om_main | Tony & Barbara

Tony meets Babs. Pie and computers?! He's impressed.

Tony's attention may have been almost entirely on the tablet in his hands as he made his way through the halls, though he did look away long enough to peer suspiciously into the kitchen when he got there. Not that he was trying to avoid another run-in with Betsy, exactly, so much as trying to avoid another conversation on the topics he knew she was likely to bother him about. Everyone wanted him to talk lately, it was weird. Usually people couldn't get him to shut up fast enough.

But no, the only thing he spotted for the moment was a pretty redhead in a chair with a mixing bowl in her lap. Pretty redheads, he could handle. "So it is actually true that people cook in here," he said easily as he walked in. "I'd wondered."

Barbara glanced up at him, and cracked a smile. "It is a kitchen," she pointed out. "We have the technology." She held up the mixing spoon, brandishing it.

"Technology can always be improved," Tony declared as he beelined straight for the coffee machine, and flicked the girl another look. Wheelchair, apparently, instead of just regular chair. Interesting.

"Well," said Barbara, as she stirred the spoon in the concoction that was starting to smell strongly of sugary chocolate and peanut butter, "the electric mixer did improve on this method, but the cord doesn't reach far enough for me to put it somewhere I can reach."

That earned something of a derisive snort and an amused glance in her direction. "Giant mansion and nobody thought to spring for an extension cord? Go figure."

"I could probably ask for one," Barbara admitted. "But I don't mind the old fashioned way, not really. You like chocolate?" Balancing the bowl on her lap, she wheeled back over to the table where there was a crust waiting.

"Is there anyone who doesn't?" Tony answered absently as he flicked on the coffee machine and turned around to boost himself up onto the edge of the counter. "Whatcha making?"

"Pie," Barbara said cheerfully. "Chocolate peanut butter. And it doesn't need to bake, just set in the fridge for a while." She reached out and poured the mixture into the crust. "Would you mind getting the whipped cream out of the fridge?"

"Depends," Tony said with a grin, never mind that he was already sliding back to his feet and making his way over to the fridge, "do I get to taste the pie?"

"Oh absolutely," Barbara said. "Though it'll be better if you wait about half an hour so it can set. Were you just here to get coffee or do you want to stick around?"

"Got nowhere else to be," he shrugged, and retrieved the whipped cream for her, kicking the fridge shut behind him. "And pie's a pretty good motivator, even when it doesn't include chocolate."

"Thanks," said Barbara, and took the can, then sprayed a perfect border around the edge of the pie. Then an artful dollop in the middle. "All done. If you'll put this in the fridge... I'll just hang out too, until it's ready."

"Well if I'm performing manual labor than I've definitely earned myself a taste test," Tony said cheerfully, and did shove the entire thing, along with the cream, back into the fridge. "It does mean you've earned the job of entertaining me, though."

"All right," said Barbara. "Hand me your tablet." She held out a hand.

"How forward," he said with an impressively shocked look. But, well, it wasn't one of his fancier ones and he hadn't had much of a chance to modify it yet. So Tony just shrugged and held it out to her.

"I promise I won't hurt her," Barbara said, taking the tablet. She opened it up just to check the operating system, and then told it to do a few things: get Tony's class schedule out of the school database along with some pictures, and then recreate a game she'd coded before. A moment later she handed it back to him, and there was a version of Pacman waiting on the screen - with Tony's face as Pacman and all of his teachers as the ghosts.

His eyebrows nearly hit his hairline the second he glanced down at the screen, but a few finger taps later and he had it calling up the coding behind the program. And if he hadn't been staring before, Tony definitely was now.

"What," he said, sounding far from upset about it, "the hell?"

"I made you a game," said Barbara brightly. "Cute, right? I especially like the little glowy green Professor Xavier."

"Yeah, but how?" Tony asked, half distracted by still pouring through the coding. "Some of this doesn't even make sense."

"Oh, are you a programmer?" Barbara asked, seeming more interested herself. "Yeah, sorry it's not very elegant. When I first figured out what I could do I was like, thinking in code, but now I just kind of talk to the computer."

"You...talk. To the computer." Oh, she had all of Tony's attention now, every single bit of laser-focus
.

Barbara wiggled her fingers at him. "Yeah, I'm like... a technopath. Coding, hacking, all of it... no keyboard required."

"That..." Tony considered for a moment. "Might be the best thing I have ever heard."

Barbara laughed. "Really? Well, cool." She paused and then said, "Oh, shit. I'm Barbara by the way." She offered him her hand.

"Tony," he returned with a wide grin and reached to take her hand. "You realize I'm going to have to pick your brain. A lot."

"I don't mind," Barbara said, because she didn't. "So you're into tech?"

Somehow, his grin managed to stretch itself even wider. "You could say that," Tony agreed, actually setting the tablet to the side for the moment. He'd have to pour over that code later, but for the moment the coder was more interesting.

Barbara had a smartphone on her like she always did, which meant she always had access to the Internet. While he was speaking she'd been accessing the student database, and... "Tony Stark?"

"That's what they call me," he agreed cheerfully, and then gave her a look. "You just looked that up in your head, didn't you."

"Oh..." She looked a little sheepish. "I figured as far as hacking goes, having the student database is kind of harmless. I don't have files, just the list of names and classes."

Tony waved a dismissive hand. "Information is there to be accessed. I'm more interested in the 'in your head' part."

"I suspect there are some students that would be very uncomfortable with their personnel files being accessed," said Barbara. "And I didn't look them up in my head, I looked them up on my computer." She shrugged. "Which, okay, I can do in my head. At least simple stuff like that."

"So you have to have access to a computer to go surfing," Tony said thoughtfully. "Can't just hook in to the nearest WiFi?"

"Only if there's a computer nearby," said Barbara. "Or a smartphone which are pretty ubiquitous."

"Iiiinteresting." There was a long moment of thoughtful silence before Tony suddenly studied her carefully. And then grinned. "What if I built one into your chair? You wouldn't need a monitor, right?"

"Really?" That was an interesting idea. "And yeah, I can't do everything without a monitor, but I can do a lot of things..."

"Maybe a collapsible monitor then," Tony said in the tone of voice that meant he was already deep into planning. "Maybe find a way to charge the battery with the wheels..."

Barbara arched an eyebrow, looking intrigued. "Well, as long as no innocent computers are harmed in the development of this project, have at it. So this is your idea of a good time?"

"You mean it's not yours?" Tony gave her a look somewhere between mocking and genuinely confused. "Come on, I could even make you rocket powered."

Barbara laughed. "Rocket powered? Nah, that's okay. Check this out." She pulled up her sleeve and flexed her bicep.

"That is definitely one hell of a gun show," he agreed solemnly. "But come on. Rockets."

She laughed again. "Okay, look, if no computers or wheelchairs are harmed in this venture, you're welcome to experiment."