With Exactly Who I Want To Spend it With…
AU: What if Tony spent his "last" birthday exactly the way he really wanted to?
This story will probably be 4-5 chapters in length, it takes place during the events of Iron Man 2. Its rated T to kind of keep it in the middle because while chapters 1 and 2 are tame, chapter 3 will be M rated, and chapter 4 (maybe 5 if there is one) will be rated T.
This my first multi-chapter pepperony fic. Please read and review, it really helps to get your comments- honest!
Chapter 1: Just You
By now Pepper was used to planning Tony's birthday party to perfectly suit his eccentric style. In the first few years of her employment it took a lot of planning to find the right DJ and bartender, make the right guest list (with the perfect mix of professional contacts and people just tacky enough to allow Tony to at least enjoy it a little), hire a cleaning crew, agree to every one of his random requests, the list goes on.
But by now she knows exactly what Tony wants and he's willing to pay so much money that pretty much everyone she needs has the date automatically reserved every year. All it takes is a simple phone call from her to make everything final. Still, even though she had that task down to a science she was happy that it was the last time she was ever going to have to arrange everything-now that she had been promoted to CEO. Nonetheless this year the planning was pretty simple, and the stress was even less considering he was partying a lot less these days.
But nothing could be that simple.
Tony decides he wants to cancel the entire thing and he decides this at the very last minute, of course. That part is not out of the ordinary, but he's been acting so strange lately that she's concerned. He shows up at her office begging her to call the whole thing off. She's already calculating the amount of time its going to take to cancel the damn thing, when he even offers to call everyone himself.
A moment of panic strikes her; she thinks maybe he's going to ask her to plan something else crazy, entirely at the last minute. She has to remind herself that she's not his PA anymore and someone else can do it- but she knows no one else would be able to pull it off as quickly as she would considering the amount of practice she has had.
But that's not the case. He's sitting across from her desk, with a sad look in his eyes and he actually sounds a little desperate to make sure the party doesn't happen. She's really starting to get worried about this whole thing- what has gotten into him?
"Tony, you want to call off your birthday party? We've already invited everyone, the party is in 5 hours! Did you plan something else? Did you want me to plan something else? What is going on? Is it an Iron Man thing?" Pepper was beginning to babble.
Tony knew she was going to be annoyed so he let her finish before he spoke up "it's nothing-Pep. I just, I don't want to spend my birthday with a bunch on strangers who don't even care about me. Some people who think it's fun to just go to Tony Stark's house and party with Iron Man. I know I can still be a bit of a pain the ass sometimes, but that really isn't my scene anymore."
"Well- I mean, we can cancel everything but what are you proposing to do instead? Do you have to go out on a mission or something? You're acting really weird Tony." She tried to be at least a little sympathetic in her reply.
His shoulders were deflated, he looked exhausted and that sad look lingered in his eyes. She flashed back to their conversation in the plane from Monaco- where he had told her he didn't want to go home. That he needed to recharge his batteries. Was everything about being Iron Man finally catching up to him or was there something else seriously wrong? Her concern was starting to escalate again.
He wasn't being direct with her. One of the reasons Pepper was so loyal to Tony was because he was direct, he told her the truth and he trusted her. She was privy to every aspect of his life, good and bad, and he trusted her completely with all of it. But he was keeping something from her now, this birthday party thing was just another sign. She had been so busy acclimating to the CEO position that she had neglected something happening with Tony, as a friend. As weird as their friendship was and as aggravating as he could be- she still considered him one of her friends.
She didn't realize that she had been sitting in silence; she was lost in her own thoughts and worry. He broke the silence when he finally admitted that he just wanted to spend his birthday with her instead. He told her that he missed having her around every day and he just wanted to spend some time with her like they used to but with no work involved. She was surprised, but he looked sincere when he asked.
If she was being honest with herself she missed seeing him every day too. He was a pain in the ass on a regular basis but he made her laugh, and he kept her on her toes. She knew he needed someone to take care of him, with an emphasis on the care part. That was the part she always delivered that no one else did. That was the part he needed the most, someone to really care about him. Not Tony Stark the billionaire, genius, philanthropist whatever- just him. She realized that was what he was asking for now.
She consented on two conditions, the first was that he wasn't going to change his mind halfway through the night because he got bored and decide to ditch her or throw a last minute shindig and the second was that he actually tell her what was wrong and what was going on with him. So he agreed to both, a little reluctant on the second part.