Title: Present - Chapter one of Tight Coupling
Rating: T
Pairing: Tony/Pepper -ish, movieverse
Summary: Tony has an idea.
Disclaimer: Marvel owns Iron Man. Not me. I'm only playing in their fantastic universe.
A/N: The following will be a series of connected stories. Some chapters may be more involved than others. I hope to use all of the themes in the pepperony100 table. The main title for this series is Tight Coupling (No, not that! Goodness, the mind you have snerk). The textbook definition of tight coupling in computer science terms is:
Tight Coupling - causes a system to be hard to understand and change because
changes in one place will require changes somewhere else. Requiring changes to be made in more than one place is problematic since it is time-consuming to find the different places that need changing, and it is likely that errors will be made
A network of interdependencies makes it hard to see at a glance how some component works (ref: Object Oriented Software Engineering Database, Univ. Ottawa)
If that isn't the two of them in a nutshell, I don't know what is.
As always, a massive thank you to everyone who has reviewed my other stories. Still walking on air. Please let me know what you think about these!
Chapter one
#58 – Present
"I've had an epiphany," Tony said as he thundered into his living room. Pepper was looking over the latest stock figures and was trying to make sense of the budget the Finance department had sent over. Not really in her current job contract, but she just couldn't help herself. Once an accountant, always an accountant. Or something.
"An epiphany?" she said. "And how many is that this week?"
"Why do I get the feeling you're not taking me seriously?" Tony asked. "I don't just wander around announcing that I've had an epiphany. This is serious."
"Right. Jarvis?" Pepper said.
"Yes Miss Potts?" the AI responded.
"How many epiphanies has Mr Stark had in the last seven days?"
"At my last counting, I believe twelve, Miss Potts," he replied. "Although he labelled the pouring of orange juice into cereal as an epiphany regarding saving time and still ingesting nutrients without the, and I quote, 'foul aftertaste of cow liquid'."
The AI paused. "I am reluctant to classify this statement as an epiphany in the traditional sense. Therefore, I still place the tally at twelve."
Pepper looked up from her spreadsheet to smirk at Tony. He scowled back.
"I hate you both," he said. "Really, the amount of abuse I put up with from the pair of you."
He slumped against the wall and began to tap his fingers against the glow coming from underneath his shirt.
Pepper sighed and decided that it would be better to just end the sulkfest before it really got going. She put down her spreadsheets and braced herself.
"What is your epiphany Tony?" she asked.
Stark visibly perked up.
"It has come to my attention that Stark Industries has been having some problems pulling out of its slump and I have come up with the answer," he said. "I'm going to market the arc reactor."
He rocked on his heels a little. "I'm not altogether sure why we didn't do this before."
"Well, because you previously made weapons," Pepper said. "And I was under the impression the arc reactor technology was not ready for public consumption."
Tony waved his hand. "Of course it was ready for public consumption. We didn't bother because, as you rightly pointed out, we made weapons. I don't make weapons anymore. Therefore..."
Pepper furrowed her brow. "Have you talked to anyone else about the feasibility of this?"
"Yep," he said grinning and rocking.
"Oh no," she said. "You've got that look on your face. What have you done?"
"Such pessimism Miss Potts," Tony reprimanded her. "Where is that wide-eyed optimism you used to have?"
"I think it got misplaced along with my belief in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus," she replied. "I repeat, what have you done?"
"I called a board meeting," he said. "Impressed?"
"Frightened, actually," she told him. "What—"
"Have you ever heard of a town called Pasa Linda?" he asked walking over to the window and without waiting for an answer went on, "No, of course you haven't. It's a tiny little 'burb near Bakersfield. A bit too close to the desert for my personal tastes, but there you go. In the past five years they have built up their previously rather defunct community college and have begun to establish themselves as quite the technical school."
Tony turned and smirked at the bewildered look on Pepper's face. He really loved that look.
"I have decided to help them out," he said.
"By doing what exactly?" Pepper asked slowly. "Are you giving them a grant?"
"Oh, Pepper," Tony said. "Bigger. Better."
He grinned and rocked even more on his feet.
"Oh for God's sake, what is it?" she asked.
"Such impatience Miss Potts," he admonished. "The ultimate problem with the previous model of the arc reactor is that it was rather large and unwieldy."
"Tell me about it," Pepper muttered. She still woke up to the vision of blue light shooting into the sky.
"This new design is much more scaled down and can power a small campus, say a campus the size of Pasa Linda Technical College," Tony said standing perfectly still. "It is simple, it is reliable, it is clean energy and it will get the board off my back about those stock points."
Pepper looked at him and stifling a smile simply said, "You've already got the Energy Department working on this don't you?"
"Of course I do, what kind of forward thinker would I be if I didn't get cracking on this?" Tony answered.
He walked over and stood in front of her.
"This will work Miss Potts," Tony said to her. "I'm not making weapons anymore. And I'm not going to hide away in my little gilded cage and wait for Stark Industries to miraculously recover without doing something."
He smiled at her and headed back towards his workshop.
"It's still my company," he called over his shoulder. "The meeting's at 9 am sharp. I expect you to be there on time! None of that dilly-dallying you always do."