( ONLY HUMAN )

CHERRY WAS WALKING UP TO THE DOOR OF TONY'S MANSION WHEN JAMES RHODES EXITED THE DOOR. It didn't surprise her, and she smiled at him as they approached each other. Jim smiled at her, "Cherry! It's nice to see you again!" 

Cherry smiled widely at him, "Jim! It's good to see you too! Tony doesn't like sharing you, does he?" The last time the two of them had seen each other, which was scarcely at that, they had been at one of Tony's Galas, and Tony had whisked Jim away from her before he could get into telling Cherry about a fourteen year-old Tony embarrassing himself at MIT. Tony had somehow managed to keep them away from each other all night after that and still get drunk and take home a model. 

"I could say the same thing about you," Jim said, smiling friendly. "And I'm sorry to run out while we have a chance to talk with only JARVIS listening, but I'm due back at base. I'll see you later, Cherry. We'll talk whenever that is." 

"Of course, don't let me hold you," Cherry told him, stepping out of his way. She watched him walk for a little, taking in the military stride that was built into his step. With a deep breath, she turned back to the door and took the last couple of steps to it and entered, hoping she looked okay. Tony had wanted to show her his workshop finally and she was excitedly nervous about it. It was the first time she would get super personal with Tony, despite the fact that she had helped him in the shower a week or two ago. 

Fixing her shirt and rubbing her sweaty hands on her jeans, Cherry made her way forward into the house, switching the fast food bag from hand to hand. Stopping to get Tony and her some cheeseburgers had been a great idea. She stopped by the kitchen, chatting absentmindedly to JARVIS as she fixed herself and Tony a mug of coffee. Checking the fridge for food, she also grabbed the fruit that had been clearly cut up for the intention of snacking. Finding a tray, Cherry placed everything on it before asking JARVIS which way the workshop was and telling him to alert Tony that she was here if he hadn't already.  

The stairs took her a few tries to find since they were a little hidden, but she was able to get down them easily enough once she located them. Upon the bottom of the stairs was a wall of glass which had a video feed playing on it. Cherry could still make out Tony hunched over an invention on one of his work tables, his hair a fluffy mess. The door accepted the code Pepper had made her, Cherry smiling as she balanced the tray in one arm to pull the door open and get through it. 

Her ear drums were assaulted with rock music as soon as she was through the door and she had to give Tony props for the soundproofing. She started to make her way over to Tony, smiling up at the roof, saying, "JARVIS, the music, please." 

It cut to a lower volume, Tony's voice immediately being heard after, "Pepper, I swear, give me an hour and then I'll go to bed." 

"Not Pepper, but now I feel obligated to drag you to bed," Cherry spoke, moving until she was beside Tony and placing the tray gently on the table. "Eat, Pepper did tell me to do that." 

Tony smiled at her, popping a piece of fruit into his mouth before leaning over and giving Cherry's cheek a kiss. Then, he spotted the fast food bag and groaned, planting another sloppy kiss on her cheek, "You're the best, Cherry." 

She smiled at him, before she was moving away from where he was digging into the cheeseburger at one of the worktables set up. It was easy to maneuver between some other tables, deciding that she was going to look at them in a bit. Instead, she made her way over to where a row of cars sat under some windows. They were nice, but Cherry wasn't going to pretend she knew what any of them were and how expensive they actually are. She also wondered if she got the older ones from his dad or if he had found them himself and rebuilt then. Or if it was a little bit of both. 

Cherry moved away from them then, going to head to the small kitchen when something beeped behind her and she turned to see an actual robot. Well, just an arm of a robot, that had a three-pronged claw as a hand. It was holding something in its hand, a wrench of some sort, but he held it out for Cherry to take, so that's what she did. It beeped excitedly at her, making her smile, before it was racing away. Cherry was able to get a glimpse of the word DUM-E on the side of his arm before he disappeared behind a worktable. 

"Don't encourage him," Tony said, Cherry turning to look at him. He had a coffee mug in his hand as he ran a hand through the unruly curls on top of his head. There was a streak of grease on his forehead, and his blue eyes were bright with what was the closest thing Cherry had seen to happiness in them. "He's gonna bring you more wrenches now." 

"Maybe I want them?" Cherry asked, smiling as Dum-E came back around the workbench he had gone around, silver wrench in his claw. Once she had taken it and given his arm a pat, one that made Dum-E beep excitedly again and park himself beside her, Cherry was smiling back at Tony. "He's amazing! This is the one you built at MIT, right?"

She took a step closer to the kitchen, where she noticed another bot set up, looking around her and wondering if he was there to make Tony snacks or something like that. On his arm, there was a DUM-U on it. She wondered if the DUM was an abbreviation for something, or if it was just Tony being mean. Dum-E was following her path to the kitchen, Cherry looking back at him with a wide smile. 

Tony mumbled something about the robot before waving him off and getting back to work. Cherry stopped and turned to the bot, bending down slightly, holding out the first wrench he had given her, "Dum-E, can you go and give this to Tony for me?" 

The bot dip its claw like it was looking at the wrench, before it was moving in a nodding motion before he was taking it from her outstretched hand. She watched him zoom over to Tony, holding out the wrench for him, which made Tony send a deadpan look at Cherry. A laugh escaped her mouth, one she couldn't help herself from doing. It came with a shrug and a smile, Cherry watching as Tony's eyes softened and he smiled back. Cherry turned back to her exploring as Tony turned back to whatever he was inventing. 

The art that was hung in the kitchen area was definitely something Pepper had picked out. Cherry knew her best friend's style and how much she liked to go art shopping (Cherry's been a few times and never knew what was going on). Also, she didn't think Tony was as minimalist as the painting suggested. Cherry turned to look around the rest of the walls and was surprised that there wasn't any pictures of cars or rock bands or maybe Dogs playing Poker. 

Cherry's pretty sure Pepper would kill Tony if he had anything of such in his house. 

She continued to move around the room, looked at all the other things that were on the walls. The tools were neatly arranged in a specific kind of chaos that Cherry didn't want to mess with, even if it was kind of tempting. She took her time examining things, trying not to look too close at the prototypes of some of the weapons Tony had sitting on some of the worktables. When she was done, Cherry made her way over to Tony, grabbed her own burger, and plopped down on a stool that was beside Tony. Dum-E almost immediately made his way over, beeping, carrying a can of soda. The other bot, Dum-U, was beeping at Dum-E, Tony doing hisbest to ignore everything around him and work on the project in front of him. 

Cherry thanked Dum-E, taking the soda, watching the bot whirl away with excited beeps. With that, she started to eat her burger, watching in fascination as Tony conversed with JARVIS, looked at hover blue-tinted screens, and worked. It was mesmerizing. His hands, which Cherry could see were scarred and knicked, hands that worked despite what every magazine and such said, moved with precision as he used what Cherry thought as a soldering iron on the piece of tech. 

It was magical. 

Not wanting to disrupt his work, she focused on shoving the burger into her mouth as fast as she could. Tony looked up just as she was pushing the last bit into her mouth, mirth dancing across his eyes and a soft smile settling on his lips as he reached forward and wiped some sauce off of the side of her mouth. Cherry felt her face heat as she watched him suck the digit into his mouth, before he was winking at her and getting back to work. 

Cherry grabbed the soda Dum-E had so graciously given her, opened the tab, and chugged about half of it. When she deemed the burger washed down, she placed the soda to the side of the worktable where it wouldn't be in Tony's way, then got up. Tony sent her an amused look, which she returned by sticking her tongue out at him. 

That's when she noticed the worktable that was pushed off to the side, filled with half built gadgets, wires spewing out of them, pieces missing, looking like they've been abandoned. Cherry cautiously approached the bench, looking down at it. There was a flat metallic hexagonal disk, reflecting back wires and things it was buried under. There was a group of small bug looking pieces, a wire sticking out of each, and Cherry furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at everything that was spread out. 

Tony's finger pointing at the bug like things startled Cherry, making her jump slightly, turning to see Tony smiling cheekily at her. "Those were supposed to help with field repairs on military vehicles. Could never get a power source good enough to have them on stand-by power as well as to power nano-bites. Which was another complication. The nano-bites weren't quite right either." 

"Those," he pointed at a small tube that had wires sticking out of a panel, "were supposed to be remote control missiles that could take pictures of the enemy for stealth operations. So, they wouldn't have to send in someone to endanger."

He pointed to another half assembled gadget, "That was supposed to refract light off of windows of vehicles to make them look empty ."

He tapped the reflective disk, "Think of a solar panel, but way stronger. It was supposed to be a step towards cleaner energy and help power the factory with the arc reactor." 

"Wow," Cherry breathed out, looking at the gadgets once more before turning to Tony. "These are amazing! Why isn't Stark Industries producing any of these things?"

Tony shrugged, turning away from the table and walking back to where he had been working previously. Cherry noticed his shoulders were tensed, but couldn't fathom what she could have said to put him on the defensive. "They're not cost effective. They cost too much to produce and nobody wants this kind of stuff on the market. Stock would take a hit. Plus, the leap between Weapons Manufacturer and Clean Energy Inventor is too big."

Cherry blinked, felt her eyebrows raise, leaning her hip on the table and staring at Tony with a shocked expression. He was holding the soldering iron in his hands again when he looked up at her and gave her a defensive what? Cherry shook her head, "Okay, Mr. Stane, can I get you a coffee to? Maybe some of the good bourbon out of Mr. Stark's office?" Tony scowled at her. "You sound like Obadiah, Tony. What do you think about all these wonderful inventions that can help people? Isn't that worth the hit to stock?" 

She watched Tony's shoulders get closer to his ears, "Doesn't matter what I think about it. Obie said the board would never go for those types of things because it doesn't provide for the military contracts we have. It would just be a waste of money. And I am helping people! S.I.'s weapons are the best on the market and have the lowest percentage of failures in testing and out on the field. I'm sorry if that's not good enough for you!"

Cherry blinked at Tony, listening to the echo of his shout. Everything seemed to be extremely quiet after the outburst, Cherry chewing on her lip. "Of course, it's enough for me, Tony. You could build the worst craft imaginable and I would still love it," Cherry closed her eyes, shook her head, and squared her shoulders, "I just don't think you should let your company be stuck in Obadiah's weird fetish of the glory days. Your dad built weapons and saved a lot of people, Tony, but he also helped kill a lot of people. Howard and Obadiah sold the fear that there was going to be another war, another fight, another way for America to win. i don't want that to be your legacy too."

Tony's whole face shut down at the mention of his dad. Cherry knew it was going to happen, but she couldn't have stopped herself from saying any of it to spare his feelings. She didn't know if he needed to hear this, if it was something she needed to say, but it was out there now, hanging in the air like it was its own holoscreen. 

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Tony said, voice devoid of emotion and hard. His body language was no longer open, and even if it was Cherry's fault, she wished for the playfulness that had come from the burger and Dum-E. "You're just a receptionist. You have no idea how to run a successful, multi-billion dollar business. Why should I listen to you?"

"You're right," Cherry said, crossing her arms over her chest, then letting her hands fall back to her sides. "I have no idea about business practices that could change on a dime depending on the market. But I do know you, Tony. And you can do so much better than following after your dad's footsteps." She motioned to the worktable that held all the amazing inventions. "Tony, you can create so many beautiful things that can help some many people, if you only allow yourself."

Tony let out a bark of laughter. There was no humor in it, just a hard, mocking laugh that sent a stab through Cherry's chest. "You think you know me because Pepper would gossip with you and you've spent time with me for a few months? Newsflash, Cheryl. You have no clue. I had planned that after you left, if we hadn't fucked, to get wasted and call all my model friends and have a good time with them. I'm not at all what I seem, sweetheart. Do you know how many girls claim to know me? You're at the bottom of a very long list, Cheryl."

Cherry knew he was just saying them to hurt her. She had hit too close to home, had told him something too truthful, and he was lashing out. It was something she could have seen coming a mile away. And she did. So, instead of falling for it, tearing up and running away like Tony probably expected her to do, she felt her jaw tighten and stride over to the work table, not looking at Tony. 

"I appreciate that, Mr. Stark," She spat out, glad that she was wearing running shoes so she wouldn't have to wait for Happy to pick her up and take her home. "I forget that you know exactly what it's like to live on top of the world. My bad. Wouldn't want a lowly receptionist telling you anything, even though she's hot, right." She turned just her head to Tony, glaring at him. "You're the stupidest genius I know, Mr. Stark. Pepper will be expecting some Louboutins come Monday. Don't bother getting fuck all for me." 

With that, she stormed away, not turning back to look over her shoulder at Tony. She knew she was giving him what he thought he wanted, chasing her away with mean words and terrible lies. Cherry really should have stood there, put her foot down and told him no. Should have stood by his side and tell him that he could push all he wanted but she wasn't going anywhere. 

However, she was only human, and felt human emotion. So, instead of doing the thing she should have, she did one of the things she shouldn't have. She didn't bother even talking to JARVIS as she left the house, slamming the door after her in her anger, stomping down his driveway. A taxi picked her up when she had walked a fair enough distance from his house.

And, if there was leftover anger on Monday morning after ranting to Pepper and then throwing the full cup of probably really expensive coffee Tony got her in the garbage as soon as she got to work was just her letting out the last of it. Poor Scottie had probably gotten the worst of it though, for he got to see her cry in the middle of the night when she realized she had hurt Tony when she had tried her hardest not to and she felt so goddamned guilty about it.

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this has taken me forever and i'm sorry. i was dreading writing this because i didn't want to hurt tony or cherry. my poor babies. i hope this fight makes sense? it was truly all over the place and tony was just trying to push her away and cherry is just human guys, don't fault her for walking away.

next chapter marks the starting of the movie! which will be when tony is gambling while rhodey is presenting him the award lmaoooo