Tony rubbed the back of his neck, grinning warmly, and feeling a certain warmth in his chest. “I’ll catch you if you do,” he teased, knowing just how easily he could do very much the same. “JARVIS’ll get over it. It’d rather not see me lonely anyway.”
“Is that so?” she chuckled. She fished around in the bowl for the last bits of meat, avoiding looking at Tony, because she knew if she did she’d just start giggling and not stop.
“You bet,” he said, nodding and taking up his fork again to get the last few pieces of broccoli he’d left at the bottom of his own bowl. His phone vibrated on the table, and he thought about ignoring it, but he knew he should at least see who was calling.
“Shit..” he muttered under his breath before looking back up at Summer. “I, uh… I gotta take this. It’s Fury…” he explained, standing up and answering the phone a few feet away from their table, peeking out the window to see if he could see what he was being called about.
It was Bruce. Something had triggered his Hulk form and he was busy flipping cars outside a mall. Stark cringed and promised he’d be there before heading back to the table to explain.
Summer felt his mood drop as he answered the phone, and braced herself for bad news. It was almost a relief to hear it was ‘just’ the Hulk scaring people. She stood up almost before he finished explaining. “Let’s go, then. Um, check, check … ” She scanned around for a hostess, beckoning urgently.
Tony startled a little at the term ‘us,’ but remembered who she was. Maybe she could help, as long as she stayed far enough back to not get hurt. Tony threw a bill down on the table, more than enough to cover their meals and the tip, figuring that if she really wanted to, she’d pay him back later, when the Hulk wasn’t playing demo-derby around innocent bystanders.
“Do you think you can read what’s upset him for us? Or at least what’s helping as we try to calm him down?” he asked as they got outside and he hopped into the car.
“Yes, and find out who’s been actually hurt and who’s just having hysteria, and calm the crowd enough to actually get them /out/,” she jerked open the door and flung herself in, remembering to jerk her head sideways so the door wouldn’t close on her hair. “How’s he about fire? I might be able to establish a containment perimeter, and I might be able to siphon off enough of the anger to unwind him. Can’t tell those til I get a read on the situation.” Fighting the wind, Summer collected her hair into a tail, then tied it into a lover’s haste knot.