Previously:
Matthew was staring at the red head intently, rude to socially acceptable degrees, but he didn't really care for the societal norms at this moment.
Now:
Tony was having what seemed to be his first interaction with Colson from what Matthew understood. The man doing almost the exact same introduction but Tony's response was somehow more dismissive than his own.
His eyes shot right to pepper , Matthew swearing up and down that cartoon hearts appeared. She was wearing the dress she got for her birthday and her usual slick back bun had been undone .
Matthew could already see it, she was definitely going to become his future sister-in-law and he had no objections. But Tony's love life wasn't important to him right now. The red head from earlier had settled at the bar , a cherry White Russian being placed in front of her. The scene reminded him of a movie, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.
He hadn't noticed when he said "Okay", or when Tony took pepper to the dance floor. His mind was set on the woman by the bar , that was probably why he'd unconsciously walked over to her .
"Hello, beautiful." were the first words that left his mouth , playful but not flirty. He wasn't trying to come off as the usual narcissistic rich kid , but that's exactly what he sounded like.
" A little young , don't you think?" she asks, turning an amused smile to him, his eyes now meeting hers.
"With a brother like mine , it's inevitable." he joked, his gaze turning to the dance floor. The brother in question, slow dancing with pepper. It was sickeningly sweet, and he did know if he should grimace or smile at it.
"Yeah. Well ,I would think you to be a bit more sophisticated than him," she took a sip of her drink, eyes still studying him. He looked back to her with a short snort , tony and pepper leaving the dance floor in his peripheral.
He hummed in agreement , the two staring at each other intently. He was trying to remember where he'd seen her before, and she was studying him.
A certain bald director had told her to join Colson and 'inspect' the potential candidates for a new division, but so far all she's seen is a boy and his horribly immature role model.
Matthew seemed like a smart kid, he even briefly went to a military school. Although that seemed to have been Stane's idea. The kid was actually sent back a month after due to 'questionable behaviour' . The actual report states that he had somehow made a homing device that allowed him to pick off opposing students during combat drills .
He also put one of the commanding officers in the hospital, but the rest of the file was redacted. Just from that partial overview, she believes he had a violent streak in the rest of the records. There was also the period of time that he was at a children's hospital for a few weeks. If she remembered correctly, that was shortly after their parents had died.
He apparently went mute after the incident and refused to talk to anyone. He did eventually , but it was like his personality did one eighty. She still couldn't access the files on that stay . it irked her not knowing something that could potentially change how she profiled a target.
"Natasha" he snapped his fingers, taking them out of their staring contest. He smiled like he'd just discovered something he forgot an hour ago. Natasha on the other hand froze. She didn't know how much he'd found in the division database, but for him to know her name. That means he knows too much.
"Don't look at me like that , I only skimmed over the profiles. No 'secret' missions or 'classified' intel - mostly…" he smiled. Obviously, he was more informed than he said, but she couldn't exactly do anything about it. With his guard dog and near hundreds of eyes on them, knocking him out wouldn't be the best solution.
Luckily for her, someone- no - tony caught his eye from the other side of the bar. His attention leaves her and locks onto the person standing next to him.
" Excuse me" he pushed past her , walking over to Tony, who was mouthing the words 'Gulmira'. His face was set in a confused frown. Matthew instantly reached his hand out, a tablet being placed in it by Mason, and searched up the word.
The first article was a video on a public execution. The second wasn't anything better, Matthew looked up from the screen and that was all Tony needed to excuse himself and find the only culprit. On the screen, a clear image of a stark industries crate , housing Jericho missiles , was front and centre.
Location: Stark Industries head office
" Who authorized that sale?" Matthew stormed into the logistics department , his raised voice made a few of the employees finch.
"Sir , it was Mr. Stane" one meekly said. His co-workers parting like the red sea to offer him as tribute.
" all weapon manufacturing was shut down , how could he have-"
"He sent in the order before the cut off date" he spoke rapidly , Matthew striding up to him.
"What?" he frowned , the kid was tall and intimidating , he was hunching into himself.
"It.. it was a few days after Mr. Stark was kidnapped. And was sent out 2 months ago."
Matthew huffed in disbelief and turned on his heels , walking out.
Matthew was sure he hadn't seen nor authorized any shipments, much less approved the sale of explosive devices in the last 6 months. Stane had gone over his head again. And this time, it had gotten the lives of hundreds of innocents killed.
And for what?
Money?
What use is money that costs people their lives. Their families and homes. He's told Tony this before but was always told that it was just business. But they could do anything, why'd it have to be weapons of mass destruction?
Frustration was a weak term to describe his current feelings, the most he could do now was damage control . But that couldn't bring back the dead. It was times like this when he missed Jarvis. Not the A.I. , the butler, the guy they made an A.I. after because they couldn't go without him.