You guys are either going to love me or hate me after this. Who knows. But still, HOORAY! I was able to finish this before school started back up!

I keep forgetting to mention, and I don't know if it was really necessary, but this takes place when Tony still lived with the Rhodes. So, sadly, there is no Howard.

Disclaimer: IMAA does not belong to me. We've established this. Now...*drum roll*

Honestly, he didn't know how to react. The only thing he could do, was stand there with his jaw practically hitting the floor. All while his heart skipped many beats and his face turned beet red and his fingers started to shake. He didn't know if it was because he was angry or possibly even excited. In the end, he was really unsure what to say and/or do.

He could only stand there and stare, not even hearing Rhodey's laughter. Maybe he was overreacting, but his world felt as if it was spinning. It felt like everything was turning against him, yet working with him all at the same time.

Despite his stunned silence, he was confused. He didn't know what it was exactly that he was expecting, but he was at least expecting to see something else.

He was at least expecting to see three girls sitting on the opposite side of the makeshift wall.

He even expected Rhodey to be lying about Whitney being there. Possibly even Pepper.

But he wasn't expecting to see Pepper standing there waiting for him on the other side. Alone.

He blinked. He blinked again. Several more times. Now he was really confused. He was positive that there was three girls. But…where were they?

In front of him, stood Pepper and only Pepper. The chairs where girl number one and girl number two would be sitting, were left empty. But each chair had their own separate mic and voice modulator set up in front of them. Not to mention that Pepper didn't even look remotely surprised that it was him, even though his voice had been changed as well.

"Tony?" she spoke after the very long silence.

"Uh…" was the best he could manage as she looked at him patiently.

"Tony, you're going to have to say something sometime," Rhodey reminded him.

His first instinct was to run, but his own legs wouldn't budge from underneath him. He didn't know what to feel anymore. He felt lied to and played with. He was angry. Though deep down, he was kind of happy. But he couldn't feel that happiness beneath everything else. Not after they just made him play something he really didn't want to play. They made him ask the worst questions. They knew exactly how everything was going to turn out.

And here he was, fretting about picking the wrong girl! He was actually concerned that people would actually be upset by whatever girl he chose. At some point, he felt bad for treating the game horribly because it would ruin it for others. Yet, they knew that there was only one person to choose from. They knew from the get-go that Pepper was going to be chosen whether he wanted to or not.

He stepped back slowly at first. Rhodey stepped back as well, fully prepared to catch him if he ran. Tony swallowed, knowing that with Rhodey chasing him, he'd never make it out of the garage. He wouldn't even make it past Rhodey in the first place.

"Tony just give it a chance!" Rhodey insisted, trying to convince Tony not to run.

"You lied to me!" Tony shouted, not glancing Pepper's way.

"You would have said no if you knew she was there!" Rhodey said. "Plus, you chose her, Tony."

"They were all her in the first place!" Tony snapped. "It didn't matter which one I chose, it still was going to be Pepper!"

Rhodey shook his head. "No, only one of them was her. The other two were pretend. And you chose the one that was truly her."

"What?" Tony asked, confused.

Pepper stepped forward to speak. "Girl number one and girl number two gave fake answers to throw you off. I asked Rhodey to help me and he suggested this."

"That way," Rhodey explained, "if you chose her, it meant that you liked Pepper the way she is."

"Of course, I like Pepper the way she is," Tony stated as if it was obvious, "I wouldn't like her if she pretended to be someone else."

Rhodey smirked. "Which, is exactly the point."

Once again, Tony was silent. Was this Pepper's strange way of asking him out? Because what he got out of that whole conversation was that it wasn't Rhodey who was pulling the strings, but Pepper. Rhodey didn't make him play this game. Pepper did. If that's the case, then maybe he didn't hate the game, he just hated that it was all a lie.

"Oh Tony?" Pepper broke the silence once more.

"Uh…Yeah?" Tony asked.

"I'm sorry for what I said," she apologized. She stopped him before he could speak again. "You know, as girl number two…I honestly don't think that you're emotionally unstable."

Tony scratched the back of his neck. He'd forgotten all about that actually. "Yeah, sure. It's alright."

Pepper laughed nervously. "I just really didn't want you to pick girl number two."

Rhodey nodded. "I know I could tell. Were you trying to answer like Whitney would have?"

"Yeah, because I knew Tony really wouldn't have chosen girl number two if he thought it was Whitney or a Whitney-like girl." Pepper confirmed.

"Well," Tony said, "it definitely worked."

"Girl number one was my back up plan," Pepper stated. "I answered her questions only slightly different than I would myself. Then if you chose me as her, it wouldn't be so bad, you know."

Tony understood what she meant. He just didn't understand why she felt like she had to go through of this just to get him to take her on a date. Honestly, though he would probably deny it, he'd say yes to her if she straight up asked him to. He'd even agree to it, if she demanded that he'd take her on a date. Although, he'd probably be a little reluctant, and the whole date would probably be very awkward, it all came up with the same result, right?

When he voiced his confusion, Pepper already had an answer waiting. "For one, I didn't really want to be the one to ask you out, but it was obvious that you were never going to ask me out any time soon. And if I had to be the one to ask you out, I didn't want you to say because I asked, I wanted you to say yes because you wanted to."

"That makes sense," Tony commented.

"Plus," Pepper added, "I was too embarrassed to ask you straight out."

Rhodey nodded, smirking proudly. "So she begged me to convince you to play this game because she knew she'd never get you to."

"Hey!" Pepper protested loudly. "I didn't have to beg! You were so excited that I was finally coming to terms with my feelings that you never even gave it a second thought!"

"But this never would have happened if you hadn't come to me!" Rhodey said smugly. "Admit it, you needed me."

Pepper groaned in complaint. "I didn't need you! I just…wanted to have fun with it."

Rhodey nudged Tony playfully, "So she says."

Pepper scoffed annoyed. "Whatever, at least my plan worked."

This time when Rhodey nudged Tony, it wasn't done so playfully. This time it was in a teasing manner. "Which means," he drawled out teasingly, "you have to ask Pepper out on a date!"

Once again, Tony was left speechless. It was almost as if he'd forgotten that in the end, even if there was actually three different girls, he still had to take one of them on a date. Which, turns out was Pepper. His face went brighter than a beet and a tomato and anything else red. His face burned with how red his face must have been. He felt like he was going to freak out.

He had to take Pepper out on a date. Pepper and he were going to go on a date. The word date alone sent shivers down his back.

His face still read, he clasped his hands in front of him and looked down towards his feet to hide his blush. At some point, he found his knees wobbling from the nervous tension growing inside of him. He opened his mouth to say something; anything, but couldn't find the right words.

His friends, noticing his nervousness gave him space and their patience. The silence lasted longer than the previous silence. It was nerve wracking just watching the blue-eyed genius fret about what he was going to say next.

When the silence still continued, Pepper thought the best course of plans was to kick Rhodey out. He's done what he needed to do, now Rhodey had to go. It was making Tony too nervous to speak. "Okay Rhodey, can you leave us alone for a second?"

Rhodey pouted, but nodded and silently walked out of the garage.

When it was just the two of them, Tony was no different than he was before. His nervousness was starting to make her nervous.

She was just about to give up on him saying the words, when suddenly Tony straightened up. Much to her surprise, he brought his arms up to his cheeks and began slapping his hands against the side of his face. Pepper gave a light gasp of surprise as he took in a deep breath, his eyes squinted shut, as he finally spoke, "Pepper, will you go on a date with me?"

Although she was also red, she couldn't help but laugh lightly. "Yes, I sort of have to. You know, being picked and all."

Tony spun around, his hands now shoved into his pocket. "Oh, whatever. You made me say it."

Pepper raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"So," Tony said, still not looking at her, "where do you want to go?"

"Wait, right now?" Pepper asked.

Tony finally glanced her way, "Why not?"

"But I'm not ready," Pepper insisted. "I have to get dressed and take a shower. I have to tell my dad and make sure he has something to eat when he comes home…"

"Okay, okay. I'll take you home and I'll pick you up later," Tony suggested.

Pepper squealed happily. "Really?"

"Yes," Tony said with a sigh, "I sort of have to."

Pepper shoved him playfully as they walked out of Rhodey's garage. "Shut up!"

Tony laughed. "You were asking for it."

"Just walk me home, idiot," Pepper said, crossing her arms.

Tony rose his hands defensively. "Alright, just calm down."

xXx

He stood outside the house waiting for her, with flowers in his hand. The flowers weren't his idea. No, he wasn't romantic like that, so he never would have thought to bring flowers. Actually, the idea to bring flowers wasn't actually a suggestion. It was a demand. From Pepper's father himself.

After he dropped Pepper off at her house, she ran inside to do whatever it was girls did to get ready for a date. That is, after she gave him a time to come back to pick her up. He had a few hours to spare, and he pondered going to the armory until the time came, but never got to it. Only because halfway there, he received a call from Pepper's dad, who already heard about the date from Pepper.

The conversation started out innocently enough. At first he was super excited that his girl finally got a boyfriend, and that he hoped that they had a great time. Though, that didn't last long. Soon, he was practically yelling through the phone a list of demands that Tony best treat his little girl right. After demanding that Tony give her the best night of her entire life and that he wasn't allowed inside the house unless he was there himself, he told Tony that flowers were necessary if he wanted to date his daughter.

So after that conversation, he went straight home to where Rhodey was waiting to tease him nonstop about the whole ordeal. He ignored his friend's antics, and took a shower—also a demand from Mr. Potts—and sat in his room for about an hour trying to figure out what to do for their date. After a while, he regrettably had to ask Rhodey for advice on what to wear. And that was nothing short of a nightmare. He knew he was never going to live that down.

He ended up wearing black dress pants and a white dress shirt. Rhodey told him to leave the black coat behind, because that would be too formal. At that time, it was time to head out to pick up Pepper, so Rhodey kicked him out of the house after Roberta wished him luck.

Which brought him to where he stood now. He already rang the doorbell, and was just waiting for Pepper to answer. The flowers he had bought on the way there, still in his left hand. As he waited, he rocked silently on his feet nervously.

After what seemed like ages, the door in front of him finally opened. His looked up from where his gaze had fell a little while back, to meet up with something—no, someone—beautiful. He thought he'd already blushed enough for a lifetime, but his cheeks proved him wrong.

He never thought he'd live to see the day where he'd see Pepper in a dress. It wasn't a super fancy dress, but to him it was gorgeous. It flowed loosely down to just about to her knees. The whole dress was a rosy pink with floral print. A belt and a cute jacket to finish the look. Plus, her hair was done up, in what he would describe as stunning, curls.

"Y-you're beautiful?" he stuttered out.

She tucked a loose hair behind her ear. "You think?"

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind, and looked away as he thrust the flowers towards you. "For you."

He didn't look as she took them from his hand. He just willed his blush to go away, because frankly he was sick of blushing. He was a man, and men don't blush!

"Thank you," Pepper said.

"Don't thank me," Tony said, bringing himself to look back at her. "Your dad is awfully persistent."

Pepper burst out laughing at his comment. "I should have known that I should have waited to tell him. I'll go put these away and we can head out."

"Okay," Tony said as she walked back into the house.

As he waited, he thought back to how he ended up here. This morning he'd gone straight to his armory to finish up working on a new upgrade for the armor, when he finished, he'd gone home to eat dinner. Rhodey was waiting for him and told him that he had to play a dating game. And within the next twenty minutes he was beginning to play a game, he really didn't want to play.

And within the hour, he'd gotten the girl he never thought he actually wanted to choose.

And here he was, giving flowers to the girl he never knew held his heart.

"Alright," Pepper smiled at him as she returned. "Ready?"

He smiled, ignoring that his cheeks were still red, and offered his hand. "Let's go."

Maybe he did like playing the game. After all, it brought him to her.

I'll leave the date and rest of the cheesiness to your imagination. Trust me, if I wrote the date, things would get SUPER cheesy in here! It was cheesy enough.

But, how'd you guys like the surprise? Heehee, I had that planned all along! Sorry if it was confusing...

Fun Fact: I love school shopping, just not school. Unless I've got a fun class.

Hugs and Love, SilverPedals. :)