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Brown Sugar	By : RebelxMusic Category: X-men Comics > Het - Male/Female Views: 1880 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I own many things. None of them are Iron Man, X-Men or any other pop culture reference I've made here. And none of this makes me any money.

Chapter List
- 1-Brown Sugar
- 1
Author's Note: The idea wouldn't leave me, so I wrote it. I apologize if I've gotten any techno-babble completely wrong. My computer science days are behind me. Enjoy.

Whenever a new car pulled up to the Xavier Institute, there was always minimal buzz about it. Was it a new student? A new investor? A new friend or enemy? Or someone completely new altogether. When it was a particularly expensive looking new car, there wasn't a chance for buzz, because of a brightly colored firecracker bounding down the stairs to go greet the driver personally.

“ TONY~!” Luckily, Tony Stark was used to this enthusiastic hello from one Jubilation Lee. He'd prepared himself to nearly be bowled over by her hug attack. (Really, there was no other word for it. The girl was small, and small looking, but there was a lot of strength in that body.) He 'oof'd when she attached to him and squeezed with all the happiness he had.

“ Nice to see you too, Jubes. ” He grunted out and lowered an arm to her shoulders to halfway return the embrace. Ah well. There were worse accessories to go with a white designer button down shirt and casual-but-not-really-casual black dress pants than an affectionate teenager. She was getting bigger though. Soon she'd be as tall as he was and then he'd have to start ducking.

“ Jubilee, you are crushing him, child. ” Ororo Munroe stood up from where she had been busy working on the front gardens. Stepping over her carefully planted flowers, she came to stand in front of them; greeting Tony with a pleasant smile. She did not miss the way he grinned in her direction. She could hardly be blamed for jean shorts and a tank top though. It was the summer, after all. “ Anthony. To what do we owe the pleasure? I hope you are not here on Avenger business. ”

“ Avenger business, no. ” She was not going to let go, was she? Logan must be gone again. He'd worked out the equation once while letting the teenager hang on him. There was a direct correlation between the amount of time Logan was away, the amount of strength she used, and amount of time she stayed attached to him. It was definitely over two weeks this time. “ I actually... ” He gave Jubilee's shoulder a pat to make sure she was listening, “came here with a small problem. You see, there's this place that allegedly makes legendary burgers and fries. Their company wants to put Iron Man toys in their kid's meals, so naturally, I want to do a little research. ” This was the part where he sighed sadly. “ But only cool kids go there with their fancy cars, and I don't fit in at all. What I need is someone to go there for me, find out if the food is any good then come back and report. ”

He paused and glanced down. Oh yeah. She was listening. “ How old are these cool kids?”

“ How old are you now?” Tony feigned thinking. “ Twenty-six? Twenty-seven?”

Her arms loosened as she laughed at him. “ I just turned eighteen. ”

“ Perfect!” The keys to the latest Audi were tossed in the air, then caught and dangled in front of her face. “ Take detailed notes and let me know how it turns out. That means a burger, fries and dessert. ”

She released him immediately and caught the keys being offered to her in cupped hands. “ You...You want me to drive...your car? This car? This very new and expensive looking car?”

“ Absolutely. This has to be a controlled experiment. Certain factors have to be present. That car for instance will have to be driven with loud music playing and the windows down. It's just unavoidable, but I'm sure you can handle it. ” Now that he was free, Tony moved closer to Ororo and left Jubilee next to his very new looking white car. “ I have complete confidence in you. ”

That was all she needed to hear. The littlest X-Man was practically bubbling over when she looked to Ororo for her approval. “ Can I?!”

The weather witch thought about this for a few moments, then looked to Tony—who was walking towards the front doors whistling a merry tune. Eyes rolled upward, but she was smiling. “ I suppose it's all right. But be very careful, do not speed and be back before six. ”

Jubilee made that high-pitched noise that almost all teenage girls seemed programmed with and hugged the older woman tightly. “ Thank you, thank you, thank you!” A swirl of yellow, the sound of ignition and she was on her way.

~*~*~

Tony was already in the kitchen, helping himself to an apple and glass of milk when she entered. The first thing she did was lean over the sink to wash her hands from playing in the dirt and water. “ You spoil her. ”

“ What spoiling? Sure that car looks, you know, amazing, but it's really quite boring. ” His shiny red apple was repeatedly being tossed and caught in the air as he lent himself against the counter. “ Won't go over ninety miles per hour, parks itself, corrects its movement if it senses an obstruction, brilliant Stark-powered GPS. She couldn't crash it if she tried. ” Literally. He'd made sure of that. “ And! I will have you know that I have a legitimate business concern. Jubilee is totally in that target demographic, and if there's one thing teenagers love to do, it's complain. If she hates that place, no Iron Man toys. If she loves it...I'll let them run one and we'll see how it goes. ”

“ I'm sure. ” She shook her hands out, then dried them on a towel. “ I appreciate you coming by to check on her. She has become quite the Iron Man fan since your first visit. ”

That bouncing apple was caught, and bitten into. He waited until after swallowing to speak again. “ Everyone should be quite the Iron Man fan. Speaking of which, what do I have to do to get you into Iron Man's clothes?”

She gave him a look over her shoulder that suggested that she knew his intentions with such phrasing. But she remained amused nonetheless. “ Maybe if you were to model a red and gold dress, I might be persuaded. ”

Tony grunted. “ I don't have the legs for skirts. ” But he certainly knew someone who did. Her back was to him as she fished in the refrigerator for something cold to drink herself. He shamelessly let his eyes travel all the way up her bare legs to where jean shorts were rolled up against her thighs and blocked his view further. That was okay though. He enjoyed the trip and there was nothing wrong with the curvaceous destination either. “ You, however, should absolutely model for me. ”

“ Behave yourself, Tony Stark. ” She wagged her index finger at him in warning. But it had absolutely no effect with her smiling like that.

“ Around you? Never. ” His apple was finished off in a few neat bites. The core, pitched into the garbage can in the corner. A perfect basket. He did not allow himself to say “swish!” out loud. Just in his head, where those two points counted.

Ororo placed her glass of ice water on the counter and retrieved an orange to start peeling. Across from him now, her back went to rest against the wall; between the garbage can and the moody pantry door. The one that never wanted to shut without a shoulder tackle from her or Jean. Sometimes it worked if Logan just glared at it. “ Did you really come all this way just to brighten Jubilee's day and 'twist her arm' to do business research for you?”

His incorrigible grin was hidden behind his raised glass of milk. “ What can I say? She's a cute kid. ” After a moment of thought and a crease of his brow, he added: “ And I still can't beat her pinball score. She's going to tell me her secrets one day. ”

Bit by bit, the orange peel came off over the garbage. “ She would likely tell you now, after the ride in your car and the dinner you just bought her. ”

Tony tried his best to look sheepish. “ Saw that, did you?”

“ I was a thief once upon a time. I can spot a big bill moving to and from a pocket. ” Most of the peel came off in a single section. An orange coil her deft fingers removed finally and dropped. “ A hundred dollars is entirely too much for a burger and fries. ”

“ Well they're supposed to be legendary...” He shrugged, then came forward to wash out his now empty glass. “ Besides, she needs money afterward to buy cigarettes and condoms. ”

“ You are not funny. ”

“ Jubilee thinks I'm funny. ”

“ Jubilee is impressionable. ”

“ I'll take impressionable. She still laughs at my jokes. ”

Ororo made a soft sound and bit into a slice of her orange. “ I will laugh at all of your jokes if you will fix my office computer. ”

That got his attention. As she totally knew it would. Tony moved closer to her like a very interested feline. “ A motherboard in distress, you say? The promise of the Laughter of a Goddess? Deals don't get better than that. ”

“ It only started to malfunction today after class. No matter what I do, it refuses to turn on. I was content to let a technician handle it on Monday. But Jubilee thought you might be insulted if I didn't consult you. ” An orange section was presented to him once he was close enough.

“ I would be. ” Instead of taking the orange slice from her, he took her wrist instead. “ Computer parts are sensitive you know. You have to know what you're doing. Have to know that machine's history, intimate details. ” They were close enough to feel each other's body heat now. Even with clothing between them. How could she have been outside doing garden work and still smell so good on a summer evening? “ You can't let just anyone inside. Any idiot can rip the top off, but only an idiot thinks you have to. The person working with you has to to be someone you trust. Someone who can be gentle. This is delicate equipment we're talking about. ” His hand on her wrist slowly moved down her arm, tracing her pulse point with his thumb. “ But forceful enough when the time calls for it. Sometimes all you need to do is shove–” his free hand rose and forcefully shut the rebellious pantry door, but good. His hand lingered though, effectively 'trapping' the weather witch between the wall and his body. “ –the right piece in and press the right button. ” Now that they were so close, he pulled her arm in and ate the orange wedge from her fingertips. When the sweet juice burst over his tongue, he made a soft sound of approval. But still held onto her. “ Mm. You see, the right touch makes all the difference between a (very) sweet victory. And, well, sticking your fingers in places they don't go and getting shocked for it. ”

She watched him with hooded blue eyes. There was only a little space, and her sweet fingertips keeping him away now. Throughout his suggestive explanation, he never completely dispelled that amused upward tilt of her lips. Well, she did say she would laugh at him if he would help. “ ...I thought I told you to behave yourself. ”

“ And I thought I told you that was impossible. ” He was nothing if not persistent. “ Why don't we talk about my behavioral problem in your office, Ms. Munroe?”

~*~*~

As soon as Ororo turned the key to open the door and let them both into her teaching office, Tony immediately put his arm out in front of her. He didn't budge an inch. “ Don't move, Ororo. ”

She was immediately on alert, freezing as he'd said, but trying to figure out what he saw that she did not. Apparently it was in front of him. “ What is it?”

“ There's a dinosaur on your desk. As long as we don't move, it can't see us. ”

“ What dino-Oh, stop it. ” A smile and a swat to that arm in her way. That wasn't laughter yet. He was getting there though. “ This computer is only four years old. ”

Ororo had her back to him when she walked all the way inside. She missed his speedy typing on his PDA. It was resting in his back pocket by the time she turned back around to face him and gesture for him to sit before...well, he couldn't really call it a computer anymore. What the Xavier Institute would be receiving tomorrow morning in a massive shipment were computers. This pitiful specimen was an electronic Old Yeller. And him without his rifle. “ You want me to fix this?”

“ I believe that was the agreement. Is something wrong?”

“ Fixing implies that it's broken to begin with. ” He pointed to the dull white desktop. “ This is not broken. This just died of old age. ”

“ Not all of it. ” She gestured to the black, empty screen. “ The screen still works. It just has nothing to show since the tower stopped working. ”

“ ...I'll amend my statement then. It didn't die from old age. It's got Alzheimer’s. Lights on but nobody's home. It will be dead soon. ” Nevertheless, he was crouching down to get a better look at the tower located in the space under her desk. She just wanted it back on. He wanted to be left alone with it and some spare parts from Scott's electronics to really fix it. “ All right, skipping the rebooting and unplugging business, did it slow down or freeze up any before it shut down?”

Ororo thought back on her computer's performance, but she couldn't recall anything truly out of the ordinary. “ No, it was working fine. I was about to put some grades in the system in fact. ”

“ Okay. Here,” he dug into his back pocket to retrieve his PDA and had the mp3 function on screen before passing it over to her, “pick out something you like. I hate working in silence. ” Pushing the computer chair away from the desk afterward, Tony gave little thought to his designer clothing before he crawled under it to get to the back of the tower. “ Well it isn't smoking back here, that's a good sign. Although, it could still be student sabotage or software failure. ”

“ Sabotage? By my students? Why would they do that?” Her head was tilted to the side as she stood next to the desk and watched him. Rarely did she get to see Tony Stark at work.

He managed to get situated without bumping his head on the desk and the dealt with the power strip. “ Well, I did it. ”

“ I mean...it would not change their grades. This only delays me in posting them. ”

“ Teenagers don't always think about what they're doing. ” He didn't. No wonder he only got a B in that class.

She hummed, not really able to disagree. And somewhat distracted by the very vast music collection he had. Of course there was an abundance of metal. “ Would it not be easier to simply remove the the tower and work on it out here?”

“ No, there's no need to pull out. I can do this on my back. ” He said it. Then he thought about it. “ That is to say, you know, if the problem is a caught chord or something, I wouldn't know that if I pulled the tower out of its original placement. ” What he did do, however, was turn the machine around so he could still see under there. “ Besides, if it refuses to cooperate, then there's no need to take it out to pasture. I'll just shoot it while I'm down here. ”

“ You cannot help yourself, can you, Tony Stark?” Since he might be down there a while, Ororo seated herself in the displaced computer chair. Finally, she saw a song she recognized. It was old, but it reminded her of summer. “ Let me tell you 'bout this girl. Maybe I shouldn't. I met her in Philly, and her name was Brown Sugar... ”

“ I am but a mere mortal. ” There was a popping sound, and he finally got his hands on her parts. Er...her computer's parts. The first thing he saw was dust, and a rather pitiful looking fan. It wasn't a problem yet, but it would be. “ Nice choice. Forgot I even had that song. Can I get a little wind down here? I think I just came in on a dust bunny meeting. One of them just pointed at me and said 'Vive la revolución. '”

“ I can see why. You appear to have every song in existence. ” Holding his PDA in one hand, Ororo leaned forward and extended her other one to the tower. She waited until she could see Tony's head before pushing air through the vents to the open back.

When she scooted forward, he had sat up to make sure dust didn't get in his face. The view upon his change in position was infinitely better. Legs for days didn't even begin to cover it. And the way she was leaning over, practically teasing him with only a hint of cleavage. Ororo seemed to be oblivious to his rather blatant distraction. Which was good for him, because he couldn't stop himself from looking if he tried. “ Brown Sugar ba~abe. I gets high off your love, don't know how to behave. I want some of your brown sugar. Su~ga~ar~...”

Damn the delivery service. He'd be here tomorrow to personally install Ororo's new computer.

Her nose was wrinkled up in distaste as she straightened. Tony quickly diverted his gaze to all the dust that had been kicked up, as if he had been looking there all along. “ You were right,” She supplied with a soft grunt. All this time she was sitting on the Dust Bunnies of Wrath and she didn't even know it. As soon as it was clear though, Tony disappeared behind it again. There was lots of movement back there, metallic sounds and clicks. She leaned over again to get a better look. “ What are you doing back there?”

“ Reseatting. ” One knee drew up leisurely as he worked. “ Glorified plugging and unplugging of the RAM, hard drive, CPU, graphics card, that kind of thing. Terrible lizards like this are prone to loose connections. ”

“ I thought the tower was the CPU. ”

“ Nothing will make an engineer cringe faster. I was proud of you for saying 'tower' earlier, by the way. ” Tony shifted and scooted forward a little with a printed circuit board in hand. “ This is your CPU. Central Processing Unit. This,” He turned it over so she could see the other side and tapped the obviously inferior to Stark Industries tech logo, “is the microprocessor where your CPU sits. ”

Blue eyes ran over the board and chip as she took in this information. “ And is that where the problem is?”

“ I wouldn't be surprised if it was. This only runs 200MHz. Mine's bigger. ” His grin was accompanied by a wink before he wiggled back to the open computer replace the part. Of course the moody bastard didn't want to go back where it was supposed to easily. It was probably because he insulted it. “ Come on you little–“ Click! There we go. Now the power strip. “ All right, Ororo, try turning it on now. ”

“ You're not going to close it up first? " Her hand was resting on the mouse, not quite convinced that she should reach for the power button yet. “ Is that not dangerous, Tony?”

Unseen by her, he rolled his eyes. “ I know what I'm doing. ”

Ororo hit the power button. Tony swore and hit head on the desk. Now she was laughing.

“ I thought you knew what you were doing. ”

“ Price to pay for the Laughter of a Goddess... ” He meant to do that. Really. He just didn't mean for it to sting so much. “ Working, right? Because if I put my hand in there again, I'm just gonna start yanking pieces out. And rebuild this the right way. ” It wasn't retribution. It was an upgrade with extreme prejudice.

“ You've done it again. ” She extended her hand to help him out from under there and back up. She was also looking over his reddened hand. “ Doesn't look too bad. Think you'll survive?”

“ You know mythology is filled with men being tricked and trapped and otherwise having very bad endings doing errands for Goddesses. The ones that survive, end up with a blessing. Would you be willing to bless me with your presence for dinner? Otherwise, I might make it through the night. ”

Ororo's full lips quirked. “ I suppose after risking life and limb for me I cannot leave you like this. ” She squeezed his hand. “ But please, no hundred dollar hamburgers. ”

“ Of course not. That's entirely too much money for a burger and fries. ” He retrieved his PDA and began speedy typing. “ Four Seasons it is. We have a reservation at eight. ”

“ Tony. ”

“ Oh, right...we were going to discuss my bad behavior first, weren't we? Better make it nine. ”
- 1
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Brown Sugar