Second chances

He was just waiting in line for his turn when he saw her. 

Pink. Was the first thing that came to his mind. And then he saw the man dressed in all black a few feet from her, clearly a bodyguard of some sort.

A celebrity maybe. came next, because really, who else would dye their hair pink if not some bimbos pop star. 

“Next !”

Tony was quick to order his coffee, an Americano as usual. Like every morning when he is in town, he goes down here to run and then get breakfast in this coffee shop 2 blocks from his favorite park. Sometimes he would have some free time before he has to get back to the base so he would take a sandwich by the window with the day’s Times in hand. Sometimes he’ll get some treats for the team if they just came back from a long mission. But most times, like today, he just grabs a coffee to go and drive back to the HQ to finish one of his ongoing projects.

While waiting for the barista to process his order, he found himself looking at the woman once again. She is busy checking the display of different desserts they offer for the day, her eyes going back and forth between a strawberry cheesecake and a caramel crème brûlée. 

“You should choose the cheesecake, it’s one of their signature here” he surprised himself by saying. 

And judging by the look she gave him, he is not the only one. He didn’t let his shock show on his face thought. He gave her his famous cocky smirk, the one that used to make girls swoon back in the days. Before Pepper. His heart clenched at the thought.  Pepper is gone, stupid. His eyes darted quickly on her heart shaped face, finding the purple rhombus on her forehead. Weird.

“Pardon me?” She blinked at him. Twice. Not catching what he said.

“The cheesecake, it’s really good. A bit too sweet for me but I’m sure you’ll just love it.”

She arches a pink eyebrow at that, looking at him up and down as if judging if she should take his advice seriously or just ignore him. 

“And of course it has nothing to do with my hair color.”

“Of course not, otherwise I would have told you to take the Tiramisu. Nothing says subtle like the Tiramisu.” 

This time he could see the amusement dancing in her eyes. Green. Too green. How can eyes be this green. 

Tony could clearly see the bodyguard shifting slightly closer to her, he could feel his glare behind his shades burning a hole in his forehead. She took a look at the imposing man, clearly sensing his discomfort at the proximity of the stranger. 

He took a step closer to her, earning himself a snarl this time, and her attention back.

“I thought celebrities like to keep a low profile. Sunglasses, hoodie and all that”

“You think I’m a celebrity?”

This time she smiles openly at him, trying hard not to laugh at his ridiculous assumption.

“Are you not? I was thinking pink hair and a bodyguard, probably some pop star lost on her way to the NBC Studios. The Tonight show is two streets over sweetheart.” 

The door of the coffee shop chimed, and in comes another man dressed in all black, he took a stand next to the now closed door, his glare adding another hole in the back of his head.

“Make that two bodyguards”

“Do you always approach women in coffee shops to recommend dessert to them and talk to them about their supposed profession?” She asks with that ever present smile on her face. It’s crazy really, or maybe he is the one going crazy he doesn’t know, but the longer he looks at her the more he feels like her eyes become even greener.

“An Americano for Potts” called the barista. Tony handed him his card. “And give the lady a strawberry cheesecake on me please” he looks back at her with a grin “nah I just buy them their favorite dessert”

“That’s not my favorite dessert”

“We’ll see about that” this time she is the one taking a step closer to him.

“Are you always such an annoying know-it-all Mr Stark?” he took his card back from the barista, pocketing it as the young man is already busying himself preparing the next order.

“Well to be fair, there are few things on this planet that I wouldn’t know” he said with a shrug, the grin never leaving his face and took his coffee. “Enjoy your morning my lady” he said raising his drink for a toast, giving the two bodyguards a nod and a little wave on his way out, both responding with matching snarls. 

It’s only after he is back in his car that he realized that he didn’t catch her name, while she knew his. Not surprising really, everyone knows his.

ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

The second time he saw her, it was a coincidence just like the first time, but still in the same coffee shop two days later. She came in 10 minutes after him, he could see her from his favorite spot by the window come in with the same bodyguard, a quick look outside confirmed that the other one is waiting by a black SUV in front of the shop.

He was surprised to see her back here. After a quick google research on ‘celebrities with pink hair and green eyes’ all he managed to find was a gigantic list of people with ridiculous wigs and even more ridiculous eyes. None as pretty as hers. He thought about asking Friday to try to find her to abate his curiosity later this week, but now here she is coming his way with that little smile on her lips and her pretty too pretty eyes locking with his. 

“Mr Stark, is this seat taken?”

“Now it is” she took it without any more ceremony. Turning to her faithful shadow who keeps his ever present glare on his person. 

“Could you get me my order please Cat? Same as yesterday”

That picked his interest. He was here yesterday. Like almost every day. And he didn’t see her. Cat, as her mistress called him give her a sharp nod and headed for the counter. 

“You were here yesterday? I was here and I didn’t see you”

She arch an eyebrow “you wanted to see me ?”

“I’ll be honest I’m curious. You are not a celebrity”

She gives a little laugh at that. It’s a breathy little thing, but her eyes liven up even more. How is that possible. And she leaned a bit more towards him as if he was the one acting weird. And maybe he was. 

“Did you google me?”

“Well I tried, turned out ‘celebrities with pink hair and green eyes’ is not specific enough to get a name”

She held out her hand to him, which he took

“Sakura. Sakura Haruno. That’s the name”

“That’s Japanese” he said letting her hand go. Tiny just like the rest of her, without any callouses on it. Maybe some heiress then. “Are you Japanese?”

She folded her hands in front of her, leaning on them on the table.

“Do I look Japanese?” 

“Nope” he took a sip off his coffee, the rest of his breakfast forgotten with his paper. 

“Well I’m not Japanese”

“Ah” and really that’s all he could say to that. She really doesn’t look Japanese, her eyes are too big, her skin too fair and her hair too thick, or maybe it’s the tons of dye she put in it that’s making it that way. “So what are you doing in New York ?”

“What makes you think I don’t live here” she asked, titling her head. 

“You don’t carry yourself like a New Yorker, don’t talk like one either. I think I can even detect some accent there, European maybe?”

Their conversation is cut short by the arrival of her goon with her breakfast : a cup with some hot beverage and the familiar strawberry cheesecake. She thanks him in a quiet murmur as he took his leave, not forgetting to give him another glare before settling himself two tables over, with his own drink in hand and all of his focus on them. 

“I don’t think Frank Farmer likes me” he takes another sip of his now cold coffee, not that it bothers him, he is used to it with his long hours working in his workshop.

“Who ?” she blinks at him, genuinely confused by his reference.

“Your bodyguard” he said nodding towards the big guy. 

“Well” she starts, settling more comfortably on her chair to start eating. “My security team doesn’t like a lot of people, but I have to admit that they don’t like your kind the most.”

“My kind” he can’t help but arch an eyebrow at that “Like very charming young man kind or the superhero slash billionaire kind”

“The later” she said around a mouthful of dessert. He can’t stop a frown at the sight, eating sweets so early in the morning can’t be healthy. “And young man? How old are you, 40?”

“30”. A snort. “ish. Don’t make that face I’m not amused”

“I am” it’s her turn to take a sip, he wonders what she is drinking, it doesn’t smell like coffee. 

“And I’m confused, they feel like you are not safe with a superhero? “

“You know, it’s mostly about the you-are-stronger-than-the-average-human-hence-why-you-are-also-more-dangerous angle but also, they think that heroes are just optimized war criminals. And they are not wrong” she said with a shrug.

“Excuse me?” Now he is offended. She just answers with another shrug, clearly convinced of what she is saying. He doesn’t know what to say for a hot minute, truly speechless. Just on the way here he met a mother and his son asking him for a picture, saying how much of a fan he is and that he is the biggest hero on the planet (Okay so maybe he made up that last part but the kid clearly implied that), and now some crazy girl with pink hair is telling him that he is a war criminal. 

“I mean, aren’t you making weapons for the military? And there is also the fact that your team of superheroes is based in the US, aka the biggest warmonger country in history and work part-time as their mercenary”

He moves his lips, trying to get a sound out. He finally managed to find his voice after gawking at her for a what feels like an eternity. 

“First of all cupcake, Stark industries doesn’t produce weapons anymore since 2008. I put a stop to that. And second” it’s his turn to lean towards her, with his hands folded on the table, he makes sure to look at her in the eyes above his amber glasses. “The Avengers, doesn’t work for anyone”

“Not even the SHIELD ?” She titled her head again, with that curious way of hers. Tony doesn’t know what to feel, she is so unsettling. The way she talks about him being a war criminal, as if she talks about the weather, as if she was saying the sun rises in the east and set in the west, as if it was a fact. Her face and her voice don’t betray any judgement, he can’t see any disgust there, not a trace of amusement, not even curiosity.  She asked her question as if she was just making conversation.

“No? Not anymore. SHIELD is gone. The same day the Black Widow put all of their files and HYDRA’s on the internet. You know this.”

“Right” she takes another bite “I forgot about that, it made headlines for a week straight” she said, clearly enjoying her treat seeing that the smile is back on her face.

Tony still feels restless, he was not expecting the conversation to go that way. Really. It was supposed to be about her. He was supposed to ask her where was she from, and what she was doing in New York. He did just that. 

“You never told me what you were doing in New York”

She hummed, taking another sip. “I’m here for New York Fashion Week” 

He blinked. That’s not what he expected as a response, to be honest. His head is still stuck around what she thought about him.

“You work in Fashion?” this time he decided to finish his plate, trying to distract himself from these thoughts. His eggs are already cold and hard, not that that bothers him either. Habits. 

She looks at him like he is weird, watching him eat his cold breakfast thinking he was done with it. 

“No, I just love it, I’m afraid I don’t have the finesse or the creativity to work in Fashion”

“Yet you make a real statement with that hair”

“So I have been told” she said with a smile, amusement back in her eyes. He almost wanted to sag in relief, the atmosphere is back to its more relaxing state. 

“Do you always go with pink or do you switch it up”

“Always pink”

“It looks good on you, and it goes well with the name.”

She is smiling at him now, a rosy hue on her cheeks, clearly becoming bashful after his compliment. He can’t help his grin, knowing that his charm is working his intended magic. That is until he remembers something.

“How do you know about SHIELD”

She looks at him like he is crazy “I just told you they made the news”

“No. You told me their disappearance made the news. You knew about them.”

She is the one looking speechless at him now. At least he can say that she is not some spy sent by some foreign forces, he could read her every thought on her face. Unless she is that good at faking. He remembers the first time he met Natasha, how good she was at playing another, if they could make one agent Romanoff there is no reason they couldn’t do another one. 

She starts to fidget under his stare now, uncomfortable and not knowing what to say. One thing was for sure, she was not an ordinary civilian. 

“I know people” she tries to shrug off, taking another spoonful of the cake, there is not much left now, and both of their drinks have gone cold. Apparently their bouts of silence were longer than he realized.

“I knew Fury”

He couldn’t help his sharp intake of breath. Now that was a surprise. People just don’t ‘know Fury’ they work with him. And considering that even when he was ‘alive’ he didn’t exist, anyone who would come in contact with him could not be trusted. Their team of mismatched super humans was proof.

Now he was pissed. He remembers Romanoff again, how easy it was for her to find herself a place in his circle, to spy on him and babysit him like a child. Is this stranger another one sent to trap him? All these meetings not coincidental but perfectly planned plots to get his guard down.

Especially now, in his vulnerable state, just after Pepper broke up with him after Ultron and HYDRA, they think that dangling another pretty face under his nose to trap him would catch his attention. Now he just needs to figure out who exactly is ‘they’ and who are they after, him or the Avengers ? 

He takes a look at his phone, acting disinterested while asking Friday to track her phone and those of her goons, getting into her SUV. There are layers to this deceit, adding agents disguised as bodyguards to accompany another agent. 

“How do you know him?” he asked locking eyes with her again, but she shifts her eyes, looking at something behind him. He tenses even more. 

“He saved me, once” her eyes are back on him “sort of”

“Sort of?” 

“It’s a long story, and I have to go” she sighed. “I’m sorry but I have a meeting I have to get to” she said as she got up, holding out her hand for him to shake. “This was nice.”

He took her hand and held it as he got up as well, he could see her bodyguard already up a few feet behind her.

“It was.” And it was, up until the point that he realized she was a spy sent to deceive him “Let’s do it again then, how about dinner. Tonight” that surprised her, maybe she thought that she failed her mission because she got busted. 

“I can’t tonight. I have two shows I have to get to”

“Surely you’ll have to eat at some point” she opened her mouth to rebuke him, he cut her off before she could. “I’ll drop you off at one of your shows, I mean it’s not like you are going to walk in them right? Although I would believe it if you said you were” he got closer to her, still holding her hand and keeping eye contact, the eyes of ‘Cat’ familiar and boring into him. She was so incredibly tiny, even with her heels she came just below his chin. Maybe she was really of Asian descent, their people were on the shorter side. 

She keeps looking into his eyes, looking for something, maybe looking for lies just like him. But all he could see in hers was curiosity, and her little smile is back on her lips.

“Alright” she says finally “but after. You can pick me up from the Versace show. It will start at 7, so you can pick me up at 8:30 ish?” 

“8:30 ish it is then” he said with a smile, bringing her hand to his lips and kissing it lightly, making her blush prettily again. It was really a shame that she was a liar. 

Something behind him caught her attention again, breaking their little moment. She takes a step back, letting his hand go.

“I’ll see you tonight then”

“I’ll text you when I get there”

“You don’t have my number”

He held his phone out, with all the flare he is known for. 

“That was me asking” 

She took it with little fanfare and typed her number in, before giving it back to him.

“Don’t be late” she said giving him one last smile, turning her back to him and getting out of the shop. His eyes following her into the street and watching her get into the car. Her bodyguard getting in front after her, the other one already on the driver seat. The car took off as soon as she got safely in. 

He gives the coffee shop one last sweep before putting his shades on and leaving as well, giving one last nod at the barista at the counter. 

“Friday?”

“Yes boss?”

“Got in?”

“Yes boss, it was surprisingly easy. If your new friend was a spy, they are not very good at it.”

He crossed the street, taking a light jog to get to his car faster. He didn’t really like being in the streets when he has to talk to his AI, it always gets him weird looks.

“Let me on it”

As soon as he ordered, he could hear the pinkette’s voice come through. 

“Stop being so paranoid, it’s fine”

“Fine? That is Tony Stark, an Avenger. Maybe if he was still the idiot player he was 10 years ago-“ started another female voice. 

“There is someone else in the car ?”

“Yes, she got in 5 minutes before Sakura Haruno”

“It’s just a date Scarlett, he is not going to kidnap me.”

“You don’t know that”I resent that.“and you are not going to that date.”

“Let me remind you that I am your boss and an adult, I can do whatever I want.” 

“Saying that while sticking your tongue out doesn’t really show that.”

“Well I’m going and you can’t stop me so. Ohhhh I need a dress” 

“You are way too excited to be going on a date with a man you used to hate not just 2 days ago”

“I didn’t hate him. I don’t. He and his friends are just not my favorite people on the planet. But I’m curious about him”

He got into his car, very intrigued about the conversation he is hearing. So far it seems like he was wrong about her, she seems to be as curious about him as he was about her at least. And the security of her IT was above average at best. Or maybe it’s on purpose. They made it easy to bypass so he could listen to their rehearsed conversations. 

Was he too paranoid? Probably. Is it warranted? After everything that has happened to him the last few years. Absolutely. 

“All you need to know about him you already know, he is not really a very low profile individual”

“Not that” there is a slight silence after that “his eyes are familiar”

The tapping stopped, it’s only then that he realized that all this time ‘Scarlett’ was on her phone. But clearly now she was intrigued, he wonders if she is as intrigued about her boss as he is, if there are things she doesn’t know about her. Not everyone is like Pepper. There were few things Virginia Potts didn’t know about him, and only because he probably didn’t know about them either. But then again, there were plenty of those she knew better than him too. God, he misses her. It’s been only 3 months since she broke up with him but it feels like a lifetime. He remembers the first month when he thought he couldn’t breathe every time he remembers her.

“What do you mean” 

“Nothing” came the short reply “Forget it. I need a dress” 

There is nothing for a while but the sound of his own engine speeding up swiftly upstate. He is still 20 minutes out from the base now. After sometimes the tapping resumed.

“You already have a dress. Your Versace dress”

“I can’t wear that dress for a date. A first date ! It’s…too much” 

“Too much what” 

“Too much everything !”