The Very Public & Private Reunions of Tony & Max

[x5452]

WHO| Thread 1: Max, Tony, and whoever shows up. (Open) Thread 2: Max & Tony (Closed)
WHAT| Did you see the header?
WHEN| After the Caesar interviews, prior to the new Arena
WHERE| Thread 1: Public area of the Training Center. Thread 2: Victor's Quarters
NOTES| The first of these threads is Open to anyone who wants to witness M&T have a very public reunion for the sake of the cameras. The second thread is for their private reunion.
MORE NOTES| The scenes will actually start in the respective thread responses.

Comments

Thread 1 - Public (Open)

[x5452]

The main reason the reporters had been following her was for the moment when (if, not when) she finally faced the man she'd credited in her interview with giving her the victory.

Max kept her face schooled very carefully, she wasn't sure herself how she felt about seeing him again. More to the point, she wasn't sure how he'd feel about seeing her again.

She'd kissed him. And then she'd killed him.

What's the follow-up to that?

The soiree currently taking place was a casual one, but it allowed for her to ignore the paparazzi a bit and try not to appear too anxious about it. One thing she felt certain of; Tony Stark would play to the cameras. And so would she.

[nightlightheart]

As a tribute of District 12, Tony's interview had long been over. Thinking he'd been off the hook for the night so to speak, he'd simply found a plush velvet chair to sink into, and sat with Haymitch a while, occasionally calling for an Avox to bring another round of martinis. (The nice thing about Avoxes was that they never told you how much was too much. Not that they would know anything about it anyway. Seven martinis may be too much for one person, but was sometimes just 'dinner' to Tony.)

He'd been watching though. He's always had a way of paying attention to a dozen things all at once, and conversing with Haymitch and batting away reporters and nibbling on vodka-soaked olives and watching interviews was like a typical person's way of just 'zoning out' to him. Max's interview however, had been particularly interesting. Because every now and again, his own face was on the screens. And yeah. He tends to pay attention a little more closely when things are about him. And that seems especially prudent here. In this place. With these people. Giant bunch of wackjobs that they are.

So later, when she's near. And he knows she's near. He can hear the excited commotion that follows after her. And suddenly there is an inevitable kind of doom on two legs that he knows is coming for him. Not that she's seeking him out herself, but there's an understood social expectation here that's basically unavoidable. He has about seven seconds to decide how he wants to handle this, but it really doesn't take that long.

He stands, brushing the wrinkles out of his slacks that he's acquired from sitting so long with one hand and uses the other to drain the last remanding drops of his martini, before he heads straight for the - for lack of a better or more fitting term - clusterfuck of paparazzi, and Max in a catsuit.

"So, I hear a congratulations is in order?" he offers with an easy smile.

[x5452]

"So it would seem."

He was going to play it cool, and that was fine with her. Visible strife between the two of them would ruin the image they'd both worked so hard to cultivate, and they both understood the sort of power they wielded as a result. For all intents and purposes, it was the only power they had.

She flashes a smile at him, and one can almost see the way her pupils expand and contract in response to the flashing lights of the photographers taking still shots. But those weren't as important as the cameras that floated around them, recording everything, taking in every word.

"I take it you enjoyed my interview?" she replies casually. You'd think they'd just happened to be two of the upper crust rubbing elbows at a party. "I'm surprise Caesar didn't bring you out and put you on the couch next to me."

An Avox passed by with champagne flutes, and Max grabbed one, taking a sip and watching her conversation partner. While doing so, her head was lowered just enough for Tony to see without the cameras catching it; sometime later this evening they're going to need to talk, and it's not going to be a conversation that can be had when everyone's standing around trying to get a piece of them both and the lights are flashing and the room is buzzing.

"I'd thought you'd be cross with me." she says, conversational at a volume meant to be heard by the microphones, and offered in a tone that suggests she's been a bad, bad girl in a way that the nation would eat up with a spoon.

[nightlightheart]

He gives a soft, lopsided smile at her and teases, "Track record indicates that I always hog the camera," he says with a shrug. Not that anyone here would actually know that, but that doesn't make it any less true. "Not my night. Plus, I had my time already, and a martini with my name on it." He raises his empty glass as some sort of proof of just that.

"Grudge isn't really my thing anyway," Tony wrinkles his noes at the notion. Because 'cross' is strangely not the word he would choose at all. He's not sure what he's ready to call it yet, but he knows that isn't quite right.

"You look good."

[x5452]

"Looks like you've had several martinis with your name on it." she counters with a grin. "And I don't know. I gave you enough props that if any of the sponsors are smart, they'll be clawing at each other to send you gifts."

And that may be part of her intention with all of this.

"Thank you." she says, raising her own glass in toast to the compliment. "You look like a man I'd try to steal from, back in my own reality." That's a compliment too, see. He's a sharp dressed man.

[nightlightheart]

"Why stop at one when there's an entire bar at my disposal?" he thought it was an entirely valid question to be quite honest. What the hell else was he supposed to do, trapped here in this freak show?

He grins at her comment however, and thinks he'd like to see her try. People don't tend to steal from Tony Stark and just get away with it, but there's a compliment there, he's sure of it. So he'll take it with a grin and maybe a bit of a challenge. "I think you'd like my place," he teases. Though not because he doesn't mean it.

As no one seems to be hopping onto the public thread, here's a transition!

[x5452]

Max ain't no ordinary people, of course. Well, at least she'd be wearing a catsuit when JARVIS inevitably caught her, right?

"I think you'd like my place." she teases right back, noting, "It's got a bar, too. Victors apartments are very plush." Her brow raises slightly. Are the cameras watching?

"Would you like to see it?"

[nightlightheart]

"Is this an 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' type deal? Because if it is, I am down." And maybe that's being a little forward, but there's an audience to play to and he likes to think he's being at least a little bit funny. Not to mention that there seems to be a subtle understanding here that there is a lot more to be said without half a hundred cameras in their faces, and so he holds out his arm and lets her lead the way.