Marvel One-Shots

Pepperony (Pepper + Tony)

Title: A Day In The Life Of Tony Stark
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Pepper Potts stood in the middle of Tony's workshop, hands on her hips, her expression caught somewhere between exasperation and bewilderment.

Surrounding her were scattered bits of damaged tech, what looked like the remains of a crashed drone, and... was that a smoldering Iron Man suit in the corner?

Tony was perched on his workbench, casually sipping on a smoothie, his face completely unfazed by the chaos.

"Tony," Pepper began, her voice dangerously calm, "how could you possibly have gotten into this much trouble in one day?"

Tony grinned sheepishly. "Not to brag, but it didn’t even take me the whole day!"

Pepper raised an eyebrow, as if daring him to continue. "I’m listening."

"Okay, so," Tony set down his smoothie and gestured dramatically, "first, I was just testing a new upgrade for the suit. You know, the usual. Everything was going great until... let’s call it an unexpected malfunction. Long story short, Jarvis had to reroute some circuits and—"

"The suit exploded," Pepper finished for him, eyeing the blackened corner of the room.

Tony winced. "Exploded is such a harsh word. More like... aggressively disassembled."

Pepper pinched the bridge of her nose. "Go on."

"Then I thought, 'Hey, why not let Dum-E try flying the new drone prototype?'" Tony grinned like this had been the most brilliant idea in the world.

"Dum-E, the robot arm that can’t even handle a fire extinguisher?"

"Yep, that one." Tony nodded proudly. "He did great! For a solid three seconds. And then, well..." He gestured to the pile of drone parts scattered on the floor.

Pepper's eyes narrowed. "And the giant hole in the ceiling?"

"Ah, well, about that," Tony said, rubbing the back of his neck. "So remember that repulsor cannon I was working on? Turns out, the 'low power' setting wasn’t as 'low' as I thought."

"Clearly," Pepper deadpanned. "What happened after that?"

Tony’s face lit up, as if this next part was the best part of the story. "I had an idea! I called Thor to see if he could help with the power regulation. You know, since he’s got that whole lightning thing going on."

Pepper stared at him. "You asked Thor to help you with something delicate?"

Tony shrugged. "It seemed logical at the time. Anyway, Thor swings by, and everything’s fine, until he accidentally drops Mjolnir on my tool chest. And then the entire thing just—"

"—imploded?"

"Yeah, kinda imploded," Tony admitted, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "But hey, silver lining: I’m pretty sure I invented a new kind of storage system. It’s just... slightly inconvenient to access."

Pepper sighed deeply, taking it all in. "So, let me get this straight. In less than a day, you blew up a suit, destroyed a drone, put a hole in the ceiling, and wrecked your workshop... again?"

Tony grinned. "Yep! Pretty efficient, right?"

Before Pepper could respond, there was a loud crash from the hallway. Both turned to see Dum-E sheepishly wheeling in, dragging what looked like an entire pizza oven behind him.

Pepper blinked. "Is that my new pizza oven?"

"Well, technically it’s an upgraded pizza oven now," Tony said quickly, standing up and edging toward the door. "It might shoot pizzas at 300 mph, but I figured it could really speed up delivery times!"

Pepper shot him a withering look. "Tony."

"Okay, okay," Tony raised his hands in surrender, backing away. "In my defense, I had good intentions! I mean, who wouldn’t want a high-speed pizza launcher?"

Pepper shook her head, a small smile tugging at her lips despite herself. "You are impossible."

"And yet," Tony winked, "you still love me."

Pepper couldn’t help but chuckle. "I guess I must be as crazy as you are."

"Maybe even crazier for putting up with me," Tony quipped, dodging Dum-E as the robot attempted to high-five him, sending the pizza oven crashing to the floor again.

Pepper sighed, reaching for her phone. "I’m calling Bruce. You’re going to need help cleaning this up."

Tony groaned. "Not the Hulk! He always judges my messes."

"Exactly," Pepper said, her tone sweet and final as she dialed Bruce. "You need supervision."

Tony just grinned to himself as he glanced around the wreckage of his workshop.

"Totally worth it."