“North Carolina. Little tiny town in between several of the major cities.” Summer rubbed her thumb over his skin. “I’m a southern girl at heart, all warmth and drawl. /You/ grew up here, in the big city, yes?” she asked, tucking herself in close to him to look up.
Tony chuckled down at her. “Cute,” he murmured contentedly under his breath before nodding in agreement. “Long Island, actually. But we spent a lot of time in the city. Well, I did … my parents were usually elsewhere,” he shrugged lightly before continuing on to another topic. Parental guidance was a touchy topic for the genius. “And how did you end up here?”
The elevator let them out. Summer tugged him out again, saying, “Nine-eleven cleanup. It happened the beginning of my senior year, and I took all the breaks I could to come up and help out as much as I could. I, um, got on search-and rescue pretty fast, and then some of the EMTs noticed how good I was with the post-traumatic people. So I ended up coming back after graduation to help them some more.” She chewed on her lip, eyes far away. “It was … a pretty bad time.”