A/N: Yay! Thank you to everyone who started following and favoriting. I wanted to post this chapter before I left on vacation for three days. I'll be back on Sunday and post another chapter sometime next week. I also wanted to say that I'm accepting ideas and requests. Can be anything.

BEGIN.

Gunnar abruptly woke up to someone walking into his room at 3 in the morning. He blinked slowly and looked up at the person in front of him.

"Pssst! Dog breath. I need your assistance in the lab. Right now." Tony said not so quietly.

Gunnar squinted at the clock. "Go away Tony, it's too early..." Gunnar grumbled.

"You're going to love what I did, so come on." He replied enthusiastically.

"Have you been up all night?" He asked.

"Does it matter?" Tony scoffed.

"You won't leave me alone until I've been shown whatever mad genius idea you've concocted this time. Will you?" Gunnar asked gloomily. He asked Jarvis to turn on the light next to his bed and it illuminated the room partially.

"You are correct. Huh, handsome and intelligent." Tony said cockily.

"Thanks." He answered.

"I was actually talking about myself but your welcome."

"Fine. Let me get dressed." Gunnar said grunting as he sat up while wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"Actually, I need Spangles." He said.

"Ugh, okay. I'll meet you down in the lab in 5 minutes. Unless you want to see me naked." He retorted.

"No thanks. You better. I don't have patience right now."

"Do you ever?" Gunnar snorted.

A few minutes later Tony was drumming his fingers against the glass table in front of him when Gunnar in dog form appeared.

"Finally. For a minute I thought you might have morphed into a slug." He said.

Gunnar dragged out a low growl.

"Follow me." He gestured with his hand then walked over to Dum-E. "I'm proud to announce that Dum-E here can now throw balls for you. I added a smaller version of a tennis ball machine to him and coded him to pick up the balls and refill the tube. I just need you to test it." He reported.

Gunnar barked happily and wagged his tail.

"I know you like when we do it but we aren't always around and everyone has separate schedules." Tony stated.

Tony made Dum-E throw a test round and Gunnar ran after it, contently chewing on it after retrieving it.

"I coded your bark, so all you have to do is vocalize and he'll toss another one."

There were a few more rounds before Gunnar laid belly up on the floor and surrendered.

"I suppose we can finish this up later today." said Tony. "Go back to bed."

Gunnar looked at him for a few minutes seeing the dark circles under the mechanics eyes while he went back to tinkering on another project. Then he whined.

Truth was, Tony wasn't sleeping well while Pepper was on a business trip in DC and he had been spending a majority of his time in the lab. He had gotten use to her being next to him at night and the occasional times she was away, he became restless. It was nice to have company that didn't talk too.

Tony tried to ignore Gunnar's whines but after a few he had enough so he turned around and stared back.

"What? I told you to go back to bed." He asked.

Gunnar stood up and walked over to Tony. Then laid down so close that he was on his foot and against his leg.

But Tony didn't protest or shift away.

The next time Gunnar went down to the workshop there was a red and blue micro fleece covered dog bed next to the chair that Tony always used while working. Gunnar took it upon himself to sleep there when the mechanic was up until all hours of the night updating his latest suit.

END.