Homework
Regret serves no purpose.
All it does is propagate negative energy, and I've already had enough of that to last a lifetime.
Still, I can't help but wonder if things could have been different. Maybe I should have called Mom and asked if I could bunk over. Maybe I shouldn't have rushed to get on that plane. If for no other reason than to have a few more hours in his presence where I could pretend I still mattered.
Not that I don't matter. Tony is as dependent on me as ever. Well, not quite as dependent. He still needs me, or rather, Stark Industries needs me.
But Tony does, too. He needs me to remind him of public appearances, papers to be signed, pills to be popped, meetings to be attended, or not attended, as the case may be. But he doesn't need me to love him. Not anymore.
Now he has Bruce for that.
Maybe I should have been the one doing my homework.
Short, but it crawled into my brain and I had to let it out. A little Pepper POV on our favorite science boyfriends.