Tony's Apology

Zhang went upstairs.

Oaks stared blankly at Tony Stark, who had thrown open the shop door and stood there with his mouth hanging open.

"I remember putting up a closed sign."

Turning off the CD player, Oaks spread his hands helplessly.

"Tony, don't you knock before coming in?"

"Oh, shit!"

Tony sucked in a sharp breath. Before his wide eyes could return to normal, he darted to the shelf.

"They moved? They were swaying along with the music just now? What was that? Plants can dance now?!"

"You must have imagined it."

"No, no, no. My eyesight is perfect. Not only do I not see things, I'm not even nearsighted!"

Tony waved the sunglasses in his hand and strode over to the helpless-looking Oaks.

"These are sunglasses, sunglasses, got it? Since I'm neither seeing things nor nearsighted, then you must be behind this, huh?"

Tony grabbed Oaks by the shoulders and stared at him for three seconds.

"Come on, I thought we were friends. How many more interesting things have you been hiding from me?"

"You think this is interesting?"

Oaks rather admired Tony's nerves. In some ways, his ability to accept strange things rivaled Zhang's.

"All right, all right. I need a little privacy too, don't I?"

After finally prying himself free of Tony's claws, Oaks flopped onto the sofa with a wry smile.

"You like standing in the spotlight and are used to it, but as a researcher, I'm still not very used to getting too much attention."

"Oh-ho, I also heard you founded an environmental charity."

Spotting the coffee pot on the table, Tony's eyes lit up, and he poured himself a cup.

"And has someone been keeping tabs on you? Why did it suddenly become so hard to dig up any information about you overnight?"

"That's the trouble these special abilities brought me."

Oaks shrugged. Tony probably still did not know that his father, Howard, was one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founders. Otherwise, Nick Fury would not have needed to personally deliver Howard's belongings to him later.

"The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division is wary of people like me with certain special abilities. After all, they wave the banner of protecting the world.

And most people with superhuman abilities aren't very good at controlling their powers."

"Like that big green guy? And that name is awful."

Tony understood immediately. After all, Dr. Banner was extremely well-known.

"That's right. Many of them cause destruction because they can't control their abilities, like Hulk.

Others undergo drastic mental changes after suddenly gaining tremendous power. Their confidence swells, and they may even seek revenge on society, and so on.

But I can fully control my power, and I don't have any anti-human or anti-social tendencies."

"Wow. Cool."

Tony took a sip of coffee, pinched his meticulously trimmed goatee, and leaned forward slightly as he looked at Oaks with apparent seriousness.

"Is this so-called special ability of yours the strange energy in these plants, as well as in that Recovery Serum?"

"You figured that out?"

This time, Oaks was genuinely surprised. But on second thought, it was only natural. This was Tony Stark, after all.

"How did you do it?"

"I'm a genius!"

Tony smugly crossed one leg over the other, but after a moment, he began looking around again.

"All right, I only discovered that some unique energy exists, but I have absolutely no idea what it is."

"But when it comes to rapid healing, I thought of something."

He scratched his hair, looking somewhat puzzled.

"I think it was called... 'Extremis'? I remember improving an equation that should also have allowed rapid healing, but I can't remember the specifics.

Looks like I hadn't developed the habit of recording everything at the time. Or maybe it wasn't research done in a laboratory?"

Thinking of the word "Extremis" was already a flash of inspiration. He truly could not remember anything more.

After all, it was the kind of memory he discarded most easily—one-night stands with women.

Though she had been a female scientist, given how quickly Tony lost interest in the old for the new, he had probably forgotten everything within two hours.

Oaks fell silent.

The Extremis virus—he was probably referring to that.

Come to think of it, it really was a piece of black technology. It could even regenerate severed limbs, something Oaks still could not do.

Of course, the side effects were quite obvious. Human bombs, after all.

But this was clearly not a good time to help him remember it.

"That's right. The energy I possess is called Nature Force. It is highly beneficial to life, and different applications can produce different effects."

Since S.H.I.E.L.D. already had this information, there was no need to hide it from Tony. Tony's charming brown eyes widened again.

"Ha, you really are interesting! But I didn't come today to investigate your abilities."

At that, Tony paused. He began glancing around awkwardly again and shaking his leg, but eventually, he spoke.

"I came to apologize to you."

"Apologize? For what?"

Oaks had received no shortage of surprises today. What was this about?

"I asked a friend to look into your travel records—the days you went to the Amazon Rainforest."

Once he got started, the rest came more easily. Though he was apologizing, his words became increasingly fluent.

"Anyway, we're friends. It was wrong of me to pry into your privacy without your permission.

But I was very curious about how you traveled to and from the Amazon Rainforest without any departure records."

Tony spread his hands.

"It's still your privacy, so I came specifically to apologize today. You don't have to tell me the answer."

"...That really surprises me. Though I didn't think I could keep this hidden for long, I didn't expect you to notice so quickly."

Oaks shook his head. He did not mind Tony's little bit of curiosity, because since S.H.I.E.L.D. had already approached him, they had surely noticed it as well.

The reason they had not brought it up yet was probably because they intended to use it as leverage to probe his secrets.

Strictly speaking, it was not a major matter. He was not a government employee, and Banner traveled all over the place too.

Still, for someone as extremely arrogant as Tony to come all this way to apologize over it, he clearly cared deeply about privacy, whether his own or his friends'.

Had reporters annoyed him that badly?

"I forgive you, but only because you started a Foundation." Oaks curled his lip.

"Wasn't it because I put your name down as a Foundation partner?"

Tony immediately became smug again.

"Hey, boss, my coffee's gone. Refill!"

"You..."

Oaks snorted a few times. He could not be bothered to argue with this shameless guy fifteen years his senior, and refilled his coffee.

"You were bound to find out about this sooner or later, so I might as well explain it clearly today."

"May I have the honor of hearing it?"

Oaks and Tony frowned and turned toward the shop door. A dark figure stood in the entrance.

"Zhang! Get down here, and let go of the cat!"

"..."