Author's Note: All right. This is my first story posted on here, and I'm afraid I can do MUCH better. This was done in such a rush that I'm afraid it turned out quite bad. I'll try to make it better, but for now, that's the best I can do. I hope there are no grammar mistakes and I'm sorry for this chapter being so short.

One Too Many

"I've only had 3-wait maybe 4…or was it 7…whatever…it doesn't matter", thought a drunken Tony Stark. I'll just sleep it off later. Tony looked at his watch, smiled and told the bartender, "Hey, would ya' look at that! It's 2:00 already!"

"I best be off seeing as I have a lovely wife at home."

"What wife?" his conscious asked suspiciously. To tell the truth, Tony actually had no idea what he was talking about. He stumbled out of the bar looking for his car as small black stars started to appear before his eyes. He heard a yell from behind him and quickly turned around to face the bartender.

"I'm not going to be responsible for your death Mr. Stark. Now hand over your keys". "What are you, the police?" Tony asked whilst hopping into his car.

"Tell you what. You don't mention this to anybody and I'll give you 1000 bucks", said Tony.

"Well…" The bartender looked back at his dilapidated bar and sighed heavily. "Fine. But if you get in trouble and blame it on me, you'll be in a lot of trouble Stark!"

"Yes mommy", Tony said in a high pitched child's voice.

Driving home was a little bit harder than Tony had expected, and when he sped through the fourth red light, he was starting to feel nervous.

"What would happen if someone had been crossing when you drove through there?!"

The voice in his head wouldn't stop reprimanding him, and when he narrowly avoided a collision with an oncoming car, Tony could swear that the voice had a body and was painfully pounding his brain as a punishment. Blinking hard, Tony was suddenly surprised to find that all the lights had suddenly turned off in the world.

"You idiot", he conscious quipped.

"You're just driving on a road and there are no cars here."

"Thank god", he heard the voice whisper.

"Finally, I can relax", Tony thought happily.

After announcing his dual identity as Iron Man, Tony soon found that being a super hero wasn't as easy as he thought it would be. First of all, there was the press. The never-ending swarm of reporters following him whenever they could had almost driven him to the brink of insanity during the first week. Then there was Pepper. Every time he arrived home after a flight, Pepper would check every inch of his armour for bullet holes. Even though he couldn't bring himself to admit it, the worry in her eyes hurt him like no other wound had before.

His ringing phone startled him out of his thoughts and reminded him that he was still driving. He was starting to think that driving when he was this drunk may not have been the best idea after all…

"Stark." Tony said as he flipped his phone open without looking at the ID.

"Tony it's Pepper."

Tony's heart stopped. What was she doing up this late at night?

"Where are you!? I've been trying to reach you all night!" she yelled angrily into the phone.

"I was just taking a drive around town", Tony lied quickly. "Wha-uh-what are you up to at this time of night?" Tony asked innocently.

"Tony are you drunk?" Pepper asked as she hinted the slight slur in his voice.

"No", Tony said quickly.

"Tony, stop the car now."

"Pepper, I am not drunk." "I can think and see clearly, so there is no chance of you taking advantage of me tonight, I'm afraid."

"Tony this is not a laughing matter!" "You could get killed! Or worse, kill someone else!"

"Hey, come on Pepper. I've done this before. I'm a professional now."

"Tony if you don't stop that car right now, I'll-"

"You'll what Pepper?"

"I'll-" Pepper stopped to think of a good threat. "I'll scratch up one of your cars!"

"You wouldn't"

Pepper was pleased to here a hint of fear in his voice as he said this.

"Fine", Tony resigned. "I'll pull over as soon as I find a spot, but I'm not pulling over in the middle of the road."

Spotting an area on the opposite side of the road, Tony looked around to see if there were any cars coming.

"Don't even think about it!" his conscious told him quickly.

There weren't any cars in sight and besides, who would drive on this road in the middle of nowhere anyways? Besides, Tony was starting to feel drowsy and the lack of light outside didn't help his situation.

"Are you pulling over yet?" Pepper's concerned voice brought him back into reality.

"Yes honey", Tony replied sarcastically.

There was no warning as the two cars collided.