Wow. First things first: THANK YOU! The reviews, favorites, alerts, that kind of stuff has been filling up my inbox and I simply can't thank you readers enough! It simply makes my day to open up my email and see all of the virtual love from you guys!
Second: This is pretty much the sequel to That's Not How You Spell It, the title of which will be changed to Spelling immediately after this is posted. It's not exactly how I wanted it to be, but I wanted so badly to get the proposal in somewhere, and it wasn't even long enough for me to consider it a ficlet, so I turned it into this story! And just a heads up: every Avengers fic that I write from now will be taking place after Spelling. Sorry for the long author's note!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers or Marvel in any way, shape, or form. If I did, Tony and Pepper would be engaged in the movie! A hope for Iron Man 3, maybe...? (YES IRON MAN 3 IS A GO! I FOUND A FEW REAL PICS OF THEM FILMING!)
Pepper Potts entered the elevator at Stark Tower at promptly 5:47 – the same time that she did every day, unless something had gone totally wrong at work. She pulled out her Blackberry and began to check her email. She pulled open the most recent one, received at 5:31 P.M. from Vanity Fair. The magazine wanted to run yet another article on Tony Stark. Thankfully, Christine Everhart would not be conducting the interview or taking any part in the publication of the article.
The email contained a large set of questions that they would like to ask Tony. Pepper scrolled through it and mentally crossed out the questions that would not be allowed to be asked. Questions that had to do with the power source for the Iron Man, the top ten floors of Stark Tower, details regarding more than just the surface details of the Avengers, and other types of questions were quickly removed from the list.
Pepper sighed as she reached the last two questions. She should have expected this one. Although she hated the question, she decided that she would leave the decision of keeping or cutting it to Tony.
Rumors have been swirling about you being engaged. Do you confirm or deny these rumors?
(If the rumors were confirmed.) To who are you engaged?
Pepper was forced to pocket her phone as the elevator doors dinged open on one of the floors of the tall building. Thankfully, it was the right floor. She would never forget the time that she and all of the Avengers rode up after dinner out – Thor, in his fascination, had decided to press all of the buttons. Seeing as Tony was adamant about not installing stairs, all seven of them had been stuck watching the elevator doors open and close on a different floor every thirty or so seconds until they reached the desired floor.
Needless to say, Tony and Pepper's plans for that night had been effectively delayed.
Pepper stepped off of the elevator and made her way into the wide room. Tony appeared at her side within a few seconds. They had made a habit of this. Pepper would reach the top floor every day by 5:48 and Tony would force himself out of one his many new labs to greet her.
He gave her a kiss and took her hand, smiling as he ran his thumb over the cold metal of the simple but elegant ring resting on her ring finger. A true symbol of love. He could remember in clear detail the night that he proposed.
"That's not how you spell 'Potts'." Pepper motioned to the holographic display. "You got two of the letters right, but they're not in the right spots," She continued to joke. The side of the tower read 'Stark'.
"Is that so?" Tony asked slowly. His heartbeat sped up a bit as he stuck his hand in his back pocket. He knew that he was making the biggest – and the best – decision of his life as he removed his hand, taking with it a small, black velvet box.
"Yes, that is so." Pepper turned to better banter with Tony. Her eyes immediately caught the black velvet box and her next sentence stuck in her throat.
Doing things traditionally but in the Tony-est way possible, Tony slipped onto one knee, opened the box to reveal a simple gold ring, and pushed it in her direction. "So, Pepper, do you want to marry me?" His eyes latched onto hers, and Pepper saw a hint of worry in Tony's eyes, while he saw pure joy replace the teasing look in hers.
"As completely unromantic as that was, yes, Tony, I will," Pepper said as a smile bloomed across her face. She slid the ring onto her ring finger while Tony stood up.
"Thank God. That would have been really awkward otherwise," he said, hiding just how relieved he was.
"Shut up, Tony." Pepper took his face in her hands and gave him a passionate kiss.
"What do you have to say about my spelling now?" He mumbled against her lips.
Pepper laughed and said, "I thought I told you to shut up."
From following Tony's gaze to her ring, Pepper could guess what he was thinking about.
"I like that night, too," she said, and gave him a peck on the cheek.
"So I take it that you remember what happened that night?" Tony whispered in her ear, his voice low.
"Well, I know that it started like this." Pepper reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him a deep kiss.
Tony responded by encircling her waist with his arms and tilting his head to deepen the kiss. He backed her into the couch where they sat down, Pepper in Tony's lap, without breaking the kiss.
Before they could get any farther, a voice broke the silence. "Hey." Natasha entered the room, heading for the mini kitchen area in the far corner. Pepper abruptly broke the kiss and blushed, but Tony refused to remove his arms and allow her to move off of his lap.
"Really bad timing, Tasha," Tony called.
"Yeah, well, this place stays PG until the rest of us are sound asleep," Natasha said as she grabbed an orange and began to head back the way that she came.
"I own this place!"
"Then soundproof it!" With that, Natasha exited the room.
"Ignore her," Tony said. He moved to kiss Pepper again, but she placed two fingers on his lips to stop him.
"You have interview questions to go over," Pepper said. She grabbed her Blackberry and re-opened the list of questions from Vanity Fair.
"It can wait."
"No, it can't. The interview is tomorrow. Read – you know the drill." She pushed her phone into his hands and watched expectantly for him to start looking at the questions.
" No, keep this one. I can have some fun with that one," Tony said as he read one of the questions that Pepper had crossed out – What do you and the rest of the Avengers do in your spare time? Glancing over, Pepper made a mental note to start preparing statements to counteract anything crude, revealing, or just plain awkward or offensive to the team that Tony may say in response as a joke.
He continued to read through the list until he reached the last two questions. "Keep them. I'd like to answer those," he said.
"Positive?" Pepper questioned, locking eyes with him.
"Absolutely." Tony leaned over and kissed her, compensating for what had been interrupted earlier. He reclined her backwards so that she was lying on the couch.
"I thought Nat told you to keep it PG."
"Can it, Barton. I'm allowed to make out with my fiancée in my house."
"And when did 'fiancée' happen?"
Love it? Hate it? Leave a review, favorite, alert it, anything to let me know your thoughts! Keep on the lookout - this is a two-shot!
TBC