Howard and Roberta sat at the kitchen table on a regular Saturday afternoon, just chatting alone. Tony, Rhodey and Pepper were off at wherever they went all the time, hanging out as usual.

"I'm impressed with Tony lately. He's so optimistic about everything. I was so sure that with everything that's happened to him lately he would've been miserable as ever." Howard said.

"Well his friends helped him through it a lot. But I think it's mostly because of Pepper. Ever since he met her two years ago he's always managed to keep his head held high through it all. Just look at him. You can see it in his eyes." Roberta explained, pointing to the window as the three teens were walking towards the front door. Tony had a wide smile on his face. As Pepper babbled on about God knows what, Tony had his eyes glued to hers. "I think he's in love with her."

"So I see...I think he really does have feelings for the girl. I don't know why he doesn't tell her." Howard responded. He'd never seen his son quite like this ever before, and he could tell it was serious. It was nothing like any other time Tony had liked a girl.

"Tony will be Tony, I guess." Roberta responded with a shrug as the three teens wandered into the kitchen.

"Hey, whatcha talking about?" Tony asked happily.

He couldn't help but be so happy lately; life was good. His dad was back, along with Stark International, not to mention his allowance and money that allowed for Iron Man's upgrades and repairs, not to mention the funding to build Pepper's armor...life was starting to return to normal, and he had the best friends in the world. What could possibly go wrong?

"Oh, nothing really. What are you three up to today?" Howard responded.

"Oh, nothing. Just hanging out, really." Rhodey responded. He knew the two had been talking about Tony's feelings for Pepper; it wasn't hard to tell. Unless you were Tony and Pepper, of course...

As the three went to hang out in Tony's room, Howard grabbed his son's arm and held him back for a moment.

"If you like her so much, tell her before someone else does. You don't want to lose a girl that makes you that happy, son." Howard said quietly. Tony blushed at the comment, racking his brain for something to say in response. Not being able to find anything, he ran after his friends to catch up to them, deciding to forget his father had said anything.

Howard and Roberta chuckled at Tony's response.

"That's Tony for you…he's sure got a lot to learn about being in love."

Ahh, that was cute :D and a quickie. I've had a lot of those lately…as much as I'd love to lengthen this, I have places to be soon and a busy day ahead of me. I had a few minutes free right now to copy this from my phone to this document, so walla. Enjoy :D review!