After receiving confirmation from Jarvis, Pepper returns to the master suite and changes her clothes. Even though she's working from home for the most part, she still makes the effort to dress professionally. Though there's other reasons for it – she does have some interaction with other people - mainly it keeps her from feeling sloppy all day. However, their workday is over now, and her black suit jacket has snot stains across the shoulder. For a nap and dinner in, yoga pants and one of Tony's t-shirts is more than sufficient.
When Tony finally re-enters the master bedroom it's in similar attire - though in this case he's omitted any top at all in favor of loose sweat pants and warmly socked feet.
She takes the space of a heartbeat to assess his physical condition. His skin is pale, yes, but not of an unnatural pallor. The muscles of his arms and chest are slim but growing more developed, the result, she knows, of regular hours spent in physical therapy. The almost six-pack is starting to look pretty good on him.
"Well?" Pepper looks up from her visual examination. Tony's got one eyebrow raised; he crosses his arms over his chest. "Do I look like I'm about to keel over?"
She blushes. "No. Quite the opposite really."
Tony doesn't preen - well not exactly - but she doesn't miss the pleased little upturn of his lips. "Note to self, keep hitting the corporate gym three early mornings a week with Rhodey."
"As long as you go to bed early those three days a week," she teases in reply. "Or you'll fall asleep over supper in the evenings."
"Pepper, I agreed to take a nap. What more do you want from me?" Tony asks, as if going to bed early on top of that is unreasonable. Still, he yawns and stretches his arms over his head for several long seconds that leave her with a pretty good view of his body.
"I want you to take as good care of yourself as you do of Aaron and I," she replies once she has his full attention again.
He glances at her as he moves toward the bed. "There's only so many hours in the day, Pep. You have to compromise somewhere."
"I know, I know, I just..." She shrugs a little as he slips under the covers. "In Savannah I got used to cuddling up next to you in bed. It's not the same anymore when you're not there beside me."
It's a half truth. She does miss her personal heater whenever Aaron gives her enough time to catch up on her sleep, but the shape he was in when they first crossed paths in Savannah is still vivid in her memory. She never wants to see him so run down again, never wants to wait out another tachycardia attack with him.
Tony nods, scooting closer to her on the bed. "I promise...once this project launches we should see enough of an uptick in production and the stocks for me to start keeping sane hours. In the meantime…" He yawns once more, tucking her in firmly against his chest. "I can probably manage to get out of the office most days by four pm."
Pepper chews the inside of her lip. That's not much of a concession. He's supposed to be working six hours a day at most, though sometimes she has a hard time deciding if the time he spends looking over blueprints truly counts as "working" when it's what he'd be doing anyway if he had any free time.
Perhaps a full lunch hour is the best way she's going to get him to slow down at all, whether Aaron needs "daddy time" or not.
"The evening stuff is mostly development and research clean up anyway, and I don't care if Aaron drools on my rough schematics if I happen to be holding him." Tony chuckles, explaining when he catches her looking at him curiously, "What I'd really like is to teach him to spit up on certain deserving individuals." He laughs again at Pepper's scolding look. "I know I'll never get to do it, but leave me the fantasy at least."
"If that's your idea of a fantasy life, we've got problems, Stark." Pepper smiles against his shoulder.
His hands trail along her back. "I didn't say it was my only one." He bends down for another kiss – this one a little longer and starkly more intense…
Pepper has to admit that kissing Tony Stark has quickly become addictive. The man knows exactly what to do to turn her into mush, if that's what he wants. It's when he wants responsive mush that her heart starts beating faster, though even then it's not out of fear.
At least, not totally. There's a thrill of anticipation present that's more or less new to her since she's been with Tony. She doesn't think that this is one of those times where he's going to push her boundaries, but the fact that he has and he does is enough to put her just the tiniest bit on guard. She doesn't want him to ever have to sit by as she freaks out because she let him push further than she's ready to go. Her previous experiences with sex - aside from the thing with Delaney - are something she's only hinted at. Not enough for him to really understand that before him it had never really been about pleasure.
"You're stiffening up a little, Pep. Mind telling me what you're thinking?" Tony's voice is quiet.
"That you make me feel good," she whispers ruefully. Tony just looks at her and then starts shaking his head, which is more or less the reaction she'd be expecting.
"I'm not sure how we're ever going to make you feel really good without you spraining something then."
He moves to settle her back against his side. "No." She hangs on to his shoulders. "Don't stop yet?" Of course, if he wants to stop then that's fine. But they don't need to stop every time she gets a little uneasy. It's rare that he keeps going long enough for her to adjust in the times when she does get tense.
Pepper's beginning to think she's going to have to get them both drunk in order to make some real progress.
"I just...Pepper, I don't like pushing. Especially not in this. This is supposed to be fun. I don't know how you did this before, but -"
"I usually had a couple of drinks in me."
Tony blinks at that. "Excuse me?" He pulls back enough to look directly in her face.
The problem with telling the truth, Pepper realizes as she looks down and starts playing with the hem of her shirt, is that doing so became a conditioned response. The ritual that had accompanied her one night stands hadn't been something she'd wanted him to know about.
"You know...a glass or two of red wine. To relax," she murmurs as if this is no big deal. "I... Look don't take this wrong, Tony. But when I was a kid...my mom wasn't exactly a touchy-feely type. Until I moved into my Dad's, there wasn't anyone who ever even regularly hugged me."
She can feel him looking at her, knows that he probably sees more than she wants him to. He doesn't push for more though, which has become an expected blessing. The more of these kinds of revelations that she makes, the more he lets her make them in her own time.
"Pepper..." He sounds regretful, which isn't what she wants at all.
"No." She shakes her head. "It's not your fault and I'm not saying you should stop. You are...you are perfect," she stresses. "I feel so safe with you, Tony. It just...takes a little... help... for me to overcome the weirdness of letting anyone this close. Believe it or not it was worse when I was little, but when we were kids, Mick at least got me used to regular hugs and the occasional play-fighting."
"But anything more intimate requires 'help' involving alcohol?" Tony does his best to sound non-judgmental.
"Yeah...wine chills me out. Makes me less jumpy, I suppose you could say. I figured that out when I was with a friend of sorts back in my first year of college."
"A roommate kind of friend, or a friend with benefits kind of friend?" Tony sighs, and tightens his arms around her. "I'm sorry," he whispers against her hair. "It's none of my business if you don't want to tell me." He leans back a little so that he can look into her face. "And Pepper, you are safe with me. I promise. I will always back off if you tell me to."
"I know." She swallows hard. "It's just..." Pepper tries to smile, and comes up with something that moves her lips into the right shape, even if they tremble. "That part of my life has always been screwed up." She pauses a moment then relaxes a bit when he doesn't challenge that. "As for being jealous...there's no need for it at all. She was nice enough, but the one kiss we shared was plenty of indication I didn't swing the way she did."
Tony groans and finally relaxes himself as he laughs silently. He rolls them slightly so that he can rest with his head on her shoulder. "Someday you're going to stop surprising me," he tells her as he feels her hand come up to start combing through his hair.
"You're surprised I wondered if I swung both ways? Why? You've met my brother, Tony." she points out. "It's not as if I had no reason to at least consider the possibility..." She shakes her head, "The alcohol part of it was more...useful information, anyway."
"If only you'd used that knowledge for good instead of evil," he teases. "Do you know how many times I wished I could see you drunk when you first started working for me?"
"I never get drunk, Tony...there's too much risk of bad stuff happening when you're that incapacitated. I've always just stuck with getting a little bit tipsy."
He props up on one elbow to look down at her.
"Don't give me that look," she says immediately. "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."
He ignores the implication. It's another matter entirely for a man to bring a woman home when he's "tipsy." Women tended to be more physically vulnerable than men even when they weren't intoxicated. "The thing that bothers me about it most, Pep, was the threat that kind of thing had to represent to your safety."
Her lips quirk wryly but she doesn't say anything. She wonders if he'll interpret that as acknowledgement. In reality she'd long ago decided that she'd already suffered through a hell of a lot thanks to her upbringing. It wasn't as if those men she'd gone home with could do much worse to her by that time.
"It's all academic at this point anyway, Tony." She swallows hard; the expression on her face has him expecting that she's going to say something he might not like. "It's not like I'm having one night stands anymore. The question is whether we should take a lesson from history now in the way we push forward with things."
"I -" Tony stops himself; closes his mouth on his instinctive denial of that statement. He doesn't like what it implies, that she needs some sort of aid in order to be close to him. But she's just told him differently. She's told him that she trusts him and that he makes her feel good. Apparently it's just not quite enough to push past her own instinctive defenses.
If he thinks through this logically, he can see how maybe it would help. But he's also not ready to think through it logically yet.
"I'll think about it. We can talk about it more later." He kisses her forehead, then her cheek, and then her shoulder as he sinks back down into the bed. "I see you've stolen another one of my t-shirts."
Pepper shrugs. "It's soft and smells like you. I guess I just like it."
"I'd be worried if you didn't." His words are light, but his mind is still running through the new information this conversation has garnered. It's almost more than Pepper's told him at one time since he'd first seen her in Savannah, and frankly, it's more than he knows how to deal with on his own. What he needs is someone to work through this with, and Mick is his best bet, even if the man is out of the country.
South America has e-mail.
Pepper sighs. "You have that look you get on your face again," she grumbles. "Like your brain has too much new information and is going to explode. So much for taking a nap or even relaxing."
He shakes his head and murmurs, "Sleep is actually supposed to help the brain work through things." Tony makes himself focus on Pepper again. For all that she spends most of her day here at the house, she's just as busy as he is, if not more. Not only is she taking care of their son, but she's still working as his personal assistant and trying to recruit someone to fill that position as well as someone to be her assistant. And she's trying to do that in fewer hours than he works, because she wants to set a good example by not doing work during "their" time.
In short, she needs the break as much as he does.
They lie there in silence for several seconds, Tony becoming more and more relaxed by the sensation of his wife resting comfortably in his arms. There's something seductive about it, though not in a sexual sense. More of an insidiously subtle invitation to admit to weariness. "You know, I'm growing more and more tempted to take a cue from Aaron and have you call me in sick tomorrow."
"Why wait until tomorrow when I can send out a mass e-mail tonight?" Pepper's voice sounds positively whimsical.
"Because while it's reasonable that I may catch Aaron's virus, I'd need to be around him a few more hours before I'd start showing symptoms."
"Of course, Mr. Stark. You're absolutely right. Why ask for a day you already need off when you can actually get sick and be miserable instead?"
"You're humoring me," Tony accuses lightly as he tightens his hold around her.
"Mmm-hmm..." she replies. "Though it does work out rather nicely for me too."
Tony sighs again, though this time it's in contentment. "So does this mean we can put off our prenuptial-negotiations, at least for tonight? 'Cause I don't know about you, but lying around like a sloth and watching movies sounds a hell of a lot more appealing."
"That almost sounds like a plea for mercy." Pepper's voice is amused. "But I suppose it won't be too hard to leave a message for Gary while I'm sending that e-mail." She's silent for a few seconds before adding, "If you're going to be home tomorrow, I've narrowed down the field for your personal assistant to three candidates, and I'd like you to meet them so you can make a choice."
He groans. "Pepper, doesn't actually working defeat the purpose of a sick day?"
"You're telling me it'll take more than five minutes to decide if someone will suit or not? You hired me after knowing me for thirty seconds."
"Yes well, Pep we had a very...distinctive first meeting."
That's one way to put it. She still finds herself surprised that he hadn't taken her for a lunatic. Though, knowing the way his mind worked like she did, that was probably half the reason he hired her on the spot.
"We need to get this settled soon," she murmurs, allowing that it probably won't happen tomorrow.
"If it'll really take a half hour or less it's fine, I just...." He shrugs, "I guess I'm more in need of some down time then I was letting myself admit."
Well, now that was what she wanted more than his choosing an assistant...though the assistant did rank second on her list. It'd be nice to have someone to share his workload with.
"I'll schedule them for mid-afternoon, if that's okay. Hopefully Aaron will be napping by then, and we'll still be able to sleep in the morning and take our time during the day." When Tony sighs again she tugs gently on his hair. "Hour and a half, tops," she promises. "A half hour for each of them is plenty for initial interview, if you don't end up hiring someone right off the bat."
Tony nods again, this time yawning deeply, and when Pepper looks up at his face it's to see his eyes sliding shut.
She smiles softly and lets her own eyes rest. "I'll remind you later," she murmurs as she pulls him a little closer and dozes off.