Guest Review Responses

Hope: That was beautiful I cried a little ...lol and thank you so so much for being such an amazing person xx I read this on my birthday and it truly made my day, with all the pain I had today,reading this made me feel better xx all love. – YAY! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! Glad I could help ^_^

apps: Finally... Tony made the world's prettiest confession... Really Romantic and want more of them!...Lots of love – Apps! How are ya?! Tony's quite the charmer, huh?

Miss geek: Wow ok I know tony messed up but I still feel Samantha Aka wicked bitch of the west is still gonna do something plsss update soon – ROFLMAO! Wicked bitch of the west… HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I LOVE THAT!

AnimeGirl: SENPAI PLEASE UPDATE SOON FOR ME THIS IS IMAA SEASON 3 – Hai, hai! Gomenasai for the late update. But we'll have two back-to-back updates to make up for it ;)

Chapter 17

"And then we made out almost all night."

"Huh," Rhodey rubbed his chin with his left hand, wondering if the pizza Tony had invited him over to his place to eat was worth listening to this awkward conversation. "And you feel like you have to tell me the intimate things you and Pepper do on your own time because…?"

"Because you're my friend and I need advice?"

Rhodey sighed. "We need to find you more friends."

Tony put his hand to his forehead with a loud smack.

"Dude, seriously! You have to help me out. You think it's easy for me to tell you something so personal about me and Pep?"

"Seeing you just spent an hour telling me every single detail of your latest lovers' spat, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say: yes, it was easy for you to tell me all about it."

"Ugh, Rhodey!" Tony rubbed his face and hair in desperation. "You're not helping me!"

"Fine," Rhodey threw his arms in the air. "Tell me. What do you want from me?"

"Advice," Tony enunciated the word. "I just said it: advice."

"So, you wanna know where to buy protection for the next time you're alone with Pepper? Is that it? You can Google that."

"NO!" Tony's face turned red. "I want to know how I can stop behaving like that around her! That's all I want."

"Oh," Rhodey's head recoiled. "You… you don't want to make out with your girlfriend? You don't like her anymore? You better not be asking me how to break up with her, dude, because I ain't getting in the way of Pepper repulsor-blasting you to next week."

Tony sighed and covered his face with his hands. This was not going as smoothly as he had hoped it would.

"It's not that at all, Rhodey," Tony's shoulders slumped and he blankly stared at his hands. "I just… I just don't want to screw it up with her. You know that I… that I love her, Rhodey. So much."

His friend openly showing so much vulnerability made Rhodey reconsider his joking reply.

"OK. Yes. I know that. And you think that making out so much with her will mess it up?"

"I think giving her the impression that that's all I want to do with her, might."

"Huh. Yeah. I guess I can see that. I mean, Pepper's not your typical girl… and you're not the typical guy, but… but yes. I can see how that might be a problem. Although," Rhodey shrugged. "What are you supposed to do about it? If you like a girl, and she likes you back, making out with her is pretty much a given, you know? Circle of life and all that stuff?"

"Yeah, I know," the genius replied. "But I didn't use to have this problem before, when I first realized I liked her. Back when we were still just friends, I mean. It was so much easier back then. I'm not sure at what point it changed."

"Back then, when? You mean before she gave you that awesome gift? Or back when you didn't know you had hormones. Or before you found out where babies come from?"

"Yeah," Tony said with disappointment, much to Rhodey's surprise. "All of the above, I guess."

Rhodey straightened his back when it dawned on him how concerned his friend truly was about the situation, and he then crossed his arms over his chest to give the situation a second thought. He knew that Tony was, as it was common for him, overthinking this whole situation – no other man he knew personally would be worried about the possible repercussions of constantly making out with his girlfriend. Only Tony Stark would worry about something like that.

"Well… what does she think about that?"

"About what?"

"About you ending up all over each other every time you guys are alone now?"

Tony shrugged. "She hasn't said that she hates it."

"Has she said that she likes it?"

"Can't say that she has," Tony replied after a pause.

"Didn't you guys use to do a lot of other things when alone? Sparring. Traveling to the other side of the world. Doing homework. Playing Scrabble. Watching TV. What happened? How come you haven't done any of that lately?"

Tony shrugged again.

"I don't know. I guess… I guess it's because we hadn't done this before. Or at least not as… detailed. And now it's happening so often. And every time is different. And I… I…"

"And you don't know if you've covered all possible scenarios of the situation, so the science nerd in you wants to make sure you do?"

"Maybe," Tony frowned, Rhodey's reasoning making too much sense to him. "Maybe part of me wants to find out how many ways I can… I can… how many ways I can make her feel good… about that…"

Rhodey rubbed his forehead and cleared his throat in discomfort. The feeling of awkwardness was becoming stronger by the second, but he knew that if he did not guide his friend, he was going to end up in a bigger mess. He would just have to endure… and then pretend that Tony had not just told him that he was looking for ways to physically please their common friend. He knew what the next step for that would be, and he did not want to be privy to it in any way.

"Honestly, T, I don't see anything wrong with you guys doing that. I mean, I don't wanna hear about it – and I definitely don't wanna see it, but it sounds normal to me. If you want to slow down, though, then all you have to do is talk to her. Tell her what you're thinking and how you feel, and I'm sure she'll tell you she's freaking out, too."

"And what if she's not freaking out about it?"

"Doesn't matter. Either way, she'll know how you feel about it. And you'll know how she feels about it, and you'll work it out. You always do. You've argued about worse things in the past, and you've both made it through. Just don't lie to her, Tony. You know how much she hates that."

"That makes sense… I guess," Tony paused, stared at the ceiling for a second, and then spoke again. "Or maybe…"

"Oh, boy. Here we go," Rhodey rolled his eyes.

"No, really. Hear me out."

"Do I have a choice?"

"Not really."

"Sigh…"

"OK. So. What if I just make sure we're never alone together? That sounds like a good idea, right? If we aren't alone together, then we won't have a chance to make out."

Rhodey's face showed how unamused he was and his constant blinking almost screamed the word Idiot at his friend.

"And to think I mocked Pepper for believing a wig and sunglasses would keep her from being found at school…"

"OK, fine!" Tony groaned. "You tell me what to do then!"

"I just told you what to do: TALK. TO. HER!"

"About what?!"

"About how you feel!"

"But she'll get mad at me! She'll think I don't want to be with her."

"Well, you don't."

"I DO!" Tony slammed his palms on his knees. "I just don't want her to think that I just have her around so that I can grope her!"

"Then tell her that."

"No! It's easier just to avoid being alone with her."

"And how exactly are you going to accomplish that? Are you going to tell her that she can't come to the Makluan Temple anymore? Or that she can't stay there to hang around with you, taking care of you, after a mission while you do repairs to the armors? Or are you going to ask her to give back the key to your house and that she needs to start knocking on the front door when she comes by? Or better yet: are you going to tell her you'll no longer go out together on the weekends? That you don't want to hang out on the roof during your off period at school?"

Tony closed his eyes and hung his head. This was a lot more difficult than he had imagined it would be to solve. His life revolved so much around Pepper's life that it was going to be practically impossible to accomplish limiting his time with her. In fact, the only way for them to stop hanging around so much was for them to break up. And for him to move to another country. And disconnect his phone. And live under a rock.

He could do all of the last things but, breaking up with her: that was the last thing he wanted to do.

"I guess… I guess…" Tony sighed. "Guess we'll just spend the entire off period and lunch on the roof instead of in the room before the roof."

"And what if she stops you before you exit? What if she keeps you from going out?"

"As long as it doesn't happen every time, we should be good."

"And what about everywhere else?"

"I'll… think of something."

"And what if she wants to make out with you? What if she really, really wants to, tells you she wants to, and you say no?"

"I… I'd never say no."

"Or what if," Rhodey stared at his friend with a sad look. "What if she just thinks that you don't want to be with her anymore? What if she just assumes, like you are right now, that she knows what you're thinking or feeling, and breaks it off?"

"No," Pepper shook her head. "What you really want is someone who loves Science as much you do."

"This again?" he groaned. "That's not true, Pepper. I've told you before. This has nothing to do with Science."

"It has EVERYTHING to do with it."

"No. It doesn't. This is just me being stupid and forgetting the anniversary of the start of one of the best things that has ever happened to me."

"And you forgot it because your first love, Science, invited you out on a date."

As much as he hated to admit it, he knew that Rhodey was right. What if Pepper misinterpreted his intentions, like she had done so in the past? What if she started to believe that he was not making out with her anymore because he was doing so with someone else? And not just with anyone else, but with her sister of all people?

Tony shuddered. He did not even want to think about that.

"Hey, T?" Rhodey began after Tony took a very long time to respond.

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure there's nothing more to this?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean: are you sure you're not just afraid of letting go?"

"Letting go of what?"

"You," Rhodey replied. "Maybe what you're really afraid of is what you'd do if you don't stop. If she doesn't ask you to stop. I mean… we're all adults now, right? We know where things like that lead."

Tony rested his forearms on his knees and slouched his back while giving Rhodey's suggestion deep thought.

Was it really too terrible if he let go? Was it really the worst thing in the world if he ended up doing that with her? He loved her. He so did. He did not see himself with anyone else. Ever. He loved her company. He loved her face. Her smile. Her chatty personality. He loved every inch of her. He loved everything that made her who she was. Yet, this was why he was struggling with this. Because he did not want to lose it all for a chance at experiencing a long kiss in the night… or more.

But it did not have to end up like that every time they were together, right? Surely there had to be something he could do to lower the incidence, right? He and Pepper were friends before they were a couple. And they still were, in a way; whenever an issue popped up, their friendship came first, before their romance. And he would rather have her as his friend forever than not having her at all.

"Ask her to help you with a repair of the armor."

"What?" Rhodey's sudden suggestion broke the inventor's concentration.

"Teach her another programming language."

"Huh?"

"Take her to the beach."

"What are you… I don't… what?"

"Go back to basics, Tony. Be her friend again. Cool down. But don't stop hanging around with her. That's not really the problem. Just… just find other things to do with her when you're alone. Have a plan. Mix it up. Find a new common hobby. Volunteer at a charity together or something. Adopt a cat together. I don't know."

"All of a sudden? She might find it suspicious. She's not stupid, you know?"

"Well, if you're not gonna talk to her, then you're gonna have to do something about it instead."

"I know that," Tony sighed. "But those things sound too big of a change."

"Then do something small."

"Like that?"

"I don't know! Baking cookies?"

"Cookies?"

"Well, yeah. If you're both busy with something that doesn't entail really close contact, then you should be fine, right?"

"Cookies…" Tony tapped his chin with his index finger. "Cookies…"

"Yes. Cookies. You bake them in the oven and eat them with milk."

"Cookies," the inventor repeated once again, and Rhodey knew that his friend was packing up to go to La-La Land.

"Right. You're right!" Tony stood up from the couch. "Baking cookies. Alright! I'll try that."

Because, yes. Rhodey was right. The problem was not that they were alone. The problem was that they did not have much to do other than kissing each other when alone.

Baking cookies, Tony thought with renewed confidence. What can be more innocent than that?