So basically, sometimes, without my permission, my mind comes up with sort of 'one-liners' and I feel compelled to compose a story around them before they get away from me. In this case, the inspiration was:
Christ, he didn't even know what he wanted to say. 'Hey, Pep. What's up? Me, nothing much? The usual. Flying a bomb through an inter-dimensional portal to save Manhattan, probably the world. Nothing important. What're you wearing?'
So yeah, I built a story based off that. This particular line never actually happens, but it works well as a prologue of sorts. Enjoy!
Pepper Potts liked to work. She liked being busy. She'd once had a psychoanalyst tell her that her working tendencies were related to some deep issues of self-worth, but she never believed it (which was good, the 'psychoanalyst' turned out to be a Dr. Phil wannabe who took one psych class in college and decided he was an expert). She just liked having things to do. She didn't like sitting around and watching the world move without her. It's probably because of her workaholic tendencies that she was ever able to survive as Mr. Stark's assistant, and if it hadn't been for the train wreck of events surrounding the her promotion, she probably would have survived much longer than a week as the CEO of Stark Industries.
So even though she was very relieved to rid herself of the title of CEO, Pepper was still somewhat worried about not having a job. Even though she was a saver not a spender, and Tony had paid her well enough over the years that she didn't have to worry about money right away, there was a daunting feeling that came with even the idea of being unemployed.
However, Pepper didn't have very long to be unemployed. She could more of less say she got her old job back, but there were some differences. First off, her job description had officially changed from working for Tony Stark to working with Tony Stark, she got a raise, and she somehow managed to retain the level of respect people had been paying her as CEO. Eventually, another difference became the lack of commute, as Tony started insisting she sleep over night after night after night.
Almost immediately, the two of them started working on a project to create a series of self-sustaining buildings in New York. Between Pepper's planning, Tony's genius, and the sheer amount of money that went into the project, the first tower was up in what seemed like no time. At this point, the only thing left to do was disconnect the building from the grid (which involved Tony in his newly-submersible armor actually disconnecting the building from the city's power supply).
It was the final stretch, for the first building at least, but Pepper still had more than enough work to attend to. She was finishing signing off on the design edits and writing up Tony's most recent patent when her phone rang. His smiling face filled the screen as it vibrated against her desk.
"Hello, Tony," she answered.
"What're you wearing?" he asked.
Pepper sighed. As much as she loved Tony, and as much as she knew he loved her, he had a funny way of showing it sometimes. "Normal people say hello, you know that?"
"That's weird," he commented.
She waited.
There was a very audible sigh over the phone. " Hello, Pepper. What are you wearing?"
She laughed a little, unknowingly making Tony smile on the other end of the line. "My business suit. Do you know why I'm wearing it?"
"Because you look hot in a pencil skirt?" he guessed.
"Because I'm working," she corrected.
"Well come home. I made dinner."
"You made dinner?" she asked incredulously (and a little afraid).
"Ok, so I ordered dinner, but I'm putting it on the plates, so I think I deserve some credit."
"I'm not kidding about being at work, Tony," she informed him.
"And I'm not kidding about dinner. I'll even put the placemats on the table. Where do we keep the placemats?"
"They're on the bottom shelf of the pantry all the way on the left in the kitchen."
"You're right, we don't need placemats. Come home."
She laughed again, though she tried not to. She didn't want to encourage him. "I'll be home later, Tony."
"Then at least tell me what you're wearing."
"I told you already."
"No no no, the fun part. What color is your underwear?" he asked eagerly.
Pepper considered hanging up on him, but she knew he'd just call back. So she considered her options for a moment, then asked, "If I tell you, will you let me get back to work?"
"Probably not. But the depending on the color, I might be inspired to suit up and come get you," he admitted
"You'd better not."
"No promises. What color?"
She tried switching tactics. "How about this: you'll find out when I get home tonight."
"Jarvis, prepare the mark five," he said, calling to the AI instead of talking to her
"Tony," she warned, "you'd better not."
"I miss you," he reasoned, not at all agreeing not to put on the armor.
"You saw me this morning," she argued.
"I'm bored," he tried.
"Go back to 'I miss you.' It was more romantic, at least."
"Dinner will get cold."
"Better than I'm bored," she decided. "You're not going to let me go back to work, are you?"
"Not a chance."
"Fine," she caved. "I'll be home in fifteen."
"You could be home in five if I came to pick you up. The suit is already prepped."
"Don't you dare. See you in fifteen."
Red. Her underwear that day had been red, as Tony found out that night after dinner.
Tony latched himself on to the missile headed for the city. Steve's voice came over the intercom, warning him. Tony ignored him. Instead, he instructed Jarvis on how to prep for the flight.
"Sir, shall I try miss Potts?" was the AI's response.
Tony almost said no, but with Jarvis' suggestion, Pepper's face popped up on the display, right in front of his eyes. "Might as well," he decided.
The phone rang. It rang and rang and rang as he guided the missile up Park Avenue. It rang as the chest thrusters activated at he shot straight up alongside Stark Tower. It rang as he flew upwards, higher and higher. It even rang in the last second as he flew through the portal. But right about when he realized he couldn't breathe, the phone stopped; the call failed. Maybe it's for the best, he thought. What would I even say?
He released the missile, and if nothing else, got to watch his good work in satisfaction as the bomb exploded, destroying the entire Chitauri fleet. He almost even smiled.
His thoughts returned to Pepper. It's better this way, he tried to convince himself as the suit shut down and Jarvis fizzed out and Pepper's face blipped out of his screen along with everything else. I probably would have just said something stupid. I probably would have asked what she was wearing, he assured himself. But he knew the truth. Despite everything, despite how cool he played it with Pepper, despite how much he usually teased her, despite how terrified he was of the words, there was only one thing he would have even been able to say with his last breath:
I love you.
And he would have meant it. He would have always meant it, if he'd had any 'always' left. But he didn't. And he never got to tell Pepper the truth. And if the crushing, airless vacuum of space wasn't about to kill him, that knowledge would. So he closed his eyes and waited for his death, one way or another.
You know, and then he falls back to Earth and the Hulk jumps in and yells "NO! SCIENCE BUDDY!" and saves him (Yes, that is actually what I believe is going through Banner's deep buried mind when he jumps and catches Tony).
Anyway, hope you enjoyed it. I really had lots of fun writing the Pepper/Tony conversation, but I don't know how fun it is to read. So let me know if I should never do that again...
Plentiful Pepperony in my other stories, if anyone is interested!