Cas, Buddy, I need you.

No money, no credit cards, identification is all vocal/fingerprints/retinal, so no wallet.

Again, doors are voice activated, or just unlocked by entering a code.  No keys.  

Communication devices are tiny and stick onto clothing starting in Next Gen.  TOS had bulkier communication that they carried around or kept in, like, packs and stuff, so the arguments for pockets is a little more valid, and if I remember correctly, those costumes did have pockets, tho I could be wrong about that.  But anything post TNG, the point is moot anyway.

Tricorders and phasers are really the only thing anyone’s carrying around, and that’s usually on away missions where they’d be bring their packs/holsters or just have them out.  I mean, who wants to stick a phaser in their pocket?  

Bruce Wayne is a guest at a big charity function in Metropolis. Ordinarily he wouldn't go, but the function is part of a network of concerted efforts against the NRA and to push for better control and reduced school shootings, so he has skin in this game and an appearance by a famous philanthropist who was orphaned by a gunman is kind of a big part of the PR going on. So he makes time for it.

Clark Kent has been assigned to cover the event by the Daily Planet. Given that Bruce Wayne's presence and perspective are a big part of the whole shindig, he does his reporterly duty and makes an effort to get some quotes from him as part of his article. He's not really surprised to discover that despite Bruce Wayne's reputation as a playboy and unreliable party-hard kind of rich boy, he's very serious about this particular topic, because he did his homework and he's put together the pattern that despite appearances, Bruce Wayne does indeed take some things very seriously.

Clark and Bruce sort of recognize each other as men who have some experience in wearing elaborate social masks. Clark figures Bruce plays up the party boy image as a coping mechanism, to keep the tabloids talking about something other than the violent murder of his parents perhaps, while Bruce is not sure why this seemingly mild-mannered reporter has the mien of someone who knows exactly how to use body language and preconceptions to get the reactions he wants from people, but there are a lot of reasons for someone to pick up those skills. Especially an interviewer.

Bruce fake flirts, Clark plays up being flustered, both of them are kind of genuinely into it even though they're both aware the masks are on. It's fun, like roleplay.

Anyway the article comes out great, and Clark manages to get more out of Bruce than just the token soundbites, so the next time there's cause for the Daily Planet to send someone to cover a Wayne event Perry is just like, Kent you do it. Eventually the two build up a working relationship where they're both kind of like, actually there's way more to that guy than meets the eye, and everyone else is like are you sure you don't just want to fuck him? Because it seems like you might just want to fuck him.

Up until a point Clark hadn't really used any of his powers to observe Bruce, though, because he doesn't just do that for no good reason on principle.

But then there's one interview where it's clear that something is just wrong with Bruce Wayne. He's acting "normal", on the surface, maybe even more friendly than usual, but his body language has subtly changed, he's spending an awful lot of time sitting down, and despite his claims of a hangover, he isn't actually showing the symptoms. Clark, long familiar with the process of "turn on the 'X-ray' vision to see if someone's got an undiagnosed health issue and then try to work a doctor's appointment into the conversation" does that, and finds that Mr. Bruce Wayne is somehow sitting at a scheduled interview with a fractured wrist and two broken ribs, plus innumerable signs of past injuries.

So now Clark's trying to figure out who is physically abusing an adult billionaire, or if this is a sex thing.

It’s really that simple.

I was re-reading Clean Slate Protocol 2.0 the other day. The first time it felt like warm soup. The second time, I noticed something underneath — this sense of Tony being in a hurry. Not anxious anymore, but almost like he was getting ready to leave.

There's always this quiet, gentle sadness in your writing that stays with me. It makes me wonder: of all your Stony fics, which one means the most to you? Not the most popular one — just the one you care about the most, the one that still lives in your head. I’d really love to hear about that one.

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That's a lovely way to describe Clean Slate Protocol 2.0, thank you! I have a lot of feelings about Steve and Tony's changed dynamic in Endgame, of how softer Steve gets and watchful Tony gets, but also I think most if not all of my fics set in that era are written with the weight of Tony's upcoming canonical death looming over them, even if in the fic themselves that Tony avoids that fate. I cannot stop thinking about it, and I think the characters on that level "know" it as well, in a sense.

You're asking which of my Stony fics mean the most to me, but I really cannot pick just one! There's so many that are meaningful for me in different ways.

There are some that made me emotionally ache in a good way to write the relationship drama and resolution, such as Love's Such an Old-Fashioned Word and Not a Breakup. There are some emotional and angst moments in those fics I still daydream about sometimes, like I am the sort of person who replays certain things in my head just to let the feelings wash over me. And I do love Steve angst, but Tony angst is indulgent in a very specific way, and it's a lot of fun to let Tony stew in his own feelings, especially for certain maybe-relatable opinions he has about what he deserves, and to get him to the moment when he explodes and reveals everything for Steve to know. I love choreographing those moments, and sometimes I think about what they may be doing after the fic is over, though I think most of my coherent thoughts end up here on tumblr anyway.

Then there are fics I feel very satisfied in thinking about how Tony and Steve relate to each other and talk through their issues in coming together emotionally, like Clean Slate Protocol 2.0 and Overhaul. Because it is fun for me to look at canon and see the ways they could have become close friends but didn't. Like, what assumptions did they make about each other that set their canon relationship in brittle stone, and what did they really want from each other when they were teammates and were they capable of giving those things to each other if they'd had the words? Then what would it take for them to figure out those words? Which is an exercise in making myself sad and then writing fic to bump them over those obstacles in what I hope makes sense for both of them, when canonically both of them keep their real feelings close to their chest and only reveal to a select few, so what would it take for them to share with the other? Sometimes when I feel frustrated with these characters I reread bits of these fics and others.

Then there's the front row seats series, which is an alternate universe with a bittersweet feeling and angrier Steve, and it's also me working through my feelings about Endgame and basically both their character arcs as a whole from start to end. In my opinion both their character arcs are mainly coherent, with some hiccups that happen when they're written by different people, but they're coherent in ways that aren't necessarily fair or kind. (In my opinion!) And I work some of my feelings out through this fic. There's also the indulgent angle of thinking about canon!Steve looking in on these AU versions of Steve and Tony that got together, and having complicated but supportive feelings about it.

Then! There are the fics I'm very very happy to look back on the banter that feels just right for me and my sense of humour, because I very much enjoy Tony and Steve's dialogue in canon when they're being clever and witty, and it's just VERY FUN to find that kind of dialogue that feels right for them, like in The Trial Run and Stick with Me Baby, I'm the Fella You Came in With (which is also my first fic for them! I'm so happy I made myself write that! You would not believe how long I resisted.)