Tony was quiet the whole way back, although he was the first out so he could turn off the security alarms so no one would be bothered.

"Go straight to the elevator," he told the girls, knowing Kae would guide Elaine. "We'll be there in a moment." He looked at Steve. Now was as good a time as any for a bit of a talk.

Kae blinked before she moved inside. "Okay, so this place is every bit as huge as people have said," she said quietly. "And very modern."

"Tell me what you see," Elaine begged as she kept a hand on Kae's shoulder. "I know my shapes, colors, and materials, so don't leave any details out."

Steve caught the look, and let the girls go on ahead, handing Tony back the keys. Seemed like Tony had something to say.

"Lots of glass. The floors are either marble or a marble look-alike. Might be a look-alike down here, but I bet farther up he used marble. There's actually some nice kind of dark cherry wood panneling along the sides, too. The elevators look big enough for about ten people, and that's all stainless steel." Kae kept describing things as they passed, trying to include as much as she could.

"You've been acting oddly around Elaine." Tony didn't sound accusatory, just curious. He tucked his keys in his pocket again.

Elaine drank in all of the descriptions, trying to build herself a mental picture. It was hard; any memories she had of colors or patterns or such things as marble and steel were ten-year-old memories that time had faded away. But she remembered enough of what such things were supposed to look like that she was still impressed.

Steve raised an eyebrow a bit.

"According to you I always act oddly," he pointed out. "Being from the forties and all."

Kae didn't immediately head up to the penthouse in the elevator, instead spending a little time just describing things to Elaine. She could see the other two outside, and Tony hadn't actually said to go up anywhere yet, so she was kind of stalling.

"No, no, not forties-weird." Tony gave him an even look. "Weird like you're attracted to her, weird."

"And why do you think that?" Steve asked. He wasn't entirely certain if Tony was wrong or not, and that realization didn't sit quite well with him.

"You looked at her first," Tony pointed out. "You blushed when she showed some bra strap, even though Kae was showing just as much. You weren't comfortable with what she was wearing. And you were definitely more focused on her than on Kae, and you looked about ready to sweep Elaine off her feet. Well. Maybe not quite that far, but the general idea is the same." Tony shrugged. "Need I continue, Cap?"

"I... wasn't aware women wore that shade of red as undergarments," Steve said lamely. It was a half-hearted excuse at best; Elaine's bra had been some mix of blue and black and red, but the predominant color had been the red. Kae had been wearing some black thing with white stripes. "In my day, women were much more modest." He looked at Tony. "And honestly, Stark, anyone could tell she lost track of herself there. Too much happening at once."

"True," Tony agreed easily. "Women in your day also didn't necessarily wear bras. I do read, Rogers. Now are you going to man up and admit or am I going to have to actually start compiling evidence?" Now Tony was smirking.

"I still think you've got the wrong idea," Steve steadfastly claimed. Although he couldn't deny how he always got the urge to protect Elaine. He had always had that kind of protective instinct, but it was strong around Elaine.

Tony snorted and made a mental note to start taking pictures of the two. But he didn't say anything else, just leading the way inside and going over to the elevator, pressing the correct button.

Steve followed, although he made sure the girls were in the elevator before he got in himself. Yup, still being his normal protective self, and he was sticking to that story for the moment.

Tony led the way into the main room up at the top. "Make yourselves comfortable. This might take a while." He vanished into a little workshop off to the side, starting to work.

Kae led Elaine over to a couch, sitting down with a sigh. "So here it's less glass and chrome and somewhat more colorful. But still insanely expensive."

"Probably more wood," Elaine commented, running her hands over a side table. She frowned a bit when the surface felt perfectly smooth. "Maybe? It's not wood, I don't think, but it doesn't feel like glass or metal, either."

"It's some sort of projector," Steve said. "With Tony, everything is computers. I have no idea how he did it, but this whole room is one big computer. Holograms, I think he called them."

"Holograms? Really?" Kae raised her voice so that Tony could hear. "Someone's clearly been watching too much Star Trek!"

"At least I don't call it the holodeck!" Tony yelled back. Kae just snickered.

"Oh god there are two of you," Elaine said dryly, nudging Kae. "I think I see the resemblance now... Figuratively."

Kae rolled her eyes. "We're only related by marriage," she said, mimicking what Elaine had said days earlier. "Besides, I'm not surprised he's seen Star Trek. He probably got some ideas from it. Lots of people did."

"Excuse me if my fandom still lives on Coruscant," Elaine teased back. She may not have been that old when she'd gone blind, but she had still managed to see four of the six Star Wars movies. "They had holograms, too."

"This is true, although theirs were much more... grainy." Kae shrugged. It made sense to her.

"Were they?" Elaine asked, trying to think back. "I don't remember... It was a long time ago." She remembered there were holograms in the movie, but she didn't quite remember the fine details anymore.

"Yeah. The Star Wars ones were kind of see-through and kind of grainy. In TNG, the holograms were almost exactly like real people. Only could turn them on and off." Kae paused as something occured to her, and then she turned faintly pink and put her head down. "And you need to stop giving me ideas for books, they're corrupting me."

"I'll trust your word on it, then," Elaine said as she shook away the faint memories of the movies. When she heard Kae's next statement, though, she raised an eyebrow. "You get the ideas on your own, you don't need my help most of the time." She grinned.

"Yes, but they just encourage me." Kae pouted a little, and then jumped when the door to Tony's workroom opened.

"Okay, try it now." Tony walked over to Kae, setting the leg down.

"I don't want to. Last time you took my crutches away."

"And how are you ever going to learn if you're depending on them?"

"Slowly and without falling flat on my face!"

"Give me one of them," Elaine compromised, holding out one hand. "Keep the other just in case." Because, in spite of the earlier incident, she really did want to find out how well this little experiment would work.

Kae handed over one crutch to Elaine and attached the limb slowly and carefully, hiding the fact that her hands were shaking just a little bit. She was nervous as hell about this. She'd been living like this for a while now, and she was fully adjusted. She was almost scared to have two legs again.

But when Tony started making impatient noises, she stood up carefully, balancing her weight, and took a step forward, very carefully moving the artificial leg. This time it wasn't too heavy, and she blinked when she felt carpet under the foot.

Which is about when she freaked out and fell back onto the couch.