[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

[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."