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apps: Interesting plot...you should proceed with story...wanna see more developments – YAY! How you doing, apps? Here's another fluffy chapter. Hope you enjoy it, too!

Chapter 1

"So then, in theory, the gravitational pull of the two colliding galaxies causes…"

She had no idea in what language Tony was speaking to her right now, but it certainly was not English. Actually, that was a lie. She did know what language it was, but knowing, in this case, was not really half the battle: it was Nerd. He was speaking Nerd. Nerd tongue. Nerd language. Nerd code. Whatever it was called, it was one dialect that she was not fluent in at all – a weakness of hers that hit a sore spot.

"Dr. Reed Richards thinks that this theory proves…"

That I can sleep with my eyes open, the redhead wanted to say, but she held back her tongue. Her boyfriend was way too enthralled in whatever he was conveying to her – so much so that he had not realized that she, Pepper Chatterbox Potts, had not said a word the entire time they had been hanging out here on the roof during their free period as of now. They still had less than half of the period to go, but Tony showed no signs of slowing down his enthusiastic recap of the voluntary attendance astrophysics conference the Tomorrow Academy had hosted this morning during science class. She had obviously stayed behind, preferring to try to follow Professor Klein's lecture in class. But Tony Stark had been the first one out the door when his science hero had been exposed to be the keynote speaker of it.

"I mean, the implications of it are beyond what we know today, Pep. Can you imagine if we could harness that type of energy? If we could replicate the process in a particle accelerator, we could…"

Die of boredom, her mind replied for her, but she just continued to nod and smile. Normally, it was her who talked and talked and talked about stuff she knew Tony had no interested in listening to. It was only fair, in this amazing and cherished relationship of theirs, that she did the same for him, for once.

Besides, it was not all bad listening to Tony Stark babbling about black holes, colliding galaxies, and whatever other words that related to outer space and the universe in general that he kept using, as if she knew what they meant. Even in his high-on-science moment, he was still being admirably attentive to her; if not with his words, with his posture and hand.

His head was resting on her lap while she sat on the ground, her legs bent towards her right so that he had a comfortable place to use as a makeshift pillow. He was on his back, his wide and bright eyes staring at the clear skies. His left hand kept gesturing with every word spoken, but his right hand held on to hers on his stomach, softly caressing it and randomly squeezing it when he got too excited about a particular recount of the conference. All in all, it was an even tradeoff, in her eyes: he got to talk about science nonstop, and she got to feel his warm body against hers.

Her left hand, which yesterday he had given the task of massaging the back of his neck and scalp during make out sessions, had just now started to scratch the top of his head. Tony's hair naturally spiked without the need of product on it, so her fingers enjoyed the tingling sensation of his soft hair between them. Many times in the past, almost as soon as she had realized how infatuated she had become with the inventor, she had fantasized about doing just this: having Tony Stark all for herself, spending alone time with him, while combing his dark brown hair with her hands.

And today, for the first time ever, one of her deepest desires had come to life.

What should she try to attain next?

Being able to run her hands down his slick bare chest, back, and well-defined stomach while watching him work on the armor at the lab? Cuddle with him while watching Breakdancing with Celebrities at her place? Shower his face with butterfly kisses between classes? Tell him to his face that not only did she really care for him, but that she loved him more than words could describe?

Oh, yeah. There was that. Perhaps even more important than everything else she had listed prior to it. He still did not know that she was more than just head over heels for him. He was still very unaware that she actually loved him very much, even if she had never ever been in love before in her entire life. It was completely unknown to him that, even if she could not follow his passionate talks about science and tech, that she still very much adored every part of him – and that she hoped that he did, as well.

Then again, he had not expressed the L-word to her either, and she surely was not going to screw it all up by saying it too early or way in advance.

Pepper inwardly sighed. So many things to do. So little time.

Her musings were interrupted by the sound of the access door to the roof suddenly opening. She raised her gaze towards it to see Rhodey cautiously walking towards them, a paper bag and a drink tray with the logo of Belly Buster Burgers under his arm. Their friend did not share a free period with them, which meant that his presence here was a sign that lunch time had finally arrived.

Had she really been listening to Tony talk about science nonsense for an hour? And she had made it through it without giving away how she felt about her inability to understand him? Who would have thought that the boy could go on and on about a simple one-hour conference, much in the same fashion he would often make fun of her for executing over the most trivial of things?

Well, it appeared that they had more in common that she had noticed thus far. That had to be a plus for them, right?

Rhodey silently sat to her right on the ground, took out a wrapped burger from the bag, and then handed it to the redhead.

"Has he been asleep all this time?"

"What?" Pepper's head recoiled, her eyes lowering to watch Tony only after Rhodey pointed towards him with his free hand.

"What the–"

He was asleep. Tony Stark was asleep; snoring and all. He was, in fact, completely passed out. At some point during the conversation that she had not been following at all, he had turned to his right side, leaving his face aimed towards her stomach, and his right hand resting on her lap. His left arm was lazily snaked around her waist, as if her body was one giant head rest to him.

When did he…?

Her look of confusion told Rhodey she had probably been tuning him out all this time. He could not blame her for it either – he knew how chatty Tony could become when talking about science or technology; or both at the same time. And, in addition to that, Rhodey knew how Pepper felt about Tony doing just that.

"Didn't realize he fell asleep, did ya?" Rhodey jested after taking a bite of his burger.

"No," Pepper whispered and rearranged his hair that she had displaced with her fingertips. "Didn't think he was tired at all."

"He went on a mission last night, remember?" Rhodey pointed out and she frowned.

"Oh, yeah. I can't believe he didn't tell us about it until it was done."

"It was an easy mission," Rhodey shrugged. "You know how he is. He won't bother us if he thinks he can handle things. You know he was already good at being Iron Man before we got really involved. And now, with Extremis and all…"

"Yeah, I know. Now he's even smarter and faster than before. But still," Pepper began unwrapping her burger, "I hate it when he does things like that."

Rhodey smiled knowingly at his auburn-haired friend, opting not to question the origin of her obvious wariness. Even after proving time and time again that he could take care of himself, and that Extremis had only made him stronger and more resilient than ever, Pepper still worried about the genius billionaire – it had taken her weeks not to be woken up in the middle of the night by the image of his falling form from the alien spaceship. In reality, whether he admitted it out loud or not, so did Rhodey. But he knew that whatever worries he had for the safety and wellbeing of Tony while on patrol on his own, Pepper felt them twenty times more than he did.

The redhead took another small bite of her burger, chewed it a few times, stared at her slumbering boyfriend for one second, and then her shoulders slumped. She slowly finished the bite in her mouth, wrapped the half-eaten burger, and then sighed in obvious disenchantment.

"What's up?" Rhodey stared at her from the corner of his eye. "Got the order wrong?"

"No," she shook her head. "I… It's… I mean… Never mind."

Rhodey arched a single eyebrow, turned his head to face her, and Pepper exhaled in response.

"He was talking about science, about the conference from this morning," she said as she returned the burger to the bag, her hunger suddenly leaving her. "He was so happy about it, Rhodey. But I couldn't follow a word of what he said. I just hope he didn't fall asleep waiting for me to comment. I… I don't even know what I would've said."

Rhodey did not reply to her comment, knowing where the conversation was heading – yet again. He and Pepper had had this conversation before; several times in the past few weeks, in fact, and he was running out of things to say to convince the ginger that there was nothing wrong with not being able to be at Tony Stark's level of intelligence or of his science know-how. He had been around the genius since he could remember, and he had long ago learned that he did not need to speak the same language as Tony for his input to be of interest to the blue-eyed young man.

"Maybe I should study more," Pepper scratched the side of her head. "Or read more science books. Or, at the very least, read what he writes about the suits. I… I feel so stupid when he tells me something that he's really excited about and that I don't understand."

"It was never a problem before, Pepper. Why are you so focused on it now?"

"Because now we're going out!" she said between gritted teeth to keep her frustrated voice from waking him up. "And, you know, it's been great and all, but… but once all the new stuff becomes, you know, normal, and after we go to college… well… I… he could… and then I… and I'll never be able to…"

She was unable to finish her sentence with words, but her long-winded sigh said it all.

"I think you're thinking too much and worrying too much over nothing, Pepper," Rhodey stood up from the ground and patted his jeans clean of dust. "Tony's not going out with you because he expects you to be able to recite the periodic table at gunpoint."

"Yeah, I know," Pepper sighed again. "But, you know, he actually memorized the names of the contestants of Breakdancing with Celebrities so that he could follow along when we watch the show."

"So?"

"So, maybe I should do the same for him? I… I'll never be able to talk quantum physics with him. But… but I should at least make the effort to learn more about what he loves so much about science. I should… I should at least try to–"

"Pepper," Rhodey leaned down and placed a hand on her left shoulder. "Tony likes you just as you are. Which is weird in and of itself, if you ask me," he said in an obvious joking tone, "But to each his own, right?"

"Right," Pepper replied, but it was obvious in her voice and her deflated stance that she was still unconvinced. "I-I guess you're right."

"Stop stressing about it. And eat your food."

"Yeah," she gave him a small smile and patted his hand on her shoulder. "I will. And thanks, Rhodey."

"No problem, Pepper."

Rhodey gave Pepper's shoulder one last comforting squeeze before turning around and leaving the roof. He had to stop by his locker to pick up his books before going to his next class, anyway, and he figured that Pepper needed some time to think. Plus, the moment Tony woke up, and after he practically inhaled his lunch, the couple would probably want some privacy before returning to class. He did not want to be there for it, either; he knew exactly what the duo would do when alone, if given the time.

Pepper watched her friend vacate the roof and close the door behind him, leaving her to sigh and pout again, wondering what to do about her predicament now. She could not ask Tony to repeat everything he had told her just moments ago, but she could perhaps ask other people who had been at the conference about what had been said. Maybe she could sneak in some tutoring time with Professor Klein after school and ask him to explain what the lecture had been about. And, if all else failed, maybe she could stalk Dr. Richards himself and beg for some of his time.

Or maybe, she was blowing this out of proportion.

Or maybe, she was not.

Maybe Rhodey was wrong. Maybe her fears were justified. Maybe, once the magic of making out was gone, Tony would realize that Pepper brought nothing of intellect to his life. What if he grew tired of her inability to appreciate his love of and obsession with science? What if he found her boring once they went to college and he met other girls that actually knew the difference between the atomic mass and the atomic number of an element? God, she hated Chemistry! And that was the easiest of the sciences! What could she hope to understand about physics? Or space physics?

"There's no way around it," she whispered to herself. "I have to learn science. I just have to learn how to understand it."

"No, you don't," his unexpected whispered response made her physically flinch. Her eyes then immediately looked down to his form to watch him readjust his position on her lap, see his arms surround her waist, and then feel his grip on her tighten up.

"You don't have to learn anything," he continued, his eyes still closed. "I like you like that, Pep… just the way you are."

She bit down on her bottom lip when she felt the rush of blood to her face. She was lucky that he fell asleep again almost right away, and that he was nowhere near her chest at the moment, lest he would have felt, first-hand, the huge effect his words had had on her heart.