This was an idea I got while re-watching Ironman 2. I often wondered about the 'quote' that Christine got from Pepper and what the resulting article might have said.
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"My editor will kill me if I don't grab a quote for our powerful women issue."
"Oh."
"Can I?"
"Sure."
She ignored Tony's whimper of 'don't leave me' as she passed by him, following Christine Everhart, someone she didn't like and didn't want to talk to, to a far corner of the room where her dictaphone sat squarely on the table between them, like a threat.
"Those two really don't see eye to eye, do they?" Christine said lightly. She was trying not to seem awkward with the woman who had ejected her from the Malibu mansion a few months earlier but Pepper could see the subtle twitches of nervousness.
"What gave it away? The pained expression or the Senate hearing?" Pepper replied dryly and Christine laughed, genuinely, at that.
"Actually, having talked to Justin, I think he's a little bit in awe of Tony. I think he does admire him..."
Pepper frowned. This wasn't how she expected this conversation to go but she carried on, curious to see what Christine was getting at.
"Well that's hardly surprising. Most people want to emulate Tony, he's a talented guy."
Christine raised an eyebrow at that, "I'll say." Pepper shifted uncomfortably in her seat, noticing the look in the reporter's eye and wondering if she was more interested in getting a quote or getting information. She decided to cut to the chase for her.
"So, what is it that you want from me for your magazine?"
Christine smiled and reached to turn on the dictaphone, asking 'May I?' and pressing the button when Pepper nodded.
"So, Miss Potts. CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world – how does it feel?"
Ok, thought Pepper, fairly standard question, easy enough to answer.
"Well, it's still sinking in. It's a little overwhelming I guess and, uh, certainly a step up from my previous role althought being Tony...Mr Stark's Personal Assistant is a little bit like running a country so I think I'll fit into the role of running a company relatively quickly."
She smiled to punctuate the end of her answer. She had rehearsed that one – don't say too much, keep it light and be confident but not cocky. That was Tony's way of doing things. She could see the cogs moving in Christine's head.
"You mentioned the difference in roles there – how exactly did you end up in this new role?" The question was asked innocently enough but Pepper could sense the bite in it. She wasn't being asked how she got the job, she was being asked if she'd slept with Tony for it. She took a breath.
"Do you know, I'm not quite sure. I wasn't even aware that Mr Stark was thinking of taking a step back from the CEO role until he approached me one day and offered me the role which, as you can imagine came as a shock. But we discussed it and he assured me that I had his and the board's full support and he had every confidence in me so...when an opportunity like that comes up, of course you take it."
"Would you consider yourself ambitious?" Christine asked and Pepper sensed genuine curiousity in the younger woman's voice. She nodded her head.
"Yes I would. It's a big industry and while I think yes it's an easy area to be anonymous and punch in every day until it's time to retire, there's great opportunities for someone who wants to make a mark. And, as you're aware, no one makes a mark better than Stark Industries and, while the method of doing that has been criticised in the past (even by Tony) we're confident that the company's new direction will make its mark in a more positive way."
Christine was looking at her curiously. She looked down at a small notebook that Pepper hadn't noticed her produce. She frowned but cleared her face rather than let the reporter see her apprehension.
"If you're so ambitious, why did you spend 11 years as someone's PA?"
Here we go, Pepper thought, it's just a step or two to the big question that she was expecting.
"I wasn't 'someone's' PA. I was Tony Stark's PA..."
"Still just a PA."
Pepper bit her lip, thinking strongly of filling the woman in on exactly all of the ways in which she hadn't been your usual PA but deciding against it. Instead she smiled.
"Yes I worked as Mr Stark's PA for 11 years. Why didn't I move before now? Well, I'll explain as best I can. There were opportunities for me to move but I turned them down. Before you ask why, I'll tell you. I didn't believe in the companies I'd be working for, or the people I'd be working with. But through all of my years in Stark Industries, while I might not have agreed with everything it did, I always believed in Tony. And when I believe in something I stick with it."
She tried running the answer back in her head, wondering if she'd been too outspoken, too revealing. She knew Tony wouldn't care but the last thing she needed was a scandalous article in her first few weeks as CEO.
"How'd you celebrate?" Christine asked then.
"Um, a glass of champagne followed by sorting out Mr Stark's schedule for the next two weeks and finding my replacement because as I've told him before, he can barely tie his shoes without me." She smiled politely.
"What about untying them?"
Pepper looked away, sitting back in the chair and shooting a look at the reporter. She looked at an imaginary watch.
"Wow, it took ten minutes to get to that question – I'm impressed at your restraint."
Christine raised an eyebrow in response, pointing out that the speculation about her and Tony Stark wasn't new gossip.
"I'm well aware of how long that gossip has been travelling around and I can tell you, with 100% certainty, that my relationship with Mr Stark is purely professional."
Christine nodded her head, reached and switched off the dictaphone. As she did, she uttered one further question.
"How long do you expect people to believe that answer after he made you CEO?"
"I don't really care Miss Everhart, I know it's true and I don't particularly care what anyone else thinks. Now, will that be all?" she asked, immitating her trademark PA phrase and Christine nodded her head, thanking her for her time. Pepper stood and strode away, searching for Tony, not realising what was about to unfold on a race track in Monaco.
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Three weeks later...
"Pepper! Have you read this interview in 'Vanity Fair'?" Tony yelled from the breakfast counter. It was a Sunday and since they'd got together they tended to spend the weekends together. On this particular day, he had left her asleep in bed as he padded downstairs to make breakfast.
As he'd passed the counter, he'd found the issue of the magazine on the counter, it must have been brought in by Happy, or maybe Rhodey because the front page had caught his eye immediately. It was a photograph of Pepper, he didn't recognise the outfit, it must have been a new, CEO specific suit. The skirt stopped just below her knee and accentuated the shape of her calves and also her hips.
He'd whistled when he saw it – she was corporate fox hot and he nearly threw it on the counter and returned to bed to the real thing.
But he didn't. He'd sat down and read the article and raised an eyebrow as he did. Christine had clearly delved back into Pepper's background and produced a very comprehensive profile of the woman currently slumbering in his bed.
'So, from a small farm in Kansas to CEO of the most powerful company in the USA, one might wonder how such a leap was possible. The answer, of course, lies in Miss Potts relationship with Stark Industries overlord Tony Stark.'
He sighed. 'Here we go', he thought, reading on expecting to find the usual speculation that, as it turned out, was now true. He was about to read on when he felt a pair of slender hands on his shoulders and, purring, he let his head back against her chest. She dropped a kiss to his temple and asked him what he was reading. When he told her, she stepped back, her face paling.
"How is it? I really don't trust that woman Tony..."
"No, it's fine so far but I haven't finished yet. Do you want me to read it to you?"
She shook her head.
"No, definitely not. Just...you finish reading it and then you can give me the digest of it. Ughh god, I forgot about this damn interview after everything that happened."
Tony smiled and raised an eyebrow at her to signal that he was going to finish reading it. She nodded and moved to sit on the couch but she couldn't sit still. He smirked and read on. As he did he found himself feeling two emotions.
The first was surprise. Surprise at the words on the page which, despite his fears, were not filled with sensationalism or biting cynicism. The second feeling was deep love. Deep love for the woman sitting nervously on his couch, wearing one of his oversized robes and probably not much else underneath it – same as him.
As he finished the piece, he stood up and walked towards her. She looked at him, eyes wide.
"Is it bad? Oh god, it's bad isn't it? Damn it, that bitch!"
Tony smirked and flung the magazine in the air while simultaneously dropping to his knees in front of where she sat, slotting himself between her legs and kissing her soundly, hands sliding up her bare thighs to find her quite naked underneath.
"Tony...stop. What does it say? Tell me."
He shook his head, latching his lips onto her neck and beginning a downward trek.
"It's not important. Right now, you and this are all that matters."
She looked at him, a mixture of confused and intrigued. He looked into her eyes and kissed her softly again.
"Pepper, read it later. Just know this...I love you and always will. And I hope you'll always believe in me."
Pepper borught her hands to stroke his cheeks, her eyes tearing up slightly, recognising her words from the interview. She nodded her head, kissing his lips.
"You know I always will. I love you too."
The magazine was forgotten until many hours later.
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When Pepper woke on the couch, with Tony's sleepy arms around her, her curiousity got the better of her and she reached for the magazine. She skimmed through the first page, impressed that the reporter's research into her background was extremely accurate. 'For a change' she thought to herself.
Then she saw the words 'relationship' and 'Tony Stark' in the one sentence and she took a deep breath before reading on. The following sentences focused on the interview that had happened in Monaco. To her surprise, she was quoted accurately and in context. One section struck her and she wondered if she had under-estimated Christine Everhart.
'But it is clear that the appointment of Miss Potts as CEO was more than flippant gesture by a man trying to woo an unattainable object of desire. It is clear from talking to Miss Potts that there is no one who knows Tony Stark and his heart of darkness better than Pepper Potts and, by default, there is no one he trusts more than her to steer him, and his company, in the right direction. The belief, it seems, runs both ways."
"Oh my god," Pepper said as Tony stirred beside her.
"What's wrong?" he mumbled into a cushion.
"Christine Everhart actually wrote a good article about us."
"I know. How about that, huh?" he said turning to nibble on her neck, his hand sliding across her bare stomach, ready to ignite her for another round. She dropped the magazine and looked at him.
"I was so worried that she was going to totally twist what I'd said into some sordid fluff piece."
He looked at her, eyebrow raised, "Come on, it's me. It was never going to be a fluff piece. If anything, she'd have written that it was very clear that you and I were having copious amounts of mind-blowing sex and that I was so spent I barely rememberd making you CEO. In fact, I wouldn't have made you CEO at all, I'd have been saying 'I'm making you come' and you'd be the viper who heard me wrong and held me to making you head of the company..."
She silenced him with a kiss. They broke off laughing.
"Thank god you're not a tabloid reporter!" she said, giggling at the scenario he'd just recounted. He kissed her again, hauling her on top of him as his hands trailed up and down her bare back. He pursed his lips suddenly in thought.
"There's just one problem though..."
"What's that?" she asked, running her fingers over his lips, letting him take them between his teeth and growling like a bold puppy.
"Well, Christine Everhart finally writes a fair article about us and the respectful relationship that we have...and it turns out that actually she was right all along. We ARE having copious amounts of mind-blowing sex. I almost feel bad for her."
Pepper chuckled at that and shook her head.
"I don't think I want to talk about Christine Everhart anymore Tony..." she stood up, not bothering to pull her robe back on. He watched as, naked, she slinked across the room towards the stairs. He sat up, not worried about his own modesty either and his eyes followed her up the stairs and out of sight.
He picked up the magazine one last time and looked at the front cover picture.
"I am one lucky bastard." he said to no one in particular before dropping the magazine and darting up the stairs after his naked girlfriend.
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So there you have it... Reviews feed my insecurity...