happy time
Music begins to play again as Pepper walks through a hallway.
“The Clash's The Magnificent Seven,” Tony says. “The taste here.” he approves.
“You and your music.”
“It’s vital.”
The woman walks into a gym or fitness room with a boxing ring in the middle. "The notary's here!" she calls. "Can you please come sign the transfer paperwork?"
“It’s getting official.” Howard shakes his head, visibly not pleased.
“Oh, look at this beautiful view outside.” Maria smiles, ignoring her husband.
"I'm on Happy time!” answers Tony from the boxing ring. He’s sparring with his bodyguard, who’s dressed in protective gear and seems to be coaching him.
“Hey yea, work it.”
Tony delivers a strike that makes the man's head fly backward with a grunt. "Sorry," he says hastily.
"What the hell was that?!" demands the man angrily.
“A dirty move.” Howard answers.
“Calm down, I said sorry.”
“It's called mixed martial arts," explains Tony, hopping back and forth. "It's been around for… three weeks now--“
“Don’t think that was the right answer,” Maria says.
"It's called dirty boxing," snaps the bodyguard. “There's nothing new about it.”
Howard just nods his head.
Then, a woman comes into the room holding a folder. She’s dressed in a white blouse and black pants, and her long hair falls in waves around her shoulders. Happy and Tony pause their sparring bout to gape at the woman.
“That’s quite inappropriate.” Maria scrutinizes and Tony hides half of his face in his arm from embarrassment.
"I promise you this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company," calls Pepper, smiling politely at the notary as she walks closer.
Tony chuckles.
The notary opens her folder for Pepper to look at and explains where to initial. Tony is still watching the unknown woman from the boxing ring. The bodyguard giving him a thump in the back of the head to make him turn around. "Lesson one," he says. "Never take your eye off your--“ he doesn’t end his sentence because Tony's foot slams into the mat protecting his stomach, and it sends him reeling against the other side of the boxing ring.
“Ouch, I’m sorry.” Tony winces, but the man has a protective mat so at least there’s that.
Pepper and the woman both look up at the sound of a heavy thud and the gong dinging followed by the bodyguard’s voice "That's it, I'm done" as he begins to remove his gear.
"What's your name, lady?" calls Tony, pointing at the newcomer.
“Don’t point with your finger at people,” Maria says.
"Rushman, Natalie Rushman," answers the woman with dark red hair.
"Front and center, come into the church," commands Tony, taking a swallow of his chlorophyll.
"No," starts Pepper. "You're seriously not going to ask her--“
“Why you gotta kill my fun, Pep?” he almost whines.
"If it pleases the court, which it does," argues Tony.
"It's no problem," Natalie assures, and her heels click on the floor as she walks to the boxing ring, not registering Pepper's "I'm sorry, he's very eccentric."
“That’s a good thing, though.” Tony defends himself.
“Oh, eccentric does not even begin to describe you sometimes.” Maria chuckles warmly.
“At least I’m not boring.” he shoots his mother a smile.
Tony lifts the ropes, and Natalie slips her shoes off and ducks under them as she climbs inside the ring. She straightens up and eyes Tony as if sizing him up.
“That look is quite scary, I don’t know.” Tony narrows his eyes.
Tony eyes Natalie as well and takes another drink from his bottle. The woman smiles at him. Tony takes the bottle from his mouth. "What?" he asks in a tone as if he heard her saying something, just didn’t know what exactly. He gestures to his coach. "Could you, uh, give her a lesson?" he asks, stepping out of the boxing ring already.
The man obligingly steps closer. "Um-hm, no problem,"
Tony goes to sit down by the strawberry blonde.
"Pepper," he says at once.
"What?" asks Pepper, who’s obviously less than impressed.
"Who is she?"
"She is from legal," comes the answer. “and she is potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit if you keep ogling her like that--“
“Smart woman.” Maria nods her head as if she was approving of Pepper.
"I need a new assistant, boss,” says Tony, almost whining. "I need a new assistant."
“Pepper’s the CEO now, why can’t you hire Natalie by yourself?” Tony asks his future self.
“Because you value her opinion.” his mother answers.
“Or it’s a habit, she’s worked for him what, 10 years he said?” Howard adds.
"Yes," Pepper looks at her phone. "And I've got three excellent potential candidates lined up and ready to meet you -"
"I don't have time to meet," says Tony. "I need someone now, I feel like it's her."
“You feel or you see?” Maria asks with a smirk and Tony swears to god that he doesn’t blush.
Pepper looks up with an exasperated smile. "No, it's not.”
The bodyguard asks Natalie if she ever boxed before and then Tony calls on, asking how to spell her name, so she turns around and spells it out exactly how it sounds. Tony claps his still-gloved hands together, and the table next to him wakes up with desktop icons appearing on the glass surface.
“The freaking glass table is a holographic desktop?” Tony asks, directing it to no one in particular.
“What does it take to turn it around like that?”
“It looks incredibly convenient, though,” the teen murmurs once again.
“Thousands of lines of code must be all around that entire mansion.” Howard shakes his head, dare Tony say… impressed?
"What, are you going to Google her now?" asks Pepper.
"Hum? I thought I was ogling her," answers Tony.
“Funny,” says Maria.
He begins scrolling through numerous files attached to Natalie Rushman. "Oh, wow," he says approvingly. "Very, very impressive individual."
“You're so predictable, you know that?" asks Pepper, sounding quite used to that and Tony keeps listing what he reads, like languages the woman speaks, he also pulls out professionally made pictures of her, admiring them.
“Dear, you are making Pepper jealous right now,” Maria says.
“I’m not! It’s the future me, I don’t even know Pepper!”
“Well, I can’t talk to the future-you right now, so I’m telling the teenage-you so that the future-you remembers this conversation,” she explains. Tony just groans in response.
Natalie watches Tony and Pepper bickering from the boxing ring when the bodyguard speaks from behind her "Rule number one: never take your eye off your oppo--“ The woman’s head snaps around, and her left-hand closes on the man’s right arm. She pushes sideways on the arm, and in an instant her body is flipped completely around, her feet flying over her head and her legs fastening around his neck. He’s topped like a ninepin.
"Whoa!" cries Tony, with Pepper’s “Oh, my God!" heard at the same time. Natalie unwinds her legs from the man’s throat and gets up. "Happy!" squeaks Pepper anxiously.
“Wait, his name is actually Happy?” Tony’s eyes widen. “That’s so cool.”
“Oh poor man, getting beat up like that.” Maria shakes her head.
"That's what I'm talking about." Tony gets up and approaches the ring again.
"Just slipped," says Happy climbing to his feet rather more slowly than Natalie.
Tony laughs at that and so do his parents.
"You did?" Tony rings the bell. "Looks like a TKO to me.”
Natalie slips out of the ring and stands up in front of Tony. "I just need your impression.”
Tony squints. "You have a quiet reserve? I don't know, you've got an old soul-"
“I think she means fingerprint, dear.” Maria chuckles.
"I meant your fingerprint." Natalie corrects, opening up her file.
"Right," nods Tony, and he presses his finger into the ink, then places it where the woman motions for him to.
“Couldn’t have taken your glove off for it?”
“It still works.” shrugs Tony.
"So, how're we doing?" Pepper comes up to them with a professional smile.
"Great," answers Tony. "Just wrapping up, hey." he points to his fingerprint on the page. "You're the boss."
Tony makes a point of not looking at his father’s face right now. “I feel like this is the best decision I’ve ever made.”
Natalie closes the file. "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?"
While Tony says no, Pepper counters with "Yes, that will be all, Ms. Rushman. Thank you very much."
As the notaryleaves, Tony turns to Pepper with "I want one.”, but she’s quick to just say a simple “No.” as if she knew that was coming.
Maria chuckles once again and Tony hides his face once again.