Note: Well. Be proud of me. I'm actually writing a fanfiction. -cue confetti- I wasn't sure about Pepper's past, so I related it to my own. (:
I'm going to say thank you to ~Queen Nightshade, who technically beta-ed this for me, and gave me a huge confidence boost :D
Disclaimer: I do not own, however much I wish I did...
Tony emerged from the workshop around two, wiping his hands free of engine grease on a spare rag, only to find Pepper missing. The ever-efficient Miss Potts wasn't occupied on the sofa in the large living room where he'd last seen her. In fact, the whole house seemed to be lacking her presence, after calling out her name a few times. Puzzled as to where she might have gone, Tony wandered aimlessly into the kitchen to grab a drink.
"Hey, Jarvis, where's Pepper? The day isn't over and I'm pretty sure she hadn't mentioned any important meetings that I had to go to that she could be in my place for." Not that he'd been paying attention anyway; he'd been too busy applying changes to the suit to actually give her his undivided attention.
"Miss Potts requested I inform you that she went down to the beach for a quick break," the AI responded. Tony smirked, thinking of how many times he had tried to tell Pepper to lay off a bit. About time she decided to listen.
"Huh. Jarvis, shut down everything in my workshop for now, I'm gonna head down too," he said while snatching his sunglasses off the nearby counter. Just what is she doing down there?
00000
The private section of beach that Tony owned stretched for miles, which was plenty of beach for taking a small walk, Pepper thought to herself.
She was currently bent over a portion of little stones lining the edge of the sea, her long, pale fingers grazing the stones back and forth, side to side, in an attempt to find a few pieces of seaglass.
So far Pepper was having no such luck.
She shifted over to the next section, patiently weaving her fingers in between the stones, until something glossy and green caught her eye. Pepper smiled, carefully lifting the smooth glass onto her palm, and stared at it for a while.
"What is that, Potts?"
Pepper gave a surprised gasp and jumped a little after being questioned so suddenly by her boss, who was hovering over her and looking curiously at the piece of seaglass that had fallen on the sand when he had spoken.
"I've never seen it before. What is it?" he asked again, reaching down to pick it up and squinted at it in the sunlight.
Pepper stood up and huffed, all hopes of relaxation gone, and quickly dusted the sand from her knees. "That, Mr. Stark, is a piece of seaglass."
"Seaglass?"
"Yes."
"Never heard of it. Where did it come from?" Tony was growing more curious by the minute, it seemed. Pepper sighed.
"When people drop pieces of bottles on the beach," she began, looking pointedly at Tony, who seemed unfazed by this and urged her on, "the ocean takes them up when the tide comes in. The currents of the ocean smooth out the jagged edges in the glass, and when the tides go back out, the little pieces of seaglass are scattered with the other small stones, like such," she said, pointing a finger at the line of pebbles to emphasize her point.
Tony was surprisingly interested in all of this. "I never knew there was such a thing," he mused.
Pepper started drifting her toe along another patch of rocks. "I hardly ever see them here. Every summer when I was a kid, we would go up to Hampton Beach in New Hampshire; my grandmother owned a trailer," she explained, and fleetingly wondered why she was even telling him this. "I used to walk along the tide, and find all sorts of seaglass—browns, greens, reds, whites—but never a blue one."
This shocked Tony as to how much he didn't know about his assistant. "What's so special about the blue ones?"
"They're rare," Pepper murmured, while bending down again to search for more of her treasures, while Tony took this opportunity to admire the way the sunlight made her hair shimmer slightly. It looked nice, especially with the whole beach atmosphere.
"I have a jar full, at home," Pepper began again, "but none of us ever found any blue ones, as much as I would have liked too. They're probably all gone by now..." she trailed off, as she picked up a tiny brown piece.
For some odd reason, Tony suddenly wanted more than anything to find a blue one for her. "I'll help you," he stated simply and knelt down a few feet away from Pepper and began dig through the pile of stones.
Pepper smiled to herself as Tony concentrated on only the stones beneath him. He really wants to help me, she thought with a pleasant flutter in her heart, and even though she had told herself just before Tony showed up that she was only going to spend a short amount of time on the beach, Pepper decided to stay a little longer.
00000
They had only spent about ten minutes sifting through the rocks, when Tony's impatient edge decided to kick in, and he said "You know, Pepper, I could just go and get the suit and scan the sand; that would make this whole operation go a lot quicker."
Pepper gave him a look from underneath her bangs. "That ruins half the fun," she replied, then returned to the patch of pebbles she was currently sorting through.
Tony opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again, thinking better of it. He didn't want Pepper to think that he wanted to give up, even if it was becoming extremely tedious and hot working in the blazing Malibu sun. Besides, he wanted to see the look on her face when he held up a piece of blue seaglass in front of her for the first time. If there was one thing Tony Stark was, it was determined.
Sighing, he continued to look.
00000
For another fifteen minutes Tony and Pepper searched through the line of rocks near the shore, and no sign of anything smooth or blue. There had been the occasional brown or green piece, and then there were times where Tony would get excited because he would see something shiny and blue, only to have Pepper point out that it was an oyster shell, proving it by digging it all the way out of the sand.
Pepper was growing annoyed with herself; there was work to be done, and this was wasting time. She rose from her spot and brushed herself off once more. Tony noticed her getting up and asked where she was going.
"Back to the mansion. There's still a boatload of work to be done! We've searched every possible rock bed--"
"Not farther down, only in this area," Tony countered.
She sighed. "My point is, there are most likely no more blue pieces, especially around here; I'm so stupid, this has probably completely wasted your time..."
"No it hasn't," Tony muttered under his breath while she rambled on, and looked down a bit to his right--
--and froze.
There, sitting on a few small rocks, was a smooth, light blue stone that looked an awful lot like the original green piece he still held in his palm.
It was a very pretty blue. The color of Pepper's eyes, he noted, all sounds drowned out.
"--Tony! Are you hearing me at all? Let's go ba--" Pepper stopped her babble as she saw Tony reach his arm across the line of rocks to pick up a small stone. She raised an eyebrow, not sure what to expect.
"Look," he said simply, and opened his palm to reveal the single piece of blue seaglass.
Pepper just stared, not sure how to react just yet; she was much too surprised and therefore frozen in place.
The silence among them felt pressured; Tony kept opening and closing his mouth again and again, trying to find something to say. "...I think it's pretty. It looks like your eyes," is what he finally settled on. He held out his hand a little farther, nudging it towards Pepper. "Here. Keep it."
Pepper wasn't at all sure what to do.
They looked at each other for a while.
Then Pepper smiled slightly, and, not really sure why she did it or how it was going to be solved afterwards, but didn't really care at the moment, leaned forward and kissed him.
Tony didn't mind.
END.
Note: I'm assuming you all know what to do now...please review!! (: the fic is a little out of season XD ah well. Happy Holidays!!