Disclaimer: I do not own Iron Man: Armored Adventures.

I only played with the characters a bit.

--

Appropriated

"Lying is done with words and also with silence."

~Adrienne Rich

--

Pepper took a deep breath before walking into the class room.

'Just one more period, don't lose it.' She told herself. She entered the classroom quietly, trying to draw as little attention as possible. Her efforts were in vain as Happy Hogan called to her from across the room.

"Hey Pepper, did you do last night's homework? Lemme copy!" She mentally swore. "No! Do it yourself."

"What?! Come on! Fine; TONY lemme copy yours!" He countered in outrage.

"Fine, but you'll owe me." A familiar voice answered behind her. She stiffed and turned slowly.

"H-hey Tony." She squeaked.

"Where were you last period?" He demanded with a frown

She was afraid he would ask.

Last period was science and Tony happened to be her lab partner for the day. She wasn't sure if she could handle herself …so she decided to ditch. Saying that she didn't feel well, she hid in the nurse's office for the period. She would have waited out the rest of the day there if the nurse hadn't insisted she either call her dad to pick her up, or get back to class. Her father would have killed her if he found out that she called him away from work because she was faking sick, so she opted to suck it up and go to class.

She began to ramble nervously. "I-I didn't feel well…still don't actually. I would have just stayed and rested at the nurse's but she wanted to call my dad and you know how he gets when I make him miss work, so I just decided to come back to class. I don't know what's wrong. Maybe I ate something funny at lunch; my stomach has been hurting a lot-"

"Okay I get it, Pepper." He said with a laugh. "Fewer words next time." He looked at her a second and she felt uncomfortable.

"You do look a bit flushed…maybe you should go home." He said earnestly, leaning closer to observe her further.

She was speechless for a second. She felt her 'flushed' face getting redder by the second. "I-I…" Whatever she was going to say, she cut herself off as she caught Gene glaring at the both of them. She quickly withdrew into herself

"Nah, Don't worry about me; I-I'm tough you know." She insisted while pulling away and quickly taking her seat for class.

She looked back in time to see Gene start a conversation with Tony, smirking all the while.

Luckily for her, class was uneventful; just some lecture about some big test. She was able to properly wallow in self pity.

When the bell rang signifying the end of class she couldn't have been more thrilled. She had to resist the urge to run out of the classroom as fast as she could- she was supposed to be playing sick.

She only managed to get as far as her locker before she was intercepted by Tony and an awkward looking Rhodey.

"How are you feeling now, Pepper?" Tony questioned with concern.

She wanted to smack her forehead in exasperation. Instead she plastered on a fake smile. "Oh I'm feeling fine. It must have been that disgusting mystery meat in the cafeteria." She lied, rubbing the back of her head and refusing to look him in the eye.

"You should have eaten with Rhodey, Gene, and I on the roof. I picked up a pizza." He said with a smile and a wink.

Normally she would have asked him how he was able to sneak out, if he became Iron man, how fast he was or what kind of pizza...but then she saw Rhodey shuffling his feet. She thought of Gene and that stupid smirking face. She imagined the three of them together up on the roof eating pizza, talking about Makluan rings and other mysterious stuff...

She suddenly felt unbearably lonely.

She let out a forced laugh. "Next time. Listen, I really gotta get going. My dad is picking me up." She turned back to her locker, hiding her face from them.

"Huh? Aren't you coming over?" Tony looked taken aback.

"When did I say that?" Pepper questioned quietly.

"You didn't…I guess…"

He had a right to be confused, it was Friday and she always came over on Fridays. Unless there was some sort of trouble brewing and Iron man had to save the day, they all went out for food and then hung around the lab. It was a sort of mini-tradition. It was an unwritten rule that she came over on Fridays. The fact that she was breaking it bewildered him.

She noticed that Rhodey said nothing keeping his eyes averted, this further encouraged her to lie.

"Sorry guys. I'll catch you later." She trotted off down the hall then, never looking back.

Tony ran a frustrated hand through his already messy hair. "What's with her lately?"

Rhodey placed a heavy hand on Tony's shoulder. "I…might have something to do with it…" He said regretfully.

Tony looked grim. "What did you do?" he questioned seriously.

--

Did you feel guilty about her sanity?

I truly wonder what made you steal

So unsuspectingly my life

While I was sleeping you pulled the knife

Look at me

I'm a mess

Isn't there anything that you would like to confess?

Look at me

I'm a mess

Isn't there anything that you would like to confess?

Pepper sighed loudly, mouthing the words along with the sad song that continued to play on her iPod.

Pepper sat on the steps at the entrance to her school, depression hovering over her like white on rice. She had lied about her father giving her a ride, of course. She was worried Tony didn't believe her so she had walked around to the other side of the school to the visitors' parking lot in case he tried to follow her. In doing this, she missed her bus.

"I hate my life!" She yelled suddenly in frustration, she felt tears beading in the corners of her eyes.

"I hate your life too!" A booming voice sounded behind her, effectively scaring her out of her self-pity.

She turned to face a snickering Happy Hogan.

"You scared the heck out of me, you jerk!" She yelled back.

"That's what you get for not letting me copy your homework." He shrugged.

She rolled her eyes as she switched off her iPod and placed it back in her bag. "Don't complain, you got Tony's homework didn't you?" She said and then winced at the effect that his name held over her heart.

"True enough." He was silent for a moment. "So what are you doing here?" He questioned innocently.

"I'm walking home I guess. I missed my bus." That was only part of it, but she sure as hell wasn't going to tell Happy about her personal life.

"Alone?" He asked in surprise.

"Nooo; with my imaginary friend, silly." She joked sarcastically. She started to walk down the street towards her house.

"Where's Stark and Rhodey?" He asked, looking at her suspiciously as he fell into step at her side.

"They had plans." She lied again, wow, it was getting easier all the time.

"Then I'll walk you home. A girl like you shouldn't have to walk home by herself." Happy said without missing a beat, oozing with confidence as he marched down the street.

"What?!" Pepper exploded, she was too busy hating her life to deal with Happy being, well, Happy. "What century do you live in?! I am perfectly capable of walking myself home, thank you very much!"

"I know that; you live in a dangerous area though, and it's Friday night- the felons are out." He said this with such honest concern she was thrown off.

"Well…that's nice of you…I guess." She gave him a soft smile, her first real one in days.

He scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You kiddin' me? Of course I have to walk you home! My dad would teleport here from work and beat me with a wooden spoon if I let you walk home alone!" Pepper laughed, another first for today, as memories came to her suddenly.

She had known Happy since kindergarten and had met his family on multiple occasions. He was raised by the oddest combination of a strongly feminist mother and an equally passionate, conservative father. She could hardly believe it when she first heard of his parents, but despite the odds they are totally in love. Happy also had two little twin sisters that were spoiled to the bone. Between his mother always telling him that women were strong and capable individuals that should never be oppressed by the male frame of mind and his father always insisting that females were pure and precious entities that should never have to work a day in their lives aside from at home and with children, Happy always ended up doing his sister's chores.

Pepper didn't blame Happy for trying to always act the 'manly-man' role at school. She would be sick of women too if she had two bratty little sisters to take care of while she was at home.

"Chivalry aside, don't you have a wrestling match today?" She questioned as she thought about his manly activities. Aside from being the star on the basket ball team, the only thing that kept him in their advanced school, he was on the wrestling team.

"Yeah, but I have time to walk you home and shower before I have to get back to school for my meet. I'm gonna win today-I can feel it!" He said this last part with barely suppressed excitement. One thing about Happy, no matter what he thought about women, he loved sports. Ever since he started in kindergarten, the boy fell in love. Didn't matter the sport, if their school had a team for it, he wanted to play.

"Good luck with that. You've been wrestling for how long and never won?" She teased lightly, while questioning him in a sing-song voice.

"Five if you count junior wrestling. But really, Pepper, I think tonight is my night!" He cheered in excitement.

"Whatever you say; I'll bake you cookies when you lose so you won't be too upset." Pepper teased again, arching a brow at his unbreakable enthusiasm.

"You'll bake me cookies when I win and then I will force you to watch me eat every one of them." He said cockily.

She giggled and promised that she would indeed bake him his cookies, win or lose, as a thanks for walking her home.

A comfortable silence fell between then for a moment, and for once she didn't try to break it. Happy was an easy enough guy to get along with, she speculated that if he was more into science and mechanics that Tony would like to hang out with him more.

Thinking of the young genius suddenly made her feel very sad. Tony would probably rather hang out with Happy than her any day.

"…lonely." She caught the tail end of what Happy was asking.

"What?" She asked in alarm.

"I said; you look lonely." He repeated patiently.

"I'm not alone; you're here." She was quick to assure. They were only about a block away from her house at this point. If she had not been so focused on hiding her feelings she might have noticed the lack of cars on the streets, the lack of children playing, or the fact that the street lights had been shot out.

Happy was quiet for a moment, looking contemplative. "Why are you walking home? It's kinda weird. I mean, normally you hang out with Rhodey and Stark…"

"I already told you." She snapped defensively. "They were busy and I didn't want to bother them."

"Pepper Potts?" A low gravelly voice said from a side alley, scaring them both. This is when Pepper chose to notice that it was much darker out than it should be.

Before she could have replied, two men emerged from an alley and one roughly slammed Happy up against a nearby wall. She screamed in shock.

"Grab her." The gravelly voice said

She took off as fast as she could, taking out her cell phone as she did.

9-1-1

She was connected in an instant.

"911 emergency services." The voice of an unusually calm lady operator answered on the other end.

"Please, my name is Pepper Potts and there are strange men on my street." She cried in a panic. She heard pounding footsteps behind her. "They're coming, they have Happy! Please I need He-!" She was cutoff as a man grabbed her and ripped the phone out of her hands.

"No service needed, sorry to bother you." The man with the gravelly voice growled in the receiver as he snapped her flip-phone in two. He threw it on the ground and grabbed a fist-full of her hair yanking her back toward the two men who were wrestling Happy into a black van.

"Funny; I don't know why I thought it would be harder to capture the daughter of an FBI agent." Then he pulled a small hand gun from his pocket.

"You should come real quiet, baby." He then brought the gun up and smashed it into her head.

The last thing she heard was Happy yelling her name.

Then the word span, she was everywhere and everything. Red swam before her vision, blinding her.

The world then went black.

--

"What the hell is the matter with you?!" Tony roared, grabbing Rhodey by the collar of his jacket and slamming him up against the school lockers.

Rhodey had rarely seen his best friend this mad, and the fact that his anger was directed at him scared him more.

"I'm sorry man, I was mad- I didn't think!" He tried to defend himself.

"I told you I had a copy! I told you it wasn't a big deal! And you told me that Pepper knew that! Why the hell did you lie?!"

"I thought she'd be safer that way…" Rhodey mumbled looking guilty.

"Safe from what?! A jerk like you?!" Tony snarled.

"Don't pretend you don't know how much danger she's put in just knowing you!" Rhodey yelled.

Tony glared darkly at Rhodey, gave him a final shove and released his jacket. Without Tony holding him up, Rhodey slipped down the lockers and sunk to the ground.

"Get up." Tony snapped impatiently.

He obeyed, saying nothing.

"We're going to find Pepper and you're going to apologize…but first, I'm going to find Gene and beat the shit out of him."

--

A/n: Well, opinion? This had started off as a one shot, but it became much too long so I decided to break it up. If you want the rest I need reviews darlings! All kinds please; I want to be a better writer!

Disclaimer: I don't own Look at me by Graziella Schazad (which is an impossibly cute song that always reminds me of Pepper/Tony)