Evening, Stark Mansion – Basement Laboratory
Tony rubbed his chin as he stared at the Mark Armor, its sleek form now glaringly… pink.
He had been frozen like that for a long time.
Next to him, Malrick stood quietly, barely able to contain his laughter.
"So… why did you dye it pink?" Tony finally asked, his voice flat as he pointed at the armor now glowing a bright, almost comically soft pink.
Malrick immediately dropped his grin and clasped his hands behind his back, adopting a mock-serious tone.
"This," he began, gesturing to the chest plate where the arc reactor glowed, "is a surprise Jarvis carefully prepared for you."
He stepped closer and pointed at a ring of faintly engraved English around the arc reactor.
Malrick read it aloud with dramatic flair: "Tony has a pink heart."
Then he winked. "Touching, isn't it? Pink represents innocence and kindness. Jarvis is complimenting you."
Tony narrowed his eyes. "Thank you for the clarification. Otherwise, I might've thought someone sabotaged my armor." His tone was dry as dust.
He could already imagine the battlefield humiliation—enemy soldiers dropping their weapons not from fear, but from laughter.
Tony inhaled sharply, his face flushed with frustration, and he clenched his fists, biting back the retort that lodged in his throat.
Malrick watched his expression shift and barely kept from bursting into laughter.
Finally, Tony turned away from the armor with a defeated sigh.
"Jarvis, why pink?" he demanded, turning to his ever-loyal AI.
"It was Master Malrick's suggestion, sir. He believed you'd appreciate seeing the armor repaired… and revitalized."
"Oh, come on, Jarvis," Malrick cut in, grinning. "You didn't object either. We both thought it was a good idea."
"Master Malrick, as you know, artificial intelligence lacks autonomous desires."
"That's not true," Malrick said. "Only artificial idiots have no thoughts. You're the one who warned Tony that Pepper would be furious if he kept dating those Cover Girls. You care. Admit it—you just wanted to surprise him."
Tony's scowl deepened.
"Enough!" he snapped, glaring at Malrick who was now openly laughing. "Don't think I don't know this is payback."
Malrick didn't deny it. "So you do remember it was wrong to leave me in that cave and fly off without backup."
Tony threw up his hands. "Alright, alright, I surrender. Let's drop it. I'm not mad. Just… stop tormenting me over that, okay?"
Malrick had been hounding Tony over that incident for more than a decade. Tony had developed the emotional endurance of a war veteran living with a prankster child.
To others, Malrick was a good-natured and reliable person. But to Tony, he was a persistent agent of chaos.
When they were younger, Malrick hated how Tony constantly brought home new models. More than once, when Tony was about to close the deal with a girl, Malrick would blast audio recordings of Tony's sweet nothings—addressed to other women—from outside the bedroom door.
Inevitably, the girl would storm out in a rage.
Malrick would wave from the hallway and cheerfully call out, "Good night, sweet dreams, Tony."
Tony, red-faced, would chase him around the house with a pillow.
Pepper, upon hearing the story, had laughed so hard she slipped some pocket money into Malrick's hand in appreciation.
That lasted two weeks—until Tony installed a custom soundproof bedroom.
After that, Malrick could be performing Broadway musicals outside the door, and Tony would still be enjoying a candlelit Mozart evening with his latest date.
This was just one of many "battles."
Their back-and-forth began when Malrick was three and continued well into high school. On the night Malrick brought home a girl for the first time, the two of them exchanged a silent, knowing look—a truce of sorts.
But the skirmishes never really stopped.
"Jarvis," Tony said, waving dismissively at the armor, "get that thing out of my sight and repaint it. I'm not wearing her like this."
He paused, then added, "Also, order some fresh materials. I'm building a new suit."
He turned to Malrick, energized. "That cave wasn't the right place to build. Conditions were garbage. This time, I'll show you what a real Iron Man suit can do."
Malrick shrugged. "Whatever you say. I'll believe it when I see it."
Dum-E and U were already wheeling over to drag the pink suit away. Malrick helped, still chuckling. He'd only done it to tease Tony. He never expected him to actually consider wearing it.
What he also didn't expect was that ten years later, during a visit to Tony's armor vault, that very pink armor would be proudly displayed in the front row of his collection.
---
Later, as they prepared for dinner…
Tony slapped everything off his workbench, making space. "Alright, let's get started."
"Could it be you're eager to prove yourself?" Malrick teased.
Tony didn't look up. "Watch it, Malrick. I don't need to prove anything. I'm just challenging myself."
"Right. Well, try to challenge yourself before dinner."
Malrick was already halfway up the stairs.
"Pepper's throwing a family dinner to celebrate your miraculous survival. Yansen and Rhodey are coming."
Rhodey—James Rhodes—Tony's longtime military friend. The same one who would later wear the War Machine suit.
"Just the few of us?" Tony called back. "Fine. As long as I'm not cooking, I'm good."
The last time Tony tried cooking sea bass, it was burnt beyond recognition. Malrick had laughed about it for weeks. Tony swore never to enter the kitchen again.
---
Upstairs
After handling the fallout from Tony's press conference, Pepper finally arrived at the mansion.
Seeing Malrick in the hall, she rushed over and hugged him tightly.
"Malrick! Oh my God—I couldn't believe it when Tony said you were back. The Mark spacecraft was still orbiting Earth!"
Tony's self-built shuttle, the Mark Spacecraft, had been parked outside the planet for months.
"And you flew it back on your own? That's incredible!"
She stepped back, eyes widening. "You're huge now! You used to be waist-high!"
She tapped his chest—rock-solid muscle. "Holy crap, you're built like a marble statue!"
Malrick chuckled. "If I'd known that was all it took, I would've come back sooner. Tony wouldn't have had to disappear on you."
He quickly softened his tone. "But really, it's okay, Pepper. I know you were trying to protect me. If I hadn't grown stronger out there, I wouldn't have been able to do anything."
If Tony was like a big brother or half-dad to Malrick, then Pepper was part-sister, part-foster mother.
Malrick smiled. "Besides, Tony made it out alive. That alone makes all the chaos worth it, doesn't it?"
"You think so?" Pepper looked uncertain. "He's been… different. Unstable."
"That's just the post-trauma adjustment," Malrick said. "You don't know Tony after a brush with death like I do."
He nudged her toward the kitchen. "C'mon, time to get dinner started. I'll tell you the whole story while you cook."
---
A few hours later
Dinner was a success.
Tony introduced Yansen to Pepper and Rhodey, and their little circle began to grow.
Yansen would go on to join Stark Industries' R&D department and finally work on projects he was passionate about.
Over dinner, Tony laid out his new philosophy—one focused on using his inventions to actually make the world a better place.
Rhodey didn't quite buy into it… not yet.
But Malrick could tell—this was just the beginning.
---