[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]

"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."