Notes: Opening quote and title from Anne Cecelia Holmes's Hiding in the Overglow. For the trope bingo squares BETS/WAGERs & POWER DYNAMICS & INDECENT PROPOSAL. Thanks to A for beta help.

If I understood a meteor's
selfish trajectory I might feel
okay about abandonment.
Justice will either favor me
or it won't. I yell so what
into a forest and get strangled
by it on the way home.

It was May 21st, 2006, when Tony made a bet with Pepper. He said, "I bet you could not sustain a casual sex, no strings attached things with me."

She stared at him because while Tony often said unbelievable nonsense to her, this was not only new, but actually personal. She said, "Why would I take that bet?"

"It was just a figure of speech, but I've changed my mind. Let's make it a real wager," Tony said. He leaned forward over the table, almost but not quite in her space. He was wearing a cologne she'd picked for him because she loved it. She had to smell him more than anyone else anyway, she wanted to deal with him and have a hint of sandalwood when she did so. It didn't make up for this, though.

"You're starting by presuming I would want a casual sex no strings attached relationship, and then you assume I would want that with you even though, hello, you're my boss. Why would I want to date my boss when everyone already assumes we're sleeping together which has been, frankly, just great for me." She leaned back.

"It hasn't been great for you, I know that. I'm a very hard person to work for because I'm a complete mess and also a genius whose work is the source of our profits and therefore your paycheck -"

"That isn't why it's hard. I can deal with you being a mess which is a kind way of putting it, I've been doing so for years. But you're off in the garage or sleeping with supermodels and it takes me so much time to convince people that they should listen to me, and I have to convince them over and over again," Pepper said.

"You never told me that," Tony said. He frowned. "Well, that's going to change, whether you take me up on this bet or not. You're my assistant, everyone should listen to you. Going forward, anyone gives you trouble, I'm firing them."

"I don't want that power," Pepper said. "Come on, Tony, that's overreacting."

"No, it's not. This is a company that prizes intelligence. I knew you were smart the moment I met you. Why do I want people working for my company who can't see that? Fuck them. Give me names, they're gone. They can go somewhere else and put up roadblocks and ignore people's potential," Tony said. He opened his phone and started tapping on the keyboard. "Tell me right now, who's the biggest asshole who treats you like anything other than my very important assistant who ably speaks for me?"

"Are you saying this to get in my pants," Pepper said. This was a new turn in their relationship which would not be turning into some casual sex romp. She never mentioned these things to Tony because she was, she had been pretty sure he wouldn't care.

Tony was still looking at her expectantly so Pepper told him a name. The name was a Vice President who had "accidently" bumped into Pepper on her very first day and it wasn't an accident, it was a way to grab her butt. He still mocked her when she passed on Tony's directives.

"Yeah, I hate that guy. I don't know why Obie hired him. One time, he tried to tell me how in his last job, he'd been sleeping with three of his secretaries and they all knew about it and didn't mind. He was very contemptuous of his secretaries, which is just, that's stupid," Tony said.

Tony dialed a number and said to the whomever was on the other line, "I want Cortland fired. Draw it up, get it done. We are not providing a reference." Tony listened. Then he said, "We can fire for any reason I want as long as it's not discriminatory, this isn't a discriminatory, I'm firing him because he's bad at his job. He's not smart enough to work with this company. Got it? Thanks, get me everything tomorrow morning and make sure he's out of the building by noon."

Tony smiled at Pepper. "Tell me about any other idiots you're having problems with. And don't say me for proposing this very intriguing bet."

Pepper smoothed out her skirt. She said, "Thank you for that."

"I told you exactly why I did it. People who think you're stupid and discount you because, what, we're sleeping together? There's no way they're good at their jobs." He frowned. "You should not be thanking me for that. I'm a little mad you didn't tell me earlier."

"Why would I think you felt this way? You just bet we couldn't have a casual sex relationship."

"Point taken," Tony said. "Speaking of."

"How are you even defining this? How is someone supposed to prove they can handle a relationship?" Pepper felt herself, as always, drawn into Tony's nonsense. She had to stop that.

"Good idea," Tony said. "Defining the terms and parameters is vital. We casually have sex for six months. By casually, I mean whenever we *both* want to, and we're both free to see other people whenever we want and neither of us gets upset about it -"

"Unless she's trying to set up a hidden video camera to make a porno tape for her own profit," Pepper said.

"That's happened once," Tony said. "And yes, you should be allowed to be upset then. But, to continue, if at the end of six months, one of us wants more, then I win."

"So if you fall in love with me and want me to be your girlfriend and forsake all others, I still lose? That's unfair," Pepper said.

"It's my bet," Tony said. "Besides, if you lose, then I fire you -"

"Oh, great, that sounds awesome," Pepper said.

"With a 10% share of Stark class A stock so you never have to work again -"

"Maybe I want to work, Tony, even for you," Pepper said.

"What do you think would be the best prize?"

Pepper rolled her eyes. She said, "I don't care about this bet. I don't have to think about a good prize." Pepper thought about it. "I like the 10% share idea. Maybe if we're both fine with the casual sex at the end of six months, I get a 5% share."

"Deal," Tony said. "Six months of casual sex, at the end we evaluate. If we're fine with keeping on with the casualness, you get a 5% share of Stark stock. From my shares. By definition, class A. If we decide we don't want casual anymore, you get a 10% share of stock and either you quit, or I find you fantastic job where you're not working for me. Either way, 10%."

"What if we don't want to be casual anymore because neither of us want to keep having sex with each other?"

"Impossible," Tony said. "We have great chemistry."

"We'll see," Pepper said. "I'm as nuts as you are, let's do it. And just because I am guaranteed to get enough stock out of this deal to be a millionaire, this is not about the money."

"Duh," Tony said.

They got straight to the sex. They were on Tony's bed and his arms were around her, caressing her, he was kissing her. He was taking his time. He was taking his damn sweet time and she was surprised at herself, surprised at how quickly she was already wet, rubbing against him. "You're just showing off," she said.

"You should know better than to challenge me," Tony said. He shifted and unbuttoned his shirt and then went back to his slow burn making out, which was driving her crazy.

He went down on her until she came, asked her her favorite position, and fucked her until she was a trembling boneless heap on the bed. She said, "Are you this good when I don't doubt you?"

"Six months to find out, baby," Tony said.

She enjoyed the casual sex with her boss. Sometimes she could tell by the look in Tony's eyes that he'd woken up thinking about it. Sometimes she was the one who spent all day waiting. Sometimes it was very spur of the moment. Once Tony came up from the garage, swearing in frustration. "I just need a goddamned break from that schematic," he said.

"I know, why did I ever take on this staffing project?" She threw the resumes on the table and completely disrupted her careful, unhelpful stacks.

"Imagine I just said something crude to imply that we should have a quick fuck and we'll both feel better," Tony said, pulling her up from the couch.

"I want to imagine you said something direct but not crude and I agreed with you," Pepper said. It was one of those times Tony just wanted to get off, but whenever he was like that, he always made sure Pepper got off.

Pepper had already started to prefer casual sex before Tony's bet. Dating while being Tony Stark's assistant was objectively awful to her ability to form a relationship. By the second date she'd have to cancel for one of Tony's important impromptu trips. It was easier to just meet someone with no promises.

"I blame him for our divorce," Clay said, when they were having dinner.

"I'd been working for Tony for six months when we did the very smart thing and divorced. It had everything to do with us and nothing to do with Tony," Pepper said. She and Clay had gotten married in college, when she was all of 20. It hadn't been miserable most of the time or even a little part of time. It had been safe and solid and neither of them really thought of the other as the one. Pepper didn't want romance and dimmed lights every night, but she wanted to be in love with her husband.

Now she and Clay were just friends and occasional casual sex partners. She didn't tell him about Tony because she had no intention of telling anyone, but she liked having him in her life. The sex was better after they were married.

"Fine, you're right, it's just more fun to blame the billionaire you were working for than make it either of our faults, I like you, I don't like to think about your many flaws," Clay said.

"Speaking of the completely blameless billionaire I work for, he's now fired four higher ups for not respecting me," Pepper said.

"That seems harsh," Clay said.

"I'm his assistant and all four of these men act like I'm no one and have no power at all in the company," Pepper said. "Or they did act."

"Okay, then it's not harsh. Quite the turnaround from Killian," Clay said.

"I know," Pepper said. "I like it. Obie says Tony can't fire anyone for at least six months, though. But I am in charge of the vetting and interview process for their replacements."

She and Clay ended up in bed together like they usually did. He always made her laugh.

Tony noticed the fading bruise on her ass. He said, "Can I spank you, too?"

"No," she said, rolling over to lay on her back. "He gets to do it because he's not my boss."

"He's your ex-husband," Tony said, smiling. He somehow managed to not look ridiculous naked, even in his current Playgirl pose.

"How do you know that?"

"I knew when you got divorced, not that you ever wore a ring at work -"

"It was obviously in my personnel file," Pepper said. "And you didn't realize that I was divorced until you said bring your husband to my birthday party, I'd love to meet him, and I said, we got divorced six months ago."

"I sensed it before, I was trying to get you to admit it," Tony said. "But you two still hang out, make love."

"Not what I would call it, it's more just sex," Pepper said.

"Can you spank me?" Tony flipped on his stomach. "Pretty please?"

"It would be my pleasure," Pepper said.

The downside was that Tony kept telling her his sex stories. Then he'd say, "we should do that."

"I don't have a penis," Pepper said. "You can buy me a strap-on, I guess. I don't understand how you made it this long with no STDs and no children that you're aware of."

"I take protection very seriously," Tony said. "I should show you that stuff, we're probably ignoring a huge revenue stream." He rubbed his hand up and down her naked thigh. "One time I got someone pregnant. My father was so mad. I was 18? I liked the girl, but she actually didn't think much of me. She just wanted to see if I was good in bed. This is a horrible story, by the way. She had an ex-boyfriend. He gets out of prison, for hitting her, and then somehow acquires a gun, killed her." Tony shrugged. He was still rubbing her leg, up and down. He said, "I don't even know how it happened, I'm very good about protection. I guess there's always that .05%."

"That was a horrible story, Tony," she said. She stilled his hand. "I'm sorry."

"Everybody has horrible stories, I bet you have a few," he said.

"Nothing too bad so far," Pepper said. "My dad died when I was 3, so I don't even remember him, my two stepfathers were both pretty pleasant, and I got divorced."

"Knock on wood, right now," Tony said.

She did what he wanted.

At the end of six months, Tony took her to dinner at an incredibly expensive and exclusive restaurant in Italy. He said, "Okay, what do you think?"

"This place is amazing," Pepper said.

"Not what I was asking," Tony said.

"I know, I was being funny," Pepper said. "I'm not in love with you. Are you in love with me?"

"Definitely not," he said. "You're great, though. You're definitely great."

"Thank you in advance for the stock," Pepper said.

"Honestly, that's the kind of thing I ask you to do, so would you take care of that for me?"

"Of course," Pepper said. "Still want to have sex casually, no strings attached?"

"Definitely," he said. "Because you're great."

"You're better than I would have guessed," Pepper said.

"I know, everyone assumes the wealthy suck at sex, but you forget, I have a lot of Daddy issues," Tony said.

She should have knocked on wood faster or never said anything at all. In the space of three months, Clay died from pneumonia, Pepper's mom died in a car accident and one of Pepper's friends from when she worked with Killian was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and died a month later. It was a lot of funerals.

Rhodey and Happy came to the first two funerals which she found incredibly touching. She'd liked Rhodey from the first day she'd met him, the second day she was working for Tony. She never realized he liked her, too. Liked her as more than Tony's pleasant assistant.

Tony went with her to every funeral. He drove her home from Jennifer's funeral. Happy drove them home, but Tony sat in the back of the car with her. "I have to rewrite my will, again," Pepper said. "I need to leave money for Jennifer's children now."

"Were they already in your will?"

"No, just Jennifer." Pepper was sniffling again. Tony passed her a handkerchief. "The only people I have left to bequeath to are you and Happy."

"Don't leave me anything, I have too much," Tony said. "Happy, on the other hand, that's a good plan."

"Yeah," Happy said. "Between you and Tony, I'm going to rack up quite the fortune in 50 or 60 years."

She fell asleep with Tony spooned behind her. She didn't even take off her funeral dress.

"I'm glad we're just casual sex partners but still good friends," Pepper said. "This would be rough if you were my boyfriend."

"You'd have more stock," Tony said. "I would be a great boyfriend."

"You've never really had to prove that, have you?" She was smiling at him so he knew it wasn't meant to be mean.

"I know myself," Tony said.

Pepper made a conscious decision to expand her her social circle, at least in terms of sleeping with more men. Tony wasn't slowing down. She didn't want him to think she was overly attached to him like a weeping sponge. Mostly, she found she enjoyed herself. She liked it. She had to be 100 times more discreet than Tony, of course, because she was a woman and an executive assistant. Besides Tony, she never slept with anyone who worked at Stark Industries. There was a dancer with the Alvin Ailey Company, a TV director, and a video game designer.

She slept with Tony the night before the night before he went to Afghanistan. He was on top this time, staring at her. It was a good time. She said, "All this work you've put into Jericho and those new rifles, you could be making a fortune on condoms."

"You keep bringing that one up," Tony said. He was staring at the ceiling. "You know, I don't know if they're even worth it, I don't mass produce them."

"You make a lot of them," she said. "You don't want your name on a condom wrapper. It would save lives, Tony, isn't that important?"

He smiled at her and to her surprise, kissed her cheek. "When I get back from this trip. Try to convince me again."

"I promise," she said.

She didn't have a bad feeling the day he left, it was her birthday and he bought her a bottle of insanely expensive wine. "I didn't actually buy it, it's from Dad's collection. But you deserve it more than me."

Then he left for his flight.

He was gone, disappeared, kidnapped. Obadiah seemed to have a stiff upper lip about it, so Pepper tried to be professional. She came into work and did her part to keep the company going. Then she went home and sat in a ball on her couch, watching endless reruns of Star Trek. Tony used to watch them with her. Before he was gone.

There were probably hundreds of pictures of Pepper with Tony, official ones where she was somewhere behind him, to the side; paparazzi pictures when whatever magazine decided to try to make a story of the two of them. Pepper only had one in her apartment, in her bedroom. She'd taken the pic when they were in their bet phase. He was wearing a Savile Row bespoke shirt, the cuffs open and one rolled up, the shirt half unbuttoned, while he laughed over the wooden children's puzzle in his hands. He had on one of her favorite watches.

"If you let him come home," she said to the empty room, "I'll do anything." But nothing answered.

She drank a cup of her birthday wine on his birthday, and again when he'd been gone for a month, for two months. "I'm not going to get a new job when Obie finally gets rid of me," Pepper said to Happy. "I'm going to live off my stock, maybe move to Paris."

"I'm gonna stay in LA," Happy said. "Maybe try driving for a hot celebrity."

"You better stay in touch," she said.

"I don't speak French, though," he said, trying to look troubled.

"I'm not going to forget how to speak English," she said.

Finally, Rhodey called her from Afghanistan. "We found him, Pepper, he's alive. He's alive, he's good. I'll bring him home soon."

She found herself crying so hard she couldn't say thank you.

Tony looked beautiful, and skinny and lost, a little, when he got off the plane. But he smiled at her. He made a joke, and she made one back.

He went to his press conference and sat down and made a very rash business decision. She talked to the nice man from SHIELD who stubbornly refused to call it that. Pepper hugged herself and got in her car. She drove to Tony's house. She'd been once a week to say hello to Jarvis.

She gathered the mail again and the mail from work and sat down on the couch and started sorting, in the dark. After a minute, Jarvis put on a low light to help her. Then Tony came in and talked to Jarvis. He came in further and found her. "Mail could probably wait, Pep," he said.

"I missed you," she said, crying a little. "I really missed you."

"I thought about you a lot," Tony said. "Between the terror and horror and the fun times working out my escape, there was definitely a few minutes each day, thinking about you. Picturing you naked. Sorry, that sounds objectifying."

She stood up. "You're forgiven."

"Right now, I just really want to sleep. Don't hold that against me," he said.

"You don't sleep enough, frankly," she said.

He took her hand and she followed him to his bedroom. He stripped down to his boxers and she got in bed in only her underwear. She touched his uninjured shoulder and said, "That thing is keeping you alive."

"I told you," he said. "Shrapnel crawling to my heart, all that."

"You're getting it taken out," she said.

He looked over at her. She said, "You're not the first person to get this injury. Stark Industries had an entire medical research unit and I'm pretty sure you're rich enough to get the best surgeons in the world to work out a way to fix it. You don't have to walk around relying on a magnet to keep you from dying. I hope you don't want to."

"I don't want to die," he said, playing delicately with her hair. "That's a good thought."

He kissed her and she kissed him and they were tangled up in each other but it didn't feel sexual, it felt like comfort. She was so happy he was home.

When she woke up, he wasn't in bed with her. She showered and got dressed from the closet she had in Tony's second bedroom, for when he wanted to sleep next to the windows. Jarvis said, "He is in the garage, Miss Potts."

"Thanks, Jarvis."

Tony had also showered, and he had the remnants of something that might have been toast next to him. "You should have a bigger breakfast than that," Pepper said.

"No, I shouldn't. They don't feed you very well in dank caves out in the desert, so I'm supposed to be easing back into full meals." He didn't look up from what he was working on.

"You're working on another chest piece," Pepper said.

"I don't think our crack medical research team has figured out how to save me in the last 12 hours, so I thought I'd do a little upgrade," Tony said. "Hang around, I'll need your help in a few hours."

"You're always so subtle when you want me to leave," Pepper said. Her eyes watered for a moment, they sounded like each other again.

He had her replace his chest piece which was nerve wracking. She put the old one in her purse since Tony didn't want it.

As she was leaving, Tony caught up with her. "I want to see your place, if you've made any changes. I'll drive."

She said, "Well, okay, then. I haven't made any changes."

"Can't wait to see it," he said.

They ended up half naked in her bed this time, still without having sex. He said, "Where were we in the Star Trek rewatch? DS9? Voyager?"

"We were still watching Next Generation. But you were gone long enough I'm on the last season," she said.

"Can you bear to go back? Wesley Crusher too painful?"

"If you insist," Pepper said. "Just because I have my job security back, until your new no weapons policy runs us out of business."

"It's important, Pepper," he said.

"I know," she said. "Can I mention the condoms again? The design of the one you use when you go down on me is incredible."

"I'll think about it," Tony said. "I have a few other plans first."

"Lots of Wesley Crusher, I know," Pepper said. She got up to find the dvds from the first season, by the time she got back into bed, Tony was asleep.

When she woke up, Tony was already up, puttering around her apartment. She pulled on a t-shirt and found him in the kitchen. "Are you going to make me breakfast?"

Tony laughed. "You don't want me to. I can order some."

Pepper used to think no one delivered breakfast then she started working for a billionaire. She handed Tony her phone. "Let me know when I should put on pants," she said.

"Never," Tony said. "Never ever put on pants."

Tony only worked in his garage. Pepper put on her best professional outfits and spent the morning in Tony's living room, dealing with the minutiae of Tony's return. Obadiah told her Tony needed to lay low since his crazy talk at the press conference. Pepper thought Obadiah ought to learn not to throw around the word crazy so lightly. At night she slept with Tony, only sleep, either at her apartment or his huge house.

She didn't go to the Stark Foundation gala because she decided she didn't have a dress for it. The real reason was her increasing bad feeling about Obadiah. She couldn't define and she had no intention of adding to Tony's burdens, but, something was wrong. Maybe something had always been wrong.

She sat in Tony's bed and watched a documentary about art forgeries. She should check the entire collection, she thought. She fell asleep and woke up to some sort of engine blasting out of the house. She pulled on a shirt and went down to the garage. "Jarvis?"

"Yes, Miss Potts?"

"Where's Tony?"

"I don't believe Mr. Stark would want me to tell you."

"That's disturbing," she said. She didn't press.

She ran downstairs when she heard him come back in. She heard noise, she assumed it was Tony. His robots were removing a metal suit from his body. "Tony, what did you do?"

He didn't answer her until he was out of the suit. Then he gave her instructions about breaking into Obadiah's computer. She said, "I can't do that. I can't watch you die, I can't lose you again."
"You told me saving lives is important. You said that." He looked at her and was still, still in a way Tony never was. "I shouldn't be alive. This is what matters, the mission, making things right. And I can't do it without you."

"Tony," Pepper said. "I was joking about condoms. Since when do you take me so seriously?"

He actually smiled at her. "I always take you seriously. I love you, and it's not because you're funny."

She took three, four steps and she was in his arms and she was holding him. "I love you, too, and I'm very funny."

"Fine," Tony said. "This is the mission now. Save lives, keep you safe, make a difference in an important way."

"You did do that before," Pepper said.

"But this is better," Tony said. "We have to stop Obadiah."

"Fine," she said. "I'll do it. But you have to promise me, you try to actively avoid dying. Because it will kill me."

"That wasn't funny," Tony said. "As an example."

He put the drive in her hands.

Two days later she was at his house, muting all the screens showing his press conference. "God, you're awful," she said. "It was a simple story."

"It just made no sense," Tony said. "If we never talk about my press conference again, I will start to work on those condoms, just for you."
"And for silence forever on your ridiculous press conference, so not just for me," she said. "But fine, I'll take it."

He touched her bare calf and ran his hand up her leg. "You've neglected your bikini wax since I was gone. I have no preference here, you do what you want. I'd be happy to help, though, if you want to go back to smooth all over."

She covered his hand with hers. "We have a lot better things to catch up on, Tony."