Guest Review Responses

Kylie: I'm like done .HOLY SHIT that was just amazing your killing me with these cliff hangers ! You have to update sooner tho I'm not kidding I check every day ! But anyways, I can't wait to see what happens a soooo STEAMY haha. – No! Please, don't die of cliffhangeritis! The story still has sooooo much to give! ;) And yes: I made up that word. It's a thing now XD

A/N: I take it by the lack of input that the last chapter wasn't very well liked? I was so excited about it because… well… it was a VERY important chapter. Is it a silent recommendation for me not to have Tony and Pepper in his room again? Cuz that kinda throws some very important plot points of this story out the window. Sigh. :(

Chapter 11

It was only first period, and she already felt like a toddler who had been scolded by her parents after finding out that she had stolen from the cookie jar while they were not looking. She was well aware that she was not a toddler; that Tony and Pepper were not her parents; and that, other than nearly dying of humiliation, the incident had not even registered in the heroes' high-priority radar. It was as if someone other than them trying to use their suits was commonplace – or maybe it was just the fact that they somehow knew that she had learned her lesson the hard way.

Her father, however, was a different story. He had not only yelled at her for several minutes, but he had actually grounded her for two weeks as well. In all her years of being alive, Samantha Potts had never, ever, been grounded. She had been yelled at by her mother, plenty of times; who, ironically, yelled at the brunette only to compare her to the redheaded child she had wanted to keep instead of her. It had almost become a routine while living in Pittsburgh with her mother: coming home to be told how Pepper was a much better daughter than she could ever amount to be.

Samantha did not know what was more ironic: the fact that, even after beating and punishing Pepper almost every day while she had grown up, for seemingly no reason at all other than what her booze-addled brain told her, it was Pepper who was their mother's favorite child; or the fact that, despite her own superior intelligence, good looks, and various other talents, that the redhead was still regarded as the only one who had been worth having.

It was as if Pepper had some sort of enchantment placed over anyone who thought highly of her. It was as if whoever liked Pepper simply could not see anything wrong with her obvious flaws or her myriad of transgressions, even though those same flaws would stand out like glow sticks if present in anyone else.

Worse than that, however, was the fact that, whomever the redhead had under her spell, him or her was unable to stay mad at the ginger for any reasonable amount of time.

Just as it was the case with Tony Stark.

She had heard them argue on Saturday. And she had seen Pepper drag around her body as if it weighed a million pounds for most of Sunday. Then, without saying a word to her, the ginger had disappeared from her room; coming back early this morning, only minutes before it was time to get ready for school. Judging by the fact that Pepper and Tony were on speaking terms again, it was obvious where the redhead had flown off to… and where she might have spent the night, too.

The thought of Tony and Pepper sharing more than just a common interest in defeating space lizards made Samantha groan. Much to her chagrin, her plan was not at the stage that she had expected it to be by this point: Tony and Pepper were nowhere near an irreparable breakup. In fact, as far as she was concerned, the couple was probably bonding even more by doing adult things while alone.

Samantha sighed inwardly as her eyes stared at the small piece of paper before her, the boring and repetitive morning lecture being of no concern to her. Upon class starting, and taking advantage of the fact that the genius was sitting to her left, she had quickly written a short apology on a small note she had then passed to Tony. In turn, the inventor had spared the paper a glance, had grabbed it to scribble something on it before folding it, and he had then promptly returned it to her when the teacher had not been looking their way.

The girl had expected all kinds of normal responses to her I'm sorry about the armor statement; mostly along the lines of Don't mention it, It's OK, Forget about it, or maybe even a Sorry about the shocks! However, much to her surprise, Tony's response to her apology had been all but comforting. All he had had to say to her statement had been: Don't do it again.

Yes, siree. She was definitely a toddler today – and Tony Stark was the mean parent she had never wanted to have.

She stole a side-glance to the blue-eyed inventor in question, noting yet again how silent and relaxed he appeared to be. It was not as if he was typically talkative or was always highly on edge, but there was just something about his mannerisms today that screamed something incredibly great had happened to him. If she had not known that he already was a billionaire, she would have thought that he had won the lottery. Or, at the very least, that he had been given the winning numbers and the opportunity to play. She could not quite place what it was that she was seeing, or how she knew that something was up, but it was clear to her that the Iron Man alter ego was not only rather serene and calm today, but also very much content.

The possibilities as to why he would be acting like this made her stomach churn. It also did not help that Pepper had been claiming on their way to school that she was very tired, due to not sleeping long enough the night before. It did not take a rocket scientist to put two and two together. Or, to put it rather bluntly: to put one and one together, and realize what these ones had done the night before.

Never to be one to be graced with politeness or subtlety, Samantha Potts did the only thing she could think to do: she outright asked the question that was torturing her soul.

"Did you spend the night with my sister?"

The words on the piece of paper she had just slid towards Tony's field of vision had the desired effect: his eyes had quickly widened in surprise and his mouth had gone slightly ajar. Yet, as quickly as the shock had befallen him, it had also gone away, leaving him with a furrowed brow, a tight jaw, and pursed lips.

"Personal boundaries: learn some," was his angry reply.

"Discretion: teach her some," was her sarcastic retort.

xxxXXXxxx

"Stop trying to figure it out," Rhodey told the brunette sitting next to him. "You'll just give yourself a headache."

Samantha returned her attention to the book she was supposed to be reading – or, actually, the book she was using to pretend she was not attentively watching the couple before her – but said book was able to hold her attention for just a brief instant. Her entire world, at the moment, revolved around the fact that Tony Stark was currently sitting on the roof, on the opposite side of where she and Rhodey sat, with a slumbering redhead resting her head on his left thigh. The ginger had fallen asleep as soon as her head had landed on her boyfriend's leg, and she was yet to move at all, save for the steady rising and lowering of her chest and stomach, showing that breathing was still on the menu. If Samantha did not know any better, she would have believed her sister to be dead or comatose.

"When did you stop trying to figure it out?" Samantha suddenly asked and snapped close the book in her hands.

"About five seconds after the first time I saw them interact."

"That long ago?" Sam raised a single eyebrow. "Haven't you known them for a long time? How can that be?"

Rhodey shrugged.

"I just accepted it as a fact of life and moved on. They just click, and that just what it is. There's no rhyme or reason. It's like an unsolved mystery."

"Doesn't it bother you? I mean, you've been friends with Tony longer than she has. And you've been friends with Pepper longer than he has."

"It's not a competition," Rhodey began, "I mean: I was worried, at first, since Tony had never interacted with a girl as much as he had with Pepper. And Pepper… well… I know she's your sister and all, but she's crazy. I was worried that Tony would screw it up or put himself in a bad situation, but… it just… it never happened. They just hit it off. In a very, very, very strange way. Probably because they're both just so reckless and insane."

"Isn't that something to worry about? What two reckless and insane people can do when left to do what they want?"

"You'd think," Rhodey conceded. "But that's the thing with them: as impulsive as they are, they'd never let anything happen to the other, if they have any say in it. I can live with that."

As if on cue, both Rhodey and Samantha watched as Tony carefully lifted the girl in his arms to move them both to a different location on the roof. The sun had started shifting as their free period had gone by, and by now the rays were shining brightly atop the sleeping girl. The redhead barely opened one eye to see what was happening, but when she saw that it was just Tony rearranging their position, she went right back to sleep, this time, laying across him; her head on his chest, and being surrounded by his arms. Two seconds later, the inventor himself rested his head against the concrete ledge of the roof, and closed his eyes as well.

Rhodey exchanged a knowing look with the brunette, as if silently telling her: See? That's what they do.

"They slept together," Sam blurted out with the least amount of finesse in the entire world.

"What else is new?" Rhodey's voice had a hint of disinterest that Samantha had not expected it to have.

"What?" she faced with him a look of disbelief. "You mean they've done it before?"

"Yeah. All the time," Rhodey replied.

"All the time?"

"Yes. All. The. Time. In the Iron Man armory. At my house. At your house. At Tony's place. Even here on the roof. It's a thing for them, I guess."

"They had sex in school?!"

"What?!" Rhodey's head snapped to his right. "They had sex in school?"

"You just said that they did!"

"Me?" he pointed a finger at his chest. "No, I didn't!"

"Yes, you did! You said they do it all the time!"

"Yes: sleep! They sleep together all the… oh… wait… I hear it now," Rhodey shook his head. "That's not the it I meant."

"Then what it are you talking about?"

"That it," he pointed at the sleepy couple. "Although, I think this is the first time they're asleep at the same time. Usually, one of them is awake while the other sleeps."

"That's because they were both up late," Samantha began. "Pepper didn't spend the night at home last night."

"So?"

"What do you mean: so? They slept together last night! As in, the real meaning of sleeping together," she air-quoted the last two words.

"You think?" Rhodey tilted his head.

"Yes."

"Huh," the boy shrugged. "That doesn't sound like them."

"It never does, for anyone. But think about it: why would Pepper spend the entire night out, come back home just before we left for school, and then complain all day today that she didn't sleep well? And look at Tony! He's passed out, too! There's only one thing all of this can mean!"

"Actually, with those two, it could mean anything. And I truly mean: anything. They could have gone out on a mission. Sparred on Stark International's roof. Flown to the other side of the world, just for the heck of it. Spent all night testing a new invention of his. Watched TV or movies until dawn. Or heck! They could've just sat in the same room, doing just what they're doing right now: sleeping at the same time."

"Or they could've been making babies."

"Nuh-uh," Rhodey chuckled. "They are closer to discovering French kissing than they're to learning about the birds and the bees. I mean, Tony hasn't even told Pepper that he lo– Uhm… I mean… Uh… Ahem… Yeah… whatever. Point is: they're not there yet."

Thankfully for him, Rhodey's slip up went unnoticed by the brunette. She was still too caught up in trying to think of more concrete reasons why her suspicions about her sister and her boyfriend were absolute truth.

"Besides," Rhodey continued, "Why do you care if they have? They're old enough to make their own decisions, you know? It's their lives. We have no business in it."

"You sound just like my dad," Sam wrinkled her brow.

"Just telling the truth."

"Mmhhh," the girl flared her nostrils, lifted her gaze, and then caught sight of the exact moment when, now fully awake, Pepper smiled widely at something Tony was whispering to her. The scene was just too surreal for her, seeing as her sister had never acted so affectionately or submissive around anyone else before. Yet, it was happening; it was truly taking place, and had the couple been anyone else, Sam would have found the interaction to be rather sweet.

Pepper was still sitting on Tony's lap, her legs across him, the right side of her body pressed against his chest. Her eyes were closed, but the smile on her face gave away her conscious state. Her left fist rested near his shoulder, while her right arm was pinned between her body and his; and her torso was bundled up in such a way that it appeared as if she was curling up against him.

For his part, Tony's arms still surrounded her, and his head was thrown forward and down; his lips alternating between whispering and brushing and kissing her forehead. Samantha could not make out his words from this distance, but it was clear, even to the blind, that whatever the boy was telling his girlfriend, had to be words of love.

Love.

Did Tony Stark actually love Pepper Potts?

Was this truly more than just a fling?

Had she been going about her entire plan in the wrong way?

The evidence before her proved that she was.

Anger, jealousy, or petty fights were not what broke the bond between couples – or at least not ones that were as established as she was just now realizing the power couple appeared to be. No. It was not the most basic instincts of humans that dissipated strong connections amongst the ones we loved. It was the more complicated ones. The truly valuable ones. The ones that took a long time to build and only seconds to lose.

If she wanted to succeed in her plans, she had to use the one tool she had to her advantage: knowledge of Pepper's past. And she had to exploit the one feeling that allowed all the others to start and flourish into something more. The one thing that, once given and lost, it was almost impossible to earn back.

Trust.

She just had to make them break each other's trust.

That, she could do.

That, she was good at.

Simply because, as it turned out, Pepper Potts had, long ago, broken Samantha's trust.

And it was always easier to do onto others, what they had done to you.

A/N: Soooo, Sam was hurt by Pepper in the past. Will this inspire some sympathy for the poor girl?