"You’re not going to get me with money, Mr. Stark," Grace sighed, drawing a careful green circle around an incorrect diagram on a freshman physics quiz. He was a firm believer that green ink was less aggressive than bleeding red. "I have a tiny apartment, a bicycle, and a salary that covers bacon for breakfast and steak on Sundays. I don’t need a grant."
"Who said anything about money?" Tony leaned against the doorframe, twirling a sealed glass vial between two fingers. Inside, a dark crimson liquid slid against the glass--far too thick and far too dark to be human blood. "I know money doesn't work on you. But this..."
Grace’s pen hovered a millimeter above the paper. His head snapped up, eyes locking onto the vial.
"Is that…?"
"Chitauri biological sample," Tony gave a pleased smile, tossing the vial up and catching it with deliberate flair. "Perfectly preserved, cellular structure intact, and still mildly reacting to electrical stimulus. My personal lab is state-of-the-art, entirely air-gapped, and completely private. Come by Saturday evening. Run whatever cellular sequencing or experiment you want. I won’t say a word to the press, and I’ll even let you yell at Dum-E when he inevitably fills your coffee with motor oil."
Grace stared at the vial.
Every instinct in his brain told him to say no. The moment he’d touched back down on Earth, light-years away from the home of his heart, he promised himself he was done. Done with global crises, done with sacrifice, done with being humanity’s sacrificial lamb. He just wanted to grade papers and teach basic laws of motion in peace.
But this was an alien cell structure. Completely unstudied non-terrestrial biology was being dangled right in front of him. His hands practically ached to put it under a microscope.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long, deeply defeated sigh.
"Seven o'clock, Mr. Stark. And if so much as a picture is taken, I’m walking out."
"Pleasure doing business," Tony smirked, delighted as he pocketed the vial. "Call me Tony, by the way. Mr. Stark was my father."
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Cooked up another little drabble for my Project Hail Mary x Iron Man AU, this time about when Grace finally accepts Tony's offer (check out the main AU post here).
