Guest Review Responses

Thank you for the follows/favorites: stefanialilly.

Miss geek: First of all I was sooo proud of myself coming up with wicked bitch of the west it takes time for me to come up with stuff :P and OMG OMG OMG the heat is not in the oven thts for sure :P please continue this story is epic - HAHAHAHA! The heat is not in the oven! LOVE. IT! And you should be proud about the Wicked Bitch of the West line… it is PRICELESS! In fact, we should start saying: Wicked Bitch of the West [Copyright of Miss Geek].

apps: OMGssss...I started imaging or rather picturizing the scenes.. I almost lost myself... It was amongst the loveliest make-out session.. Loved it.I hope they won't bake anything else other than cookies.. – ROFLMAO! No worries. No baking of any kind other than cookies on this one. I got my fill of writing Pepperony babies with The Last Chronicle :P

Lola k: I need to know what happens next – Here it be! Hehehe… hehehe… MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

Anon: Uppppppdatte – Here it is!

At: please update – Sorry about the wait :(

A/N: Hi, everyone! I'm back! I'm sorry about last weekend – my dad had emergency surgery, so I hopped in my car and went to visit him. This weekend (yesterday) was my wedding anniversary… so we were… busy ;) But hey! I'm back now! And my boss is back at work from maternity leave! Free time to write is finally here! (I HOPE!)

IF YOU READ THE LAST CHRONICLE AND GUEST REVIEWED FOR THE ENDING:

Toni: It should be us readers who should be thanking you :)Thank-you for sharing and completing this story Miss Starfire and for giving Tony and Pepper the happy ending they deserve. – YES! Our couple deserved that Fairy Tale ending. Glad that you liked it :D

apps: Wishing you and your hubby a very Happy 6th Wedding Anniversary, Stay Blessed and Happy forever...With tears thanks for bringing us so far and ending this Saga on a happy of love to you and eagerly waiting for more of pepperony...All the best dear! – Awww! Thank youuuuu! It was a fun anniversary day! And of course: more Pepperony to come!

Chapter 19

Lock-picking was a less-than-honorable habit that she had picked up from Pepper when they were younger. It was one of the options that Pepper had encouraged her to use to run away from danger when their mother was drunk as heck. At first, the redhead had led the efforts in paving a path that they would both use to escape their mother's violent bouts. However, as time went by and Mrs. Potts got better at abusing her children, Pepper had decided that, if anyone was going to escape unscathed, it was going to be her younger sibling. As such, Pepper had taught Samantha everything she knew about unlocking doors and hiding, all in the hope that her little sister was not on the receiving end of yet another of their mother's fits of rage.

Growing up, Samantha Potts had admired her sister for it, for a very long time; until her sister had betrayed her when it had mattered the most. For that, the brunette was certain that she would never be able to look at her sister the same way; love her the same way. As far as Sam was concerned, Pepper had abandoned her – had given up on her role as her protector – in favor of saving her own skin when their chance to finally escape the torture had presented itself. When Pepper had had the opportunity to put an end to it, to all of it, she had given her back to her sister and had run. When Pepper could have made a world of difference for her innocent sister, the ginger had chosen the highroad and had made sure that only herself and their father were happy with their lives.

And what about the future life of poor Samantha Potts? No one had given a thought to that!

So today, as the brunette broke inside her sister's room to find what she needed from her to exert her revenge on the redhead, it was her turn not to give a thought to the fact that she was invading her sister's space or privacy. It was her turn not to care that she was, essentially, setting her sister up for a world of embarrassment, loneliness, sadness, and pain. In her eyes, Pepper Potts had it all coming and then some.

After making sure that she was really alone in the home, Samantha found herself inside Pepper Potts' room after forcing herself into it. Ever since she had tried to put on the suit, Pepper had begun locking her room – as if she was stupid enough to pull that stunt again! Either way, her plans so far had not yielded the results she had been expecting, and she was running out of patience and time. She knew that, if she was not successful in separating the redhead and the inventor before they graduated from the academy, the odds of splitting them up would be reduced significantly. It was now or never – and never was definitely not an option for her.

In Sam's opinion, despite being her own flesh and blood, Pepper Potts truly deserved to suffer more than the brunette had already suffered herself. Luckily for her, Pepper tended to spend a lot of time away from home; more likely than not spending it all with the blue-eyed genius, who Samantha still could not believe was head-over-heels for someone like her.

Using her flashlight, she began going through any and all spots that could be used for hiding personal items: inside and behind drawers, under the bed, the back of the closet, inside shoe boxes, inside the pockets of hung clothes, and even in between the trashcan and its trash bag. All in all, by the time she was done combing the room, she was very satisfied with what she had found.

Before her, on the redhead's bed, laid several items that would help her execute her plans and carry out her vengeance. There were handwritten notes, letters, pictures, mementos, and newspaper clippings. There were also receipts, paid bills, Stark Solution's paystubs addressed to Pepper, and other financial information of the ginger's that would prove most useful for her cause. Yet, the best item of it all, the one that made Samantha smirk with the taste of revenge, was one labeled Diary.

"Diary, huh?" Samantha eyed the front and the back of the bound book with anticipation. "If you write as much as you talk, Pepper, this is going to be fun."

For me.

xxxXXXxxx

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I am. I do. With you."

"Hey, Tony."

"I don't want to force you into this," he searched her half-closed eyes to see the truth in her words.

"You're not," she smiled and ran her palm down his bare chest.

"Tony?"

"I love you, Pep. So much."

"Yo, Tony!"

"I love you, too."

"Hello?! Earth to Tony! Are you even listening to me, man?"

"What?" Tony blinked rapidly; the image of him and Pepper, wrapped onto each other under the covers in his bed, instantly evaporating before his eyes. "What's that now?"

"I could ask you the same thing! What the heck are you doing, staring at the basketball team while they shower?"

"I'm what?"

Tony's head snapped further up and his eyes focused, only to be confronted by the annoyed faces of nude male students staring back at him.

"I, uhm… I…" he cleared his throat and looked away.

"Something you wanna tell me, T?" Rhodey teased his friend, clearly amused by the awkward situation he was finding himself in.

"No!" Tony replied as he shook his head from side to side, appalled by the incorrect insinuation.

"Mmhhh," Rhodey rubbed his chin with his left hand. "I think the reason for the not wanting to make out with my girlfriend issue is finally taking shape. Good to know, Tony."

"Ugh, put a sock in it, Rhodey," Tony grumbled with irritation and then returned to his task of changing himself into his regular clothes after P.E. class.

"Put a sock in it?" Rhodey arched a single eyebrow. "What is this? 1999?"

"No," Tony ran his right hand through his mane to somewhat style it back to its spiked self. "Apparently, it's the third grade."

"Haha," Rhodey waved his hand at his friend. "How would you know what the third grade is like? You didn't even go to the third grade!"

"What's with you today?"

"What's with you? You've been spacing out all day. More than usual, I mean. Are you OK?"

"Yeah," Tony replied, trying his best to hide his knowing smirk and his blush. "I'm great."

"Are you sure? You seem very out of it. Fought with Pepper? Did you tell her you wanted to slow things down and she didn't like it?"

At the mention of his girlfriend's name, memories of their encounter of last night left him powerless to stop himself from grinning like an idiot, all but forgetting to answer his friend's questions in any way, shape, or form.

"Tony? Tony! TONY?!"

"Huh?"

"Are you and Pepper fighting?"

"What? No! Not even… No… We're not fighting at all. We're fine. We're… fine. Yeah. Totally fine."

Rhodey narrowed his eyes at his friend.

"You messed it up, didn't you? You said something stupid to her, didn't ya?"

Tony rolled his eyes.

"No, Rhodey. We're not fighting. No, I didn't say something stupid to her. And no, I didn't tell her I wanted to slow things down."

"Oh," Rhodey was taken aback. "Guess that's why you look like as if someone asked you to identify the names of the Kardashians."

"The who?"

"Right. Yeah. Your extreme spacing-out attitude of today makes sense now," James Rhodes sympathetically patted Tony's right arm. "Still haven't figure out how to tell her, then?"

"No," Tony replied and consciously avoided Rhodey's gaze at all costs to prevent the young man from figuring out from his facial features that such conversation with Pepper was now less than pointless. Not only had the plan of distracting himself when they were alone so that he would not take things too far with Pepper before she was ready to do so entirely backfired on him – he had unrestrainedly given in to his hormones and desire for her with little to no thought.

He would not tell a soul – or maybe just to her, at some point in their lives – but last night, that unexpected and special moment when he had been with her so intimately, had been the best physical experience of his entire life thus far. In the few and isolated occasions when he had been curious enough about the unspeakable act to ponder what it could entail and how he would react to finally accomplishing one of the most basic needs of humankind, he had pictured himself awkwardly stumbling in the dark. He had imagined making a fool of himself in the process – utterly embarrassing himself, and failing miserably at what others easily achieved while drunk.

And, in almost all of those rare musings of his, he had always assumed that he would feel ashamed, guilty, and regretful once it was all said and done.

Surprisingly so, he felt none of the above.

He did not feel shame, for he now understood that the physical interaction was merely an extension of what everyone already knew he felt for Pepper Potts. He was not ashamed to admit he loved her, so there was no shame to be had if he had opted to provide her with a more corporal expression of his feelings for her.

He did not feel guilt, as he had made absolutely sure that there was no pressure from either side to go down the unknown road together. He had sought her approval, staring her directly in the eye while doing so, and she had replied in the affirmative with as much confidence as he had asked the question himself.

And he definitely did not feel regret. Not before, during, or after the fact. Not this morning, when he had woken up to find her gone from his bed, and he had read her note that she had overslept, but that they would see each other at the academy, without a doubt. Not when he had briefly and in a rush exchanged a hug and a kiss with her during the second passing period of the day, when she had finally arrived to school; so late that she had missed first period and had gotten detention for it during their common off time. Not when he had spent his lunch time in the cafeteria, blatantly staring at her while she worked off the rest of her detention by serving food to other students. Not when he had barely had the time to brush his fingertips against hers after break time was over, and they had both been forced to rush to their next class. Not when she had caught him staring at her a couple of times during P.E. class… and definitely not when he had stolen a quick and very public kiss from her before the end of said class.

No.

Nothing could bring him down.

Nothing could plant the seed of remorse in him. He had wanted her, and she had wanted him. Him. Just him. The rest had just been an obvious roll of the dice. It was true that Tony Stark currently felt a lot of vastly different emotions after his experience of last night; but none of them where in the vicinity of shame, guilt or regret. He felt the complete opposite of these sentiments, in fact. And he was almost certain that she felt the same way he did.

"You're doing it again, Tony."

"Huh?" Tony's eyes focused once more after hearing his friend talk.

"Staring. You're staring at naked dudes, man."

"I–"

Whatever the genius was about to say was interrupted by a firm hand gripping his left shoulder.

Oh, nuts, Tony internally berated himself for the situation he had called upon himself. He was surely going to get beat up by the entire basketball team for being a total yet accidental Peeping Tom. And seeing that Rhodey was slowly sliding away from his current position on the bench they were both sitting on, it appeared as if his childhood friend was going to let him learn the lesson on his own.

The billionaire swallowed hard, his eyes slowly trekking up from the huge hand on his shoulder, up the muscled arm, and then towards the narrowed eyes raining anger onto his electric blue orbs.

"Hi… uhm… Jake… right?"

The behemoth cracked his knuckles in response; a simple towel covering the bottom half of his scarily bulked-up body.

"You were staring at us the whole time, Stark."

"Me?" Tony gulped once more and pointed a shaky finger towards his own chest. "I-I… me?"

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

I was thinking about my girlfriend when it appeared that I was looking at you? Tony wanted to say but, in this state of mind, he was not certain he would not end up saying more than he should about what he had done the previous night.

Silence seemed like the best policy, seeing as he could not really rely on his suit to get him out of this one. The large young man did not even seem concerned that he was taking a threatening stance towards Iron Man himself – and that alone spoke volumes of how much more confidence Jake had in his abilities than Tony currently did.

Expecting the worst and hoping for the best, Tony simply shook his head from side to side.

"Nothing to say, huh?" Jake lowered his face and practically shoved it onto Tony's for a second. "Well, I do have something to say to you, Stark, so you better listen up."

Oh, boy, Tony closed his eyes, hoped that the punishment would not hurt too much, and then waited for the punch to the face that would never come.

Instead, when Jake's hand was removed from his shoulder and his nose was still intact, the genius opened one eye and then the other, only to see a small piece of paper being handed to him by the brute standing before him.

Absentmindedly, Tony grabbed the paper in his hands, became obviously confused by the seemingly random scribbling on it, and then looked up to watch Jake's facial features softening up.

"Call me," the jock winked at the inventor and then clucked his tongue, "And don't worry, Tony: I won't tell Pepper about it. No. Strings. Attached."

Tony's jaw fell to the floor, along with the paper that held Jake's cell phone number, all the while Rhodey laughed until he could hardly breathe anymore.

Ugh, Tony closed his eyes and groaned. There's the shame I was hoping to avoid!