A/N: Omg seriously I have to stop writing these... I'm completely obsessed with Tony/Pepper... It's like I'm at work and supposed to be doing my work but I'm thinking about story plots for a Tony/Pepper fic. Anyway enough of my rambling, I listened to "More than Words" by Extreme and I couldn't help but write this.
He touches her skin, stretching his fingers, tracing a finger from her waist to the curve of her shoulder. She's beautiful he thinks, so beautiful that he doesn't quite know why he's let it slip pass by his fingertips for so many years. But there's something quite else that stirs in his mind. It captures him, freezes the little world he built around him. It's like feeling like you can't do anything, like no matter what at the end of the day she'll always be the only one to make him feel genuinely complete.
And it isn't so strange when he really thinks about it. It isn't strange when he watches her sleep beside him. She's lying on her side, her arm carefully wrapped around her exposed chest. Her hair is flowing across her pillow and onto his and for the first time in his life he feels perfect. He feels like nothing could be so perfect as this. But it's funny because he's been in this situation so many times in his life before. He's woken up to so many faces that he really doesn't remember them anymore.
But there's something about waking up beside her and watching her that really gets him. There's something about the fact that this is her. The same woman who schedules his meetings and dresses him and takes care of all the menial details in between. She's the same woman he gave his company too; the same woman he trusts with his entire life and everything. The same woman he incidentally appointed the rights to everything he owned in the event he was to die.
He glances to her face, to that expressionless serene beauty that sleeps indifferent to the feelings stirring inside him. He's never watched a woman before, never really taken the time to just soak in her beauty. He's never implored a woman, never seen anything past a woman other than her bust line and perhaps the curve of her body. But she's different, there's something about her that makes her completely different. It's probably the way she's so immaculately beautiful. Something about the way she's always so regal even when she wears that enticing business attire and those six inches heels.
He thinks he doesn't deserve her. That he doesn't deserve to have someone as perfect as her. But he remembers that night when he fought beside Rhodey and the words that sudden realization that the entire place was rigged to blow. The same place where she was at; the same place she stood in waiting, helping the others clean up the mess. He doesn't think he'll ever forget that fleeting thought of feeling like he could lose everything in a single moment. He doesn't think anybody could ever understand how he feels or how he would have felt if he ever lost her.
It goes somewhere between feeling like he wants to die, like he'll give up everything because without her he's nothing. It's like feeling like he doesn't have the will to be himself and he sincerely thinks he could never be Ironman again if he loses her.
She's that drive that keeps him going. She's that drug that makes him want more, that makes him want her more and more every day. She's that thing that makes him come home. The thing that keeps him focus. She's that hope and that belief that keeps him going. And for that he's just as he is, strong as ever, willing as ever to save the world. With her love he'll do anything because with her love he can.
He feels honoured and completely at her mercy because having her lay beside him like this could only mean one thing. That she trusts him entirely. It is as if she has stood before him and given her heart to him for safe keeping. It hits him like a hurl of a thousand bolts because he suddenly realizes that this is the next level of the feelings stirring between them. It's the next step, the one that speaks of forever and ever lasting.
He's a little startled when her eyes flutter open. He feels like he's been caught stealing a cookie from the cookie jar. But strangely enough it isn't awkward like it normally is with the others. He doesn't feel like running away or coming up with some strange excuse to get away as quick as possible. Instead he feels like he's happy that she's awake, that something inside him clicks and all his feelings are exposed. He knows she's probably reading his expressions, that he's practically displaying every ounce of affection across his face. But he doesn't really care that he's displaying them. He wants her to know that she's different, that she's so much more than a one night stand.
Her eyes are beautiful when he stares at her. It's blue and it swirls him into oblivion when he lets that genuine smile curl at each edge of his lips. She smiles warmly back at him and he feels himself falling in love with her. He feels his heart opening to her, feels his soul intertwining with hers because with her it'll be forever. It will take him forever to love her, to really love every inch, every curve, and every part of her soul.
He slips the hand he had placed on her waist, trails a soft touch till he touched her cheek. She's smiling again and this time he smiles warmly, he puts everything into his smile and into his eyes. She's given her heart to him and he wants to give his. He wants her to know that he'll give his heart to her because he loves her and that there isn't another person in the world he'll trust with his heart.
He leans in, closes his eyes as he feels her hand slipping to his cheek. He feels her lips touching his and he feels his insides melting. He feels that overwhelming feeling of love and warmth seeping into every bone, every vein and every nerve as he kisses her. It's strange because it's the first time he's kissed a woman and felt so completely right and perfect. It's like that hole, that empty feeling at the back of his soul is complete and filled.
He feels her leaning back, feels her laying on her back as he presses into her. He feels himself hovering over her again and it's strange to feel that he's allowed to do this now. That he's allowed to kiss her and touch her. She's always been that untouchable thing that he's never let himself wonder into. But he pulls away slightly from the kiss because suddenly he wants to tell her. He wants her to know that this is something he'll do forever; that when he loves her he'll love her forever.
He stretches a hand and holds himself slightly above her to look down at her. She smiles warmly, shifts her head a little. He feels her hand resting gently on his side and he is really and completely in love with her.
He says it softly, warmly and sincerely because that's all there is to say to her. That's all that defines her. That's all that defines what he feels for her.
"I love you, Pepper..."
Because she's more than words and she's more than he will ever understand.
"I know, Tony...I love you too."