T H R E E. - T H E. A S S I S T A N T.

Tinted purple glasses sat on the bridge of her nose, eyes still noticeable as she glanced around the bland room filled with nothing but the long, grey conference table she sat at. Trina wore the colorful glasses to not necessarily look cool, but to hide the sleep loss noticeable under her light eyes. Purple was a perfect color for that, seeing as it's darker than the dark circles she acquired through the sleepless night.

Looking at the suited men on either side of the table, Trina couldn't comprehend why she had resorted to this, finding an assistant. Maybe it was to prove her point about Tony making his assistant, the lovely Pepper Potts, do all of his work instead of assisting like her's would do. Assistants were like perioperative nurses to Trina. They helped the surgeons in the operating room, handing them things and making sure everything stays at its highest quality for not only the patient, but also,  the surgeon. And Trina would treat it quite the same. Just an assist, not a full time care worker.

"Okay," she managed to get out, finally hopping into action as she leaned over the table with her hands linked together. "Before we get started...every one of you seemingly 'knows' who I am from the media, but you do not know me." Her intense look from behind the glasses scared the facts into the men's brain. "Forget all you've heard because you're finally not seeing me fourth hand making my way out of a tall building and looking suave. No, this is me first hand and- what some find hard to believe- I am normal with human emotions." Why did she want a man assistant? To dim the lonesome feelings she wouldn't admit to? Trina concluded it as knowing she'll fire him sooner or later and making her second line up of assistants women. It would come to her as a pattern switching off between the genders as she fired assistant after assistant.

The men were left to wait in the conference room as Trista interviewed one by one in a separate room across the hall, asking the most random- important to her- questions they have ever come by in an interview with such a high up person. They didn't question it in fear of not getting the job and having to search elsewhere. Trina wasn't satisfied with the guys that day and after a few days of random questions, she'd finally found her assistant.

His name was Kevin Pohl. Apparently, born in Germany and at the youthful age of twenty-five. Moved to America at the young age of nine. His parents liked to move around every so often, moving them to Canada after and then, Italy and later Northern Ireland, but- to Trina's surprise- they settled back in America and he's lived there ever since. Trina watched him as he seamlessly passed every test she had thrown at him and not to his knowledge. The blond man had surprised her and had been hired later that evening as an assistant. He was given a card to show at the gates and told to come in first thing the following morning.

~ • ~

"We should go out instead," Valerie, practically Trina's only true friend, suggested as she sat on a matte black stool in the kitchen, watching as the Stark fiddled with things in the pantry. Valerie was that kind of friend you could trust with anything, even if that secret could get her a couple hundred to put into a paper or magazine. She was reliable and honest. Trina turned around with a blank look on her face, whining about making cookies and setting the flower onto the island.

"But I can't leave the house anyways," she pointed out, watching as Valerie rose an eyebrow for her to continue. "My assistant, Kevin, is coming!" She said this rather matter-of-factly, assuming Valerie should know this by heart.

"Is he just going to assist you with the cookies or-" and, as if on cue, the automated system- which wasn't Saggy any longer- spoke out.

"Kevin Pohl is here, Katrina."

Trina nodded, even though the system couldn't see her, and responded, "Great! Thanks, Mark. You can let him in."

"Wait-Mark? as in..." Valerie wasn't sure if this was a correct assumption, but the voice definitely matched the face, "Wahlberg?"

The Stark looked over, nodded simply, and agreed, "Yeah. It was hard to choose between Tom Cruise, Mark Wahlberg, Owen Wilson, Hugh Jackman, or- oh, what's his name? The kiwi?" Valerie had just given her the most oblivious look, "oh, oh!- Daniel Gillies!"

"That's a lot of choices. So, why Wahlberg?" the best friend wondered, leaning on the island that was now covered in cookie ingredients.

"Well," Trina turned to face her with a big mixing bowl, "I dunno. 'Lovely Bones' was a good movie and I think Mark's a good actor. Although, I almost made it Jim from 'The Office' but decided not to. I would constantly be watching my back in fear that my AI system was going to pull a prank on me." Valerie snorted, laughing at her friend's ridiculous worries as said friend rolled her eyes in disappointment.

The front door opened and closed followed by a disembodied voice: "Uh... Mrs. Stark?" Trina quickly turned to Valerie and mouthed, 'Behave' with a harsh point.

"In the kitchen!" and even though the assistant hadn't been in her house once, she left it at that letting him find his way. A couple minutes later, he emerged from behind a corner and smiled at Trina as he shuffled the books in his arms to tighten his grip.

Judging, she asked rudely, "A suit?" his smile dropped and he began to quake in his metaphorical boots, but was struck confused when she smiled. "Good choice. Very professional." She turned back to the ingredients in front of her, ignoring Valerie's disappointed teacher look, and started to put the dry ones into a bowl together. "Kevin, meet Valerie. She's just a loiterer and can be ignored."

Valerie stuck her tongue out at Trina, who returned the same gesture, and then went to shake the assistant's hand. He quickly set his books on the opposite counter by the sink and walked back over to shake Valerie's hand.

"Okay, Kev, grab that apron and let's get baking- Are you any good at baking? I never asked," she had said all this calmly and all together, motioning behind her at the hanging apron.

"I-I'm alright," he admitted, walking over to the apron and giving it a once-over, reading the pink sparkly words 'little princess' and furrowing his eyebrows. He put it on over his head and tied it back anyways.

"Yeah," Trina turned to look at him, holding back a laugh at the German man, in a suit, all muscly and fit, wearing the black and pink sparkly apron, "That's for Tony when he visits, but you can use it, too." The look on his face was priceless and Trina wondered if A) he was thinking about Tony wearing the apron B) he was thinking about how stupid he looked himself C) he was looking at her apron questionably or D) all of the above. She considered D to be most likely, seeing as 'all of the above' usually was the answer.

Valerie exactly knew what he was thinking. Which was, 'Are all Starks this crazy?' and she would've happily answered 'Yes!' and laughed, if he had made the question audible. He glanced at Valerie in confusion, but quickly looked back at Trina as Valerie dismissed his questioning look with a shrug.

His eyes trailed the words on her apron as she glanced down at it and laughed at the memory of buying the aprons. She eventually gave up looking for the only like Tony's and decided to custom make one, seeing as all the ones that said 'little princess' were child sized and definitely wouldn't fit her big brother. As for Trina's apron, it was easy to find since it's meant for a full grown man. 'big, baking daddy' were the words written across it in blue. It was also sparkly- and that's where the idea of making Tony's sparkly cake from. Both were black and the only difference s the two had were the words and colors of them.

"Alright!" Trina clapped her hands together, making some of the flower on the man puff up in her face, "wash your hands and we'll make some cookies!"

a/n
valerie is lily james!
also, next chapter should be more eventful >:)