Prompt# 358 – Cartography - Room for Improvement/ extra - Tekia – Exalted/the Avengers

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Room for Improvement (extra)
Fandom: the Avengers/ Exalted
Prompt: cartography
Warnings: none
Rating: PG-13
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.


The work in front of him blurred before his eyes and he frowned. Tears were stupid. He hadn’t known about this other world that had existed before, well, before the common era, before he’d gone back in time only a few short weeks ago, so why was he so upset that it was truly, really gone? He had known it was going to be gone from the moment he had realized that their world and his were the same. He sniffed loudly and blinked back the sting in his eyes before changing the subject.
“I can’t help but wonder who my soul mate was. What type of Lunar was she? Was it even a she? How old? What were their talents? Would we have gotten along?”
White Song leaned alongside his side, her chin propped on his shoulder as she watched him take a pen to the map, marking where the manse was hidden under hundreds of feet of water. JARVIS helpfully made a holographic of the map, but stopped there as Tony and White Song stared at the display.
“Do you think I can do this?” Tony asked, his voice thin. He knew he could do this. He knew it, but he needed to hear it from her. Iron Dust had given him the idea, setting in on the trek to bringing it out of the ocean, but it was White Song who was the one that was going to either back Tony, or bring him down.
She hummed, and he felt the vibrations on his shoulder. “You learned much from the Guardian while on the air boat, so, if you remember what you learned from him about the engines, I’m sure you can make the effort.”
Brows raised, Tony dropped his hands to the table and turned to stare at her, incredulous. “Really? If I remember? An effort? Do you know who I am?”
She shoved to her feet and planted a hand on his head, her nails digging in. “You’re Twilight. Show me wonders, unclean one.” She lightly padded out of the workroom, the doors closing with a sigh behind her. Tony cautiously sniffed at his pits before deciding that it was yet another thing he needed to learn about their culture.
He fiddled with the map a while more before inspiration struck and he pulled up a blank sheet. He was nearly finished mapping out the island as he had remembered its surface when the doors opened once more.
“Man, where’s the music?”
“Rhodey?” Tony dropped his stylus and turned on the chair to grin at the man. He quickly stood and held his arms out. “Where have you been?”
“I should ask you the same thing. Pepper told me you’ve been traveling.” He arched a brow. “Haven’t seen you on the news in a while.”
Tony shrugged. “You know how it is, settling down with the ol’ ball and chain.” Rhodey snorted and pulled Tony close to hug him with several firm pats on his back.
“I’m telling Pepper you called her that.”
Tony pulled away. “You thought I was talking about Pepper?” He fluttered his lashes up at him, and couldn’t hold back the grin stretching his lips. “I was talking about Bruce.”
At that, Rhodey laughed outright. Tony motioned to a second chair and resumed his seat, quickly making a few more marks on the map. Rhodey watched him work for a moment, silent, before turning his eyes back to Tony.
“Pepper said you needed to talk to me.”
“She did? Don’t know what about.”
“Tony, what’s going on? She sounded worried about you.”
“And you came running?”
He shrugged. “I was coming to see you anyway.”
Tony’s full attention zeroed in on him. “Something wrong with War Machine.”
“Iron Patriot.” Tony wrinkled his nose. “But no,” he concluded. “It’s about that mission you guys went on last. The one that took you out to the middle of nowhere in the Atlantic Ocean.”
Tony’s hand dropped to the paper map, his palm covering the circle that indicated his manse. “What about it?”
Rhodey didn’t miss his actions, and his eyes narrowed, but he didn’t comment, instead he said, “After you left the area, there’s been a lot of activity going on out there. SHIELD didn’t tell you?”
Tony slowly shook his head. “What kind of activity?”
“That’s just it. We don’t know. The higher ups want to keep this all in house, so I’m not really telling you this, but they have no clue what’s going on over there. And your sudden interest in cartography tells me that you might have more than just a clue.”
Tony felt his face freeze for a second before he let a full grin stretch his lips. “Don’t I always?”