Virginia Potts, better known as Pepper Potts, liked to think that she knew Tony Stark better than everyone else.
Well, really, she did.
She knew things the press or people wouldn't be interested in. The little quirks and habits of the man. Like after a good, long rain, the billionaire would order JARVIS to open all the windows because he loved that lingering scent of it, or that his favorite ice cream was nothing extravagant or weird, but simply vanilla. Those were the things she loved knowing about him. It was almost special, because it wasn't likely anyone else would ever find out these things. She had taken it upon herself to memorize each one of the pointless facts about her boss.
It was because of her careful observation of him that she learned about The Secret in the first place. There were plenty of hints of The Secret in the time she had been worked for Tony, but there were three that mattered the most, because without any one of them, it might have never been found out.
The first hint was from years of watching him. It had become obvious over time that his snarky and sarcastic attitude was to distance himself from others and hide his hurt feelings.
The second hint was Tony's drunken ramblings. She was 'escorting' (she called it that instead of dragging to make him feel better) and he mumbled something incoherent. All she had managed to pick out was 'belt', and that worried her. But in the morning, Tony said nothing about it and Pepper knew better than to ask.
The final hint was the one that made the puzzle pieces fit, and let Pepper see the whole picture. It was nearly one in the morning. Pepper usually wasn't up this late, much less at Tony's place, but some forms needed to be filled out and objects to order for building, because there was always business to be done. Finishing up the last paper, she considered crashing for the night before deciding against it and packing up her stuff.
She probably would have, had she not heard the moaning from Tony's room.
Instantly, she knew something was wrong. It wasn't the good kind of moaning. Tony never, ever moaned like that. In a flash her stuff was on the floor, and JARVIS had known and opened the usually locked door for her. It didn't take her long to be at his side.
Seeing him, so vulnerable and open was worse than the moaning. He was thrashing and muttering, drowned in a cold sweat and looking just so miserable Pepper just wanted to scream. She took a moment to collect her bearings before she spoke.
"Tony." But her deafened voice couldn't break him from his personal hell. She tried again, louder.
"Tony!"
His eyes flashed open and he quickly sat up. His eyes scanned the room frantically, but they seemed to see nothing. Somehow, the assistant knew exactly what to do.
"Tony, it's Pepper. Remember? You're in Stark Tower. Nobody's going to hurt you, alright? Everything's going to be fine."
His pupils landed on her, and a spark of recognition settled in his eyes. Then, a splash of something else. It took Pepper a moment to place it, and when she did, her stomach dropped.
Shame.
"Oh geez- Sorry, Pep. Did I worry ya? I must've been talking in my sleep. But everything's alright now." He smiled, but his hands were shaking. Pepper wasn't inclined to believe the lie and leave him in this state.
"Tony..." she stated softly. "Don't lie to me." In a second, the mask shattered. He was too tired to keep it up, plus, Pepper could see through it as if it was transparent anyway.
"I'm so sorry, Pepper. I try so hard but I can't do anything right and- god, he said it would make me better but it only hurt and I just want it to stop, and I want to stop-"
She swallowed thickly. "Who hurt you, Tony?" Her voice was calm, soothing, but inside she was furious.
"It was never his fault, it was mine, and it's still and always gonna be mine because I can't stop messing up. I'm not a hero, Pep, even that bastard knew I am a villain in disguise-" Tears shone in the genius' eyes.
"Tony," she started again, her anger flaring even more so. "Who hurt you?"
"Him. It was always him. Him, him, him. He pretended to be proud of me and love me but no, no, no, he hated me so much, everyone hates me so much..." He was outwardly sobbing now.
It all finally clicked together in Pepper's head. "Oh, Tony." she breathed out, and before she processed what she was doing her arms were around him. He stiffened for a moment before relaxing into her embrace. She just held him.
"Tony, listen to me. I don't and never will hate you. You're the kindest, most caring person I've ever met. You're certainly not a villain. You're a hero. If you weren't, you wouldn't be Tony Stark. You never deserved any of it. Ever. I'm going to make it better. I'm going to help you get over this." With that promise, The Secret had somehow become more bearable.
Yup. I'm pretty predictable. I continued this, obviously. Bruce will be next, because I've already planned it out. I don't really like this chapter at all; I might rewrite it later. Also, do you all think I should add chapters of Loki or Coulson finding out too?
LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I think it's pretty obvious the way that he acts, because at times he's a completely new person. Haha, yeah. I've seen Iron Man 3 and you can just see his self hate there. I get so many feelings from that movie.
Olympus97: Luckily for you, I have. I honestly don't know how half of the team is going to react, so I'll probably watch their respective movies a couple times.
Elemental Nikki: Thanks! Continuing seems to be happening, so let's see how this goes.
Anonymous: Thank you for the compliment! I really am excited to see how this fanfic plays out.