Prompt: Everyone knows that Tony loves showing off with big, extravagant parties. What he'll never mention are the parties where he just gets drunk with his oldest friend and his girlfriend, or how fond he is of watching Pepper dance barefoot with Rhodey to James Brown. Those memories are just for them. And JARVIS, who never fails to play "Please, Please, Please".
Tony couldn't decide whether to thank or fire his interior designer. The couch was obscenely comfortable and he'd had just enough to drink that his head felt light.
The five-star meal had given way to several rounds of slow-sipped drinks, Rhodey sprawled with military precision in an armchair and Pepper curled against Tony's side with legs tucked under her.
Even on her days off, she wore a dress and Tony absently smoothed a thumb over one knee as technical talk turned, inevitably, to fond joking and reminiscing. If Tony had known anyone longer than he'd known Pepper or Rhodey, he couldn't think of them and didn't care to.
But now Tony was settled deep into the comfortable couch and watched Rhodey and Pepper dance, edges of his vision shimmering with the early beginnings of drunken vertigo. Pepper had her flute in one hand, champagne half-drained, resting easily over Rhodey's shoulder.
He relished this, these rare moments of quiet with Rhodey and Pepper, when there were no meetings or officials or catastrophe. Just the three of them eating, drinking, talking, dancing, laughing. God, the laughter. He never laughed so much as when he was with them. Every moment of it, his heart felt lighter, less panicked.
JARVIS, ever the master DJ, knew the night was coming to a quiet close and James Brown's soulful, raspy voice flowed easily. 'Please, Please, Please'. Tony watched for several long moments as Pepper and Rhodey danced before he picked himself up off the couch and decided to steal his girlfriend for the last dance of the evening.
Without her heels, Pepper was just slightly shorter than him and there was something intimate to Tony about having to look down slightly to catch her eye. Rhodey must have relieved her of her champagne flute because he felt her wrap both arms around him, one resting on his shoulder, the other brushing slowly against the nape of his neck, and she snuggled just a bit closer at his arms around her waist.
When the song ended and they stopped their dancing that was more like gentle swaying than anything else, Rhodey had left. Pepper's champagne flute was on the low table beside the tie Rhodey'd probably forgotten as he made his way somewhat drunkenly to a guest bedroom.
With a gentle tug on his hand, Pepper caught his attention, raising an eyebrow in sweet mischief, and asked: "Please, please, please".
She didn't need to ask twice.