A/N: I do not own anything related to MARVEL, except my dvds.
"Pepper!"
"What's wrong now?" she asked Tony for what felt like the 800th time today.
"I can't reach the cough drops."
Tony has been sick for almost a week and Pepper has been taking care of him the whole time and was almost to her wits end.
After the inopportune pepper eating contest a couple of months ago, Tony had been calling her Pepper instead of Potts when it was just them. She was still Miss. Potts when they were out and about with other people.
Tony had been using the house's intercom feature all week, and Pepper was ready to have Jarvis turn it off.
She made her way down the hall to his room and handed him a cough drop from the bag on the nightstand.
"Anything else?"
"Do you still have any soup leftover from lunch?"
"I'll bring you a bowl up, along with your next dose of medicine."
He wrinkled his nose at that and she couldn't help but let a smile cross her features in response.
"Be a good boy, and I'll give you a surprise later."
"This may be the only time I say this, and I can't believe I'm going to say it, but I'm not in the mood for a strip tease tonight."
She pursed her lips in response, "Good thing that's not what I'm offering then."
"So what are you offering?"
She opened her mouth to respond but Tony had a coughing fit before she got words out. She chuckled and turned to leave the room, "Soup and medicine."
"Spoil sport."
She made her way to the kitchen to pull out the soup to begin reheating. She readied everything on a tray to carry back upstairs while the microwave did its job.
"Here Tony, dinner time." She said walking back into his room but he was asleep again. She walked over and placed the tray on the dresser before making her way back to the bed. She sat next to him and placed her hand on his head to feel for fever.
"Why can't you be this quiet normally?" she asked his form.
"Sleep means quiet." He muttered opening his eyes. "Soup?" he added hopefully.
She reached over and got the actual thermometer, "Temperature first, then soup, then medicine."
He accepted the thermometer without issue. She placed the tray across his lap and took the cover off the bowl of soup to let the steam dissipate into the air.
When the beep sounded she took it from him and handed him a spoon to start eating.
"Only 100.4 Jarvis." She said aloud.
"I do believe the medicine is serving its purpose, his temperature is down from the last three takings."
"I agree."
"Nope, soup."
"Soup?"
"The soup is awesome, its making me feel better."
"I'm glad it's helping."
She sat next to him on the bed while he ate as much soup as he could. When he finally put the spoon down she took the tray away and brought back the medicine.
"Here, take this and you can go back to sleep." She said handing him the pills and a cup of juice to swallow them down.
He took the pills and drank a few sips of the juice before handing her back the cup and leaning back into the pillows.
"Tell me a story."
"Excuse me?"
"Tell me a story, to help me get to sleep."
"Really?" she asked taking the cup back to the tray.
"Please." He added.
"Wow, you really are sick." She said settling next to him on the bed.
"Pepperrrr." He dragged out her nickname.
"I have work to do Tony, maybe Jarvis can find a story to read to you."
He tried pouting at her but wound up coughing instead.
"Oh fine." She gave in. He smiled and nestled down into his pillows and brought the blanket up even more. Pepper stayed seated by his side and started telling her story.
"Once upon a time, there was a little prince. He was extremely smart and good looking, but not many people liked him because he real brash and hard to work with."
"I want a different story, make one up."
She rolled her eyes but consented when she started again.
By the time she had talked for five minutes Tony had fallen asleep so she stopped talking and gathered the tray to take back to the kitchen.
"Thanks, Pep." Came a mumble from the bed.
She smiled and made her way out of the room.
