"Wait," Tony said after a moment. "If you start now they won't let you stop until we leave. Which isn't necessarily bad in and of itself, but we don't need their attention on you until it's necessary."

"Are you sure?" Cameron asked. "I mean, I can just see people freaking out if you have a jump and break something later, and freaking out less if I nab a glass of champagne from across the room early on."

Tony shook his head. "Trust me, if something happens, I'll come up with some reason on the fly, I'm good at that, and it'll be easy to transfer blame to you if you're with me the whole night." He paused for a moment. "That sounded more awful than I thought it would."

Cameron snickered.

"It really kind of did," she agreed. "Though I know what you meant. That's exactly why I'm here."

Tony sighed. "Jarvis will start a tab for you too," he said, rolling his eyes, because this? This he was used to. "Give it a week or two and you'll have your own pair of fabulously expensive shoes."

Cameron blinked.

"Wait, what?" she asked. "How did we jump to taking about shoes? What do you mean by a tab?"

"I was an ass, thus a tab, for shoes, because that's the default," Tony said with a shrug. "You've known me long enough by now, you've seen this before, even Sabine has a tab."

Cameron raised an eyebrow.

"Tony, how long have we known each other?" she asked. "And in that time, exactly how often have you said something without thinking? And how often have I needed shoes as a result?"

"Yes, but that was at the mansion, where you could retreat if I was too dickish." Tony shrugged. "It makes a difference, apparently."

"Tony, since when has this been an issue?" Cameron asked. "I know how to deal with you, I have for ages." She stopped for a second. "Did Sabine tell you to start giving me shoes?"

"No," Tony said, shaking his head. "No, she hasn't said anything about you coming with, not to me." He was quiet for a moment. "This is different from the mansion," he settled on after a few moments of silent, internal debate.

"Okay, what's gotten into you all of a sudden?" Cameron asked, looking at him. "We always banter. Why does it suddenly require expensive shoes?"

"Banter is one thing, saying awful or awful-sounding things is another." Tony shrugged. "Apparently Pepper's finally gotten to me, I'm sure she'll be glad to hear that."

"Tony," Cameron said, putting a hand on his arm. "I promise, I'm not offended. It's fine."

Tony relaxed a little at that. "Okay," he agreed. "Okay." He shook himself a little and grabbed champagne for them both.

"Relax," Cameron said, smiling a bit. "You know it takes more than that to make me mad."

Tony snorted. "Yeah, I know," he said. "Here, have a drink."

"Thanks," Cameron said. She grinned and floated the glass out of his hand and into hers, not spilling a drop. "Last time I had champagne was at my cousin's wedding, and those ones had sugared rims and berries floating in them."

"Good or bad?" Tony asked with a little grin, taking a sip of his own champagne. He drank it at these things, but it wasn't his poison of choice.

"I don't know," Cameron said, sipping from her own glass. "I kind of miss the sugar and the berries, but this stuff isn't bad, either."

"We can do sugar and berries, I can make that happen." Tony grinned a bit. "I've only ever had champagne with strawberries in it."

"What, are you just going to throw money at it until it happens?" Cameron teased. "The one I had was blackberries and raspberries. It was surprisingly good."

"Or make phone calls, but yes." Tony grinned. "Actually, Jarvis, how long will that take?" He pulled out his phone, looking at the reply Jarvis left for him, and grinned. "Gimme twenty minutes, tops."

"Tony, I promise I don't need special champagne," Cameron protested, though she was grinning. "We really, really don't need extra attention on us tonight."

"It's not special champagne, it'll be dessert champagne," Tony said with a grin. "I can be subtle, when the occasion calls for it."