Talking

Waking up, Tony took a shower and went downstairs. Lately, he was always a little afraid to go in the kitchen and not find his daily cup of coffee there. Maybe today was the day that his coffee deliverer forgot about him. But faithfully every day Tony found a cup of coffee on his kitchen counter. It was such a simple gesture but it made him really happy to have someone in his life that seemed to really care about his well being.

After bringing him the absolutely delicious blueberry muffin weeks ago, she even started to bring him little snacks and left them near him in his lab. But nothing had been as mouth-watering as the muffin had been.

Looking at the first, original tray of coffee that had been delivered into his workspace, he asked Jarvis to check the temperature. He didn't know what she had done but the heat of the coffee cubs was not changing. He had turned them into a science project, testing for how long they would keep their temperature.

Today as well he would spend his day in his workshop.

Hardly any time seemed to pass before Tony came out of his trance because he could smell really heavenly scent. Looking up he instantly saw the pizza and the four cups that were placed near his elbow.

"Wow. Pizza, really? Thanks, little ghost! Jarvis, check the temperature."

"Sir, the temperature remains constant."

"Wow. Is it the same as the coffee cups? How do you do that?" Stark asked while throwing the coffee cover into the garbage with trained ease.

After the successful opening of her bistro, Valerie was in a really good mood, so she couldn't resist the temptation to answer Stark's question. The moment he took off the cover of the coffee cup she bespelled the steam that was escaping and wrote some letters with it:

- Magic -

Tony couldn't believe it, she answered. Taking advantage of the opportunity he inquired:

"Do you want to play a game? For every answer you give, I will answer one of yours. What do you say?"

Waiting for her replay he took one of the pizza slices and took a bite.

"Woah. The best pizza of my life."

Suddenly there was a burst of blue color in front of his eyes and letters began to form.

- Thanks for the compliment. And I am game. Shoot. -

"Oh, I didn't expect you to agree. I have not prepared any questions. Let me think... Okay, what's your name?" Tony raised an eyebrow provocative.

Valerie looked incredulous at Stark. She should have known that he wouldn't ask some meaningless questions.

- Mr. Stark, I should have known you would start with the hard questions. Ask another one. -

Knowing to get the answer of his first question was close to zero he already prepared another one:

"What's your gender?"

- Really? Next question, please. -

Almost hearing her amusement, Tony was a little bit disappointed to not get an answer to his question, but he would know the answer soon.

"What are you?"

After a significant pause, letters began to form slowly.

- I was born human, then experimented on and now I am immortal and don't exactly know what I am. -

Gaping at the words, Tony didn't know where to begin deciphering the sentence. Immortality and Experiments? Experiments sounded too similar to torture for his taste. He really hoped he misunderstood because he didn't want her to have a similar experience as him.

"Willing experiments?"

- Hey now, don't forget it's my turn now! -

"oh, sorry. Ask away?"

- Why keep quiet? Why didn't you tell anybody about me? -

Surprising Tony, first he didn't know what to say. He thought that with his promise to answer any question she would ask about his arc reactor or iron man suit, everybody else would have definitely asked about his inventions. But his little ghost was different she had to ask the hard questions.

"Oh, you know why." he deflected.

- I want to hear it from you.-

"Think about it, ... magic!... you are every scientist's wet dream."

Magic was a part of the truth but far from the whole truth. He couldn't tell her how important this relationship was for him. In his eyes that would be too pathetic, he learned the hard way, thanks to Howard Stark that showing emotions was not welcome, so he told a little white lie.

Valerie shouldn't have asked, how could the answer be anything different. Not showing anything else to him except her magic, what else could his answer be. Her magic was always the only reason why people approached her and wanted her. She was thankful that Tony couldn't see her sad eyes, because then she would have been humiliated.

Clapping and then rubbing his hands together Tony asked:

"So what can you do really? I know you can turn invisible. Hey are you following me into the shower?"

- Mister Stark. I am a stalker not a voyeur. -

"ah you didn't deny it, so it must be true."

Before his eyes a really big word formed:

- NO! -

Laughing out loud, he couldn't contain his serious face anymore.

- What do you want to see? -

That distracted Tony enough to stop laughing and he began to consider.

"I didn't know that there was an option for a demonstration! hmmm, I don't know the extent of your abilities so show me something flashy"

- Only if you promise not to record any of this. -

Already preparing his equipment, Tony was slightly disappointed not to be able to document any of this but was far too eager to really care.

" Oookay... now something flashy...go!"

Right after Tony's inquiry, every Iron Man suit turned a bright pink. Gaping with horror at his suits, he hoarsely whispered:

"It is not permanent, is it?"

- Haha. You wanted something flashy -

His suits flashed through every color of the rainbow and settled on their original appearance: red and gold. Sighing with relief he said:

"Thanks to you I will have nightmares about PINK Iron Man suits."

- Haha. Funny. Do you want to see something else? -

"Oh yes! But I don't know the extent of your abilities: sooo...Impress me."

grinning cheekily Tony held his breath and waited.

Soon after everything in his lab that was not tied down began to float including himself and his cars. Tony couldn't believe it, experiencing flight without his suit was something surreal but it felt really fantastic.

"Oh wow. You can levitate - is there a weight limit to how much you can levitate?"

- I think so, but I never reached my limit before so I can't tell you exactly. -

While Tony was trying to stabilize himself in the air he saw a twig zapping through the staircase outside his lab, halting in front of the door, teleporting inside it, then stopping and hovering in front of him. The twig looked like it was old and long dead but then it began to grow a few centimeters, it seemed to regain life and became green again. After a moment buds began growing. The buds turned into cherry blossoms before the whole thing started to fragment into tiny flakes, they formed a sort of cloud and swarmed around him. In absolute disbelieve Tony stretched his arm out and the tiny bits circled around his arm until they left his side and came to a stop in front of him again before exploding into beautiful tiny fireworks. The whole thing was wonderous if not a little bit scary.

Trying hard not to stare in awe but failing, Tony was at a loss for words but was rescued by Jarvis:

" Sir, I am sorry to interrupt but Miss Potts arrived and is on her way to your workshop."

"Thanks, please tell Pepper to wait in the living room. I will join her shortly."

Tony and everything else in his lab were lowered back down slowly and it seemed as if nothing happened. Walking to the door, Tony stopped, turned and asked anxiously:

"Are you going to talk to me again?"

- Of course. Now hurry up. -

Grinning with relief, Tony made his way to the living room to greet Pepper:

"Pep, it's great to see you. Why are you here?"

Looking disapprovingly at Tony, Pepper said:

"We have an appointment. Don't tell me you forgot? I need you to sign a few papers for me. And I would like you to sign a few money transactions for charity Here the first one..."

"Sir, I am sorry to interrupt but Code 53." Jarvis halted Pepper's monologue.

Tony Stark almost couldn't contain his excitement. The thermal cameras and weight measuring device he secretly installed in the staircase a while ago were just triggered by his little ghost. The code meant they got some data from the staircase meaning he would be able to see which gender the visitor was, how tall and how much weight she had. But now wasn't the time to check.

Normally he wanted Pepper to stick around as long as possible, most of the time she didn't have time but at the moment he couldn't wait to get rid of her but he couldn't just sign everything she wanted, so he had to exercise patience

"Thank you, Jarvis. Pepper? really? Charity again? I already spent millions on charity this year. Is it at least something better than last time, the stupidest charity to date: preventing penguins from drowning, I mean really, Pepper? I think it would be better to throw my money out the window than to give money to something stupid like that."

"Tony, charity is important to make a good impression on society and supporting penguins is not stupid, you didn't sign it anyway. Then lets only talk about signing the company's papers that need approving. " looking slightly offended Pepper waited until Tony signed the papers, stood up and intended to leave.

"Wait up Pepper, you just arrived. Don't you want to stay a bit to chat?"

"Oh I am so sorry Tony but I ate before coming here and now I am already running late. That reminds me of the place that I just discovered. The coffee was extra delicious, I tried to order some cups for take-out but unfortunately, they don't have that option. You should come with me the next time and take a look!"

"Sorry Peps, but at the moment I am preparing for the Expo, but after the event, we can go there together." what Tony didn't tell was that he would have the time if he only invented things for his exhibition but he was really busy in making a new trap for his ghost.

After saying goodbye and Pepper left, Tony instructed:

"Jarvis, run the surveillance footage of the staircase."

Watching the footage he could see himself walking upstairs and after a few minutes, another body followed. Immediately after the first picture of her, she vanished. He suspected that her magic learned about it and made her untraceable, which meant he needed to use a different detection the next time.

Based on the outlines and the weight - height proportions it was clear that his little visitor was a relatively petite female human-looking being. Exhaling with relief, Tony resolved to try to catch her tomorrow.