A/N: I own nothing but my OCs and plot. Remember that in the movies the two main reasons for Tony's change of character is his near death experience and Pepper. I took Pepper out of the equation, well just a bit. So all that to say yes I am reversing his character development.

Chapter 3: Boredom

******* A few hours earlier in Stark Tower*******

Pepper Potts walked off the elevator into Tony's new garage, which was several floors underground. Tony at that moment was under a car with tools sprawled around him and AC/DC playing in the background. Since building his suit he had a new definition of fast and therefore was determined to make his cars as close as possible in speed. The moment, however, Pepper walked through the glass door that separated a small hallway and the elevator from the rest of the room the music cut off. As Tony pushed himself out from under the car starting to complain he froze at the look on her face. The woman may be small but she was a spit fire. Tony learned that quickly after she had become his assistant all those years ago. Now as CEO of his company she was all the more intimidating. Not that he would let her know of course.

"One simple thing Tony," she began with anger coloring her tone. " All you had to do was show up to a meeting. I didn't care if you dressed professionally, spoke or even smiled. I just asked you to show up." Slowly standing up he held up his hand in fake surrender.

" Was that this morning? I thought it was this afternoon?" He decided to play it dumb. Jarvis had actually reminded him about the meeting, but Tony ignored it to work on his suit.

"No Tony! This afternoon is the meeting with the Helping Hands charity. I didn't care if you showed up to that meeting as it is inconsequential. The meeting with the board of directors, however, is another matter!" Shrugging Tony walked over to his work station that was filled will tools and computer screens. Sitting down he put his feet up on the desk, " I thought that was why I made you CEO, so I didn't have to go to that stuff."

Glaring at him Pepper turned around and walked out the door. Chuckling at how cute she was when she was angry Tony started to work on some new designs at his desk.

A few hours later Tony stretched. He looked at the screen. It would take the rest of the day and night for the computer to run the sequence and calibrate what he needed. He was thankful he had Jarvis. Without his AI, the work would have taken all week. Looking around his workshop he thought of what to do. He needed a distraction. Since the incident with Obadiah he had, according to Pepper's insisting, stayed mostly out of sight. Quite honestly he hadn't really felt like going out and partying anyway. That was, however, almost a year and a half ago. He built Stark Tower during that time and worked on his suits. Now that all that was done his mind kept drifting and he felt discontent.

"Jarvis are there any events on the books tonight."

"What type of events sir?"

"Something fun."

"Based on your history and what you would define as fun, sir, there are not."

Leaning back in the chair he sighed, "I'm bored. I need a distraction J."

"So sorry to hear that."

"Cheeky AI, where is Pepper?" He figured bothering Pepper would at least take some time off his hands. He hadn't realized until a charity ball how beautiful she was. He didn't realize till Obadiah almost killed her that he actually cared. Yet, he knew it would never work. She made that clear not so long ago.

"She is in her office preparing for a meeting with the charity Helping Hands."

"Who?"

At that question Jarvis pulled up a few images and web pages on Tony's computers about the organization and gave a brief background. " So a bunch of old men asking for money," Tony summarized.

"Not necessarily sir."

That caught Tony's interest. " Explain J?"

"According to my records, sir, there will be two women in attendance and one is 25 years old." Jarvis said this as he pulled up a picture of the women. The picture of the older woman Tony ignored, but he happily looked at the younger woman's photo. Laying low had its disadvantages, especially in the bedroom department. Maybe… The picture said Anya Marvel. An odd name, Tony thought. The pale skinned girl had long black hair with a slight wave in it and it looked like dark purple highlights. She had beautiful large blue eyes with green and gold flakes in them. She was just the distraction Tony needed.

"She is in the building now sir," his ever helpful AI informed him.

"Pull up the feed Jarvis."

And so Tony watched her as she interacted with his employees. He saw the men's faces and figured they agreed with his assessment that she was quite beautiful. It wasn't a startling beauty like Pepper's new assistant, Natalia, or some of the models he had slept with had in the past, rather it seemed almost warm and gentle. He smiled at how she reassured the maid and he was, surprisingly, irritated when she sat in the corner of the conference room to be ignored.

Making up his mind he ran up to his room, changed his shirt and grabbed a blazer.

He arrived at the door in time to listen to the introductions from the hallway. He was disappointed not to hear her voice. He then decided to make a dramatic entrance. After all, who was Tony Stark without an audience? As soon as Pepper said he would not join them he entered. He could see how angry Pepper was. Angry at the fact he came to this meeting and not the other one. He smirked at her and sat down by the girl. She smelled of some sort of flower. He succeed in getting her to speak, but was surprised at when she didn't flirt with him.

When they moved to sit at the conference table he was sure to sit across the table. Tony stared at her the whole time. He was frustrated she didn't look at him. The end of the meeting was coming and Tony didn't want the girl to leave. After all, he never got to talk to her. Pepper started to conclude the meeting, " Well I feel we have enough information for now. We will .." and for the second time in that meeting he interrupted her. " Actually Pepper I do not feel like we know enough to decided either way about donating funds to this organization." Pepper, keeping it professional in front of her staff and the guests, kept a straight face. She knew he hadn't been paying attention in the meeting.

"What do you wish to know more about Tony?"

"Well the people of course." Pepper's face gave him a blank stare that could mean a thousand things for him. Regardless he continued, "you have explained the what, where and when to us – all things your organization does and what not, but that does not answer the who question. If your organization was a person who would she be? What would she be like? To answer that I need to know who you are as individuals and as a team together. After all you are the organization. I do not feel comfortable making a sizable donation to people I do not know or trust." He enjoyed their blank stares, although he had a feeling Pepper could tell where he was going with this and he would get yelled at later.

"Well Mr. Stark, feel free to ask me or my co-workers any questions and we would be happy to share about ourselves," the CEO of the company offered. Tony smirked, "That would take too long – getting to know each of you. " Clapping his hands together as if he had a sudden idea he said, "How about this. Your young protégé comes back here for a dinner meeting and will represent your company. After that I will decide if and how much my company will be donating to your fund." At that Pepper's face went deadpan. He would have to have Jarvis save that image. It seemed like he was able to mess with Pepper after all. Looking to the woman now in question, he found she was almost glaring at him. Her look told him she saw through his bull shit. Before she could respond the CEO agreed to his plan. Her face flashed with shock at her employers words, but after moment she carefully made her face into a smooth mask.

"Excellent," Tony responded, " Natalia will schedule a night and time." And with that he said goodbye and left the room. He rushed to get to the garage.

"Jarvis, initiate Lockdown- code Hiding."

"Very well sir, no one will be able to enter without your permission unless your life is in danger." He knew it was silly to hide from Pepper. He would eventually leave the room and she would yell at him. Oh well, he hoped it would be worth it.

"Good man Jarvis" And with that Tony went back to work on one of his cars.

**Back in the conference room**

She didn't know what to be more flabbergasted about - the fact that Tony Starks wanted to have dinner with her or the fact her organization sold her out for a donation. Probably the first one she decided. To her CEO she was just a random employee. He didn't know her past or anything about her for that matter. Still sitting she looked up and realized everyone but Ms. Rushmore and her had left the room.

"Oh, my apology Ms. Rushmore I was lost in thought," Anya said finding the red head watching her.

"What night would you like to schedule dinner for?" The woman wasted no time getting to business.

"Never" Anya murmured, she didn't want to do this, but if she didn't her organization would suffer and so would she. It was, after all, just a dinner. Nothing to worry over. Right?

"What was that?" Ms. Rushmore asked.

"Oh, nothing... just one second, let me pull out my phone to check my schedule." After looking at her "dumb phone", a phone with just standard calling and texting abilities, she asked after Tuesday.

"What time?"

"5:30 pm." Natalia looked up at her from her tablet. " Mr. Stark normally doesn't eat or go out until 9. I have never scheduled a dinner or evening event before that time."

Feeling aggravated and feisty she responded, "Well Mr. Stark will have to deal with it. He is the one who is forcing me to have dinner with him in the first place. I don't stay out that late and refuse to change that, especially as I will have work the next morning." A look of respect filled Ms. Rushmore's face.

"Very well Ms. Marvel. I have you scheduled for dinner at 5:30 pm this coming Tuesday.

A car will pick you up from your home address 15 minutes prior."

"No thank you Ms. Rushmore. I will be coming from work and the subway will be just fine for me."

"Okay. Have a nice evening Ms. Marvel." She wished Ms. Rushmore a good night as well. After sitting for a few more seconds, Anya looked out the window one last time before heading towards the elevator. She was dreading Tuesday.