in all of this, she had strained her noodles, combined them with meat and sauce and layered the mixture with cottage cheese, topping the entire thing with parmesan and mozzarella. “Here y’are, Cap; Toni Stark’s Infamous Faux Lasagna. Bon Apatite.”
Steve had eaten many lasagnas in his day; how couldn't he growing up in Brooklyn? They looked nothing like the monstrosity Toni had placed in front of him. They had always been very neat and tidy (until you cut into them, anyway), but this was... glorified spaghetti. She had said "faux" though, meaning she didn't expect it to be just like lasagna, right? He needed to stop thinking about this and just start eating.
“Holy smokes,” he said, inhaling bite after bite of the pasta. “This is good!”
“Seriously, Cap? ‘Holy smokes’?” Toni asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. “Why not ‘Gee Wiz, Batman’ or ‘good golly, boy wonder’?” She was smiling. There’s the Toni I know, Steve thought as he watched her giggle at him. There was the confidant woman who wasn’t held back by her sexuality, the fighter who was barely two thirds his size but more than willing to go toe to toe with him on any day, the girl who cussed and (occasionally) drank like a sailor and deep down was really just one of the boys… the Toni that he couldn’t help falling for.
“Shut up, Toni,” he replied without really thinking about it. She looked shocked at first, but started laughing before he could apologize.
“Oh man, you’ve never told me to shut up before! That was my first time. Have you ever told a woman to shut up before?” He shook his head, watching her collapse back in her chair in faked exhaustion, moaning slightly. “God, was it good for you too?” Steve rolled his eyes at her.
“You do stuff like that to get a rise out of me, don’t you?”
“Of course I do.” He looked at her, surprised; he hadn’t expected her to admit it like that. “This may come as a shock to you Captain, but you are an attractive son of a gun.” She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the counter and her chin on her knuckles. “Even more so when you blush. Why the hell wouldn’t I?” He just stared at her, completely aware that he was not only blushing, but his jaw was hanging open. She reached over and ruffled his hair, still smiling. “And now that I’ve broken your brain, I’m going to bed. Don’t clean up in here, the dishwasher might take your arm off, I’ll do it in the morning. There are plenty of bedrooms throughout the house, but the one across from mine is open if you’re really paranoid. Night Cap!” It took him a moment to process all that and she was almost out of sight when he finally had.
“Hey, Toni!” She stopped, turning back towards him.
“Yeah?”
“I… thanks for dinner. You’re a great cook.” She smiled, nodded once and went to her room. “Smooth, Rogers,” he whispered. “Real smooth.”
Fandom: The Avengers (AU-Cinematic Universe)
Characters: Antonia “Toni” Stark, Steve Rogers, others.
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Toni/Steve
Warnings: Mentions of Non-Con, bondage
Summary: A stalker is targeting Toni, which skews how she sees herself and how she allows others to see her.
( Chapter One) ( Chapter Two) ( Chapter Three)
Chapter Four:
Steve sat down on one of the bar stools around the island and watched as Toni looked through her cupboards. Watching her cook was like watching her down in her workshop. She moved quickly but efficiently, gathering everything she needed from one section before moving onto the next. She grabbed vegetables, herbs, noodles, hamburger and started combining things together in pots, pans, blenders. She had skills with a knife; frankly, it was quite terrifying.
“Have you read my file?” she asked as she worked on chopping some tomatoes.
“Can’t say that I have,” he admitted. Someone had offered to let him see said file, to “let him know what he was getting into” but he had declined. He liked finding things out on his own.
“Good,” she continued. “It’s all crap anyway. I would know, I put it together. Do you like garlic?” Before he could answer, she picked up a clove and peeled off the skin. “About… two years ago? Yeah, it was about that. I got kidnapped. Stark Enterprises sold weapons back then, I was demonstrating one and the military convoy I was with took a hit… I took one too.” She tapped the blue light with her knife before starting to chop the garlic. “This arc reactor-that’s what it’s called, by the way-doesn’t just power the Iron Man suit. It keeps the shrapnel, from one of my own weapons, from moving into my heart and killing me.” She tossed the garlic into a blender with the tomatoes and some cooking wine, giving it a few quick pulses before dumping it into a pan on the back of the stove. “Take it out and I might last an hour. Used to be ten minutes, but I’ve made some upgrades since then.”
“My god, Toni,” Steve managed to say. “How the hell did you manage to install that thing?”
“I didn’t! Not the original, that was another guy…” She quickly grabbed an onion and started chopping it. “Fellow prisoner, Doctor Ho Yinsen… he did it. All I did was figure out a better power source.” She was crying-probably why she started chopping onions, so she could hide it-but Steve knew better than to point that out when she had a knife in her hand. “He helped me build the first Iron Man suit! We were supposed to be building a Jericho, that’s the missile I was demonstrating, for this terrorist group. Called themselves the Ten Rings. Catchy, eh?” Steve shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t want to make it for them, told them to fuck off…” Her chops became slower. “But they were able to talk me into it.” Steve’s jaw dropped slightly.
“You mean they..?”
“Yeah, they did,” she said quickly. She turned towards him, looking like she was fighting to maintain her composure. “You’re the only other person alive that knows that. I swear, if Pepper or Rhodey try to get me to open up about this, I will skin you and turn your hide into stilettoes.” She was pointing the knife at him; definitely terrifying.
“Won’t say a word,” he promised. He felt sick to his stomach; those bastards had raped her until she agreed to make the missile. He felt his hands clenching into fists, his knuckles turning white… her voice snapped him out of it.
“Yinsen died to get me out of there.” Her voice was soft, sorrowful. Never before would Steve have imagined such tenderness to come from her. “The last thing he said to me was that I was given a second chance… and I better not waste it.”
“Wow…” Toni went into a silent cooking mode for a few minutes, stirring the tomato concoction, adding elbow noodles to a pot of boiling water, frying the hamburger. Steve couldn’t help wondering if he should get her to say more; had she ever talked about this before? Would it help her any? Before he could say anything, she started talking again.
“I got home and shut down the weapons division of Stark Enterprises,” she informed him, still cooking away. “A lot of crazy stuff happened in there that I won’t get into-guy I thought I could trust tried to murder me and steal the company, met Coulson and Fury, told the world that I was Iron Man…”
“Why Iron Man?” Steve asked suddenly. “Not trying to be… what’s the word, sexist? But… Toni, you’re a girl.”
“Hard to tell in the suit though!” she said with a laugh. “When I made the announcement, everyone was already using Iron Man. I thought it was kinda catchy, even if it wasn’t completely accurate, and… hell, I’m a Sabbath fan, so why not?” Steve made a mental note to find out what a “Sabbath” fan was (he was pretty sure it had nothing to do with religion, but that was it). “Before that though, the telling everyone; I’m at home. Obie-the guy I thought I could trust-had just gotten me shut out of my own company after I found out he was selling my weapons to terrorists. I’m on the couch, working on one of my gloves and on TV…” She shook her head. “What do I see? The same canyon I had been held captive in. People in the surrounding villages are being killed, their homes destroyed… and who else do I see? The same fucking bastards that kidnapped me.” She was quiet again, but just for a moment. “I won’t say I became Iron Man completely because I wanted to change, that I wanted to become a better person. Part of it was revenge.”
“Revenge?” he asked, trying not to sound judgmental. She didn’t seem to take it that way; just looked at him and smiled.
“Best form of revenge is success, ain’t it?” she asked. He nodded. “Since that day, I have been successful at saving the world. And that helps me. It gets me through most days.” Somewhere in all of this, she had strained her noodles, combined them with meat and sauce and layered the mixture with cottage cheese, topping the entire thing with parmesan and mozzarella. “Here y’are, Cap; Toni Stark’s Infamous Faux Lasagna. Bon Apatite.”
Steve had eaten many lasagnas in his day; how couldn't he growing up in Brooklyn? They looked nothing like the monstrosity Toni had placed in front of him. They had always been very neat and tidy (until you cut into them, anyway), but this was... glorified spaghetti. She had said "faux" though, meaning she didn't expect it to be just like lasagna, right? He needed to stop thinking about this and just start eating.
“Holy smokes,” he said, inhaling bite after bite of the pasta. “This is good!”
“Seriously, Cap? ‘Holy smokes’?” Toni asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. “Why not ‘Gee Wiz, Batman’ or ‘good golly, boy wonder’?” She was smiling. There’s the Toni I know, Steve thought as he watched her giggle at him. There was the confidant woman who wasn’t held back by her sexuality, the fighter who was barely two thirds his size but more than willing to go toe to toe with him on any day, the girl who cussed and (occasionally) drank like a sailor and deep down was really just one of the boys… the Toni that he couldn’t help falling for.
“Shut up, Toni,” he replied without really thinking about it. She looked shocked at first, but started laughing before he could apologize.
“Oh man, you’ve never told me to shut up before! That was my first time. Have you ever told a woman to shut up before?” He shook his head, watching her collapse back in her chair in faked exhaustion, moaning slightly. “God, was it good for you too?” Steve rolled his eyes at her.
“You do stuff like that to get a rise out of me, don’t you?”
“Of course I do.” He looked at her, surprised; he hadn’t expected her to admit it like that. “This may come as a shock to you Captain, but you are an attractive son of a gun.” She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the counter and her chin on her knuckles. “Even more so when you blush. Why the hell wouldn’t I?” He just stared at her, completely aware that he was not only blushing, but his jaw was hanging open. She reached over and ruffled his hair, still smiling. “And now that I’ve broken your brain, I’m going to bed. Don’t clean up in here, the dishwasher might take your arm off, I’ll do it in the morning. There are plenty of bedrooms throughout the house, but the one across from mine is open if you’re really paranoid. Night Cap!” It took him a moment to process all that and she was almost out of sight when he finally had.
“Hey, Toni!” She stopped, turning back towards him.
“Yeah?”
“I… thanks for dinner. You’re a great cook.” She smiled, nodded once and went to her room. “Smooth, Rogers,” he whispered. “Real smooth.”