"Come on! It's Christmas!" Tony whined, flashing a charismatic, 500-watt smile at his assistant.
"Mr. Stark, I don't think it'd be very appropriate behaviour." Pepper replied seriously, not even glancing up from the clipboard in her hand which she had initially sought out Tony for so he could sign off on some initial design plans for an upgraded military tank.
"Not happening," Pepper replied and Tony made a face, annoyed with Pepper's rejection. He crossed the door threshold into his office and held out his hand for the clipboard. Seconds later, his messy signature filled the necessary lines which annoyed Pepper because it was made clear her boss didn't particularly know or care what he was signing off on and the impacts of his weaponry in the marketplace. Nevertheless, she brushed the carelessness aside and asked if he needed anything else from her before heading back to her desk.
"Yeah, my flight for later today is being delayed due to some snowstorm, I'm going to need you to look into that."
"Look into what? The weather?" Pepper said, regretting she offered in to do more in the first place.
"No," He replied condescendingly, "I need you to call whoever made the decision to delay my plan cause I need to be in the sky and headed back to Florida tonight and on time."
"Tony, there's a blizzard going on, you can't just put it on hold cause you've got some woman waiting for you."
"Ha ha, very funny. I don't have 'some woman', I just would like to be there, I've got business to take care of."
"Fine, I'll make some calls."
As the day passed, the sky darkened and snow began to blow around the buildings of New York City as if the entire area had been upturned in a child's snowglobe. Meanwhile, high in the sky, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, a flight attendant and a pilot were breaking through those very storm clouds in a small plane with a thin outer shell and a healthy dose of fear that came from the wind howling around them and the plane's rocky flight. Pepper was strapped to a seat across from Tony who reflected a similar look of terror.
About a half hour through the trip (which consisted of about half the miles normally traversed due to the high winds which continuously knocked the plane of course) the pilot used the intercom and practically pleaded with Tony to allow him to land the plane and to Pepper's relief, he agreed and soon the plane descended in the field of a small town on the border of New York and Pennsylvania. Tony and Pepper considered leaving the plane in search of better shelter but with the blizzard making it nearly impossible to see (and therefore extremely easy to get lost), they decided to stay in the plane. The plane was fully equipped with two large generators, food, and coffee and being landed, though the blizzard could still be felt as an occasional gust would rock the plane, it for the most part was stable.
"What?" Tony asked, realizing Pepper was glaring at him.
"What do you mean what?" Pepper replied, anger seething beneath her cool tone.
"Why are you upset with me? I set the plane down, didn't I?"
"Oh yes," Pepper replied sarcastically. "You're the big hero! Let's throw a party...oh wait," she hit her head with her palm, "we are trapped and it's Christmas Eve!" Tony didn't really know how to respond to this. He had never seen Pepper so upset and he actually liked it much better than some of his other workers who tended to fall over him whenever he was present. Other workers who he knew he pissed off constantly and yet no one wanted to be the one to correct him, or at least attempt to. Pepper glared yet again at Tony, expecting an apology and he realized the situation did look grim. While deep in thought, Pepper took his silence as haughtiness and continued. "You know what, you can't just do whatever you want and don't give me the line that you can because you're rich because you can't and honestly, I've been with this company for nearly two years now and you don't seem to care that I have a family that maybe I wanted to celebrate with and had to tell no to when you forced me to fly to New York. You probably don't even know my name-"
"Pepper," Tony interjected assuredly. "Pepper Potts. I do in fact know your name."
"That means nothing." She replied flustered.
"And I don't think I can do whatever I want because I'm rich."
"Well, it sure as hell seems like it."
"Listen, I'm sorry for getting you into this situation. If you wanted to be with your family you could have just told me no, I would have found someone else."
"Yeah, someone else who knows the kind of coffee you like, triple shot of espresso made from medium roasted Colombian grounds, with a disgusting amount of sugar in it. Or that you like glazed krispy kreme's or that the outside of your eyes squint slightly when you're trying to hide how much you care about something…" Pepper trailed off realizing she had said more than necessary and instantly regretting it. She looked away but Tony caught a hint of a blush crawling up her collarbone, her hand came up to her check in an attempt to conceal the red.
Tony, appearing intrigued, pressed further. "Anything else?"
"Oh gosh." Pepper rolled her eyes but faced him again in a more playful mood. "I mean, you have a few different smiles. The one for the cameras that plaster your smile on magazines and billboards, but then one you reserve for when you're really proud of your inventions. You also have one for one something that intrigues you, a puzzle you can't quite figure out but you're amused in trying. It's kind of like the one you're giving me right now." Pepper gave a forced chuckle, hoping to expel the awkward tension that seemed to be filling the plane.
"Oh, well I'm just trying to figure out how you could possibly know all this stuff."
"I've been your assistant for a while now and if you don't remember, I'm the one who gets your dry cleaning, schedules appointments, picks out your ties occasionally, and pretty much everything else that keeps your life running smoothly." Pepper gave him a fake smile of her own as if all those chores were the highlight of a lifetime.
"Well, I guess I have some catching up to do."
"What do you mean?"
"I'd say I know you pretty well, but why don't you tell me if it's good enough since you seem in a judgemental mood."
"Tony, you've proven to me you know my name which I realize now is on the name tag I have pinned to my suit so it's still questionable. I highly doubt you know anything else."
"Well, I know your actual name is Virginia and you have a business administrator's degree and prefer herbal tea to coffee." Tony spouted off these facts quickly as if he had been saving them up for just the occasion. "You're also pretty good at karaoke and have a pretty believable british accent." Tony added with an I told you so glimmer in his eyes. Pepper blushed again, a bit shocked that Tony Stark apparently was paying attention to her.
"I'm not even going to ask how you know about all that."
"Well, Virginia was in your file and I remember you trying to correct me a few times but decided to let me just keep calling you Pepper and same with the degree, it was in your file plus I've asked you if your qualified for your job (sarcastically of course) and you've told me several times you are."
"Okay, well all that I guess, but what about the british accent and karaoke thing?"
"It must have been last year's Christmas party, you got up, I'm pretty sure a bit drunk, and sang a hearty rendition of "All I Want for Christmas Is You" before throwing up and leaving the party." At this, Pepper cringed, remembering very little of that night. Wishing to change the subject, she began, "How about we talk about something else. I don't think I want to hear anymore embarrassing stories."
"You're not even the least bit curious about the accent?"
"Does it involve me making a fool of myself, cause I'd rather not discuss it with my boss." At the mention of 'boss', Pepper realized where she was and who she was talking to. Only, she didn't quite know the man in front of her. She thought she did. Playboy billionaire genius who liked to look and be looked at. But the man sitting across from her had more to him than an act. Atop of being all of what she believed, she found him to be more caring. She knew he cared about his inventions and liked figuring out problems, but it never occurred to Pepper that he might actually see her as more than just his personal assistant and for half a second she actually liked it. Realizing she had been staring at him and him right back at her for a beat longer than was necessary she cleared her throat.
"I'm going to take that as a yes." Pepper replied, remembering her original comment.
"Okay, maybe it does but it's not that embarrassing." Pepper sighed and Tony took this as a confirmation that he should proceed. "When you first got the job I was curious about you so I did some research, basically I google you and this video popped up from what had to be at least 10 years ago made with what appeared to be a shaky camcorder. I don't know how it made it to youtube but someone posted a full length version of Romeo and Juliet performed by highschoolers." Tony paused and Pepper experienced several emotions at a rapid pace she could barely register them all. First confusion, then surprise, then horror.
"Okay, I get it. I think the first thing I'll be doing when I'm back home is track down the person who uploaded that video."
"Alright, Juliet." Pepper cringed.
"Oh gosh, is that going to be like a thing now?" Tony seemed to think about it, putting his hand under his chin, unlike Pepper, he was a poor actor but she still smiled at the bit.
Tony, noticing her playful smile, leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and face fairly close to her own and said mischievously, "Quote a line from Romeo and Juliet in your British accent and I'll drop it." Pepper thought about it and considered acting like she couldn't remember the lines, but in truth she could recall most of them pretty accurately. Her memory was nearly photographic and performing Shakespeare takes a lot of focus, concentration, and memorization which she could not forget easily, even if it was at least a decade ago. Instead, she leaned in closer until her nose was nearly touching Tony's.
"My love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have." She found herself whispering slowly, not even processing the words leaving her lips and to her delight, she realized Tony was equally focused on her. Her rational senses overcame her and she closed the gap, kissing him softly. At first he seemed surprised at her boldness, but he did not resist and soon his own mouth was moving in sync with hers. She took in the clean smell of after shave and a hint of the Creed Aventus cologne available in several bottles in his office, car, and home. Her heart seemed to skip a beat when she realized how long she had wanted to do this. How many times she had wondered what it'd be like to have Tony Stark all to herself. Not the Tony Stark the world had, but the one she thought she could sense under his thick outer skin and was pleasantly surprised to find she was right. Soon, too soon, she felt his hand reach up to support her head and his cold fingers dragged back into reality and she pulled away a second later, realizing there were a lot of things wrong with the situation. They both were still face-to-face, for a second they each were silent. Pepper could hear her heart's loud thumping betray her.
"I'm sorry Mr. Stark. That was pretty stupid."
"It's cute on you." He replied before tilting her head back and kissing her again. This time she didn't pull away.
(credits to post/25433110318/what-would-the-avengers-eat-tony-stark-aka-iron#:~:text=He's%20not%20particular%20to%20any,amount%20of%20sugar%20in%20it. For tony stark's coffee order, zee and caro for other small details 3)