A/N: I think I've had a bit too much chocolate this evening. I sat down with serious intentions on writing a nice romantic chapter but ended up with this. I guess I just wanted to take a turn from the normal romantic-ness of my other chapters and tune up the comedy side a bit. Hopefully Tony doesn't come across as being completely out of character. Enjoy...

If there was one thing that Tony truly hated, it was the sterile medicinal stench that radiated through the hallways of Malibu Private Hospital. He would never formally admit it of course and not even to Pepper no matter how much he loved her. In fact he was pretty sure he about reached the limit possible by man to ever love a woman, but vows be damned this was going to be the only secret he would ever keep from her. Because he was pretty sure saying to her 'Pepper darling, this hospital smells, can we leave' would only result in a 'death by glare' from her.

And she really did know how to throw him a deathly, scary glare.

But it wasn't just the smell or the way it made his guts feel like they had been turned inside out. It was the colours and the general look of the place that left him feeling depressed even though there was nothing but happiness to fill him at this moment in time. The birth of their new daughter made sure of that and the last thing he wanted to do was mope around in hopeless depression. Although honestly walking down the halls day after day just wasn't helping his cause.

"Are you alright, man?" Rhodey asked with a curious look, "You've been staring at the wall for five minutes straight."

"I'm-"

"Pepper is fine, so don't you start thinking that something'll happen to her because-"

"No, no, nothing like that man," he rolled his eyes and pointed at the wall, "Have you noticed how depressing this place looks?"

"You weren't thinking about Pepper?"

He shifted uncomfortably and tapped at the wall as he muttered, "Seriously, haven't you noticed the colours?"

"You didn't answer my question," Rhodey remarked pointedly.

"I was thinking about Pepper," he noted in that direct tone of his, "But I was also thinking about how they could really brighten up this place with a colour change or something. All this sickly blue and vomit green should be removed immed-"

"Have you been drinking again?"

He stared dumfounded at his friend. "No, what would make you think that?"

"Because instead of thinking about your daughter and wife you're actually pondering over what possessed the designers to choose these colours?"

He frowned and noted, "Didn't you just tell me moments ago to not worry about Pepper because she was perfectly fine?"

"Yes, but that's not the point."

"Exactly, the point is-"

"There isn't any point to this conversation, Tony. Who even cares anyway, it's a hospital. People that are sick come here. It's not exactly a theme park."

"This is the nursery if you haven't noticed," Tony grumbled and shifted as if irritated, "They should at least draw sunflowers or something to draw attention away from the hideous blue."

"Well why don't you just buy the hospital and paint the rooms rainbow colour while you're at it?"

He paused in that moment, eyes wide as he opened his mouth as if to say something.

"Don't even think about it," Rhodey groaned. "Tony, I'm serious. Pepper will kill you."

"No."

"Oh come on, Pepper. It's not even that expensive and I could really use a hobby on the side other than you know, my 9 to 5 saving the world job."

"Tony, the answer was no and it's still no and I can't believe you just referred to 'saving the world' as another form of a day job."

"But think of the sunflowers."

"What?"

"He said sunflowers, mummy," Jared added in, "We'll even paint a picture of a bells pepper just for you."

"I can't believe you roped our son into this insane idea of yours."