Guest Review Responses

Thanks for the favorite/follows: Cindylou30.

Miss geek: Yessssss she's baaaaaack ! OMG OH MY DAYS! Don't do that to me I've been waiting for this and lol love this chapter but wicked bitch of the west is acting innocent and lol I love that new nickname queen of cockblocking from spicy iron we are gooooooood at these nicknames gosh we must sound so mean :P – I wonder what other nickname will come to be after Sam pulls yet another one of her moves? ;)

Judieeeee: OMG I LOvED this , but you own us at least another chapter from r the months we waited every day XXxXx pretty please XX – Sorrryyy! I hope this makes up for it :D

Guest: Loving this! Please update soon! Its so good, cant wait to read more! – So glad you're still liking it. I think this chappie will be a favorite one, too.

Jhashisaki: this was amazing and I don't mean just this chapter I just read all of it In the past two days and since I'm ina fight with my gf right now it cheered me up. But it's weird when ever Tony and pepper fight I kinda got in a fight to and I didn't initiate it so that was weird. But still great story just please more Adorable Tony x pepper moments. – YAY! Welcome to the Dark Side! XD I'm sorry to hear about your fight. I hope you guys make up sooner rather than later. Fighting is not fun… but the making up part is ;)

Chapter 25

She was not sure why she had even bothered to come here. It was not as if she was of any use to anyone anyway. It was not as if Tony had needed her for anything at all since they had arrived to Stark International, shortly after noon. The most she had spoken to her boyfriend today had been to greet him when she had unlocked the front door to let themselves in and they had shared a quick kiss. The rest of the outing, she had been alternating a myriad of activities to kill time: absentmindedly watching television; using his phone to play games, listen to music, and to check on the Temple's logs, hoping for a mission; rummaging his kitchen to find a quick snack; daydreaming; browsing the web; and she had even taken a short nap on his bed.

However, four long hours after saying hello to him, she had had enough.

She cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders until they popped. She stood up from the couch, patted her wrinkled clothes, and headed to the front door. Once there, she sulked to the floor and put on her shoes. She then sprung up, slowly turned the handle, and cracked the door open little by little until it was wide enough for her to fit through it; all while stealing furtive glances towards the pair of nerds working in Tony's home lab. She was not surprised when neither of them noticed she was leaving – they were, as they had been the entire time they had been at his place – too engrossed in whatever science experiments they were working on.

At first, she had tried to follow along the conversation from the comfort of her position on the couch; eavesdropping every now and then, if just to see if an opportunity arose to say something that would make her sound intelligent or useful in his eyes. Yet, as she had predicted before she had invited herself to Samantha's visit to Tony's home, all she had been able to understand were the prepositions in their conversations. Most of the words they were using sounded like gibberish to her, even if she knew what the words themselves meant.

"The capacitor is not optimized for energy-efficiency yet."

"The delivery of the payload is being deferred."

"An auxiliary membrane propulsion system seems like a possible solution for the overexertion of the capacitor. Thoughts?"

What. The. Heck.

After nearly an hour of trying to understand the main issues by means of context – and after realizing a quick internet search on her phone was not going to help her catch up with the conversation at the pace it needed to be done to contribute something of value to it, Pepper decided that she was wasting time and energy trying to follow along. She would probably just get in the way, anyway, if she tried to help. Probably break their train of thought; their super genius, high-level brainstorming session, and look like an idiot while doing so.

Yes. She was aware that her attempts were pointless. He had told her, plenty of times already, that she did not need to learn his language. That he liked her the way she already was. That she did not have to change anything of hers for him to love her the way he did – or as much as he did. But what was she supposed to do when her heart wanted to break at seeing him effusively share his passion for science and technology with someone other than her? And with her sister, of all people? She knew she was being ridiculous and petty – but she was yet to figure out a good way to cope. Sitting here, however, listening to them have a good time being scientists was of no help either.

She made it as far as pressing the down button of the private elevator at Stark International before she heard his voice echo behind her.

"Leaving without saying goodbye?"

"I'm not leaving," her response was out her lips before she reigned in the obvious lie down her throat.

"You put your shoes back on," he observed, his feet taking slow steps towards her back. It was common knowledge between them that she completely forgot about her shoes while visiting him unless she was on her way out for the day. Even out in the halls she was shoeless; her socks provided her the only protection she needed while visiting him at his home.

"You seem to be busy," she hugged herself, still not facing him, the open elevator door inviting her inside.

"Never too busy for you."

Before she could respond, she felt him surround her midsection from behind, leaving her arms trapped under his. He rested his chin on her right shoulder, lightly rocked them both from side to side, and then spoke again.

"Are you hungry? It's almost dinner time. My dad just texted me that he and Mr. Pot–" Tony hesitated, remembering that his girlfriend's father had recently given him the all-clear to address him a tad more informally, "Virgil," the boy continued, "Believe it or not, they're grilling right now."

The genius paused for an instant, hoping to see some hint of excitement coming from the redhead, but she simply shrugged. Even her father was having a better time than she was.

"Rhodey and Roberta are on their way here, too. Feel up to staying a little bit longer for it? I… my… my dad has never grilled before…"

The last statement forced her out of her trance and made her frown as she looked towards her right to face him.

"What?"

This time, the inventor was the one to shrug before he pulled away from her.

"We had hired-help when I was a kid. My mom cooked every now and then, but they were both too busy re-inventing the company after I was born… after my dad decided to stop making weapons and almost bankrupted the company because of it. Barbeques, picnics, and cookouts weren't exactly a thing for us. And then my mom died, and me and my dad just…"

She turned around to face him, unsure as to why he was telling her all of this so suddenly, even though it clearly hurt him to list the things he never got to do as a kid – things that other families did as naturally as it was to breathe. Maybe he thought that she was upset at him for practically ignoring her while he worked, even though he did that often and had it done since they had met. Maybe he was fearful that she was rushing out of the penthouse due to jealousy of her sister and anger towards him. Or maybe he was just seeing the clear signs on her that she had wanted to leave, as soon as she could, no matter what he said to her.

Whatever the reason was, she wanted to placate his fears or doubts. He did not have to beg her to stick around or apologize for doing his job. He had done nothing wrong. It was not really his fault that she felt out of place. They spent a lot of time together, anyway. The strong dedication he put into his projects and inventions was just part of who he was – part of the reason she had fallen in love with him.

"Of course, I'll stay," she said with a smile.

"Great," he smiled back before he moved closer to her, embraced her around her waist and tilted his head from side to side, practically admiring her.

"What?" she scrunched up her nose in feign annoyance.

"N'thing. Just thinking… wondering…"

"Wondering about what?"

"What your plans are for tomorrow."

She narrowed her eyes, thinking about her itinerary, only to come up blank.

"Process oxygen and convert it to carbon dioxide, I guess?"

The bout of laughter that followed her response was louder than she had expected.

"Making science jokes now, aren't we?"

"And good ones, apparently," she smirked. "Did you have anything in mind?"

"I did," he nodded. "I do."

"Aaand?"

"Well," he pulled her closer to him, the mischievous look in his eyes making her gulp. "I was thinking of something along the same lines of what you just said. Processing oxygen… converting it to carbon dioxide… but at a much faster rate."

"Oh?"

"Yup," his voice suddenly turned husky. "Add to it a little bit of diaphoresis. Perhaps even hyperhidrosis. Palpitations. Muscle spasms. Hyperthermia."

Pepper's frown deepened. She tapped her chin with her right index finger a couple of times, left it up to signal the need for a moment, and then pulled away from him.

"One sec," she took out her phone and began searching for the definitions of the words she did not know. Tony bit down his lips to avoid a smug smile from escaping him, all the while loving the look of pure determination and partial confusion on her face.

"OK, so," she began, "We got ragged breathing, excessive sweating, rapid heartbeat, and high fever. You either want to give me a heart attack or a critical seizure."

"There are other, more pleasant things humans can do that can make someone sweat and breath heavy, Pep."

"Really? Like what?"

"Jeez, I don't know," he rolled his eyes. "Off the top of my head, how about… baking cookies?"

"Baking cookies?" Pepper's head recoiled. "How the heck would baking cook– errrr… uhm… ah… oh… uh…"

She cleared her throat loudly and scratched her neck nervously, the flush on her face getting worse when he playfully winked at her.

"T-Tony, I… I-I-I…"

"Sparring," he said with a chuckle when she began to fidget in embarrassment and awkwardness. He had meant to invite her to train with him tomorrow, all along, but he had been unable to pass up an opportunity to tease her about the topic they were still learning to be open and comfortable talking about. "Sparring is what I meant, Pepper."

"Sparring… sparring?" she blinked rapidly.

"Yes. You and me. Sparring. Haven't done it in a while."

"Right," she faked a cough. "Sparring, of course. I knew that."

"Did you, really?" he smirked.

"Yeah-hum."

"I'm sure. So, dinner tonight. Sparring tomorrow?"

"Yup. I'm in."

"Cool! Let me just go get your sister and we'll meet everyone else."

My sister, Pepper held back a groan, silently admitting that she had forgotten about Samantha being just down the hall, her eyes on the retreating form of her boyfriend.

Oh, yeah: her.

xxxXXXxxx

She sat on the ground, her legs extended, her arms holding her weight behind her back. She was tired and breathing heavily, and she was certain that once her muscles cooled down, she would be sore as heck for days. Her workout clothes smelled of a day's worth of training with her boyfriend, felt gritty due to the attached sand, and they would both probably also have somewhat of a tan – all courtesy of the private beach Tony had selected as their sparring site.

In Europe.

Yesterday, when he had mentioned to her that he felt like training with her, she had thought that they would be doing so atop Stark International, or maybe on the roof of her apartment complex. A couple of times, they had also kicked the living crud out of each other above the Makluan Temple, so when he had suggested they met there, she had thought it would be the case again today. They only sparred on the roof of the Tomorrow Academy when they were already at school for the day, so the possibility of using a brand-new location for this outing had not even crossed her mind.

He had been quiet for most of the travel time, using Extremis to guide her suit towards their destination and to deliberately keep her from finding out where he was taking her before they got there. She was both fearful and excited during the whole flight to the beach. Fearful because she hated not knowing something, and excited because she loved doing new things with him. He was always surprising her with his kind or over-the-top actions, or with his sweet, caring words; constantly showing her a side of him that she was not even aware had existed. Sometimes, she still saw him just as her best friend, but he then would go and do something utterly romantic or extremely thoughtful for her, and she was happily reminded that this young man loved her.

If someone had told her, a year ago, that she and Tony would become so close, and their lives so intertwined, she would have rolled her eyes, scoffed, and she then would have secretly wished the fortune teller to be right all along.

Back then, she would have never believed it, crystal ball be darned. Heck, sometimes she found herself not believing it either way, even as relevant events unfolded before her eyes. Yet, here she was: wrapping up a day's worth of athletic activity with her one and only, Tony Stark, patiently waiting for the sun to disappear behind the sea.

"Whoo!" Tony patted his skin dry with a towel, a satisfied smile on his face, "That was a workout!"

"Tell me about it! Good thing the armor can fly solo," Pepper said as she tried to lift her bottle of water from the ground with her shaky arm.

"Good thing Extremis keeps me up and about. Here, let me help you," Tony added, noticing her struggle to quench her thirst, and then aided her by holding the plastic bottle in place, tilting it slowly until she pulled her lips away from it to signal she was done. A waterdrop trailed down the side of her mouth and down her chin, but before she could use the back of her hand to wipe it clean, Tony pecked it away, traced its path back to her lips and kept his mouth on hers.

The kiss lasted as long as they were able to survive without a full load of air in their lungs; the salty taste of it not bothering them at all.

When they finally pulled apart, the inventor did not go too far from where he had been lying on the ground. He simply turned his body onto his right side and then rested his head on the ginger's lap, his front facing the sunset over the ocean. Pepper put more pressure on her right arm to hold her weight, leaving her left hand free to comb through his unruly mane. The familiar and welcome touch coming from her made him close his eyes and relax. It was if her hands exuded an elixir of serenity that never failed to comfort his soul.

He could spend the rest of his life like this, with her.

He totally could.

And maybe, just maybe, it was about time he started making it known to her that he was now in an emotional place where the idea of being together forever was crossing his mind.