"People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do."

-Isaac Asimov (suggested by Jessiestark)


"Pep, you don't understand."

Pepper faced Tony calmly, her eyes glinting dangerously.

"And what exactly don't I understand, Tony? The fact that you're ditching another SI meeting for the third time in the row."

Tony flashed a grin at her as he flipped through the schematics for the web-shooters. The kid's designs were incredible, but he could still stand for another upgrade. Maybe more shooting combinations?

(576 shooter combinations were definitely not enough.)

Absentmindedly, he said, "Meetings are just so boring," as he reached for another sip of coffee.

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say, because Pepper almost let out a snarl, and stormed towards him. The bundle of papers under her arm were dropped on the table, letting out a large thump when they landed.

"You're seriously behind on the paperwork, so either finish that or you're coming to the meeting, because I'm not going to let you lose a bunch potential investors."

Tony stared at the large pile of papers blocking the holograms to the project he actually wanted to work on, and gave an exasperated sigh.

"How long is the meeting again?"

"An hour."

He opened his mouth to protest because an hour was way too much of his precious time, but Pepper effectively silenced him with her scary glare (probably taught to her by Natasha, which was an even scarier thought).

Instead, he managed to smile weakly. "Sure."

He could make twenty web-shooter combinations in one hour instead of wasting it on a bunch of old geezers that he was probably going to piss off anyways. But Pepper looked relieved, and sent a small smile at him, so he didn't voice his concerns.

Oh, he was still going to piss them off. But hopefully, they wouldn't be as stupid as most people were.


He was so wrong.

These people were absolute morons, and he was stuck in a room, sweating his ass off while they simpered and fake-laughed to every single bad joke in the universe. Even Pepper was looking a bit bored, and she always tried to stay the professional in literally anything. And currently, she was glancing at him with a worried expression on his face, as if he was going to explode.

He gave her a mock-betrayed look, and she raised an eyebrow, shaking her head sternly.

No exploding anything, she mouthed to him.

Great, she knew him way too well, considering her smug look at his most-likely crestfallen face. He needed to bring someone else to his meetings so he could actually do something fun.

From the corner of his eye, he could see another person with a stupid-looking tie (seriously, why would anyone consider wearing a tie that had ducks eating paper-airplanes on it) turning towards him, and he mentally groaned before steeling himself for questions he could very well do without.

"Mr. Stark?"

"That's my name, the last time I checked," he answered boredly, looking at a scratch on the table.

The other people around the meeting table gave a couple of nervous titters.

Stupid-tie smiled tightly, before he leaned forward to try to look Tony in the eye.

"Well Mr. Stark, I've been wondering if your technology was fake."

The room suddenly fell silent, and he could see Pepper slowly slide down her seat, a hand to her forehead.

Tony slowly raised his head to meet Stupid-tie's eyes, because there was nothing more insulting than to be questioned by a person who probably didn't even know the difference between an anode and a cathode.

His voice was quiet when he asked, "I'm sorry, can you repeat what you said?"

And apparently this guy was idiotic enough to answer with a cocky smirk,"I said, your technology's a fake."

Surprising how fast a "wondering if it was a fake" turned into a "it was a fake."

Another person tried to put a hand on Stupid-tie's shoulder, but he just shook him off as he steepled his fingers together like he was some all-knowing God.

"You shouldn't underestimate me, Mr. Stark. I've got a degree in Engineering, and I know that half your inventions shouldn't even work."

His eyes flickered towards the blue glow that was dimly shining through his suit, and Tony fought back a snarl of protectiveness that swelled up in him.

"I spent years examining that thing, and you shouldn't even be alive if it was the invention you claimed it was. Using palladium as an energy source should have killed you by now, and there aren't any other elements that could be used without breaking apart the entire reactor."

And with that, Stupid-tie leaned back in his seat, a lazy grin on his face like he had just won the argument. Briefly, Tony shared an alarmed look with Pepper, who was abandoning her professional detachment, because Stupid-tie shouldn't know anything about his reactor.

Tony wasn't stupid enough to make the same mistake again in trusting someone with the technology that literally kept him alive. So he probably had to do a lot more hacking in the Internet after the meeting was over, because there was probably some leftover information that he might have forgotten to wipe out.

But first things first. Stupid-tie was going down.

He let a smile drift onto his face, and pulled out his phone like Stupid-tie wasn't even worth his time (which in all honesty, he wasn't).

"So, Mr. Smith-"

Stupid-tie interrupted him, hissing, "It's Mr. Johnson."

Tony waved a hand dismissively, tapping images on his phone. "Same thing. You're so dull, that it doesn't even matter which last name I call you because I'm never even going to remember you anyways."

Everyone around the table gaped at him, and Pepper gave what sounded like a resigned sigh before plopping her head in her hands.

"Excuse me, Mr. Stark?"

Tony shook his head at him condescendingly. "You pretend to be such a know-it-all, but honestly, you're kind of idiotic, if you think you could actually call my inventions fake."

Stupid-tie snorted, but Tony went on calmly. "Trust me, you don't have an inkling of how much more things I can do with my pinky-finger compared to your small brain."

He swiped some more images on his phone before he slid his phone on the table.

"Harvard?"

"How did you- what are you doing?"

Tony ignored him and continued. "Daddy paid him his way to Harvard, interesting. 3.3 GPA, engineering degree barely passed requirements-"

Stupid-tie tried to grab the phone out of Tony's hand but missed.

"It even says Mr. Smith-"

"It's Mr. Johnson."

"-has never been able to build a working robot in his life, instead using devices like the primitive Arduino. I wonder wh-"

"Mr. Stark, this is private information."

Tony didn't even spare a glance at his face, and went on coolly.

"His assignments with robots have often failed with disastrous results. To this day, he has never created a single robot, and can only deal with theoretical work rather than what's actually done in real life."

He stroked his chin in mock-thought.

"Of course, this would be good enough for a regular person, but you've forgotten that you're up against a Stark here."

Stupid-tie fell silent, staring at Tony horrified, who finally looked up, and flashed a grin that was all teeth, and no remorse.

"You really think so little of me that I can't invent a new element?"

Stupid-tie spluttered, looking around the room for support. Everyone stayed silent, opting to watch the argument instead.

"But that's not even possib-"

"Nuh-uh, you better not say anything more stupid, because unfortunately for you, I did."

Tony dragged a mug of coffee closer towards him, leaving his phone on the table with the incriminating evidence. "I made my first robot when I was four, you stupid imbecile, and got out of MIT when I was fifteen at the top of my class."

He lifted the mug to his lips, and watched Stupid-tie emotionlessly.

"So do I have to prove my technology to some lowlife pretending to be a know-it-all, when he's speaking to the person who literally knows pretty much everything?"

Silence.

"That's what I thought."

Stupid-tie quietly got up from his chair, and fled the room, his metaphoric tail between his legs.

The rest of the room looked at Tony, and Pepper let out a huff of air that sounded suspiciously like, "Of course," but her head was still in-between her arms so maybe he misheard.

He did tell her that this was a bad idea in the first place. Rolling his shoulders, he stood up, and grabbed his phone, giving a smirk to the rest of the people in the room.

"Chop chop, I'm dismissing myself from here. Any complaints?"

Pepper let out another groan, and Tony patted her shoulder sympathetically.

"Well, this is boring, so I'm off."

He strolled across the room, and just when he was at the door, Pepper spoke up, voice still muffled. "You're still doing the paperwork."


Pepper's absolutely great, I love how she manages to deal with Tony's antics. She's CEO, and doing all this paperwork and stuff for the business while cleaning up after all of Tony's messes, and she still sticks with him.

Otherwise, writing about Tony having yet another tantrum was really fun. I would like to give my thanks to Jessiestark for PMing me this wonderful quote that just fits with Tony's personality really well, as well as the favs, follows, and reviews.

Hopefully you guys enjoy this chapter!