Prompt#341 – Mouse- Room for Improvement/ extra - Tekia – Exalted/the Avengers

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Room for Improvement (extra)
Fandom: the Avengers/ Exalted
Prompt: Mouse
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Summary: After coming home Exalted, Tony has plans and ideas all but pouring out of his ears. Back in Creation, there was magic everywhere, and a little hard work wasn’t going to stop him from finding those wells of magic in his own world.

Tony sat up in bed, knocking White Song’s arm off his chest. She grumbled something, and turned away, tucking her arms under her chest and letting out a soft snore. Tony stared down at her, not really seeing her as ideas ran through his head at an alarming speed.
He grinned and slipped out of bed, careful not to wake the other two occupants. His efforts failed when he saw Iron Dust push himself upright, silver hair a mess on his shoulders.
“What is going on?”
Tony held his finger to his lips, but couldn’t hold back the grin that threatened to split his face. “I’m going to rebuilt Avengers Tower into a manse.”
Iron Dust’s eyes, which Tony really shouldn’t be able to see in the dark, but they were glowing yellow in the arc reactor’s light, widened. Then rolled as Iron Dust threw himself back down to the bed. He waved a hand in the air. “Have fun with that.”
Tony pulled a shirt on and slipped from the room.
In the kitchen, JARVIS had the counter alight with computer screens, and Tony poured himself a mug of coffee while he tried to put his thoughts to paper.
Building a manse wasn’t going to be easy.
First, New York was in the perfect position for the manse. Iron Dust had informed him of the lay lines that flowed through the city, faint, but there nonetheless. The manse had to tap into those, and it had to be just right.
Avengers Tower wasn’t in the right spot. He couldn’t just move it, but maybe if he made the base larger, touching the lay lines. Frowning, Tony stared at the plans, letting ideas and numbers run behind his eyes.
He paid no heed to how much time passed as he worked on his new pet project. He didn’t notice Steve come in at the crack of dawn to begin his morning routine, nor did he notice when a large orange cat leapt into his lap to sleep, vibrating with its purring.
His fingers flew over the glass keyboard in the counter as holograms sprang to life before stilling as his mind worked faster than the computer. In bursts of brilliance, Tony created both in his mind and with JARVIS, absently blending the two mediums together. Briefly he wondered how he could work so much better if his mind was directly linked to JARVIS. How much fast that would be.
He made side notes on the subject before zoning out again, his hands still, one on the counter, the other tangled in orange fur.
“Are you meditating?”
Startled at the voice so close and loud, Tony jumped, sending the cat tumbling from his lap. He blinked back to himself and found the sunlight bright in the kitchen, Clint sitting opposite him with a glass of orange juice in hand, and Bruce leaning over him, face perplexed.
“You just, meditating isn’t your style,” Bruce went on.
Tony licked his lips. “I wasn’t really meditating? I was thinking.” He closed the windows on the manse. He was going to have to work with Iron Dust on much of it. There was so much he didn’t know about manse building that he was sure Iron Dust did know. “I guess I got lost in thought. What time is it, JARVIS?”
“It is 7:45 am, Sir. You have been working for six hours and twenty-one minutes.”
Tony nodded. That sounded about right. He stretched, listening to his back pop after so long in the same position and smiled. It wasn’t so long ago that hearing his back pop like that meant a world of pain for him in his old age, but his second breath had taken all of that away. He felt none of the effects of an all-nighter that he used to suffer through. He could go days now before he felt the effects of lack of sleep. Not that White Song would let him go for so long.
He was kinda surprised that she had let alone so long tonight.
“Where are Iron Dust and White Song?”
“Iron Dust is on the roof, and White Song is at your feet.”
Tony stared at where the counter hid his feet from view a moment, nonplussed as both Clint’s and Bruce’s brows shot up to their hairlines. Then Tony pushed back far enough to see his feet and spotted the orange cat calmly giving itself a bath, seated between his feet. “Oh,” he said, intelligently. “Cute cat form, but why a cat? Is there a mouse for you to be chasing around the house or something?”
The cat paused in washing her ears and glared at him with bright blue eyes. Tony grinned. “Come up here, I want you to see this.”
The cat threaded between his legs and the stool on which he sat, her long tail sliding against his pajama pants. Once she was clear of all obstacles, she transformed into her human shape, stretching her arms high over her head. The shirt she was wearing was Iron Dust’s, but the pants Tony only vaguely recognized at something he thought he had seen Bruce in.
Tony arched a brown in Bruce’s direction, his lips curling under his moustache. Clint had a huge grin on his lips as he watched the bit of tan skin she exposed with her stretching grow between the hem of the shirt and the waist of the pants.
Then she dropped her arms and leaned heavily against Tony, her cheek pressed to his shoulder. She blinked sleepily at the information displayed on the glass countertop.
“It means nothing to me. If you want to show off, show it to Iron Dust.”
Tony waved his fingers and dismissed the lines of details until he uncovered the newly designed Stark cum Avengers Tower. “I think you’ll understand my ideas, though. And have good insight on what to do. Look. There are lay lines.” He pointed out where the lines of pure Essence flowed through New York and met only a few paces from his property. “If I plan accordingly, I can turn this tower into a manse.”
He could feel the manic grin on his face. “I can build a manse, here in the heart of New York.”