Chapter 3:

On her second day on the job Pepper wanted to make sure Tony would show up for an early meeting, so she decided to visit his house for the first time. The day before Mary had told her that his home was the place where he preferred to work, and it is where she would probably spend most of her time. Therefore, Pepper drove herself to his address and stopped at the front gate. She didn't need to press any buttons when a British man spoke over the intercom.

"How can I help you?"

"I'm Virginia Potts. Mr. Stark's new Assistant," she told the intercom.

"Good morning Miss Potts. Welcome!" As soon as he spoke the gate opened and she drove in. From her car, she could see a heliport, further away something that looked like a tennis court, and finally at the end of the road she could see the main entrance.

And he lives in this place all by himself? she thought before stepping out of her car. Pepper wasn't sure how to proceed. She opened the door and looked around. Its interior was beautiful! Very well decorated, with a lot of fancy stuff, and the view! Breathtaking! It was early in the morning so the sun light and the ocean were making it impossible not to admire.

Wow! With this view, I can understand why he decided to live here! - She admired it for a few more seconds before deciding to turn on her professional mode.

Okay, time to find the man or at least someone in this house.

She looked around and didn't see any signs of anyone.

Where is the person that spoke with me though the intercom?

"Hello? Mr. Stark?" Pepper called out. She was very surprised when a voice came out of nowhere to answer her.

"Mr. Stark is currently in the kitchen".

"What the-", she whispered, scared. Okay where is this guy? She thought, looking around.

"My apologies, I didn't mean to scare you".

A laugh coming from behind her called her attention.

"Did JARVIS scare you?" There he was, still in his sweatpants and a wife beater, Tony Stark seemed like he had just got out of bed.

"Where is he?" she questioned, very curious.

"Everywhere. JARVIS is a computer that runs my house," he said, as if it was the most common thing in the world.

"A computer?!"

No way?! That didn't sound like a computer. Sounds like a man!

"Aham, I created him to help me out here."

"If that's the case sir, you should listen to me more often," answered JARVIS.

"Don't mind him. I'm trying to make some coffee, do you want it?" Before she could answer, he was already out of sight. She followed him to the kitchen and the vision was horrible! Like he had a food war! There was milk spilled, bread on the ground, eggs literally everywhere and the blender – at least that's what she thought it was – was covered with a pink material that Pepper couldn't figure it out what it was.

Tony didn't seem to mind it and kept trying to cook bacon.

"What happened here?" she had to ask.

"Told you. Doing breakfast." For his tone, she could see that this creepy scenario was kind of normal for him.

"Mr. Stark is not very good at cooking".

"Shut up JARVIS. This time… will work out!"

"Yes Sir,because the 15thtime is the charm!"

Pepper couldn't suppress a laugh at the computer sarcasm. Really?! Trust Tony Stark to create a computer that can do that.

"Shit." Pepper heard him murmur.

"Did you just burn yourself?"

"Yeah," he confirmed while throwing water on his skin.

This is pathetic! Pepper thought amused. A world genius is incapable of cooking his own breakfast.

"Here, let me do this for you." She took the pan and lowered the fire. "You can't do this with the fire too high."

"I wanted it to go faster."

"Well… Didn't really work did it?"

"I guess…" she heard him mutter.

"Give me some plates." Tony obeyed and Pepper put the bacon upon it and gave it to him to eat.

"Who is going to clean this?" And she heard him answer: "Dummy." Pepper decided to ignore that. "When you are finished you need to get yourself ready. You have a meeting in less than 2 hours."

"Pepper, it's not even 8am and you are already talking about this? I can think of much more interesting things for us to do in those 2 hours." He looked at her before and added: "Besides, those heels really look good on you, and I think we should take this time to appreciate them, what do you think?"

He tried to give her his best "Come-on-and-play-with-me" smile.

"First, that's why you pay me for and second, that can result a serious sexual harassment lawsuit for you so don't even try." She gave him a dry smile that only made his grow as if he didn't take her seriously.

After some arguing, Pepper did manage to get him to put on a suit. By the time he was dressed Happy had already arrived. They arrived at the meeting a couple minutes late but even so, everybody noticed Tony Stark almost on time, early in the morning and well dressed. Points for Pepper! She let herself be a little proud of herself.

-o-

Later that night Pepper arrived home and Richard was already there.

"Hey honey." She gave him a little kiss but Richard held her and made it deeper.

"Hey you!" he smiled at her. Pepper let her purse on the couch and sat to take her shoes off. "You came home late today!"

"Yeah I'm sorry… after I left Mr. Stark's house I had to pass S.I. to deliver some papers." She laid on the couch, closing her eyes. Boy I'm exhausted!

"Why… why were you at his house?"

"He likes to work there," Pepper explained. "So I need to be there too."

"Can't you do your work at your office?"

"No, I can't," she laughed. "I'm his assistant now! I need to be there for him," she told him as if she thought his idea was funny. Suddenly she opened her eyes and sat all excited. "Oh you're never going to believe what happened!"

Her voice made him curious so he sat in front of her to listen.

"Can you believe that Tony Stark has a sarcastic computer?"

"What?!"

"I know right?!" Pepper told him everything. Her arrival at his house, how she thought she was speaking with a butler, the responses that JARVIS gave to Stark, and, of course, the mess in the kitchen.

"I mean really… what a day!"

"You seem to have fun." He was happy to see her excited!

"I am. Yes. At least today was really fun."

"Are you going to get home later than usual?" She heard the worry in his voice.

"I don't know… sorry!"

"It's okay… I'm just used to you getting home and you are already here!" he reassured her with a smile.

"Thank you." Pepper got up. "I'm going take a shower and go to bed… Tomorrow I need to be there early... I thought that on my way I could bring him some breakfast."

"Ginny… that's not your job!" he said intrigued.

"Did you hear what I just told you? The man is incapable in the kitchen. One day he would probably set himself on fire instead of the stove. Besides, what's the problem? On my way there are tons of cafeterias… it's no trouble at all."

Pepper didn't wait for him to respond and went inside to relax. She needed to get used to the long days especially if every day was going to be like this one. She really needed to get used to her new routine.

-o-

Next morning Pepper went to a cafeteria next to his house and bought him some breakfast. As soon as she finished setting the table, he arrived wearing jeans and an old band t-shirt.

"What are you still doing here?" he asked, confused.

"Brought you breakfast."

"Breakfast?!" he reacted, surprised.

"The meal that you usually eat in the morning sir. It's 7:30am," responded JARVIS.

"It's morning?" he said, looking at the windows confused. "Why didn't you tell me that?!" Tony asked, looking at the ceiling.

"I tried to warn you through the night sir, but you put me on 'mute'."

"Did you spend the night up?!" Pepper interrupted their interaction. "I told you, you had important meetings today."

"I was working on a new prototype for the army," he said, taking the food she had bought for breakfast and eating it. His behavior suggested to Pepper that this whole 'spending the night awake working' thing was not uncommon.

"Didn't realize the time," he concluded. Tony took some pancakes and a juice and start walking to his room. Before leaving the kitchen completely he shouted: "I really need to get some sleep. Cancel the meetings."

Pepper couldn't argue with him. He did look awful.

"Okay," she murmured to herself. "So this is going to be a morning canceling and rescheduling things?"

"I'm sorry Miss Potts," said JARVIS. "I did try to warn him".

"It's okay JARVIS. Thank you," Pepper replied, still feeling a little awkward in talking to the ceiling.

She spent the morning rescheduling his meetings, and by the afternoon Mary called and asked her to pick up some projects that Stane had left for Tony to look at. So Pepper left the mansion to pick up the files. On her way back, she bought some lunch thinking that Tony might be awake by now.

Back in the mansion, everything was just the way she left, except for a noise coming from the gym.

She went to see what it was, when she heard Tony's voice:

"Come on. I let you win that game but not this one."

"You can do better than that!"

"I'm sorry, am I been too awesome for you? You can move faster than that…"

"Come on! Give me a challenge!"

Pepper was able to listen to Tony's voice but she wasn't able to listen to the person he was talking to. As she approached the Squash court, Pepper saw through the glass wall her boss with a racket on his hand and this… thing. This robot arm was also holding a racket and was trying to keep up with Tony.

This man is surrounded by robots! She thought, although she was amazed to see the robot movements.

This shouldn't surprise me! He was an AI! A sarcastic one!

Tony was playing running around the robot as if he was trying to confuse the poor thing even more.

"Come on! You can do at least one point! I told you, I'm not going to let you-"

He didn't have time to finish, when he was running behind the robot, it tried to hit the ball at the same time that Tony was passing behind it. Its arm with the racket, hit Tony on his chest and he hit the ground.

"Mr. Stark!" Pepper yelled. She entered the court and the robot was looking down at him making a mechanical whine as if it was trying to apologize.

"Yeah I'm okay." Tony told her, still lying on the floor. Then he looked at the robot.

"You are a tragedy! You don't know how to lose a game!"

And the robot made a movement that Pepper could have sworn was similar to a kid looking down for having disappointed the parents.

"Ah.. This one..?" asked Pepper when she couldn't contain her curiosity.

When Tony was on his feet again he answered. "This is Dum-E." Tony pointed at him and the robot looked up at Pepper.

"He can understand what we say..?"

The robot nodded at the same time that Tony replied with a "Yes", pressing a hand on his chest where Dum-E had hit him.

Pepper was in silence for a moment, trying to process everything. It's not every day that you see this! She looked at Tony who seemed to be trying to hide his pain.

"Come on. I bought you lunch and we need to take a look at that."

Tony gave her a suggestive smile.

"Are you trying to get my clothes off, Miss Potts?" When she didn't answer, he continued. "Because, you don't need an excuse for that… if you want we can go upstairs and -"

"Keep dreaming! I just don't want my boss to die when I haven't even made a month in this job yet!" For some reason that was beyond Pepper's comprehension, he seemed to be fascinated every time she turned him down.

After another busy day at work Pepper arrived home a little later than usual. Richard was already ready to go to bed.

"Hey! You're late!" He greeted her with a little smile.

"Sorry crazy day!"

"Hum."

Pepper told him about her day. He wasn't very much excited as he was yesterday and Pepper figured that he might have had a long day too, but even so, he was still asking questions, especially about Tony's bots.

Pepper imagined that her getting home later than usual probably annoyed him a little. Since they started living together, and before they moved to LA, she had only arrived at home later than him when she was in college and had classes at night. Ever since Pepper started to work, she usually arrived earlier than Richard. So by the time he came home, Pepper was making dinner or had it ready.

It was her third day as Tony Stark's PA and again she suggested that they have a takeaway. She knew he didn't like it very much as every time they used that option or they ate out he always said that her food tasted better. But honestly, Pepper was exhausted! All she wanted today was to take her high heels off, have a shower, and put her pajamas on.

She gave him an apologetic look. He didn't want me working at S.I to begin with… and these last days have been hard on him. We've barely seen each other. I hope that when this adaptation period passes we can have more time for each other. Besides… one year goes fast, right?!

"Sorry honey," she whispered to him holding him close and pulling him in for a kiss. "Sorry to be so busy these days."

He gave her a simple smile. "Don't worry… I understand."

Pepper hugged him harder.

I hope you do!