Fic: In Another's Eyes (Chapter Eight)
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.
Author's Notes: Sorry it took so long, Toni wanted a vacation and who am I to tell her no?
( Chapter One) ( Chapter Two) ( Chapter Three) ( Chapter Four) ( Chapter Five) ( Chapter Six) ( Chapter Seven)
Chapter Eight:
After sending Steve with a car to go round up the Avengers-“You’ll be gone two hours, tops! I will be fine by myself for two hours, Cap!”-and cleaning up the kitchen, Toni went about trying to figure out where to put people. It wasn’t that she didn’t have the room for the extra four people that were about to come live with her, she wanted them to be comfortable (yes, even Toni Stark can be considerate once in a while). Toni was about eighty six percent sure the Avengers would be staying long after this whole stalker thing was settled without asking Toni if she was okay with that. The remaining fourteen percent was split between them leaving for good (3%), leaving and coming back after realizing Toni’s place was much cooler (11%) or actually asking Toni if they could stay indefinitely (-89%). Therefore, she was keeping comfort in mind.
She was also thinking functionality; did she want Clint Barton shooting arrows at things in her front yard? No. Would she be okay with him shooting arrows at things in the backyard? Yes. Therefore, Clint needed a room facing the back lawn and, since she was nice, it might as well be one with a balcony for him to shoot from. She placed a sticky note with his name on a second floor bedroom.
Like Clint, Natasha needed a room facing the backyard for much the same reasons (just replace arrows with guns, throwing knives, anything with density that she can pick up). However, Toni liked Natasha much more than she liked Clint. Clint was like an annoying little brother (despite the face she was pretty sure he was older than her) who you only tolerated because your parents would kill you if you ended his existence. In this case, one needed to replace “parents” with “Nick Fury”, but the analogy was correct.
Natasha did help save her life and, believe it or not, was someone Toni could actually talk to. They never had deep heart to heart conversations or anything, but Natasha was the first person to go see Toni after the breakup with Pepper. If you were to ask her, she’d insist it was on Fury’s orders. Toni had a hard time believing, however, that those orders consisted of “Go to Toni’s place with ice cream and let her talk to you for four hours”.
And honestly, Natasha wasn’t as scary as all the boys thought she was. Of course, what boy in their right mind wouldn’t be afraid of a woman that could kill them in six different ways before her first cup of coffee? Toni admired this. She admired this so much, that Natasha’s room was not only on the third floor, but it commanded a better tactical view of the backyard. And it was diagonally above Clint’s room, in case Natasha wanted to kill him in his sleep. Or, you know, short sheet his bed or something. Toni giggled contently as she placed another sticky note on Natasha’s door.
Bruce’s room was on the same floor as Clint’s. She had already taken precautions and went onto the Think Geek website and purchased several Soft Kitty plushies. She smiled as she put one of the plushies on Bruce’s bed; that was a memory she’d never forget.
The fangirl squee she had to repress upon meeting Bruce Banner would have been one of epic proportions. She settled on “Dr. Banner, I’m very pleased to meet you. Your work is unparalleled… and I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.” The look Bruce had given her was one of complete confusion, but he still thanked her for the ‘compliment’.
The first time he “Hulked Out”, the two of them were alone in his lab (Banner had a lab and Toni had a workshop, yes they were completely different things and needed to be in completely separate rooms) and it had been over a toaster explosion. She didn’t have her suit and he had wrapped one of his giant hands around her and she was gasping for air. She liked Bruce; she did not want him getting shot at because of a small accident with the toaster that may have been her fault. She needed to calm him down and do it quickly… and she could only think of one way to do it.
“Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur…” She put a hand on his arm and stroked it gently. “Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr, purr, purr…” She had read Banner’s file; his oldest and dearest friend was a woman named Betty Ross and she was the only person who could calm the Hulk down. The only similarity between her and Toni was that they both had dark hair. Toni knew the Hulk was likely seeing her as Betty and thankfully, that was helping to relax him.
She continued singing until he had relaxed and was holding her very protectively. She managed to get to her cell phone and sent a text to everyone stating that she had things under control and if they did anything to screw that up, she would ensure that all the loud speakers played nothing but Barry Manilow for the next month. When Toni wrote up her report, she had left out the part about the toaster; she instead stated the cause to be ‘unknown, for I had walked out of the room and came back to enormous green rage monster’. No one, not even Fury, dared to call her on it.
She and Bruce had been friends ever since.
Thor was going to be easy to please; for him, she had chosen a room on the first floor. There wasn’t going to be a kitten waiting for him, or any animal really, but she didn’t have enough time to go out and get one and be back before Steve realized she had left. If Steve hadn’t been part of that, she honestly wouldn’t have cared and would have adopted the most adorable kitten or puppy available from the SPCA. But, Steve was. So she didn’t. Yet.
Like Clint and Natasha’s, Thor’s room had a view of the backyard, as well as a pair of French doors leading outside, right next to the pool. Thor had a tendency to not bathe daily. Sometimes he didn’t even bathe weekly. Toni was going to get the concept through to him; if not, the pool had chlorine and chlorine killed bacteria and she would have Cap throw him in if she had too.
Of course, Toni realized, this entire plan hinged on whether or not the pool was already clean. When was the last time that had been done? After placing a sticky note with Thor’s name on the door, she went out the back to investigate the pool. She made it two steps outside the door before being grabbed from behind.
***
“Toni?” Steve called as he walked through the door, the rest of the Avengers right behind him. It had taken about as long as Toni said it would for him to get everyone and come back, and less time for the team to drop their stuff on the floor and run through the house like children at Christmas, wanting to see what Santa Toni had left for them. Steve told them she was picking out rooms for them; where he expected grumbling, he received excitement.
“You don’t understand, Cap,” Clint had said, looking as though he was attempting to repress giggles. “Toni picks out awesome gifts.”
“I always assumed Miss Potts did that for her,” Steve admitted.
“Nah, Toni’s actually good about that kind of thing. Pep just makes sure she actually remembers to get something.” Honestly, that sounded about right.
“Lady of Iron!” Thor’s cry echoed quickly through the house and Steve may have knocked down Natasha-oh god, he was going to die-on his way to see what the Norse god was yelling about. Steve found himself in what he believed to be the room Toni picked out for him; just outside of two glass doors was the backyard, and Thor was running through them. That’s when he saw Toni; she was in the pool, clinging to the side like her life depended on it.
“Toni!” Steve rushed past Thor and over to Toni, lifting her out by the arms. “What happened??”
“It was him.” The icy emphasis on him told everyone who he was; the stalker.
“Fuck, Stark!” Clint exclaimed. “Are you alri-”
“No, I am not!” Toni yelled. “He was in my backyard!” She was shaking; Steve tried to put an arm around her, only to have it shrugged off. “Don’t.”
“What did he do?” Natasha asked, her eyes scanning the layout of the backyard.
“I was coming to check out the pool, make sure it was clean and everything and then he’s suddenly there and he’s got my arm twisted behind my back and his hands around my throat and then he’s like “hello, sweetie”, god I am never going to be able to watch Doctor Who again…”
“How did you get into the pool?”
“He fucking threw me in! He hit me over the head with something and threw me in!” She was pacing now, visibly upset. “How did he know, no one knows that…”
“Knows what?” Steve asked. He regretted it.
“That I can’t fucking swim.” Clint made the mistake of chuckling; Steve was unsure who pushed him in first, Natasha or Thor. Toni pushed her way past them all and into the house.
“Toni!” Steve called. He was ignored. He looked around, first at the backyard and then at his team. “Find out how he got in.”
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.
Author's Notes: Sorry it took so long, Toni wanted a vacation and who am I to tell her no?
( Chapter One) ( Chapter Two) ( Chapter Three) ( Chapter Four) ( Chapter Five) ( Chapter Six) ( Chapter Seven)
Chapter Eight:
After sending Steve with a car to go round up the Avengers-“You’ll be gone two hours, tops! I will be fine by myself for two hours, Cap!”-and cleaning up the kitchen, Toni went about trying to figure out where to put people. It wasn’t that she didn’t have the room for the extra four people that were about to come live with her, she wanted them to be comfortable (yes, even Toni Stark can be considerate once in a while). Toni was about eighty six percent sure the Avengers would be staying long after this whole stalker thing was settled without asking Toni if she was okay with that. The remaining fourteen percent was split between them leaving for good (3%), leaving and coming back after realizing Toni’s place was much cooler (11%) or actually asking Toni if they could stay indefinitely (-89%). Therefore, she was keeping comfort in mind.
She was also thinking functionality; did she want Clint Barton shooting arrows at things in her front yard? No. Would she be okay with him shooting arrows at things in the backyard? Yes. Therefore, Clint needed a room facing the back lawn and, since she was nice, it might as well be one with a balcony for him to shoot from. She placed a sticky note with his name on a second floor bedroom.
Like Clint, Natasha needed a room facing the backyard for much the same reasons (just replace arrows with guns, throwing knives, anything with density that she can pick up). However, Toni liked Natasha much more than she liked Clint. Clint was like an annoying little brother (despite the face she was pretty sure he was older than her) who you only tolerated because your parents would kill you if you ended his existence. In this case, one needed to replace “parents” with “Nick Fury”, but the analogy was correct.
Natasha did help save her life and, believe it or not, was someone Toni could actually talk to. They never had deep heart to heart conversations or anything, but Natasha was the first person to go see Toni after the breakup with Pepper. If you were to ask her, she’d insist it was on Fury’s orders. Toni had a hard time believing, however, that those orders consisted of “Go to Toni’s place with ice cream and let her talk to you for four hours”.
And honestly, Natasha wasn’t as scary as all the boys thought she was. Of course, what boy in their right mind wouldn’t be afraid of a woman that could kill them in six different ways before her first cup of coffee? Toni admired this. She admired this so much, that Natasha’s room was not only on the third floor, but it commanded a better tactical view of the backyard. And it was diagonally above Clint’s room, in case Natasha wanted to kill him in his sleep. Or, you know, short sheet his bed or something. Toni giggled contently as she placed another sticky note on Natasha’s door.
Bruce’s room was on the same floor as Clint’s. She had already taken precautions and went onto the Think Geek website and purchased several Soft Kitty plushies. She smiled as she put one of the plushies on Bruce’s bed; that was a memory she’d never forget.
The fangirl squee she had to repress upon meeting Bruce Banner would have been one of epic proportions. She settled on “Dr. Banner, I’m very pleased to meet you. Your work is unparalleled… and I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.” The look Bruce had given her was one of complete confusion, but he still thanked her for the ‘compliment’.
The first time he “Hulked Out”, the two of them were alone in his lab (Banner had a lab and Toni had a workshop, yes they were completely different things and needed to be in completely separate rooms) and it had been over a toaster explosion. She didn’t have her suit and he had wrapped one of his giant hands around her and she was gasping for air. She liked Bruce; she did not want him getting shot at because of a small accident with the toaster that may have been her fault. She needed to calm him down and do it quickly… and she could only think of one way to do it.
“Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur…” She put a hand on his arm and stroked it gently. “Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr, purr, purr…” She had read Banner’s file; his oldest and dearest friend was a woman named Betty Ross and she was the only person who could calm the Hulk down. The only similarity between her and Toni was that they both had dark hair. Toni knew the Hulk was likely seeing her as Betty and thankfully, that was helping to relax him.
She continued singing until he had relaxed and was holding her very protectively. She managed to get to her cell phone and sent a text to everyone stating that she had things under control and if they did anything to screw that up, she would ensure that all the loud speakers played nothing but Barry Manilow for the next month. When Toni wrote up her report, she had left out the part about the toaster; she instead stated the cause to be ‘unknown, for I had walked out of the room and came back to enormous green rage monster’. No one, not even Fury, dared to call her on it.
She and Bruce had been friends ever since.
Thor was going to be easy to please; for him, she had chosen a room on the first floor. There wasn’t going to be a kitten waiting for him, or any animal really, but she didn’t have enough time to go out and get one and be back before Steve realized she had left. If Steve hadn’t been part of that, she honestly wouldn’t have cared and would have adopted the most adorable kitten or puppy available from the SPCA. But, Steve was. So she didn’t. Yet.
Like Clint and Natasha’s, Thor’s room had a view of the backyard, as well as a pair of French doors leading outside, right next to the pool. Thor had a tendency to not bathe daily. Sometimes he didn’t even bathe weekly. Toni was going to get the concept through to him; if not, the pool had chlorine and chlorine killed bacteria and she would have Cap throw him in if she had too.
Of course, Toni realized, this entire plan hinged on whether or not the pool was already clean. When was the last time that had been done? After placing a sticky note with Thor’s name on the door, she went out the back to investigate the pool. She made it two steps outside the door before being grabbed from behind.
***
“Toni?” Steve called as he walked through the door, the rest of the Avengers right behind him. It had taken about as long as Toni said it would for him to get everyone and come back, and less time for the team to drop their stuff on the floor and run through the house like children at Christmas, wanting to see what Santa Toni had left for them. Steve told them she was picking out rooms for them; where he expected grumbling, he received excitement.
“You don’t understand, Cap,” Clint had said, looking as though he was attempting to repress giggles. “Toni picks out awesome gifts.”
“I always assumed Miss Potts did that for her,” Steve admitted.
“Nah, Toni’s actually good about that kind of thing. Pep just makes sure she actually remembers to get something.” Honestly, that sounded about right.
“Lady of Iron!” Thor’s cry echoed quickly through the house and Steve may have knocked down Natasha-oh god, he was going to die-on his way to see what the Norse god was yelling about. Steve found himself in what he believed to be the room Toni picked out for him; just outside of two glass doors was the backyard, and Thor was running through them. That’s when he saw Toni; she was in the pool, clinging to the side like her life depended on it.
“Toni!” Steve rushed past Thor and over to Toni, lifting her out by the arms. “What happened??”
“It was him.” The icy emphasis on him told everyone who he was; the stalker.
“Fuck, Stark!” Clint exclaimed. “Are you alri-”
“No, I am not!” Toni yelled. “He was in my backyard!” She was shaking; Steve tried to put an arm around her, only to have it shrugged off. “Don’t.”
“What did he do?” Natasha asked, her eyes scanning the layout of the backyard.
“I was coming to check out the pool, make sure it was clean and everything and then he’s suddenly there and he’s got my arm twisted behind my back and his hands around my throat and then he’s like “hello, sweetie”, god I am never going to be able to watch Doctor Who again…”
“How did you get into the pool?”
“He fucking threw me in! He hit me over the head with something and threw me in!” She was pacing now, visibly upset. “How did he know, no one knows that…”
“Knows what?” Steve asked. He regretted it.
“That I can’t fucking swim.” Clint made the mistake of chuckling; Steve was unsure who pushed him in first, Natasha or Thor. Toni pushed her way past them all and into the house.
“Toni!” Steve called. He was ignored. He looked around, first at the backyard and then at his team. “Find out how he got in.”