[tony's house]

[lichfield]

Caroline stalks down the stairs towards Stark's basement lab. She's mad enough that anyone paying attention can actually hear her stomping down the steps and over to the door. Normally she's quiet enough to sneak up on people. She just-- she can't. She taps in the code to the lab and-- snarls to herself as it beeps smugly at her and doesn't unlock the door. Calm down Lichfield. She takes a deep breath and re-enters her code. There. She cracks her neck and pulls the door open. Hopefully she's not interrupting anything important.

Comments

[anthony_e_stark]

"Silly rabbit," Tony rattles his tiny cereal box around, digging for the last bits of anything edible. Her selection doesn't get past him. He squints hard at the box in her hands while she settles against the desk. "Crispix? Does Shady Pines know you escaped? Are we gonna go play shuffle board after this? How about bingo?"

He still can't quite imagine Lichfield losing it on someone. It's just... She's always so nice. "No amount of yelling would be enough to magically alter your contract," Tony says with mild shurg. "Pepper can't actually fire you. Only I can."

Okay, Pepper can insist he fire her. And draft the paperwork and be a pest about it, and generally do everything but swing the axe. But even if Tony's not CEO Lichfield still works for him, so. Still the boss. He can't say it doesn't amuse him a little.

[lichfield]

Caroline gives Stark a look over her glasses. "We don't talk about what happened to Shady Pines, Pussycat." She crunches some cereal threateningly. It's probably the least scary she's been all afternoon.

"You know," she says after a long moment. "I had totally forgotten that." That's definitely a good thing, but she's not going to count herself out of the woods yet. She did yell at her boss's very good friends. "Must be going senile in my old age."

[anthony_e_stark]

"As long as you don't start reminiscing about St. Olaf." Wrong Golden Girls character. Whatever. Tony doesn't remember a more relevant reference off the top of his head.

"It happens," He says with a half-shrug. "So you thought you were going to be fire and you... came down just to visit me, huh?" There's something else he should maybe say, something about not firing her, but he's immediately distracted. His iTunes has switched songs. You know what to do with that big fat butt, croons Jason Derulo over the soundsystem. Wiggle wiggle wiggle.

[lichfield]

Caroline snorts into her ridiculous tiny cereal box. "I'll do my best," she promises in a very solemn voice.

Oh, he noticed that huh? "Maybe I was just hoping for--" She can't finish that sentence, because now she's busy trying not to choke on her Crispix. It's a good thing Caroline is already leaning on the desk. Between the near death experience and the cackling, she'd probably fall over otherwise. "For wiggling, obviously," she chokes out eventually.

[anthony_e_stark]

Oh god, of all the sentences for her to get cut off in, why'd it haveto be that one? "Hoping for?" Tony is even more curious than he sounds, and that's saying something. It probably doesn't help that he's begun dancing stupidly a little bit. Again. "Aside from wiggling, obviously."

[lichfield]

Caroline eyes Stark thoughtfully while she crunches on some more cereal. He looks more interested in what she was going to say than she expected. Well... she flips her ponytail off her shoulder and tries not to laugh at his stupid dancing. "More of those booze donuts," she says finally. That's not really the reason, but it is what she was about to say.

[anthony_e_stark]

"Only for the booze donuts?" Stark pouts theatrically. "Really?"

...While still dancing stupidly. He doubts that was the whole reason, but this is Stark. That's not terribly surprising. He might have to order more of those donuts though.

[lichfield]

Caroline grins a little too slyly at the pouting. "Well... mostly the donuts."

That's it. There's a limit to how much bad Tony Stark dancing she can watch without laughing, and she just hit it. She makes a show of looking him over, a very theatric pan down to his feet and back up. "Shouldn't you save your uh, moves here for the party tomorrow?" The party she's pretty sure he doesn't actually want. Oops.

[anthony_e_stark]

"That's more like it." Stark's gonna Stark. "Save my moves? I'm just getting warmed up for the big shindig." ....And will continue to Stark, since he's taken to dancing at her and around her. "I'm still working on writing that dancing clause into your contract, by the way."

[lichfield]

Caroline can only shake her head as Stark starts dancing around her. "Is this your subtle way of asking me to dance?" She adopts a very wide eyed thoughtful expression. "Should I curtsy?"

[anthony_e_stark]

"Does this even count as subtle?" Tony also takes on a thoughtful look. Then he pauses his dumb dance long enough to do a very proper little bow and extend a hand to Caroline. "Well?"

[lichfield]

"Well. Subtle for you." Caroline takes her cue to dip into a curtsy, and then places her hand in Stark's. This ought to be entertaining.

"Watch where you put that other hand," she says as she slides her free hand up to his shoulder. ...That may have been the wrong thing to say. Oh well.

[anthony_e_stark]

"For me," Tony snorts a little. "That's almost an achievement."

Tony swoops her up and... waltzes across the lab. While iTunes switches to the very fitting sounds of Nelly's Low. Apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur... Truly the best soundtrack for a waltz. Very classical. "I'll be a gentleman," He assures. "Probably." That's not very convincing.

[lichfield]

Caroline... doesn't actually know how to dance, not really. Fortunately she's both a quick learner and watched enough movies with dancing in them to follow along pretty well. And she's nimble enough not to step on Stark's feet, which she feels is very thoughtful of her.

"Well in that case, I'd better at least pretend to be a lady, huh?" Lichfield no. And that's about when she actually notices the music and starts laughing. She'd been too busy dealing with ballroom.... labroom dancing.