The trio, along with Virgil, finally arrived at the campsite and were setting up their tents. Tony, of course, was completely lost on the concept.

"How do you even put one of these up?" Tony asked.

"You don't know how to put a tent up? Son, what did your father do with you all your life?"

Before Tony could respond with a 'we've never been camping before, sir,' Pepper budded in.

"Dad, he and his dad are techno-geeks. They haven't been in the general vicinity of a tree before in their life." She answered.

"How did they live like that?" He whispered to Pepper as Tony surveyed the tent Rhodey was putting up.

"Dad, they're not nature people. He was born and raised in the city." Pepper whispered back. Virgil nodded. He'd had a cousin that was born and raised in NYC, so he knew what city kids could be like.

"Tony, you are so pathetically useless in nature. Look, do me a solid and drive that stake into the ground?" Rhodey commented, pointing to one corner of their tent where a stake could be found lying on top of the hole in the tent that it needed to be driven into. Virgil saw out of the corner of his eye Tony driving it in with his bare hands.

"How can he do that without a hammer?" He asked Pepper. Pepper, who was too busy fantasizing about how Tony's muscles bulged when he was pushing the stake into the ground, didn't hear her father ask her a question.

"He's so hot when he uses his muscles…" She said in a dreamy, distracted sort of voice.

"Pepper!" Virgil called again.

"Hm? What?" Pepper asked, snapping out of her daydream.

"How can Tony possibly drive that stake in without a hammer? I can't even do that." Virgil asked once more.

"Oh, he just works out a lot…" Pepper said, going back to her state of daydreaming.

"Oh brother, Pepper, you really got it bad for the boy." Virgil said, rolling his eyes and going back to setting up his tent.

"Yah, in a sec…" Pepper said, just spitting out a random response. He's so cute when he's concentrating hard on something…

~…~

After the gang got all the tents put up and all their stuff inside them, Tony and Pepper were sent to look for a good supply of firewood that would last them the rest of the night while Rhodey and Virgil dug out sandwich ingredients for lunch. (They'd left pretty early in the morning.)

"You do know about campfires, right?" Pepper asked.

"Of course I do! One day the power went out so dad, mom and I took out the gas in our fireplace and built a real fire." Tony said, smiling upon remembering the memory.

"Sounds like it was a fun time." Pepper commented.

"Yeah, it was. Funny thing about that night, it was the last time we really got to be a family..." Tony said, drifting off into a memory about that night, hearing strange footsteps in the garage where his mother had been getting a drink, followed by gunshots echoing in his mind.

"Uh…you okay Tony?" Pepper asked.

"What? Yeah, I'm fine." Tony said, shaking off the memory and picking up a nice, dry piece of wood.

After they gathered enough wood, they went back to the campsite and made some sandwiches for lunch, and after lunch, enjoyed a nice, relaxing swim in the lake. The rest of the day until dinner was spent relaxing and conversing.

After they started a fire, cooked and ate their dinner consisting of fish they'd caught from the lake earlier in the day, the four were enjoying some s'mores by the fire.

Virgil yawned, stretching his arms, and said, "Well, I think I'm going to hit the hay," He said as he stood up.

"Are you two going to separate beds too?" Virgil asked.

"No, I think we're going to stay up a little bit longer. As friends..." Pepper responded, erasing all of Virgil's suspicion. There was a brief silence between the two as Pepper placed another marshmallow on the end of her stick and pointed it into the fire.

"I still don't understand what these alleged 's'mores' are. You just burn marshmallows like some sort of pyro?" Tony asked.

"For the last time, Tony, you don't burn them, you toast them. Like bread. Then you can either eat them as is or put them in between two graham crackers and a little piece of chocolate. And eat it for a tasty treat." Pepper explained, smiling in amusement at Tony's complete obliviousness.

"But off a stick? Isn't that a little unsanitary?" Tony asked.

"Who cares? We're camping! Let loose!" Pepper answered. The two were silent and Tony decided to gaze up at the stars.

"I've never experienced something like this before...It's a weird feeling..." Tony paused. "Being in nature, of course...I didn't know it could be so peaceful out here." Pepper smiled.

"That's the way nature is. Just undisturbed peace and quiet. Nothing but you and your thoughts, or friends or family." Pepper said.

"You know, if I had to go camping with anyone I'm glad it was you. I can't imagine having to spend a week anyone else." Tony admitted. Pepper bumped him playfully, chuckling lightly as she sat next to him and smiled.

"If I had to be friends with any superhero I'm glad it was you." She responded. Tony smiled and the two watched the stars in a peaceful silence, with the eventual pointing out of a constellation that Tony recognized from the days when he and his mother would sit out on their back porch and look at the stars.

Tony, having grown up solely around technology, hadn't known that such a serene getaway was available. For a life of technology-orientated stress, he was glad that he could get the time to get away from all the digital computer or cell phone screens and just sit back and relax.

Plus, he enjoyed the bonding time with Pepper. He'd never really gotten the chance to spend some good quality alone time with her without that time being interrupted by someone in need of Iron Man. He really felt something special ever since the trip had begun. Something he hadn't felt or seen there ever before. Something that came to him as a strange new feeling, but not one that alarmed him. One that gave him a warm feeling inside, a feeling that made him want to smile constantly, a feeling that made him want to fly laps around the city in excitement. But, of course, he couldn't recognize or identify the feeling, because he's Tony Stark, the boy who knows nothing about being in love.

"Hey, Tony?" Pepper asked.

"Yah." Tony responded.

"Have you ever…have you ever been in love before?" Pepper asked. The question took him by surprise, but weirdly it didn't make him nervous. Pepper, of course, only asked it because she was desperate to find out.

"With a girl? Like, lovey-dovey relationship-y stuff?" Tony asked.

"Yeah."

"Mmm…no, not really, I've always been too concentrated on technology to think about girls." Tony responded.

"So you weren't in love with Whitney when you went out?"

Tony looked over to Pepper seriously. "No, Whitney was…well, I guess you could call it a phase. It was one of those things where you think you like her a lot but once you get to be in a real relationship with them, you realize that that relationship was just your way of denying something, hiding an obvious truth from yourself…" Tony explained as he looked Pepper right in the eyes. His words grew quieter towards the end of his explanation, as he felt a strange, overwhelming want to caress her cheek in his hand, and move in closer and kiss her. But he resisted, knowing it would mess things up.

"Look, Pep, I know you were worried about me dating Whitney, and I was being stupid. I should've listened to your warnings, but I was being an immature teenage boy instead. I know I can't tell Whitney about me being Iron Man, at risk of telling her dad. Whitney and I are over, I promise. Once again, you're right…" Pepper, upon recalling the memory, blushed. The only reason she told him she shouldn't be dating Whitney was because she was jealous.

"Oh, I-I'm not really worried about that anymore…I know you guys are over, I mean, she's pretty fed up with you constantly standing her up…" Pepper babbled nervously.

"Well, you should remind me to listen to you more, because I realize that you were right about a lot of stuff…" Tony replied.

"Oh…I'll have to do that then…"

The two were silent for a bit longer.

"Hey Pep?" Tony asked.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for putting up with me," He said, looking back up at the sky.

"There's nothing I'd rather do…" Pepper said quietly, but just loud enough for Tony to hear.

"Well I think I'm gonna hit the hay, g'night Tony." Pepper said after another short moment of silence, standing from the log shed been sitting on and brushing the dirt off her pink-and-white plaid pajama pants.

"Sleep tight," Tony called after her as she climbed into her tent and zipped it up. He turned back to the fire and sighed, unmoving for a moment in thought. If only you knew how crazy you make me…

He finally decided to go to his own tent, where he found Rhodey laying in his sleeping bag, watching a movie off of his iPod. He paused it and looked up at his frazzled friend.

"Thinking about something?" He asked. He could see a light blush form briefly on the boy genius's cheeks.

"No, I was just on my way to bed." Tony answered nervously.

"Uh huh. Why don't you just admit you like her?" Rhodey asked.

"L-like who?" Tony asked, even though he knew very well who he was talking about. Rhodey shot him a look that said so.

"I-I don't like like her..." Tony responded as he slipped out of his shorts and into some pajamas.

"Sure you don't..." Rhodey muttered as Tony slipped into his sleeping bag and fell asleep.

Camping, thought Tony, is definitely interesting.

Ah, that was so cute! And a bit longer than my other chapters. That makes me happehh :3 anyways, review!