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"Are you really gonna dress up like that?" Ward pointedly questions, noticing Fitz press down on his specially tailored suit.
"Of course Agent Ward, it is after all Halloween” The engineer replies, fiddling around with the suit, stuffing necessary defensive mechanisms in hidden pockets. “And look, you fit right in with me." He casually continues, looking up to give Ward his usual lopsided smile.
"This isn't a date Fitz, and besides, why am I escorting you to a school reunion? This is May’s kind of thing." The field agent retorts as he leans back against the sleek black car they drove to the party in.
"Its just 'pretending' to be a bodyguard, and we’re here to obtain a ring that will be detrimental to the whole human race! Not attend -this- reunion and recall terrible memories." Fitz shudders at the thought, and Ward responds with a sigh and glares back, standing tall and proud in his own immaculate suit. The Engineer furrows his brows at Ward’s indifference, whipping out a silver coloured cigar shaped thing from his pants pocket. He presses a button and a small red light starts flashing on the ‘thing’.
“Oi, that thing, Isn’t that a Neuralyzer?” Ward points to the item in Fitz’s palm, bending down to scrutinise the object, before Fitz shoos him away, stuffing the object in question into his front most suit pocket.
"Pffft, please it’s not the real deal, I wish I could make memories disappear like that; Simmons’ especially.” He scoffs, tossing Ward a pair of Ray-Bans.
“You know your gadgets well Agent Ward, so here, these are for you - just in case.”
Ward eyes the sleek black sunglasses suspiciously, adjusting them on the bridge of his nose. He pushes himself off the car, following Fitz past large doors into a grand ballroom.
The interior was decorated grandly for the occasion; ghostly paper cut-outs float aimlessly in the draft, realistic gravestones cast shadowy silhouettes along the walls and skeleton arms drape over heavy curtains covered in cobwebs and dried fake blood. Cauldrons filled with weirdly coloured punch speckled with gummy insects stand at the ends of tables, and all sorts of Halloween themed finger food line the tables.
"They have certainly done a good job here. " Ward whistles in amazement, pouring out a cup of orange punch from the nearest cauldron for himself and Fitz, a lone spider floats on the surface of his.
"Of course, it's my fancy pants school reunion and Halloween party in one, budget's bound to be in excess" Fitz snappily replies, downing the punch in one gulp. He immediately slams his cup down on one of the many carved pumpkin shaped tables, violently coughing when he almost chokes on an insect.
The lights were dim and the glow of fluorescent mixed drinks and candle light illuminate the room, creating a dark and chilly ambience. Everyone was dressed to the nines, few coming in the usual law enforcement or nurse get up, while there were others in much more creative costumes. Ward’s gaze follows a young blond woman, dressed up in the likes of Samus Aran, curves showing under skin tight sky blue Spandex.
Recovering from his cough, Fitz’s grey eyes scan the room, finally finding their target amongst the sea of people, looking rather unenthusiastic about the party. Turning to Ward who was still engrossed with the Samus lookalike, Fitz clicks his tongue in annoyance, giving the agent a sharp jab in the ribs.
“Yeowch!! What was that for?” Ward yells over the crowd, tenderly rubbing the afflicted area.
“Nothing!! Target’s partner has been spotted, pay attention here!”
Shoving his empty cup into Ward’s hands, Fitz runs free hands through matted hair, striding over towards a woman in flaming red hair, dressed in a shell bikini and a shiny green mermaid tail skirt. He tries his best to chat her up but the lady looks up from her half empty cup and side eyes him instead, clearly having no interest in talking.
They soon fall into a one sided conversation and Ward keeps his distance from them, picking up a cookie in the shape of a bloody finger, and nibbles on the sugary nail bed, bemused at the whole situation. Fitz’s conversation topics do not deviate much beyond engineering and his ramblings about quantum mechatronics bore the poor woman, who crushes her now empty cup in her fist.
They were halfway through a topic on nuclear fusion when the faint sound of jets roar overhead, drowned out in the blasting music. Minutes later, a well groomed man in a shiny red and gold metal suit saunters into the room, making his way in between Fitz and the lady. Ward detects the potential threat closing in and keeps on the man’s heels, the party a welcome distraction from the tension going on as he wields a taser from his arsenal of non lethal weapons from his trouser pocket.
“Good evening Miss -” The man calls out, giving a wave of his hand. “- hello there Doc... No Agent Fitz, and to you Agent Ward..." He mumbles the last word, brushing a plastic bat off his face as he spins around to greet the prowling agent.
“Tony Stark? What on earth are you doing here?” Ward harshly demands, lowering his weapon at the billionaire standing between the surprised pair. The woman scrutinises the trio, using the opportunity to slip away back into the crowd, leaving an enamored Fitz to stare at Tony’s shiny metal suit.
“Suit’s having a minor problem so I’ve asked Javis for the nearest person who can fix it. Since Spidy says he’s currently in Hawaii, Agent Fitz is the next best person within reach. So if you need to blame someone for crashing your party, you can certainly blame him.” Tony nonchalantly responds, giving the stunned engineering a hard slap on the back.
~I heard that Mr Stark, and should say tha - ~.
“My, is that orange punch?” Tony turns to the nearest cauldron, ignoring the protests of his AI on his communicator -
“I love orange punch, have you had some? It has gummy insects floating inside too, how awesome is that?” He gushes, pouring out a full cup for himself.
“Cut the crap Tony and tell us what you need, we’re running a tight schedule here.” A fuming Ward briskly says, crossing his arms and gives the suave billionaire a hard stare.
“Oh my god, its Tony Stark!” Fitz hysterically whispers to himself, watching the other agent and ‘the’ Tony Stark argue over the trivial matter and for interrupting their mission.
Tony hurriedly gulps down the last of his drink before facing the star-struck Fitz..
“Now look, not many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents get to meet me on field or anywhere like this -” He proudly states, flicking up his sun glasses. “- but I'll make this quick, fix up my suit a bit and you and Mr Grumps over there can get back to whatever it is you were doing beforehand.”
“Mr Grumps?! I don’t even -” An exasperated Ward reacts, throwing his arms up in the air, giving up on trying to explain himself.
“Oh can I, can I?” Fitz excited asked, intertwining his fingers in front of him like a child, facing Ward with a delirious look on his face. There was much elation in his voice, and Ward has never seen Fitz’s eyes so enchanted with a metal suit.
“Knock yourself out kid.” The agent gives a shrug, settling back onto the edge of the table. He catches Tony flash a smile at the eager engineer and his mouth twitches in displeasure.
Without a moment too soon, Fitz fiddles with his suit pockets, whipping out one of his strange contraptions, and Ward raises an eyebrow at the amount of stuff the Engineer has been able to hide in his suit.
Meanwhile, Tony explains his problem to Fitz, his suit’s cooling fans continue to whirl a sweet tune in their ears. The Engineer steadies his breathing, trying his best to contain his excitement - after all he was about to fulfil one of his major goals in life upon joining S.H.I.E.L.D. in the first place - to meet ‘The’ Tony Stark.
Fingers tremble as Fitz runs them over gleaming metal, tracing along the curves of a jet on Tony’s suit, a look of awe on his boyish features.
“You might want to watch that boy, some of them bits will burn you if you’re not careful!” Tony cautions, grabbing Fitz’s wrist before hands ventures further inwards into the jets on his back. Ward almost flinches at the sight of Tony casually moving his arm to the area near his neck, letting Fitz's fingers map along the outline of the shoulder pad. Fitz jolts out of his mesmerisation, a slight embarrassment spreads across his cheeks as he hastily sets down to work on the problem.
“Hey isn’t that Tony Stark?” One of the other party goers mentions to her partner, who was dressed up in a badly made Hawkeye costume. Ward winces at the sight, though he makes a mental note to tease Clint over it some time soon (booty shorts, who would have thought of that?)
“Tony Stark? Me? You must be mistaken, this is just some shoddy attempt at replicating such an amazing piece of equipment. Pfffft, look, its just lots of flashing lights and broken pieces, how can I be THE Tony Stark?” He smoothly replies, prodding at the blinking suit under Fitz’s hand and flashes a smirk at the pair.
Although his reply sounded genuine enough, the pair still gave Tony a weary look, but they bought his story regardless and walked away. Ward badly wanted to blow his cover, but that would have made their non hostile mission much more complicated, and nobody wanted that, especially when it involves an inexperienced field agent. Fitz was so engrossed in fixing that minor complication that he did not hear Ward mutter a complaint of ‘wise guy’ under his breath.
A couple more minutes passed before Fitz was finally done, pleased with the outcome. All it needed was some untangling of wires and the small jet finally roars back to life, giving a significant spike in heat signature readings on the suit’s sensors. The engineer gets up from his spot, brushing the dust off his trousers, while Tony silences his engine fans.
Fitz then jumps at the opportunity to request Tony for a photo with the three of them, keenly pulling on Ward’s sleeve while babbling the question nervously. The field agent didn’t shift from his position, nor pull his arm away to give Fitz a confidence boost. He couldn’t possibly deny the Engineer’s request since Fitz brought along a camera (in his suit pockets! How did he?) and it was a good opportunity anyway.
Ward angles the pocket camera at arms length, the three of them squeezing into the camera’s line of sight. Tony smiles wide - his right hand holding up a peace sign, left arm hooking itself around Fitz’s shoulders. Ward takes the opportunity to wrap his own around Fitz’s waist, pulling him a little closer and swiftly snaps a few pictures to capture the moment Fitz so badly wanted; the engineer a little too captivated over everything to even care whose hands were where.
“Send them over soon Agent Fitz, and tell Fury I said hi.” Tony mentions to the duo, testing out the jets slightly, a blue glow emanating from the engines. Thought before Tony could leave the scene, a loud voice booms across the floor.
“Hey! What were you three jerkwads doing around my girl?” A large burly man in pro wrestler garb demands, ambling towards them. His girlfriend stands by a pillar, lips pressed down on a cigarette and Ward inwardly groans.
“Erm... nothing! I were just talking to her about th...things!” Fitz’s voice tightens with his reply, stammering out the last word with difficulty.
“What kind of things?” The boorish man snarls back, teeth bared wide. He was backed by two other men, looking just as intimidating as him. Ward steps forward, manoeuvring into his defensive fighting stance and raises his arm, shielding Fitz from the stares he’s receiving.
One of his cronies lets out a low growl and lunges towards Fitz, who awkwardly dodges, turning a half spin before stopping himself near one of the pumpkin tables (oddly decorated with black streamers and snakes). Ward rushes in and give a low punch to the attacker’s abdomen, jabbing the air out of the attacker’s gut and he keels over in pain. The other lumbers forward, who Ward sidesteps in one fluid motion, turning around to give a sharp round kick to the man’s knees and he falls just as easily. With Ward wide open for attacks after felling his two minions, the last assailant uses the opportunity to advance upon the field agent.
Tony then steps forward, quickly grabbing the leader by his spandex pants and tosses him over his shoulder, landing with a loud thump. Fitz promptly extracts his own issued S.H.I.E.L.D. taser and fires, drive stunning the man long enough to pull a strange ornate ring off his finger. By then a crowd had gathered around the scene, wondering what had happened.
“Well this is enough excitement for one night!” An unsurprised Tony says, pulling his sunnies down to shield his eyes from the thickening crowd.
“Time for us to leave.” Ward murmurs to Fitz, a sense of urgency in his voice.
“And not a moment too soon! Time for our Raybans then.” Fitz replies, looking back to Ward with a twinkle in his eyes.
Ward barely has the frames sitting on his nose when Fitz whips out the Neuralyzer, and quickly presses a button. A blinding white flash of light sets off amongst the crowd, blinding everyone in the vicinity. With the three of them wearing their sunglasses, they promptly make their way past party goers and out of the party. Ward impulsively grabs Fitz’s hand, leading him out of the crowd, and the engineer does not break away from his grip.
Once outside, the trio remove their sunglasses, eyes adjusting back to the darkness of the cold night.
“You did real good kid. Keep it up.-” Tony praises, giving a well earned pat to the kid's back. “- I don’t know what you did back there but one day, I might have to ask Fury to let me borrow you.” He winks, directing a smirk towards Ward, who mumbles a word of thanks back. Fitz’s chest swells of pride, a slight red colours his cheeks, and he is glad the darkness conceals his features. Tony gives one final wave, placing his helmet back on before jettisoning off into the star filled sky.
“So back to the Bus I suppose?” Ward finally speaks, eyes still transfixed on the shiny metal suit which shines like the stars of the universe. Fitz doesn’t reply, but quietly leans over to give a quick peck on Ward’s cold cheek.
Ward looks to Fitz in surprise, his hand reaching up to touch the spot where lips previously touched.
“I guess so... my hero…” He pauses to look at the ring in his palm, inscribed on the inside with strange letters. The Engineer gently placing the ring in a simple black box, another relic finally under the safeguarding of S.H.I.E.L.D.
“We make good agents huh?” Fitz sheepishly finishes, grinning at Ward’s flustering.
“W..… well the mission was ALMOST compromised, this is why I still prefer to do missions alone!” Ward stammers back, stiffening at the awkwardness. His own face deep red in his own embarrassment.
“And pass the opportunity to touch Mr Stark's suit? Never!” Fitz chortles loudly as he gets into the car and Ward follows suit, driving back to findings of candy corn, ginger ale and a nice long nap away from costumes.