Fated Marks

After the Battle of New York, the city was in shambles but the rebuilding was actually progressing fairly quickly. Our apartment building was actually set to be demolished so Will and I were essentially homeless. Luckily we both had savings and we managed to get our deposit back. Liam and Tess let us crash with them as long as we wanted to but that wasn’t an offer Will and I were comfortable with. Liam and Tess were great but… they were very loud. The walls were paper thin and we heard everything and I mean everything.

After a week of dealing with our storage situation and finding out of we still had jobs we started looking.

Apartment #1-

“This looks like a good one.” Will said.

“I like the price and it’s far away enough to be cheap but not to far we’d have a long commute.” I said.

“Let’s check it out.” Will said.

We showed up and the outside of the apartment looked like it had once been a factory or something. Once we got in we saw that it looked fairly run down but not too bad.

“This is it.” the landlord said. He unlocked the door and we walked in. the floor was stained and the walls were cracked but that wasn’t anything we couldn’t fix. “It’s only one bedroom but that shouldn’t be a problem for a young couple such as yourselves” he said giving me a look.

“I’m gay.” Will deadpanned.

“You could put a partition in the living room.” He said.

“We’ll see.” I said walking into the kitchen. “There’s lots of storage.” I walked over to the sink and turned on the faucet. It stalled before water came out looking slightly brown before turning clear. “Plumbing could use some work.”

“The bedroom’s that way.” The landlord said pointing to the door. Inside was a staled mattress that snugly fit in the room.

“This is cozy…” Will said.

“This the bathroom.” I asked opening the door. It was the most disgusting thing I had ever seen. “I think we’re done” I said grabbing Will and running out of that death trap.”

Apartment #2

“This one sounds good and it’s close to both our jobs.” Will said.

“It sounds familiar.” I said.

“Rent’s cheap.” He said.

“It can’t be worse then that crap hole we just saw.” I said.

“It wasn’t that bad.” Will said.

“You didn’t see the bathroom.” I deadpanned.

“I’ll take your word for it.” he said. “Come on if we’re lucky we can get there before lunch.”

A few stops on the subway later we made it to the apartment.

“This place looks really familiar.” I said.

“Really?” He said. “We’re practically in Harlem”

“I lived in Harlem before I met Jess and moved in with her.” I said.

“Well let’s go see the place.” Will said buzzing the building manager. We walked up the stairs and I saw a woman that was wearing very tight and revealing clothing walk out of an apartment and hand the manager money and the key. We kept going until we stopped at an apartment down the hall. We walked in and I saw a very familiar poster and a body outline on the floor.

“Oh crap I’ve been here before.” I said.

“You have?” Will said.

“I lived in this building when I first got to New York, the apartment down the hall.” I said.

“So you knew the guy that lived here?” Will asked

“Yeah he was a drug dealer, or he ran a meth lab. It was one or the other, or maybe it was both…” I said.

“Yeah we’re not living here.” Will said dragging me out.

After looking at a few more apartments we had nothing. We ended up at a bar that had a pretty good lunch deal.

“We have to find something.” Will said.

“I know, I can’t keep listening to Liam and Tess go at it. I seriously think they get into arguments so they can have make up sex.” I said.

“I don’t think it I know it.” Will said.

“Are you two looking for an apartment?” Our waitress asked.

“Uh yeah, our place was destroyed in the invasion and we’ve been staying with our friends.” I said.

“Carl owns the building the one of the apartments upstairs just opened up. The lady that lived there freaked out and moved to Canada.” She said chuckling. “I can ask him to show you the place if you’re interested?”

“Yes please.” We said at the same time.

“I’ll be right back.” She said with a smile.

“Living here would be perfect, we’d only be a short trip from school and work.” I said.

“We still have to see what rent’s going to be. Judging from the area it’ll probably be a crapload.” Will said.

“We’ll make it work.” I said.

“You do remember you’re down one job right?” Will asked.

“I’ll make it work, plus we still have our savings.” I said. “I just realized how much we sound like a married couple. Even Tess and Liam don’t sound like us.”

“You’re right, as soon as things settle down I’m taking out my black book and dialing for a hook up.” Will said.

“And I’ll… go do something so you can have the apartment to yourself.” I said.

“This is why we’re friends.” Will said.

“Hey guys so here are your drinks. Carl said to meet him at the bar when you guys are done eating and he’ll show you the place.” She said.

“Thank you so much.” I said.

“Don’t mention it.” She said before going to another table.

After lunch we went to the bar and carl the bartender and owner of the bar took up upstairs to the top floor. We walked down the hall and he opened up the apartment. It was an open floor plan and with hardwood floors.

“It’s two bedrooms. One there and the other over there. Bathrooms down that hall and the kitchen’s there.” He said.

“Utilities?” I asked.

“Electricity, Water, waste and gas are covered.” Carl said.

“Why’d the last tenant move?” Will asked.

“She was from a small town and always a bit paranoid and with the hole in the sky and aliens invading the city she had enough and moved back North.” Carl said.

“Anything we should know?” I asked. “Deaths, crimes…”

“Nope just you’re regular pickpockets and mugging but it wouldn’t be New York without it.” Carl said.

“It’s definitely the best place we’ve seen all day.” I said.

“I’m gonna ask before I get my hopes up anymore, how much is rent?” Will asked.

“About that much.” Carl said.

“Are you serious?” Will asked.

“Yeah, it’s a good area but I hate having to deal with tenants. The real moneymaker is the bar and I need people who wont complain about noise or drunks on their doorsteps. Not to mention if anything breaks down it may be a while before I can get to it and I’d prefer if you didn’t bug me about it.” Carl said in complete honesty.

“I was an army brat, I can fix anything that may come up so that isn’t a problem.” Will said.

“Really, if you help out around here I’ll take off a hundred off rent.” Carl offered.

“Can we swing it?” Will asked me.

“I still have my savings, it’ll be tight until I find another job but yeah, we can.” I said.

“You’re looking for a job?” Carl asked.

“Yeah I work part time at a grocery store and I used to also be a waitress and Barista at a coffee shop before it got blown up.” I said.

“I’m looking for a waitress to work down at the bar. Drunks tip really well.” Carl offered.

“That’s great, and I make a mean espresso in case we need to sober anyone up.” I said.

“Come down to the bar tomorrow and well get you settled, for now paperwork.” Carl said. “Rent’s due the first of the month, you can get the key as soon as you put the deposit down along with first month’s rent.”

“Which would be?” Will asked.

“That much.” Carl said.

“You take checks?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He said.

“Here’s my half.” I said.

“And mine.” Will said.

“Oh wow, they’re not gonna bounce right?” Carl said.

“Oh trust me that’s not something you need to worry about. Hayley should have been a financial manager with the way she handles money.” Will said.

“Well, here’s your key, feel free to move in whenever.” Carl said.

“Thank you.” We said.

“We have an apartment.” I said with a smile.

“And it came with a bean bag.” Will said.

“So we can move in this weekend…” I started.

“Or we can go grab our bags and blankets and get back here before Tess and Liam go at it again?” Will said.

“That sounds better.” I said.

That’s how we ended up living over a bar and how our luck started turning around. We both spent the summer working and getting settled into out new apartment. It was the first time I actually took the time to decorate and put up pictures. I didn’t even know Will, Tess and Liam had been taking pictures.

Then came August and classes started. The first day of class was complicated to say the least. The streets were closed of because of some march and the subway was congested and both Will’s and I’s alarms didn’t go off.

“Hayley!” Will shouted waking me up.

“Wah!” I gasped sitting up. Will stormed into my room and threw a change of clothes at me.

“We’re late.” He said.

“What?” I said.

“Our alarms didn’t go off!” Will exclaimed.

“Shit!” I said getting up quickly. I quickly got out of bed and quickly put on a pair of jeans and a black and white stripped top. I slipped on my shoes and put my hair up on a messy bun. I grabbed my laptop and my book bag before running out of the apartment behind Will.

We practically ran to the Subway and ran once we got off. Unlucky for me my classes were across campus so I was extra late. As I walked into my programming class I made eye contact with the professor and that was the worst thing I could have possibly made.

“Miss Adams I presume, so good of you to grace us with your presence.” The professor started.

“I’m sorry, I just had a late morning caused by traffic. It won’t happen again.” I said.

“The traffic or your tardiness because I find both very unlikely.” He said. “Since you’re up would you happen to know the difference between C++ and Java?”

“C++ is run and compiled using a complier that turns source code into machine level language or in other words it simplifies the language and supports overloading but at the same time is very specific and has to be adapted for every machine. Java on the other hand is more abstract but can be run on all platforms without having to be rewritten.” I said shocking the professor.

“Yes that is correct, take a seat Miss Adams.” He said continuing his lecture. “As I was saying these are all things we will be covering this year. I suggest you familiarize yourself with them. If you can’t keep up I recommend you switch into a lower level course. This will be fully immersive and we shall be moving at a fast pace.” With that half of the class walked out.

“For those of you that I have not scared away I would like you all to go to the class web page and log in. You will find a link to a separate work page. You are to download the program. This is a test to access how much you know. Think of it as a challenge. I do not expect anyone to finish or even get it all right, it is just simple curiosity. When you are done you will get a number. I want you to write it down on a piece of paper along with your name and email. After that you are free to go.” He said.

I did as he said and got started. It was a sort of game but the purpose of it was to hack into a program and reprogram it from the inside without setting off alarms. It was a cakewalk. I did it all in half the allotted time. I wrote down the number and my name and email.

I handed it in and the professor just looked at me shocked.

“Sorry about before, I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again and if it does it would only be for an emergency.” I said and he just nodded.

Third Person’s POV-

“So you found your soulmate?” Pepper asked Tony.

“No, we just know she’s in New York. And that Rogers and Romanoff have met her but neither one managed to get a name or in Rogers case he got it but forgot it.” Tony said still a bit annoyed.

“Wow, six soulmates that must be… wow. That must be intense. Imagine everything she must feel.” Pepper said.

“I know, when I was going through that portal I felt her worry and how scared she was. Then I think about everything I’ve been through the past couple of years and all the stupid things I’ve done and I realize Romanoff and Bruce are right.” Tony said.

“Right about what?” Pepper asked.

“We talked it over and decided that until we all deal with whatever we have going on we wouldn’t look for her.” Tony said.

“What? You’re not serious.” Pepper said and when she saw the look on Tony’s face she knew he was. “Why would you agree to that? You’re the most curious tenacious and at time annoying person I know. You’ve always wanted to know about the person behind that mark what changed?”

“Look at my life Pepper hell look at yours, how many time has someone gone after you just for being around me? There is a target on my back and everyone else around me you really think I should bring someone else into that and a kid? Not to mention she wouldn’t just be targeted by my enemies but everyone else’s as well.” Tony pointed out.

“When has that stopped you before? You’ve felt things from her before remember? Fear, anxiety, sadness, loneliness? Maybe she’s safer but do you really think she’s better off on her own?” Pepper said.

“Maybe but now isn’t the right time.” Tony said despite that he knew Pepper was right.

“Speaking of bad timing I have news.” Pepper said. “I met him.”

“You mean…” tony started.

“Yeah, his name is Daniel. He’s an investment banker and he’s setting up a charity.” Pepper said.

“That’s great. Where is he?” Tony asked.

“He lives here in New York but he’s still in DC sealing a business deal and lobbying for a legislation.” Pepper said.

“Small world.” Tony said.

“It is.” Pepper said.

“So this is it.” Tony said.

“Looks that way.” Pepper said. “No matter what, I love you and I’m here for you.”

“I know, I’m happy for you Pep, you deserve to be happy.” Tony said hugging her.

“You deserve to be happy too.” Pepper said. “Think about it.” She kissed his cheek before letting go. She left and Tony was alone.

“Sir, I have something that may interest you.” Jarvis said getting his attention.

“What, did Rogers finally get diagnosed with Alzheimer’s?” Tony asked.

“The programming assessment protocol has had an alert sir.” Jarvis said.

The programming Assessment Protocol was a programming challenge Tony had designed in his downtime as a way to find potential recruits to work at Stark Industries. Everyone already said they hired the best of the best well he wanted to find the best of the best that would work directly with him on whatever projects he thought of. No one had ever set an alert. No one had ever even finished in the time limit.

“Some genius at MIT finally cracked it?” Tony asked.

“Actually sir it was a transfer student from Columbia University.” Jarvis said.

“That is interesting.” He said. “Bring it up.”

Jarvis brought up the assessment recording.

“They didn’t play along they hacked into the program itself. Jarvis you know anyone who would do that?” Tony said.

“I believe you are referring to yourself sir.” Jarvis answer.

“Yeah, I would do something like that. Bring up the kid’s file. What are the odds this nerd actually has social skills and a sense of humor?” He said.

“Very unlikely sir.” Jarvis said.

“Fingers crossed.” He said.

A Few Weeks Later-

My schedule with work and school had been crazy but I was doing it. I hardly slept but I was doing it. I had even managed to get to class on time and stay awake the entire time. Things were good.

I had even gotten on Professor Chamber’s good side.

“That’s all for today.” He said and with that everyone started packing up. “Miss Adams a word please.”

I packed everything up then went up to the front.

“Professor Chambers.” I greeted.

“Miss Adams do you recall the assessment we did in class on the first day?” He asked.

“The program that we had to reprogram from the inside that no one ever managed to do?” I said.

“The program only you managed to do.” He said.

“I did it right?” I asked.

“You did. The person who created the assessment would actually like to meet you. I think it’s a great opportunity for an internship or even employment after graduation.” He said.

“Oh wow, sounds good. How would this work?” I said.

“Come by my office after lunch and I’ll introduce you.” He said.

“I’ll be there.” I said. “Thank you.”

A Few Hours Later-

I walked into the building and knocked at the office door.

“Come in.” Someoen said. I walked in and saw that Professor chambers wasn;t there but someone else was.

“Hi…” I said confused as to Why Tony Stark was sitting behind Professor Chambers desk.

“Hayley Adams, 20 years old, just transferred from Midtown community. Your test scores are off the chart but you probably already knew that.” He said putting the file in his hands down. “You look younger than I thought you’d be.”

“Uh thanks?” I said confused.

“What you think of my game?” He asked.

“It was fun,” I said.

“Fun?” He said.

“It didn’t have an obvious answer. Took me about a minute to see that it had a scrambler integrated which is why no direct attempts worked.” I said.

“One minute to see it and another to hack into it and let yourself in. Smart. Who taught you to do that?” he asked.

“Just a trick I picked up.” I said.

“Where you from?” He asked.

“I moved around a lot as a kid, I’m not really from anywhere.” I answered.

“What made you want to major in computer programming?” he asked.

“What made you want to build a suit of armor and save the world?” I retorted.

“I was pretty good at it and decided to go for it.” he said.

“Same for me.” I said.

“What do you want to do after you graduate?” he asked.

“Not sure, get a nine to five job at some tech firm and pay the bills.” I said.

“That’s it?” he said.

“For now.” I said.

“You hungry?” He asked. “I could really go for a burger.”

“I don’t…” then my stomach started growling. Stupid Will, he picked a hell of a time to drag me into one of his cleanses.

“Let’s go.” He said walking around the desk. “I know this place that has the best bacon cheese burgers…”

“Yeah I can’t do this I have a shift at the grocery store…”

“Then call and cancel or better yet quit.” He said.

“I can’t do that I have rent and bills and…” I started.

“Kid you managed to pass an impossible test that no one before has ever been able to. I’m here to hire you now come on, low blood sugar makes me cranky.” He said.

“I’m sorry, did you just say hire me? I haven’t graduated yet, hell I haven’t even finished a semester.” I said.

“And most tech innovators are college dropouts. I’m not saying drop out, I’m saying… crap what am I saying.” He said. “Well work it out come on.”

“Need to make a call.” I said.

“Walk and talk.” He said. This has got to be the weirdest day ever. I quickly sent Will a text.

Hey so I might be home late, if I don’t make it back assume Tony Stark killed me- Hayley

Then I called work and told them I came down with something. They were okay with me missing my shift but I’d have to pull a double during the weekend.

We made it to a small hole in the wall burger place that I had to admit was the best burger I’ve ever had.

“Okay, so don’t drop out of school…” He said.

“Wasn’t planning on it.” I said.

“And you work at a grocery store.” He said.

“And at a bar as a waitress.” I added.

“You work two jobs and go to school? How do you have time?” he said.

“I don’t.” I said.

“I have an idea hear me out…” he started.

“I’m not even halfway through my burger so I think you’re set on time.” I said.

“Come work for me, as my intern and I’ll pay for school and your salary so you can quit both you’re jobs.” Tony said.

“What would I be doing exactly?” I asked.

“You’d essentially just hang out, help out on some of my side projects, run errands, etc…” he said.

“So I’d be your nanny?” I said.

“What no… more like my personal assistant, except with less hours. That’s not a bad thing my last personal assistant got promoted to CEO.” He said.

“Is that supposed to be a good thing?” I said.

“It sounded alright in my head, let’s back track. You’re a genius and a nerd that can snark back at anything I throw at you. We’ve been talking for almost an hour and I can’t remember the last time I actually enjoyed a conversation with a stranger without faking it.” Tony said.

“Huh.” I said. I can’t remember the last time I was my snarky self with someone that wasn’t Tess, Liam or Will.

“So what do you say?” He asked.

“I need to think about it.” I said.

“Can I give you a tour of the tower?” He said.

“Well considering I called in sick I better make this worth it” I said. “But just know If I’m not home by a certain hour I told my roommate where to start looking for my body.”

“You’ll be home by curfew, I promise.” He said.

“You better.” I said.

We finished our burgers and then got back in the car. The drive to Stark Tower was pretty fast. We got into the elevator and started the tour. He showed me the lab and all the cool toys.

“Bruce, I want you to meet someone.” Tony said when a Man with brown curly hair wearing glasses came in. “This is Hayley, me new protégé.”

“I’m still considering it.” I reminded him.

“You’re here and don’t think I haven’t see you eyeing Jarvis’ mainframe.” Tony said.

“You have an AI running your life, the amount of storage space you’d need unless you found a way to condense it all… Oh you didn’t?” I said.

“Come work for me and you’ll find out.” He said.

“Is he always like this?” I asked Bruce.

“Yes but he grows on you.” Bruce said.

Then a phone started ringing. “I got to take this.” Tony said before walking out.

“So how did you two meet?” Bruce asked.

“I passed his impossible test and he showed up at school and is trying to get me to come work for him.” I said.

“Seems like a good deal, What’s stopping you?” He asked.

“I don’t know, he comes on a bit strong and what’s the word…” I started.

“Self absorbed? Eccentric? Narcissistic?” Bruce said.

“Yeah, I feel like I’m a new toy he wants for bragging rights until something else comes along and he forgets about me which when I say it out loud probably makes me sound really needy.” I said.

He chuckled a bit. “Tony comes on a bit strong and he can come off as self centered which he kind of is but he’s a good guy once you get to know him and for the record if he wasn’t honestly interested in having you work for him he wouldn’t have gone himself.” Bruce said.

“So you think I should say yes?” I asked.

“I think it’s a good opportunity and even if it doesn’t work out just having this on your resume.” Bruce said.

“That is true. Plus school’s expensive and I really want to see how that AI is programmed.” I said.

“Then say yes.” Tony said walking in.

“I’ll think about it.” I said.

“Come on kid, what can I do to say yes? You want a sports car?” he said.

“I don’t know how to drive.’ I said.

“Really?” He said shocked.

“We live in New York, traffic is hell and it’s more practical to take the subway.” I said.

“We’ll work on that.” Tony said. “Come on, I should get you home. I don’t want your roommate calling the cops on me.”

“It was nice meeting you Bruce.” I said.

“You too Hayley. Good Luck.” He said.

We got down to the car and Tony put on the radio. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” By Def Leppard started playing making me groan.

“What you hate the classics?” he asked.

“No give me ACDC, Kiss or the Beatles any time just not this song. It’s such a stripper song.” I groaned.

“Is not.” Tony argued.

“I’ll bet you whatever you want that if we go into any strip club in New York this song will be playing.” I said.

“You’re on.” He said.

“What?” I said.

“Let’s go to a strip club, which ever one you pick. If that song plays within ten minutes of us being there you get this car.” He said.

“I don’t need a car, I can’t even drive.” I reminded him.

“Okay then, I’ll show you Jarvis’ mainframe no strings attached but If the song doesn’t play you come work for me.” He said.

“You really want me to come work for you don’t you?” I asked.

“Yes! You’re smart and fun and actually understand me when I start rambling about programming.” He said.

“Take a right here, if the song doesn’t play, I’ll say yes. If it doesn’t you need to up your game.” I said. “And no hacking their speakers”

“You’re no fun.”

“I’m going with you to a strip club. How is that not fun?” I said. “Wait, is you’re girlfriend going to get mad at me for this?”

“No she’s… you’re off the hook for that,” He said driving to the closest strip club.

“Ten minutes starting now.” I said.

We walked in and sat down. We waited and nothing. They played Cherry Pie, and every other song you could possibly think of.

“You have one minute.” Tony said.

“Oh come on.” I said.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one…” he said.

“Ah!” I said annoyed. I was going to say yes but I didn’t want to lose the bet.

“So Miss Adams will you accept the offer.” He said with a smirk.

“If you’ll have me Mr. Stark.” I said with a forced smile.

“It’d be an honor, now call your bosses and quit, you start Monday.” He said.

“I’ll get right on it.” I said.

“Let’s get out of here, people are starting to stare.” He said.

“Good idea.” I said.