Authors Note; I own nothing, at all. This is purely for my enjoyment as an author, and practice writing.
Hope you enjoy it, this is my first Iron Man fanfiction and is set after movie 2. Read and review please, because I like people telling me about my writing.
Due to the recent World Cup 'fever,' Tony has taken another vacation, for real this time.
"What? What is this?" Tony yelled out onto the field while Pepper sat beside him, tapping on her Blackberry. "LOOK! He tripped him. Blatant foul!"
"Tony, for the last time, I have little to no interest in this game, needless to say I didn't even want to come. The only reason I did was because you didn't get a proper vacation last time, you had to get in a fight with another guy with an Arc Reactor," Pepper replied unenthusiastically. "You watch the game, and comment on it to one of the thousands of people sitting next to us that probably care as much as you. Look, that guy has 'Slovenia' written up and down his arms, I'm sure you could tell him that your guy was tripped."
"But he goes for Slovenia. In case you haven't noticed, I'm American. It's America against Slovenia. One team wins, and the other loses…Or they draw. You don't talk to the other team," as he said this, Tony stood up and started making his way towards the side of the aisle.
"Where are you going?" Pepper said, pulling her eyes away from her phone for more than five seconds.
"'m getting some food, that 'kay with you?" Tony mumbled. "Nothing will happen while I'm gone, and even if it does, I'm not really missing anything. We either score or we don't.
"Sure…Whatever."
Pepper thought back to what Tony had said at the last vacation, to Monaco Grand Prix. 'first vacation in 10 years' and realized that it was good that he came here. After everything that had piled onto him over the last 2 years, he needed something to de-stress. She just had to make sure nothing happened to him here, but the clothes that he was wearing, and the colour that he had dyed his hair was a likely cause in no-one having bugged him so far while he was here. He even went so far as to shave his trademark 'stubble-beard-thing' that Pepper called what was on his face. When she visualized him in her head, he didn't really look like Tony.
"Sorry, coming through. Sorry…Sorry!" Tony's voice was breaking through the crowd, and as he sat down Pepper had a look at what was in his hands.
"What. Is. That."
"Hotdog and popcorn. And something else…I'm not really sure. I think it's a type of native food that is from here."
Pepper made a face, somewhere between disgust and curiosity.
"What's it made of?"
"Umm…They didn't tell me, I just thought it looked slightly edible compared to the other trash that was there."
"Yes, because that's the first thought anyone thinks after they've just bought two hotdogs, two popcorns and..." She broke off as he pulled two large Pepsi bottles out of his pockets, "Soda…Tony, what you have there is a heart attack waiting to happen. Did you order a pace-maker with that meal?"
"Nope, don't need to!"
"Wisecracker," Pepper said as she grabbed for the Pepsi. No matter how much she disapproved of these meals, she had to admit that she was hungry and thirsty – the sun had been beating down on them for hours and all the sun protection she had was a broad brimmed hat and sunscreen that she had applied hours previously and forgotten to pack in her bag.
"You're getting burnt," Tony remarked.
"I'm red-headed, I've been getting burnt my whole life and it's nothing new. You on the other hand somehow manage to assimilate the sun into your system, tan, and get boundless amounts of energy from it. You're like Superman or something"
"Iron Man is not Superman. My powers are far superior!" Tony said in a mock-hurt way.
"He's got all kinds of vision, can fly and has super strength among other amazing talents. You fly around in a metal suit with lasers coming out of your hands," Pepper bit back.
"Repulsor beams…Repulsor beams. There's a difference…And I had to build my suit, I wasn't just born with the powers! It took three months being held captive in a cave for this idea to take place."
"You're proud of that?"
"…No…"
Pepper looked at Tony again – His head was hanging down and he was fiddling with the strap of his watch.
"Pepper, did you miss me?"
"What?"
"While I was gone? Did you think I was gonna come back? Or did you give up like everyone else did. Rhodey is the only one that I know kept going for me."
"Tony…Of course I missed you. I missed you giving me work to do 24/7 and never letting me have a life," this was an answer that Pepper knew would satisfy Tony, because she said it in the right tone. The tone was that which had a certain sentiment to it, like when he first got off the plane and she had told him she hated 'job hunting'.
"Ha." Tony gave a light smirk when she said that and looked back up at her. "I never really gave up you know, even when I thought I wasn't going to survive making it out. Even if I got killed trying to escape that would have been better than making a missile to destroy the country that I lived in and then getting killed by the terrorists."
"Tony, you can make anything – you know that,"
"Yeah, yeah I do…SHIT!" Tony's head had flicked back to the game just as a goal went it for the opposing team. "Are you for real? C'mon keeper, lift your game! You're playing like Robert Green!"
Pepper laughed at the reference to the goal by USA against England and the English keeper letting the ball in.
"Tony, relax. It's just a game!"
"NO! I paid money to see America win. Needless to say that my money was obviously wasted, but I wanted to dream."
"There's only 5 minutes left, do you want to leave before the rush?"
"Nah, I want to stay after the games and talk to the players," Tony said, without a hint of sarcasm in his voice because otherwise Pepper would have immediately thought that he was kidding.
"Riiiiight," Pepper said, dragging out the word.
"Seriously, I've never been to a soccer game before!"
"I believe that they call it 'football' these days Tony."
"Yeah, well."
"What else didn't you do when you were a kid?"
"Oh, you know…Most of the things that normal kids do, like eating sand, shitting in the playground and finger painting."
"Gross."
"Cant say I ever regretted what I was doing…Sometimes it was a little boring though, like when I wanted to go somewhere and I had to dismantle an engine before I could."
"I'd think do too."
Pepper and Tony sat there in silence until the final whistle blew and they watched as people filtered out of the stadium. After nearly an hour of waiting until the stadium cleared, Pepper turned to Tony and realized that he had fallen asleep, tired from the dinner that he had attended the previous night.
"Tony, wake up," she said.
"Huh? Oh right. How long have I been asleep?" Tony muttered, sounding hoarse from his short sleep.
"About an hour…The teams have gone."
"Damn!"
"Don't worry, you can see them at your next game…Pull some strings, you're Tony Stark," Pepper said with a 'look'.
"For once in my life I want to do something like a normal person would…Is that so hard to understand?"
And Pepper finally understood what he was getting at – the reason for all the things that he had don't (or not done) while they were in South Africa. He hadn't gotten a bodyguard, for all the danger that remained there, and he had gone to lengths to disguise what he looked like.
"Let's just go Tony, come on," Pepper said.
"Yes, mistress,' replied Tony in a voice imitating Darth Vader's 'yes master'.
They both got up, and quickly moved down the now deserted aisle into the empty stands, Tony moving faster than Pepper in his normal sneakers and her in her high-heels. She only noticed then how much shorter he got when he wasn't wearing business shoes and wasn't in a suit. Walking out of the gates, Pepper was about 5 meters behind Tony and watched him move towards a taxi. He does look a lot different, she thought, because there he stood, waiting for her in dark jeans, a U.S.A soccer shirt with his hoodie slung over his back, a clean shaven face, wayfarer sunnies over his eyes…And bright blue hair.
Fin.