Tony chuckled to himself as he set down his phone and got back to work on the latest modification on the repulsor nodes that ran his latest project. He had a bit of a wobble the last time he did a test flight, and he hated unexpected wobbles.

Well, ones in the air while working, that was.

He couldn't have been more than 22 or 23 the first time he saw Emma Frost at the New York headquarters of the Hellfire Club. Young, cynical, carrying wounds so deep only the smooth burn of a fifty year old whiskey shot could soothe them. Several shots, actually. He knew what Howard thought of what he called 'jumped up masquerade balls for the richest and most powerful'. Not that much of what Howard said held much weight, but anything Howard mocked, Tony tended to want to look into and learn better.

What he found was a web of high stakes intrigue, black market business deals and a fair amount of debauchery. He certainly indulged in it, spending long days in the office trying to bring Stark Industries into the 21st century and long nights drinking and sexing up the people willing to be sexed up at Hellfire. A different woman...or man...every night he decided to show up. For a while it was every night, letting himself get carried away on a wave of intoxication and endorphins. At least, until he first saw her.

If there was a woman who could be called a walking diamond, it was Emma Grace Frost. He didn't know what her name was the first time he saw her. He was standing at the bar in one of the larger rooms, bored out of his mind at listening to Shaw drone on and on and fucking on about something he couldn't be bothered to engage with in the moment when he saw the flash of platinum blonde across the room. Platinum blonde, soft alabaster skin, ermine fur, shiny white leather. So openly seductive and so thoroughly walled off at the same time. No, sloppy drunk wasn't going to be able to get his foot in the door with that one. Neither was money. Any woman confident enough to walk around in a white leather corset, white bikini bottoms and thigh-high white leather boots wasn't going to be impressed with cheap parlor tricks or something 'ordinary'.

The hum of the node in his hands brought Tony out of his trip down Memory Lane. "Recalibration complete, Boss," FRIDAY, his AI major-domo announced. "Shall I run the first tests?"

"Please do, dear," Tony replied to his AI assistant. "Remember to recalibrate my HUD--"

"Would you like to teach me basic algebra, too, Boss?" the exasperated voice proclaimed.

Tony chuckled, waving a hand in the air. "Sorry, sorry, I'll let you get to it." He walked to the fridge in this particular lab of his, pulling out a can of seltzer water, lime flavored this time. He chugged it, savoring the burst of the carbonation along his tongue and throat. He only had to give a third of his attention to the testing work that Friday was doing, but as much as taking another stoll through his memories might be pleasant, for the time being, it wasn’t something he should. After all, that ship had sailed.

Perhaps.