Tony Stark had just gone through some of the busiest, wildest days of his life.
The high-profile "I'm back" press conference where he announced to the entire world that "Stark Industries is shutting down its weapons division," the board and the military breathing down his neck while he forcibly closed it anyway, dealing with Obadiah Stane's various complaints and grumbling…
One thing after another left him exhausted, but it also made the path ahead of him clearer than ever.
When he finally managed to temporarily smooth over all the trouble and dragged his tired but faintly excited body back to his luxurious villa on Malibu Beach, all he wanted was a glass of iced whiskey and some quiet, uninterrupted time to sketch out ideas for the Mark II armor.
However, the moment he pushed open that heavy glass door, the scene before his eyes turned him into a statue on the spot, his brain's processor humming like it had just overloaded.
In the enormous living room—big enough that you could probably play a game of soccer in it—on the huge sofa facing the floor-to-ceiling windows and the unbeatable ocean view, there were two people sitting there.
Or rather, wedged together there.
Takao was being held in Skadi's arms in an incredibly awkward position. Skadi was sitting on the sofa, while Takao, like a life-sized human body pillow, was leaning back against her chest, his whole body tightly wrapped up by her arms. Skadi's chin was lightly resting on the top of his head, that delicate but always expressionless face aimed straight at the enormous LCD TV mounted on the wall opposite them.
On the TV screen, a brightly colored, plot-for-toddlers episode of SpongeBob SquarePants was playing. Patrick Star was saying something stupid in his uniquely dopey voice.
Meanwhile, Skadi, rubbing her cheek absent-mindedly and fondly against Takao's hair, stared with her crimson eyes utterly focused on the screen, on that yellow sponge in square pants and his pink starfish friend…
The car keys in Tony's hand slipped from his fingers and hit the polished floor with a crisp clack.
He stood there slack-jawed, his gaze repeatedly shifting between Takao's "dead inside but long since resigned to it" expression and Skadi's adorably dumb posture.
This image was too abstract. So abstract that even his genius brain couldn't parse it for a moment. A walking natural disaster who could take apart armored vehicles with her bare hands and cleave rockets in half with a sword… was cuddling her "summoner" while watching a kids' cartoon? And in a pose straight out of "petting your cat"?
"Uh… hi?" Tony finally managed to squeeze out a flat little syllable, trying to break the bizarre silence.
Takao turned his head helplessly and forced a smile. "You're back, Tony? Everything handled?"
Skadi also slowly turned her head. Her crimson eyes glanced at Tony in what counted as a greeting, then immediately turned back to SpongeBob, as if the world under that pineapple house was far more appealing than Tony Stark. Her arms around Takao, however, did not loosen in the slightest.
"Yeah… handled," Tony said, rubbing his brow as he decided to temporarily ignore the surreal scene. "You two are… watching TV?"
"As you can see." Takao shrugged as much as he could, though his shoulder movement was severely restricted. "Skadi is… very curious about everything in this world."
Especially anything related to how to "snuggle" with a companion, he added silently in his head.
Over the next few days, Tony got a much deeper understanding of what "bonds between companions" meant.
At mealtimes, Skadi would always sit right next to Takao. That part wasn't a big deal. The problem was that from time to time, she would spear something from her own plate with her fork and, with a blank face, bring it to Takao's lips, staring at him with clear, stubborn eyes until he helplessly ate it.
Then, just as naturally, she would open her own mouth, clearly waiting for Takao to "return the favor."
The first time Tony witnessed this mutual feeding scene, he nearly choked on his steak.
"Cough, cough! Okay, tell me… don't you two think you're being just a little too close?" Tony couldn't help complaining. "Is this, like, some kind of brand-new social etiquette?"
Skadi swallowed the broccoli Takao had just fed her, then turned to look at Tony with a deadly serious expression. In her clear, cool voice, she replied, "This is just normal sharing of food between companions."
She paused, a faint light flickering in her crimson eyes as she added, "I, Skadi, treasure my companions the most."
Tony: "…"
He was, for once, completely speechless.
At night, things became even more "severe." Hugging her huge body pillow printed with a chibi orca, Skadi would show up at Takao's bedroom door right on schedule, then walk in like it was the most natural thing in the world and occupy half of his king-size bed.
The first time Tony saw Skadi walking into Takao's room with that pillow in her arms, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"Hold up! You two… sleep together?!"
"Mm." Skadi nodded. "Sleeping with a companion is reassuring."
Takao covered his face with one hand and tried to explain, "Tony, it's not what you think…"
"What do you think I'm thinking?!" Tony felt like he was about to lose his mind.
What really broke Tony, though, was bath time. Skadi apparently believed that companions should share every space—including the bathroom. Only after Takao put up a desperate fight did she reluctantly agree not to go in. But she would stand guard outside the bathroom door like a door guardian, holding her sword.
The moment Takao's shower went past ten minutes, a terrifying "scrrrrrape—scrrrrrape—" sound would start outside the door. That was Skadi, like an anxious kitten dying to pounce back into her owner's arms, sprawled against the glass wall of the bathroom, frantically scratching at the door.
At the same time, her voice, tinged with a hint of grievance and anxiety, would call out:
"Takao, are you not done yet?"
"It's been ten minutes, companion!"
"The water will get cold. Hurry out!"
Listening to that hellish scratching at the door, Tony would look at Takao, who had just stepped out of the bathroom with water still dripping from his hair, and pat him on the shoulder with a very complicated expression, his tone sour and dripping with sarcasm:
"Takao, my man… at this rate, why don't you two just go register and get married already? This is like the ultimate conjoined-twins edition."
Skadi, who had been using a dry towel to help Takao wipe his hair, paused when she heard that. She looked over at Tony, still wearing that dead-serious, adorably blank expression.
"Get married? What is that? This is just normal interaction between companions."
Tony: "…"
Looking into Skadi's eyes—so pure they didn't contain a single trace of ulterior motive—he suddenly realized that she genuinely believed that. In her mind, this level of intimacy was simply the definition of "companion."
Tony Stark: billionaire, genius inventor, experienced playboy… at this moment, he felt an unprecedented sense of defeat and… a faint, complicated mix of curiosity and envy.
This pure, straightforward, almost clumsy dependence and protectiveness was something he had never experienced in any relationship.
His eyes flicked, and a mischievous idea popped into his head. He leaned toward Skadi, put on what he considered his most charming "Stark-style" smile, and shamelessly asked:
"Hey, Skadi, so… how about me? I'm Takao's companion too, right? So could we… also be that kind of 'companion'? I could really use some 'cherishing.'"
The second he finished speaking, Skadi's gaze snapped toward him. The look in her eyes was no longer the dazed cuteness she had while watching SpongeBob, nor the quiet dependence she had when looking at Takao. It was a sharp, quick, assessing stare with a hint of… was that disdain? (Tony told himself he must be imagining that part.)
Without even a heartbeat of hesitation, she answered in a clear, icy voice, each word like it had been nailed into place:
"No."
Then, as if that weren't enough, she added one more line, like she was stating some self-evident universal truth:
"You're a good person."
He, Tony Stark—billionaire, playboy, world-famous genius inventor—had just been hit with a "you're a good guy" card by a woman for the first time in his life.
He froze on the spot, his smile completely solidifying on his face as his whole being fluttered in the wind, questioning reality.
Meanwhile, the culprit herself, Skadi, had already turned her head back and was once again fully, wholeheartedly focused on carefully drying her "companion" Takao's still-damp hair with the same hands that could casually lift a truck.
Looking at Tony's utterly deflated, life-questioning expression, Takao finally couldn't help it—he burst out laughing, full of schadenfreude.
It seemed Tony's path to becoming a true "companion" was going to be a very long one indeed.
(End of Chapter)
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