A/N: Another one-shot...I never tire from writing Tony/Pepper fics. There's something really unique about their relationship that just calls for endless stories. This one-shot is set after Ironman 2 after their kiss on the rooftop. enjoy...
She wakes up to the strangest sensation of silk sheets wrapped around her body. She keeps her eyes closed because she wants to bask in the moment and just enjoy it as it is. She doesn't want to open her eyes because she knows the space beside her is empty and cold. She's sure he's retreated to his workshop because that's what he's always done. She doesn't try to think any more of it because she should know he isn't one to commit. He isn't one to drop everything and live entirely for her. That isn't him and if anything, she should know. She's been his PA for the past decade. She's seen the women, the alcohol and the parties.
She knows she's going to be another one of his one night stands and inside it hurts a little bit because she always hoped there would be more between them. She always hoped that one day he'd stop and see what he had been missing all along. And for the briefest of moments as they stood on that rooftop last night she was convinced he would commit to her. She was sure he could and was capable of actually loving someone. But she should have known. This was Tony she was thinking about. He was the infamous Anthony Edward Stark world renowned playboy and billionaire.
She lays there for a few more minutes and tightens the sheets around her. She braces herself to listen to Jarvis' morning greeting message of the daily weather and the latest news because she's sure she'll never be able to listen to it like this again. She's sure that everything will change between them because she doesn't think she could see him with another woman again and let it pass without thinking anything more of it. She doesn't think she could bear watching him flirt with another woman let alone hold one. She suddenly thinks it is probably best to really give up being CEO and be something else, something further away from him and Stark Industries.
She knows she agreed to stay and to be CEO last night. But that was before she slept with him. That was before their kiss led to this. That was before she woke up in his empty bed.
She opens her eyes and stares at the empty space beside her. She can barely feel his lingering warmth on the sheets beside her and she tries not to lose herself in his very mesmerizing scent that surrounded her. She tries not to let her heart break because she won't let him do that to her. She won't let him take that away from her. She takes a deep breath for a moment before she turns and holds the sheets against her body. She pulls the sheets with her and then stops.
He's sitting on the side chair staring at her, watching her, imploring her with so many emotions flashing in his eyes. He's resting his arms on his knees and his hair is messily bed ridden. He's wearing his blue boxers and a loose white shirt and suddenly she doesn't know what to say or what to feel. Suddenly it is as if her world had stopped because all this time of doubt and uncertainty and the entire time he was watching her. His eyes are sincere when she captures his gaze. They're filled with something she's never seen before. Something she's was sure she would never see before.
Something like love and longing.
"You're here..." she barely whispers because she's slightly light headed all of a sudden.
His eyes soften as he stares at her. "I'm not sure why I'm still here," he says softly.
"Tony -"
"You know I'm always gone the moment then sun rises. But with you I feel like I need to be here, that I want to be here because it's you and you mean a lot more to me than they ever did."
"I can go...if it makes you feel better," she says softly, biting her lip because all this awkwardness between them is starting to feel really uncomfortable.
"No...I mean, I think I didn't say that right," he musters and lifts his arms from his legs as if to motion his words. "What I meant is that with you...its different...better different, perfect in fact."
"Tony I-"
"It's something I could get used to," he says and her world stops as she stares at him.
She tries to decipher the hidden meaning to his comment. But all she does is loses herself in his eyes because he's promising her something she never thought he ever would. He's offering it to her on a silver platter and she isn't sure what to say to him. Because she's sure she is probably dreaming right now. The Tony she knew would never say something like that.
"Pepper," he says her name softly, "I meant it when I said you were all I had."
"But this changes things," she says softly. "We can't go back to just being Tony and Pepper."
"I don't want that," he says, "I want more with you if you will let me."
"You're not joking are you?"
She watches as his lips curl into a sincere and genuine smile. "No...I meant it when I said Ironman needs a girlfriend."
"Tony-"
"I love you, Pepper," he says this time and her world stops again. "And you have every right to doubt me but I really do," his smile fades from his lips as he looks at her, "And I really do need you and want only you."
He says it so sincerely and genuinely as his eyes soften and his eyes implore her as if he would stare at her forever just to prove it to her. She's uncertain if this is the same Tony she knew. Because the Tony she knew would never love anybody. The Tony she knew would never promise forever and everlasting. The Tony she knew could never love her but here he was loving her and she does the only thing she's always wanted to do. She does the only thing she can do because she wants too and she needs to.
She smiles and stretches her hand to slip into his. She intertwines their fingers and she smiles at him. She believes him because she knows when he truly loves someone he doesn't love it lightly. She knows that when he loves something he'll love it forever.
Just like being Ironman. He was determined to rid the world of his weapons not because he had too but because he needed too and because he wanted to. And she knew he wouldn't rest until every single weapon was destroyed. Just like she knew he would never stop loving her because she completed his strange little world. She completed him just like he completed her and that's all there was to it. That's all that is between them.
Love, trust and forever.