I had a lot of fun writing that chapter. Hope you like it!
She was already late. She was supposed to be flying to Japan right now, but instead she was waiting for Tony. He decided that he was hungry, so he made himself a sandwich and Pepper was not in the mood for arguing so she just quietly waited. Tony wasn't in a hurry at all. He carefully put the ham on the bread, then humming he started slicing a tomato. When he was done with that he poured at least half a bottle of ketchup on top of the tomato. 'Breath, Pepper, just breath' Pepper thought to herself 'you are not going to argue, there is no time for that.'
"You hungry?"
"No, Tony, please hurry up, we are already late."
"Relax, Pep. It's called private jet for a reason. And you cannot argue with me on this one, you know how much I hate airplane food!"
"Isn't that why you hired a cook, you know, for the airplane? So that you won't have to put up with airplane food?"
"Yeah, but it's still made on the airplane, so it reminds me of airplane food."
Tony was now standing right in front of her, holding his overketchupped sandwich with both his hands. He took a bite and all of the ketchup and tomatoes and god knows what else felled on the ground with loud 'Shlock!'.
"Please tell me that you didn't just ruin my shoes" Pepper said with the calmest voice ever.
"Umm…" Tony looked down. Her whole left foot was covered with the content of his sandwich. He just stayed there, not knowing what to do with his mouth full. "Nwo, I dwidn't."
"You are unbelievable!" she was now yelling. Pepper turned around and slipped on what seemed to be a tomato slice. She ended up on the floor. Tony rushed to help her, but the tomato on the ground tricked him as well and he felled right on top of Pepper, sending what was left of his sandwich on Pepper's hair. She felt the cool sauce slowly spreading in her hair. Tony was laying on top of her, apparently not eager to get up any time soon.
"Pepper?" he asked, noticing her nose wrinkle and her cheeks getting redder and redder by the second.
She didn't even look at him "Get up!"
"You promise not to hit me?"
She glared at him.
"You promise not to hit me with hard and pointed things?"
Again, not a word from her. She was just looking at him as if she was going to bite his head off any time now.
"All right" Tony said and slowly got up. She sat on the floor.
"Tony, I'm a mess. What part of 'we are late' you did not understand?!" Pepper tried to clean herself with a napkin, but failed miserably. "I am going to take a shower and then change. I want you to call the airport and tell them we are going to be late."
Tony just stood there, nodding guilty. "Wait, you are going to change? In what? I don't say you won't look good in my old jeans, but I'm just curious."
"I have a suit in the hidden in the house, Sherlock! For emergencies like this."
"Oh, so it was yours then" he stated silently, but Pepper heard him.
"What do you mean? What did you do with it? No, actually, I don't want to know. I'm going to shower and then I'll change and then we'll go to the airport. I don't want to hear a sound from your mouth until we enter the airplane, am I clear?"
"Yes" Tony answered like a child that has been told off by his parents.
Pepper went up the stairs and went to his room. God, she was so angry at him. He was like a big child, a genius one, but still a child. He had been hungry. Ok, she gets it, but 'the airplane food makes me sick, even if it has been just cooked by an amazing Italian chef ten minutes ago' part – not so much. But ok, ok, she would put up with that, Tony was hungry, a sandwich won't hurt anybody (that's what she previously thought), so let's not argue with him. But come on! For a genius he should have known that with so much sauce everything would fall out. And as if a sick joke of the faith she had decided to wear her new Gucci shoes. If he only knew how much they cost! She carefully took off her blazer – it was ruined. Then she took off her top – also ruined. She then looked at her shoes, her brand new, ruined, never-to-wear-again shoes. If only she was licensed to own a gun and use it! Her skirt, which ironically was white, had taken the biggest hit – there was a huge red line lengthwise. And she also couldn't believe that Tony had found her hidden suit. He never went to the laundry room. Pepper didn't think Tony knew it existed actually. And what had he done to the suit?! No, no, she didn't want to know. She grabbed a cotton white towel, took off her remaining clothes and entered the bathroom. On the one side of his douche cabin she saw his shampoo and douche gel. She knew that there also were a whole collection of products for women, so that Tony's guests would feel comfortable, but she was unable to find it. Did Tony throw it away? It was true that he hadn't had female guest for some time now, but she was expecting that very soon he would renew his tradition of 'different night – different girl'. She didn't give much of a thought about it, turned on the hot water and started showering.
Downstairs Tony was mad. Mad at himself, that is. He did a very, very stupid thing. Now Pepper was angry at him and he didn't want to fly with an angry Pepper. That was no fun at all and he knew it. Of course that suit was hers! But he had to jump to conclusions that some random chick had forgotten it and when Pepper sees it she would think that Tony had started sleeping with random girls once again and that would kill any chance he had with her. He sat on the couch for a few minutes and when he heard the water upstairs running he stood up and went for the stairs. He decided that he'll use the time while Pepper was in the shower to find her something to wear. He slowly opened the door to his bedroom, sneaked in and closed it again. Since when was he sneaking in his own room?! He opened his wardrobe and looked inside: suit, suit, suit, emergencies' Ironman suit, another black suit, white suit, checked suit… He won't find anything in here. He turned around for his for-work wardrobe and peeked inside. He found worn-out jeans that would work great for Pepper. Ok, now a top. After a few-seconds digging he took out his lucky 'Black Sabbath' T-shirt and placed it on the bed, next to the jeans. And shoes! He got his sneakers from under the bed and placed them next to Pepper's heels. 'She is probably the maddest about the shoes' he thought as he picked the ketchup-free right shoe and took a shot of it. He would make sure she gets the same shoes next week as an 'I'm sorry' gift. Just as he pressed the Capture button he heard the water stopped running. He headed for the door, but he was too late. In front of him was staying a very wet Pepper in nothing but a towel.
"Pepper" he said swallowing hard, with the calmest voice he could achieve at this moment. His eyes went down to the miniature towel covering her body, her long perfect legs and her fine figure. God, how he wanted to grab her, throw her on the bed and kiss every single inch of her body, then make love to her, all day long and all night long and then…
"Tony" his train of thoughts stopped. He looked at her eyes. She was blushing. And she was getting cuter and cuter, sexier and sexier with every second. Thank God he had some self-control.
"I-I got some-some clothes for you. The-they are on-on the bed." He was madly in love with this woman!
"Thank you" suddenly all her anger vanished. They stayed like that for merely a minute. "Do you mind getting out, so I can change?"
"Yes" Tony was sent back to reality. "I-I mean no." And with that he left the room. It was going to be a long flight.
Pepper came downstairs a few minutes later. "I have some spare clothes in the airplane, so it won't be so much of a problem" she said. Tony didn't see the problem. She looked great in his clothes. He would gladly give an arm and a leg to see her coming down that staircase every day, dressed in his jeans and T-shirt. "Why are you smiling?" Pepper asked.
"You look great."
"I'm still mad at you, so don't think you're going to get out so easily. Flattery won't work with me" and with that she gave him one of her half-smiled, patted his shoulder and headed for the door. He got his chance to have a good look at her six, which looked amazing even in his old baggy jeans. He felt it was right to tell her that. And maybe tell her that he loved her…
"Pepper" he started "I got something to tell you."
"Don't you even dare tell me you are hungry again!" she snapped immediately at him.
"I…" well, maybe there would be more accurate moment to share his feeling with her. "You…"
"Move it, Stark! We are going to be late!" she said, exiting the mansion.
"Private jet, Potts. Which part of that did you not understand?!" he groaned and headed for the door as well.
