Chapter 6: Second Helpings
As the elevator shot up towards the roof, Tony glanced at himself in the mirrored walls, adjusting his tie. When the doors slid open, he saw Pepper waiting for him, standing in front of a table set for a beautiful candlelit dinner. He blinked as she walked towards him.
"Damn. You look gorgeous."
"I know." She smiled, giving him a peck on the cheek.
"What's all this?" he asked, gesturing to the table.
"Your birthday surprise. Or at least, it was supposed to be, before you ended up in the hospital."
"That's a delicate way of putting it. Oh, is this why you were so distant on my birthda—I mean, is this why I couldn't get in touch with you the other day?"
"Nice save," she said as they sat down. "Yes, it was supposed to be something special."
"If you really wanted to give me something special, you could just take that dress off, as amazing as it is," he said suggestively. Pepper gave him a dry smile.
"Later. Now, do you want an appetizer?"
"Well, it depends. Are we talking salad, or something more like artichoke dip? 'Cause if we're talking artichoke dip, then hell yes. Also, hey, Dum-E," he called to his robot. "Are you gonna serve us our wine, or just stand there eavesdropping on our conversation?"
The robot beeped an apology, moving forward to set a plate of tiny little crab cakes on the table. The ones Tony had said he could never resist.
"I'm sorry you didn't get your party," she said.
"No, it's okay. I mean, this is fine," he said. "Great, actually. Yeah. This is great."
"Are you okay?"
He leaned forward.
"So, uh, exactly how many people know about this whole 'Sleeping Beauty' thing, again?"
"They haven't been teasing you, have they?"
"Nah, I'm just trying to calculate how many months it'll take me to live this down."
"Oh, Tony. They were definitely much easier to persuade about it than you were after you woke up."
"Well, I mean, to be fair, when a guy wakes up in the hospital, it's not usually 'cause he's waking from an enchanted sleep." He shook his head. "G**, that still sounds so weird. If Fury hadn't confirmed that that witch actually did escape from the pages of a magic storybook, I'm not sure I'd believe it."
"I'm still not sure I believe you that you do," she said. Tony shrugged.
"Fair enough."
She reached across the table for his hand. He caught the scent of her favorite cocoa butter lotion.
"So…you really think it was a fairy-tale thing?" he asked. She nodded.
"Yes."
"So then, when you kissed me, it was…True Love's Kiss?" He tried to sound nonchalant. "Isn't that what usually breaks the spell in these kinds of stories?"
"I guess so."
"Huh." He suddenly found he couldn't hold her gaze. "Wonder if there's gonna be a 'happily ever after' in it for us, too."
"Let's just take it one day at a time for now." Pepper smiled. Tony smiled back.
"Works for me."
They ate their crab cakes in relative quiet. Towards the end, he looked up from his plate to see her staring at him.
"What?"
"I just can't believe I almost lost you," she said.
"Oh, come on. I was just asleep, that's all. Well, okay, asleep for pretty much forever, but still—"
"You don't think this is a big deal? The fact that you almost died?"
"I've almost died a lot of times before," he said. "This is different."
"Because you were technically only asleep?"
"No. It's because I had you right there," he said seriously. "I know you. You'd have found a cure eventually."
She squeezed his hand. A moment passed, before Tony looked down at his plate.
"Hey, you know, these crab cakes are great, but what I really wanna know is…does True Love's Kiss offer second helpings?"
She laughed. "You've been rehearsing that one for awhile, haven't you?"
He shrugged.
"Well, did it work?"
Pepper just shook her head. Pulling him up from the table, she kissed him again. He leaned into her, running a hand through her soft blond hair, and in that moment, he knew he would easily have given a hundred years just for that night, let alone an ever after.
The End
Author's Note:
Thanks for reading! I can't promise it's coming soon, but up next will be Steve Rogers and the Seven Dwarves (assuming I can ever get up the courage to write about my personal favorite Avenger.) Feel free to review, and I hope you have a lovely day!
-EpicPenguin
