Tony Stark

The superhero world is usually very disconnected as a rule. Mutantkind deals with discrimination that the more public and accepted Avenger-types with their squeaky reputations and good relations with SHIELD never even have to think of. The amount of times high-level Avengers have gone off the deep end and yet found themselves somehow accepted back into the fold of public life with little repercussions were too numerous to count.

If you need proof, look at Tony Stark.

Raven was not a judgmental woman. Who was she to judge anyone at all? Besides, a judgmental attitude didn't help anyone. It cut too many people off from your world... too many resources. And she had no personal stake in the failures of someone like Tony Stark, a man that seemed to fall back into some level of failure more often than not. Tony was a man of vices, and Mystique had taken advantage of that for a very long time... their little arrangement dated back to when he was still coming to grips with his addiction. Personally, she always suspected that she was an addiction he could never quite shake.

There was a name on the Stark registries payroll that reads as Laura McDaniel. Very few people have ever met her, and the inquiring accountants that wanted to know who got a lofty sum from their wing were met with a stern talking-too about legacy and taking care of their own after they retire. Indeed, some of the older staff that had been around four decades ago remembered Laura quite well. She had worked there on a part-time schedule for five years, and had been a valued employee.... valued enough that she'd gotten Mr. Stark's attention.

Of course, if those accountants saw the red-haired woman in a waist-long ponytail, a sharp suit and a pair of half-frame glasses walk in the front door of Stark Industries looking as if she had neither aged a day or changed her wardrobe since the '80s, they might start asking a lot of questions. Questions that Tony Stark didn't want... but knew he could spin, if necessary.

That was the game. Tony liked danger... and Raven Darkholme was a danger he thought he had tamed.

"You've got to stop coming here like this." Came the voice of Tony from inside his office. They never met at his mansion, or _god forbid the _Avengers mansion, but the benefit of being a workaholic billionaire is having your own secret, private quarters squirrelled away deep beneath your businesses basements.

Mystique didn't reply to the comment, simply waling past him and toward the bookshelf. Tony, sat in his chair behind his desk and staring out the window, looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. It was a look that she knew only too well, one that was unique to this body. It was, after all, one he'd fallen in love (or perhaps more accurately, lust) for once upon a time... before he knew who Laura McDaniel was.

Pulling a book from the bookshelf , a small section of the flooring moved, revealing a set of spiral steps that lead farther down into the building. Silently, 'Laura' walked down them, and felt Tony follow. A few floors later, they both exited into a massive room, with Iron Man suits lining the forty-foot walls, desks and various tool tables dotting the landscape, and one lone room sitting in the middle for Tony to 'sleep' in.

Suddenly, 'Laura' felt Tony take hold of her ponytail and pull it back, her neck craning to look at him. "You're late."

A grin formed across 'Laura's' features. A voice, smooth and professional, replied. "What can I say? It's been a long time since I've been on Stark schedule."

Tony's face broke into a smirk. "Time to fix that."