Office #18, Monday, All Day

[tyler_gone]

It was raining glitter in Tyler's office today. Not constantly, just occasional sprinkles of silver and purple that restarted every time he thought they were over.

Tyler decided this counted as a minor annoyance and settled in to work on his lesson plans for the next class, taking occasional breaks to glare at the ceiling and brush glitter out of his hair. It settled on his desk like shiny drifts of dandruff.

The office door was open.

Comments

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

At that, Tony did look over at him. "I have a reputation to that effect, yes. And I don't think the goatee quite works for the 'confused' spin."

[tyler_gone]

"Not really," Tyler had to acknowledge, not looking at Tony. He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling instead, spinning a little. He could deal with this, stay on the island and not leave until it was time to go back to 2018.

"Can you have Pepper find out if I exist in your world at all? Because if I do, and if they find me..." He let out a long breath. "There will be more issues than just me being a man."

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"Did you ever hear of me before coming here?" Tony asked. "I'm not exactly a low profile billionaire."

[tyler_gone]

"...no," Tyler admitted, reassured enough to finally glance at Tony. "And if I did exist in your world, I'd be 17 and would deny everything anyhow." Actually, he would probably lob a Molotov cocktail at the paparazzi, but no need to spook Tony with that.

"So what should I do?"

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"Nothing," Tony said after a moment. "It will blow over eventually. It's keeping them from talking about the dip in Stark Industry stocks."

Everything had an upside.

"And maybe it will get gossip columnists from wondering just when I'm going to settle down."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler gave a tiny nod in agreement. "I'll stay low and keep out of cities," he offered. "Cities in your world, anyhow. And we should probably not ..."

He waved a hand vaguely. "Experiment."

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

Giving him a thorough once over, Tony nodded. "Of course. I'll just tell Katie Couric we were practicing lines form a play."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler snickered a little. No one would buy that, but if Tony stuck to it, they'd quit asking.

"Can you at least buy up all the copies of the photos?"

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"They're already published," Tony replied. "It would look like I was covering it up to buy them now. Blood in the water to them. Trust me, I've dealt with these things since I was a kid."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler let out a long slow breath. "So you -- we -- just have to ride it out." That wasn't so bad. It sounded like he'd gotten out of the bodyguards part.

"I don't think anybody on the island will care, if they even see them."

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"We do," Tony said, smiling in a way that wasn't exactly happy. "You can keep the magazines if you want. Not every day you end up in them."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler pawed a magazine toward himself and looked at the photo again. "Nah. They didn't even get my good side."

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"Keep them," Tony said, brushing some glitter off his shoulder. "And--"

He frowned, very busy dealing with the glitter on his suit. This kind ofneeded time to get out.

"--sorry for the trouble on this."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler actually smiled at that. "I think I started things, so we'll call it good. Sorry you have to do the clean-up."

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"Pepper's dealing with the brunt of it for me," Tony replied loftily. "I'm just the playboy who can't keep it in his pants. Business as usual."

[tyler_gone]

"You decided to branch out from Maxim girls," Tyler agreed. "Business as usual."

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"It was the school teacher mystique," Tony insisted.

[tyler_gone]

"And I thought it was my pretty eyes," Tyler teased.

He should probably quit flirting if they were going to swear off experimenting.

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

Tony looked down, smiling faintly. "Those too."

[tyler_gone]

"We have to acknowledge all our good points," Tyler said, going only a little pink.

[OOC: Fleeing for a bit!]

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

Which Tony was kind enough to ignore. "I'll let you know if anything else happens."

[tyler_gone]

That got a smile. "Thanks, Tony."

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"Next time, just make sure there are no paparazzi around," Tony said, turning to leave.

[tyler_gone]

"Of course," Tyler said smoothly.

And he meant it.

Because there wouldn't be a next time.

Because no way in hell was he falling for Tony.

Right?