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"Bruce, my friend," Tony interrupted said friend's muttering over a beaker. "You are an excellent mad scientist. We both are."
Bruce glanced up with little interest.
"But you are a terrible ruler of the world." Tony waved off Dummy. "JARVIS, please bring up the stats on India."
"Tony, not now. I'm about to have a breakthrough."
JARVIS obediently began listing the stats for unemployment, medical care, wealth per capita, and everything else for India.
"You said that last week," Tony pointed out. "Pepper has successfully dragged me away from my experiments long enough for me to delegate to her my decisions for what we want done in Africa, but you have done nothing with the one part of the world you asked for. I'm disappointed, Bruce."
This time, Bruce's stare lasted much longer. "Tony. You are an excellent mad scientist. Your puppy dog eyes need work."
Pepper's heels clicked on the floor behind them and both men winced.
"You both rule the world badly," she admonished them. "Dummy."
The bot rolled forward and handed them each a cup of coffee.
"Bruce, I need your decisions on fifteen major action items," she informed him brusquely. "With your permission, I can handle the details from there."
"All right," he muttered and followed behind her.
Tony clapped him on the shoulder. "It's for the benefit of mankind!"
"When was the last time either of you slept?" Pepper asked.
Neither answered, though Tony's flustered hemming and hawing was perhaps more condemning than Bruce's glazed, slightly crazed look.
"That's what I thought." She shooed them into a conference room. "You can run your benevolent dictatorship for the next fifteen minutes, then I'm ordering you both to bed."
Perhaps it said something about who truly wielded the power that both of them meekly replied, "Yes, ma'am."
"You'll join me, right?" Tony begged, applying his puppy dog eyes again.
Pepper laughed softly in return but didn't answer.