Author notes :

Thank you for all the reviews/follow and favorites! This is really motivating and i'm so happy you like it. Here's the second chapter, I hope you'll enjoy it as much as the firt one and let me know what you think of it!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer : I do not own anything Marvel related. This is for my own (and yours I hope) entertainement only)


CHAPTER 2

When they arrived to the Stark Mansion after leaving Blossom Bend and Pepper's burnt house, she felt incredibly uncomfortable and out of place. She knew this house perfectly well and had spent a huge amount of time working from here or babysitting Tony in the last ten years she worked for him. But at that moment, when they parked in the workshop, everything seemed different. She was standing there, with Aubrey's bag in her hands that was full of clothes and stuff her three friends gave her and she felt like a hobo. The worst part was that it wasn't just a feeling, it was the truth, she was homeless, she didn't have any clothes left, or shoes or underwear. She didn't even had a toothbrush.

"Jarvis, get Frances over here. I need her to prep the guest room." Tony called to his AI as he got out of the car. He hadn't noticed the turmoil that was suddenly hitting his PA as she realized the extent of the recent events on her life. Tony never noticed anything anyway, she thought, sounding bitter even in her own mind. The name of his maid brought Pepper some comfort nonetheless. Frances was even more organized than her, she had worked for the Stark family for thirty years, knew Tony since he was just a child and always had two sets of everything, just in case. Meaning that there was probably a toothbrush for Pepper somewhere.

"No Tony, no need to bother Frances and get her over here, I can…" she started but was soon cut off by Tony who was already sitting at his desk where his Iron Man face plate was laying.

"I don't know where she keeps the sheets." He explained.

"I know where they are." She had a small smile, amused by his lack of knowledge about where things were in his own house and he looked at her like she was clairvoyant.

"You're good! Because I really don't understand how this woman works. She has all those weird habits about how to tidy up things… I don't get it, she must have OCD or something."

"The sheets are in the closet in the laundry room." She stated.

"I never go over there, so…" Tony always had to justify himself, the man couldn't be wrong, ever. Pepper sighed and exited the workshop to head towards the guest room that would become her room for some time.

While they were in the car, Tony had insisted that she stopped everything company related to deal with the insurance and the police and fire experts and all that boring stuff for the day. So that's what she did as soon as she entered the room. For the first time, she hadn't argued on the fact that she had a lot of work to deal with and she sat in this big room, making calls after calls and trying to sort this out. She always liked this room, maybe because it was different from the rest of the house, less uncluttered and with that feminine touch that was always missing in the rest of the mansion. The light yellow walls always gave her the impression of a sunrise, that why she called this place the dawn room. And there was this exceptional butterfly artwork by Paul Villinsky she had Tony bought a few years ago. She literally fell in love with it and if she had had the money back at the time she would had bought it for herself. She was still glad that it was in the dawn room rather than somewhere else, it fitted right in there.

Frances arrived about twenty minutes after Tony had Jarvis called her and Pepper let her make her bed, knowing the woman was only too happy to do it and wouldn't let her help anyway. That petite woman was a force of nature. She was around sixty years old with curly hair always in a neat bun and was as dynamic as a twenty years old. She always knew how to deal with Tony and was never afraid to tell him what she thought about his lifestyle. Before Pepper, she was the one who escorted his one night stands outside. And then, one day, she became sick of it and Tony had to spend the entire morning with a girl because Frances hadn't showed up. According to him, he was still traumatized by that.

"Do you want a sandwich?" Frances asked gently when Pepper hung her phone for the millionth time. She was done with the bed and had put all of her borrowed clothing and cosmetics in the closet and the bathroom cupboard.

"No thank you Frances, I'm not hungry." She sighed and the old woman came to take a seat next to her.

"No good news?"

"Apparently, it's going to take at least a week for the expert's assessment and then at least one month and a half before the house could be habitable. No finished, just habitable." The strawberry blonde ran her hand through her hair and groaned. "God, this is a living hell."

"Come. I'll make you a tea."


There were sitting on the kitchen bar stool, both sipping their tea while chatting lightly when Tony arrived from his workshop. Pepper hadn't seen him since they arrived several hours ago.

"Hey Frances, where's my sandwich? I'm hungry." He grumped as he opened the fridge, obviously hoping to find a sandwich waiting for him.

"You had one two hours ago, now is not the time. Dinner is in one hour." Pepper hid a chuckle in her mug, Frances was always mothering Tony with this firm tone.

"So what are you doing sitting down and drinking tea? Make us dinner, you don't want my guest to have to order Chinese take out right?"

"Tony!" Pepper interjected.

"What? You want Chinese?" he replied naturally. "cause I don't mind Chinese, you two are always the ones to complain about my eating habits." Pepper shook her head and Frances got up from her stool to head towards the fridge, muttering something neither of them caught.

"And stop mumbling!" Tony warned as if he was reprimanding a disobedient child. "So?" he took Frances place on the stool next to Pepper and looked at her expectantly.

"At least a week for the experts and a month and a half before I can go back there and not live in complete chaos."

"You can stay as long as you want." He replied before taking a sip from Frances mug. "Ergh! That's disgusting! How can you even drink that?" He took a look inside the cup and groaned.

"Thank you, but I'll be gone by the end of the week." Pepper said, ignoring his remark about tea.

"Seriously that tastes like herbs and… The end of the week? That's in two days, what's the rush? You don't like the room?" he then turned to Frances who was cutting some vegetables. "She doesn't like the room. I told you those colors were awful, yellow and green, seriously! And what are you doing with those green…" he frowned as he searched for the right adjective to describe the vegetables.

"No it's not the room." Pepper said "I really love that room, the colors are great. And that's a cucumber, stop acting like a child." She rolled her eyes when he scowled at the sight of the vegetable. "The thing is, I can't stay here that long. I don't want to be a burden and you're my boss, it's inappropriate." Her voice rose at the end when she saw Tony was about to reply she was not a burden, or at least she guessed that was what he wanted to say.

"You're thinking too much. And I'll fire you if you check in a hotel. Or I'll have them refuse you, I can do both." He shrugged as he got up to supervise Frances' cooking. This woman was an extraordinary cook but Tony always had a problem with the way food was made.

"You can't fire me." Pepper replied calmly.

"Because of the social security number?" he asked as he looked up towards her. "True, but I can have them not accept you."

"You wouldn't do that."

"Try me." They looked at each other for several moments without talking. He had a defiant look on his face and she was starting to get mad at him. She was mentally shooting him with her bright blue eyes and the bullets were rolling onto him as if his smug smile was acting like his suit. Finally, she broke eye contact, sighed and left the room to get her laptop in order to have some work done even if this was technically a day off. This was her escape, the only one she knew when she was too annoyed of confused by Tony, his cocky attitude and his intense gaze. She hated the way he could make her feel sometimes, it was like she wasn't controlling anything anymore. About an hour later, Jarvis informed her that dinner was ready and when she entered the living room she only saw Tony, sitting in a chair in the dining area, already enjoying the meal.

"Where's Frances?" she inquired while taking a seat as well.

"Went home" he let out between two bites. "It's actually good." He said, pointing to the slices of cucumber in his plate. Pepper let out a laugh and they dined speaking of her house, the experts and the construction workers. Tony said that he would have them work faster if it would make her feel better and it did, even if she didn't like it when he used his celebrity to have things done. After dinner, tiredness caught with her pretty fast. Her day had been extremely tough on a psychological level and while Tony returned to his workshop, she went back to the dawn room and opened the drawers to find sleepwear.

"What the…" she gasped when she laid her eyes on a sheer light blue négligé with a turquoise silky lace going around the top of the fabric. She took it to get a better look and let if fall on the bed as if she had been burnt by it. She took her phone right away and waited for the culprit to answer while pacing in the room.

"You have to be kidding me!" she spat when the other person picked up the line.

"Don't know what you're talking about…" Vicky replied evasively though she knew perfectly well her friend had found her blue nighty. The one that made Anton nuts everytime she was wearing it. She thought she was doing her a favor, but Pepper never thought like normal people should. So, Vicky endured silently her reproaches, paying more attention to her freshly painted nails than to her friend distress.


Tony wasn't really the ideal host. With Pepper in his house, he didn't how to act around her so he just kept on doing what he does, spending his day in the workshop. Though he would have liked to be with her, to comfort her, he just had no idea how to do it and he just hid in his man cave tinkering on his suit and his car. That's when he saw it. Dropped on the floor, with the pen fixed between its rings. Her notebook. The one she had during the meeting. He picked it up and recognized her handwriting on every darkened pages. This woman could write a book about communication with all those notes. She must have dropped it when they got out of the car and Tony knew she would go insane if she didn't have it so he made his way up, heading towards the yellowish room he had let Frances decorate. He was about to come in unannounced when he stopped himself, his hand was already on the handle but his conscious had awoken out of nowhere and instead of coming in he decided he should knock. And, those few seconds he stood there pondering what to do were enough for him to hear something he later would wished to never have heard.

"Are you insane? It's my boss!" Pepper insisted on the last word. "I'm sleeping in my boss' house and as if this wasn't inappropriate enough you pack a see-through nightie for me to sleep in." Tony almost choked at hearing that and it reminded him of feelings he had once before, the night he saw her naked back in that amazing dress. Shaking his head to get rid of those flashes of bare back and fantasies of sheer fabric on Pepper, he almost ran back to his work shop and dropped the notebook on his desk.

"God." He took a deep breath, trying to forget about the fact that Pepper was probably going to wear some sexy see-through nightie. He secretly hoped it was short, he just loved her legs, they were so long, so thin and her pale skin seemed so soft. So much like the skin of her back and he had touched her back bare, it was an enchantment. He remembered everything about that night, their dance, their small talk, her beautiful bright eyes, the fabric of her dress, her intoxicating smell, the little flush on her cheeks when he was staring at her and their almost kiss. When he freaked out and couldn't close that small gap between them, what a jerk. How he had regretted not to kiss her that night. And now, those little harmless words he heard behind the door were completely messing with his head and he wanted only one thing, to see her in that thing and to kiss her. Hard.

"Jarvis?"

"Yes, Sir?" Tony ran a hand on his face.

"Give me live stream of the guestroom." He let out, eyes closed.

"Sir, Miss Potts is actually in that room…"

"Yes, I know." He cut off his AI in a sharp tone. He knew that perfectly well and that was actually the reason of his demand. He had cameras installed in all the rooms several years ago, just in case. After all, he was building weapons and his guard less mansion was probably tempting to every thug. He never looked at any footage, ever. Never needed it. The cameras were just useful in case of break ins and most of the people who came in here had forgotten they were even there.

"Sir, I have to say it is highly inappropriate…"

"Will you all stop with this word!" he spat. It was the third time he had heard it today. He was starting to get angry. At Jarvis for not complying immediately, and at himself for being utterly unable to resist the urge to see her half naked against her will. "Now Jarvis!" he ordered and the images were on his screen the next second. Her back was half turned to the camera and he could see her left profile. She looked exasperated and tossed her phone on the bed, right next to it. His heart stopped for a moment. The nightdress was actually more of a négligé, something you would wear above you underwear to drive a man crazy and without anything under it to send him over the top. The sight of Pepper next to this small piece of fabric had serious repercussions on his body and he suddenly felt like he needed a cold shower. A really cold one. He was going to explode and he cursed under his breath when she took off her jacket and started to unbuttoned her blouse. He was like a vicious voyeur.

"Turn it off, Jarvis! Turn it off" he screamed, closing his eyes and turning his back to the screen. His hands went to his face, covering his eyes as if he had been burnt by what he saw. This was so wrong. He would have loved this show a few months back, he would even had several girls do it privately for him with or without cameras. But that was before and this wasn't any random girl.

"Get the suit ready Jarvis, I need air."


When he got back home, it was almost 2 am. He had flown over the city and made a halt on the highest cliff to breathe fresh hair. That calmed him down a little. He didn't feel constricted in his pants anymore and the thought of Pepper in that blue nightwear had somehow left him. Once he was out of the suit, he went up the stairs to get a drink and go to sleep. This day had him completely exhausted. There was a small light in the kitchen and he could see the shadow of a feminine silhouette he would recognize anywhere. He prayed for her to wear the blue nightie, he prayed for her not to wear it because he knew he wouldn't resist her like that but he also prayed to see her gorgeous body in it and when she came to sight, his mouth went dry. Their eyes locked, she seemed shocked to see him and embarrassment was written all over her face. But she looked radiant. She wasn't wearing the blue nightie and he was happy about it in a way. She had a grey tank top with matching striped shorts. It took him all his strength not to look at her bare legs.

"Cute PJs." He couldn't help it and it was out before he could stop it. She got even more embarrassed, he could see the flash of red on her cheeks even in the dim lightning as she lowered her gaze. "Couldn't sleep?" he asked with a smile while pouring himself a glass of water. He noticed another clean glass was on the sink and guessed she came in here to drink as well.

"No. Were you still working?"

"Yep." He lied "I made some upgrades on the suit and went out for a small spin." She nodded with a shy smile and started to head back to her room.

"Hey Pepper," Tony heard himself calling. She turned back to him. "Good night." She smiled.

"Good night Tony."