Stark Apartment, Saturday Evening, 10/9

[tyler_gone]

Tyler had, it seemed, hit the stage of advanced old age when a really good Saturday night meant three beers and online poker with a table of suckers.

The upside: He was up a couple hundred bucks, so the night wasn't a total waste. And then he clicked over into his email.

Homecoming. Huh.

"Tony?" he called into the other room. "How are you feeling about Fandom?"

[OOC: For that guy, NFB.]

Comments

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"What about it?" Tony asked, not even looking up from his own email. It might have been a scathing response to someone questioning his math.

He was a petty man sometimes.

[tyler_gone]

"Homecoming is weekend after next," Tyler explained, scratching the back of his neck. "Want to go, see if there's any werd-ass invasion?"

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

Tony paused at that. "Are you asking me to be your date?"

[tyler_gone]

"... does that mean I have to buy you a corsage?"

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"I think it does, Tyler."

[tyler_gone]

"And here I thought you were a cheap date, Tony." Tyler had gotten pretty good at imitating Tony's inflections by now. "Fine. You get a flower. No limo."

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

And that was how you knew it was pretty much an old married couple. "I hope you don't expect me to put out then."

[tyler_gone]

Just don't tell them that.

"You can wait until prom for that," Tyler said, waggling his eyebrows. "Can I feel you up during the slow dances?"

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"That," Tony said with a careful pause. "Would depend on how spiked the punch is."

[tyler_gone]

"High school dance," Tyler reminded him. "Kids are slipping if they don't have it spiked by halfway through the first set."

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"Then you can count on my attendance, but you get to tell Pepper why I'm skipping a technological conference."

...yeeeeah. They lived with a special kind of repression to not notice they were pretty much married.

[tyler_gone]

"Okay." A beat. "Why are you skipping a conference to go to a high school dance in bumfuck, Maryland?"

Consider it a point of personal curiosity.

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"Because that idiot Hammer is going to stalk me the entire weekend if I go."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler groaned. "I could send some people over to talk to him, you know."

Because that would end well.

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"He'd only take it as a reason to keep digging. His latest attempts at the suit have been worse than possibly imagined."

Because he was an idiot.

[tyler_gone]

"Worse, like he's going to hurt himself, or worse, like he's getting close?"

Tyler was finally turning away from his computer.

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

Tony was mostly still glowering at his computer now.

"His last test pilot survived." There were things there between the lines.

[tyler_gone]

"Oh." Tyler heard some of those things, yes. Not all, but enough. "Couldn't you throw a patent infringement lawsuit at him to slow him down?"

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"Unless he steals the actual designs, no," Tony replied with a grimace. "And I doubt the military would be willing to press him to stop."

[tyler_gone]

"Not from what I know of the military," Tyler agreed grimly. "Unless you want to get into sabotage" -- which Tyler wouldn't rule out, but then, there were test pilots to worry about -- "I guess all you can do is wait, huh?"

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"Yes." Tony went silent for a moment before pushing away from the computer to pace between his chair and Tyler's.

"I could ask Rhodey to look into things, couldn't I?"

[tyler_gone]

"You could," Tyler said, resting his arms on his legs and leaning forward toward Tony. "What do you think he could do?"

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"See if they're looking to hire him at least." Maybe. Tony stayed by Tyler and bit down on the inside of his cheek, thinking it over.

"Homecoming. Yes, that would be good."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler looked worried just for a moment longer, but wasn't quite sure how to put it into words. "You could say hi to Steve, anyhow."

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"I could." Because it was always good to make Marvel 616 worried again! "And you can remind me how your former classmates are in gradeschool."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler raised his eyebrows. "The last of them finally graduated. It's all people who only know me as a respectable teacher now."

"... don't laugh at that. It'd bruise my self-esteem."

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure you're very respectable." Really. You could tell from the amused look.

[tyler_gone]

"Hey, I haven't embarrassed you lately."

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"We have time for that to happen," Tony pointed out.