"Good morning. It's 7:00 a.m." Chris awoke in surprise, having spent the night at Toni's house... Sleeping. However, that wasn't Toni's voice. The voice was male, or at least sounded male. "The weather in Malibu is seventy-two degrees with scattered clouds. The surf conditions are fair with waist-to-shoulder high lines. High tide will be at 10:52 a.m."
"What the hell?" Chris muttered to himself. Noticing that Toni had left her bed, he decided to get up also and began to search for her.
"Toni? Hey, Toni?" He called out. He noticed an access panel on the wall and touched it out of curiosity.
"You are not authorized to access this area." The same male voice said loudly.
Chris jumped back in surprise. "Jesus!"
"That's JARVIS." A different male voice said.
Chris turned to look and saw a tall man with medium length ginger hair.
"Toni's AI. He runs the house. I've got your clothes here." He handed Chris his suit. "They've been dry-cleaned and pressed, and there's a car waiting for you outside that will take you anywhere you'd like to go."
"Ah. You're Pepper Potts, aren't you." Chris put his hand out.
Pepper took it in his and they shook hands. "Yes I am."
"You know, I can't believe that Toni has you picking up her dry-cleaning." Chris said.
"Yeah, well. It's my job. I get paid for it." Pepper narrowed his eyes. "Just like I hope Rolling Stone is paging you extra for spending the night with your interviewee."
Chris cleared his throat and looked away in embarrassment.
"Will that be all?" Pepper asked innocently.
A few minutes later, Pepper made his way into Toni's lab, holding a phone up to his ear.
Toni was dressed down in greasy clothes, because she was working on one of her cars, and listening to very loud and heavy rock music.
"Hey, JARVIS, give me an exploded view." She said, over the music.
"The compression in cylinder three appears to be low." JARVIS, the AI, projected to Toni a 3-D image on a computer screen.
Toni grunted in displeasure. "Alright. Log that, will ya?"
"I'm gonna try again, right now." Pepper turned down Toni's music drastically, so that was little more than background noise. "I'll keep you posted." He hung up the phone and Toni turned around to look at him disgruntled.
"Please don't turn down my music." She said through gritted teeth.
Pepper folded her arms. "You are supposed to be halfway around the world right now."
"I take it you got rid of that reporter" Toni put down a wrench.
"As always." Pepper said emotionlessly.
Toni stood up from her chair. "You're trying to kick me out of my own house."
Pepper's arms fell to his sides. "Maybe I have a reason for that and maybe it's because your flight was supposed to leave an hour and a half ago." His eyes narrowed. "With you on it."
"Well, you know what?" Toni began. "That's funny. You see, I thought with it being my plane and all, that it would just wait for me to get there." She wiped her oily and greasy hands on an old discarded rag nearby.
"I don't know why you don't take some goddamn responsibility for once in your life. You're like a child, Toni."
"And you're a stiff." Toni walked to the door. "Rhodey's a stiff. Obie's a stiff. None of you know how to have fun."
"Toni! Before you go, I need to speak with you about a few things." Pepper said.
"You're just so boring. You never play video games, you never watch movies, you always wear a condom-" Toni said, clearly not paying attention to Pepper.
"Toni!" Pepper said sternly.
Toni stopped what she was doing at looked at her assistant.
"First thing's first. Larry called. Do you want that Jackson Pollock painting-and it's a yes or no question."
"Is it a good representation of his spring period?" Toni asked.
"What? No." Pepper said, looking confused. "The Springs was the neighborhood in East Hampton where he lived and worked, not 'spring' the season." He explained.
"And?"
"Well, I think it's a fair example." He raised an eyebrow. "But if the only thing you know about art is from PBS-"
"I need it." Toni said quickly. "Buy it, put it in storage."
"Okay." Pepper said, looking unsure as he made a note. "Second thing. The MIT commencement speech-"
"Is in June." Toni finished. "Please, don't badger me about stuff that's way, way-"
"They're badgering me, so I'm gonna say yes." Pepper made another note.
Toni snorted. "So? Let them badger you about things. Absorb that badgering and don't let it get to me-that's why I hired you, after all."
Pepper sighed and handed Toni a piece of paper. "Fine. Just sign this before you get on the plane." He handed her a pen.
"What are you trying to get rid of me for?" She asked, taking the pen and signing her name on the paper. "Have you got plans?"
"Yes, Toni. Actually, I do." He took the paper and the pen back from Toni.
Toni looked uneasy. "You know, I don't like it when you have plans."
"Well Toni, I think I'm more than allowed to have plans on my birthday." Pepper countered.
"Wait-wait-wait. It's' your birthday?" Toni looked puzzled.
"Yes."
"I knew that." Toni said arrogantly. "Already?"
"Yeah. I know. Strange right? It's exactly the same day as it was last year."
"Well, get yourself a present from me." Toni opened the door to her lab.
"I already did." Pepper said.
Toni turned around and stood in the doorway. "And?"
"It's was very nice."
"Yeah?"
Pepper smiled. "Thank you for your present, Ms. Stark."
"You're very welcome, Mr. Potts." Toni smiled back and headed up the stairs to the living room.
At Stark Industries, Rhodey was waiting impatiently by Toni's private plane. She grunted in relief when she saw Toni's car-closely followed by Happy's-speeding into the Stark Industries parking lot.
"You're good!" Happy squealed as she got out of her car-actually Toni's Rolls Royce.
"You know, I thought I'd lost you back there, Hogan." Toni laughed as she got out of her Audi.
"You did, Ma'am. To catch up, I cut across Mulholland." Happy began getting Toni's suitcases out the trunk of the Rolls Royce, while Toni looked on.
"I got you. I got you." Toni nodded knowingly as the two made their way over to the plane.
Rhodey walked down the steps from the plane's door. "What the hell is wrong with you?" She hissed.
"What?" Toni shrugged innocently as Happy carried her luggage.
Rhodey folded her arms. "Three hours."
"Chill out, Rhodey. I just got caught doing a piece for Rolling Stone." Toni climbed up the steps to her private jet and was more closely followed by Rhodey than Happy.
"For three hours. For three goddamned hours you had me standing here."
"Yeah?" Toni turned around. "Well we're all waiting on you now. Come on, let's go!" She ran into the plane and Happy followed. "Wheels up! Rock and roll!"
Rhodey took off her Air Force hat and rolled her eyes, before entering Toni's plane.
On board, Toni and Rhodey were being served by an attractive male flight attendant. Rhodey was reading her work papers and didn't notice when the flight attendant left.
"What you reading?" Toni asked, trying to get her friend's attention.
"Nothing." Rhodey replied in monotone.
"Come on. Don't be mad at me." Toni pulled her hair out of her ponytail.
"I told you, Toni. I'm not mad at you" Rhodey looked up at Toni who was across the table. "I'm just indifferent, okay?"
"I said I was sorry." Toni shrugged as another attractive male flight attendant approached them.
"Good morning, Ms. Stark and Colonel Rhodes." He said.
"Hi." Toni said back, removing her sunglasses. "She's mad at me. Even though I apologised-
"Toni, I've told you. I'm indifferent."
"Hot towel?" The flight attendant asked.
Toni gave a flirty smile and took one of the towels that he was offering.
"Toni, listen." Rhodey said. "You don't respect yourself, so I know you don't respect me."
"I respect you." Toni scoffed.
"No you don't." Rhodey argued calmly. "I'm not feeling very much like your best friend right now. I'm feeling like I'm just your babysitter." She turned to the flight attendant and took the second towel. "Thank you." She said, before turning back to Toni. "You are just too immature for your own good. It'd do you good to actually get out in the world and experience a bit of... You aren't listening to a word I'm saying. I don't know why I bother. Why do I bother with you?"
Toni turned to the flight attendant. "Hey! Heat up the sake, will ya, please?" She then turned to face Rhodey. "Thanks for reminding me." She rubbed her hands with the towel as Rhodey unfurled hers.
"No!" Rhodey said, exasperatedly "I'm... We're not drinking. We're working right now! No alcohol!"
"You can't have sashimi without sake." Toni said emotionlessly.
"You are the only person I have ever met, who is innately incapable of being responsible." Rhodey said.
Toni shrugged. "Rhodey, it would be irresponsible not to drink."
"Oh yeah? How do you figure that?" Rhodey asked.
"Hot sake?" A different-and flight attendant asked.
"Two, please." Toni grinned.
"No." Rhodey turned to the flight attendant. "Only one. For her." She pointed at Toni. "I'm not drinking. I don't want any."
"You are such a bore, you know that, Janey?" Toni took the sake from the flight attendant.
"I'm not a bore just because I'm on the clock and don't you dare call me 'Janey'." Rhodey said. "You're lucky I let you call me 'Rhodey', you know that?"
Toni downed her drink. "Well, everyone's got to have a nickname." She said.
Rhodey looked down at her papers and back up at Toni. "Don't get drunk off your tits, Toni. Afghanistan's a dry country."
"You're such a spoilsport." Toni said.
"And you're a Peter Pan." Rhodey said. "The girl who never grew up. Forever stunted, trapped in a state of arrested development-"
"Now you're getting melodramatic." Toni took a bottle of beer from the first flight attendant.
"Grow up, Toni." Rhodey looked back down at her papers. "You said it best yourself last night; you're thirty-two. Not twelve. Start acting your age."