Okay, I've decided to try my own hand at writing a soulmate AU, so here it is, the first of seven one-shots, each of which are going to feature Pepper.

(What Now?) Pepperony

This is inspired by the "Iron Man: Armored Adventures" cartoon, especially since I'm pretty sure the back-story here doesn't fit into canon all that well anywhere else.

At sixteen years old, Virginia Potts was the second-best in her class, and it was a title that she was very much proud of. After all, she'd worked hard for it.

Maybe that's why she was so irritated by the sudden presence of Tony Stark in her school… Before his appearing here – after the death of his parents and his moving in with his best friend's family, so the story went – Virginia had been the top student and Tony Stark had taken that from her.

She should pity him for everything that he had been through recently, and she knew that – but it really was hard to do that most of the time, considering that he was… well, Tony! He'd never spoken to her directly before, but everyone knew who he was – and he knew that they all knew. He was a slacker and a player, yet he still managed to get the best grades in their class. Not fair!

And now Mr. Sanchez wanted them to partner up for the most recent science project? Really? Doubly not fair! Any other girl in this room would be swooning over the idea, but Virginia was just not any other girl.

After Mr. Sanchez listed off their names, Virginia got a text – right there in the middle of class! – from Tony – Wait a second, how did he get my number?! You know what, it's probably best not to ask – that said, Meet me in the library after school.

She sighed deeply, but nevertheless, trudged into the library at the appointed time. She glanced around and spotted Tony sitting at a table in the middle of the room, head bent over something or another. Though he looked perfectly harmless right now, she still didn't want to go over there and unnecessarily expose herself to his douche-iness. Unfortunately, Mr. Sanchez had made it entirely too necessary.

Marching over, she dropped her backpack heavily onto the floor when he didn't register her presence and declared, deciding to put on a brave face, "Hi, I'm Virginia."

Suddenly his head snapped up, eyes blowing wide as he asked with a surprised bark of laughter, "Your parents named you what now?!"

What did he think she'd said? "Virginia. I just said my name was Virginia."

His entire expression changed again as he said slowly, "Did you now?"

"What's wrong with that?" she asked sharply – and then something hit her and she realized exactly what was wrong with that.

She paled, falling down into the seat across from him as she recalled the words he'd said. "Your parents named you what now?!" Those words. The words. Her words – the ones that had been wrapped around her ankle when she was born.

"Oh, no!" she said faintly, unable to do anything but stare at him.

At least he seemed to be having the same trouble figuring out what to do next. Eventually he shifted uncomfortably, looking away from her as he muttered, "I take it you don't like me?"

"I don't like your reputation!" she responded instantly. "The way you treat girls – and people in general – is horrible!"

"I can do better for you," he responded instantly, gaze flying back to her, and the earnestness in them gave her pause.

Something in her faltered as she asked, not quite gently, but not at all harshly, "Why should I believe you?"

"Because I've lost almost everyone I love this year, few as that number already was, and I don't want to lose you too."

Virginia considered herself a capable, level-headed person, and a good judge of character, and of honesty, besides. Sitting directly across from someone like Tony was, there was no way you could fake the sincerity she saw in his eyes and heard in his words.

But she was still leery, and said, "You don't know me from Adam, though."

A smile played about Tony's face as he gave what he could see of her a once-over as he pointed out, "Maybe not from Eve, babe." Virginia glared and Tony sobered again, adding seriously, "But I'd like to… if you'll give me a chance?"

She looked at him for a long minute, really looked at him as it occurred to her anew that she'd just met her soulmate. And when that thought hit home, she had to fight getting really, really excited. But she still had to think this out, right?

"This science project is due in two weeks; let's see how well we've done together at the end of that time period, okay?"

"And if we do 'well,' what then?" Tony inquired with a suggestive smile that made Virginia weak in the knees.

Wait, what?!

She managed to shrug, knowing by the widening of his grin that he caught the tremor in her voice as she suggested, "Then we go out to lunch or something."

Tony sighed quietly, but replied, sounding a little resigned to the pace that she wanted to take this at – and yes, she reminded herself sternly, she did want to take this slowly – "Fair enough."

"So!" she said a little too loudly, before she said something that she was going to regret later. "Project!"

Tony blinked, having obviously been caught off guard by the change of subject, but he recovered quickly and replied, "Yeah, okay. Project. That's, ah, what I was working on when you came in."

Virginia scooted her chair to the other side of the table, right next to his, as he pointed to what he'd been scribbling on his notepad at her entrance.

And if he put his arm around her shoulders as he explained his idea… well, maybe that was okay; he did smell really good after all. If she curled into him while they continued to talk, then so what? It was cold in the library, and he was warm. And if he wanted to make sure she was good and warm by kissing her when the librarian eventually told them to get out so she could lock up for the day, well then, that two week limit she'd just set could go play in traffic.

They were teenagers, he was a cute guy, he was being genuine for once, he was her soulmate… and she trusted him."

Hey, Tony," she asked curiously as they walked out of the library hand in hand. "What did you think I said when we met?"

"Nothing you'd appreciate, sweetheart – but I think you look more like a 'Pepper,' anyway."

Now I have a strange question: Do any of you know of someone who might be willing to write a Rogue (from the X-men)/Ruby (from Once Upon A Time) crossover?