Everybody Take It Off

"Come on, no one will see us, I know this club, the owner's a great guy-"

"Tony, I'm not going. People will see-"

"No, Pep, you're really not getting it. No one will know us, it's not that big of a deal. Really, please."

I wasn't buying it. Public + Tony Stark = Tony Stark as another man, no matter if it's dinner or a dark club. Sure, I had had my share of fun in darkness wearing skimpy clothing and being touched by men I didn't know otherwise. But that's not how it was going to go, and I knew it before hand. But if I didn't…he would hound me forever.

"Fine. But we're going to go LATE, and not for long."

He perked up like a 12 year old on Christmas getting his favorite thing. Not that he really showed that all that much. He was still Tony Stark, even if he was half-naked from the shower and I was digging through email from work.

Nothing like a normal Friday night. I pledged my Friday nights ever since we started trying this…relationship thing. He wasn't dying anymore, I wasn't CEO anymore – we were comfortable. Work came first, then we made time for each other. After everything was said and done, we were together. Just not to the public.

He dashed off into his closet and shut the door tight. I half expected him to start giggling behind the door. I wandered off to my own closet in the other room. Even though we lived together somewhat (I was still in the middle of deciding yes or no, so half of my closet was here, half of it back at my townhouse) I kept everything in another room. What was I going to wear?

"Oh, hey, Pepper?"

"Yes, Tony?" I'm sure I sounded like I was annoyed already, but it wasn't meant to be that way.

"Wear something small, and black. All black."

Twenty minutes later, I was downstairs in a strapless black dress that barely covered my ass – an old clubbing dress from when I actually had a life, and it was getting too big now – when Tony came down. He was wearing all black himself. He had a black dress shirt, and black slacks. He even accessorized with some sunglasses. And I noticed something distinct. He was fiddling with something on his chest, which I guessed had something to do with his arc reactor.

"What are you doing?"

He seemed surprised that I asked when he came down in front of me doing something odd. He moved his hands and showed a very new cover for the light attached to his chest.

"Thought I would try it out tonight…you look…fantastic." He tilted his head up and grinned at me before moving his sunglasses up from over his eyes. Then something seemed to hit him, and he reached into his back pocket to hand me a little black box with two domes in it.

"You'll probably want to put those on now. It's hard to do in a car." He said softly, reaching out to run his fingers over the top of my palm.

"I'll be downstairs in the car." He was already halfway down the staircase and I had to know. I opened the top of the case to see two pools of liquid – and contacts. Contacts? What would I need contacts…

I put them on quickly in the bathroom before clicking my heels down the staircase and wandering down into the workshop/garage. The Audi was already running and waiting for me with the side door open.

My mind was screaming how terrible of an idea this was, but he seemed so interested and so happy at the idea. Why, though? Why was it a big deal to go out? Was it just something he was used to once and really missed? I was super curious, but I knew better than to ask as I got in the car, shut the door, and he was off like a light up the ramp.

"Can you see okay? They take some getting used to in high light." He didn't flinch when he shifted and raced down the PCH. As we left the Stark Compound and the light around disappeared, I noticed something – I could see better. It wasn't like normal dark with a little light. I could see just fine.

I turned my head, and got a glimpse of Tony for a moment. He looked odd. Something was off on his face, but he never looked at me. He just put the sunglasses back on (at night? Really?) and sped off into the darkness. It was only midnight, but there was really no one around.

We were in this not great part of town within minutes. The buildings looked like old warehouses that were falling over, and there were a couple of guys around…then Tony stopped. And a black guy walked up over to the window, all Tony had to do was tip down his sunglasses – a simple gesture – and the man pointed towards the warehouse off behind him. Tony nodded, revved his engine, then pulled into the opening door. There were hundreds of cars inside the building. Nice cars too. No beat-up clunkers. I didn't think there was anything less than an Infiniti. This had to be an upper-scale club with this kind of quiet service.

He parked next to a Ferrari and a Porsche before we both got out and walked towards the back of the tin building. There were some more men there, both wearing sunglasses and there were some other couples walking in in completely black clothing. So that wasn't some crazy thing by Tony, it was club dress. I wonder why.

We made our way up and even before we got to the two men, they had the doors open for us both. Neither said anything to us as we walked past and Tony handed one of them his sunglasses.

All of a sudden, we were completely bathed in darkness, and I could hear the music.

I could tell we were walking down a hall. People were lining the wall, making out, touching, talking – everything you expected from a club. What I hadn't expected were the glowing eyes.

They all seemed to have glowing eyes in different colors and shapes. It was odd to see purple eyes with star pupils. I couldn't keep from staring. And I could still see just fine in the dark. How odd.

The music was getting louder the farther we walked, and people were turning to look at me. No, not me. Him. They were looking at Tony. Great. They knew who he was, and probably saw me with him.

There was a large door at the end of the hall, and it was moving from the bass of the loud music. It was only then that Tony turned to me, and I saw him.

His eyes were red-gold, and slitted like a cat's.

What did these contacts do?

"Ready Pep?"

I took a deep breath, then nodded. He looked so devilishly handsome, even with…odd eyes.

"Yeah. Let's go."

He pushed open the door, and in we went to the coolest club I had ever seen in my 35+ years.