{"id":31727,"date":"2012-12-04T20:51:01","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T20:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2012\/12\/04\/charity-ball-shoottothrillindustries-5\/"},"modified":"2012-12-04T20:51:01","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T20:51:01","slug":"charity-ball-shoottothrillindustries-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2012\/12\/04\/charity-ball-shoottothrillindustries-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Charity Ball | @shoottothrillindustries"},"content":{"rendered":"

shoottothrillindustries<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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iamthefirechild<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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shoottothrillindustries<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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iamthefirechild<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Summer watched him, listening underneath the babble. He tasted of \u2014 uncertainty, hope, of secrets and things he didn\u2019t even admit to himself. Layers and layers. How could she have missed this? \u201cNo, thank you, Mr Stark,\u201d she began, \u201cI\u2019d rather have kahlua, if you don\u2019t mind.\u201d A particularly fierce gust of wind whipped at her skirts, and she shrieked a little, clutching at them. Giving Tony a gamine smile, Summer added, \u201cMaybe I better go inside.\u201d With the graceful ease of her dancer past, she made her way back inside the penthouse, pausing at the door to settle her skirts. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He laughed and held an arm out to make sure she didn\u2019t lose her balance. \u201cIn, in, we\u2019ll talk there!\u201d<\/p>\n

When the glass door closed behind them, JARVIS turned on the radio low enough to provide background noise without being disruptive, and increased the temperature of the room a few degrees to make up for the wind\u2019s chill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you\u2019re asking why didn\u2019t I, as in why didn\u2019t I ask you out?\u201d He asked as he circled his bar and browsed through the hectic, semi-organized collection of bottles. He\u2019d misplaced things more than once on this countertop and lost them for months on end, only to find that they were in plain sight, only a few inches to the left, or something simple like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess that since I ruin every good relationship in my life with money or sex and all my good sex with relationships and money, I didn\u2019t want to risk it. I\u2019ve done it a few times, and they were all train wrecks, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Subconsciously, he avoids the more painful memories – Pep leaving him, that phone call going unanswered as he flew through the portal, Obadiah ripping the reactor from his chest after trusting him his whole life, because he remembers vaguely that she\u2019d pick up on the depth of the pain associated with them. Instead, he brought up the emptiness, the lack of caring, and there was no stopping his loneliness, but it was dulled by his stellar mood at the moment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Picking up her skirts with one hand, Summer wandered over to the bar, hitching herself up on a stool. She leaned both elbows on the counter, watching Tony with head tilted to one side. \u201cYou\u2019re saying \u2026 whenever you just wanted sex, they wanted something more serious? And \u2026 you,\u201d she cleared her throat, stalling, then just went on with it, \u201cyou can\u2019t figure out how to be exclusive in a relationship?\u201d<\/p>\n

One hand came up to prop her chin as she studied him. Did he expect her to fix this? She could sense the loneliness, like bitter almonds in the air, and that he regarded her highly, but what did he want? Suddenly noticing her, and bringing her back to his tower, confessing that he\u2019d thought of asking her out for drinks \u2014 it was all a little too faery tale.<\/p>\n

Self-consciously, Summer added, \u201cWhat changed your mind?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more like – as much as I may have wanted it, I couldn\u2019t do it. I couldn\u2019t be a healthy partner for her. My reputation as a colossal ass stand for a reason – I don\u2019t put others first. I don\u2019t even realize that I\u2019m not thinking of them! And then I\u2019ve hurt them, and it\u2019s usually something I can\u2019t repair\u2026 Machines are so much more forgiving\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He passed her a glass and filled it to the brim. A few drinks sounded good right then, but he couldn\u2019t make up his mind, so he just leaned up against the bar, opposite her.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mind never changed – just my ability to deny myself, I guess\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

“I’m not sure this qualifies as you taking me out for drinks,” Summer comments, lifting her glass to him before taking a sip. “Though the question stands, in a different form. What changed?” She made interlocking rings on the countertop with the glass, not looking at him. “It’s clear that something did. And I’m sure it’s nothing to do with me. I expect you’d’ve picked up some girl at the party anyway.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

shoottothrillindustries: iamthefirechild: shoottothrillindustries: iamthefirechild: Summer watched him, listening underneath the babble. He tasted of \u2014 uncertainty, hope, of secrets and things he didn\u2019t even admit to himself. Layers and layers. How could she have missed this? \u201cNo, thank you, Mr Stark,\u201d she began, \u201cI\u2019d rather have kahlua, if you don\u2019t mind.\u201d A particularly fierce gust … Continue reading Charity Ball | @shoottothrillindustries<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,3817,3737,3577],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31727"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}