Six Times with Strawberries

They've just finished a dinner she doesn't want to know the price of and has no hope of figuring out, as prices are not listed on the menu. She tries not to visibly cringe when Tony flags the waiter to request something more.

"We'll have a strawberry cheese cake."

"Oh, no," Pepper interrupts, shaking her head. Tony pulls his attention to look at her eyebrow cocked in question. "I'm allergic to strawberries," she explains sympathetically with a smile.

He blinks at her in surprise for a moment before turning to their waiter, "Blueberry's fine."


"What are these?" Tony asks, scooping the box off her desk, before Pepper can rely.

"Gourmet Chocolate from Mr. Glack's assistant," Pepper explains as he opens the box. "You have some too, but you're welcome to mine," she tells him sincerely, highlighting a couple lines on her paperwork.

"Why," he asks before popping one in his mouth.

"Strawberries." She offers for an explanation.

"Who doesn't like strawberries?" He mumbles around a mouthful of chocolate, moaning when he breaks through to the real piece of fruit.

"I'm allergic, Tony."

"Oh," Tony responds, half distracted by the chocolate, as he pops another piece in his mouth. "Good to know."


Pepper slides back into her seat, a look of confusion on her face at the tall glass of pink liquid sitting in front of her, garnished with a bright red strawberry on the rim of the glass. "What's this?"

"The guy said they had the best strawberry lemonade, told him we'd try it." Tony explains biting into his piece of fruit.

Pepper sighs heavily in response, shakes her head slightly and pushes her glass off to the side, before picking up her menu.

Tony looks over at her, lips stained red from the fruit, head cocked in confusion, "What?"


"Hey Potts, you dropped this," Tony tells her as he walks by shoving something in her hand as he passes.

Opening her hand she finds a tube of strawberry Chap Stick she knows isn't hers. While it's nothing she'd have a reaction to, anything even reminding her of the fruit sends a chill through her body; she writes off his misstep as Tony not having read the casing.

"Strawberry," he calls back with a far to genuine smile. "Great choice!"


"Did you bring me strawberries?" Pepper interrupts over his winded self-centered rant that seems to go nowhere.

Tony flinches a little at the tone of her voice, but it's all she needs as conformation.

"You know there's only one thing in the world I'm allergic to—" she starts to remind him in irritation.

"Allergic to, strawberries," he finishes with her, nodding along while she stares him down. "This is progress Pepper," he tries to sell her on his blunder, "I knew there was a correlation between you and this."

But Pepper is far from persuaded. In the ten years he's known her she needs more than the fact that's he's remembered something about her and strawberries.


"No, no, no," Tony tells the waitress, pulling Pepper's attention away from the band playing, as he picks up the complementary Champagne and strawberry off the table and thrusts both glasses back on to her tray.

"She's allergic to strawberries," he explains waving the drinks away.

"I'm so sorry, I'll bring replacements," the waitress promises, before disappearing back into the crowd.

Pepper can't help but smile slightly and cock an eyebrow in response. "What?" Tony questions uncertainly.

"You can have strawberries, you know," she reminds him with a small chuckle.

Tony grins back in response, leaning in across the table, "Not if I kiss you at midnight."

"Who says I'm kissing you at midnight," Pepper teases leaning in closer.

"I don't know," Tony scoffs. "I kind of thought you were my girlfriend or something."

"Hmm," Pepper cringes, nose crinkling playfully, "That's right."

Tony chuckles in response, unable to help himself as he closes the gap and captures her lips.


A/N: I apologize if the Iron Man 2 one is incorrect in any way; I'm going based on memory.