Hello everyone! This is my first time writing a fanfiction so please be understanding, especially since English isn't my mother tongue (I'm from Belgium so I speak French). I really wanted to explore the break Tony talked about to Cap in Captain America: Civil War and that was never mentioned afterwards. I don't have a Beta so if anyone is willing to be mine, please PM me! There should be more chapters to come if you guys like this one.

Enjoy! (and review)

Making things worse

It had now been three months since that fateful night and Tony still didn't know how he could ever manage to live without Pepper. Six months ago, she had told him she wanted to take a break from their relationship, to have some time to reflect away from him so that she could decide if she would be able to endure the stress of dating an Avenger, of waiting for days for him to come back from his missions, of not knowing if he was even going to come back. Hearing those words had been hard for Tony, but he'd figured that she would choose to come back to him, because she loved him. But that was not what happened…

When he came back from Siberia, she was there, at the Avengers' compound, waiting for him. As he walked into his room and saw her sitting on the bed, he smiled widely, thinking that her presence meant the end of their break, meant that he would again be able to take her in his arms, to kiss her, to make love to her all night long and fall asleep holding her. He had missed her so much.

"Well hello Miss Potts", he said with a cocky smirk, "what a nice surprise. Couldn't stay away for too long could you?"

His words startled her. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't her him come in. "Tony…", she said as she turned her head to look at him, "I'm glad you came back in one piece". She smiled, but Tony saw that it didn't reach her eyes. A sense of panic started rushing through his veins. He couldn't see any feeling of joy in those warm blue eyes that he loved so much. There was only relief… and sadness. "Pep? What's going on?". She offered him a sad smile. "Come sit next to me", she said in a low voice. It was then that he knew. He didn't move. "I don't need to be sitting for you to break up with me you know", he answered mockingly, forcing a grin, because it was the only way not to fall apart in front of her. She lowered her eyes, unable to look at him and tears streamed down her beautiful face.

"I'm so sorry Tony. I just can't… It's too much for me to bear. I cannot stand by your side while you make a living out of getting beaten up…"

"Saying that I make a living out of saving people's asses would be more accurate but, yeah, whatever you want to call it", was the only thing he could think of. That was not was he was supposed to say. He was supposed to beg her to stay, to tell her he loved her and that he would do anything for her, to fight for her. But it didn't matter how much his three-month stay in an Afghan cave had changed him, he was still a proud, conceited, self-centered jackass and he was not about to plea for her not to dump him.

"Really Tony? I'm breaking up with you and that's all you have to say?" she asked in disbelief.

"Well… yeah. I'm mean I liked being with you and all, but you know, I guess a return to my playboy life style won't be the worst thing that has happened to me. I'm not the steady relationship kind of guy anyway", he answered with a shrug of his shoulders. That wasn't true. He knew, she knew it. But the look on her face told him that his words had hurt her anyway, which is exactly what he was aiming for. He wanted to make her feel the pain that he was feeling right now, he wanted her heart to break as well.

"Don't do this…", she said in a pleading voice.

"Do what?", he answered with a fake look of innocence.

"Don't make it worse than it already is. Don't make this relationship end badly."

"I wasn't aware that I was doing that. Actually, I'm doing the contrary. Because what I'm saying is that you don't have to feel bad, or guilty or anything. You said: "I'm so sorry". Well, you don't have to be, because the truth is, we'll both be better off without each other. You can stop worrying about me getting killed and I can start fucking other women again. I was getting kind of tired of having only one woman in my bed". Tony held her gaze has he said those last words in a cold and calculating voice. Any sign of sadness or regret disappeared from her face and were replaced with anger and disgust. She got up and quickly took the few steps that separated them before slapping him with all the strength she could muster. It seemed to Tony that the sound her hand had made when meeting his cheek echoed through the entire building. "Fuck you", she yelled before storming out of his room, slamming the door shut, holding in the tears that were threatening to come out. If there was one thing Tony Stark mastered, it was making things worse. Which is why, quickly opening the door before she could get to the elevator, he shouted through the corridor: "You did that already sweetheart and trust me, I'm happy it's going to be some else next time". She didn't turn back but he knew she'd heard him. And she wasn't the only one who did. The door to the room next to his opened and Rhodey rolled out of it on his wheelchair. He gave Tony a dark look. "Jesus, man. You really do know how to fuck things up".

He'd been right. The next day, Pepper resigned as CEO of Stark Industries, which forced Tony to take back his father's legacy. She handled everything professionally, meeting with him so that the passing of power could be arranged smoothly, without hurting the company's numbers. They hadn't talked about anything but business, in a polite but cold manner, as if nothing had ever happened between them. Tony knew he should have apologized, but he was angry at her, for hurting him, for breaking his heart, for leaving him even though she knew that she was the only person he had ever opened up to precisely because he feared getting hurt. At the end of their last meeting, a month after their break up, she got up, shook his hand and he watched her walk away, knowing but unwilling to believe that that was the last time they were ever going to see each other.