Happy rolled past the parking lot in a two-wheeled electric scooter.
Years ago, the sight of Happy Hogan rolling anywhere was enough cause for Stark employees to run the opposite way.
But not this time.
This time people waved at Happy's direction, greeted him with smiles on their faces.
That had nothing to do with the fact that Happy was Asset Manager, though, and everything to do with the five year old currently riding the Stark designed scooter with him.
Morgan stood in front of Happy, hands on the handlebar, looking like a girl on a mission.
Happy's own hands were on the outer sides of the bars and he stood behind Morgan, making sure the girl didn't fall off the too-big scooter (she had insisted on riding the scooter on her own but Happy refused).
They stopped right in front of the main lobby.
Morgan hopped off first, followed by Happy who then parked the scooter in the designated space.
"There's something missing on your suit," Happy said to her.
Morgan looked at herself, wondering what was missing with her outfit.
She was wearing black slacks, a white dress shirt, blazer, and a necktie. She and Uncle Happy matched. Mommy took pictures this morning.
The sunglasses perched on her nose slightly slid down and she pushed it up, looking at Uncle Happy.
"What?"
Uncle Happy tapped an ID badge that was pinned to his suit pocket. He then took out another similar one from his pants pocket, grinning excitedly. "Your badge. This is your first day at work. You need a badge. You can't enter or exit the building or any of the rooms without your badge."
Morgan nodded firmly and let Happy pin the badge to the pocket of her blazer.
Happy took his sunglasses off and gave her a once-over. Nodding in approval, he asked, "You ready, Miss Stark?"
Morgan giggled at the formality and Happy gave her a scolding look. This was serious work. No giggles allowed.
Morgan got the message and straightened. "I'm ready, Mr. Hogan."
Happy walked first.
"Wait!" Morgan cried.
Happy turned back to see what the matter was.
Morgan took off her sunglasses and handed it over to Happy for safekeeping.
"Now, I'm ready."
Happy slid the tiny sunglasses in his pocket. Not only was he the head of Asset Management but he also doubled as a human handbag for Morgan Stark.
They entered the building.
Two security men greeted the duo, not giving any outward sign that they were highly amused at the get-up.
They got the memo from the boss up top. Everyone did. Morgan Stark was gonna work for a living. That is, she was gonna be in one realistic pretend-play session and they were all expected to portray their roles as convincingly as possible, which they were all more than happy to do.
"Good morning, Mr. Hogan, Miss Stark."
"Good morning, men," said Happy, pulling at his badge. The elastic attached to it extended, allowing him to bring the badge down on the scanner.
"Good morning, men," Morgan parroted, tapping her own badge down.
Morgan walked up beside Happy who said in a low voice, "Now, remember what I said about the badges. You're not Head of Security but that doesn't mean you can't remind people about their badges."
Morgan nodded, eyes already scanning everyone if they wore badges.
They stopped at the help desk and Happy cleared his throat.
"Mr. Happy Hogan and Miss Morgan Stark here to conduct a routine check-up. Please come forward."
A man and a woman rounded the help desk, the latter trying to repress a smile at the theatrics while the former was waving giddily at Morgan.
Happy whispered in Morgan's ear. "Check if they have a badge."
Morgan did as she was told and was pleased to report that the man was wearing a badge but the woman wasn't.
The woman feigned surprise and quickly ran back to the desk. "It's here!" she said, raising it up and running back to Morgan. She pinned it to her collar. "I just forgot to pin it, Miss Stark."
"That's okay. Just don't forget next time or you can't go home." Morgan looked at Happy next, wondering what she was going to do now.
Happy said, "We'll let you off with a warning." He took out a notebook from the inner lining of his suit. He handed it to Morgan. "Write her name down on the list."
Morgan obeyed, kneeling on the ground so that she could write properly. She looked up at the woman. "What's your name?" she asked sweetly.
The man gushed at Morgan and the woman said, "It's Sharon."
As the woman spelled her first name for Morgan, Happy peered down at the girl's work.
"Don't ignore your blue-red-blue lines or I'm telling Miss Monica you're not practicing your writing."
Morgan persevered and wrote Sharon successfully in large capital letters.
Happy let it slide.
Before they left, Morgan shook hands with the two employees and said, "Don't forget your badges, okay?"
"Will do, Miss Stark." The man saluted at her causing Morgan to giggle.
"Just put them on your clothes, then they'll never get lost."
"Thanks for the advice, Miss Stark. We'll strive to do better!"
Morgan waved goodbye at them and then the two went on their way to the elevator.
Uncle Happy really was right. They couldn't go anywhere without the badge. She had to tap her badge on the elevator too!
She had been on this elevator before but never had to be bothered with tapping since Uncle Happy or Mommy always did that for her.
They exited at the top floor which was where Pepper's office was.
"Good morning, Miss Stark," said Bambi, Pepper's secretary. "Mr. Hogan." The crinkle in her eyes were the only sign that she found Morgan looking absolutely endearing in her "work outfit."
In a gesture of transparency, Pepper's office was completely see-through, the walls made of glass that allowed anybody to see what she was doing.
Happy tapped his badge against the security scanner of the door and Morgan ran inside, bouncing over to her mother who was by her desk and signing some documents. Her personal assistant Mandy stood behind her, waiting for the said documents.
Morgan chirped, "Hi, Mommy!"
Pepper paused to give her daughter a kiss.
"Watcha doing?"
"I'm signing some documents."
Morgan studied the way her mother quickly scribbled on the paper. It was loopy and not at all similar to what writing was like in school. Signing looked fun, she decided.
"I want to sign too!"
"You have some work prepared, Miss Stark," Mandy stated, going over to a smaller desk and chair at a corner of the room.
Morgan followed.
There were markers and pencils on the desk and several activity sheets Friday had printed out for Morgan to work with.
Morgan sat on her chair and stared at the paper. "Writing again?" she asked bluntly.
All three adults in the room laughed.
"That's work, honey."
"Miss Monica wants you perfecting your Ks," said Uncle Happy. "You're still writing them backwards."
Morgan pouted but turned to her activity nonetheless. She started with her name.
Pepper rose, chair rolling back.
"I'll be out for a meeting with Johnson&Johnson, but I'll be back for lunch," she said to Happy who nodded.
While Pepper and Mandy left the office, Happy settled himself on the couch. His attention turned to his tablet which contained the latest batch of assets to be sorted through.
When Morgan finished writing her name, she turned the activity sheets over to their blank sides and decided she'd try signing.
She made a fast small scribble on the lower part of first page, and then scribbled on the second page, and then the next, just like how Mommy signed on almost all the pages of her documents.
She frowned when she ran out of paper.
"Uncle Happy, I need more paper."
Happy glanced around, said, "I think there's some paper on your mom's desk. Use those," and then turned back to his reading, squinting his eyes a little bit at something he didn't understand.
Morgan climbed up her mother's chair, kneeling on the cushion. She pulled herself close to the table and started going through the papers there.
Her eyes sparkled in interest at having found a particular paper that looked like the ones Mommy signed earlier.
They even had that space for her to sign!
She counted them.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven!
And then there was another set of the same documents.
Her eyes widened. Two sets of documents for her to practice signing.
Morgan uncapped her bright green marker and got to work.
…
Pepper called moments later and Happy tore his eyes off his tablet to answer.
"Hello."
"Happy, I forgot something in the office. The Johnson&Johnson contracts are on my desk. Could you hand it to Bambi, please? She'll bring it over to the conference room."
"Yeah, sure."
"Thank you!"
Happy put his phone down and went over to Pepper's desk. As he approached, he watched Morgan who was completely lost in her "work" and started to feel a tingling of unease.
When he finally got close enough to the desk, all color drained from his face when he saw exactly what Morgan was working on.
He made a small sound of panic at the back of his throat and snatched the contract.
"Hey! No grabbing!"
Happy flipped through the pages, but they were all the same. All of it was covered in bright green scribbles.
He grabbed the remaining sheets of paper on the desk and found the other set only partially scribbled.
He suddenly felt light-headed.
When the feeling passed, he turned to Morgan, eyes bulging out of their sockets.
Morgan deflated, growing small in her chair as she recognized the look on Uncle Happy's face. He wasn't happy about something she did. But she didn't know what she did wrong. She was just working!
Happy, on his part, seemed to be at war with himself. He was sputtering something Morgan couldn't understand.
"Why did you—this wasn't your—your mother—" He took a deep breath. "What are you doing on your mom's table? You have your own!"
"I had to get paper."
"And you used your mom's paper?"
"You said to get mommy's paper!"
"I did?" He did. He vaguely remembered saying something along those lines but he had been too busy figuring out how to navigate the excel sheet. "Crap."
Morgan cocked her head. "Crap?"
"That's my word," Happy said quickly, trying to salvage what he could. "Mom gets 'shit.' I get 'crap.'"
"What about me?"
"You get to say 'I'm sorry' to your mother if she finds out about this."
Morgan pouted.
Pepper needed those contracts. Without those contracts, the Johnson&Johnson deal wasn't going to push through, and if it didn't push through, everyone in Stark Industries would be out of a job!
Okay, that was a bit of a stretch, but Happy was panicking. He was allowed to jump to such scenarios.
He took off his suit, feeling a little warm all of a sudden. He tossed his blazer on the sofa and gathered his wits.
"Alright. You and I are in trouble."
Morgan started to worry, mirroring the countenance on Uncle Happy's face. "But why? We're just working."
"We vandalized Mommy's paper!"
"I don't know what that means."
"We drew on Mommy's paper!" Happy missed the days when all he had to worry about was Morgan drawing on the walls. Now, he had to worry about this!
"I didn't draw on mommy's paper. I was signing. Like Mommy."
"Right but only Mommy can do that because it's her paper. And they're very important documents. She's gonna give it to some very important people and they can't sign the paper if you already signed the paper. Which means they're going to get mad at your mom!"
Morgan twisted her hands in her suit. She didn't want her mom to get in trouble. "What are we going to do?"
Happy stopped pacing and said, "We're gonna need to print them all again. And I need your help because I don't know how to work the printer."
Morgan nodded, resolve building. She could help Uncle Happy print the paper. She had seen Bambi print stuff all the time. It's easy, right?
Happy quickly rounded the desk and faced Pepper's computer. Thankfully, the file was already on her desktop and he clicked it open.
"Okay, now we just gotta print it." He turned to the printer and then to Morgan. "How do you turn on the printer?"
Morgan stood on the chair to get a better look at the machine, trying to see if there was an On button.
"There!" she pointed at the symbol. "This means On or Off."
Happy had never been more relieved that Morgan was more technologically literate than he was.
The printer whirred to life and the blinking light seemed like a good sign.
"Okay. Now what?" He turned to Morgan.
Morgan blankly looked at him. "The paper comes out of the mouth. Is there paper on the printer?"
Happy checked and yes, there were blank sheets of paper on the printer. But how do they make it print?
He turned to the computer screen. There should be something in here that said PRINT, right?
"When Bambi prints stuff, the paper just comes out," Morgan was saying, "Maybe there's a PRINT button?"
Happy snapped his fingers. "Bambi! We should call her." He rushed out of the room and Morgan watched him explain the situation to the secretary.
Bambi rounded her desk and Morgan smiled. They were going to fix this!
Happy pulled the door open for Bambi but it didn't budge. He had been so preoccupied he forgot he had to tap his badge first.
He felt for his badge but it wasn't on his person.
He looked inside the office and spotted his coat on the sofa, his ID badge visibly attached to it.
Happy groaned. This day just got worse. Now Morgan was stuck in an office. Alone. He rapped on the door.
"Morgan! Open the door!"
From her spot on the chair, Morgan shouted, "What?" Uncle Happy's voice was muffled.
"Open the door! I can't get in! I forgot my badge!"
But Morgan wasn't listening. She was busy trying to get down from the chair so she could come closer and hear Happy properly.
Beside Happy, Bambi rolled her eyes, muttered a "For heavens sake, move!" and then tapped her own badge on the door.
"Oh," was all Happy said.
Things were much calmer with Bambi in charge now, Morgan noted.
As the printer printed the contract, Bambi turned to Happy and Morgan who were both seated on the sofa looking like children who got called to the Principal's Office.
With arms folded and a look of disappointment on her face, she said, "Now, can somebody tell me what we did wrong today?"
Happy and Morgan exchanged looks and then Morgan said, "We vandalized Mommy's paper. But Uncle Happy said I could—"
Bambi raised a brow at Happy who shook his head. "I didn't—well, I did, but I didn't think there'd be contracts on the table."
Morgan bowed her head. "I only wanted to practice signing like Mommy."
Happy nodded, "She only wanted to be a little boss. This is all on me."
Bambi sighed. "I won't tell Pepper what you two did here today. But this will never happen again. This is your first and last warning, okay?"
Morgan and Happy nodded, relieved.
"Next time you're hanging out in my office," said Happy to Morgan. "What are you doing?"
Morgan had gotten off the sofa and was now rummaging through Happy's blazer. She took out the notebook she used earlier and then quickly grabbed another bright colored marker that made Happy nauseated just looking at it. It reminded him too much of how close he was to ruining Pepper's big deal.
Morgan knelt down beside the table, pen poised, and notebook open. She looked at Happy. "How do you spell your name?"
"Why?"
Morgan pointed at his chest. "You're not wearing your badge."
Happy chuckled despite the situation. "H-A-P-P-Y."