Just a story that came up out of nowhere. Lol. This is set after IM2. The rooftop scene happened, but neither had the courage to make a move. So this is just a sort of fluff about their unresolved sexual tension. Lol. This may go up 2 to 3 chaps. Depends. :)
All mistakes are mine. Sorry in advance. PEPPERONY FOREVER.
It was a particularly long day. Business meetings here, project proposals there and to add up to her very busy schedule, about a foot high stack of contracts to review. It was just nearing the end of her workday that she was finally able to sit at her office chair, relax her eyes and hands a bit and just revel in the quietness her space has to offer. She made sure to ask Bambi to hold off all calls, and not disturb her for the remaining hours. She's done so much, she's talked to a handful of people already that she just wants some nice and peaceful time alone with her desk and pen- still as busy as always.
"Huh." She exhaled heavily, leaned on her office chair, and stared blankly on her laptop. She's not so sure what made this day more exhausting than others as she knows that her work is pretty much loaded everyday. She picked up her phone, dialed a number and after a ring, the faithful AI answered.
"Good afternoon, Ms. Potts," Jarvis said politely.
"Jarvis, what's the update?" She asked as calm and composed as she could be.
"None as of the moment, Ms. Potts. I have been trying to locate signals from the suit but still the search is unsuccessful."
She sighed. She is doing this sighing thing far more frequent than before. She can't tell if it's her way of releasing her inner turmoil or a subconscious effort to control her pending outburst of emotions. No signs of him, no contact can be made, no signals to help locate him, NONE. There's just nothing. And Pepper tried so hard to get herself together, finish whatever needs to be done and be the ever professional CEO everyone expects her to be. She's been through this already that she wants herself to believe that this is not a repeat of his three-month absence. That this is just a slight bump in the road. He is afterall Tony Stark, the Iron Man. He'll get through this. He'll get home eventually. He will come home to her.
She wants to spank herself for thinking that way. It's a terrible, dangerous ground to dwell in. Especially when she knows that their relationship is as clear as a fogged up glass window. Why would he come home to you, Pepper? You're just his long time friend, business partner and part-time baby sitter! She sighed heavily again for the nth time. She can't do this anymore. She needs to go home- home being her house and not Tony Stark's mansion, not that she wants to fool herself. She really needed to get a grip of reality and not act as if she's the ever faithful girlfriend waiting for her superhero boyfriend to return. No. She's just the martyr friend who subconsciously puts him on top of her list, worries about him always, and gets incredibly hurt whenever she sees him battered and bruised after a mission.
Nothing's helping anymore to make her sanity intact. Not her thoughts. Not even the crazy workload she has that before helps distract her. Not the many meetings that involved a lot of people. Nothing. Complete, utter hopeless Pepper in the middle of everything. It's as if all these whirlwind of emotions and the sleepless nights are catching up on her that she feels like fainting.
"Ms. Potts?" Jarvis gently asked. She almost forgot that she's still on the line with the AI.
"Oh yes. Kindly inform me as soon as you have some progress." She said distractedly.
"Will do, Ms. Potts." Jarvis' calm tone did no good to her panic-stricken mind.
"Thanks Jarvis." She ended the call, and tried to shake off the feeling of uneasiness. Focus, Pepper. He's just out there. Probably cursing himself for not being careful. Or he could have just stopped over some remote island with lots of sexy babes in bikinis that he enjoyed himself so much he forgot about her. This is not about you, Pepper! Again, enough with this illusion. She would rather have the latter happening than him being stuck on some god damn dessert, with nothing but wounds and blood to accompany him.
"Ms. Potts." She was slightly startled by the intercom. It was Bambi, and clearly she did not understand her orders. Nevertheless, she answered with all the patience she still has stored up.
"Yes, Bambi?" She said slightly irritated. But she knows her loyal secretary won't take it personally.
"I'm so sorry, boss. But there's an urgent phone call for you." She said slightly in distress, clearly she have heard her instructions correctly.
"Who is it?" She said suddenly alert. Please be Tony. Please.
"It's your mother, Ms. Potts." Her day is already hard to endure as it is, she does not know what she did to suffer this much. But it's not that she loathed her mother or she does not want to speak to her, it's just that she knows her mother so much that she can't have all the patience and the clear head required to be able to have a decent conversation with her. Her mom could really be hard to deal with and sometimes impossible to the point that she just drifts off from their talks.
"Okay. Just patch it through, Bambi," she said with a sigh of defeat or whatever it is called when you're done with all the worrying and thinking.
"Virginia," her mother's stern voice echoed along the four walls of her office. "Have you already forgotten about your mother? Hmm?" She scolded. "I have been trying to phone you for the past 30 minutes and what? Is this how being CEO is now? Forgetting your own mother?" Pepper could only shake her head.
"Mother." That's all she managed to utter.
"My darling daughter, why are you working yourself up too much? If only I could choose for you, you don't need to work a day in your life. You have enough on your trust fund. That bastard father of yours have enough to leave you with. That is if he still has some sense in him and not give away his fortune to random girls" She lectured on as if Pepper needs all the haranguing in the world.
"Mom, please. Okay. I'm sorry I was not able to call." She said desperately while trying to calm her nerves.
"Sweetie, I'm just looking out for you," she said in her most motherly tone.
"I know, mom. I was just kind of caught up with work and.." she trailed off. And Tony. "And I mean, uhm, everything."
"This is exactly what I'm trying to tell you. You're so busy you don't have time for yourself." Her mother reprimanded. "Darling, may I remind you that you're not getting any younger," here we go again, "You should be married by now, with children to raise and nurture. And not running a company and baby sitting that Tony of yours."
She sighed her 30th something sigh. "Mom, I'm happy with what I'm doing." She said with all the certainty she could muster.
"Are you? Are you really happy, my dear?" She said in that tone that clearly tells her that she's not believing a word she said.
"I am. Really." She said in a bit. Not wanting to elaborate further as this will just cause both confusion and longer conversation. Is she really happy? Maybe. Maybe not. But as of the moment, as they speak, she really would tell honestly that she's feeling so fucked up and 'being happy' is so not in her vocabulary right now.
"Let me remind you that I am your mother. And I could tell when you're telling a lie, Ginny."
"Mom, can we not analyze everything. And please for once just believe in me when I say I'm happy, I am truly, utterly happy." She's slowly losing patience and that if this call won't end soon, she's not sure how she would snap.
"Fine. You may be happy now. But you'll realize it when you're old and alone with no one in life but just a company who can no longer make use of you, and just see you as some cash collector. Is this really what you want to do?" Her mother, though almost all the time a nagging bitch, sorry for the term, is really incredibly perceptive. She may have inherited that trait from her and others she could be thankful for. Like the sharpness of her tongue. Or her sensitivity to matters- that may or may not be important. And most of all, the honesty and truthfulness in her. She knows when she wants an honest to goodness opinion of some matter, her mother is her go-to person.
"Mom, please. Can we talk about this some other time. I'm really having a crappy day,"she blurted out, not able to control her emotions anymore.
"Fine. Anyway sweetheart, I called to let you know, or remember, whatever is applicable, that it's your Gammy's 90th birthday on Saturday. We're all expecting you," she said resolutely. Damn, I forgot about that.
"No, I didn't forget about it," she lied. It's easier than having to explain why she would ever forget about her beloved Gammy's birthday, and it would just make her mom's argument more true-that, indeed, she had forgotten about them.
"Very well, Your gammy's been asking for weeks now when will she see her darling grand daughter. And you should be here," Pepper tried to butt in," NO EXCUSES, VIRGINIA."
"Mom, I just..I have.." she faltered. She really can't make anymore excuses. "Okay. I'll be there." She wanted to tell her that if she's sure by the end of the week that Tony is still alive and kicking then she would gladly fly to London, but ofcourse, she just held her tongue, rubbed her temple and exhaled slowly.
"Good." She can imagine her smiling proudly and nodding as if she revel on the feeling of outsmarting her daughter. "And I want you to meet someone. Handsome. Well educated. And he's a..."
"Mom!" She cut her off abruptly. "I'm not interested! For the hundredth time, I don't want you setting me up with random guys!" She literally could feel the last thread of her sanity snapping out.
"Virginia," her mother's tone is so calm, she wanted to just hung up on her and pretend that there's been a slight power interruption. "You need to meet someone, honey."
"I meet people, Mom. It's quite a lot actually." She said bluntly.
"I know. But I just can't help but feel guilty about this." She said,suddenly sounding disconsolate.
"Mom," she sighed.
"I know it's because of me that you're so cynical about men, marriage and love. I'm really sorry, honey. Just because me and your good for nothing father did not work out, does not mean you could not have your own happy ending," she added, almost sounding close to tearing up.
"It's not that, Mom. You have nothing to be guilty about." It's not that she does not believe in love or marriage or whatnot. It's true that she was slightly broken and cynic about finding that one true love as the women of her family seemed to have not been very good at keeping it. Or the men just won't last or stay long enough to say that there is such a thing as Forever in Love. But still, the fact remains that though she may be broken, or pessimistic about being in love or getting married, the one person she wants to be with just happened to be some megalomaniac guy who flies around the world with his suit of armor. Not to mention that the said guy also has trust and relationship issues that she just wanted to rip every novel, every love story she could find about having some knight in shining armor to sweep her off her feet. It's never that simple. Especially for her.
"Then, what is it honey? You're beautiful,successful and intelligent, and very much single. You can't really blame your mother if I get a little worried, honey," she said. "Wait, are you a lesbian?"she added oh so casually.
"What?" She sputtered. Of all the crazy things that escape from her mom's mouth, this is by far the absurdest.
"There is nothing wrong with that,dear. I could totally..." she said in the most patronizing tone. Before she could do anymore damage to her soul, she stopped her rambling.
"Mom, I am not a lesbian." She said in manner of fact.
"Okay. Whatever you say, dear." What? Is she really believing this? Oh God, help her. This phone call lasted longer than she thought or rather, she's surprised that she lasted this long.
"Mother, I'm not." She said sounding desperate.
"Then, just give this one a try. He's the son of a good friend of mine. Very well-mannered. I know you'd get along well as he's also fond of arts and business," she enthusiastically said. How could she turn this down without breaking her mom's heart. She knows she means well. And just plainly looking out for her best interest. But, she's really not having any of this, again.
"Mom, I can't." She thought hard for a minute."Because I'm already seeing someone." She continued on before her mother could see right through her lies. "I just didn't tell you because it's, uh, complicated." She ended while wrinkling her nose and squinting a bit. Hoping she would not downright tell her that she's just bluffing.
"I knew it!" she exclaimed. Pepper's shocked by her sudden gush. Oh. God. This. Is. Not. Good.
"You, knew..what? Mom." She fidgeted, not knowing what to expect from this.
"I knew it. I was just waiting for you to confess." She still has this AHA tone. As if she discovered some cheesy gossip from hollywood.
"I, I don't understand, mom." She said nervously.
"I know, you're seeing Tony.." she could imagine her rolling her eyes as she said 'Tony'.
She's too stunned to speak. What? How on earth? Where did her mother? Oh God.
"Darling, you think your mother would not notice? Hmmm?" She said casually.
"How?" She managed to utter it, or rather she managed to exhale a puff of air sounding like a 'how.'
"You've been talking about how he changed so much, how he's doing such a marvelous job being Iron Man, and how he wants to change the future, and so on, and on." She could imagine her mom waving her hands in the air, which she usually does when she speaks. "You can't stop talking about him,honey."
Pepper is still too stupefied to react. She could only shake her head, frown at the intercom as if her mother could see her and wonder how this conversation went from worse to worst.
"Mom, I'm not..." Before she could say another word, her mother hushed her. "Dear, dear,I know I may have expressed some feelings of untowardness to him. But if he's the one who could make you happy, and get you out of this singlehood and give me some grandchildren already, then so be it. I would not go against it. Besides your Gammy seems to be so fond of that man."
"Wow." She said dumbfoundedly. It could have been the nicest statement from her about Tony, she could have been the happiest knowing that her mom would agree with their relationship, except that the certain relationship is non-existent and not to mention, a not so thought out alibi. Oh God. This is so Not Good!
"Just tell that man of yours he could get to my good graces,impress me and all, and see what I have to say about him changing for the better, as you obviously see it." She paused for a moment. "Though, I'm still kind of partial to this young man I want you to meet. But I guess, I'll give 'the Iron Man' a chance. So, you definitely should bring him with you." Her mother stated like she's delivering a speech.
"Mom, I'm not sure if he could come," she replied. Well, it wasn't really a lie as she's not sure where he is or if he's even...She stopped her thoughts. Now wanting to entertain the idea of him not returning.
"Well, I guess he lost his chance." Pepper could imagine her mother smirking. "Then, I would love you to meet Stan," she said mischievously. She can't possibly think of a way to get out this. Better yet, think of a way to drag Tony with her to London without having to tell him of all her lies. She couldn't live with his smug look or that glint in his eyes if she ever tells him that her mom had arrived to some crazy conclusion that they are in a sort of relationship because she was talking and speaking about him- consistently and adoringly.
"He's out of the country, Mom," she said. Sadness evident in her tone, hoping her mom would catch on and just leave the issue alone. She could hear a faint voice on the line, someone is speaking to her mom, but she can't quite tell who it is.
"Okay, dear, I have to go and check on something. The new editors are killing me. Do you think, it's wiser if I'll just fire them all? Hmmm."
"Mom, just give them a chance. I know they strived hard to be able to work for you." She honestly answered.
"Very well, I have to go dear. Bye. You take care. I will see you. Love you."
"Love you too Mom."
"Just tell that Tony of yours, he better be here, or else," she paused for emphasis or just an added effect to what she wants to say, "he'll be sorry." She said in that threatening tone Pepper knows very much.
She slumped in her office chair. Not wanting to move anymore, and try as she might to do anything, she just can't have the energy.
'Where are you, Tony?'