"Tony, you've actually grown a beard, you look good!"
"Erik, you bastard, I didn't think you'd dare to come!"
On the last day of the twentieth century, Tony Stark was holding a New Year's Eve party in Bern, Switzerland, and Eric had received an invitation from Obadiah, but by the looks of it, Stark didn't know that Obadiah had invited Eric, and just after meeting him, he looked like he was going to make a move.
"Hey, Tony, come on! There are at least a hundred media outlets here!" Obadiah stopped Stark, he was the one who knew Stark best and knew his weaknesses very well, just one word made him give a stiff smile again.
"Sorry, Eric, Tony's still a bit bothered by that one."
"Oh, that's okay, Obadiah, my friend, I hope that incident doesn't affect our friendship." Eric smiled and patted Obadiah on the shoulder, giving him the wink that any man would understand.
"That's for sure! There are quite a few beautiful women here today, I'll introduce you later." Obadiah gave an unspoken smile.
Stark couldn't stand watching from the side and secretly gave Eric a middle finger and turned around ready to leave.
"Hey, Tony! Don't be in a hurry to leave!" Eric called out to him, pulling a small box out of his pocket and handing it to him, "Happy New Year! I got you a New Year's present!"
"You gave me a present?" Stark exclaimed grimly, "It's not a time bomb, is it?"
"A bomb? Where's the bomb? Mr Stark, get behind me!" A slightly obese man suddenly shouted, trying to pull Stark behind him, but knocking over two passing waiters because of his clumsy hands.
"Hey, Happy, there's no bomb!" Stark wrenched the man's shoulder and stared him in the eye for a couple of seconds to explain, before gesturing around somewhat awkwardly.
Eric stifled a laugh and surveyed the man who had made a fool of Stark, "And this is?"
"Happy, my bodyguard and driver." Stark rubbed his nose, his expression slightly unnatural.
"He's very brave!" Eric smiled as he handed the small box to Stark again.
Stark, however, waved his hand back and forth, his face full of reluctance, "Eric, you know, I have a tendency to never take anything that's handed to me! It's a quirk of mine."
"Oh, sorry, I forgot." Eric retracted apologetically, "I've always wondered why you have this quirk?"
At the question, Stark's expression was a little grim as Obadiah spoke up hastily next to him, "Ever since Tony took his parents' death notice himself, he hasn't taken anything that was handed to him."
So that was it! In the United States, accidents are ruled dead when they go missing for more than four years, and it had been a full seven years since the Howard's had disappeared, and the death notices had long since been lying in Stark's safe deposit box.
Eric heard this explanation, but smiled and handed the box over in his hand once again, "Tony, if that's the case, I think you'd better take it, maybe, this little gift will cure your quirk!"
Next to him, Obadiah's face paled slightly, and various possibilities came to mind, while Stark was flabbergasted, half-heartedly reaching out his hand, but was about to touch the box when he shrank back.
"Eric, this is not a good topic for a joke, and if you joke with me about this, I will kill you!"
Eric smiled at that and shrugged, handing the box further in Stark's direction.
"Alright Tony, let me hold it for you!" Obadiah, not knowing what the hell he was doing, saw Stark hesitate and actually reached right out and tried to snatch the box away from him.
"No! Uncle Obadiah! I'll do it myself!" Stark had made up his mind by now, however, and firmly took the box and opened it in front of everyone.
Inside the box lay silently a key and a small slip of paper with an address written on it.
Stark picked up the note and glanced at it, then quickly crumpled it into a ball, pocketed it, nodded to Eric, peeled away from the crowd and ran out.
"Man, that?" Stark moved so quickly that Obadiah stretched his neck and didn't see what was written on the note and rushed over to ask Eric.
Eric patted him on the shoulder and gave a meaningful smile, "Just what you thought, mate!"
With that, he paid no more attention to the blushing Obadiah and walked towards a beautiful woman.
"Miss Hansen, I didn't expect you to be here!" This beautiful woman was no other than the one who had missed Barton's invitation, Maya Hansen, the inventor of the Extremis virus.
"You are Mr. Erik? I've heard so much about you!" Maya Hansen shook Eric's hand politely but looked a little distracted, her eyes darting in the direction where Stark had just left.
"You're a busy man, my assistant once went to invite you to a research project two years ago and you didn't come out of the lab even after a week's wait."
"Really, that's a shame, huh?" Maya Hansen gave a perfunctory response to Eric's words, seemingly eager to chase out in Stark's direction but afraid to move because of Eric's face.
"Is there someone Miss Hansen is expecting?" Eric looked at Maya Hansen playfully.
"Yeah, Tony said he was going to wash with me tonight ... er ..." Maya Hansen let slip absentmindedly and immediately put her hand over her lips, her eyes wide and full of embarrassment.
"Oh, wash what? Washing dates? How much is Tony going to sponsor you?" Unfortunately, the prophetic Eric had already known it like the back of his hand, and knew exactly what Maya Hansen was up to.
"Ten million dollars, my research has hit a bottleneck and I really need a large sum of money to continue ..." Maya Hansen blah blah blah said a whole lot of difficulties, the corners of her eyes even forced out a trace of tears, looking pearly and pitiful.
In fact, she also figured out, Stark had left, but isn't there an Erik here? As long as she can get the research funding, she'll overturn everything! And from the look of Eric, he seemed to have some interest in her? Shouldn't she be taking this opportunity?
But Eric was rolling his eyes, "You came a thousand miles to deliver a cannon for a $10 million research grant? I would have given you a hundred million when you talked to Barton that day, not ten million!
"Miss Hansen, I've heard a bit about your research project, can you tell me more about it? Do you have any information or samples? I'm very interested in your research." Eric once again showed his Coulson-style smile, raising his affinity to 999 in an instant.
"Oh, sure, I brought some information over to my room, I can show you." Maya Hansen's eyes were lost in Eric's smile, but the mention of her own research immediately sobered her up.
...