"You can try. And he's a bit of a pushover at times, so he just might. Especially if you smile at him like that when you're handing out marching orders," Tony said, grabbing a screwdriver that was far enough away from the workspace to be considered an original and now unneeded tool. He fooled around with it in his hands as they spoke, never not being able to do nothing.
He thought about warning her about the Hulk, but then, he seriously doubted she'd ever run into the beast. At least in the lab. None of them were careless enough to blow anything up here and Bruce was very in control in regular environments. If he wanted to warn her Tony would let him take care of it.
Her first question earned her a bit of a sarcastic grin. "All of the great inventors are competitive, deep down," he said. He tapped the arm on the table. "This is work to be jealous of. Not me, you know. But for other people to be jealous of you for doing. And like you said, you did it the hard way to get the bragging rights." He knew she was brilliant, and could probably outcode him just because of her ease of connection with machines, but looking at the work on the table let him know she'd be amazing herself (and secretly him) as soon as she perfected techniques without her powers. He held people to their potentials, and hers was incalculable by what he'd seen.
"I dunno. Jarvis, what were the rewards last time?" he asked.
"Three dinners with yourself, a series of gift certificates to boutiques and spas, and every solid year of victories you sent yourself to Hawaii specifically on the company budget, sir."
"Right," Tony nodded. "And there were gift baskets. I remember those... they had these very good pecan candy things... hey J, see if any shops in this City have those."
"Right away, sir."
Tony smirked and then looked at her. "Granted, we'll have to trade some things off. Instead of Hawaii, maybe a car. Of course, you'll have to win Employee of the month twelve straight times to qualify, and you'll still be competing against me. And Bruce. And we'll have to find a substitute for the pecans if they don't make them here. I'm sure if you or Bruce have any ideas about potential prizes, too, we'll take those into consideration."