Thanks for all the reviews! you guys are amazing! Btw, Im thinking about writing a love making scene, but im not so sure if you guys are okay with it, so please let me know!

Pepper turned to look at him, waiting for an answer. He looked different, somehow, pale and almost as if he might get sick. She watched him curiously and for the briefest of moments Pepper felt guilty for opening the door to this room. Apparently, she wasn't welcome to do so. But then she remembered that it was her house too and even if she felt a bit awkward here, he had told her to feel at home.

"Tony?"

"It's a… uhm… guest bedroom…", he lied.

"Oh… why is it not furnished?"

He wanted to tell her. Tony wanted her to know why this room was so empty. He wanted her to know why she was still fighting those stomach pains - she still believed it was just her healing scar that hurt. Tony wanted to tell her so he could finally cry with her. To lift the huge weight he had been carrying around for weeks off his shoulders.

But he couldn't.

She was so unaware of the true depth of their misery, that he couldn't bring himself to hurt her now. He'd tell her soon - just not right now.

"We were going to re-do the room. But then you had your accident and I just didn't want to do it alone."

Pepper smiled at him and he was afraid it might break his heart. They didn't lie to each other. Long before they had fallen in love, their friendship had been based on the very simple principle of trust. She trusted him to be honest with her and he expected the same from her. As much as their honesty had sometimes hurt the other's feelings, their relationship and the love for one another had always been too important to let a lie come between them. They didn't tell half the truth or an edited version of it.

They simply didn't lie to each other.

Yet, there he stood, lying straight to Pepper's face. He justified it with the fear of hurting her. Tony knew that it would break something within her, if he'd tell her that she had lost their baby. He was right to keep it from her now, that all her other wounds were barely healing.

Still, it felt so wrong.

"That's very sweet of you,Tony.", she smiled at him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome.", he muttered, avoiding her gaze.

"Do you think we could make something for lunch? I'm starving."

"Sure… should I order us something?", Tony asked her.

"I remember ordering from that Italian place all the time when you were working on the blue car. Is it still there?"

"It is.", he smiled. "We still order there now sometimes. It's… well… it's the restaurant we went to for our first real date."

She couldn't help but blush a little at the mention of their first date. Pepper wondered if it had been him picking the restaurant and if so, whether he had done it knowing that she loved that place. Following him downstairs, she watched as he called the restaurant, ordering without ever asking her what she would want to eat. But as he ended the call, Pepper realized that she would have probably ordered the same things anyway. Apparently, he knew her very well. She liked the idea of another person knowing those small, seemingly unimportant details about her, but it also made her sad that she didn't know Tony nearly as well. There was no way she would have known what food he'd prefer.

When the food arrived they sat in the kitchen together and for the first time Pepper felt somewhat relaxed in his presence. They talked about unimportant things, but she actually found herself enjoying his company. Every now and then, he'd still drop a comment that reminded her of the man she knew. The bit of sarcasm in his tone came through as he talked about Justin Hammer wanting to create an iron man suit and also about that time at court when he jacked the monitors and started using videos against Justin. She had actually laughed when Tony had told her. At one point, she thought he was being downright rude and to her utter surprise, she laughed out loud.

"Tony stop it.", she laughed and he chuckled.

"What? It's true. You can't imagine, Pep. It's all 'Tony my bff' here and 'Tony and I are like brothers' there.
"Stop!", she giggled, holding her aching stomach with one hand.

It was a different kind of pain she felt. The kind you only feel when you're laughing so hard, that you just cannot stop.

'I wanna make Iron Man look like an antique.' Tony said mimicking Hammer."You know he even dated a paparazzi that I had slept with, and he kept trying to show off in my face" he continued.

"Tony!", she squeaked. "Knock it off!"

She hit his arm playfully, before reaching up to wipe a tear out of the corner of her eye. She hadn't felt this good in quite a while and she slowly started to believe that maybe it had been a good idea to spend a day with Tony .

"You're still using violence when you can't come up with anything else, huh?", he chuckled, rubbing his arm where Pepper had slapped him.

"I might have lost my memory but I certainly didn't lose all common sense.", Pepper smirked. "Men like you need a good slap every now and then."

"Do we?", he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I know you well… but I didn't know that this is the kind of stuff you're into."

She didn't catch the naughty meaning of his words immediately, but when she did, Pepper blushed furiously. She didn't know that they always joked around like this - with a bit of a double meaning to the simplest of things. She had no recollection of the playful banter and the sexual references they had shared long before they had been a couple. Oddly enough and even though Pepper felt embarrassed, she didn't mind the jokes coming from Tony . Something about it seemed surprisingly normal.

"I wouldn't slap you… at least not too hard.", she mumbled, studying the food that was still left on her plate, a coy smile playing on her lips.

"What was that?", Tony asked, staring at her, his expression a mixture of surprise and playfulness.

Pepper turned and even deeper shade of red, her cheeks feeling almost unbearably hot all of the sudden. She bit her lip, cursing herself inwardly for her comment. She tried to think of a smart thing to say but nothing would come to her mind. Amidst all of the awkwardness and unfamiliarity she had dared to make a rather cheeky comment and now she regretted doing so.

"I have to use the bathroom.", she told him, leaving the table, not looking at him.

Tony let her go, starting to clear the table once he had heard the bathroom door close. She wouldn't eat another bite of her lunch anyway. He had enjoyed that one little moment so much. The naughty little comment she had dropped, most likely not thinking about it at all. For him, however, it had been more than just a bit of their playful goofiness.

Now, he couldn't help but think about her as the woman he knew. The Pepper that could turn him on with just a few words, with a wink or a smile. Tony wanted to become her friend again, to win her trust once more. Still, his mind kept circling around those things that weren't meant to be right now, the moments in their life that nobody else would ever be a part off. Those moments when it was just them - alone, together, intimate. The moments when she was his and his alone. And when he was hers, unconditionally. Those moments that she wouldn't allow now and maybe never again. The ones he craved for so desperately - every night, every time he wasn't with her and even more so when he was.

"What are we like,Tony?", she whispered, startling him.

He turned around to see her standing there, twisting the ring on her finger nervously, the crimson color already creeping back into her cheeks.

"What do you mean?"

"W-what are we like when we are together?"

Tony didn't understand what she meant, looking at her questioningly. Something about her made him wonder if she wouldn't rather disappear through the wooden floor right now. There she stood, her head hanging low, eyes cast down. She was biting her lip so hard that he was afraid she might make it bleed.

"You and I.", Pepper whispered. "What is it like?"

She finally met his eyes, silently begging him to understand what she was saying even though she couldn't bring herself to put it into words. Tony replayed her words in his head when their meaning suddenly hit him.

"Oh…", he breathed. "You mean…"

"Yeah."

A small, knowing smile spread on Tony's lips and he brought his hand up to rub the back of his neck, contemplating what to say. This was a situation you couldn't be prepared for and he had trouble to form a coherent sentence. What to tell the woman you love about the intimacy you share, when she cannot even remember loving you?

"Come on.", he finally spoke, taking Pepper's hand into his own and pulling her towards the staircase.

She followed him reluctantly, her nervousness increasing as he led her to their bedroom. Suddenly Pepper was afraid that he had misunderstood her or that he thought that she would want him to just show her the answer to her question. There was something about him that she liked, something that made all the difference between now and the last time she could remember. But she didn't want this. Not at all. Suddenly, Pepper didn't want to be in a bedroom with him.

"Tony…"

"It's okay.", he smiled, squeezing her hand. "It's okay, sweetheart."

She let him lead her into the room and towards the bed. Pepper's stomach clenched and she wished he would let go of her hand.

"Sit down.", Tony told her and she obeyed, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

He joined Pepper on the bed wrapping an arm around her when he noticed her scooting away from him. Her body stiffened and she didn't know if she could trust his intentions. She didn't want to know any longer. She didn't care about the answers to her question.

"Please don't be scared of me, Pep. Don't ever be scared of me.", Tony pleaded, sensing her insecurity.
"Why did you bring me up here?"

"Because I want to answer your question."

"Why here?", Pepper whispered, still a little uncomfortable with the situation.

"This is where it first happened.", Tony answered, an unwelcome lump forming in his throat. "This is where it all changed for us, Pepper."

She let her eyes wander over the neatly made bed, her hand smoothing the soft sheet, trying to imagine them there, together. She closed her eyes, praying for another flash of memories, another little peek into her 's hand had slid down to her lower back and she felt the warm, gentle sensation of his touch.

"We're good together, aren't we?", she whispered.

"We are.", Tony answered, carefully inching closer to her.

She could feel him, knew he was coming closer to her, but Pepper didn't shy away. She wasn't ready for this. She wasn't ready for him to be this close to her, but she couldn't pull herself away from him either. Her breath caught when he gently nuzzled her cheek with his nose.

"What is your most amazing memory of us together? Here in this room…", Pepper asked, her voice so quiet that he could barely hear her, despite their physical closeness. "On this bed…"

Tony's heart was beating as fast as it had back then, years ago, when he had slept with her for the first time. He thought about her question, mental images of the many times they had shared intimate moments playing in front of his mind's eye.

One moment stood out. One moment that had been so passionate and so intimate. One moment that had changed the way he felt about her and the way he felt about life.

Without thinking about it - completely lost in the memory and her presence in his arms right then – Tony spoke.

"The night we made our baby."

Cliffhanger :)