"Fifteen?" Tony Stark halted in his tracks. "Fifteen as in one-five and not fifty as in five-zero?"

"Yes, Tony, fifteen: one-five, the number between fourteen and sixteen," Pepper shifted the various manila envelopes in her grasp to her right hip and patiently waited for her employer to start back down the hallway to his office. "Fifty would just be ridiculous. And probably painful."

"I bet I could make it to fifty."

Her eyebrows raised before she closed her eyes and shook her head. "You know what, you probably could, just not with me." She was already beginning to regret answering his stupid question in the first place.

"Sure I could. We'll do it this afternoon. Cancel all my meetings after lunch." He gave her one of his biggest grins (with a slight eyebrow waggle) and started back on his way.

"'This afternoon'?" she looked lost for a moment. "Tony, you can't do something like that in just one afternoon. Even if you could manage to fit it all in one day, you'd probably need the *whole* day."

He laughed as she got back into step next to him. "Okay, so today will be a practice run. See how many we can fit into one afternoon. We'll go for the whole day session later."

"Even *if* I wanted to agree to that, you have too much going on this afternoon. I can't possibly shift around and/or cancel *everything*. The board meeting alone…"

"It's not a full board meeting, Pepper. Half of them are out with either the flu or fear that it's the pig flu…"

"Swine flu. H1N1 is more proper."

"Whatever. Either way, the other half doesn't want to be there either, and I doubt they'd argue with having to 'reschedule to accommodate the whole group'. As for everything else… Davis is just showing me the same idea he came up with the last couple of times except with 'new and improved' wording, and Clemmons thinks he's mastered time travel which, even if I believed that, wouldn't be very ethical."

"You wouldn't want to travel back in time for anything? Or forward, for that matter?"

He laughed wholeheartedly. "Of course I would. I'd love to see what our kids are going to look like." She opened her mouth to protest, but he waved her off. "But then I'd be worried about exactly when we'd conceive and if the right sperm/egg combo met to get said children so I think I'll just stay in the dark about this one. I'm sure whatever they're like, I'll be pleasantly surprised. Besides, I have a partnership in mind, and rumor has it that the CEO frowns on time travel."

"Partnership with whom? You haven't told me anything about this, Tony…"

"Relax." He waved her off again. "It's not happening today, probably not even this year, so don't worry about it. I'll fill you in when the time comes. Which means right after lunch, and you will eat a decent lunch today - none of that cup of yogurt and an apple kinda stuff - til at least midnight - maybe longer - you and I are going to be busy. And anyone who thinks they can interrupt us can kiss my ass. Which, as many times as I'm going to be bent over, will be readily accessible to them."

"I'll be sure to alert the media," the corner of her mouth twitched into a wry grin. "It sounds like the perfect photo opportunity."

---------------------------------------------------------------

Pepper was *really* beginning to regret answering his question now. He had insisted - and quite nearly thrown a fit when she refused - on buying her a new outfit. And not just the normal top and bottom parts of an outfit, but also the shoes and the gloves and… she wasn't quite sure why she was wearing gloves. She'd probably end up taking them off as soon as they started. She was most surprised that he hadn't bought her new underwear to go with it all, although she'd probably find that later. He *had* been eyeing a match set in a catalog while they were in the shop…

But she did have to admit… he was entertained, and he wasn't building something or blowing something up. Or batting around sexual innuendo.

"Hey, Pepper!" he called from across the room. "Grab my balls!"

She choked on her own breath as the group of teenagers by the nearest pool table started to snicker. Then again…

Maybe going bowling with Tony Stark was going to be more painful than she first imagined… even if they didn't make it to fifty games in one day.