A/N: A collection of short, generally one sentence long drabbles centered around the lives of Tony and Pepper. The second part should be up soon!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do not own them outside of wild fantasies...

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1. Cinnamon
oh, have yourself a merry little christmas

His favorite part of the holidays is asking her if she'll dress up as Santa while she brings him coffee and a plate of homemade, once-a-year cookies.

2. Bittersweet
right and wrong's not black and white

The only thing worse than the tears running down her face is his joy that for once, they are not his fault.

3. Technology
my mind, my struggle

And then there are the days when Pepper finds Tony alone in his workshop, a stone's throw from exhaustion and a revolutionary creation sitting on the table.

4. "What was that for?"
pride's a funny thing, you know

He thought the first time was an accident. The second, a bug in the system. By the third, he threatened to have JARVIS sent to the cheapest community college available if he didn't stop changing his music to songs about apologies.

5. Rumors
nothing more than a whisper wind

To be honest, she cares more about people smearing his name than hers (but this is only because he's trying so, so hard to be good and doesn't need his face in the tabloids between blowing up ammunitions).

6. Sacrifice
give all I can, take what I can get

It's not that he doesn't care, that he doesn't want to; it's just that he's never going to be fucking good enough and why give up the only vice he's worthy enough for?

7. Reunion
the beginning of a beautiful friendship

One time, he catches her watching Casablanca in between managing his e-mails and browsing CNN, and promptly spends the rest of the week joking in a terrible accent about how out of all the offices in all the companies in the world, she'd stormed into his.

8. Sword & Shield
the pen is mightier than the sword

Somewhere along the way, she became his guard against the world, armed with an icy smile and her Blackberry.

9. My Happy Ending
counting the little moments

On an ordinary afternoon (he's back from Tibet and she's just charmed the board back into compliance), he sees her sitting on the dais by the window, a soft smile dancing across her face, and takes a minute to enjoy the view.

10. Windows of the Soul
peer beyond my exterior, take a look at the interior

With the glass littering the ground like shattered diamonds, he feels more vulnerable than ever, his barriers from the world's prying eyes gone beneath his hands.

11. Served Your Purpose
find the expiration date

She worries about the day he joins the broken metal lying in the corner.

12. Forever Ours
ignorance is bliss

The thought will never cross her lips, but at least in the time before her world came crashing down, they were safe and sometimes happy in their bubble against the storm.

13. Introspection
but bitter pinch of pain and fear that make creation think

There are times he wonders if maybe he's more metal than man because he swears he can feel iron clamping over his heart and cold steel running through his veins.

14. "If only..."
naughty influences

She knows she's been working for far too long when she starts to reply to his innuendos before he can even utter them.

15. Lost
and all I can see is your light

He will never, never tell her, but it was her voice that led him out of the darkness in that cave.

16. Words of the Heart
proof that maybe something's there

The week after the factory explodes, she finds the old arc reactor back in a new glass case, delicately placed next to a picture of his parents on the mantle.

17. Inspiration
a piece here and a bolt there, and watch us all come together now

Secretly, she wonders how he always just seems to know what wire will fit there and how it will all seamlessly fall together.

18. Reaching
prepared to keep dreaming

Each time they kiss, he holds her as if this will be their last time, as if each breathe will be their last.

19. Chaos
going to quit this crazy scene

They both know there is something irrevocably wrong about a world without the other in it.

20. Holiday
blink and vanish

She never takes days off anymore, now that he's back from over there (She never knows when one day will be his last).

21. Release
break these fragile holds or loose, I'm told

On the day their dance finally ends, flames blister their skin and their thoughts lay out like cards on the table.

22. Pain relief
smile though your heart is aching

Somehow, she knows that aspirin won't help budge the weight in her chest when he's gone.

23. Begging
calm before the storm

"I thought I paid you to help me, not to laugh."

24. Can't Deny It
data blips across the scene

As the years pass, JARVIS catalogues the minute changes among their lives; neither creator nor machine is sure of the day their duo became a threesome.

25. Unsweetened Tea
sometimes, the best comfort is unasked for

One morning, she wakes up to a blanket wrapped snug around her shoulders and a steaming cup of her favorite tea.

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