Chapter 20: Chapter: 20

Chapter 20:

Pepper had hired me surprisingly. I told her that I know absolutely nothing about being a secretary and that I was only here to protect Tony from dying… because I'd apparently messed up the timeline and Natasha wasn't here to take the job. I may have left that last part out. I'm also pretty sure Pepper might think I've been sent here from 'On-High' to protect Tony. She saw my wings and immediately forgot I was from the Grigori who rebelled against Heaven.

…

We rode the elevator down a few floors where it let us out on the building's gym floor. There I could see a man who could only be Tony Stark practicing boxing in a ring with a larger man who I also assumed to be Happy Hogan.

WHAM!

Tony landed a pretty solid hit against Happy's gloves. "Ha! You see that, Happy! I'm a natural at this." Tony gloated as he threw some more jabs out that Happy blocked.

"You got some good form sir." Happy replied. I could tell he was just kissing his boss's ass though. Even from my perspective, who didn't know anything about boxing, I could tell Tony's form was mediocre at best.

Pepper made a throat clearing sound and the two men stopped sparring before turning towards us.

"Hey there Pepper–Woah!" Tony greeted Pepper before he noticed me standing next to her. To his credit, he didn't check me out nearly as much as I figured he would have if he wasn't in a relationship with Pepper already. Or were they dating at this point? They were on and off again so often I couldn't remember.

Tony hopped out of the ring and walked over to the two of us. "So you're my new secretary? Nice to meet you. I'm Tony Stark." He held out his hand for me to shake. I did so and introduced myself.

"Hello, Mr Stark. I'm Layla." I smiled at him and Happy who looked like he had his brain reboot upon seeing me. I was starting to realize my appearance would be having that effect on regular humans a lot. The Ancient One didn't bat an eye at me because she's probably faced actual succubi in her life. And Voldemort was also more freaked out by my wings than my actual appearance. I'm pretty sure he was also a eunuch or something…

"Please, call me Tony." He said before he turned and spoke to Pepper. "Where'd you find this woman? She looks and sounds like she just fell from Heaven…"

I let out a small laugh while Pepper had a mortified look on her face from his comment. She had asked me on the elevator ride down here to keep my true identity a secret from Tony. He was apparently under a lot of secret stress and she didn't want him to have an existential breakdown on top of that. I had also agreed because I'm pretty sure SHIELD had Tony under constant surveillance even if Natasha wasn't here for whatever reason.

"Thank you for the compliment Tony." I said and Pepper seemed to sigh in relief. I think she thought he had offended me with his comment for some reason.

"So Layla," Tony said. "I know you were just hired…" He looked at me to finish.

"Ten minutes ago." I answered.

Tony nodded. "...Ten minutes ago. But, how is your French? We're heading over to Monaco tomorrow to watch my team race in the prix. OF course, as my secretary you'll have to be there. It would also be great to have a translator as well."

"I'm completely Fluent in French." I replied.

Tony turned to Pepper and gave her a thumbs up. "As intelligent as she is beautiful. Once again, good hire Pepper." Tony turned and headed back to the ring. "Our flight leaves at 6am tomorrow, Layla. Don't be late." He called out over his shoulder.

Once Tony was focused back on Happy in the ring Pepper turned to me. "You speak French?" She questioned in surprise.

"I speak every human language. I can also speak to all animals. Although, they're not great conversationalists. They mostly just ask for food or water." I explained.

Pepper had a look of realization. "R-right. Of course you can speak to everything…"

"So we're going to Monaco tomorrow?" I asked. I guessed we were at the start of Iron Man 2 or this world's version of it. "I don't really have anything to wear." I don't have any money at all to my name actually… All those Ninja's I took down didn't keep any money on them. I'm pretty sure they just stole everything they needed.

"Oh right," Pepper said. "Here. Here is your company credit card. Normally we audit these, but feel free to spend however much you want. We won't be doing that to you for obvious reasons." She handed me a black credit card that had 'STARK' on it in big print. Well then… looks like my money problems were taken care of for the time being.

Pepper left me alone after telling me to be at the building at 5am the next day so we wouldn't miss the flight. Although, it was a private plane so it's not like it would leave without us.

…

I took the elevator down to the lobby and exited the building. The streets were bustling and I found myself in the heart of LA.

[So you've been given a credit card with no limits and you have an inventory to store everything you buy. Are you going to abuse it?]

"Fuck yeah I am!" I cheered excitedly.

XXX

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