Haircut

Luke Cage

Luke swept some hair across the floor of Pop's Shop, making sure to get as much as he could on each sweep of the broom. Pop was cutting an older man's hair while arguing with him about the Knicks. A pair of kids were playing video games on Pop's tv. And a man with glasses and a hat on named Bobby Fish was playing Jessica in a chess game. It was pretty peaceful other than Jessica constantly mumbling angrily to herself, an attempt to keep her cussing to a minimum. She had the swear jar sitting directly next to her just in case though.

As Luke worked, someone entered the shop, drawing his attention. He nearly dropped his broom.

Tony Stark, billionaire and superhero, stood at the door, removing a pair of sunglasses with a smile.

You could have heard a pin drop as everyone stared at him. Luke immediately noticed two things. First, he was alone. No bodyguards or police. Second, he was ignoring Luke and Jessica, only looking at Pop. "I got next."

Pop didn't seem to know what to say to that.

Tony freaking Stark moved to sit down on one of the waiting chairs, grabbing a random magazine off a table and flipping it open.

Luke and Jessica shared a dumbfounded look.

Both kids playing video games had stopped to look around when they realized things had gotten quiet, only for one of them to stop Tony. He stared at him for a long moment before his eyes widened in realization. "Y-You're Iron Man!"

Tony looked up at the kid and smirked. "Yeah, I am. How's it going?"

The other kid hit his friend with a scoff. "Man, come on, that ain't Iron Man! Iron Man is taller!"

Tony Stark blinked slowly. Then he looked over at Pop. "See? This is why I need the haircut. I'm unrecognizable."

The other kid seemed to realize then that he was wrong and gaped at Tony. The first one bounced excitedly in his seat. "That is so dope! Do you have the suit!?"

"Yeah, this one," Tony gestured to himself with a grin. "It's a nice one I think."

"Nah, not that one, the Iron Man one!" the kid said excitedly.

The billionaire rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Finally, he nodded and raised a hand to his ear. "Jarvis?"

A moment later, short enough that Luke figured the thing was waiting somewhere nearby, an armored suit landed in the street outside. The kids, shouting in excitement, rushed out and up the stairs to marvel at the Iron Man suit.

"Took your time with it," Tony snarked.

A voice came from nowhere, sounding as dry as possible. "Sorry sir, unfortunately, it had to be taken to the cleaners to have it buffed out."

Luke noted the voice's sarcasm game was on point. Tony smirked again and went back to reading his magazine.

Luke and Jessica shared a look. He had to assume she had the same thought she did. Iron Man was in the shop. His suit was right outside and apparently could pilot itself.

He felt his palms tighten on the broom on his hand, thinking to himself. He didn't know if he could fight an Iron Man suit. He was tough enough that bullets bounced off of him, and could punch through steel. But the Iron Man suit could do the same things and had a lot more firepower from those lasers or whatever it shot. Jessica was more vulnerable to the suit since she wasn't as durable as he was.

...Why was he here? Why was he just sitting there reading a magazine while people outside gathered around his suit?

Luke looked over at Pop and felt surprised when he saw the older man had gone back to cutting his current customers hair. Pop felt his gaze and gave him a shrug.

"What else can I do?"

That was fair.

Luke walked to the back, Jessica following after him.

"We need to run," Jessica said immediately.

"To where?" Luke pointed out. "He can fly."

Jessica opened and closed her mouth, then frowned thoughtfully. "Yeah. Yeah… Okay. If he's here for us, we don't have a lot of ways out without taking him down first. So if he is here to take us, we have to take him down hard and book it."

What?

"Jessica, if he's here to take us in… he's an Avenger."

That pretty much said it all. He had a lot more resources than they did, as well as bigger friends. Luke had been nervous enough running from the police as it was. The thought of the Hulk ripping off a roof and reaching a hand down towards him worried him. Or of a lightning hammer, or a giant alien made of diamond… honestly, it was sad to realize that even with super-strength he had a lot more to worry about than he would have a couple of years ago. The playing field was a lot more level than he wanted.

"Then what is the other option, hope that he's here for a haircut!?" Jessica hissed.

Luke shook his head. "Doesn't matter. We aren't doing anything in Pop's shop. It's in Switzerland. Neutral ground."

Jessica scoffed. "Does Tony Stark know that?"

Pop finished with his customer. The man in the chair rose up very quickly, stepping aside for Tony Stark. Tony rose up and moved over to Pop, sitting in the chair very casually. "So, how's the day been?" Stark asked casually.

"Pretty good," Pop seemed to relax once he was putting an apron on Tony's neck, as though the return to routine had calmed him. "How about you, Mister Stark?"

"Tony, please," Stark winced. "Seriously, I get fake politeness all the damn time. It gets fucking annoying," he said frankly.

Pop frowned, finger raising to point. Tony looked in the direction of the finger to see the innocuous yellow can with the words 'Swear Jar' on the side.

"..."Tony's eyes seemed to light up and a grin grew. "Are you serious?"

"As sin," Pop said with a smile.

"Well damn, take a little off the top and let's get this started!" Tony said cheerily. "Now, I'm going to tell you a story while I do this. What's the exchange rate on the jar anyways?"

"A dollar for every swear," Pop's said as he began to cut.

"Huh…" Tony thought about that. "Well, just don't tell Pepper I told you about this. The story of me, and the 2007 Maxim Calendar Girls."

Luke blinked. "Is he for real?"

He was. For the next few minutes, Tony Stark told the raunchiest stories Luke and Jessica had ever heard. At one point, one of the kids came back inside to excitedly ask something, and Tony stopped to answer him, his language completely clean once more. Then the kid went back outside and suddenly Tony was tearing apart any sense of decorum. Pop's, in the meantime, didn't seem to mind at all, which was almost as surprising. Luke and Jessica watched, Jessica looking reluctantly impressed. Luke kinda got the impression she was taking notes.

At one point, Tony began to describe, in incredible detail, what he'd done with the Christmas cover girls, who had been twins.

"How much of this do you think is true?" Luke asked.

Jessica smirked. "What, you getting jealous?"

Luke scoffed, untouched by the insult. "Hardly. Just starting to wonder what his endgame is. After all this, things are starting to feel anticlimactic."

It was. Luke was starting to feel like hiding in the back was an overreaction. Tony was just sitting there getting a haircut and running up his swear jar tab. Which people did do from time to time, honestly. Not because they wanted to disrespect Pop but rather to have an excuse to reward the man for all his good work.

Honestly, the fact Tony stopped when the kids were around were the only reason Pop was letting him get away with it. If he wasn't doing it just to raise his tab, Pop wouldn't have been half as willing to let it go.

"Actually, they're all nice girls," Tony ended. "I should have them over for a party or something. Anyway, we all good?"

"Just about," Pop said. "If you've stopped turning the English language into a cesspool," he ended with a wry smile.

"It's the best language to swear in," Tony joked, before frowning. "I guess Russian is pretty good. So is Greek… Japanese is fun. You know what, raincheck on those," Tony shrugged as the apron was swept off of him. Tony leaned forward to look at his hair. To Luke, there was no perceptible difference, but the man seemed satisfied because he nodded and reached for his wallet.

"Here you go," Tony handed Pop several bills. Should be exact change, right?"

Pop looked it over and grunted. "Huh. This is the exact amount. Three hundred and seven."

"I'm good with numbers," Tony smirked. Then he looked over at Jessica and Luke. "Nick Fury should be here in a few days, so if you two wanna keep hiding every time I come by, I'm gonna warn ya. The cyclops doesn't play those games," Tony's smile had become just a bit more vindictive. "Have a nice day you two."

Tony Stark turned and left. Moments later, the sound of the Iron Man suit taking off filled the air, leaving Luke and Jessica to stare out of the shop.

"...We're leaving," Jessica said at last.

Luke didn't know how to tell her that it probably wouldn't be any use.