By the time Tony drove her to the Mountain Heights Clinic in Glendale, Kendis was already running on fumes. But Alke was her baby, and she always came first. However, Kendis had fully expected Tony to be dismissive of Alke’s importance in her life.

Kendis had been on a few dates where her companions were irritated when she just couldn’t go spend the night with them without prior notice. They hadn’t understood that she had to go home and feed her dog. But since Kendis didn’t use technology at home, she couldn’t simply buy one of those automatic dog feeders.

Most people didn’t realize that Alke was, in essence, her child.

But Tony didn’t say a word. He just drove her silently through the night to Mountain Heights Animal Clinic. The exterior of the place was a white modern style building that stuck out like a sore thumb among the small and colorful stores.

“You have arrived, sir,” a mechanical voice said.

“Thanks, Jarv,” Tony replied as he turned into the parking lot. Kendis unbuckled her seat belt and was out as soon as Tony pulled to a stop. She hurried through the glass doors into the lobby.

She noticed the familiar baby blue and white walls, the matching square chairs, and the small glass tables laden with National Geographic magazines. Then her eyes fell upon the empty reception desk.

“Whoa!” Tony said as he looked around the clinic and frowned. “Where is everyone?”

It was late, but Dr. Lan was one of the best vets that offered emergency services in the city.

Kendis was surprised there weren’t at least a few people there, but glad at the same time that she didn’t have to deal with them. She was already on the verge of a complete shut-down. Kendis would rather be in private when that happened.

The door opened and a smiling young Chinese man, who seemed to be in his late teens or early twenties, approached them.

“Lan Jingyi?” Kendis called out. “Where are Lan Zhan and Lan Sizhui?”

“Lan Sizhui is out on town for some conference and Dr. Lan is in the back.”

“How’s Alke?”

“She’s in surgery,” Lan Jingyi replied with a shrug. “I would tell you to leave and go get some sleep, but I know you.”

“Too bloody right,” Kendis snorted and crossed her arms.

“And you…” Lan Jingyi blinked at Tony. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

Tony coughed and shrugged. “Nah, I just have one of those faces.”

Lan Jingyi threw him a skeptical look, but shook his head and turned to Kendis. “I don’t know how long the surgery will go on for, but I’ll make sure to let you know if there is any news.”

Kendis blinked back tears, “Thanks.”

Tony squeezed her shoulder, and she faced him. “Let’s get comfortable. I guess we are going to be here for a while.” Kendis nodded and followed Tony as he led her to the waiting room.

They both took a seat in the uncomfortable, rigid chairs.

‘Alke is going to be okay’, The thought repeated over and over in her mind like a mantra. Kendis didn’t know what she would do without Alke’s comforting presence beside her.

Kendis ran her hand over her face and tried to push back the panic. What she didn’t need was another breakdown. She longed for her favorite playlist and for the comforting darkness of her bedroom.

‘Not so comforting anymore’, Kendis thought to herself as she shivered as her mind went back to Chester Coil. The man had invaded the sanctuary of her home.

“It’s going to be a delight breaking you.”

Kendis wondered if Josefa had felt the same terror she’d felt right before Chester had slit her throat. Their latest confrontation had been way too close—even with all of her power, Kendis had still frozen up in fear.

“Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“Talk to me?” Kendis pleaded.

“About what?”

Kendis threw up her hands. “About anything?”

Tony sighed and tapped his finger against his lips. “Well, you weren’t the only person who did a drunken pole dance at Juicy Lucy’s.”

Kendis mouth dropped as she spun on Tony, who gave her a shit-eating grin.

“You’re taking the piss!”

Tony rubbed the back of his head. “Rhodey bet me 50 bucks, and I still nailed it even though I was wasted.”

“But you know what?” Kendis shook her head in amazement. “I can totally see you doing something like that.”

“College really didn’t take up most of my attention. And my M.I.T. professors often kicked me out of the labs when I pissed them off.” He gave a rueful chuckle. “I tended to blow things up a lot back then.”

Kendis was horrified at the thought of the Weasley twins and Tony ever meeting. Either Tony would end up shortening out some major city, or they would build some Frankenstein monster that would mean their certain doom.

“I had a lot of time on my hands, and I took a lot of different classes. Pole dancing was one of them.” He continued with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I also took ballet. Not to mention all the ballroom tutors I had growing up.”

Kendis winced as she thought of the one and only time she’d tried ballroom dancing. She had stepped on Parvati’s poor feet the entire night, and Ron had barely done better with Parvati’s sister, Padma.

“What?” Tony asked, with a shit eating grin. “I know there is a story there.”

Kendis thought about it, and honestly, the magic cat was out of the bag. And while the Triwizard tournament had been an utter nightmare, in hindsight, the Yule ball had been a hilarious farce.

Besides, it would get her mind off of Alke, and right now, she needed something to laugh at. “Well, it all started when the three biggest magical schools in Europe decided to hold a tournament…”

“Let me get this straight,” Tony cut in after she explained the Triwizard Tournament.

“Your school had a tournament where kids died before, and your headmaster still thought hosting it was a good idea?”

“In hindsight, Albus Dumbledore had no business being in charge of anyone’s children. I wouldn’t trust that man with a box turtle.”

“And I thought my high school experience was hellish when I was a ten-year-old freshman.” Tony snorted.

With a rueful shake of her head, she went on to tell him about her and Parvati’s awkward first dance together and how nervous they were about making a fool of themselves in front of everyone. And how she and Ron ditched their dates, and how Ron moped about Hermione and Victor Krum all night.

“The Yule Ball was utterly ridiculous,” Kendis said, sardonically. “I think the only fun I had was when the Weird Sisters played.” Then Kendis had to explain quickly that, despite the name, the Weird Sisters were a pretty good all-male rock band.

Kendis and Tony spent the rest of the night and the early morning exchanging hilarious stories of their past exploits. And even though Kendis stayed away from anything to do with the war, they were still surprised they had a few funny memories from their childhood.

It was hard to look back at her time at Hogwarts without focusing completely on the pain and death. But there had been good days, and it lightened something inside of her to be able to focus on something happy while she waited for any news on Alke.

In exchange, Tony told her about replacing the blackboards with electric ones that would play the song Weird Science by Oingo Boingo every time the Professor in his Fundamentals of Programming class tried to write on them.

Kendis giggled, picturing a younger, wilder Tony causing chaos at university.

Next, Tony started telling her all about the mischief he and Rhodey got into back in the day.

“Rhodey likes to pretend he was always a boring, responsible adult.” Tony shook his head. “But he has a mean streak a mile wide and can be petty as fuck under the right conditions.”

“My best friend Hermione is like that,” Kendis replied with a soft smile as she thought about her best mates back home. “She could always recite the rules verbatim, but when shit hit the fan, she was always right beside me and Ron.”

While they talked in the waiting room, the hours slowly passed. They swapped tales of their lives, discussing books and films they’d seen. Tony nearly had a fit when she told him she never watched Star Wars.

And then the subject switched to cars and, to her surprise, Tony wasn’t just some rich white boy with a penchant for street racing. He actually knew his way around cars and they had a heated debate over which was the best vintage car (Tony swore it was the 1967 Shelby Cobra while Kendis argued that it was the 1961 Jaguar E-Type).

A quiet, comfortable silence fell between them, and Kendis realized the sun was coming up. It had been hours since they arrived at the clinic and she wondered how much longer Alke’s surgery would take.

She glanced at Tony, who was busy typing a message on his phone.

“Tony?”

“Yeah,” Tony said, looking up at her.

“Thanks,” Kendis said. “For being here and taking my mind off things.”

“No problem.” Tony glanced away, shrugging. Kendis saw how red Tony’s neck was and shook her head. Who would have thought that Tony Stark, would shy away from a compliment?

The back door suddenly opened, and Dr. Lan walked out. Despite being in surgery for at least five hours, his scrubs and hair were pristine as always.

“The surgery was a success,” Dr. Lan said, in his usual curtness. “However, we need to keep her here for observation for at least three days.”

“So long?” Kendis said.

Dr. Lan’s mouth pressed into a firm line. “It was close.”

Kendis closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Tony held her hand and squeezed it, and Kendis didn’t know what she would’ve done without him.

She logically knew that she could have called Ian and Jason, or hell, even Hermione or Ron. However, her friends would have hovered and only made her slide even more quickly into the shutdown she had been dodging all night.

Being autistic often meant she was treated like an alien or like she would break easily. Yet, she had led an entire war against the most powerful dark lord in over a century.

Kendis knew that her friends and family didn’t mean any harm by it, and most of the time, it didn’t bother her enough to tell them to knock it off.

Tony, however, had given her what she needed without making her feel weak.

Kendis pointedly ignored the sudden warm feeling in her chest and focused her attention back on Dr. Lan.

“Can I see Alke?”

“Of course.” Dr. Lan nodded before turning and walking away. Kendis started to walk, but then looked back to find Tony standing there with his hands shoved awkwardly in his jeans.

“Aren’t you coming?”

Tony spluttered, an obvious protest on his lips, but Kendis turned and hurried to catch up with Dr. Lan. She was grateful to hear Tony’s heavy footsteps follow behind her. They walked down the short hall to a pair of double doors, and lying comfortably in a crate was Alke’s prone form.

“I just put her in the crate,” Lan Jingyi said, with a tired smile. “She was a good girl. Didn’t give us any trouble when we put her under.”

“Thanks, Jingyi,” Kendis said with a watery smile. Jingyi nodded, and Kendis hurried over to Alke’s crate. She crouched down and reached through the bars out to rub between Alke’s ears.

Kendis bit back a sob as Alke let out a contented snore.

Kendis sniffled and tried not to cry. She hated crying in public, but after hours of shoving her feelings down, her tears finally fell.

Her body shuddered as a sob escaped her, and she slapped a hand over her mouth.

Suddenly, Tony was there, pulling her up to her feet. Kendis turned and fell into his arms, and he simply held her as she cried. He hadn’t run at the first sight of emotions, nor did he get mad at her for probably ruining his t-shirt. Yet Tony Stark gave Kendis the impression he didn’t handle emotions well.

But this was the second time that Tony had comforted her. His big, warm, calloused hands rubbed up and down her back as she sobbed. “Alke will be up and walking around before you know it.”

Kendis just cried out all of her worries. At that moment, she didn’t give one shit that they were standing in front of Dr. Lan and Lan Jingyi. She just fell apart in the safety of Tony’s arms.