Tony and Pepper arrive at the restaurant where they are going to have their official engagement dinner together. It is a small but nice restaurant that they both like and they have been to before. Happy drives up in front of the restaurant and Tony get out and hold the door and assistant Pepper out of the car. Tony and Pepper are holding hand and Pepper are leaning close to Tony to stay warm as they walk to the door and the doorman opens the door for them. Inside they are greeted by the host and are escorted to their reserved table. The table is located in the middle of the restaurant. The waitress comes over and hands the coupæe the menu and takes their drinks orders. Tony smiles at the waitress as she takes their order and leaves.
"Do you know her?" Pepper asks.
"hmm?" Tony asks looking up from his menu.
"Do you know her? The waitress?" Tony looks back after her.
"No. She probably knows me." Tony says with a smile and focuses his attention back to the menu. Pepper looks around in the restaurant she can feel every guest eyes is on them and it makes her feel uncomfortable and Tony notice it right away when he puts his menu down.
"Everyone is watching us, Tony." Pepper wishers to Tony. Tonny looks around and nobody seems to be watching them.
"Relax honey," Tony says with a smile and reaches across the table and places his hand on hers. Pepper doesn't want to ruin their dinner because it isn't often that they have time to go out together but she doesn't like that she feels like everyone in the restaurant is watching them. Tony can see how uncomfortable Pepper is with this situation so when the waitress comes over with their ordered drinks Tony request to get them moved to a different table with more privacy. Tony moves his chair to sit on on the side of the table instead of across the table from Pepper.
"what are you doing?" she asks once he is seated. He just smiles at her and takes her and kisses her.
"I don't want to be that far away from you." He whispers to her and kisses her again and it makes Pepper smile. Tony always knows how to make her in a better mood with his playful and sometimes childish but also romantic gestures. Pepper sits up straight again when the waitress comes to take their order for food. Once they have ordered Pepper excuse herself to the bathroom to check her make up before dinner. Tony is left alone at the table. He is just sitting and waiting when a tall, skinny blonde woman comes over and sits down on Peppers chair. Tony first things it is Pepper but his smile faiths away when he sees it is the reporter who approached Pepper yesterday.
"what are you doing here?" Tony asks in a not very friendly tone and looks back to see if Pepper is coming back.
"Easy tiger. Your accessory is in the lady's room." The reporter says in a sassy and provocative tone. The way the reporter is talking about Pepper as his accessory makes Tony angry. Tony is about to lose it but he is determined to not let her provoke him. he takes a deep breath to calm himself down before he speaks.
"will you please leave now or I'll have security remove you," Tony asks politely in a calm voice.
"I am just having dinner." She explains she says and starts to lean forward towards Tony with a sassy flirty smile.
"leave," Tony says with a more intense stare at her.
"Wow, you used to be a playboy she really does change you."
"no, she does not. I love Pepper. She is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me."
"you are sure you don't want to have some fun?" she asks in a flirty suggestive way. She is flirtatiously moving her hand up his chest on his shirt. Tony moves away from her.
"stop. I am engaged and I am here with my fiancée." Tony insists. Years ago when Tony was living out his playboy lifestyle, they would have been in a car on the way to a hotel room by now but Tony is not like that anymore. He is in a steady relationship with the woman he loves. He has gotten a second change with Pepper and he is determined not to blow that in any way.
"you need to leave." Tony insists and leaves back in his chair away from the reporter.
"so you are done being America's playboy. You used to be fun Tony Stark." The reporter says and stands up. The reporter passes Pepper on the way out.
"congratulation he really does love you." The reporter says and pushes Pepper out of the way as she leaves. Pepper looks after her and then over at Tony and sits down again. Tony is sitting with his face in his hands. He looks up at Pepper.
"what was that about?"
"I am officially no playboy anymore." He says almost resignedly. Pepper sits down and take his hands in hers and lean closer to him.
"I think you are still a playboy," Pepper says in a flirty tone and that Makes tony smile and blush which just makes Pepper laugh.
Pepper and Tony leave the restaurant after their dinner and decides to go back to Tony's apartment at the Avengers compound. Happy comes to pick them up. Once they are leaving the restaurant to get to the car they are met by reporters. Pepper holds Tony's hand firmly as they walk together by the reporters.
"Miss Potts how do you feel about changing America's Playboy that girl in America used to love."
"Everyone still loves Tony. He is an amazing person and he is keeping the world safe."
"so you are not forcing him to stop being Iron Man?" the blonde reporter, that was in the restaurant asks with an almost daring look at Pepper.
"no, I am not," Pepper responds with way more confidence than the reporter expected. The reporter looks like she was hoping to get Pepper to lose it, but Pepper is not going to let that happen. "Iron man is keeping the world safe together with the Avengers and everyone should be grateful for that. I am grateful for that." Pepper says with confidence.
"You used to host parties as Iron man? people loved the Iron man parties. Isn't that part of who you are and why people love Iron man? Being a playboy isn't that a part of you as Iron man, Tony?" the reporter asks looking directly at Tony. Tony knows what she is trying to do. She is trying to get him to say that he is holding on to his playboy lifestyle because otherwise, he can't be Iron man.
"no, it is not," Tony says and takes a step closer to the reporter. He is staring directly at her and almost appears threatening. The earlier so confident reporter now looks intimidated by him. "A hero is only as good as his team. A big part of my team is my fiancée. The love of my life, who is making me a better person, a better man, and a better Iron man." Tony says with a death stare at the reporter. All the reporters are silent now. The before so confident and daring blonde reporter is just staring at Tony.
"Any more questions?" Tony asks. No one dares to say anything to Tony firmly leads Pepper to the car where Happy is waiting for them. Tony has his hand on Peppers lower back and as they walk to the car his hand slides further down on her ass. Pepper and Tony sneak a quick peek at each other. The look on Peppers face tells Tony that she thinks he is a playboy. The cameras are snapping lots of photos of them as they walk to the car.
Once they are safely in driving away from the reporters and cameras Pepper leans against Tony's chest and Tony has an arm around her.
"I'm sorry Honey," Tony says into her hair and kisses the top of her head.
"for what?" Pepper asks. Pepper is leaning against Tony's chest and holding his hand.
"tonight. It didn't go the way I hoped." Tony sounds upset and he feels like he failed Pepper. He promised her a private dinner where they would celebrate their engagement, but instead, it ended in another media circus. Pepper sits up and looks at Tony with a sweet smile. She places her hand on his face and looks directly into his brown eyes.
"Maybe not but I think it was pretty good anyway. And yeah maybe we can't go have dinner at a restaurant in privacy like any other couple but…" Pepper stops talking and looks to the front seat where Happy clearly is listening and attempting to watch them discretely in the rearview mirror. So Pepper leans closer to Tony to prevent Happy from listening. Tony notice the suggestive flirty smile on her face as she moves closer to him and whispers in his ear. "what you said to that reporter was pretty sexy. We should definitely celebrate our engagement in real playboy style…" Tonys' eyes widen and the way he looks at her afterward makes Pepper laugh. Pepper places her hands on Tony's face and kisses him. the kisses grow more and more passionate. Pepper can feel Tony getting a bit too excited for the current situation she pulls away and whispers in his ear. "when we get home." Tony looks very disappointed and the ride back to the Avengers compound takes way too long for Tony.