Throw a coin in a fountain of dust

[letmetakeaselfie]

It isn't that he doesn't trust Natasha, it really isn't. Even the whole Natalie Rushman thing couldn't deter him from thinking of her basically as a little sister. Tony being who he is, he's been worried about her. Bruce leaving hasn't been easy on any of them, maybe most of all him, but they had something going on he still doesn't totally understand. And now she's MIA, which isn't that unusual actually, but again; Tony being Tony he can't just accept that. Clint and Laura don't want to talk to him except to say to leave Nat alone, but what if she's getting herself in danger? He can't judge her state of mind if he can't talk to her. That's where the stalking comes in.

J.A.R.V.I.S. probably wouldn't have helped him hack her phone, but F.R.I.D.A.Y. doesn't seem to have a problem with it. Maybe he's just imagining that -- but maybe they really do have their own artifical intelligence brand moral compasses. Now that JARVIS has merged with Vision, though, he thinks he has to be right. He used to relish in being right, now not so much.

There's one address that keeps coming through her GPS. He doesn't recognize it, and it's not that far. She isn't there now, according to her phone anyway, but there has to be something important there if she keeps going. He's no spy by trade, but that seems logical. Anyway, that's how he ends up in the middle of bumfuck (Binghamton) looking down at a ramshackle shack in the woods. It's like a horror movie except like usually with his life, it's real. So that's fun.

It's just about dusk and he drops down some distance away so he hopefully won't be detected. He puts the suit in sentry mode and creeps through the clearing like a cartoon character. His subtlety has never been very subtle, alright, but he tries. His curiousity is running rampant at this point, and he pops his head up to try and get a glimpse through the window. The curtains are drawn and there's barely a sliver of light from the waning sun that bounces off, creating a glare. Tony nearly jumps out of his skin when a large shadow moves across the window. There's someone in there. A big someone, by the sound of him. He and the suit move as quickly and softly as possible to the other side of the house in hopes that he can still get a good look at him somehow, or at least figure out what this place is.