This time she wakes up at the same time Tony goes to the kitchen for some coffee. She slept on the couch, which was surprisingly comfy. She floats up with a yawn and sees his animated face as he gulps down the holy beverage. 'Not going to eat?'

He jolts slightly before turning towards her. "Eating is for the weak."

She gives him a dry look. 'Showering and changing clothes is for the week, too?'

"Exactly," he says, pointing at her with his cup. "Come on, let's go do some testing."

She sighs, grabs an apple from the kitchen, and follows him. Later, she will make him eat at least one fruit. He's too excited at the moment to be persuaded.

.

.

They decide to try Tony's little equipment first because if they wait any more, he will explode from impatience. She wanted to be the one filming at first but decided it would be better if she was ready for any fall, in case he breaks his neck or something.

The robot called 'U' instead is the one filming, while Dummy is in charge of the fire extinguisher.

"Okay, let's do this right," he starts, and she gets ready with her telekinetic hold on him, just in case. "Start mark, half a meter, and back and center. Dummy, look alive. You're on standby for fire safety. U, roll it."

He takes a deep breath and looks at her. Maybe for some encouragement, she doesn't know. Still, she nods and raises her paw in front of her. She then frowns.

"What's wrong?" he asks nervously.

'Hm? Oh, nothing. I just realized I don't have opposable thumbs, so I can't do a thumbs up.'

He chuckles, shaking his head, though her statement seems to calm him somewhat. He gets into position.

"Okay. Activate hand controls. We're gonna start off nice and easy. We're gonna see if 10% thrust capacity achieves lift." A gulp. "And three, two, one."

As soon as he gives the order, he flings back and almost hits the upper wall. Luckily, she grabbed him in time. She then slowly puts him down. She's about to say something to the shell-shocked man when Dummy moves towards him and uses the fire extinguisher on him.

'Are you okay?'

"Peachy," he mumbles, before slowly getting up as he starts grabbing the tools to fix the flight stabilizers.

"Sir, Ms. Potts will be in the lab in three minutes," JARVIS says.

Usually Tony wouldn't have JARVIS letting him know when Pepper is coming, but because of Eva, who is constantly floating in her Mew form, he has to be more cautious.

"When did she come?" Tony asks, distracted.

"She's been buzzing for a while now."

'Oh. So that was what that sound meant!"

He throws him a pointed look. "You noticed?"

She shrugs. 'With all this noise, I thought it was part of the equipment."

He gives her another pointed glance, and she transforms into Linoone, not saying anything as he continues working in the hands/arms of his suit.

They soon hear the door opening and click-clack sound of her heels as she goes inside with a wrapped box and a cup of what she guesses is coffee in her hands.

He seems ready to greet her but he notices something in his gauntlets and he speaks with JARVIS instead, "Up two. All right, set that."

"I've been buzzing you." she says as soon as she's near Tony. "Did you hear the intercom?"

"Yeah, everything's… What?" he murmurs the last word as he looks even more closely at the data JARVIS is now showing.

Seeing she's getting ignored, she subtly rolls her eyes with a fond smile and changes the subject. "Obadiah's upstairs."

Eva grimaces at the same time Tony says, "Great!"

"What would you like me to tell him?"

Tony smiles, still distracted with the gauntlet as he leaves the tools aside and turns his hand around, bright light coming from the thruster.

"Great. I'll be right up."

"Okay." She nods before focusing her attention on the clear weapon in Tony's hand. "I thought you said you were done making weapons."

"I am. This is a flight stabilizer. It's completely harmless."

Knowing what's to come, she scoots away from the direction Tony's pointing. Just in time, the stabilizer shoots, flinging Tony backward and scaring Pepper. This time Eva doesn't stop him as doing so would be suspicious. "Okay, I didn't expect that."

Pepper exhales loudly and goes upstairs as Eva decides to go near and start sniffing him to see if he's injured. Luckily, he isn't. He tries to pat her head, but she evades, not wanting to be near the gauntlet after what just happened. Tony stops, looks at his hand, and pulls the gauntlet off.

"Oops."

She shakes her head but follows behind as he goes upstairs. They find Obadiah playing the piano and Pepper working on the couch.

"How'd it go?" it's the first thing Tony says. She's too near the ground to see what's happening, but it must not be good if Tony's apologetic shrug is anything to go by. "It went that bad, huh?"

"Just because I brought pizza back from New York doesn't mean it went bad," he says, still playing the piano. And oh, pizza! She lived in Italy for some time in her previous life and wants to see how the pizza in New York is.

"Sure doesn't," he scoffs as he sits down. She doesn't follow his next movements as she goes to the pizza. But she does hear him murmur, "Oh, boy."

"It would have gone better if you were there."

"Uh-huh. You told me to lie low. That's what I've been doing. I lie low, and you take care of all…"

She wants to shake her head at how like a puppet Tony sounds in his own words. It makes her annoyed, a thing that increases in volume as she opens the pizza box and sees what's inside.

"Hey, come on. In public. The press." He comes over to sit next to Tony, who is watching her look of disgust with a raised eyebrow, trying to sound supporting, but she can easily feel how darkly pleased Obadiah is as he continues, "This was a board of directors meeting."

"This was a board of directors meeting?" Tony says, looking away from her.

"The board is claiming you have post-traumatic stress," he intones as if talking to a child. The amusement she senses coming from him increases with his next words, "They're filing an injunction."

"A what?" he asks. She also tilts her head to the side, not knowing anything of business.

"They want to lock you out."

Now Tony looks affronted. "Why, 'cause the stocks dipped 40 points? We knew that was gonna happen."

"Fifty-six and a half," Pepper is the first to clarify.

Tony shrugs. "It doesn't matter. We own the controlling interest in the company."

"Tony, the board has rights, too," Obadiah says with a sigh. "They're making the case that you and your new direction aren't in the company's best interest."

"I'm being responsible! That's a new direction for me, for the company." Tony runs a hand through his hair, exasperated. "I mean, me on the company's behalf being responsible for the way that..."

Trailing off, Tony looks to the side as he murmurs, tired, "This is great."