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Tony was normally pretty careful at events. He didn't like the people that showed up to them, he didn't like all the networking he was supposed to do, and he didn't like the way other people would get in his personal space. When he turned and ran into someone else who was in the middle of turning, he was prepared to get pissed off and stay that way for the rest of the night, but the face he saw was familiar in a good way. Tony blinked, his mind reorienting itself. "Sue?"
Sue blinked up at him. "Tony."
He hadn't seen her in years. Pretty much ever since they'd broken up, because she had still been at MIT and he was moving to the west coast. "Hey. What are you doing here?"
She grimaced, then tried to hide it behind her champagne glass. "I'm Victor's plus one."
"Victor...?"
"Von Doom."
"And I can see how much you're enjoying it," Tony said flatly. He gestured towards the bar. "Let me buy you a drink, and you can tell me what you've been up to since college." Breaking up had been... not his idea. They were on different coasts, each chasing their different careers, and neither of them had been so committed to their relationship to make that work. It had been the right thing to do, but that didn't mean that he wasn't nostalgic about what they'd had.
"Isn't it an open bar?" she said, but one corner of her mouth had tilted up in amusement.
"It's an expression."
She shook her head, chuckling. "Sure, a drink sounds good." She tossed back the rest of her champagne, and Tony wondered if she still drank spiced rum or if that had been a college-age quirk.
"Do you still drink rum?"
"Yeah," she said, surprised that he remembered. "Do you still tell the bartender to get you a fruity cocktail? As pink as he can make it?"
"Not worth the trouble," he said, then ordered. Rum for her, and champagne for himself-- always best to let people think he was in the middle of a celebration so they didn't get too cocky. None of them seemed to care that Pepper was the one in charge of the company now, and he was only here as her plus one.
"Ah, so you get whiskey and pretend like you're like all the other assholes here."
"Exactly. I blend right in until no one knows if it's the truth anymore."
Sue snorted. "You're not that good an actor."
"That is probably the nicest thing one of my ex's has said about me."
She rolled her eyes. "We broke up because you were moving to the other side of the country."
Tony wanted to say that he wasn't an west coaster anymore, so technically... But he also had heard that she had kids and he wasn't going to put himself in the position of helping someone cheat-- not that he really thought Sue would do that, but still-- so he said, "Breaking up for legitimate reasons hasn't stopped anyone in the past. Who did you end up marrying, anyways? I heard you have a kid, right?"
Sue nodded, thanking the bartender when he set a dark glass of rum in front of her. "Two. Franklin and Val."
"No way you married von Doom," he noted idly, "so who is it?"
She grimaced again, shooting it back with a sip of rum, and that made Tony wonder if maybe flirting would've been a decent option. If she wasn't happy in the first place, then- nope, no, stopping right there. Getting in the middle of a marriage with kids? That was exactly the kind of drama he needed if he wanted Pepper to kill him. Since he didn't want that, he was going to keep all thoughts about how beautiful she still was to himself. "Reed Richards. I got pregnant and had to drop out before I could finish getting my master's. We got married, because that's what you do when you get pregnant, right?" There was an unhappy twist to her mouth. "Had another kid, then realized that maybe we don't actually like each other that much." She took another drink. "Don't get me wrong, I love my children and I wouldn't give them up for anything, but I do wonder what I'd be doing with my life if I had been able to go on and get my doctorate."
"There's no reason you can't go back and get it, right?"
Sue shook her head. "I'm too busy. Taking care of Val and Franklin is a full time job, and Reed barely has the time to visit them. If he took over full custody, it wouldn't be him raising them."
"You could hire a nanny?" Tony suggested. That was what rich people did, right? Jarvis had been half butler and half other parent to Tony when he'd been growing up, and he knew that Sue-- and Richards by this point in his career-- could afford that.
"That would be a good idea except of the two we've hired, one tried to kill them, and the other was selling information that they stole from us."
"Shit." There was a reason Tony didn't give advice. He'd thought he was doing pretty good until that. "Well uh, what about your brother? Are you still close?"
"Yeah," she said, nodding and leaning against the bar. Evidently, even though Tony didn't think he was doing that well, Sue was planning to stay here for a while. "Johnny's great with them, but he doesn't want to be a full time parent. He would do it if I asked, but I know that's not what he wants. He's babysitting right now, so I do get some free time when I want it, but." Sue shrugged. "Enough about me. What have you been up to?"
"You mean you haven't seen it on the news?"
"Well I was going to give you the chance to tell me firsthand," she said with a smile.
Tony's heart thumped louder in his chest, and god he was so screwed. She wasn't married, so he didn't have to worry about that anymore, but she wouldn't actually be interested. She had kids. People with kids didn't want to hook up with their ex from college. Sue wanted to finish getting her degree, but she wasn't looking for love-- and Tony didn't even know if that's what was on offer. He missed her and was definitely still attracted to her, but he shouldn't start something here unless he knew how serious he was prepared to be. Fucking hell, he hated being mature about these things. His life was a lot more fun before he started considering other people's feelings-- not that he would change it if he could, but still. "Clean energy," he said, raising his glass in a toast.
"I think it suits you. You never were happy with the weapon manufacturing."
"Is that so? The way I remember it, I didn't care one way or the other."
"Oh please," she said, rolling her eyes, "that was the party line, but it was obvious that you cared more about computers. You made a robot , Tony. People don't do that if their interest is in weapons."
"As much as I'm enjoying you stroking my ego, I think I'd rather hear more about you."
"Not much to tell."
"Then tell me about your kids. Franklin and Val, you said? Who's older?"
There was a pause, and Sue was giving him a slightly confused look, like she couldn't believe he was actually interested in hearing about this. Tony didn't think he'd ever get around to having his own, but he liked kids; they were so curious about everything around them, and they liked having everything explained. "Franklin. He just turned eight last month, and he's been watching all these old westerns with Ben so we had to have a cowboy themed party. He put on a cowboy hat as soon as he woke up, and he didn't take it off until he was going to bed." She kept talking, telling Tony about Franklin's birthday, how sometimes he and Val didn't get along and she was worried they'd accidentally kill each other one of these days, and the way Val was way too smart for her own good. "I swear," she was saying as Pepper walked up to them, "that girl's going to be the death of me. She hacked into Latveria's national database so she could send Victor a message about how she wanted him to visit." Sue saw Pepper and gave a polite smile. "Hello."
Pepper smiled back, in that careful way she smiled at all of Tony's dates. "Hello."
"Pepper, this is Susan Storm. Sue, as you probably know, this is Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries."
"Nice to meet you," Sue said, holding out her hand.
"Nice to meet you too," Pepper replied, shaking her hand for a short moment. "Tony, I was planning on leaving in fifteen minutes."
"Done watching people stare at your chest instead of your face?"
"I was done with that the moment we walked in," she said flatly. She pressed a kiss to his cheek, gave Sue a tight, parting smile, then left.
They were silent for a minute following the interruption, and the conversation didn't pick up where it had left when Sue spoke again, "I don't think your girlfriend likes me very much."
Tony snorted. "She's not my girlfriend. Pepper used to be my PA, she's used to keeping me from making bad decisions."
"Talking to me is a bad decision? I didn't think I looked that bad tonight."
"You look amazing," he said automatically. "But she heard you talk about Val and probably assumed that you were married, and me sleeping with someone who's married has never ended well."
"Hard to imagine why," Sue said drily. She took a sip from her drink-- she'd switched to water after making her way through two glasses of rum-- and tapped her fingers on the bar top. "We're not kids anymore."
"I noticed."
"And we're both living in New York, now."
"We are," Tony agreed slowly. "If you want me to babysit, the answer is no. I love kids, but being solely responsible for their safety? That's too much."
Sue laughed, shaking her head. "Yes Tony, that's exactly what it is. I've been talking to you for the last hour so that I can get another babysitter."
"Well I didn't want to assume."
"You could always ask."
"And what answer would that get me?"
"I suppose it depends on the question. Like, if the question was if I wanted to go on a date with you and see if there's still something here other than fond memories, then that answer would be yes. But if the question was about if I wanted to go home with you right now... well, the answer would be more along the lines of 'we'll see'."
"That sounds dangerously close to a yes, honey."
Sue shrugged, unashamed. "It wouldn't be the best idea, but I'm not sure I would regret it. I've missed you," she said quietly.
Tony took a deep breath. "You are not making this easy. When we started talking, I had to keep reminding myself that you weren't available, and now you're encouraging me."
Sue put a hand on his arm, squeezing gently. "We can wait. Here," she said, grabbing her phone and adding a new contact. "Give me your number, and we can give dating another try."
"Being adult about this feels weird," he said, typing in his number and handing her phone back to her. "I'm not used to making smart decisions when it comes to dating and sex. I normally go for what feels good in the moment and forget about all the other shit."
Sue hummed, then stepped close and pressed a lingering kiss to his cheek. "If it helps," she whispered, "I think it'll be worth the wait."
"Shouldn't I be saying that to you? You're the one that hasn't had the best run with sex lately."
"I never said that," she said, trying to hide a smirk.
"You didn't have to." He kissed her cheek in kind and gave her a hug. "I'll see you soon."
"Absolutely."