Author's Note: Oh thanks so much guys! I loved the encouragement which is why I stayed up all night working on this, so hopefully this lives up all of your expectations. Talk about pressure! I am not sure if my next installment should be the last one or not, so hopefully I'm heading in the right direction. Again, love and comments help and go a long way. This one is probably twice as long as the last one, so grab yo popcorn!
Wedding bells could be heard in the background. A nearby chapel seemed to be finishing up a wedding late in the day as Pepper just fixated her gaze at her troubled boss. "Tony, what's going?" How much could she push before she got tired and gave up? Tony looked off and debated back and forth the pros and cons about telling her or keeping it to himself. The driver stood outside in the warm sun which was slowly dipping down the horizon as she just sat there, not moving until she got the answer she wanted. No, needed. "We're here in Italy, why can't you just tell me what's going on?" She pleaded. He was talking about life more than usual and it wasn't like him. In fact, it was something he never really worried about. Tony often strutted around his mansion like he was immortal. What was going on inside of his head?
Finally it was decided.
"Not now." Tony said quietly. "I can't tell you now, but I promise I will." Tony told her. He wanted them to enjoy their time in paradise and not let it become eclipsed by the daunting and unavoidable end of his life. Pepper couldn't be burdened like him, he wouldn't let her suffer like he was. And so Pepper just turned and got out of the car as Tony opened his own door and walked around to meet Pepper at the foot of the hotel. He put an arm around her and escorted her up the stone steps and they entered an air conditioned lobby with fountains and statues and paintings, all lovely in taste and historic of course. While Pepper eyed the decor, Tony moved up to the front desk and got the two room keys for Pepper and himself. He and the lady then walked over to the glass escalator and went up to the third floor.
Once there, they stepped outside and were on a large stone level with bushes, trees with seats around, overlooking the ocean. He walked over to the left and up a few levels, all of which were suspended over the high cliffs. They reached a large private bungalow and headed inside. The resort specialized in private suites which were spread out around the cliff-side and used both interior and exterior spaces around to create a comforting yet luxurious living space for the private wealthy guests. Tony closed the glass door behind them and locked it. The personal suite had a sitting room, kitchen, dining room, two rooms and two bathrooms, as well as a private hot-tub outside on their personal stone deck. Pepper glanced to Tony, wanting to make some joke about how it felt like they were on a honeymoon but no words really formed so she just walked around with him.
Their things were already put in their rooms and Tony moved into the kitchen and poured them a glass of champagne. "To us." He handed her a glass and they took a sip. He turned and leaned on the counter to see the sun finally dip down over the glassy ocean down below them. He glanced to Pepper who still didn't looked relaxed at all, that would have to change. "Why don't we go out and get something to eat and tomorrow spend the morning at a spa?"
"What? You're not going to try cooking again?" Pepper asked him.
"You didn't like what I made?"
"I liked it...I just like other things better." She smiled to him. "Alright, let's change and go out." For now, she would do her best to go along with the whims of Tony Stark. He said he would tell her and she knew he would do it in his own time, but he could be so slow about some things that it made her wonder if he would just wait until the last possible minute. But Pepper stopped herself from over-thinking things because it would only do her more harm than good. Tony nodded and headed off to his own room and changed into a nice suit and found himself debating on a tie. Pepper knocked on his door after ten minutes. Now if a woman was waiting on him, he knew he was running late. "Tony? Is your zipper stuck or something?" Usually she picked out his clothes, so it was also possible he just wasn't sure what to wear. He opened the door and held out two ties.
"Which? I feel as my date tonight," He paused and looked at Pepper expecting her to give him a look of disapproval but it was just softened thus not as intense as usual. "I feel as if she should pick what I wear if she has to be looking at it for extended periods of time before it's pulled off me in a lust-filled drunken haze." He explained, breaking back into his cocky sort of mask which Pepper had become quite immune to over the years. She rolled her eyes, her softness hardening once more as she took the two ties in her hand. One was a solid red which matched the tone of his latest Iron Man suit, the other was a deep blue with more shiny diagonal stripes running through it.
"Here." She set the red one down and just started to put on Tony's blue tie for him. "It goes better with my eyes." Pepper smiled as she finished the tie and tightened it slightly, as if were a master hitting their dog on the head with a newspaper for being naughty. "And if anyone's pulling your tie off in a lust-filled drunken haze, it would be yourself." Pepper retorted and stepped back. And then Tony immediately knew he shouldn't have made the joke because it almost looked like he was making some leeway with her and he just blew it. She knew him better than anyone else and yet he sometimes felt the need to put up a wall even around her, after all this time. "Come on." She just said and headed out the door to grab her purse. The lovely CEO had on the same blue dress she had gotten herself for her birthday. Well technically Tony had gotten it for her but she liked to think of it as a duel-present since she picked it out and he paid for it. It seemed when Tony had her luggage packed, he must have specifically asked for it.
Was it the slim fit? The color? Or was it that he bought it for her and he felt a little more confident when Pepper was wearing something he bought her. Like she was with him, like he could buy her the world if she wanted it. Tony snapped out of his distracted male thoughts and followed Pepper outside into the warm air and they went down to the elevator. As they reached the lobby, Tony was now wondering what to say. He didn't want to be joking around, but he didn't want to be too serious either. In the end, surely it would pay off to be more serious than not. Shaking his head, they got back into the car which headed off toward Fiaschetteria Toscana which was a well known place to eat at. He had been there once before and hoped Pepper would enjoy it. On the drive over, he glanced over to Pepper, "You do look nice tonight." He offered to her. She looked over at him and stared, while Tony tried to see if she was still upset with him.
"Thank you, Mr. Stark." She replied and looked back out the window. Just great, one or two sexual jokes and he was in the doghouse and back to Mr. Stark. How could Tony turn the setback into something useable? Of course anymore advances would have to be done carefully. Clearly the hero was on thin ice already. This was a vacation, or rather a company retreat. He wanted her to enjoy herself but his company as well. He for one, wanted to enjoy her company. It was very precious to him. He restrained himself from closing the gap between them and making a comment about him being the boss and her needing to be nice to him but he didn't do such a thing. They arrived soon enough and headed inside. Tony was greeted with a warm welcome and the pair was shown to a table.
The two talked about tomorrow's plans and the city they were in. Tony was determined to spoil the woman until her mouth was filled with cavities. He wanted her to be relaxed, he had put so much stress on her but even more now than usual. He knew he was being selfish but he was also scared, he didn't know what to do. It was a rare moment of vulnerability for him. Why was it so hard to just tell the one person in his life who he trusted the most? Why couldn't he tell her his problem? He knew she'd want to fix it, do something, fuss over him. Pepper was like that, he couldn't change it. And she would want to go into full on 'worry mode' and demand he take it easy while she tried to change it, do something. But the truth was, she had done so much already.
Too much.
He had always asked too much of her and he was sorry and he felt like he was scrambling in the last second to make it all up to her. "Pep, I want this to be a great time for us." He told her after their wine had been picked and poured for them. Pepper looked into his eyes, seeing the swirling emotions that threatened to drown him where he sat. "So I'll try and behave." He held up a hand of surrender. "I just want..." What did he want? He didn't want to die. He wanted to live and keep Pepper and everyone else safe. Why couldn't have he turned his life around sooner? She swallowed and felt how hard this was for him, whatever it was. She reached for his hand again.
Instead of begging to be let inside again, she just opted to stay outside the door of his heart and wait until he decided to open it up to her. "We'll have a great time." Pepper found herself reassuring the man. "And you'll forget about what's bothering you and...and maybe we'll never go back to work." She smiled lightly, trying to steer the conversation back toward gentle waters. "Just stay here, grow old...get drunk by the ocean and collect sea shells." By her last joke, Tony knew she was just trying to make him feel better so he decided to play along because to be honest, it sounded pretty good to him. "I'll get Tony Stark all to myself again." Pepper found herself chuckle and lace their fingers together. The blue in Pepper's eyes seem to shine a bit more than usual, Tony observed. And her laughter was very cute, not to mention her idea of hoarding him away like a treasure made him feel even more good about himself.
"Oh?" Yet it also brought the idea to light, that since he became Iron Man and told the world, that Pepper and Tony's relationship of sorts had taken a bit of a backseat. Before when she was just his PA and dealing with a more simple yet secretly diabolical Stark Industries, they were close and charming. And yet a lot of distance had been put between them and more work now demanded their individual attention. Not to mention with a new girl in the picture, he wondered if Pepper felt her place was becoming trivial or something. Like they were losing one another. He had to practice more restraint and not make a dirty comment. Instead the man stayed silent, trying to be more careful with his wording. He couldn't reset the progress he had just made again. "I suppose we are seeing less and less of each other these days. I admit I miss you nagging me, it's not the same when she does it." He smiled, his tone more light, trying to show he was joking but also serious. And he also was careful not to mention Natalie's name. Pepper smiled a little and their orders came and she paused before she dug in to say,
"If it helps I could pop over a bit more often." Pepper said as she took a bite of her fish.
"I'd like that, Ms. Potts." Tony smiled to her and started to eat as well. From then on, the night continued to roll by rather smoothly. Pepper and Tony ate their meals and drank about two glasses of wine between them and ended the night with a light chocolate souffle which was very rich and very good. The two were driven back toward the hotel and this time, the space between them had diminished. Pepper had her head resting back against the seat while Tony had his arm around her waist. Her head turned to look at him as they drove along and Tony couldn't resist reaching over to pull the classic move. He tucked a stray strawberry strand of her hair behind her ear and she smiled at him. "Did I tell you how stunning you look tonight?" He asked her.
"You might have mentioned it." Pepper replied.
"No reason why I shouldn't mention it again." Tony grinned. The two arrived back at their hotel and got back up to their suite without any drunken detours. Neither were drunk of course, but they were tipsy enough to take their time getting up to said suite. Pepper went into her room and tossed her purse on the bed and sat down on the edge and ran her fingers through her hair. As she considering changing and going to bed, she heard Tony in his room. It sounded as if he had fallen or something. He couldn't be that out of it could he? For someone who drank so much, he could handle his alcohol. So what was up? Pepper got up and headed into his room to see Tony in his own bathroom staring at himself in the mirror, his back was to her and his shirt was open. You could see his bare chest, his arc reactor along with a strange purple sort of array of lines imprinted on his skin. Was she seeing things? Pepper blinked a few times and quickly went back into her room and shut the door, wondering if Tony's secret related to the thing she saw or if she had just had a glass too much of wine. "Night Pep." She heard Tony call as she removed her heels.
"Yeah...night!" She replied and just hoped a night's sleep would just sort everything out. Maybe she had been seeing things, after all, it was dim lighting. Maybe somewhere inside of her, she knew she saw something and knew how bad it was and didn't want to admit it to herself. Not bothering to get herself out of her dress, she just laid back and willed herself to sleep while Tony undressed and got into bed himself, trying not to focus on his blood toxicity levels and just think of Pepper. He had a lot of specialized drinks made for him so he could just drink those and tell Pepper they were for his health. In a way it wouldn't be a lie. She would assume it was some wacky wheat-grass thing when really it was trying to put off his death. When morning came, Tony considered how well the night before had gone, that he was back on pretty good terms with Pepper and decided to run with his luck and see how far it would take him. He called up for a nice breakfast and got dressed. Then he moved into the living room.
When would he tell her?
Could he?
Yes, and he had it.
If Pepper was in trouble, he would want to know.
While he was going back over the possible conversations, Pepper came out in a casual pair of jeans and a black tank top with her hair down, as it had been the night before. She sat next to him on the couch and looked at him. "Sleep well?" She asked him. For now, she had forgotten about the weird imprint she had seen and was looking forward to their day together.
"I did, I hope you did too." He replied. "I have ordered us breakfast and we have a date at the spa in an hour. And then we can go out for lunch and I'm also prepared to buy you half of the city, if you so desire." Tony smiled to her. Pepper looked at him, rather surprised he had taken the initiative to do everything. Usually she made the plans but Tony was happy to assume the male role for now, so she would try and let him. So far, so good right? "Clothes work a bit better than land mass though, I think."
"Sounds wonderful, Tony." Pepper replied, unable to ignore a certain kind of warmth surge inside of her. The two headed outside to a table and chairs by the hot-tub and their food soon arrived and was served to them. When they were left alone, Pepper enjoyed her coffee with Tony and enjoyed the sunny flawless view spread out before them. "It's such a nice day." She hummed. "I would like to go dancing tonight, if I can make a request."
"Dancing? I thought you didn't want to dance with your boss?"
"You don't want to dance? That's fine." She quickly said, surprised by his comment, even if it was a bit a jest.
"No, I do...I just didn't think you wanted to, last time I checked."
"I asked, surely it means I want to. That other time I just...I just wasn't expecting it." She said and looked off. It seemed Tony's little joke had once again caused some unwanted and unintended friction. He should have just agreed instead of joked around. Maybe it was because he used a label such as boss and it put her on edge. Didn't he say there would be no mention of work or work related things? "Nevermind." Pepper waved a hand and Tony found himself frown.
"No, no, I want to dance with you." How could he salvage this? "I was kidding, I'm not your boss right now, I'm just Tony and Tony would like to dance with Pepper, very much." He pleaded. He couldn't stand messing up yet again. Pepper just put her defenses up, getting the wrong impression and shook her head.
"I think our car is here to take us out." She just said and headed back inside. Tony groaned and inwardly face palmed and just followed her out. He should have just agreed and made a joke later. Why couldn't he do anything right around Pepper later? Usually it was easy to joke around with her but now things were tricky. The genius had to jog to catch up with her while grabbing a bottle filled with a green liquid on his way out. They headed down to the car and headed off, once again having to ride in an awkward silence. The massage at the spa would hopefully mend the tension or alleviate it. An hour or so later, they were reunited with one another and ready for a light lunch. Pepper seemed a bit less grouchy but Tony wasn't counting on being out of the doghouse just yet.
She was entitled to be upset with him, surely she was never without a loss to be upset with him. Tony just wanted to make things better, make her less bothered. Lunch went by smoothly and Pepper declined to shopping. Surprisingly it was one of the things Tony wanted to do for her. It was the easiest way for the billionaire to show someone he cared, by buying them tons of things. Pepper wasn't easily bought it seemed. They just went back to the hotel for the rest of the day while Tony plotted a way to get her back to laughing again. As the sun began to set a light music flowed through the air of the outside balcony. Tony had a soft jazz song playing in the background and he also had some chilled white wine poured for two, along with some cheese and fruit, among other finger foods. Tony had on his nice suit, along with the tie from last night and knocked on Pepper's closed door.
Hopefully she wasn't working.
"Pep?" Tony called and she opened the door after about twenty seconds of anticipation. She had on her same casual wear but instead her hair was pulled up into a pony tail. She still looked so beautiful to him. Tony held out his hand to her, "Care to dance?" He smirked a little and dipped his head slightly.