[For Tony Stark]

[every_blossom_blooming]

When Nina answered the door, she was in all red. She would never again wear the cheap, knock-off, costume version of a kefta that she wore at the White Rose, but she didn't have a real one in Darrow. And she wasn't sure she would wear it for this, anyway. So a red dress would do.

She'd been surprised to hear from Tony Stark, thinking he might not follow through on his interest, but she was also pleased. Clients helped to keep her busy when Geralt was doing the kind of witchering that was best done alone. The last thing Darrow needed was a bored Grisha.

She put her hair up with a pair of sticks Geralt had given her as she went to answer the knock at her door. She wasn't expecting anyone else today, but she did lift her eyebrows when she saw what awaited her.

"Come in, make yourself comfortable."

Comments

[ahollowman]

"Was hoping you took walk-ins," Tony joked nervously as he ducked inside the apartment. He wasn't sure what he ought to expect, more crystals and fringey throws probably, but the place was both, as she'd said, comfortable and professional. He let his eyes scan the rooms, over the floors and ceilings, before finding a nearby armchair and pulling himself into it.

He was wearing a hat, with the hood of his sweater over top, and he pulled both off as he folded one leg over the other, leaning over his lap in the armchair. His hair beneath the hood was mostly blond in the front, mixing unpleasantly into black again toward the back of his head. Tony met Nina's eyes, a little too grimly. She didn't know what was happening to him, but he did, and it was nothing safe or pleasant.

Over the thick rim of his glasses, one of his eyes was blue, only a thin ring of dark brown around the edge of the iris.

"What's the verdict? Can you fix it? Or do I just become the Man In The Iron Mask from now on?"

He did not like that the media had picked up that something was going on with him. The less KIRIN knew, the better prepared Tony was to deal with them.

[every_blossom_blooming]

"Of course." Nina smiled and closed the door after Tony came in. She tried not to stare at his... odd idea of disguise. "Somehow, I think that's even more conspicuous in this weather. Are you worried about being followed? Or just being recognized?"

She'd looked him up, of course, after they met. If he was worried that someone might be following him, she needed to know - Nina had backup she could call. The Wraith wouldn't mind keeping an eye on things while she worked.

Nina turned and her eyes got wide when she saw his hair, his eye. She briefly covered her mouth, too startled to school herself.

"Saints," she breathed. "What happened to you? I was just the streak when we last met..." She swept closer to get a better look. She resisted the urge to grab his chin and tilt his head more towards the light. He was not some Barrel thug she had to treat, and not everyone liked to be touched.

"I can fix it, but-- do you know what's causing it?"

[ahollowman]

"Photographed, actually. I don't need the new look plastered over the news." Tony sniffed, scrubbing at his hair.

He looked up at Nina again from under his flat black brows.

"Are you sure you want to know that? You might not like the answer, and once you know, you can't go back to not knowing. And knowing is sometimes a dangerous thing."

A danger that was worth it, but he couldn't necessarily make that decision for this girl.

[every_blossom_blooming]

Nina arched an eyebrow at him. "That is the last thing to say to someone like me if you don't want them to ask. Out with it while I get my kit together. Would you like some tea or coffee? Something stronger?"

She went to the sideboard to get out her tailoring kit, making sure she had the things she needed to take care of his eyes. She'd only done a few eye cases and they took a little more care, for obvious reasons.

[ahollowman]

Tony's breathy puh said what it needed to about the way he felt she was taking the whole thing with a relative lack of gravitas, even though he knew it used to be exactly the way he would have handled his response years ago. Too much fear and sincerity had set in since then.

"I wouldn't say no to a whiskey," he said, not so easily just spilling. It was his information, and he might yet have a need to have kept it close to his chest. He had Peter to worry about, if things spiraled.

"I don't know you or your qualifications here," he added.

[every_blossom_blooming]

Nina found her small stash of liquor and poured a glass for Tony. She offered it to him and looked dubious when he mentioned her qualifications.

"Where I come from, people like me are called Grisha. There's different kinds and they are able to control or influence different things. Squallers can raise storms, tidemakers can drown you in your own lungs or leave a harbor completely dry, inferni can command flames. Healers heal bodies and Heartrenders break them. I'm a Heartrender, Tony Stark. A good one, even if I am young."

She brought her tailoring kit over and set it on the coffee table in front of him. "People call us witches, demons, and sorcerers. But we learn our craft like any science. I had to learn how the body is pieced together on cadavers before I could living tissue to my will. Do you need references?"

[ahollowman]

"Not the qualifications I meant," Tony said, flickering his eyes up to her from where he sat leaning over his lap. "But that was all earnestly interesting to know, and also, do you have references? Because if I could find a way to get our company insurance to cover this ... maybe as part of a wellness package. I've got some stressed out employees."

He studied her for a moment with those large, dark eyes, digging eyes.

"What I meant was, there's not a lick of evidence I ought to tell you squat about bupkiss, no offense. So you've got enhanced abilities, fine, but I've got a potential problem to solve."

[every_blossom_blooming]

"I don't know what qualifications you want for giving me information."

Nina shrugged and met his gaze, her own sharp and green as he tried to dig into her.

"Keep it to yourself then. But if you need someone that's good at getting information, I freelance in that, too. Do you want me to do your eyes or your hair first? Or shall we address sleeping problems?"

[ahollowman]

"Dangerous information," Tony reiterated. "Related to what's causing all of this. Ergo, the kind a person could see reprisal for knowing."

Which he wasn't sure yet he wanted to risk on his conscience.

Tony considered Nina's question for a moment before giving an answer.

"The hair. Eyes are easier to hide behind a pair of sunglasses. I do sunglasses. I don't do hats."

[every_blossom_blooming]

"I'm good with dangerous information. And I can take care of myself, thank you."

More than that, Nina actually might feel sorry for anyone that gave Geralt or Inej a reason to hunt them down, should anything befall her. Matthias and Kaz might actually try to get in on the action, too. Nina studied Tony's hair. "I'm going to have to touch you a little," she warned before she ran her fingers lightly through the part that still had his proper color.

"Do you know what's causing the color change? Or is that something you can't tell me for the sake of keeping this delicate flower safe?"

[ahollowman]

"Touch is fine," he said. She'd picked up somehow on his anxiety, he was almost glad for it. It meant he wouldn't have to do overly much explaining. "As long as I have a warning."

He snorted at Nina's little jab, but otherwise ignored it. He had his reasons for doing things the way he did, reasons for believing what he did.

"I can tell you it's genetic chimerism. I can tell you it was experimental and I still don't fully understand the process."

[every_blossom_blooming]

Nina frowned. "But you weren't born with it," she said, more to herself than to Tony. She touched his hair again, considering. She could try moving color, but-- she wondered if that would result in just bleaching a different part of his head. Better, perhaps, to recreate it.

She turned to her tailoring kit and searched for a color that would match Tony's dark hair. She held each up to the light until she found one that satisfied her.

"If it's become genetic, somehow, whatever solution I offer will be temporary. Longer and better-looking than any dye job - your hair will even grow that way for a while - but eventually whatever genetic change has happened will re-assert itself. I only know of one Grisha that has the power to create permanent physical change in a person. And Genya isn't here."

Nina wasn't a tailor, she just knew how to do it and was a fair hand at it. Genya was had a talent for it beyond measure. She opened the vial of dry pigment and tapped it out on top of Tony's head. Then she ran his fingers through his hair, the part that had turned blonde, and carefully worked to make sure every strand accepted its new pigment.

[ahollowman]

"Longer and better is all I need. I don't want to conventionally dye my hair. I don't want it to be fried by fifty."

Tony took in a deep breath as Nina started to work in earnest. He winced at first, but as it turned out, it felt like mostly nothing. A gentle head massage, making Tony soporific.

"So there was someone where you came from that could make things permanent?"

[every_blossom_blooming]

"Genya Safin is an amazing talent," Nina confirmed as she ran her fingers through Tony's hair again, making sure she'd gotten everything. "There are very few of us that can tailor the way she does. I've seen her change the shape of a person's face. I understand the theory behind it, but..."

She shook her head and stepped back to clean the pigment from her fingers. "She taught me what she could. It's a useful skill for a spy, especially a Heartrender that can do it to herself."

She studied his eyes. "Which color would you like to match?"

[ahollowman]

"Uh, the brown," Tony said. It's what he'd started with, and he hadn't actually considered anything else. And would never again. His back gave a little roll when he thought about that eye looking back at him in the mirror when he'd woken up that morning.

Flecks of green in your blue eyes.

"So that's what you did? Spy work?"

There was, startlingly, no judgment at all in his timbre. He'd been a spy of a sort, he supposed, while working with SHIELD. He'd never been afraid of information. It explained why she wasn't, either.

[every_blossom_blooming]

"Yes, sort of. I traveled to other countries, helped Zoya find other Grisha so she could offer them a life in Ravka, if they wanted it." Nina found a dye that matched the brown of his eye and plucked up a clean dropper.

"Head back, please. Do you need help keeping your eye open?" she asked as she replaced the dye cap with the dropper. "Then a series of unfortunate things happened, and I ended up in a strange city with no money, too afraid to tell people who or what I was. I worked in a brothel and got information for the gang that adopted me. And I healed their hurts and changed their faces when they needed me to."

Nina turned her forearms out, showing the two white roses on one, and the crow and cup on the other.

[ahollowman]

"That sounds ... dramatic."

It wasn't an accusation, or a criticism. It was an interesting story, actually. One he might even like to hear more of, under different circumstances. Like, not when he was leaned back, throat exposed, eye open wide and waiting for her to work on it. Anxiety made his fingers twitch. He grabbed the arms of the chair he sat in to help ease it away, if he could.

"Nice ink, by the way."

[every_blossom_blooming]

"Sometimes it was. Other times it was tedious, or cold, or wet. I'm going to help your eye stay open, keep breathing." Nina spread her fingers gently against his cheek; she found the muscles that controlled Tony's ability to blink and froze them. She also made a little gesture to help calm his racing heart, his twitching fingers. She didn't want him to have a panic attack, or to move suddenly, while she was so close to him.

All it took was a drop or two; the liquid likely felt cold, and a little strange, but nothing painful or stinging. Then she immediately released her hold on the muscles. She focused instead on the iris itself, encouraging it to take the color in.

"There," she said as she stood up straight. "We'll see how that takes and if I need to go darker, I will." She put the dropper back in the dye bottle to cap it for the time being.

"And thank you, they're gang tattoos. Well, the crow and cup is. The roses told people where I worked."