Leslie’s head appeared around the frame of the door into Tony’s office. “I’ve got it!”

“Got what, exactly? The chicken pox?” Tony asked her as he looked up from his computer screen. A screen that showed just how miserably their sales were tanking after Smark Industries launch of their new solar panels.

“Our new product you idiot! Do you want to see it or not?” She disappeared from the door.

He scrambled out of his chair and hurried after her. Leslie was talking as if he hadn’t had to rush to catch up to her. “Right so what I did was a tandem product introduction, twofer, if you will, so people will be suckered into buying two products and spending more money. They don’t necessarily need both products, but the tie-in will be so enticing they will want to buy them both.”

Tony wrinkled his nose at her, as he stared at the sheet and the lumps beneath it. “You sure about this?”

She punched him in the shoulder. “Yes. Now pay attention.” Turning away from him, she whisked the sheet away from the products beneath. “Introducing the new Stark Industries Espresso Pro Max. It’s super efficient, compact, and uses less energy than every other espresso machine out there. Also, it has a timer setting so you can set it the night before and it will make your espresso all on its own so wha-la it’s there for you when you get up in the morning.”

“Big deal, it’s a glorified coffee machine Leslie,” Tony grumped. “How does that beat highly efficient solar panels?”

“I’m not done yet!” she answered in a singsong voice as she pointed to the rather ordinary looking printer next to the coffee machine. “What do you normally do with your coffee grounds when you’re done with them?”

He scratched his head. “Uh throw them out.”

“Or use them in a compost heap. Whatever. The point is most people don’t think much about them because they become mostly useless. Now, we can get more out of them thanks to this wonderful little printer!” She yanked a little cartridge out of the printer, turned and pulled the used filter from the espresso machine and stuffed it into the cartridge, and replaced it in the printer, before heading over to the laptop beside it.

She smiled at Tony, hit the print button on the laptop, and waited while the printer zapped out a page. With a flourish, she lifted the page and handed it to him. “As you can see it is in full color and also high quality.”

He blinked at it. “Wait, are you telling me you just used coffee grounds to print this?” He stared at the full color photo of Stark Tower that was used for their advertising brochures. “It looks just as good as a regular printer! I would have thought it would come out like all different shades of brown.”

“No, it utilizes a chemical process to separate … look it’s complicated, I’m not going to explain it. But it will bury Smark Industries!”

Tony gave her an evil grin. “Hell yes it will! Get it out there!”

Leslie smiled back at him. “Press conference already scheduled.”

***

A’Cadia sauntered into Stevie’s office looking smug. “We’re in trouble boss man.”

Stevie looked up. “Trouble? What kind of trouble?

She slapped a report down on his desk. “Stark Industries just launched a new product and our sales took a hit.”

“That’s impossible! I saw their computer files; everything they have is months away from launch! Months I tell you!” he squeaked out.

A’Cadia shrugged. “Don’t know what to tell you. You put me in charge of tracking everything they are up to and according to the press conference they held, they’re launching a new product. Well, two actually. And we are screwed.”

“Get out of my office! I need to think! Out!” He waved her toward the door angrily.

“Fine.” She yanked the door shut loudly behind her.

Stevie rubbed at his temples, trying to think of another product he could launch immediately to compete with Stark Industries.

A’Cadia stuck her head back into the office. “Our stocks just dropped six points.”

“I cannot think when you tell me things like that!”

“Fiiiine!” The door slammed shut.

When it opened, again he was prepared to scream at her once more, but Melissa came shuffling in, tottering on her high-heeled pumps as she shuffled across the room with a tray. “Coffee!” She carefully set the tray on his desk with a wide smile. “And doughnuts too!”

“Are there sprinkles? I think better with sprinkles.”

“Um, yeah, the rainbow ones.”

“Good, now get out,” he muttered as he tore into a sprinkled doughnut.

Melissa wrinkled her nose and shuffled back out of the office. When she was safely outside the door, she looked over to where Ziva was slumped in a chair. “What’s his problem? He snapped at me about thinking better with sprinkles.”

“A’Cadia said Stark launched some new products and our sales are sinking faster than a submarine with screen doors.”

“Oh, well that explains it. Knew that was gonna happen. I mean it’s Stark, right?” She looked back at the office door. “Don’t tell Stevie I said that.” She hurried off as fast as she could in the heels.

A’Cadia wandered up and slumped down next to Ziva. “So, how long before this thing crashes and burns?”

Ziva shrugged. “With Stevie at the helm, no way to tell. Knowing him, he’s likely to try and hold this thing together as long as he can. Which means—”

A’Caida cut her off, finishing the sentence for her. “More collateral damage than is really necessary.”

“Bingo, my friend.”

“We should get out while we’re ahead,” A’Cadia muttered.

“Oh no can do. I tried that already. He told me in no uncertain terms that if I quit he’d, and I’m quoting here, “Ruin me until there was no more ruining to be done.” Whatever that means. I’m now in charge of product tracking. I’m supposed to be tracking new market trends. I have no clue what it means or how to go about doing it. And by the way, Angela is now our media relations director.”

“She’s what?”

“Media Relations Director. I’m guessing that means she’s in charge of anything that has to do with the media. Ads, press releases, uh, anything press related.” Ziva shrugged and flipped a page in the magazine that she really wasn’t reading.

A’Cadia stared blankly at the door to Stevie’s office. “Angela? The tiny blond in the tutu?”

“The one and only,” Ziva answered.

“He’s lost his freaking mind.”

“I’m not certain he had one to lose in the first place, A’Cadia.”

She nodded but said nothing in response, only because she was certain there wasn’t anything appropriate to say. She put a hand to her forehead. “Great, so what did he put Craig in charge of? I’m not sure I want to know.”

Ziva tossed the magazine onto the little glass table in front of the chairs in the reception area outside Stevie’s office. “Chauffeur. He’s got Craig driving him around everywhere. It’s insane.”

A’Cadia shook her head. “Not much dignity in that,” she answered with a smirk.

Ziva sent her a scowl. “Hey just because Stone got to be security is no reason to smirk.”

A’Cadia shrugged and sat back. Still smirking. “Funny how that works though. Logan and Stone are security and Craig is stuck driving Stevie around.”

“God you’re annoying.”

They both eyed Skylar at the secretary’s desk outside Stevie’s office. A’Cadia grinned at Ziva. “Better than secretary.”

Ziva chuckled. “True. Or Melissa’s position as personal coffee fetcher.”

A’Cadia burst out laughing. “I think he gave her that position because he wanted a mini-Pepper Potts stand in to shove in Stark’s face.”

Ziva giggled. “I didn’t even think of that. Now that you mentioned it, her outfits do resemble Pepper’s!”

At five O’clock Stevie calmly stepped out of his office. Skylar smiled at him. “You have a good night Mr. Smark!”

“Yeah you too Skylar see you back at the school.” He left the building; Craig drove him back to the school.

No one saw him slip back out again. Not a soul saw the high-tech suit of armor he donned in order to fly back to Smark Industries, sneak over to Stark Tower, and break into Tony’s office.

Nope, not a single person saw it take place. Because that was exactly how Stevie planned it all to happen. After all, he was a genius. And Tony Stark was not going to beat him, even if he had to play dirty.

***

Tony hummed as he strolled into his office the next morning, crossed the room, and dropped his newspaper on his desk. Except, it didn’t fall complacently on his desk as it was wont to do on most mornings. It hit the floor.

He frowned and turned a slow circle. The simple fact was, it hadn’t fallen on his desk because, his desk wasn’t there for it to fall upon. His desk was, quite simply, gone. Missing. De Facto, unaccounted for at present.

In fact, all of his office furniture was absent from the room. What in the hell was going on here?

Leslie walked into the room and came to an abrupt halt. “Stark are you remolding?”

“No, someone took all my furniture. Apparently.”

He did another slow pirouette, frowning as he looked out the windows. A thought touched upon his brain and he wondered if that little twerp across the street had something to do with his missing furniture, as the thought hit, Leslie’s sudden laughter from behind him interrupted the thinking process. “What are you laughing at?” He turned to look at her. She was staring up at the ceiling for some odd reason.

He tilted his head back and gaped. Every single piece of his office furniture was currently residing on the ceiling. Right down to his stapler and phone, sitting exactly where he’d left them on his desk the day before. Even his favorite pen! “That arrogant little twerp!”

“Oh God! This is too good! I wonder how he got it all up there!” Leslie could barely speak she was laughing so hard.

“Again, you are not helping Leslie!” he growled. “Give me your goddamn phone!”

“My phone? Why?”

He pointed to where his cell was sitting on his desk. She dissolved into gales of laughter as she dug her phone out of her pocket and handed it to him. “R … r … r …right!”

He quickly dialed Smark Industries using the main number from the brochure the snarky little twerp had given them. Funny how that was the only thing not glued to the ceiling. A cheery voice answered the phone. “Good Morning, Smark Industries, this is Skylar! How may I help you?”

“This is Tony Stark; I’d like to speak to Stevie Smark. Now.”

“Hold just a moment please Mr. Stark. I’ll see if Mr. Smark is available!”

He listened to an awful version of Dream Weaver as he waited for the overly cheerful receptionist to return. The super slow-mo Dream Weaver version was followed by an equally bad version of, all things, Iron Man. He wanted to smash something by the time the sunny voice of the receptionist came back on the line.

“Hold please for Mr. Smark, Mr. Stark!” There was a brief pause on the line where he was forced to endure several torturously slow lines of Tiny Dancer before Stevie Smark picked up.

“Good morning Tony! How are you this beautiful morning?”

“Cut the crap kid. We both know what you did to my office,” Tony ground out.

“Why, I have no idea what you’re talking about Tony. What would I be doing in Stark Tower?” Stevie replied innocently. “And how on Earth would I bypass your security? I’m just a kid. Remember?” His voice has turned slightly smug now.

Tony ground his teeth together. “You bypassed the security on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, I’m sure you could get past mine, given a little time.”

“I’m flattered that you think so highly of me. Now. Mr. Stark. Just a short time ago, you thought I was simply a stupid little kid, funny how things change. Isn’t it?” Stevie’s voice was light, but Tony detected the subtle little nuances behind it.

Oh, the kid knew what he was doing all right. The kid knew the he knew that the kid was the one who had been in his office, and the kid also knew the he knew that the kid was smart and the he knew he should have let the kid help with the helicarrier computers, and if he had, none of this would be happening right now. Oh yeah he knew what the kid was up to.

It was all about humiliation. Damn smartass little brat.

“Right. Got it. But you get this, kid. Never underestimate an enemy. It’s likely to get you killed. Worst possible thing you can do is underestimate the enemy. Especially in business. It’ll get you eaten alive.” He hung up before the kid could respond.

Leslie was still curled on the floor, seized by the occasional giggle fit over the furniture on the ceiling.

He tapped her phone against his thigh. So the kid had decided that the gloves were off had he? That was just fine by him. If the pint-sized tycoon wanted to play with the big boys, then Tony would show him what it was like in the deep end of the pool.

Where the sharks swam.

Time for the little fishy to learn how to swim a bit faster or get gobbled up. He sent a glare at the giggling Leslie before he stalked out of his office. He needed to go make some plans.