Tony fiddled with the pen in his hand, twiddling it back and forth. He sat at the head of a table in their usual conference room in Stark Industries, listening to some man drone on and on about the Stock Market and their new investments and other things Tony didn't really care about. It had been a while since he had taken on this role of the prestige and wealthy business man, all dressed up in a nice crisp suit and tie, looking like he actually knew what was going on with his company. That was Pepper's job now, and she did it a hell of a lot better than he ever did. Stark didn't know why he had to even come to these things anymore.

"...skyrocketed after Mr. Stark's presumed death, and even more so after he was found to be alive..." the man carried on dully. How did people stay awake during these things?

Within five minutes, Tony's fiddling was slowing down and his eyelids were feeling heavier. Even though he was getting back into a routine of normal sleep hours after he used to get barely any, meetings never failed to make him feel like the only thing he needed was to curl up back in bed and never come out. And not to mention, the way that guy's voice was perfectly and terribly monotone was the icing on the cake...

Suddenly, Tony felt a sharp pain in his shin as Pepper kicked him with her heels on, hard. Tony jerked awake, sitting upright in one fast and surprised movement. The speaking stopped and all heads turned to him. He shrunk back into his chair and shrugged.

"Sorry, I get excited about stocks." he mumbled. No one looked phased as they turned back to the man who had been lecturing them for nearly two hours now. Once he knew their attention was turned away from him, Tony shot a dirty look at Pepper who was already giving him a dirty look back from where she sat to the right of him. She nodded her head towards the boring-as-hell business man to tell him to pay attention, but he just resumed fiddling with everything around him.

I'm bored

He eventually texted Pepper. He heard her phone buzz and saw her roll her eyes, most likely already knowing who it was. About two hours in is when he usually would text her and she'd get mad for distracting her but amuse him anyway. Man, he loved her.

From Pep:

Tough.

From Tony:

But Pepper, I'm reaaaaaaally bored.

From Pep:

Tougher.

Tony sighed and stuffed his phone back in his pocket. Standing up, all gazes turned towards him once more. He clapped his hands together and gave everyone a mock-apologetic look.

"Well I'm sorry that I've got to leave the party early boys, but there's some emergency Iron Man business to attend to. I'm really disappointed I can't stay to learn more about numbers, but hey, that's what's next year's meeting is for, right?"

Faces stared blankly back at him, one of them looking utterly confused. There was an awkward silence when Tony was trying to figure out if they'd bought it or not. No one said anything, but he could feel Pepper's eyes shooting daggers through him as he spoke.

"Um, excuse us. We're just going to have a word outside for a moment." she finally said, getting up and putting a hand on his back to roughly guide him out the room. Tony raised his eyebrows at the table of business men and waved as they exited the room, finally ending in an empty hallway lined with giant windows to reveal New York below them.

"Tony..."

"Pepper, now's our chance to high tail it outta here." Tony whispered excitedly. She looked completely "off-board" as Tony described it in his head, her arms crossed over her chest and her face unamused.

"This is the first meeting you've been to in ages. You can sit through until the end."

"Do you know how boring this is after fighting bad guys with a flying metal suit?"

"And you can't just use Iron Man as an excuse to get out of things!"

"Pepper it's boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring." he argued, giving her his best puppy dog eyes. Those always worked.

"It wasn't too exciting in the first place either..." she admitted, biting her lip and actually thinking about it.

"See? Come on Peps, I want ice cream. Let's go get ice cream."

"I don't know, Tony. I-" Tony watched as Pepper stopped in midsentence when her eyes traveled to the window on the door to the conference room. Tony frowned in confusion and then followed her gaze to see that they'd accidentally left the door just a bit cracked open, and all of the businessmen were looking at them in pure shock and bewilderment. They must've heard everything.

Pepper seemed to shrink down where she stood, before she opened the door and nervously tapping her fingers at her side.

"Um... Official Iron Man business." she apologized, making Tony want to crack up laughing right there. He was going to get it for this one, but right now, he was enjoying the moment of Pepper having to use one of his excuses when she scolded him so much not to.

Deciding to pull her out of the awkward situation, he took her hand in his and gently pulled her away from the door, leading towards the elevator.

"I can't believe you made me do that."

"Does it help if I say I love you?"

He pushed the button for the lift and looked back into Pepper's unamused eyes. He glanced down at his feet and then back up at her with pleading eyes. It entertained him to drive her crazy, but at one point, he didn't like when she was mad at him. Pepper stared back with the same straight face until she broke, letting her arms fall to her sides as she rolled her eyes. The smallest of smiles crept up on her lips as the elevator dinged and the doors opened.

"Come on..." she gave in, reinforcing her grip on his hand and entwining her fingers in his own. "Let's go get some ice cream."