"He did what?" Asked Rhodey, shocked.
"A time machine! You know, step inside it and you're in a different time?" Pepper said.
"He must have gone inside it! This is not good, who knows what he must have done!" Rhodey complained. Tony could be in any which time he desired, and that made it that much more impossible to find him and yell at him for disappearing without telling anyone. Rhodey studied Tony's amazing creation, circling it as Pepper just stood and watched it.
"Umm, actually Rhodey, I think that's the least of our problems…" Pepper was looking down to her feet, which were dissolving beneath her; leaving her to slowly disappear along with her surroundings.
"What's going on?" Rhodey asked in a panicked tone as he watched himself start to disappear.
"Tony must have changed the past!" Pepper said in a panicked tone. Before they could panic more, they had fully disappeared.
~…~
Tony, who was working in his lab, didn't bother to look back to see Pepper walking into the lab. She had visited daily ever since he'd first come across her, and he was beginning to like having her attention without having Rhodey's at the same time. Often times he wasn't really ever alone with Pepper because he'd always stayed close to Rhodey and Pepper had just stuck by him.
"Working again?" She said.
"Mmhmm." Tony said, concentrating deeply on an invention. Pepper sat on the empty counter space next to Tony and watched him work. Tony enjoyed her attention as well. He'd gotten attention from her before he'd altered the time line, but this attention was different. Before it was in a friendly way, but now it felt different. Kind of….flirty.
"Don't you do anything else?" She asked.
"Well I help my dad with his inventions." Pepper chuckled.
"Oh you do so many different things!" Pepper teased sarcastically. Tony smiled up to her.
"I know. I'm so multi-talented."
"If you're so multi-talented, then how good are you at getting lunch?" Pepper crossed her arms playfully.
"I dabble." Tony said as he set down his tools and placed his hands on his hips in a dignified way.
"Well perhaps we could test your skill." Pepper said.
"Perhaps we should," Tony stuck out his elbow, and Pepper hooked arms with him as they walked out of the lab and found an outdoor hotdog stand in the park. It was a nice spring afternoon, so Tony and Pepper found a park bench and sat down to a yummy hotdog.
They enjoyed their meals in silence as they chowed down on their meals and Tony smiled at her with his mouth full. Pepper laughed at his dorkiness and continued to eat.
Two hotdogs later, Tony and Pepper started on their way back to bring Pepper to her apartment because her father had called her home. They walked slowly through the city, talking about meaningless things on their way.
Stopping at Pepper's apartment door, Tony stared into Pepper's eyes. For some reason, when he looked at her this time it was very different. Something about her struck him as beautiful. He'd stared at her millions of times before and had a normal response, so why was it that this time he couldn't keep his eyes off of her? He could save people's lives on a daily basis but he couldn't take his eyes off of a girl? Not even talk to her? His voice seemed mute.
He didn't know what came over him, but he leaned in and kissed her. Something about it struck him as right, like he should have done it a long time ago. It felt magical, and it was like nothing he'd ever experienced before. Tony remembered all the times he'd came just a bit too close to her and felt some sort of a spark between them. Every time he had brushed by her and touched hands—whether it be an accident or just to get her hand in his for a mere minute—or him wrapping his arm around her, there had always been that igniting spark between them that he just couldn't identify.
Parting, Tony said, "U-uhh…have," Tony paused when he realized his voice was high and squeaky and cleared his throat, "have a good day…" Tony waved at her, but Pepper was too dazed to see it. Tony sighed delightfully and found his way home.
~…~
"Umm, Tony, you do know that you should actually look at what you're doing when you're welding, right?" Rhodey said. Tony had been in a daze all day. It was very unlike him to be unfocused on his work; he was always so serious about his work. But now he was…distracted, by something. Perhaps, Rhodey thought, I'd missed something yesterday…
"What? Oh, sorry. I was distracted." Tony said happily.
"Dude, you're never distracted. What's up with you today?" Rhodey asked. Tony was almost too distracted to be confused at Rhodey's accusation.
"What? Nothing's wrong with me I'm perfectly fine." Tony said. Rhodey wasn't convinced.
"I don't know, man. You usually concentrate on everything, but you seem a little off today. Are you sure you're okay?" Rhodey said. Tony set down his work and turned to Rhodey.
"Well if you must know, there's this girl…" But Tony was stopped there. This was very new to Rhodey, because Tony had never bothered with females or dating ever before.
"You met a girl? You never do that!" Rhodey exclaimed.
"Yeah, well…something's different about her," Tony said. Different, alright.
"Well what's her name?" Rhodey asked. Tony smiled. Her name was like music to his ears.
"Pepper," Tony answered. Rhodey was silent for a moment.
"Pepper? That's your girl? That weird crazy girl from my school?"
"Hey, she's a great girl," Tony defended. He knew that before Tony had met her, Rhodey had always thought that Pepper was just a bit crazy. Of course, she was, but the more you got to know her the more it seemed like a good crazy.
"And besides, she's been in my head all day. I just can't stop thinking about her." Tony added.
"Well whatever. As long as you're happy I guess," Rhodey said. He knew he'd just have to learn to get used to her being around.
"I'm glad you understand, dude." Tony patted Rhodey's shoulder and continued his work.
Fluffy chapteeeerrrr :3 I likeyy. It was cute. Anyways, review!
