“In a room full of dimes, you would be a hundred dollars,” Kendis sang out loud along with the radio. “If being fine was a crime, girl, they’d lock your lil’ fine ass up in a tower.”

As they drove down I-405 from Malibu into Calabasas, their fingers tapped a rhythm on the steering wheel.

“You have the worst taste in music,” Tony shouted over the music. Kendis flipped him off and sang even louder. Just because Tony only listened to classic rock didn’t mean that Kendis couldn’t groove to Bruno Mars.

It was a near picture perfect Southern California day. The sun was out, and palm trees swayed in the wind under a bright blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds and sunshine.

Kendis felt a pang of hurt as they thought about how they usually took Alke out on hikes through the trail through Topanga Park on days like this.

The music cut out, scaring her. She looked over and saw Tony looking worried. He reached over and took her hand. “You okay there, Glinda?”

Kendis did their best to shove their worry and sudden melancholy away and gave Tony a small smile. “I’m fine.’

Tony opened his mouth and then shut it, but thankfully, he decided not to press the issue.

“Jarvis, turn to Life in the Fastlane by the Eagles,” Tony called out, and then suddenly the hard thumping beat erupted from the Shelby’s stereo. Kendis rolled her eyes at Tony, but she didn’t complain.

She was driving a hot car on a beautiful day with the man she loved. Her heart thumped rapidly in her chest, and her cheeks flushed red.

It still hadn’t sunk in for Kendis. They fancied Tony like mad, but still couldn’t bring themselves to confess.

Besides, telling Tony of her feelings wouldn’t change anything.

She had only another day or two left with him, and then Tony would walk out of her life, taking her heart with him.

‘Stop it,’ Kendis chided themselves. She wouldn’t spoil the little time she had left with Tony with her gloomy thoughts.

They were just turning into Encino when she saw a billboard for Go-Kart Racing. The address wasn’t too far, and she was curious if Tony was as good behind the wheel as his friendship with Dom Toretto alluded to.

Dominic Toretto didn’t hang around people who didn’t know their way around a racetrack.

“I don’t like that smile,” Tony remarked warily. “What are you up?”

“Oh, don’t worry your pretty little head about it,” Kendis said with a smile and turned up the radio and sang along.

***

“Oh, you are in for it now!” Tony said as he rubbed his hands with glee.

“Don’t get too cocky, love,” Kendis said as they got out of the car. “I am just giving yourself a chance to get beaten fair and square.”

Tony rolled his eyes, and then Kendis frowned as she started to notice a few people giving them looks.

“Tony, do you trust me?”

Tony paused and gave her a long look. “Yes…”

“Do you have any electronics on you?” Kendis bit her lip.

Tony’s eyes rose, “What do you want to do?” He did a swish motion to obviously mimic doing magic with her wand.

“Yes, that, but I don’t need my wand to do it.” Kendis just barely refrained from pinching the bridge of her nose. One of the few wandless spells she had learned during her seventh year was the notice me not spell. She could do it in her sleep. “Well, you are a celebrity, and I may have my tattoo.” She tapped her chest where the tattoo was, “But you don’t so…”

“Only condition,” Tony said, with a smirk.

Kendis lifted an eyebrow. “What?”

“You let me take pictures.”

“But the whole magic thing?”

”But everything,” Tony did jazz hands to refer to magic. ”Won’t it fry my phone like before?”

”There’s a chance,” Kendis admitted. ”But this spell won’t be as powerful. It won’t be like the magic surge you saw at my house. Why don’t you leave your phone in your car? I can cast it near something less technological and more private.

Kendis was wary about having her photos taken. The memory brought back painful times with the Creevy brothers and the Wixen paparazzi, but Kendis knew this mattered to him—their tattoos would prevent their face from being seen in any photos.

Yet, allowing Tony to take some photos was the least she could do after all that he had done for them.

Tony shrugged and then quickly dropped his phone on the driver’s seat of the Shelby. There was an automatic click.

They walked in the parking lot, then found a narrow alley between the side of the ticket both and the fence surrounding the racetrack. Kendis didn’t want to risk all the high-tech electronics built into the Shelby.

They put their hand on hands on Tony’s chest and then Kendis quickly cast the spell. They were thankful that it was one of the few spells they could cast both wandlessly and non-verbally.

Tony wrinkled his nose. “It feels tingly.”

Kendis snorted, “Go get your phone.”

Tony jogged to the Shelby for his phone, then hurried back.

“Got it,” he said, wiggling his phone in front of her. “Let’s go!”

As they walked, Tony intertwined his fingers with hers. Tony grabbed a quick photo of their feet as they walked to the front of the booth.

“I am not even going to ask,” Kendis shook her head.

Tony flashed her a cheeky grin that made her chest flutter, and then he dragged her to the ticket booth.

They both argued over who paid for the ticket, but Tony, the sly bastard, used his phone to transfer the payment quicker than Kendis could draw their wallet.

After going to the ticket booth, they walked over to where the go-karts were parked. Her gaze traveled across the track. Need4Speed Go-Karts was basically a converted parking lot that took up one entire block in the center of Brentwood. A wire fence isolated the track from the shops and restaurants in the neighborhood.

Tony froze, then he turned to her. She stopped and turned back to Tony, lifting an eyebrow.

“Who is the cocky one, mate?” Tony mimicked her accent badly.

Kendis rolled her eyes. “Put your money where your mouth is?”

Tony looked her up and down with a downright filthy smirk on his mouth that made her want to both simultaneously kiss him and punch him in the throat.

Kendis wasn’t someone you could push around, so she walked right up to him. Her hips swayed as she swaggered up to Tony and whispered in his ear.

“If you win, I will give you the dicking down you are begging for, and I promise it will be worth it,” Kendis whispered in his ear. She teased his ear with her tongue, and Kendis grinned when she felt him shiver.

“Deal,” Tony replied, a little breathlessly.

Kendis took a step back, and her smile grew impossibly wide. ”Good!” Kendis said, as she slapped him on the ass, “Now, come on, princess. I got a race to win.”

***

It didn’t take long for Kendis and Tony to pick out their go-karts. Kendis had chosen a blue one, while Tony had chosen red.

Tony had begged her to take a few photos of him in his go-kart. And Kendis gave in because she was weak, and Tony Stark’s puppy eyes were surprisingly potent.

For Kendis, it took her a moment to get used to the feel of the go-kart. They are very different from driving a normal car or one of her bikes. It was certainly different from riding a broom.

It was lower to the ground than she preferred her cars, but there was something exhilarating feeling the vibration of the Go-Kart’s engine going through her body.

They sat at the light, waiting, engine running. Tony gave her a wink, and Kendis laughed but kept her eye on the stoplight.

Red

Yellow

Green

Kendis slammed her foot on the pedal, and she was off, with Tony on her heels. She easily navigated the curves of her track.

Kendis took a sharp turn, but Tony was close, and then she swore under her breath as Tony crept a little past her.

“Buggering fuck, “ Kendis swore through gritted teeth and slammed her foot down on the pedal. The one thing that never changed about Kendis was that she was a competitive little shit, and Kendis never lost.

As far as Kendis was concerned, Tony’s sweet ass was already hers.

Kendis pushed the go-kart as fast as she could, and Kendis and Tony were neck and neck. Dom hadn’t lied when she had called him after the race to complain about ‘Tin Man’. Tony was hell on wheels and gave as good as he got.

The two were neck and neck, and Kendis was starting to worry, but thankfully her car could inch past at the last minute. Kendis braked, and the go-kart came to a screeching halt just over the finish line.

Kendis quickly ripped off her helmet and unbuckled herself from the cart. Moments later, Tony was out of his cart, but unlike the jackass at the last race, he wasn’t angry.

Laughing, Tony walked over and pulled her into his arms. She looked into his bright, shining brown eyes, and a stronger person than her could resist the urge to kiss him.

Kendis brought her lips to his and melted against him as sinful lips moved against hers. He moaned, and his arms wrapped around her waist to bring them flush together.

Time didn’t matter as they kissed passionately. Tony Stark was dangerous to her sensibilities.

Finally, the need to breathe superseded their need to keep kissing, and with a reluctant sigh, Tony broke the kiss.

“I think I will lose more often if the reward is a kiss like that,” Tony said, with a low chuckle that made her shiver.

Kendis snorted, and Tony shook his head.

“How about another turn or two on the track?” Tony said with a grin.

“You are not getting out of paying up.”

Tony winked at her. “I wouldn’t think of it!” Then he swaggered back to his go-kart.

***

Turned out that a turn or two turned into many loops around the track. On the next turn, Kendis lost, but then she got him back by winning in the end.

When they finally finished with the go-karts, it was well past lunchtime. They spent forever deciding where to eat. Tony wanted Chinese, Kendis Korean BBQ, but neither wanted burgers.

Kendis typically loved a good burger, but she just wasn’t feeling it that day. They finally agreed on Mexican. Luckily for Kendis, Tony’s favorite taco truck was parked near Brentwood that day.

They found the pink truck with bright yellow marigolds painted on the side and the words La Chiquita Mexicano written in white script font on the side.

There was a long line, and Kendis groaned. It would take forever to get their food. Tony took one look at her and snorted.

“I already texted Emilo and paid.”

“You know the owner?” Kendis asked, eyebrow raised.

Tony shrugged. “I helped them out of a rough spot.” He said nothing more, only met Kendis’s silent stare before she sighed and shook her head. Tony could brag all day about his technological wonders, but when admitting anything that didn’t adhere to the mask of a rich, spoiled fuckboi, he got uncomfortable—it was both adorable and frustrating.

Tony took a photo of the car, and she threw him a strange look. He shook his head. “Since your face can’t be photographed and I have the whole–“

He did jazz hands, and Kendis wondered how many ridiculous euphemisms he was going to give for the magic he was going to come up with.

“I took a photo of the car,” Tony shrugged. And sure enough, a bald, plump middle-aged Latinx man and a wide smile hurried out of the side of the truck. His hands were full of steaming white styrofoam containers and a carafe with their drinks.

His eyes scanned the parking lot, and his gaze traveled right past Tony and settled on the Shelby.

The man she assumed was Emilo hurried across the parking lot, and Kendis quickly ran over to help him with the takeaway. He looked her up and down and gave her a shit-eating grin.

“Leave it to Tony to have great taste in cars and women,” Emilo snorted as Kendis grabbed the food. A part of her wanted to correct Emilo that she wasn’t a woman, but in the end, she just let the misgendering go.

“Uh, thanks,” Kendis replied awkwardly as she adjusted her hold on the food, and Emilo just waved and jogged back to the truck.

Kendis silently walked to an empty picnic bench and set down the containers. Tony grinned, then sat across from her, trouble written all over his face.

“I should tear you a new one for ordering for me.” Kendis wrinkled her nose. “And how do you know I’m not allergic to anything?”

“Are you allergic to anything?” Tony asked, suddenly worried.

Kendis huffed and said, “No. You should have asked first.”

“Guess, I’ll trash this then,” Tony started to pull the food containers across the table, and they slapped his hand.

“Stop that!” Kendis slapped his hand. “Now tell me which one is mine.”

Tony threw his head back and laughed, then handed her one of the containers.

Kendis rolled her eyes and picked up her carne asada taco and took a bite. She moaned as the taste of the meat and the sauce hit her tongue.

This had to be the best taco she had ever had. Tony smirked at her before he dumped an illegal amount of sour cream and guacamole on top of his cheese quesadilla and scarfed it down.

It didn’t take her long to eat her way through the rest of it. Her mouth was tingling with the result of the hot spices. Being British and growing up in a white family, she used to think salt and pepper was too spicy, but she learned how she was wrong when Kendis first moved to Los Angeles.

Now, after living here for close to a decade, Kendis was proud she wasn’t guzzling down a bottle of milk after every meal.

“God, I need to come here more often,” Tony said, as he took a Swiss army knife out of his pocket and popped the top off the guava-flavored and punch-flavored Jarritos.

“Guava or punch?” Tony asked, holding out the bottles. Kendis took the punch, and he took the guava. She smiled at him in thanks and slid it next to her plate.

A comfortable silence fell between them as they lost themselves in the food. And sadly, before Kendis knew it, she was taking the last bite of her taco and drowning the rest in her cold Jarrito.

“I’m taking Hortense and Isiah here for lunch when they get back.”

“Your employees?” Tony asked.

“Yeah, they are more like business partners and friends than employees.”

“I can understand that,” Tony said. “Obie is my godfather and my business partner.”

It took everything for Kendis to not wrinkle her nose at the thought of Obadiah Stane. She did not like the way he looked at her, like she was a piece a meat.

“He worked with your dad?” Kendis asked, carefully.

“Obie was my dad’s best friend and business partner,” Tony shrugged.” The man has been COO at Stark Industries longer than I’ve been alive.

“I can understand that,” Kendis nodded. “My dad and my godfather were partners in the Auror Corp.”

“Your dad was a cop?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t joking when I told you that everyone I admired as a kid was an Auror.” Kendis shook her head. “I should have known the Auror corps weren’t shit considering how quickly they framed my godfather for murder.”

Tony choked on his drink. “What—”

“It’s a long story,” Kendis said, with a sad smile. “Let’s just say the Wizarding World’s justice system is just as rubbish as the Muggle one.”

Tony gave her a long look, but he didn’t press her. She took the awkward silence as an opportunity to change the subject.

“Where now?”

Tony shrugged. “This is your show.”

Kendis thought of going back to the mansion, but it was still early, and she wasn’t ready for her time with Tony to end.

”I know the perfect place!” she grinned, snatching the keys from Tony.