From the back of the room I saw her there [Tony]

[Emma Frost]

Saturday night, 8 pm. There was nothing greater to do on a Saturday night than...having a business meeting. At least, it was actually a business dinner in that new fancy place in Manhattan, as opposed to office walls and stale coffee. Not that Emma Grace Frost would make do with stale coffee at all.

Moreover, meeting Tony Stark was always quite an experience. At the end of the day, Stark Industries and Frost Internationals were competing in various sectors, thus Emma and Tony were competitors. But both of them were witty, charming and quite entertaining. This was the best kind of business dinner to have on a night that was leisure time for most other people.

Not long ago, Tony Stark had hosted the 2012 Stark Expo and it had gone utterly wrong. He had been ambushed, so it seemed. Emma did not know too much about it yet, except for the information she had gotten from the news and newspapers. She'd look into it, though. Into Tony's head, most likely. However, she had not doubted this meeting would be canceled for one second. Tony was a professional. As far as she guessed, not much would shatter his composure and attitude. A curse and a blessing at the same time and Emma knew exactly where he was coming from.

As usual, Tony Stark was late. Oh, that was quite a pet peeve of hers. Most people did not keep her waiting. They didn't dare to. And most people would not get away with it, either. Of course, she had not waited at their table, looking like a poor fawn in the headlights. Emma was sitting by the bar, legs crossed, enjoying a Martini, while being on the phone with her assistant.
"Yes, I will need a copy of this. Tomorrow morning. Just be so kind to send a messenger and please, after this, enjoy your night....Yes...of course,.." she was talking on the phone, while being utterly aware of the gaze that overweight lawyer from Queens, who had not slept with his wife in 8 months, was giving her. Oh boy, if Tony Stark did not appear before the man would make a move, Emma would have him make up for this even more than she was already planning on.

outfit

[Tony Stark]

Instead of scaring the man into the depths of despair, the unsuccessful assassination of Tony Stark did not hinder the man one single bit. Pepper, on the other hand, was the one absolutely terrified. She didn’t show in outwardly, but Tony could read his long time assistant like a financial report; she was scared that it would happen again. Even though it wasn’t fair to Pepper, Tony was going to let her be scared for the both of them. Tony didn’t have time to be scared.

Of course, he took precautions. Happy was practically attached to Tony’s hip since the Stark Expo. Happy was a husky guy, someone that could give off an intimidating vibe if he needed to. He could most certainly handle himself in a fight and since the Expo, has been carrying a gun on him. Having Happy constantly watching over him was a damn good way to keep Pepper off of his back for at least a solid thirty minutes or so . . .

. . . until Happy actually joined in on the whole ‘keep a low profile’ train that Pepper was conducting. Despite their advice and general objections, Tony could not lay in bed and keep any kind of low profile. He couldn’t do it and his ego wouldn’t allow him to do it. Tony Stark not only felt invincible, he fully believed that he was invincible. He believed that nobody, no matter how many of them there are, could even hope to touch him. Nobody could ever come as close as they did at the Stark Expo. He knew that these people were a persistent bunch, but they would and were going to fail miserably in every single attempt on Tony’s life from this moment on.

Tony’s belief that he was untouchable lead him to keep his meeting with Emma. He thought it was pretty damn funny that people considered him to be a professional despite his constant tardiness to meetings. Even if he was the one asking for something, he was running late. As Tony walked into the restaurant, it wasn’t hard to miss Emma at the bar.

Tony knew Emma well enough that if she was going to be kept waiting, she was not going to look like a fool doing it. He knew that she didn’t like waiting; it was one of her biggest peeves and it did get under her skin. However, she also knew Tony well enough that no matter where he was supposed to be, he wasn’t going to be there on time. Emma gave him hard time, made him pay a little bit for being late but she never outright punished him for it.

“You’ll have to excuse my lateness Miss Frost,” Tony said as he walked up to the bar. “Pepper . . . she worries. Especially after that whole Expo . . . thing. But that doesn’t matter. How are you, Emma?”

[Emma Frost]

Emma looked up as Tony stopped in front of her.
"Goodbye," she spoke into her blackberry, hanging up in order to hear whatever excuse Tony had prepared for her. Was she surprised he used the incident at th Expo as an excuse? And his assistant, for that matter? Emma was quite tempted to say that he'd better hire a more stable assistant, if Miss Potts could not handle the situation well. However, she knew better than to put herself into that position.
"Oh, do I?", Emma said, managing to still sound charming. "You certainly have a loyal assistant with you, if she worries that much. Or maybe she's scared to lose her job in case they get to you?", Emma said. She was smiling, though, leaning in to exchange two kisses on the cheek with Mr. Stark.
"I'm great as usual. I should give the question right back to you, given what happened, but first thing's first. Drink?", Emma said, nodding towards the bar. They might just as well have a drink - or a dozen - before heading towards their table.

"I apologize for not having gotten in touch earlier after your Expo, I've not been in town," Emma explained. In fact, she most likely would have been at the Expo, had she not been in Boston. "Glad to see you are in one piece, Tony. Flamboyant as usual." That wasn't even a lie. It would have been a shame had his attackers succeeded. Of course, that would have left Emma short of one competitor. Howevermuch Stark Industries' and Frost International's fields of expertise were competing, Emma's business was doing great even with Tony's in the mix. "You wanna tell me what happened or would you rather I'd tell you all the splendid things I read in the papers?"

[Tony Stark]

Tony did a lot of meetings, a lot of business dinners and the like. Some he quite enjoyed, the others need a lot of alcohol for him to enjoy. The ones with Emma, however, were his favorite. Not only because was she more than easy on the eyes, she was incredibly smart. She knew how to handle herself around the ‘old money’ boys club.

Her posture, the way she carried herself demanded the upmost respect from anyone around her. While she never verbally demanded respect from anyone, you always got the general impression that disrespecting Emma Frost would not end well for you. Needless to say, Tony Stark highly respected Emma Frost and she highly respected him.

“Pepper? She’s one of a kind,” Tony informed Emma. Pepper was truly one of a kind and nobody really knew how much Tony trusted and cared for Pepper. “She’s been with me for a while, I would hope that she worries about more than just her job if something ever did happen.”

“Drinks, of course,” Tony said with a sly smile. It was a nice distraction from having to answer the same question that everybody has asked him since his Expo turned into an exploding disaster. “Scotch, on the rocks and keep ‘em coming,” Tony said to the bartender, nodding as he poured Tony’s drink.

“No, really, no need to fuss over it. They failed, I stand here taller than ever. They could only hope to that close again,” Tony said as he took a sip of his drink. Tony Stark was a man that took everything in stride, even when someone shoots at him and tried to blow him up. Stark Industries was a leader in everything from refrigerators to guided missiles, anyone who owned billion dollar corporations would be more than happy to take Stark Industries’s spot as top dog were Tony’s ticket ever get punched. Emma, however, wasn’t one of them. She knew that Frost International could hold it’s own against Stark Industries. Tony appreciated that.

“What happened? Nothing happened,” Tony simply shrugged. “If something had happened, I wouldn’t be standing here now would I?" Tony said, his smirk ever present on his face. “But really, they tried and they failed. There’s really nothing more to it.”

[Emma Frost]

"Lucky you for having that close relationship to an assistant," Emma said. However, did she truly mean it? It seemed like Miss Frost preferred to keep a very clear line between work and her private life, as much as this was possible. "Send her my regards," she added. Of course, Emma held no ill will towards Pepper Potts. They had met on few occasions, did not know too much about the other. Still, she seemed to be performing an awesome job.

Emma briefly lifted her glass, subtly telling the bartender that she requested a refill. "Drinks are on Mr. Stark tonight," Emma told the guy. Well, this was his punishment for being late. It was not the worst. If Tony Stark could not afford to pay for a few drinks, then no one could.
Emma un-crossed and crossed her legs and turned to Tony, listenting to his elaborations. The man had an undying confidence. The line towards arrogance was quite blurry. No, in fact, Tony Stark was arrogant and moreover, he did not even bother to hide it. Even though Emma thought she was better than most, she kept a low profile about it. It was just a matter of dealing with your own love for yourself. Maybe, given her powers, she was keeping her head down lower, old habits died hard and there had been a time of less control and more fear to be found out and locked up. However, the business world was a small pond, filled with one shark after the other. You had to get some serious backbone and an attitude to survive.
"Did you find out who it was?", Emma asked, sounding quite innocent. There was no hidden agenda. She did not crave to take Tony Stark out, quite on the contrary. If she so wished, she might just as well read his mind. But in contrast to what most people assumed when pondering the possibility of being a mind-reader, she was not invading everybody's head all of the time. Not if she was not searching for something in particular and right now, she preferred some regular conversation to unilateral intrusions.

[Tony Stark]

Tony's relationship with Pepper had indeed gone beyond just professional, but not in that sense. Pepper practically knew everything there was to know about Anthony Stark. She was one person that Tony trusted more than anyone in the world. To Tony, Pepper Potts was irreplaceable.

Tony figured that his punishment was having to buy the drinks for the night, which was far from any kind of actually punishment. "For a second, I thought you might have wanted me to buy the whole restaurant for you," Tony said with a smile. There are very few tings in the world that Tony Stark couldn't buy with his American Express Black Card.

The attack on Tony did little damage, if any at all. The only bad thing that happened was that Tony lost a shoe, throwing it at the last remaining assassin. Tony's arrogance was still in tact and quite possible a little bigger than usual. He, along with Happy and Pepper, escaped death with nothing but a lost shoe and some minor bumps. His feeling of being invincible was growing every day.

"Unfortunately, we haven't found out anything about them," Tony said taking a drink. "The only thing we know is that there is apparently more of them and all I can say is bring it on," Tony said with a grin.

"But enough about me. How have you been Emma? Anybody trying to kill you lately?"

[Emma Frost]

She knew the punishment was mild. Both Emma and Tony could probably buy the place without even thinking about it. It was nice not having to worry about money. It did indeed give you a feeling of being invincible. In Emma's case however, the feeling was coming from more than just her wealth. Earlier in life, she had been scared of her powers, as probably all mutants had when they had first realized they were different. But with growing age, control had grown. These days, she was in perfect control.

That perfect control included not listening in to everyone's mind all of the time. You did not listen to every conversation around you either. To Emma, it was pretty much the same.

"Knock yourself out, Tony," she chuckled. If he felt reckless and bought the place for her, then so be it, "Be assured, you'll dine for free always."
The place was nice, but Emma would have to do some serious re-decorations. Alas, hire someone to do the deed under her strict watch.

Tony's way of assessing the situation was exactly how she would have thought he did. He was not a mutant, Emma would know. But his ego was surely the biggest she had ever encountered. Besides, he was a genius. Emma herself created, researched and developed some things that were not necessarily meant for the public eye. If she could do it, Tony could do it. Who knew what he was plotting in that tower of his. "If I can be of service, just let me know.", Emma said. This actually sounded like fun. If she had been present, she might have found out more. Too bad. But Emma meant it. Tony would probably not be in dire need of her help.

"Well, no," Emma said, pointing at her glass as the barkeeper was locking their gazes, asking for a refill, "It has been a while ever since someone tried that and even back then, it has been the act of a rather foolish, frustrated guy that thought firing him, because he tried to set my building on fire had not been quite fair. Nothing compared to the attack towards you. So, I'm good as I always am.", she explained. "But enlighten me, Tony. Did you ask to meet me in order to enjoy my exquisite company or for something else?"
Was she serious? Was she not? Of course, Emma Grace Frost considered herself decent company. But not everybody was decent company to Emma. Tony Stark did not belong to that particular group of people, meeting him was always delightful.

[Tony Stark]

"Free dinners - hmmmm - now that's something that would be very hard to pass up," Tony said with a smirk. "Now only if you would be so kind to have those dinners with me, I may just actually throw down some money," The smirk on Tony's grin doubled in size with that last comment.

If Tony were able to tell the truth, he was tired of answering questions about the assassination attempt. If they didn't accomplish what they set out to do, then there was really nothing to discuss. For Emma, however, he made an exception. Despite Emma being a business rival, she was a good friend and Tony would usually make an exception for his friends.

"It's appreciated, but it's nothing that I can't handle," Tony stated. His ego was most certainly three times the size of even the cockiest of human beings, but he was Tony Stark. And they weren't.

Tony was quite positive that Emma knew she was here for more than just dinner. While Tony most certainly enjoyed Emma's company, there was indeed business at hand. The greatest thing, however, was that he didn't need to really pitch any ideas to Emma. The relationship and level of respect that they both had for one another allowed them to really get right down to the reason as to why they were there to begin with.

"Well, Emma, if you guessed that there is more to this than just the lovely company; you guessed right," Tony said, taking a sip of his drink. "And I'm going to guess that since you heard about the assassination attempt on my life, you also heard about the minor detail that we've created very clean and very sustainable energy source," The one thing that really unnerve Tony about the whole plot to kill him was that the arc reactor was more or less pushed to the wayside. Tony and his team finally created something that would eliminate greenhouse gases, leave an extremely minor carbon footprint if it even left one at all and would certainly bring Al Gore's ranting of global warming down a level.

Reaching into his jacket pocket, Tony pulled out his cell phone and began to toy with it. "The arc reactor; my greatest invention. The cleanest energy source in the world. We know, we've ran the tests. The only one was at displayed at the Stark Expo and came a little to close to the action," Tony explained as he showed the video that his phone was playing to Emma. It showed her very private, very intricate details about the arc reactor; something that Tony wouldn't be too keen on showing anyone else.

"We got lucky, it didn't even have a scratch on her. It's now tucked neatly away in a very secure, very private location," There was a certain way Tony talked about the arc reactor, there was a glimmer in his eye. To say that he was proud of his creation was a bit of an understatement. "It's the only one that currently exists, but we're hoping to create more. We're hoping that we kind find some investors and we're hoping that you can be one of them."

There really was no reason for Tony to beat around the bush. He knew Emma well enough that getting right to the point was pretty much the best plan of action. "By this time, next year, we hope to have at least three major arc reactors up and running. Realistically, about two. In the next five years, we hope that ninety percent of the energy used in the United States is powered by arc reactors. In ten years . . . most of Europe will hopefully be running on arc reactors. So, whadda think?"

[Emma Frost]

"I'm a very busy woman," Emma said, brows raised and a smirk on her lips. She'd make the time if she wanted to. Tony was one of the few people that could keep up with Emma's intelligence. He knew that and so did she. Spending time with him was always a pleasure, one way or the other.

"Of course. Nothing that'd bring the great Tony Stark to his knees," she said, pursing her lips. Yes, she was teasing him. Yet, he had no idea how convenient Emma's gift would be in a situation like this. However, she was not planning on telling him. Quite on the contrary. Tony Stark was not a man that kept things on a low key. Who knew whether he'd use knowledge about her mutation if he could benefit from it. She trusted him to a certain degree. But with things like mutations, there was rarely a person that was worth confiding in, least of all someone with a big mouth who wasn't a mutant himself.

Emma's composure changed the faintest bit as he proceeded to talk, starting to explain why he had summoned her. She still had a slight smile on her lips, but she was focussed on his information. Her face did not give anything away as she was listening.
The arc reactor. Emma had to say, she was quite envious about it. Not in a bad way, not in a dangerous way. She respected him and his team for having developed it, for having created something this great. Tony Stark was lucky they were on good terms, Emma might have tried to read his mind for information about it, so much that she'd create it herself and sell it as her own. Yet her company was the leading company in the transportation business. She was succesful enough to be happy about Stark's success. The possibilities of working together were endless. But was that what Tony Stark wanted from her?.

"Well," Emma said, leaning forward, "I am not even going to try and pretend that your arc reactor would not interest me at all. Quite on the contrary, Tony. We're both scientists. But...we are also business experts. What were you thinking exactly? Dormant partners or shareholders?", she asked. Emma was going somewhere with this, of course. Yet, she'd give away as little as possible until she'd know Tony's opinion.

[Tony Stark]

"Never to busy for me, I hope," Tony said with a slight smirk. Emma and Tony both were the heads of two mega corporations, both of them were always busy and both of them were constantly in boardrooms or in front of the press yet they always found time for one another. Tony would love to think that it was because Emma couldn't resist Tony's charm or his good looks, but he's just as smart as he his egotistical.

"They're gonna have to do a lot more than a few would-be killers with machine guns and one tiny explosion to make me event think about shaking in my loafers," Tony said, his smirk still present on his face. Getting away from the assassins was probably the biggest ego stroke that Tony's had in quite some time. The way he looked at it, everyone and everything that he cared for made it out in one living piece so why not be more cocky than you were before. Somebody tried to have you killed and you get away from it with minor scrapes and bruises, the best thing you can do is be a little more cocky about it . . . at least that's what Tony thought.

Emma brought up a question and a good one at that. Normally, Tony would have found away around that answer. Tony would normally tap dance right over that issue and still be able to convince someone to invest in his arc reactor, but this was Emma. Tony had a lot of respect for Miss Frost, so she got the truth.

"Truth is, Miss Frost, the arc reactor isn't something we're trying to make a profit on. It's something that we're trying to change the world with. If any profit at all is made off of it, it wouldn't be for years and years to come. Simply, the arc reactor is something we're doing to make sure that there's still a world here in the next few years," Tony explained. Tony had never thought of a profit being made off of the arc reactors, if one at all. Even though he made his fortune selling weapons, he was simply trying to make the world a better place.

Tony took a sip of his drink, expecting for Emma to turn him down based on the fact that she'll more than likely never see a return on her investment for quite some time. But he was hoping, almost praying, that Emma would see it the way he does.

"Emma, I know that I might have swayed your opinion on actually investing but I hope you see the angle I'm coming at this from. I don't want to profit on helping the world, I genuinely want to make this world less dependent on fossil fuels and help it run on a clean, sustainable energy source. The arc reactor is what the world needs and I need friends . . . like you, to help me give the world what it needs."

[Emma Frost]

Miss Frost.
Emma.
She had to smirk. Stark knew how to use words wisely. Adressing her formally while speaking about technology, thus trying to adress the scientist within her.
Adressing her privately when appealing to her humanity. Smart move, she had to give him that.
Emma kept a perfectly, straight pokerface. In fact, she was both, a scientist and a philantropist. What Stark didn't know was that she wasn't a plain human being. Her will to be altruistic and charitable was directed at her own kind for the most parts. But her own kind was living on this planet as well, a planet slowly, but definitely running out of clean energy resources. So matter of factly, Emma was not at all utterly reluctant to contribute to Stark's arc reactor.

She calmly finished her drink, straightened out the hem of her dress and gave the bartender a subtle sign to serve them yet another round of drinks.
"Tony, Tony, Tony,.." she slowly sang, "Who could have known there's a soft heart underneath that smug grin."
She had to chuckle. It was not too big a surprise. She had listened in to his thoughts the one or other time before, Tony Stark actually had quite a big heart.

She put her delicately manicured fingers on his hand, squeezed gently, and locked their gazes. "I'm a citizen of this planet, too. And as such, I'm absolutely interested in making this planet a better place and moreover, keeping it that way. So yes, I am not generally opposed to doing something...charitable."
Intently, she held his gaze, but then, Emma withdrew her hand. It found the glass the barkeeper had just delivered.
"But I am also a businesswoman and I'm afraid I cannot entirely switch that off."
Was she saying no?
"I give you one billion dollars for your project. But I want my name on it."
Emma was giving him a moment to adjust to the shock - even though she doubted Tony Stark could be startled, before she continued. "Don't worry, I'm not talking about making it seem as though Frost International developed it. That honor is yours. I'm talking about the media, the internet, the usual. I'm not going to do this dormantly, but I think you already expected that?"
Finally, she lifted her glass once more.

[Tony Stark]

Surprisingly enough, Emma was excited about the idea of investing in the arc reactor. She may not have been excited as Tony was, but at least she was excited about it. At least she was willing enough to invest in something that may or may not actually produce any kind of profit except for making the world a better place.

The only condition behind her highly generous billion dollar donation would be to have her name all over it. Not the actual development and discovery, that honor belongs solely to Stark and Stark Industries. He knew with Emma, that would never be the case. She wanted Frost International's plastered all over the media, she wanted the world to know that her company made big contributions to helping create clean, self sustaining energy for the world.

"Emma, for you, that won't be a problem," Tony said casually. They both knew that it really wouldn't be a problem for anybody else as Tony would always give credit where it's due.

"Sincerely though; Thank you Emma," Tony said. It maybe just two simple words that constantly get used, but Tony was truly grateful that he had befriended people like Emma. Not for the money, but for the heart. "You have no idea how much that money is going to help getting the arc reactors up and running. It's definitely going to good use."