This is to just help me get over some humps and writer's block. It isn't going to be a full chaptered story, just a story of one-shots and an OC. The only time I will probably write for this is when I have writer's block or just want to have some fun because life gets you down sometimes.

Tony Stark was a dick but he was a well-paying dick. Rome was pretty sure that the prick had paid off all her student loans just so he could keep her around. Her degree had been in Business but she needed an internship. When she applied at Stark Industry she didn't that she was going to get it. They had told her the interview would be with Pepper Potts. Well, turned out Pepper had been sick that day and Tony wanted to do the interviews himself.

When he read off her name he raised an eyebrow at it. Yeah, her parents were probably high when they named her but it wasn't the worst name out there. Rome Matthews wasn't a terrible name it was just an odd one. The interview went all downhill from there. With a few jabs at her degree, Rome had had enough. She stood up from her chair and told Tony Stark to promptly, and she quotes, "Fuck off, Tony Stank." Then left by slamming the door.

She felt good about for about thirty seconds and then she hit the elevator and freaked the fuck out. He was probably going to blacklist her. When she got the call, the next day saying she got the job Rome had almost dropped her phone.

That was three years ago. Somehow Stark had dug his claws into her and charmed her into taking a job at his company. He offered the job of business development manager. She was going to turn it down because the internship had practically been hell. Then Tony told her what her yearly salary was, and Rome immediately asked where she had to sign.

Look, it wasn't like she was some greedy money, hungry bitch. She was a biracial girl who grew up in a rural area in the middle of Central Pennsylvania. Her parents were exactly making any cash either. Her mother was a grossly underpaid school teacher while her father, bless his heart, worked at the grain processing plant. When she saw an opportunity for cash she took it.

Although considering some of the stuff that Tony put her through Rome honestly deserved a raise. Like, now for example. She had a very important meeting that she was supposed to get to until Tony texted her that saying that it was an emergency. Fearing that something had gone wrong with his arc reactor in his chest. Rome had slammed her hoagie down on her desk and rushed over up to the 70th floor as fast as her heels could take her.

However, that was not the case when she walked into the room. Instead, she was greeted with the sight of a perfectly healthy and fine Tony. The problem that he had, you may ask? His hand was stuck in a pickle jaw and he needed her help to get it out.

"Let's be honest here, not the worst situation you've caught me in." He said sarcastically.

Rome sighed and walked over to him, "No, it hasn't but I don't think you could ever top that moment." She snorted as she grabbed the jar his hand was stuck in and tried wiggling it, "It's like every time I see a picture of Cher I see you."

"Hey!" Tony yelled almost sounding offended by her comment, "I looked great in those fishnets. You can't deny it Rome, I made a great drag queen."

"Drag Queens are pretty, Tony. What you were that night was not pretty." She tried twisting the jaw a little more, but nothing was working, and she huffed in annoyance. Standing back, she adjusted her black pencil skirt and stared at the jar hoping that it would just pop off so she could go to her meeting. Stoking her chin and narrowing her eyes she finally came up with a solution, "We should call Pepper."

"Already tried, she's busy in Malibu with some other meetings and shit like that." He huffed.

"We could always just break it."

"And risk getting glass in my hand, uh, no I don't think so. How about we just do the push-pull method and see how that works out."

"Tony no."

"Come on, it will be fun."

Rome shrugged her shoulders, "Alright, fine, you're the genius here." Grabbing the bottom of the jaw again Rome pulled with all her might. It took a couple of seconds and some wiggling but eventually the jar gave and both her and Tony were sent flying back. Unfortunately, so was the pickle juice because as she stumbled back the jar's contents landed on her. It's like she was watching it happen in slow motion and she watched in horror as the juice ruined her favorite blouse and skirt in two seconds flat.

"I really fucking hate you." She mumbled.

He let out a bark of a laugh, "No you don't." He then examined his newly free hand, "I didn't think that would actually work."

Yeah. Rome decided as she laid down on the ground. She really hated her fucking life.

"Hey, Rome?" Tony asked and she closed her eyes wondering if she ignored him he would eventually just go away.

He didn't. Ignoring him was the wrong thing to do because somebody didn't get enough love as a child. Tony had reverted to a state of a five-year-old craving attention from his caretaker and since Pepper wasn't around that role fell to her. Lord, she loves that redhead but why she settles for the garbage fire that was Tony Stark's emotional capacity she'll never know. Tony kept pestering her, with her name, and variations of it. The final straw was when he crawled over to her and started poking her in the ribs.

"Rome?" He asked like he was a child even though he was old enough to be her weird uncle.

"WHAT!" She screamed opening her eyes and murdering him silently in her head. If it wasn't for her yearly salary then she would have done it by now.

"Why do you yell so much?"

Rome propped herself up on to her elbows and glared at Tony, "I don't know. Maybe's it's the fact that my boss, who calls me away from an important meeting, asks me to help get his hand free from a pickle jar. Because even though the said boss is an alleged genius he still can't figure out how to get his hand out of a pickle jar."

"Alleged genius?" Tony asked scandalized putting a hand over his heart, "Rome, I built JARVIS." He said.

"Yeah, so you don't know have to work with people because you're terrible at it." She said as she got up to her feet. She looked down at her shirt and sighed at the huge stain that was now present on the front. She couldn't go to the meeting like that and screamed internally, she should really ask her doctor to up the dosage on her anti-anxiety medication. Which she never had to take before working for Tony, because he was that much of an absolute nightmare. But, damnit he was a well paying absolute nightmare that paid off her student loan debt.

Looking over to Tony she pulled her shirt out from her skirt and stared at it, "I don't suppose you have any spare clothing around that isn't littered with STD's?"

"Oh, ha-hah, very funny." He faked laughed then took off his Metallica shirt and threw it at her, "Just put that on you'll be fine."

Rome grabbed the shirt and glared at it in her hand before shaking it in front of Tony's face. "This isn't casual Friday Tony! I have a presentation to do, at a meeting that I'm already late for, for your company! I can't wear this."

Tony waved his hand in the air, "What are they going to do? Fire you, I'll just hire you right back."

"Tony, despite your whole devil may care and I don't give a shit look. People, business people, actually care how you look. They will take me way more seriously if I'm not wearing this shirt."

"Well, you could always go topless. I'm sure that will gain their attention. I know I would pay more attention."

"Tony when it the last time you even went to a business meeting that you didn't sleep through?" She asked while staring at him expectantly. He closed his mouth and started to think, "See, the fact that you have to think about this just proves my point. You shouldn't be giving out advice when it comes to people because you are shit at it."

Tony just shrugged and took his jar of pickles reaching into it and pulling on out. He plopped it into his mouth and smiled at her, "It's either that shirt or go topless, you're choice Rome."

Rome sighed. This was going to be a long meeting.

She walked through the elevator doors into Tony's penthouse. The Metallic shirt that was Tony's basically swallowing her up. She had tried the old middle schooler trick with a rubber band but the amount of time she had to re-tie it was annoying. Rome's hair was a mess from her hand running through it. Her makeup was half rubbed off from the number of times she had to wipe her face with sweat. She was also pretty sure that she had a new blister forming on the end of her heel from the new pumps she was wearing.

On the plus side, they approved her idea.

Rome noticed the distinct sound of metal clinging together and she knew that Tony was working on a suit. Walking over to his fridge she opened it, grabbed two beers, and walked down to his workshop. The doors automatically opened for her, she found that JARVIS had never once asked for her permission to come in. Either because even JARVIS was pissed off by Tony's attitude and like hearing her yell at him from time to time. Or Tony was a big masochist and loved it when she yelled at him with the occasional head slap. Look, Rome knew that their relationship was very odd and very unprofessional but, so was Tony Stark. That was literally his brand: Odd and Unprofessional. Rome laughed she should trademark that.

Making her way over to his table she sat down upon it and opened up on of the beers. She waited patiently for Tony to stop hammering away on what looked to be a chest plate. She could see the blue outline of his arc reactor in his chest and she wondered how he slept. Did he have to sleep on his back always or could he sleep on his chest? What was it like going through metal detectors at airports or even working with magnets?

He was finally finished with one more bang and looked at his piece in triumph. He was covered in sweat and oil and the bags under his eyes told her hadn't slept in days. Rome wasn't judging though, neither had she.

Panting Tony came over to her and sat down next to her and grabbed the other beer. He opened it with ease and took a sip. "How'd the meeting go?" He asked.

Rome shrugged her shoulders, "They approved my idea." She said casually. Then looked over at his smirking face and eyed him suspiciously, "You didn't have anything to do with that did you?"

Tony gave her a look of fake innocents and threw his hands up in surrender, "I didn't say do anything."

Rome snorted, "Yeah, alright and you're not Iron Man." She said sarcastically.

Tony chuckled and threw his arm around her shoulder pulling her in closer, "You know why I hired you Rome?"

"Because I have a weird name that gives you too many opportunities."

He nodded his head, "Well, yeah, but it wasn't the only reason."

"Because I was a fresh face college student and you knew that if you paid off all my student loans I would work for you."

He then nodded again, "Okay, besides that point."

"I've got none." She said putting her beer down and resting her elbows on her knees creating horrible posture her mother would faint over.

Tony shook her shoulders slightly trying to cheer her up, "I hired you because you know what the hell you're talking about." He said truthfully and she perked up a bit, "When I interviewed you, you didn't once hesitate on any of the questions no matter how weirdly personal they were. When it came to the actual business side you tried to get me to understand."

"Tried?" She asked.

"Look, I still don't understand half the stuff you do but I know that you're good at it. You tried getting me invested in my own company. I knew that if you could keep my attention for more than five minutes then you would have no trouble with ten other generic white men." He said laughing slightly at the last part.

Rome snorted, "Tell me about it, they all look the same to me now. I can't even tell the difference sometimes."

"Point is, Rome," Tony said forcing her to face him and she looked up at him with her sad brown eyes. "You don't need me, you never have, and you know that. If you want something, Rome, then you have the ability to just fucking take it."

Rome smiled and perked up fixing her posture just a bit. Her lifted when Tony said that. Yeah, okay, he was her boss and probably trying to keep her on and make sure she wouldn't quit, (Like she would ever?). But, when push comes to shove he was a half decent friend if you got enough alcohol into his system. Rome started to think that maybe he wasn't such a dick after all.

"But, really though, how'd the meeting go, Romulus? Any old guys started eyeing your D cups up?" Rome let out a noise of disgust and punched Tony in the shoulder. Who just started laughing at his own statement and took another swig of beer.

Yeah, no, scratch everything nice she had just thought about him.

Tony Stark was still a dick.

But he was also her friend.