See aside from the crazy da Vinci code gardenia, things were pretty much back to normal. Well, as normal as it could be in the cave.
I tinkered at the table with my fork/wrench. Isabella cooked, and gardened the pathetic little patch we had. We both did whatever cleaning there was, and there wasn't much.
Aside from that we talked a lot, drew calendars on the walk, had heart to hearts, talk about the future, talk about the past, and talk about absolutely everything and nothing.
There wasn't a whole lot to do in our cave.
Since Loki brought us a deck of cards we'd play. Well, kind of, Isabella would get really excited and competitive and then cheat half of the thing and be very clear that she didn't care that she was cheating because she wanted to win.

So we weren't going to gamble much when we went to Vegas. Isabella just didn't have a poker face.

And finally we got to the kissing stage of the relationship. Nothing too big or passionate, nice close mouthed pecks.

But her lips were so soft and a cute plum pink, that the pecks were amazing. Everything she did was amazing.
We held hands, and her hands were nice and soft and tiny, and never really got clammy because of how cold it was down in this cave.
I take it back Isabella was perfect. Pepper had been demanding, harsh, strong willed, and took complete control of things. Including our relationship.
Isabella while also demanding and strong willed, was a hippie with love. She just let things flow, and she was just so sweet with things. We truly were copilots on our plane of love.

Everything she did in the relationship made sense. She knew nothing about how to be with another partner, and she didn't pretend she did. Pepper was always telling me how I should be, making me do things that I hated. She wanted me to be more open, and tried to force me open when I'd close up more.

Isabella was good at getting me open while not prying. Mostly because I had to do the same thing with her. Soft words, gentle hands, Nothing that would even suggest being intrusive in any way. All the times I'd had to hold her as she sobbed into my chest giving her the heart breaking promise that I wouldn't ever leave her abandoned. All alone to fend for herself. She had abandonment and neglect issues almost as bad as mine.
When I had my issues she was so kind, and so sweet, making sure I was okay. Not forcing me to make myself okay, but helping me get up in the first place. Reassuring that regardless of whatever my Father, Rogers, Pepper, or what anyone else said or did I was a good person.
A hero even.

And that I was doing more than enough to improve the world, making it better, no matter what they said. That yes I was once the merchant of death, and he did kind of being on ultron, but the others had done things just as bad or arguably worse and hadn't paid for it.
I had taken the guilt and the blame, started the accords to take responsibility for the wounds.
No matter Saul became Paul. I'd never actually read the bible before but Isabella had so I knew that reference well enough.

I knew that the habits I had before the cave, and before afganistan would most likely never return. I'd stopped being a playboy, really, after the Ten Rings took me and put me in there own cave. I could have as many partys and drinks as I wanted but, my bed was a one person extravaganza after everything that had happened. Iron man, the PTSD, and the arc reactor made being it anything but romantic. Honestly Pepper tried, but didn't really have the listening capability that I have. I needed a set of ears, and advice that came from listening.

Suddenly I went from expecting nothing out of the people who slept next to me, to a partner to sleep next to me. Isabella was that, she had never slept around before, never really actually had any grown up romantic interactions ever. She would have never become, what I became and I feel likes thats a big part of this. Also, she made it very clear that we both have some of the same issues. She didn't scream in her sleep anymore, but panic attacks were still very real in both of our lives.

The boy that had left her when she was so young, so vunerable, would pay once I finally got to set eyes on him and his icy set of parents. Some days I still had to hold her together so that she wouldn't fall asleep. It was no surprise that she kept expecting our relationship to break apart and sink like the Titanic. We had her parents divorce to thank for that. Just like some days neither of us ended up going to sleep because the nightmares were getting so bad. Yep, we both still had plenty of things to work through but unlike with Pepper, we both knew that neither of us were perfect.

It was clear too, she had no makeup though I doubt she wore any before so when she broke out which did happen I knew about it, and didn't care. I had a beard now, an actual paul bunyan beard. It was the most wild I'd ever gone before. We couldn't really shave that much, because we had a knife for 'shaving' it couldn't actually get that close to the skin without risking damage. So whenever we lifted up our arms it was Tarzan all over again, and we were totally used to it.

There were probably plenty of habits that I don't know that she has and plenty that I had that hadn't ever shown around her because hello we were in a cave with a still limited amount of supplies. We were okay with it though, and all the weird quirks that popped out under the ground where we were, we were both okay with.

Not to mention the fact that we were in a well established relationship at this point. The nerves weren't as high as a kite as they had been when we first admitted our romantic feelings for each other. We were comfortable with each other, things just moved smoothly. There was the occasional jerk in the roller coaster but that was okay, neither of us had any intention of getting off anytime in the see able and unforeseeable future.
I did get a few bits and pieces of that boyfriend and his family. Pieces that I scrambled to my chest like food to a starving men. And they were interesting.

All my Adams family and Buffy jokes were getting a bit creepy, mostly because Isabella told me that the family was really pale and never really ate much. And that there was a hospital record from when she lived with her father, that they had completely lied about, and that the sister and former creepy best friend had made evidence to support the lies.
Anyway, Isabella obviously wasn't going to tell me much more about that topic. I was on the hint that they may have been a bit more than human, but I'd definitely be looking into some of the files from that town.

Honestly that family just got creepier and creepier with the stuff that seeped through Isabella's filter.

I didn't care about that part other than that they'd been a big part of hurting Isabella. I still loved her just as much. So maybe a part of my instinct was telling me that they might have resembled steroid freaks without all the steroids. Isabella didn't feel okay telling me things, and that was okay. Plus if my hunch was correct, then that was okay. I would just find out myself and move on.
Honestly I'm pretty positive that Pepper had cheated on me at least once or twice during our relationship. I wasn't with her anymore. I was with Isabella, and it was perfect.

Isabella who wouldn't stop carving at the wall, and cheating when we played literally any card game, and couldn't lie about anything without her ears turning red from trying so hard.

Loki was over the moon about us being together. We had told him to tell everyone outside that we were together, so it wouldn't surprise anyone. There were certain things I didn't want Isabella to experience, or at least watered down experiences. Everyone, and I mean Everyone being shocked and surprised and hurt or angry at us being together was not one of them.
Also I never wanted her to ever meet Steve Rogers. We both agreed on that part.
Loki kept bringing the vials of potion every month, but recently it went from one to two. One was to keep her healthy enough to keep menstruating at a healthy normal rate, the other was to make sure that she was still healthy enough that when she wanted to have kids the condition of the rest of her body wouldn't change that. The best part was that she told me herself.
Loki had explained to me that aside from that, the second potion was literally healing all the shrapnel and damage left of it. After that, the arc reactor would just kind of slowly dissolve, go through Isabella's system, and be no more. I knew that because I let Loki bring me the same potion. Only it wouldn't affect the arc reactor, only the shrapnel by my heart and make sure I was healthy. I didn't want to throw away the one part of Yinsen I had left. Isabella got that too, and was literally the most chill person in the while universe and realms with how she took everything.

So I was happy, and the things were setting into place. None of us knew it, but puzzles were fitting together nicely, all put together neatly into something strange and beautiful.