The day had begun overcast. By lunch the wind was blowing harder than normal, and soon rain pelted against the large glass windows of Stark Manor. It was a rare winter storm with lightning and thunder.
Pepper had spent the day practically locked in the office, the mood same as it had been for the past week, she wondered if it would be the same or worse when she returned from her vacation which started on Monday. She had to admit the upside to the rift that now existed between her and Tony made it possible to get a lot of work done, so much in fact she was finishing out the day by playing solitaire on the computer.
Jarvis had been giving her updates on the storm; he was in the middle of one when the power suddenly flickered, "Great." She glanced up, blue eyes narrowing slowly as it flickered again, went off for a second and came back. She glanced out the floor to ceiling windows and beheld a sheet of rain falling and palm trees whipping about. She quickly closed out the card game, gathered her things up and began to hurry out of the office, pausing at the intercom for a moment, "I'm going to head home be--" She didn't even get to finish the sentence, her voice was drowned out by a particularly close crash of thunder and the power failed, throwing Stark Manor into darkness, illuminated only by the occasional flash of lighting. Pepper sighed heavily, "Now what." She muttered, cursing slightly under her breath.
Tony had been lucky enough to have not been trapped in the shop. He had been in the kitchen. He was cursing and trying to find his way through the house. His arc reactor gave him a bit of light, but he had to take off his shirt to increase the output. He came up to Pepper and commented, "Looks like we're stuck here."
Her back at the kitchen, she jumped at the sound of a voice behind her before realizing it was Tony, "What? No." She was determined to go home; she'd make it… possibly. She turned, finding the illumination of the reactor oddly comforting and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose a moment, "I can't stay here..." She frowned, not thrilled with the idea at all, the less she had to deal with him right now the better frankly.
"Well... I can try to get into the shop. But I would have to remove the arc reactor and you would have to follow me with it and replace it." He said, glancing at her.
She stared at him, "Fine." She sat her things down at the table she knew was at her right and folded her arms, "It shouldn't be off all night I'm sure." She seriously hoped not. Slowly she reached down and undid the ankle straps on her shoes and slipped out of them, because honestly who walked around the dark in stilettos?
Tony wandered back for the living room, hoping she would follow, fighting the fear creeping up his spine at the darkness and the captivity in the house. It brought him back to Afghanistan.
She gabbing her laptop case, she followed him into the living room, "Well I still have some battery life, might as well use the time to be productive." She managed to find the sofa and settled on one end of it and began to pull out her laptop and turned it on, it created some illumination but not a lot. However she found herself not paying attention to it, but glancing over the screen at him, she hadn't even opened any windows yet.
He was settled in a chair, his back pressed into it, his feet up and on the cushion, a posture he never had, and he was trying to eat something, probably one of the many muffins or bagels Pepper often brought over.
The silence was only disrupted by the crash of thunder that echoed through the air. She wasn't one for silence much at all, and especially not tension ridden silence, "So how is the suit?" It was a completely random question, but she knew he had been working on it and possibly making modifications. Her eyes traveled towards the fireplace, "A fire might make it a little less dark." She suggested, knowing he had some issues with the dark ever since his escape and return from Afghanistan.
He glanced at the fireplace. He shivered, but it was invisible in the darkness, and shook his head. "No. It's fine." last thing he wanted was the fireplace going. "You can, if you'd like. I can leave you be.." he mumbled, ignoring her question about the suit, knowing she didn't like it.
She set her laptop aside and closed it, "No. I'd prefer the company…right now." She wrapped her arms lightly around her upper body a moment, "I never did like storms like these." The tension was almost suffocating, "I think I will go and get the candelabras from the dining room however." She stood, smoothing her skirt and began to pad in that direction, hands out in front of her as she felt her way.
He stood and followed after her. He grabbed her wrist, able to see a little better than she could, not needing to have his hand out. He tried to ignore how warm her skin felt in his hand.
She jumped slightly, her heart skipping a small beat as he was suddenly there with his hand about her slender wrist, "Where did you learn to be so… sneaky." Her free hand rested a moment over her heart before she started moving again, letting him lead the way, the soft blue glow of the reactor making it easier to see the way, "Do you have any more candles?"
"Pepper, why would I have candles? I'm not romantic, I'm not gay. And I'm not a woman." he said, shaking his head. "And I've always been quiet barefoot."
She rolled her eyes, "Silly me, I forgot, you just sleep with women, you don't romance them. What was I thinking?" Her sarcasm was obvious and as they entered the dining room, she pulled away from him and grabbed the gold candelabras with their nondescript white candles standing tall and ghost like. She decided one was enough and left the other there, each held six candles and six would be plenty for the living room, "At least I know for a fact you do have matches." She headed towards the doorway leading back down the small hall that would take them back to the living room.
He walked beside her, lighting her way, and felt a small stab of pain when she mentioned he didn't romance women, despite the obvious sarcasm.
She sighed, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. It's not my business to begin with and secondly…" She looked away from him, glancing down a little, "it's not like you have to do anything to get a woman's attention all she has to do is see you and it's a done deal." She was trying not to ramble, but did a very poor job of it and plus she was sure she just stuck her foot in her mouth.
He shook his head, not responding, just finding her the matches and holding them out for her so she could light the candles.
She took the matches and lit the candles, "Thank you." She said, handing the match book back to him. She hated the way she felt, like nothing she said or did seemed right anymore… that he was constantly angry at her. She hated it very much, "Why can't things be like they were?" She looked at him, her entire demeanor very serious.
"You're with Harold." he mumbled, shrugging his shoulders, moving away from her.
"That's the reason for… for all this?" She shook her head, "For the cold shoulder, the silent treatments, the glares and indifference is all because I'm dating?" She should have known, it made sense and yet it didn't, "I've dated before Tony." She folded her arms.
"You've never set up vacation with dates before. You've never looked tired like you do in the mornings, so I know you're going over to his place, or him to yours. You've never been with anyone this long either." he mumbled, settling back down in a chair.
She shook her head, "Yes and in two weeks we could easily end up just being friends again. It's not like there's a ring on my finger." She even held out her hand to prove such, "As for the vacation… Happy was right I do need one; sometimes people need someone else to bring things to their attention that they're missing. I didn't realize how much I did need time off until I was told in a serious manner." She had nothing to say about some of her recently late nights, "And he isn't the only boyfriend I've ever had… had late nights with."
"I know. I know every time you've had a late night." he mumbled, which was true. He wasn't sure why the pain of seeing her tired in the mornings was so strong now, when before he had just been wondering why he wasn't able to get her in bed if others were.
"Not every late night." She muttered and sighed, "Things aren't as serious as you seem to think they are." And they weren't for starters no mentions of the L word had occurred yet anyways and somehow Pepper was all too sure it would come from Happy first and because of that she felt guilty as if she was stringing the man along.
"Yeah. Every one." he said, shaking his head at her lightly. "And it's still more serious than anyone else you've been with while in my employ."
"No. Not every single one…" She tucked a strand of red back behind her ear, "There were some you weren't here for, but they weren't those kind of nights at all." She was referring to his time missing, when she didn't know if she would get a phone call in the middle of the night saying her boss was dead. She didn't sleep much during that time if at all. It was then that she had found some solace in Happy's companionship, he had been there for her and one thing had led to another obviously. She didn't want to admit that he was right about that.
He knew exactly what she was talking about, and he just glanced down to his shoes, his hands going into the pockets of his jeans. He didn't respond, there was no way to respond.
She knew the underlined reason behind his attitude towards her and Happy dating and being together… it was always in the back of her mind, the moment that could've been on that balcony, how she had basically told him no, never before that press conference and his countless other attempts. Some days it was like a knife in her back because she knew she was the only woman in the world that broke Tony Stark's heart and in a way it broke hers too. And now more than ever she felt defeated and torn over it all.
Tony didn't talk much the rest of the night. But he had been quiet for a while. He lit the fireplace for her as he moved off to bed, thankful he had had his door open at the time of the power outage, as Jarvis controlled the locks on the doors and thus any door that wasn't open at the time of the power outage was locked tight. He figured the lights would be on at some point and so he said a good night to Pepper before he left. He left on his jeans as he got into his bed, unable to sleep, the paranoia still settled in his spine and his heart heavy.
She spent the majority of the night simply playing solitaire on her laptop until the battery finally ran out. After that she laid there on the sofa and thought a lot about things… about what she really wanted, what was best and other things. She felt caught, stuck and knew no right way to go from here. She didn't want to hurt anyone, especially not Tony or Happy. Soon she felt herself begun to feel frustrated and the more she thought the more she knew what she needed to do, one she'd have to break it to Happy that she was going to take this vacation alone, she needed to do a lot more thinking and she needed to be alone to do so. This would probably make Tony happy to some extent, but she'd make it very well known she wasn't going alone for him, she was going alone for her. At some point shortly after making her decision she drifted off into a slightly restless sleep.