Okay. I've been really busy this week and have gotten a little discouraged due to lack of comments. If you are reading this or ever have read any of this, please let me know if I should continue and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Otherwise I'll just punch an ending in. I had a prepared one for chapter 20 but I'm wondering if I should just close the story out. If enough respond, I will continue beyond this chapter, otherwise, THIS IS THE END! Nothing against any of you. Just trying to give you GOOD fan fiction.

Oh, and should I write a sequel?

WARNING: Long chapter.

CHAPTER 14

It had started out as a normal day.

But of course, Tony Stark's unconsciously disastrous nature ruined everything.

Pepper had been in the kitchen making sandwiches and Tony had been downstairs working on hot rod, not that it needed it.

He had grand plans for the day. He had packed dessert, he had made it himself, chocolate chip cookies, rather burnt, in a picnic basket. Pepper's favorite of his cars, the blue convertible with red racing stripes and flames had been all gassed up and had Pepper's favorite clownfish blanket, with Tony had sent Happy to snatch.

Tony had watched Pepper go about her business of on the security camera. Tony she wore a white blouse and her copper hair tied in a lacy white ribbon. He could just see the wind from top being down on his car blowing the loose strands of her hair over her ears and into her big, angelic eyes. And the ribbon, of course. The ribbon standing straight out behind her wavy ponytail. Flapping and tickling her creamy cheeks.

Tony had nearly fell out of his chair envisioning it.

Then he was going to take her to the beach. She loved the beach. Happy had swiped Pepper's blue one piece from her house, of course, due to Tony's bidding and packed it with a towel and change of clothes.

Happy was amazing. And Tony was prepared. He could just see Pepper saying, "I can't swim, I have no suit!" and him whipping the suit out of the basket. She would bite her bottom lip like she always did and smile and smile and hug him.

He was pretty slick sometimes. He was Iron Man. He was Anthony Edward Stark.

Then he would take Pepper to her favorite restaurant, la Manifeque. It was Italian food. Afterwards they were going back to the place were Tony and Pepper had first danced and realized that they were meant to be more then just boss-and-employee.

Tony had left her on the roof, martini-less. Okay, he wasn't perfect.

But he was Iron Man. He was Anthony Edward Stark.

Tony had jumped out of his chair in excitement so quickly he had done a face plant.

He was definitely not perfect. But he was Iron Man. He was Anthony –

He had already said that. Several times, in fact. At least it was true.

His dignity was salvageable. JARVIS kept his mouth shut. Figuratively, of course. JARVIS didn't have a mouth. But Tony was babbling.

Deep cleansing breath.

"Pep? Hey…Pep?" Tony said, his voice coming out shakier then he meant to. He was downright pathetic sometimes. He ascended the staircase and made a beeline across the room with the piano and into the kitchen. There she was, spreading mayonnaise on a slab of rye bread – his favorite! He would just sneak up and wrap his arms around that little waist of hers, he planned, as he watched her curly hair bob and brush against her shoulder blades, giving her a graceful, swishy look.

Doing just as he planned, he padded up behind her in his sock feet and slid his arms around her waist. He immediately felt her body tense up, and she let out a squeal, slamming her elbows right into his ribcage and flinging the sandwich she held right into the air. Tony staggered back, slid on his sock feet and slammed his head into the wall on the way down. He landed flat on his bottom.

Just as Pepper turned, butter knife in hand, the still airborne sandwich came in for a landing, the two halves separating. The first, smeared with mayo, landed in his hair. Pickles flew all over his stomach and a lone tomato slapped onto his eye. The other piece of bread came down last, right on his mouth, which happened to be twisted in pain and surprise.

However, the grand finale was the heavy ridged plate. It die a lazy twirl and crashed, edge down, right into his crotch.

He let out a low moan.

Pepper's hand flew to her lips, and she stood there in shock for at least a minute.

"God, oh, Tony, I'm sorry!" she seemed glued to the floor, unmoving.

"Ow," he said, his words muffled by the piece of rye on his mouth.

"Did I kill you?" Pepper said, beginning to tear up.

"No, Pep, no!" Tony slid the greasy bread off his head, leaving a pale streak of mayonnaise on his hair.

"Oh, my, gosh, Tony, you're a mess," she said, getting down on her knees and brushing the assortment of pickles and lettuce flakes off his chest.

"No problem," he said, pushing the plate off his crotch and groaning again. "Damn, that hurt. Oh…gosh…" he slid up, propping against the wall and breathing heavily.

"It's all my fault, I am so clumsy," Pepper rubbed a tear out her eye with the back of her fist, bread and lettuce still in hand.

"Let's forget this happened," Tony picked the pick of lettuce of his eye and popped it in his mouth. "Okay? No issue? I'm going to shower. Be ready to go in ten minutes."

"Go where?" Pepper asked, still in shock from the catapulting sandwich.

Tony didn't respond. He was still steaming and aching from the accident.

No, he wasn't mad at Pepper, merely a case of a wounded pride. He had to stop sneaking up on people.

Showering and dressed quickly, he made his appearance exactly nine minutes later. Pepper had on the same blouse and hair ribbon, blue jean shorts and white flip-flops. It was a nice outfit, a drastic change from her usual formal outfits.

But he liked it immensely.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Clutching the handle of her purse, she did her usual lip biting and gnawing act. It was sexy.

"Yeah, yeah." He shrugged. Smoothly he swept the picnic basket off the table and wrapped his arm around Pepper's small shoulders.

"Surprise!" he cried. "Let's skip the sandwiches. I got dessert!"

"That's not good for you, you need protein," Pepper pouted.

"Thanks, Miss Potts, but I'm old enough to decide what I want to eat,"

"So am I," Pepper quipped, sliding a protein bar out of a drawer. "I'll eat this on the way."

"Sure…okay," Tony shrugged. "Lets go!" He guided her downstairs and gestured broadly to the convertible. "Ta-da!"

"The convertible? Tony, it's vintage. Not to be driven," Pepper resisted, nearly dropping her purse.

"No, I did some fine tuning, it'll be fine. Besides, you love the flame convertible," Tony gave her a little push in the small of her back. "Hop in."

"My clownfish blanket?" Pepper scooped the named object off the seat. "Did you go in my house for this?" Her tone was slightly delightedly surprised, half suspiciously offended. Very close to the Pepper Pitch.

"Technically, Happy did," Tony sniffed and rubbed his nose. He did that when he was nervous.

"You had no right…?" Pepper trailed off, obviously torn between anger and being flattered.

"Sure, sure, get in," Tony gave her another push. Pepper hugged the blanket closer.

"No, Tony, not "sure, sure", that could be considered an invasion of privacy," Pepper stuck out of lip but slid into the car. Tony pitched the basket into the back seat and jumped it.

"Cool, it, Potts, and I'll fill out a formal lawsuit against Happy later. He was the one who did it, of course," Tony turned the key in the car. Pepper narrowed her eyes at him. The car sputtered. Tony turned the key again. It sputtered again in protest.

"See, Tony, we shouldn't drive this car," Pepper reached for the door handle.

"Stuff it," Tony said, beginning to get peeved.

"Excuse me?" Pepper turned and perched her hands on her hips. She said something else, but it was drowned out by the sound of the roar and purr of the engine. Tony mustered a pseudo smile and floored the gas.

"Tony! DRIVE SAFE!" Pepper yelled, practically biting her lips off.

How she could nibble and chew at her lips continually and them be so perfect was a mystery.

A heavy silence hung in the air except for the whir of the engine and the revving of the car and the tires on the road. And other cars and various sounds, of course. Tony couldn't even look over and watch Pepper's golden strawberry hair being tousled gently by the playful air.

Tony braked and skidded to a stop on the beachfront. Reaching back, he grabbed the basket and slid out the dessert, the…uh…crispy cookies.

"Pepper, I'm sorry," Tony said.

"No, it's perfectly alright. Quite alright," Pepper rested her chin on her fist.

"No, it's not, I can tell its not, because you always use the word quite when you're mad,"

"What?" Pepper furrowed her brow. "You know, what, whatever. If you can't accept that I'm not mad then you can just…go…go…whatever." She snatched a cookie from his hand and almost bit into it. Almost.

"Did you incinerate these?" she frowned.

"I got sidetracked," he tried to smile. "You…uh…wanna swim?"

"In our clothes?"

"No, see…uh…" he chuckled and scratched the back of his head nervously. Now that she was obviously angry at Happy doing his bidding and snitching her clownfish blanket, she was have a conniption when she found out Happy had gone through her panty drawer to get her suit.

"Never mind. Not a good idea," he sighed. Then he brightened. "Are you hungry?"

"We have cookies," she said.

"No for…Italian food?"

"Italian food? Tony, it's 11am!"

"Sure, sure," Tony rubbed her fingers in his hair and felt his heart beat faster. "Damn it, lets skip to the end." He was horribly impatient and didn't realize to skip everything would ruin his whole plan.

"Where are we going?" she asked as he sped along the highway to the Disney concert hall. Tony pressed a finger to her lips.

"It's a surprise," he gave her a crooked grin.

"Oh, Tony, we can't go in here," Pepper said, obviously not catching on.

"Yes we can, they left it unlocked for me," Tony parked the car in a no parking zone and hopped out. Pepper decided to not say anything. It was his fault if his car got towed.

Tony grabbed Pepper's hand like a little boy dragging his mom along.

"C'mon, Pep!" he flung open the door and led her in.

"Turn on a light," Pepper protested. Tony felt along the wall and finally found the switch. A single yellow light lit up the middle of the dance floor. The rest must be electronically operated. But it didn't matter, it was pretty much all the light he needed.

"What are we doing here?" Pepper said, using her Pepper Pitch. Tony savored the moment.

"I'm doing this over," he pulled her under the light and slid his arm around her waist, and gripped her hand with his other.

"Tony? What are we…?" she said, then realized. "Dancing? Of all the…"

"Don't you remember?" Tony looked crestfallen.

"Yes, yes, of course," Pepper smiled. "But why?"

Tony stopped dancing. "Let's go to get some air."

Pepper nearly laughed.

"Remember?"

"Yes, I told you I did," Pepper nodded and cast down her eyes.

"I wanted to…" Tony leaned in to kiss Pepper, but she wasn't looking. He stood for several seconds, suspended above her head slightly, then finally pulled back. What an epic embarrassment.

"Uh, ahem, Pep?" Tony said. Pepper slowly looked up.

"I wanted to do this right, and say what I couldn't say before," he said, and Pepper felt her heart skip as he slid his hand along her neck, brushing the tickly red strands of hair away from her face. "Pepper Potts…I…I love you."

"Tony." Pepper looked upset.

"And…I know this is the right thing to do," Tony went on.

"Tony."

"Just let me finish. Please," he gulped in a deep breath. "I wanted to ask you…no…implore you….duh, no, uh, just…dammit." Tony slid down onto one knee and cracked the top of a velvet case, exposing a shiny diamond ring.

No. No. This was all wrong!

"Will you marry me?"

His voice echoed emptily in her ears.

"No, Tony, we're all wrong for each other," she whispered. Tony's face looked stricken.

"But that's what makes us so perfect for each other," he said, trying to keep the morale up.

"Tony, don't you understand what I'm saying? I can't,"

"Pepper," Tony's voice was almost inaudible, and he felt tears spring to his eyes.

"Don't do this to me. I can't. Tony! I can't!" In one motion, she swept the ring out of his hand. It clattered to the floor loudly. "I can't!" She repeating, and sobbing loudly, fled from the room.

Tony was stock still for at least ten minutes. Then he slid to the floor, tears dripping silently from his face. He hated himself. He had just lost everything that meant anything to him.

Maybe he did have an Iron Heart.

Maybe the End