So Valentine's day is over, but my story is still ongoing. So here we go!

No copyright infringement is intended. Only fluff is intended.

TapTap

Pepper was always a good sport. Anybody would tell you about how creative Tony was capable of being - whether they liked it or not - but that was only half of why they had such a good time together. Why they fitted so incredibly well. Crazy as he often was, Pepper was superb at going along with it. It wasn't necessarily always as easy as it looked - for most people anyway. Pepper had always been a natural.

So when he swooped her up to carry her across the threshold of his private villa on a private island halfway across the world for her Valentine's day surprise on the morning of February 14:th, Pepper obligingly closed her eyes without even being asked. She was just that good at reading her genius boyfriend. They made the best of teams, after all.

Pepper smiled for herself as Tony carried her inside, very gently depositing her on something soft. She assumed a couch. She could smell flowers, but she just assumed he had come up with something new this year; not the same as last time. That's just what he was like - not that she would have minded either way. She shuddered, but in all the right ways, as his breath was suddenly on her left ear. "Open your eyes..."

Turning her head expertly, Pepper gave Tony a soft kiss, before she felt him settle next to her, and she opened her eyes.

The room was luxurious and open, but delicately decorated. She assumed she probably had a hand in the designs, once upon a time, though she'd never set foot here before. There were large, beautiful arrangements of what she assumed were local flowers on every sutiable surface, but it was not the owhewhelming gesture from lat year. This was merely beautiful and welcoming. She concluded that though they'd been the most obvious, they were not the point.

Turning her head, she registered Tony sitting there wearing his signature just-for-her grin, and she smirked at him before she continued to look around. Almost straight ahead, was a large television, set up with a stack of DVDs. She frowned upon noticing them. She didn't recognise them, per se, but she had a feelign wehat they were from their screamy colours.

Rising, she walked over to read on the boxes, and she had to laugh. Only Tony.

Pepper sipped her ice-tea, sitting on the large terrasse overlooking the ocean. Tony was down on the beach, offering lettuce to the local turtles, who had come up to say hello. Apparently, the stretch of beach on one side of the island was one of those traditional breeding spots where turtles came for generations to leave their egs buried in the sand avaiting hatching. It was a good spot - hardly anybody ever came here.

"Easiest animal reservation ever founded," Tony had explained to her when they first spotted them, "though involving a lot of upset local animal welfare and rights people who were concerned about them in the beginning. I do not intend to build a pool and kill them all. Convincing the turtles of that was a lot easier than convincing the people. It was tedious."

Pepper had to laugh, remembering Tony's patented eye-roll about it. She watched him as he gently petted a turtle who was gaping for sallad next to his leg. Her fiance. She had still not quite gotten used to thinking of him as her fiance, which was probably for the best with all the reporters out for gossip.

He was so scatterbrained and so well-researched at the same time. It couldn't be any type of salad, no. It had to be the one type with the right nutrition levels for this specific species of turtle. The turtles were clearly in good hands - not to mention there was a Stark Security system running on the island so poachers were in for a very nasty not-so-surprise.

Still smiling for herself, she pondered the holiday they had ahead. She had already figured his plan out by then, but he had explained what it was never-the-less. Two weeks of vacation, just the two of them (well, plus some pets) complete with Pepper's favourite guilty pleasure as a treat. It was perfect.

Much as she appreciated them, she didn't love him for the grand gestures. She loved him for his caring, his mind, and just because he was her Tony.

And she was thrilled that he knew that.