#technically circuit boards are a BUNCH of wires already

[starheirxero]

I'm such an untrustworthy person to just write a fic about robot insides..... Like I wanted to write a silly self indulgent fic about helping Lunar with maintenance and now I'm totally sidetracked trying to figure out how many circuit boards an animatronic like them would need and how many wires that would give them.

[iamartemisday]

Pepperony Week Day Six: AU

A/N: This is a high school AU technically, but it’s more specific than that, and if you know the source material, you’ll pick up on it fast. :D  Even if you don’t, I hope you enjoy!

Pepper Potts was not a genius, nor was she a prodigy.  She understood how one could make that mistake, given she’d been selected out of hundreds of applicants to receive a full scholarship to Shield Academy.  It was dumb luck, though.  Her test scores were good and her admissions essay meticulously tailored to meet all of the school board’s criteria for entry.  If she was anything, it was an expert at kissing up, and look how far it had gotten her.

Now she attended classes with the children of CEOs, governors, even a prince.  All the professors were Ivy league.  The cafeteria was run by twelve gourmet chefs.  Her entire apartment building could fit in the swimming pool with room to spare.  Most impressive were the four libraries, each two floors and carrying books in every language known to man, including one she was fairly certain was written in Klingon.  Every day after her last class, Pepper withdrew into the far corner of the first library, next to the business management and law texts, and there she remained until six o’clock rolled around and it was time to go home.  

On this day, a sudden influx of students loitering in the first library rendered her usual study spot uninhabitable.  Going down the line from the second to the fourth libraries, she found much the same situation.  One thousand students at Shield and every one of them had chosen today to visit the library.  They weren’t even studying.  No one had books out, no one was taking notes, and everyone in the computer lab had nothing better to do than browse Facebook.

“Four libraries in this place and not a single one I can study in,” Pepper muttered, going up the stairs to an empty wing.  “Not everyone has enough money to coast through life, you know.  Some of us have to work.”

At the end of the hall was an abandoned club room.  Something something music, according to the faded sign.  Checking the door, Pepper found it was unlocked.  Weird.  Every other door she’d tried had been bolted.  At least now she had a quiet place to do her homework.  

As soon as Pepper opened the door, a barrage of noise hit her, not the musical kind either.  Seven people occupied the music room, which had been converted into some kind of laboratory.  Metal parts were strewn everywhere.  Computer screens with three dimensional models lined the walls.  Five toddler sized robots glided around her legs, seemingly of their own volition.  One lifted its head at her, a red beam spreading over her body until a green check mark appeared where the eyes should be and it rolled on.  

One man sat at a table covered in similar, unfinished robots.  He had an old circuit board which he was taking apart and sorting (she assumed) between usable and unusable components.  One pile was larger than the other, but before Pepper could work out which was which, he looked up.  

“Hello,” he said, smiling wide.  “Welcome to the Shield Academy Scientific Research club.”

Suddenly, all noise ceased, and twelve more eyes were on Pepper.  Now that her head was clear, she recognized all of them from classes and schoolyard gossip.  On the left were Bruce Banner and Betty Ross, power couple and darlings of the biochemistry department.  She’d never seen either of them in person before, but they were unmistakeable from their pictures in the local paper last week.  ‘High School Students Make Strides in Stem Cell Research’ the headline read.  Behind them, Jane Foster and Loki Odinson debated the solution to a PhD level dimensional equation written across three whiteboards.  Helen Cho had a model DNA strain projecting from her watch of all things.  Peter Parker, the real child prodigy around here at just twelve years old, had a mountain of books on his desk and a notebook full of formulas.  

Last but not least, the one who had greeted her.  Tony Stark, son of Howard Stark, an innovator long before his time.  Capable of building functioning robotics before he hit puberty, or so the rumors said.

And then there was Pepper, who was beginning to think she’d never get her math homework done.

“Uh… I’m sorry,” she said.  “I thought this room was empty.”

“It’s cool,” said Tony.  “We don’t get many visitors here, and unless I’m mistaken, you’re Pepper Potts, right?”

Pepper blinked.  She went through all seven of her classes and Tony Stark was in none of them.  “How do you know my name?”

“Doesn’t everybody?” Tony asked.  “Hey Loki, you have a class with Pepper, right?”

“Two,” Loki said while erasing and rewriting part of the equation, “though I have yet to make her acquaintance.  Perhaps if you don’t scare her away with your bumbling attempts at flirting, Stark...”

“Excuse me, I don’t bumble,” Tony glared.  He turned back to Pepper.  “Don’t mind him.  He’s the vice-president but he thinks he controls everything behind my back.”

“I do control everything.”

“Shut up, Shadow King,” Tony snapped.  “Anyway, what can we do for you, Pepper?  Need a death ray to deal with the snotty girls in the locker room?”

“No, no, I’m fine,” Pepper backed up.  “I’m sorry for bothering you, but I just wanted a quiet place to studEEK!”

Something was under her foot.  Pepper slid off balance and landed square on her butt.  A crash come from somewhere to her left, and as the pain subsided enough that she could look, her heart stopped.  The little robot which had scanned her earlier was on the floor in pieces.  Three to be exact.  The body was split in two from the impact, wires fizzling and throwing out weak sparks.  The head was upside down, ‘SYSTEM OFFLINE’ flashing across the screen in red letters before it too died.  

Such a pitiful sight the little robot was, Pepper couldn’t look away.  Or maybe it was because Tony Stark was standing over her, his smile gone and a deep set frown etched in its place.

He whistled.  “Bad move, Potts.  That thing cost me seventy thousand to make.”

“Seventy thousand dollars?” Pepper screamed.  That was more money than she’d ever seen in her life!  And now she’d destroyed it…

“Actually seventy-one if we’re getting specific,” Tony said.

“For all that money you’d think it would be sneaker resistant,” Loki snidely remarked, earning a poke from Jane and an eyeroll from Tony.

“First off, Ms. Potts is wearing loafers.  Second, most of these parts were vintage so they cost extra.  Third, shut up.”  Pepper had a feeling most of their conversations ended like that, and it would be funny if she hadn’t just gotten herself into the most unfunny situation of all time.  “So, let’s talk about how you’re going to pay me back.”

Pepper shook her head.  “I- I know I have to, I just… I don’t-”

“Relax, I already have a plan,” Tony said, offering her a hand up.  She took it nervously.  Was he going to drop her halfway or put her in some futuristic handcuffs and lead her away to a detention cell?  Whatever he did, Pepper knew she wouldn’t like it.  Letting her go, Tony threw out a hand, pointing dramatically.  “Starting today, Ms. Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts, you will work off your debt by acting as the Scientific Research club’s personal assistant.  You’ll answer the phone, draft emails, organize our appearances at local and national competitions, and get us coffee.  Right now.  The coffee, I mean.  Go get us some coffee.”

“I- I-”

“Oh and, we’ve already filled our quota of women in the club, so we’re gonna have to cut your hair short and pretend you’re a boy.”

“WHAT??”

“I’m kidding!” Tony laughed.  “We have no quotas.  We do need coffee, though.  Black for everyone except Bruce.  He gets decaf.  Chop chop!”

Tony gathered the broken robot in his arms and returned to his table.  One by one, the rest of the club followed suit, going back to their daily routines like nothing had happened.  Pepper was frozen, unable to move for a longer time than she knew.  Tony glanced away from his work once to wink and point at the high tech coffee machine in the far corner.  Pepper shuffled towards it like a zombie, ignoring the minor flip of her stomach as his eyes lingered on her.  

He could look all he wanted, but that was all he’d ever do.  If Pepper had to spend her high school years enslaved to a bunch of mad scientists, that was fine, but as soon as her debt was paid, she was out of here.  She’d never see Tony Stark again, and she was definitely not going to fall for him.