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"Are you kidding me?!"
It was the usual - Pepper's high heels clicking and echoing off the concrete floors of the garage as they forgave her presence. Then her voice, followed by the actual personal attack on him, when all he was doing was trying to catch some sleep. After all, it was two twenty-eight in the morning when he had returned home, and he had just spent most - well, most of the public - night in the suit.
Tony loved that thing. Mark...what was he on at this point? Three, four? And the ladies loved it, too. And what else did he love? The couch, which was first to cradle his drunken ass after Jarvis helped the bots finally remove all of the suit pieces when he made it back home. Yeah, he needed a quicker process for that...upgrades for the future.
"Tony!" the voice snapped, and even the hand across his forehead trying to block the lights as she turned them on couldn't shield him from her anger.
"Hey, what?!" the billionaire mumbled, sitting up in his black track suit with a groan. "I don't remember setting an alarm."
"It's almost eight and you have the Senator waiting in the conference room at the office," Pepper began, furiously running a hand trough his disheveled hair to try and tame it.
"I was sleeping," he continued, still not awake, and clearly not fully sober yet, either. "Did you not see that I was-"
Instead, the pillow he was holding onto in his lap was ripped from place, disrupting his comfort.
"Get up and get dressed!"
"-sleeping? I mean, I was laying on the couch, was that part not clear?" he finished, ignoring her before rubbing his eyes and glancing at the computer on his desk, which was lit up.
"Happy has a car waiting, we-"
"Did you go into my security system?!" he accused, narrowing his dark eyes. "Jarvis, who told you to let the screaming lady into my house?"
"-need to leave, now," Pepper finished, then rolled her own. "Oh please."
"I'm afraid you did, sir," the AI responded slowly, a mind of his own. "You programmed me."
Then, as Pepper grabbed the shoulder of his light jacket and tugged him off the couch to stand, he shook her off and shot her a small glare. "Okay, okay, mom, I'm up! Take a chill pill, relax!"
"We went over your schedule two days ago. You knew you had to be up early today."
"Have we worked together before?" Tony grumbled sarcastically, maneuvering around the work space to his desk to lock the computer again, making that a priority. "I feel like this should be normal to you by now."
"You are never normal," Pepper scowled, dropping the clipboard in her hands to her side with a hardened glare.
Then, as Stark waited for his security systems to respond, snapping his fingers and pounding his fists together in completion, a crack of shattering glass split the tense air and scared Pepper half to death. Tony, on the other hand, slowly glanced the general direction of the noise, still too intoxicated to have normal reflexes.
"Oh my God," was next from Pepper, fed up and stressed over his living situations. "I keep telling you those things shouldn't be handling the crystal!"
"It's just a temper thermal glass full of protein," Tony deferred casually, then folded his arms, silently scolding the bot on the far wall of the garage who had just knocked a glass on the floor. "She's right, though. One more and I'm gonna use you as a test catapult in the backyard."
Potts rolled her eyes, sighing loudly before moving to set her clipboard down on the desk Tony was standing behind, which led to the real argument. His heart tightened with each step closer she took, until she was standing on the other side of it, ready to nag him further. It was normal, but he could only put up with it for so long before his social anxiety kicked in and he got fidgety.
"Tony," she tried, attempting to keep her voice level, yet sharp.
"Yes."
"I need you to get in the car."
"You're mad, I get it," he mumbled, bending back down to use the keyboard of the computer.
"I'm not mad," Pepper slowly answered, though it was through gritted teeth at this point. "I am trying to make sure you don't run your company into the ground while you're out seducing the whole city with this ridiculous piece of metal, and-"
"The whole city?" he mused, smirking slightly. "Challenge accepted."
"-you're making that extremely difficult!" she finished with another loud, dramatic exhale.
But then Pepper's eyes snapped on something in the corner, a dusty patch on the wall which outlined where a small, abstract canvas painting once hung. She would't have noticed, only she had gotten it as a birthday gift for him three years ago when he was going through a painting phase and didn't understand the popularity behind abstract works.
"Where's the Hood painting?" she blinked, waiting not so patiently for a response. "Did you-"
"I, uh...it's, I'm cleaning," he tried while typing a last command into the computer before standing up straight.
"-take down my painting?"
"Technically, it's my painting," he shrugged, stepping back as mechanical noises began coming from the garage floor. "You gave it to me, so it's-"
"As a gift!"
"-my painting... Actually, now it's Andrea's painting, so..."
Immediately, Tony regretted name dropping. Was that even her name? Of course, his assistant wouldn't understand. Thank God Jarvis was bringing up the suit for him to use so he could avoid the awkward car ride to the office.
"Who is Andrea?" Potts demanded, baffled by his deference. "Are you bringing the suit up?!"
"Amanda, maybe?" he tried instead, scratching his head.
"Oh no, no, no, I have a car, Tony!" Pepper groaned. "Do not take that thing on a joy ride right now!"
But it didn't matter. He stepped onto the makeshift platform he'd been getting used to using while his bots suited him up with Jarvis's help, and smiled sheepishly, trying to act cute. She didn't agree.
"Relax!" he brushed it off. "I'll just meet you there. Gotta run an errand first."
"No, you need to get in the car, with me, so Happy can drive us to your meeting, which you are not rescheduling!"
He had to admit, he loved her fiery persistence in trying to maintain his schedule, but the suit...the suit gave him a whole new part of life he didn't have before, and he could use the flight to wake him up. Plus, he could stop and get that painting back from..
"Abigail," he declared, ignoring Pepper's pleas. "It's Abigail."
"You gave some random girl, who you don't know the name of and only met once, a painting I spent time and money trying to acquire for you?!" Pepper asked next, sounding hurt. "Are you kidding me?! You can't just use Iron Man as a reason to throw away your things!"
"She's different!" he insisted; though, who was he kidding? "She doesn't...the suit doesn't even phase her! And I'm not throwing anything away, I'm-"
"You're throwing my gifts away!"
"-just consolidating...she thought it was pretty, she liked it!" Tony argued, exasperated. "I was trying to do something different and make someone happy-"
"I liked it, you said you liked it!" Pepper gasped.
"I do like it, you-"
"And just because someone agrees to have sex with you, you've suddenly decided to be charitable?!"
"-gave it to me."
"And you gave it away," Pepper ended, though she sounded...sad?
Was she sad? He couldn't tell. Why did it matter? He had one night stands all the time. He met girls, he took the suit on dates... She knew this.
Thankfully, that was about when the suit was on, and he turned toward her, face plate up, before doing anything else.
"I'm trying to be better, Pep," he explained, voice lighter than the rest of the conversation. "Help people, make people happy."
"Yet you still have to party every night and have your one night stands to fill your void," she whispered, shaking her head. "I can't babysit you anymore, Tony."
"So don't!" he begged. "I want something to work out for once - give me credit for trying!"
"Give you credit?! I'll give you credit when you start being better for the people who are already in your life, not the ones who want to use you to...to get into your suit or steal your art collection!"
That's when Pepper stood up straight, fixed her blouse, and grabbed her clipboard, giving up for the day.
For whatever reason, that hurt, and Tony didn't accept 'hurt'. "Come on, Pep, it's not like that, it's-"
She was half way toward the door before she said anything else over her shoulder. "If you're not there before Happy drops me off at the front door, I'm having Jarvis restrict all suit access for the next t weeks."
"Gladly, Miss Potts," the AI responded with snark.
Yeah, that was the Pepper he was used to..not the...version she just showed for however many short minutes that was.
"Got it, mom!" he snapped back, then dropped the face plate and prepared to reacquire a painting from Chris Hood he had his sights set on.