Pumpkin- Tony Stark

Back in Malibu

"Wake up, daddy's home." Tony snapped his fingers to bring the computers and lights back to life. He'd gotten back to Malibu in under eight hours. Pumpkin was upstairs, fast asleep so he was taking the advantage to come down into his lab and get to work. It seemed his little soulmate rabbit was jetlagged.

"Welcome home, sir." Jarvis' voice responded through the coms. "Congratulations on the opening ceremonies. They were such a success as was your senate hearing. And may I say how refreshing it is to finally see you in a video with your clothing on, sir?"

Tony laughed until he heard the splashing sounds as the green smoothie was thrown up on the wall instead of into the blender. "You!" The robot knocked the blender completely over.

"I swear to God I'll dismantle you, I'll switch your motherboard and turn you into a wine rack. How many ounces a day of this gargle am I supposed to drink?"

"We are up to 80 ounces a day to counteract the symptoms, sir." He downed the nasty stuff easily.

"Check Palladium levels."

"Blood toxicity, 24%" Jarvis informed him. "It appears that the continued use of the Iron Man suit is accelerating your condition. Another core has been depleted."

Tony sighed as he reached up to remove the new arc reactor from his chest. The palladium levels were getting to high and soon he would be able to counteract them all. Eventually, it would completely poison his system and he'd die. And he'd end up leaving Pumpkin all alone.

He closed his eyes, frustrated. There had to be something he could do.

"God they're running out quick." He commented, taking the fried chip out of the arc reactor.

"I have run simulations on every known element and none can serve as a viable replacement for the pallidum core." Jarvis informed him as Tony opened up the box of palladium chips to replace it. "You are running out of both time and options."

Tony huffed as he shoved the arc reactor back into the container he'd made for it. He kept his shirt up, watching the dark lines surrounding his chest.

"Unfortunately, the device that's keeping you alive, is also killing you. Mrs. Hogan is approaching. I recommend that you inform her of-"

"Mute." He dropped his shirt quickly as he watched Pepper come over to the lab and punch in the code without looking up.

He turned his screens back to his cars quickly and finished off the last of his nasty drink. "Un uh." He said.

"Is this a joke?" She asked. "What are you thinking?"

"What?"

"What are you thinking?!"

"Hey! I'm thinking I'm busy and you're angry about something. Do you have the sniffles? I don't wanna get sick. Keep your distance."

"Did you just donate our entire modern art collection to the-"

"Boy Scouts of America?"

"Yes! It is a-

"Worthwhile organization?" He asked as he walked away from her, snatching one of the visuals out of midair to turn into a pretended piece of crumpled paper and throwing it at a virtual bullseye with fake points. "I didn't physically check the crates but basically yes. And it's not our collection, it's my collection. No offense."

"No, you know what? I think I'm actually entitled to say our collection, considering the time that I've put in over 10 years curating that."

"It's a tax write-off, I needed that."