Disclaimer: I don't own Iron Man or any of characters, and am not making any money off of this story.
Shoes
Pepper owned a lot of shoes.
It was one of the first things Tony noticed about her stuff when she moved in. Aside from her large assortment of black suits and other professional attire he had seen her wear countless times before, she also owned lots and lots of shoes. All of them expensive and impossibly high heeled.
"How many do you have?" he'd asked her in disbelief as she pulled a bright blue pair of peep toes from a box and placed them on the shelf.
Pepper smirked at him and reached for another pair. "Tell me Tony, how many suits do you have?"
Tony went still and he and Pepper stared each other down for several moments, neither giving in to the others question. Finally, Tony could stand her no nonsense gaze another drawn out moment. "I withdraw my earlier question."
Pepper smiled in triumph. "Good choice."
That had been two years ago. Now it was summer and Tony was sitting in on a board meeting that had been going on for over two excruciating hours when he noticed that pepper wasn't wearing any heels. She sat at her seat at the head of the table, leaning back in her sensible ergonomic chair with her ankles crossed as she made notes on her financial reports. And she was wearing flats.
In her closet he knew were dozens of shoes. Sensible black pumps for work, bright stilettos for parties, strappy contraptions for shopping, and or course, that one pair with the ribbons that she'd worn for his birthday with nothing else. Names like Manolo, Louboutin, Prada, and Choo were all over her closet shelves. (One time, Happy had even made a joke about being able to learn a new language just by reading the names on the labels.) Leather, alligator, suede, and silk were her options. If they made a shoe out of it, Pepper probably owned it. Shoes were one of her few guilty pleasures that she admitted to him, and it was one that Tony indulged her in often. Plus, seeing her wear them was one of his too.
But, as he sat in his seat to the right of her at the large oak table and looked down, he noticed her jiggling her left foot distractedly. A foot that was clad in a simple pair of dainty black flats with a scattering of stones across the toes.
Tony frowned mentally. Wondering how he hadn't noticed Pepper not wearing her heels before because, if he thought about it hard enough, Pepper hadn't been wearing them for awhile.
Minutes later, the meeting wrapped up and Pepper let Tony help her stand up to shake hands and smile up at some of the board members. Men who, a few months ago, Pepper would have been able to look in the eye. Tony didn't know if he liked this. Pepper was not someone who was supposed to look up to people. She was supposed to look them in the eye, like she would always look him in the eye when scolding him for missing meetings and the like.
Later, when they were home, tony leaned on the doorjamb of Peppers closet and watched as she slipped the flats off and left them at the end of a line of several other pairs of similarly sensible shoes.
"When did you stop wearing your heels?" he asked.
Pepper smiled as she shrugged off her jacket and hung it up. "Awhile ago." She turned around and pointed to her zipper, and tony stepped forward to help her slide it down.
"Why?"
Pepper sighed. "They're not sensible anymore, Tony. I can't be running around SI all day in my four inch heels. The flats make more sense, and the heels are uncomfortable and impractical right now."
Tony watched as she slipped the dress off and draped it over the hamper with her other clothes to be cleaned, staying in her slip as they talked. "But I like it when you're impractical. Impractical is sexy."
Pepper chuckled. "Yes, well, right now, it's also painful." She turned and smiled at him. "Don't worry; I'll go back to wearing heels in a while."
"Good." Tony said. "I like hearing their 'click click' in the house. Gives me fair warning that you're coming." He leaned closer and said huskily. "And I like it when you wear them to bed too."
Pepper turned slight pink as she stood there before him in her slip. A shade she'd only ever turned for him, and only when they were together. Something he took joy in seeing on her skin as she replied, "If you remember correctly, Tony, my wearing the shoes to bed got us in this situation."
"What situation?" Tony asked innocently.
Pepper smacked him on the shoulder and her grinned as he rested his rough palm on the silky fabric covering her rounded belly. The skin moved beneath his palm and Tony relished in its feel. Pepper smiled at him as he traced her large curves and said, "Doctor Carlotta warned that if I stayed on heels, I'd wind up on bed rest for my back from now until she gets here."
Tony's hand froze. "She?"
Pepper nodded. "She."
Tony smiled. A girl. A little Pepper to run around that he could teach about computers and robotics. He imagined Peppers red hair and his brown eyes. Someone he would spoil rotten and let get away with everything. Someone who he knew would crash their first car. Someone who would have Peppers love of shoes.
Tony smiled at pepper, and kissed her.
The next day, she laughed as she unwrapped his present of pale pink flats with floppy flowers, and a dainty baby sized pair to match.