A White Winter in Malibu

[not_iron]

He and his old man have eased into something resembling (if you squint) peaceful cohabitation. This doesn't mean Tony sees a lot of him.

But these days, the family commitment issues aren't all on Howard. Because when the mood catches up to him, Tony Stark will persist weeks on a diet of take-out food in his basement bunker, letting his tan wash out under the all-fluorescent lighting down there. Which means unless he's penciled an armor tech field test into the agenda, he also usually doesn't keep up with the state of the weather.

Today's a little different. Today he has the garage door open, because somebody--he hasn't determined whether it was Dummy or You--must have botched last month's maintenance on the ventilation system, so that in the middle of machining a replacement endoskeleton for the one he'd torqued driving his new prototype into the ground after a power failure, he comes so close to asphyxiating at his desk that he has to take a minute, after stumbling outside, to consider the merits of luring both robots into the driveway, pulling their parking brakes, and letting them roll off the cliff.

So it's by chance, really, that when the first sweat-chilling breeze of that freak winter slips a finger past his mansion, Tony is there to take the goose. He turns an eye toward the sky.

"JARVIS," he says, drawing out the AI's name and blinking as a puff of snow settles into his eyelashes, "Get me the weather report, would you?"

Comments

[yes_mr_stark]

When Pepper had left her apartment that morning she hadn’t even considered a jacket. The coldest it ever got in Los Angles in December was mid seventy’s. But as she left the office the chill nipped at her skin and she quickly rubbed her arms to rid them of goosebumps. She looked to the sky, painted a clouded milky grey; no sun or blue sky in sight.

She started to walk, faster to her car climbing into the driver seat and starting the car up. After the car began to warm up she pulled out her phone to get a weather report, as clearly this chill was not normal. She opened her phone only to see a reminder that there at least seven different pieces of paperwork that Tony had to have signed and send out tonight.

This was hardly different than any other night of the week. She’d pick up some form of take-out food and swing by the mansion, try to get Tony to talk to her about how things were going with Howard, and when he brushed that off she’d have a quick drink and relax with him on the couch before insisting she had to go home.

Only tonight was different, because as she pulled onto the PCH the first of the snow began to fall. It came down in think fluffy flakes and by the time she reached Tony’s mansion, Chinese take-out in the back seat, it was already covering the ground. As she ran to the door she was really regretting not bringing that jacket now.

She entered the house shaking her hair to clear it of snow. “JARVIS,” she sighed, setting the bag of take-out on the counter. “Can you turn up the heat a bit, please? And while you're at it, let the boys know that I've brought food."

[not_iron]

Tony's just made his way back inside when JARVIS alerts him to his dad's presence on the staircase, and he gives the order for the door to unlock before Howard has a chance to enter his security code.

He throws a weather map up onto the virtual walk, his back to the stairs and his arms crossing his chest just as the AI pipes up a second time to announce Pepper's arrival.

"Tell her to get down here. I think you're both gonna want to see this," he added, so that Howard could hear.

[fatherofinnovention]

Howard's eyes immediately fix on the map, already beginning to piece together what Tony's trying to spell out.

"If this is a storm, I'm not sure I want to know what kind could turn this place into an icebox this time of year..."