Chemical Poison

Anneliese Lorenz was always an easy child, a pretty child and a smart child. She was the gem of her family, the first daughter and the last of her generation; all other cousins male and much older than her. She grew up beyond wealthy, privilege didn't even begin to explore the luxury she lived without fear for the first few years of her life.

She was completely unaware of the financial crisis the entire world was facing, not even realising that there was quite literally starving men in her garden. To her, life was simple. She played and she garden, she learnt to knit with her mother and then she went to bed. It was all too simple.

Until it wasn't.

Everything always came at a cost, and sometimes Anneliese was completely unaware of this.

Sitting in her office, Anneliese held the piece of parchment tightly in her hand, unsure if she was angry, disappointed or frustrated with what she had just read. Every letter looped perfectly and the spacing was elegantly done. It was the hand writing of Miss Cotton, the current Head Secretary of Stark Industrials.

"You wish to resign?"

The question echoed across the room, bouncing as the nerves radiating from Miss Cotton flooded all her senses. Her eyes didn't meet hers, as she read over the letter once more, and then again. 

Placing the letter down on her desk, Anneliese placed her hands folded on top of the table as she glanced across to stare at Miss Cotton. Her eyes filled with worry as her lips twitched. Without making any noise, Anneliese watched as her fingers fidgeted with her skirt, doing anything to avoid the current situation they were currently in.

"Yes, Miss Lorenz," She said, her voice shaky, "I understand it's short notice-"

"-Why do you wish to be terminated immediately?"

Anneliese was absolutely baffled when Miss Cotton had passed her the letter only a few minutes ago. She had believed that the her replacement had begun coping better with the press once she introduced her to Guinevere, informing her that it was okay to make allies with the press. Anneliese had even put in a great deal of effort to ensure both Alexander and Howard were not wrapped up in scandal.  

She watched as Miss Cotton spoke again, "The press has gotten worse- I don't want to deal with them anymore-"

"-But you never had an issue when I was the press secretary?"

A sigh left her voice, "Exactly my point. It is too much, I do not want to be abused relentlessly by the press. When you were the secretary, we could pass off the press that treated us terribly onto you... and now? I have to deal with these horrible men. I-I-," her voice cracked, "I'm not strong enough."

Anneliese reached over to hold Miss Cotton's hand, "Don't resign, take a holiday on behalf of Stark Industrial's. I'll take back my original role and once you return, I'll be teaching everyone in the department on how to keep the press... kind."

The surprise in Miss Cotton's eyes melted her heart, "Wa-wait? For real?", she asked.

Nodding, she passed the letter back to Miss Cotton. "It was cruel of me to keep you in such a position with such little training, when you come back - no matter how long - we will begin to thicken your skin. Now, can you inform Mister Stark about my new position?"

She nodded and quickly took her leave. And Anneliese couldn't help but collapse onto her desk, her eyes dropping as she was far too tired. It had only been a month since Stark's Expo and Howard still hadn't found a candidate to take over Theodore Edwards position, resulting in Alexander having to be the temporary head. That meant Anneliese was officially both the head of project rebirth and Howard's assistant - or fundamentally the CEO when he was too busy playing with his scrap metal. 

Once again, Anneliese found herself utterly exhausted.

Waking up to a gentle massage to her neck, Anneliese moaned softly as she felt her knots slowly leave the nook of her neck. Note wanting it to stop, she refused to open her eyes as she heard the chuckle that could only belong to one man, Howard Stark. Fluttering her eyes open, Howard's face was directly in front of hers.

"Good Evening, sweetheart."

Raising a sleepy eyebrow, Howard elaborated, "You've slept away the majority of the day, everyone has gone home except for you."

Sitting up quickly, Anneliese's eyes grew frantic as she remembered all the paper work she still had to complete. The letters she had to send to the Colonel and let alone all the issues she needed to sort out with the press. Her mind was racing, quicker than her heart and quicker than she could process- and it all stopped. As Howard was laughing at her.

Scanning her desk, she couldn't find any of her documents or her memos. There was nothing, it was as tidy as it could ever be.

"Where are they?", she asked, almost hissing.

Howard seemed to think this was the joke of the century, as he leaned away from the desk to continue laughing. Until a skilfully thrown pen hit his head, bouncing to the ground, making a tap-ti-tap sound as it made contact. For only a spilt second, it all turned into slow motion as Howard turned and sent her an almost murderous look.

And then he begun laughing again.

Just before she could throw another pen at him, Howard had quickly made himself in front of her again, just behind a desk and his hand clenched around her wrist. Turning his head to the side as he stared at her, Anneliese was left confused, surprised and utterly lost.

"Whilst you slept, I sorted out all your files... and I wished I hadn't started as there was so much of it. I didn't even get to have lunch-"

Gobsmacked, Anneliese didn't speak. Luckily, she wasn't even given the chance.

Howard continued, "I contacted a friend, and she will be taking your position as press secretary until after project rebirth. For now, you're my secretary- and on the matter of that... would you be opposed to sharing a desk?"

With her wrist still restrained by Howard, his lips dangerously close, Anneliese wanted to murder him as he winked at her. The suggestion he poked was absolutely foul.

"Anyhow, it's far too late to call Mr Jarvis and I could never let a lady in your tired state drive home... and I'm not completely keen on driving you home myself-"

"-Howard...", Anneliese said in a low voice.

His signature smirk returned, "How do you feel about a little sleep over?"

It was nothing but awkward for Anneliese as she sat quietly in Howard's enormously large apartment that somehow managed to have no sofa long enough for her to sleep on nor an extra bed. For someone as wealthy as Howard, it seemed highly suspicious, in fact Anneliese believe it was a massive set up.

The apartment hadn't changed that much since she last saw it, when her father used to live here with Abraham. The only big changes was the sudden lack of furniture to sleep on. So, that was how Anneliese found herself seated on Howard's small bed, as he raided his closest for clothing for her to sleep in.

Anneliese had already caught sight of some perfectly fine women's pyjama's, choosing not to question why Howard had such things in his closest. Instead, she watched him with curiosity as he pulled out one of his white button up shirts, and just by staring at it briefly, Anneliese knew it was going to be too long on her. He had most definitely planned this all.

"Put this on and I'll unwillingly wait outside."

He passed the button up shirt to Anneliese and a pair of shorts, at least she hoped it was shorts and not his boxers. Even after admitting aloud that she would like everything to be real, no longer fake for the public - she hadn't so much admitted that she wanted to be real and improper with it all. She expected a formal courtship, but of course she shouldn't have expected Howard to do such a thing.

With an uneasy hand, Anneliese unzipped the back of her dress and watched it fall to the ground, wearing only her underlings and stockings. Never had she felt so exposed, always ensuring she was only ever so nude in her own home or a bathroom at most - never another man's home. It was improper.

Pulling the stockings down, she slowly stepped into the shorts and pulled the up. They sat uncomfortably around her waist, threatening to fall down at any small tug. Sighing, Anneliese made quick work of tightening the waist band to make it sit nicer. It did not work.

She picked up the button up shirt and slowly button it up, choosing to ignore the mirror in the corner of his bedroom. Knowing she would not like the woman she would see in the mirror. 

"Are you done?"

"Do you even know how to be proper?", Anneliese retorted as she folded her clothes up in a small pile in the room.

She heard Howard laugh, "Unfortunately, you've made the mistake of dating a street rat."

Opening the large wooden doors, Anneliese made the executive decision to ignore Howard's wondering eyes and to continue the conversation, "Who said anything about dating?"

He winked at her.

Howard had made himself comfortable as he read, Anneliese laying down next to him on his bed. Already resigning to the fact that if she wanted a good night's rest, she would have to share the bed with Howard. And surprisingly, Howard did not have enough blankets or pillows or really anything to form a wall between the two - nor enough to keep warm from the chilly wind.

In fact, Anneliese was starting to doubt his wealth. His heater was broken and supposably he had no intention in fixing it, his light globes barely functional and his bed was smaller than she expected. Forcing the two, even when they weren't sleeping, to be skin to skin. And she was beyond bored, finding interest in watching Howard then anything else. The two had stopped talking about an hour ago, as Anneliese had slowly started to drift asleep.

Now, she was fully awake. Watching his every move, noticing the way his hair falls to his face as he closes the book and place it on the floor next to him. She noticed the way his jaw clenched slightly as he readjusted himself on the bed to lay down on his side. She noticed how his breathing seemed to be purposely selected as he wiggled closer to Anneliese.

"Hello", he said.

With wide eyes, Anneliese didn't respond.

"Who would've guessed I'd date a conservative."

Scoffing Anneliese rolled over to her other side, refusing to see the smart smirk that most likely plagued his lips. It was a small victory, and she nuzzled herself into the singular pillow Howard had supplied for her. This wasn't quite the luxury she was used to, but she was exhausted and wouldn't pass up a pillow if she was offered one.

Then the bed shook, and Howard was closer. His body pressed up against hers.

"Could you move?", Anneliese asked.

His mouth meet her ears with a burning breath, causing her entire skin to go into overdrive.

"No, it's freezing and you are freakishly warm."

Again, Anneliese scoffed. 

The two remained frozen and silent, until Howard spoke... again.

"Annelieseeee," he whined, "Ana, Ana, Ana, Annneeelieseeee..."

Growing increasingly more annoyed with Howard, she groaned as she flipped over to her other side to smack him. Obviously, she would only have one victory for the night as she found herself head-butting him and rolling off the bed, onto the carpet flooring. This was where Anneliese decided she would give up for the night.

But she wasn't that lucky.

Howard's head poked over the edge of the bed, and she wanted to punch his boyish smile off his face, potentially send him into the stratosphere and never see him again. All lies of course, but Anneliese could dream. 

"You coming back up?", Howard asked.

Moaning a soft no, she expected that to be the last of Howard.

Once again, she was mistaken.

Hearing the rustling of the sheets from the bed, her brain didn't need to do much thinking to put the two together. If she wasn't going to return to the bed, Howard was returning to her. The boy was obscene.

Opening one eye, she watched as Howard pulled the blankets behind him back and threw the pillows quite literally at Anneliese. Groaning, she pulled the pillows from her head and pulled it under her head, not noticing that Howard had decided that it was now suddenly warm enough for him to sleep in only his boxers.

All chances of a proper courtship suddenly vanished.

Her father was going to hate him

And maybe that was why she adored him so much.

Keeping one eyesopen, not caring if she is catch staring at his chest. Definitely not tone like the men Maria describes, but not quite the type of pudgy like Guinevere's husband. It was a healthy glow, and Anneliese hungrily stared for far too long. Long enough for Howard to take notice and to arch an eyebrow.

Arrogant prick.

Slowly, he lowered himself down to Anneliese. Pulling the quilt over the two and viciously pulling the pillow away from her head, a protest of profanities slipped past her lips, surprising Howard enough for her to tug her the pillow back briefly.   

She still lost, after all she only got one small victory of the day.

Instead of a pillow, she got Howard's arm, which surprisingly wasn't a complete downgrade from the pillow. Anneliese wasn't sure if that was an insult towards the quality pillows he owned or a compliment for Howard, she was leaning more towards the insult. And yet, Anneliese found herself matching his heart rate, her head buried in his chest - far too tired to fight anything, if it was tension, if it was the inappropriateness or if it was the ego maniac she would be facing the following morning.

She couldn't be bothered. 

As all it took for her to fall asleep was the sound of his breathing, he just had to keep breathing.

"Goodnight, love."

Her heart was far too tired to burst from his gruff voice, but had she had the energy. Anneliese knew she would've face the worst heart attack since starting at Stark Industrials.

She was mistaken, nothing could compete with Howard's morning voice... or his arrogance.