"Hey, sweets," the boy sits down next to her with unbridled arrogance, a gleam to his smirk and something empty in his eyes, "You look like you could use some company."
"Not yours," Pepper answers easily, having dealt with idiots like these already. It comes with having a six pack and a bikini, she supposes, the way his eyes rake over her form suggestively, almost like it's more for her sake than his own interest.
"Aw, don't be like that," he pouts at her, "Just come out of the water? I could help you warm up..."
"Or you could get away from me before I call the police on you for harassing me," Pepper's eyes are still on her book, but her voice is stone cold, hard and grating.
Surprisingly, the boy doesn't huff and stand up, doesn't call her a bitch or swear at her for not taking a compliment, just laughs and says, "Playing hard to get, eh?"
Pepper has had enough, so she narrows her eyes, glances at him with as much disdain as she can put in one look, and snarls, "Not every girl is going to fall for you and your sexist, outdated ideal of the world, so once you get it through your head that you're not hot stuff, just the leftovers that girls settle for when they're trying to chase away anxiety with sex, maybe then I'll consider breathing the same air as you."
He blinks at her, smile still wide, "Kinky."
A dark skinned boy yells from a few feet away, "Drop it, Tony! She's not into you!"
"Shut it, Rhodey!" Tony yells back, face reddening. He turns back to her, and then, raking his hands through his hair, looking abashed, "...Okay, so, I'm sexist and outdated?"
Pepper rolls her eyes, "It's okay, it's an infection that most teenage boys have, you're not the only one."
He laughs at her, loud and sweet and far less arrogant than before, and says, "I apologize if I seemed rude to you."
She huffs at him, "That's not a good apology."
Tony's face twists in an almost comical expression of shock as he exclaims, "It's not?" as though it has actually worked for him to apologize to others like that.
"No!" Pepper bites back a groan, "It's not! You have to specify, and make amends, promise to change your ways and all that. The way you did it made you seem like you were blaming me for seeing you as rude. You've got to take responsibility yourself, or you're just going to irk people." (Okay. Wow. Looks like those charisma classes have paid off a bit?)
"Ah," Tony frowns, as though he's deconstructing her sentence, "Then, I apologize for acting sexist and outdated. I will strive to be not sexist and outdated from now on."
Pepper snorts, "Still needs work, but better."
Tony smiles at her, "Charmed by me?"
Pepper's expression flattens, jaw locking, and she turns back to her book, "Not interested," she says in the haughtiest voice that she can muster, ice cold and refusing to look back at him.
"I'm sorry for sounding like I was flirting," Tony says from beside her, "I swear that I didn't mean to, it was just..." he trails off, and then, seeming to realize that he can't make a good excuse, he sighs, "I'll try to avoid doing it again."
Pepper can't summon the will to care.
"Just drop it, dude!" Tony's friend yells, "Leave her alone!"
Tony sighs heavily and she hears the sound of him walking away, feet in the sand and voice obnoxiously cheerful as he says, "Aw, honey, getting jealous of me flirting with such a pretty girl?"
He's not even affected, Pepper thinks. His apology was completely empty. It rubs her wrong, but she casts him from her mind. No use dwelling on negativity.
("Darling, you know I get jealous," Rhodey teases back, "After all, we're committed to each other, aren't we?"
Tony laughs, and casts one last glance at the pretty girl, mind twisting as he wonders when he became Howard, flirting with pretty girls when he should have been doing his job.)
The lake is secluded, hidden in the forest, bordered by rocks and without a real sandy beach. As such, there aren't really any people around, nobody quite so willing to swim in a lake with rocks underfoot and algae on it's edges.
So it's perfect for Pepper, really, as she ties her hair back into a braid and dives in, the cold shock of the surface a pleasant sort of pain.
Swimming has always been her way of getting away, a place where she focuses her mind and without distraction. Pepper swims further in, catching sight of a scattered little island near the middle of the lake, strokes steady as she tries to block out the memory of her father screaming you think you can just choose a major that looks 'fun'? The real world is about money, Virginia.
Shaking the thought from her mind, she treads in place and then lets her arms drop, head dipping underwater for a second before she pushes the to surface, grateful to let the water immerse her.
The water is cool, a welcome juxtaposition to the warmth of the summer day, and some algae has stuck to her shoulder, but she can't find it in herself to really mind.
Pepper floats a bit, letting herself just stay in the water before her arms tire a bit and she makes her way to the island. It's only when she's gotten on and the voices reach her that she realize her mistake.
There are people here.
"No, Brucey-bear, it's totally deep enough to dive off of."
"I don't know, Tony," another voice answers, uncertain and unsteady, "I'm just saying, it looks pretty shallow, and besides, the lake water looks unsanitary, I don't really want to go in..."
"Swimming in lakes is amazing, you'll love it..." A bit more argument as Pepper makes her way over, and then a soft sigh, "It's okay, you don't have to if you don't want to. But it's seriously awesome. Swimming in a lake, it makes you fall in love with the water."
This is when Pepper steps out, when they catch sight of her, and she winces when she realizes that it's the guy who flirted with her on the beach.
"Oh," Flirty guy... Tony?... blinks when he catches sight of her, "You're, um, the girl who called me sexist."
"Wow," Pepper says flatly, "I'm flattered that's how you remember me."
"No, it's not," Tony stammers a bit, clearly at loss of what to say, and his friend jumps in to save in.
"Thank god," He says, smiling at Pepper, "Something you said must have gotten through to this idiot, because he's stopped flirting with girls and going to bars. Of course, he's been going swimming even more than before..." he glares at Tony, who laughs sheepishly and rubs the back of his neck, "But it's a price we'll have to pay. I've been interested in studying the lake and it's content and the affects it's nutrients have on the specimen, particularly the moss, but..." he shrugs, a bit self-deprecatingly, "You're probably not interested."
"That sounds really cool!" Pepper exclaims, "Studying the way that lakes are is awesome. You can feel it when you swim, too, the difference in the lakes."
"That's what I was saying!" Tony beams at her, "And knowing is cool, but it's doing that's really amazing."
"You know what's amazing?" Bruce rolls his eyes at Tony, "Sitting in my lab without worrying about all these insects flying around."
"The insects aren't in the water," Tony pouts.
Bruce gives Tony the stink eye and Pepper laughs as she makes her way to the edge of what looks a bit like a short cliff, only a few feet high. "Oh, wow, the water looks deep enough to jump in," she says breathlessly, smiling at it.
Tony throws his hands up and shoots a triumphant look at Bruce, and Pepper bites back a laugh as she pretends not to notice.
"Doesn't it look gorgeous?" Tony asks, moving over to the water, something soft in his eyes, before he seems to realize how he's acting, and winks at Bruce, "Almost as beautiful as you, Brucey-bear."
"I knew it," Bruce presses a hand to his chest, completely deadpan, "You're in this for my looks, not my brains. I want to break up."
Tony huffs with laughter.
Pepper looks between the two of them, tries to figure out if they're dating or joking, and then figures that it's none of her business, so she takes a few steps back, giving Bruce enough time to demand, "Are you going to..." before she runs forwards and leaps off, ankles smashing together and hands curving as she dives off the edge, slipping almost seamlessly into the lake.
Water drives into her lungs, a painful sensation that she has learned to cherish, and she falls further into the water before she turns upright and breaks through the surface, the air above the water amazing as she gasps.
She has almost forgotten how amazing it felt to dive in like that, wild and reckless and textbook all the same.
"That was wicked! CANNONBALL!" Tony yells, which is all the warning she gets before he leaps, knees tucking to his chest and hand reaching up to plug his nose right before he smashes into the water, sending water splashing into her face and against the sides of the cliff.
He surfaces with broad strokes, a familiar kind of panic that draws Pepper to these sorts of stunts, fear of drowning that's quickly cancelled out by love for the water.
"Tony," Bruce says, amused, long-suffering, and Tony only laughs, brushing the back of his hand against his nose to get rid of the water there.
"It feels amazing," Tony says, earnest and so utterly in love with the water that Pepper wonders if she had misjudged him at first. Anyone who loves swimming like this can't be all that bad, she decides.
(That's naive, part of her points out. After all, her ex had liked the water well enough, and he had been a jerk. But he hadn't loved it, not really, Pepper thinks. He just hadn't hated it.)
Pepper turns onto her back, floating in the moment, Tony and Bruce's voice fading and blurring as the water drowns their voices out, her ears submerged with most of her body, and she closes her eyes, the sun on her face, water on her back.
When she re-emerges, Bruce smiles at her from his spot perched on the cliff and points at Tony, who is swimming to a canoe nearby. "That's how I got here. Tony swam. I've got some snacks... you want some?"
Pepper snorts, "You haven't drugged them, have you?"
Bruce huffs, "I try to be nice, and I get accused of being a suspicious person," his voice is light, though, teasing.
Pepper smiles, and accepts.
They eat on the cliff, legs dangling down the edges, the back of Tony's calves scraping against the sharp edges because he refuses to stop swinging his legs like some stubborn idiot, and Pepper has found her peaceful solitude as she eats a snack and swims with strangers.
It is cold, autumn coming in a soft swell, especially since Pepper is in Canada, on her way to an interview for an accounting job opportunity.
(Why they couldn't have it in America was beyond her, but apparently Howard Stark had pressing matters in Canada and just had to bring the person that he had appointed in charge of these things. Pepper can't quite complain, seeing as Stark Industries is paying for all transport and living expenses, but still, it's a bit ridiculous and inconvenient. She can only be thankful that she's home-schooled, so it doesn't interfere with that.)
It doesn't matter, really, all that much, because Pepper is thankful for it.
She hadn't thought she'd get the opportunity so soon, but she won't look a gift horse in the eye, Pepper decides as she pays the taxi driver with a plastic $20 bill (plastic! Canada's so weird, it's kind of cool) and says cheerfully, "Keep the change," before bouncing forward and she takes in a deep breath, in, out, and sighs, a smile breaking through her lips.
The air is crisp, clean in a way that the smoky cities of New York can never quite be, and though Pepper travels enough that it doesn't quite matter, she can't help but love the air in the north.
And there it is, right ahead of her.
Lake Ontario.
She moves faster than she expected, taking off her jacket, shirt and pants so that she's in her swimsuit, the air cold and the water frigid beneath her toes but she adores it, this feeling of solitude as she wades into the water.
Not many want to swim when it's cold, but Pepper adores it, the way that it freezes her toes, water crisp and clear and algae mostly gone now.
She does a backstroke further in until her toes can't touch the bottom, the water cool around her chin as she dips it in, soft waves lapping at her lower lip and she sighs, utterly content.
Pepper doesn't know how long she swims, but she knows that her arms have begun to burn and her legs are beginning to weary a bit when there's a sharp exclamation of, "Pepper?"
She shoots up, paddling to shore and hair sticking to her shoulders as she stares wide-eyed at Tony, who is already down to his swimsuit, shivering a bit in the wind despite the fact that he keeps his shirt on, just like before.
"You're not stalking me, are you?" she asks, a bit concerned.
"No, no, I," He reddens, "Do you work at Stark Industries?"
"Ah," she relaxes a bit, "Yeah, I'm an intern. Are you also here for the accounting job?"
"No, I," He blinks, like he realizes how repetitive he is sounding, "I work there, though, so, ah, it makes sense we end up in the same places sometimes."
"I see," Pepper relaxes a bit, relieved that Tony isn't secretly a creep that is going to murder her or something, "Why swim in autumn?"
Tony looks a bit resigned at the question, "Why do you?" he counters.
"I swim all year round," Pepper shrugs, treading in place.
Tony lights up, "Even when the water ices over?"
"Yeah," Pepper smiles, "It clears my head."
"I love swimming in the winter," Tony's smile is undoubtedly genuine now, bright and excited, "I haven't met anyone else who does it! Rhodey and Bruce think that I'm crazy or something."
"It's just kind of thrilling, isn't it?" Pepper smiles, "Like... it hurts, but it's a good sort of hurt."
"Exactly," Tony says, stepping into the water and wincing a bit when the cold kicks in but stubbornly continuing on, "And it kind of centers you, right?"
Pepper must look like a bobble-head with how much she's nodding. "Because you have to count your strokes, yeah?"
"Yes," Tony gets to a deep enough part that he can paddle over to her, sweeping strokes before he's a little bit away and then he resorts to the doggie paddle, Pepper smiling at how ridiculous she looks. "I hope... I hope you get the job."
Pepper blinks a bit, and then tilts her head to the side and smiles, "Thanks, Tony," she says earnestly.
He smiles back at her, and together, they swim a bit longer, exchanging numbers when they wade out into the biting air, Pepper smiling and Tony grinning back, hesitantly, as he changes his shirt into something dry and she tugs her pants back on.
"My dad... he wants me to get a job that's stable," Pepper says as they sit on the rocks in the water, half submerged, the water up to her chest as her legs dangle off the edge of it. "Something that makes me rich or whatever. I just want..." she huffs and pushes off the rock, water swirling over her head for a moment, holding her breath until her lungs burn, and then she swims back to Tony, sitting back down next to him, dripping, "Sorry."
"No, it's fine," Tony's fingers fingers play with the surface of the water, arms swinging back and forth as though he's still treading despite the fact that he's sitting on the rock, "I get it. My dad, he just sort of ignored me until it turned out that I was a genius. Then he just wanted me to help him work on stuff that I hadn't been all that interested in at first."
Pepper twists her lips to the side, "That sucks," she says empathetically, "Parents are just... I get that they care, and they want the best for us. But they just don't get it," she laughs a bit, "I sound like such a stupid teenager. Omigod, my parents, like, tots suck," she pitches her voice high and smiles victoriously when Tony snickers.
"What will you do about it?"
Pepper hums a bit and pushes some hair from her face, "He wants me to work on accounting because it's stable and gets me lots of money, and I've already done all the interviews for the position at Stark Industries, so I guess we'll see."
Tony scrunches up his nose, "But what do you want to do?" he demands.
"It's a bit stupid, but," Pepper flushes, "Project management. I like organizing things and... yeesh, that's weird, isn't it?"
"A bit," Tony laughs, "But I'm terrible at organizing my time. I keep messing up by sleeping in and procrastinating or playing with my robots for too long. Dad says I need to be 'more productive' with my time. I just want to get my life together."
"I can help you there," Pepper says, nodding, "I like that kind of stuff. Organizing, settling things. I like meetings, too, making sure everything's on schedule and that the group makes progress."
"You'd be great," Tony nudges her.
Pepper smiles back at him, "What about you?" she asks, "What do you want?"
Tony hums, tips his head back and smiles sheepishly, "I just want to build cool stuff," he confesses, "That sounds so vague, doesn't it?"
"Not any more than mine," Pepper shakes her head, "Building stuff like engineering and robotics, right?"
"Yeah!" Tony lights up, "It's just so cool! I can focus on it really easily, y'know? It's like swimming. It's weird, because I can't really focus on other things, but when I build and swim, I get it most of the time. I can focus a lot more than usual."
"Like a kinetic learner?" Pepper nods, "That's pretty cool. I'm a bit more audio/visual, which makes it really hard to remember how to actually do stuff instead of memorizing the theory."
Tony bumps his shoulder against her's, "We'd be an awesome team. Like black and white, those, um, Chinese fish from Avatar?"
Pepper smiles, "Yin and Yang?"
"Right, right," Tony nods eagerly, "You want to swim now?"
Pepper's grin widens and they're both in the water, unanimously reaching the same decision, streaking through the water before landing in the middle of the lake and treading, submerged to their necks.
"When I own the huge company," Tony says, "Be my CEO. You'll handle everything, paperwork and scheduling, and I'll build whatever you want me to."
Pepper laughs at the imaginary scenario, "Sure," she says, "Why not?"
Tony grins at her, cheeks red with the cold and smile bright and then he splashes her, laughing and swimming away as she splutters and swims after him, yelling that she will have vengeance.
Rhodey tags along on their next swim, yelping as they go into the lake, cold! and Tony laughs at him as Pepper watches with no small amusement.
"Keep laughing, and we'll see where your tongue ends up," Rhodey threatens, but the effect is somewhat gone seeing as he's shivering and rubbing his arms, which just makes Tony laugh louder.
"Aw, darling," Tony presses a hand to his chest, "So violent!"
Pepper huffs, "Such an abusive relationship. You should break up."
This surprises Rhodey a bit, she can tell by the startled look that he shoots her, but Tony has long since grown used to her banter and presses the back of his hand to his forehead, "Oh, but I'm in love, can't you tell?"
Pepper laughs and Rhodey finally makes his way into the water, diving in the last few bits and resurfacing with a gasp, rubbing his arms a bit. "You're nuts," he says to Pepper, "I knew that Tony was crazy for swimming in the winter, but you actually do this, too?"
"I've done it for years," Pepper says, doing the backstroke and closing her eyes, the warmth of the fading sun feather light on her skin, "Home-schooled."
"Maybe it's just a home-school thing, then," Rhodey mutters, though he seems doubtful, "You're nuts."
"You'll learn to love it," Pepper promises.
Rhodey makes a face at her, but they work alright, swimming and they end up jumping off the cliff, Pepper and Rhodey opting to tread while Tony jumps, one after another, a wild sort of glee as he climbs out and jumps in, over and over.
"Just so you know," Rhodey's voice is soft, eyes trained on Tony, "If you hurt him, I'm training to be in the military."
Pepper shoots Rhodey a slightly amused, somewhat fond look, "And I'll have you know," she answers sweetly, "That we're just friends."
Rhodey's stare is dark as he turns his gaze to her, "It still stands."
Pepper returns the solemnity, suddenly aware of the coldness of the water around her, "Friends don't plan on hurting each other," she says, lifting her chin, stare smoldering against Rhodey's.
He cocks his head to the side, and then, lightly, "Why did you choose to be friends with Tony anyway?"
Pepper bristles a bit at the implications, "We kept swimming in the same lakes, so it just happened. Then we decided that we liked swimming together, so we decided to do it some more."
Rhodey blinks a bit, then, laughing, "So you haven't met Tony outside of swimming with him?"
Pepper scrunches up her nose, "At this point? If I see him outside of a lake, I'd be really weirded out."
"I guess you're fine," Rhodey tilts his head, "But, uh, just so you know, if you do date, I'm going to have to give you the shovel talk."
Pepper rolls her eyes, "He flirts with you more than he flirts with me. If anything, I should be giving you the shovel talk."
"Nah," Rhodey shakes his head, dismissive, "That's just how Tony is. He talks like he's flirting when he's with his friends. It's kind of funny actually." Then he notices Pepper's hesitance, the uncertainty that crosses her features, and adds hastily, "He probably would do it with you, but when you first met..."
"Talking 'bout me?" Tony paddles over, grinning, "I'm flattered."
"Egoist," Pepper rolls her eyes.
"You know it," Tony winks.
Rhodey shakes his head at Tony, "Pepper wants to know why you don't flirt-talk with her."
"Oh," Tony blinks, "You don't like it."
"I thought that you did it because you wanted sex with me!" Pepper throws up her hands and her head goes down under. When she resurfaces, Tony and Rhodey take the appropriate time to laugh at her.
"So you're okay with it now?" Tony tilts his head to the side at her.
"If that's what you're comfortable with," Pepper nods.
Rhodey grins at her, like she's completely passed his test, and Tony winks roguishly.
Dimly, Pepper begins to regret it as he rambles on to the point where he compares her eyes to the sea.
("Cheesy," Pepper laughs.
"Classic," Tony winks, "Like you."
"That doesn't even make sense."
Tony pouts at her, and Pepper has to suffer listening to him tell her all the ways that it totally makes sense, and how classic is totally an awesome compliment. It's about twenty minutes before Rhodey stops laughing long enough at Pepper's pain to stop Tony.)
It's a bad day.
A... a really bad day.
Pepper's head is swimming as she makes her way to the water, knees scraped from having fallen off of her bike, riding too fast in her rush to get to the lake.
She doesn't care, though, tearing off her jacket and pants, scrambling, and Pepper takes a moment to register that she forgot her swimsuit in her rush to get out of the house, her dad's voice ringing in her head as he shoves her back into her bedroom, you can stay here until your head clears and she runs out of the house, onto her bike before he catches on, moving to the forest trail so that he can't follow her.
She's angry, though, and Pepper doesn't want to go back (not yet, not yet) so she strips down to her bra and underwear and moves to the water with a jerky sort of speed, arms ripping through the waves and moving on when the cold water stings for a moment against her scraped knee.
She doesn't want to think about that right now, doesn't want to think, and it's so utterly irrational, she can't...
The water's cold brings a sharp clarity, a sort of shame towards her anger, and when she swims, she looses herself in the motion, in the swing of her arms and the cold slap of the water against her arm.
Pepper keeps swimming, swims in circles and arcs and lines and she keeps swimming until her arms burn and then she swims to the island...
And...
Tony smiles at her from his spot on the cliff, waving, "Funny seeing you here," he winks.
Pepper's chest feels tight, brain foggy, so she smiles awkwardly and says, "Sorry, Tony, I can't swim with you today."
"Oh," Tony blinks at her, "Too tired out?"
"Actually," Pepper closes her eyes. I'm not supposed to be here, she thinks of saying, but that doesn't even make sense. The lake has always been her place to cool her head, her place to clear her mind and she doesn't want to get mad at Tony, doesn't want him to see this impatient, cold side of her that doesn't want to speak, "Yeah. I think I hurt my knee. I'm going to, um, go home and rest a bit."
"Oh," Tony grins at her, wide and almost flirtatious, "Cool."
Pepper tries to summon a smile, "Cool."
Then she is out of the water, getting into her clothes, and biking away, wondering where to go now that she can't be in the lake.
Tony isn't there the next day.
The day after that.
He doesn't pick up when she calls.
On the third day, she meets Rhodey at the lake. He is midway through a book, sitting on the island, a canoe tied nearby, and it looks like he's been waiting a while when she arrives.
"Is Tony okay?" Pepper blurts as soon as she reaches him, treading the water and staring up at him.
He looks down at her, expression sour, "Why don't you tell me?" He demands, angry and sharp, "I told you not to hurt him."
Pepper's stomach feels like it's been filled with lead, "What happened?"
Rhodey shakes his head at her, a cutting, jerky motion that makes her swim back a bit, "I don't know what you did, or what happened between you two, but now he's convinced that you hate him and you don't want to be around him anymore but you're just too polite to say so."
"What?" Pepper demands. She climbs out of the water, sopping wet, and when she does, Rhodey closes his book, "Why?"
"Heck if I know!" Rhodey throws his hands in the air, "But you did something. Think hard about it!"
Pepper thinks about the day on the lake, of anger and pain and hands on her chest shoving her back into her bedroom, of a scraped knee and trying to find clarity but only finding confusion, and her chest squeezes. "How do I make it up to him?" She demands.
Rhodey shakes his head, "You want to see him in person?"
Pepper twists her hands, "Can you bring him to the lake?" she asks quietly.
Rhodey stares at her, "Why not his house?" he asks, tilting his head to the side.
"I, um," Pepper reddens, "I don't know where he lives." At Rhodey's incredulous look, she continues, "Look! It's like I said, we only meet at the lake."
"Oh my god," Rhodey says, eyes wide, "You're serious? You don't know where he lives?"
"If I did, I would have been there already, demanding about what happened," Pepper glares at Rhodey, "Tell Tony I would like to meet him here at 2pm sharp tomorrow."
"Oh my god," Rhodey repeats, running a hand over his face, "I'm in a really shitty romance novel, aren't I?"
Pepper holds up a dripping hand, "I'm not dating Tony," she says calmly, "And if you don't help repair our friendship, your precious book is going to get lake water all over it."
"Going, going," Rhodey gives her an almost admiring look, "You're good at intimidation."
Pepper scrunches up her nose, "...thanks?"
Rhodey laughs at her, "Worry not," he says, "I'll reunite the lake buddies."
Oh geez.
"Lake buddies?"
"It fits."
The horrifying thing is that it actually does.
She has a friend that she only meets at the lake. She'll admit, it's a bit weird.
"Call us that again and you'll end up in the water," Pepper mutters before diving off the cliff.
Rhodey yells something back but Pepper is very pointedly not listening so she doesn't respond.
(The truth?
"Petty," he laughs, and Pepper can't find way to respond that doesn't prove him right.)
Tony fiddles with a rock, throwing it up and down, catching it and tossing it, a steady movement, the kind of restless energy that all but defines Tony, and his voice is quiet as he says, "I have anxiety," like he just said I killed your father.
"Okay," Pepper blinks, "Anything I can do to help?"
Tony shakes his head.
Pepper nods, "So nothing you want me to do for you?"
Tony shakes his head again.
"I see," Pepper nods, "Do you want to swim?"
Tony smiles hesitantly at her, "Watch out," he smiles at her, "I'm going to cannonball."
It's all the warning she gets before he's flying out and smashing a few inches away from her, dislodging her a bit and splashing her.
"Evil," Pepper hisses when Tony resurfaces.
"I can be a bad boy if you'll be my good girl," Tony winks at her.
"That doesn't make sense," Pepper groans.
"It totally does," Tony pouts at her, and begins to explain why it totally and 100% makes sense, Pepper groaning and splashing him dramatically. Tony cuts off mid-sentence, looking hesitant.
Pepper splashes him, "Go on," she raises an eyebrow, "Keep talking."
"But..."
"I like listening to you talk," Pepper splashes him again, "Come on, do I look like I'm not interested?"
"The groaning made it a bit obvious," Tony says, a little amused.
Pepper thinks about it. "You're right," she concludes, "Talk to me about your talking toaster instead."
Tony lights up, and Pepper thinks, we're going to be alright.
"Here!" Pepper hands Tony a new copy of Turning, "it's a memoir about a woman who swims in 52 two lakes in a year, all year long. She talks about swimming in all four seasons, too. It's pretty cool."
"Sounds cool," Tony grins at her, flips idly through the book, and then tilts his head to the side. "So, what do you need?"
"Me?" Pepper blinks, "Nothing. I was just rereading my copy and I thought... I thought you might like it. Then I remembered what Rhodey said about you always losing his things..." she pointedly ignores Tony's indignant cry of four times! Four times and you act like it's a habit! "...so I thought that I'd get you your own copy, you know?"
"I," Tony blinks a bit, grip tight on the book as though it's some priceless treasure, "I could have afforded to get it myself."
Pepper laughs, "Maybe. But I wanted to give it to you, as a gift."
Tony gapes, awed and a little humbled, "Thank you. It... it means a lot to me."
"Yeah, well," Pepper winks, "It's not like you'd get a book yourself that isn't about robotics or engineering, so I can take care of giving you stories instead of those textbooks that you're so fond of."
"University level textbooks," Tony pouts, "You should bow before my genius."
"Yeah, right," Pepper raises an eyebrow skeptically, "All I see is an excuse for you to continue being anti-social."
"I have three friends!"
"There are some companies that have three CEOs! That's so lame!"
"I... quality over quantity!"
"Aw, I'm good quality?"
"You're the third best quality, babe. Hey! What's that look for? ...Okay, fine, it's lame. A bit. A lot. Yeesh, fine! You're second best! What? That's the best offer I can make you."
"And who's the best?"
"Obviously..."
"It'd better not be you, because that's just sad."
"Excuse me! I thought that friends were supposed to be supportive?"
"Friends are supposed to tell the truth, and the truth is this."
"Urk. I'm hurt. Wounded. Watch as I..."
Splash.
"Oi, Tony! Be more careful with the book!"
"I threw it to you!"
"Don't throw books!"
"What, you caught it, didn't you?"
"I... Pft."
"What. What. Omigod. There's something on me, isn't there. Like, an eel. Or a fish. OR A LEECH. ON ME. ON MY HEAD. OMIGOD PEPPER PEPPER GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!"
"You've got algae in your hair."
"...I knew that."
"Mm hm."
While Tony tries to get rid of the algae in his hair, Pepper strips to her bathing suit and sets the book down on top of her clothes before wading into the water.
"Feels nice," she murmured, dunking her head under.
"Feels cold," Tony snorts.
She grins at him.
He blinks at her. Then, softly, "Thank you for the gift, Pepper. It means a lot."
Pepper feels something warm curl into her stomach, smooth and comfortable, "I hope that you like it," she says honestly.
Tony's smile is soft, but no less genuine as he answers, "I know that I will."
A beat.
Then: "That's, like, really sentimental and sweet, but you really don't know. You haven't even read the first page. Also, you've already told me that you have trouble reading sometimes? Are you sure that you can focus on it?"
"Pepper. I'm trying to be sweet here."
"Yeah, but is it the truth?"
"I'm going to Berlin to work on some stuff for Stark Industries," Pepper swings her legs in the water, bending over a bit on the rock so that her collarbone is submerged, "Just in time for the ice to come. So you might have to do the winter swimming on your own."
Tony is silent next to her, expression tight, features crinkled as though he is trying to solve some puzzle, then, decisively, he declares, "I'll be there, too."
Pepper smiles a bit, "You can't go if your boss doesn't let you, Tony."
"He will," Tony's knuckles curl against his knees, white and pale, "Just... he gave me an offer a few days ago, and I declined. He'll hold it over me forever now, gloating about how I gave in."
Pepper frowns, "Are you sure that he'll let you go if you declined it?"
"He really wants me to go," Tony gnaws on his thumbnail, "It's... no, he doesn't know. It's fine," he smiles at Pepper, "We can swim together. In the book, it said that the lakes in Berlin were really amazing, right? I'm sure that it will be awesome."
"You don't have to go if you don't want to," Pepper says, frowning. She's gotten better at telling when Tony deflects, his smile glues itself to his lips and his eyes stay trained on her's, like he doesn't know what to look at.
"I do," Tony says firmly, "Promise."
Pepper hesitates for a moment, before sighing, "Your boss gloats over you? He's an adult and you're a teenager, he should know better. You could file for harassment or abuse, you know."
Tony's features twist, like he's torn between amusement and something else, "No, it's not like that. You've got the wrong idea. I just like to complain about him a lot, he's not really that bad."
"If you say so," Pepper says doubtfully, pressing two fingers against her collarbones, a habit that she's somehow gotten recently.
"I do say so," Tony says firmly, something akin to arrogance, the odd thing that slips into his voice on occasion as though he's accustomed to getting what he wants. "Well, want to swim some more before the lakes ice over completely?"
Pepper feels the chill in the air and in the water, and she's already moving, arms cutting through the waves and toes staying just below the surface, soft kicks so she doesn't splash Tony in the face by accident. (She'll save that for later.)
"Geez," Tony paddles up to her, "Give a guy some warning next time."
That's what he always says, and Pepper has rehearsed her line perfectly, her smirk coming easily as she answers lightly, "You offered, I took the offer, that's warning enough."
"You're impossible," Tony huffs.
Pepper's line, usually, but Tony's when it comes to Pepper's reckless abandon to swim as though there isn't a second to lose.
"Then how am I here?" Tony's retort, but it comes from Pepper's lips. They've gotten interchangeable, the two of them, in a familiar way that only circumstances such as these could have made them.
"Magic," Pepper blows a breath in Tony's face, cold from accidentally almost swallowing some lake water and the chill in the air, but warm against his nose anyway, and he bats at her, laughing gross!
"Race you to the island," Tony says, already pulling away in smooth strokes.
Pepper doesn't bother responding, just moves into the water and kicks as she chases after him.
In the cold water, as the season turns from autumn to winter, freezing as they climb out of the island, it seems like everything is perfect and nothing could change that.
It changes with Pepper at an interview for a full time job, with Tony standing across from her, wide eyed as Pepper sits up straight and the interviewer says if you don't mind, Tony Stark is shadowing us today and Pepper says in what she hopes is a calm voice, Tony Stark? I see.
Tony's expression is distinctly guilty when Pepper catches up to him after the interview, her fingers latching onto his wrist, eyes narrowed as she says, "You didn't say that you were Tony Stark."
He smiles at her, that same arrogant smile that he used when they first met, her disinterested and him a cocky boy flirting with a pretty girl on the beach, and she wonders, dimly, if he was mocking her this entire time. "You didn't know?"
Arrogance dripping from his voice like honey from a comb, and she lets go of his arm, hurt.
Tony stares at her hand, expression blank, and then, quietly, "Really didn't?"
Pepper can't look at him, so she looks away, out the window, and she cannot see anything from here, nothing but cement and a concrete jungle that unnaturally grew from violently made holes in the ground.
"I'm sorry, Pepper, I thought..."
"It's fine," her voice says, dimly, and her eyes find their way back to Tony, who looks lost. "Doesn't... doesn't matter what your name is, right? I became friends with you because you liked the water, because you swam in lakes with me, not because of your dad."
Tony, who's usually so quick with words and teasing, whose lips move before his brain does, is silent.
Still.
"I thought..." he curls into himself a bit, "I thought that you were friends with me because of who I was."
Christ.
"Jesus," Pepper swears a bit, and Tony looks a bit surprised, but cut her some slack, Tony just thought she was a... what? A gold digger? That stings a lot, "Did you really think so lowly of me?"
"No, I," Tony twists his sleeves in his hands, shoulders drawing up to his ears, and there, anxiety, "I thought you grew to like me. Y'know. Maybe. After... after we spent time together. The third time, we met, I thought... I thought you were following me or something. Getting me to be friends with you without me putting my guard up or something, you know?"
The way he says it, so ugly and horrible, makes Pepper want to punch someone. (She can settle for something, she supposes. Later. At the gym.)
"I need," Pepper breathes in, short, shuttering, runs a hand through her hair before remembering that she had braided it back, "I need to go for a swim."
"That's fine," Tony says stiffly, eyes lowered, "The interviews are done anyway, you're free to go..."
"For goodness sake, Tony," Pepper huffs, reaching out a hand to wrap her fingers around his wrists, "Are you free to come with me?"
There's something sickeningly hopeful to the way that Tony perks up, eyes wide and fingers loose, "...You want me to come with you?"
"Well," Pepper grimaces, "We're lake buddies."
Tony snorts, "That's such a lame name."
Pepper groans, "Rhodey came up with it."
Tony laughs even louder, "Super lame."
"Aw, shut up," Pepper shakes her head fondly, "So, are you good?"
"Yeah," Tony's eyes are bright, and it's like nothing has changed, "Let's go."
The ice doesn't even need Pepper's hammer to break through it, it's more like baby frost trying to curl over waves that don't quite want to accept it. It's not ice, not truly, little chunks of what's likely some children throwing handfuls of snow into the water.
"Sixty strokes," she tells Tony, "That's all I need."
"Okay," Tony strips quickly, keeping his shirt on before Pepper huffs.
"You're going to keep on a wet shirt after this?"
Tony stares at her, mouth opening and then closing, and then he reddens and says, "You're going to make fun of me."
Pepper raises an eyebrow, "For what? Being as skinny as a stick? That's more concerning than anything else. You're like the size of a shrimp."
"Okay, first of all, I am a completely healthy height, thank you very much. And second of all," Tony rubs the side of his nose, "I, um, I have a scar with a really embarrassing story behind it."
Pepper points at the jagged scar on the back of her arm, "I tried to break the ice with the force of my strokes when I was ten. It can't get much worse than that."
Then Tony takes off his shirt, and there's a giant burn on his torso, scar and burnt tissue and Pepper's eyes are wide.
"Swim first," Pepper shakes her head, "Then story."
Tony puts the shirt with his other clothes and they move into the water slowly, cautiously, until reaching a good point and swimming.
One...
Two...
They reach sixty before Pepper knows it, and there's a weariness in her arms that she hadn't quite realized had been there until they're out of the water, an exhilaration in the pounding of her chest and she laughs as she and Tony crawl out, quickly dressing in their warm, dry clothing.
"Story," she says, slipping on her socks and then her boots, careful to towel off her toes first so that she doesn't get blisters.
"I..." Tony picks at his earlobe, "Promise not to laugh."
"I don't make promises that I can't keep," Pepper answers airily.
"I..." Tony closes his eyes, "...I fell asleep while pulling an all nighter on one of my robots."
"Oh my god, Tony, why are you like this."
"Just... just forget it, okay?"
"You have a burn the size of Russia on your torso because you fell asleep? How deeply do you sleep?"
"It's... urgh, it's not important!"
"You are a disaster."
"No, I'm not."
Pepper shoots Tony a thoroughly unimpressed stare. "Have you seen yourself?"
Tony winces, "I, um."
"Tony," Pepper whirls him around and claps a hand to his shoulder, "All I ask for is food and housing, and I will schedule your life like heck and make sure you are where you need to be, when you need to be, because I am pretty sure that otherwise you will die before you reach the age of twenty."
"I resent that."
"Resent, or resemble?"
"...can it be both?"
"Tony, why."
"I love you, Pepper. Have I mentioned how pretty your freckles are? Because they are so cute. Totally adorable. I love them..."
"Tony."
A wince.
Pepper has a sadistic sort of satisfaction that she got through to him.
"Thank you, Pepper."
It's not quite the answer she wanted, but, she sighs, it'll have to do for now.
"You know," Pepper tucks her hands under her chin, elbows propped against the table as she smiles a bit at Tony, "When you said 'treating me to Chinese', I assumed it would be something other than an excuse for you to goof off and play with chopsticks."
Tony, who is drumming with his chopsticks on an upside down bowl and making weird little "da-doom" and "pachew!" sounds with his mouth, looks up with the expression of a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "You like Chinese!" He protests.
Pepper raises an eyebrow, and tries to hide how pleased she is with Tony's reaction when he smiles nervously at her, caught. "Did you know that before or after you offered and I told you that I loved eating Chinese?"
Tony, struggling to think of the right answer, says hesitantly, "It doesn't matter, because I know now, and I will remember it because it is an important fact about you."
He looks so triumphant that Pepper can't help but laugh. "You get away with it this time."
"Victory!" He flashes a peace sign at her.
She rolls her eyes at him, "Drumming?"
"Dad never lets me do it at home," Tony pouts, "Says it's 'distracting' and 'unnecessary' or whatever. Stingy geezer. Oh, right! That reminds me," he flips his bowl back right-side up, "I finished with the book! It took a lot of coffee, and I ended up just listening to the audiobook for most of it while I was in the workshop, but I finished, and it was super cool!"
"That's good to know!" Pepper beams at him, "So you liked it?"
"For sure," Tony nods, "It was kind of hard to read, since I'm not a reader, but it was interesting and you gave it to me, so I wanted to finish it."
Pepper tries not to betray how embarrassed that sort of sentence makes her, instead smiling, "Good to know. What have you been doing in the workshop lately?"
Tony lights up, "Oh, it's so cool..."
She laughs, and by the time their order comes, she's caught in an amazing conversation as Tony goes on and on how he's trying to make a sentient A.I., Pepper, can you imagine?
Epilogue
"So?" Pepper asks, perched on the edge of the cliff as Tony treads the water, "Who's the new crush?"
Tony reddens, "What makes you think that there's a crush?" he demands.
"Um, dude," Rhodey laughs, leaning forwards, "She's known you since high school. It's been..." he glances at Pepper, "...Like, 5 years? Give or take, don't give me that look, Bruce, it was a rough estimate. Come on, Tony, who is it?"
Tony buries his face in the water, and when he comes up, he shakes his head and says, "Nobody."
"Someone we know, then," Bruce peers at Tony, surprised.
"No," Tony reddens, "Nobody."
A moment, then Pepper dives into the water, and when she resurfaces, she presses a hand to Tony's cheek.
He reddens and pulls away immediately.
"Oh my gosh," Rhodey's eyes widen, "It's Pepper! It's finally happening! Bruce, you owe me ten bucks."
Bruce groans, "I thought they'd wait until graduation at least, considering Tony's ex-boyfriend looked like he was going to stay.
Pepper and Tony watch with no small amusement (and no small embarrassment, either).
"Me, hm?" Pepper hums.
Tony ducks his head, "That okay?"
"Depends," Pepper tilts her head to the side, "You just in this for sex?"
Tony laughs at her, and she laughs back. "No," Tony says, between snickers, "But maybe a kiss."
Pepper hums, thinking about it, dithering a moment before she leans in and asks lightly, "You sure?"
Tony reddens, "Yes?"
And they kiss, soft and sweet and chaste, treading water before they both go under and have to push themselves back up.
"Maybe not while we're swimming," Pepper gasps, laughing.
"Maybe not," Tony agrees.
They climb out, and kiss again.
("Gross," Rhodey gags.
Bruce elbows him, "Why are you like this?" he demands.)