Tony didn't even have a lab to pace in. Scratch that, he had the lab that he and his father often worked in. But he missed his old lab from his old parallel universe home. Pepper not knowing him was bad enough, now he had no lab and no use for the Iron Man armor? Everything was unraveling quickly and Tony did not like it one bit.
"I have to fix what I've done,"
Tony went to the old lab—that now didn't exist—and found that the time machine was still there. He put in the correct time and hit the button that activated the portal, but;
It wouldn't turn on.
Tony inspected the inner workings of the time machine. Everything looked perfectly fine, until he noticed what was causing it not to work. The factory was old and weathered, so a piece of a higher-up shelf had fallen off and broken the control panel off of the portal itself, and with it took a chunk of the portal.
But that wasn't all. When he inspected the wiring that had been between the portal and the control panel, he saw that all the wires had been snapped in half and the ends were extremely frayed. It looked very damaged.
"It's going to take forever to fix this!" Tony exclaimed to no one in particular.
~…~
"Where the heck is Tony?" Pepper asked, having inspected the lab and saw nothing of Tony.
"Not at my house." Rhodey answered. He was looking, too, but was getting worried about not seeing Tony.
What they did finally see is a large, strange looking machine in the last part of the lab they had left to check. They had no idea what it was or what to make of it. Rhodey was forming a good idea of what it did, though.
Rhodey approached the mysterious machine curiously and examined it. The more he looked at it, the more he started to figure. He saw some sort of control panel. He examined all the buttons on it, and began to get the general idea of how it worked. He pressed a button, took a step back, and saw swirling light and dark purples.
They were both dumbfounded. Tony had invented this?
Pepper, curious, stuck her head into the mysterious thing. What she saw on the other side shocked her.
"Tony invented a time machine!"
~…~
Tony gave up on fixing the time machine. It was too much work, too much stress. He didn't want to deal with it now.
He decided to spend time with his dad. He walked out of the old, abandoned lab and into the streets of the city. But as he was walking down the street, he came across Pepper.
"Hey, Pepper." Tony said, out of impulse (force of habit sort of thing.) Pepper stopped shyly.
"Oh, h-hi." Tony then remembered that this Pepper didn't ever meet him, so she was shyer around him. It was weird to communicate with Pepper without her being completely open with him all the time; (little did he know that she wasn't always open with him.) it was…different.
"What's up? Come on; at least let's hang out or something. It feels weird to think that you don't know me personally." Tony insisted. He needed to maintain at least a sense of regularity by making her his friend.
"Umm, okay…" Tony smiled at her.
"Come on. You can come to my lab with me and I'll show you some of the stuff I've invented." She smiled shyly, nodded, and followed Tony to his lab. Tony felt like this wasn't normally the way it was with Pepper before he meddled with time traveling, but he didn't know how. She was always by his side when he was in his lab before, why is now any different?
They came to Tony's lab—which he shared with his father, they often worked side by side (except Howard had his own lab when he wanted to work on things on his own)—and Tony let her in before him, saying "Ladies first," as she passed by him. She giggled and looked around at his lab in awe.
"I think my dad is working on stuff in his lab today, so it's all mine today," Tony was trying not to be used to the life he had now, but it was just so hard for him. The life he had wished he led, now he had the chance to live. And it was oh-so-hard for him to resist.
"So, genius, what's this?" As the words escaped her lips, they sounded like something she'd never said before. She didn't usually talk that way to people, but he just brought out a different side in her. Something about him, she liked. Yet, she couldn't put her finger on what exactly it was about him that brought out this side in her.
Tony chuckled to himself. Good old Pepper, he thought. She was pointing to the screen that was on his laptop. Tony smiled at it. He remembered the project from before the plane crash—that now hadn't –happened—but had been sidetracked with the Iron Man armor idea.
"That, is a prototype for an artificial and self-aware intelligence system that I call J.A.R.V.I.S." Tony explained.
"J.A.R.V.I.S. being a clever anagram or just a name?" She said teasingly.
"Umm, an anagram." Pepper crossed her arms and smirked.
"For what, exactly?" Tony blushed lightly and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"Uhh, that information escapes me at the moment…" Tony lied. Pepper laughed and looked around Tony's lab more. She pointed to a big, chunky piece of metal on a lab table.
"And this?" She asked.
"Oh, that's just a car engine I'm working on. I wanted to see if I could perfect one, and get a better understanding of cars before I learn to drive." Tony explained. Pepper chuckled.
"Nerd," she teased. Tony said thank you just to tease her back and followed her as she inspected his lab more. She was surprised when she saw what was displayed in the back.
"What…is that?" She asked, shocked beyond her belief. Tony smiled. He was tempted, for some odd reason, to put his arm around her. But he resisted.
"That is what I like to call the Iron Man armor. It's a weapons-capable suit of armor." Tony explained.
"W-wow…this is so amazing, Tony! I-I, don't even know what to say!" She exclaimed. Tony smiled.
"Wanna take it for a spin?" Pepper looked at him like he'd grown a second head. Tony crossed his arms and smiled.
~…~
Seeing what looked like a man carrying another person flying through the sky was not a normal part of an average New Yorker commuting from his half a day of work for lunch. Everyone—citizen or tourist—was surprised when they saw the site. Not only did it look like a flying man, it looked like a flying man carrying another man. Some people took pictures and zoomed in on them to see exactly what it was, some people squinted to try and get a better image, some people disregarded it and continued on their way to wherever they were going.
Up in the sky, however, it was a different story. Tony, in his armor, was having a blast (A/N: haha, get it?) seeing Pepper's bright smile as they flew through the sky. He hadn't ever openly offered anyone a ride in the armor, besides when he told Rhodey to take it for a spin. But he loved how her eyes lit up with her smile and she looked like she was genuinely having a good time. It was those moments he enjoyed.
"Wow, Tony, this is amazing! I can't believe you invented something like this!" Pepper exclaimed as Tony slowly lowered himself and Pepper onto the roof of a city skyscraper. Once they felt ground underneath their feet, he dropped his hands to his side and took a step back from her to give her her space. She was still brightly smiling. It got quiet between them as Tony opened his face mask. It felt like he had lost all knowledge of what in the world to say back to her. He studied her smile, which slowly faded as they got closer to each other's lips with their own.
They were so close, yet it seemed that whoever was in charge of the skyscraper they were standing on had realized that they were there and despite being amazed by what Tony was wielding, told them to get off his roof because he was disturbing people trying to work beneath their feet. Tony cursed to himself. If he just hadn't seen him, his lips would have met hers and what he'd wanted to do for so long would have been done and he could understand the weird feelings he'd had ever since he first met Pepper.
He sighed, took Pepper by the waist once more, and started the journey back to the lab.
Well, cool third chapter? No? Why not? Why did you like it? Was it great, or completely dull? Review with an answer, cuz I appreciates me some constructive criticism :3
