"No… I just wish you would realize how much that could've gone wrong!" Pepper snapped. Tony rolled his eyes as he got in the back of the car with Pepper sitting next to him.

"You handle things your way, and I'll handle mine with my ways." Tony said.

"Your ways include blowing a hole through the garage ceiling, having girls over every night, and insulting the senator." Pepper said. Tony chuckled remembering how he had blown a hole through his roof numerous times. Pepper just sighed and resumed to face frontwards. Tony turned to watch her cool down after being angry at him for not taking the court case seriously. The car started moving, but they both remained silent. Just when it had been about two minutes, the silence was already driving Tony nuts.

He reached over and poked Pepper on the arm… once… twice… three times. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists.

"What?" she said. Stark could tell that she was trying her best to keep her tone under control which amused him.

"I don't know… say something." Tony said. Pepper's face became annoyed.

"What do you want me to say?"

"That you're not mad at me anymore."

"Well I could say it, but I would be lying." Pepper said. Tony looked over at her with his puppy-dog eyes. She was obviously avoiding looking over at him, knowing that she always gave in when she did. They stayed like that for a while before Tony laughed at her struggle.

"You're going to have to look over sometime." he said still watching her.

"No I don't." Pep said. Tony smiled and shook his head. She would be too stubborn to look so he faced forwards again.

The car was now pulling up to the lot where the private jet was kept. Rhodey was already getting out of his car and heading for the plane as they just came to a stop. Tony got out and opened the car door into the warm breeze. There was no one in sight except for them and the pilot that stood at the bottom of the ramp leading up to the jet.

Happy moved around the car to get the bags in the trunk. Pepper got out as well, moving towards the plane. Tony watched her go and sighed. He knew she wasn't actually mad, only the kind of mad that she got everyday with him. Tony smiled at the realization that she did get that "type" of mad every day. Tony shook his head and followed her onto the jet.

~X~

"… and tell me if I'm wrong again, because this is really, really, super toxic at this point… why celebrate my birth?" Tony said sarcastically. Rhodey was in the chair next to him, and Pepper in the one across. They were all in flight on the jet and discussing stuff on Pepper's "List". The first thing was the birthday party that Tony had every year, and it just went downhill from there. Pepper had tried to convince Tony to do something actually smaller this year, but Tony hadn't taken that well. Rhodey watched as Tony said the last words of his snarky sentence. Shaking his head, Rhodey looked at the ground. His friend was so impossible sometimes.

"Okay… new idea." Pepper said. Rhodey looked up at her, realizing her tone of voice. Tony was going into the danger zone. He had taken it one step to far with his smart aleck comments and Pepper was trying to keep her voice under control.

Rhodey watched her unbuckle her seatbelt and stood up.

"Um… probably not… not a good idea-" Tony muttered quietly watching Pepper stand up. He looked like he was shocked by her sudden snap.

She walked a few steps forwards towards him and pushed her papers and clipboard onto his lap harshly before walking into the back room. Once she was gone, Tony swung his head over to look at Rhodey through his sunglasses.

"Too far?" he asked. Rhodey made his eyes go wide as he nodded.

"Ohhhh yeah."

Tony sighed and looked down at the papers on his lap. He picked the first one up, became immediately disinterested and threw it aside on the couch next to him.

"Should I go after her?" Tony asked. Rhodey shrugged.

"You got yourself into this one." Rhodey said. He didn't want any part in Tony's trouble with Pepper. He watched his friend look out the window for a while before shaking his head and looking down at the ground.

"I should go apologize…" he said in a complaining tone. "Right?"

"I would think so." Rhodey said, stating that it was obvious. Tony sighed and unclipped his seatbelt. He got up and walked out of the room.

~X~

Tony pushed open the door to the separate room with the couches lining the walls. He was half expecting Pepper to be somewhere inside angrily pacing or silently doing work on her phone. Instead, she had fallen asleep across one of the couches, her arms crossed over the arm of the couch and her head lying on top of her arms. Tony instantly made sure his actions were quieter as soon as he saw her. The light from the sky outside flooded down on her, making her hair shine more than usual. She was facing away from Tony, towards the back of the couch. Stark smiled at her calm appearance. He knew she had been incredibly busy lately, being the new CEO and all…

Walking into the room, Tony soundlessly closed the door behind me. He made his way across the room her, making sure she was asleep. He leaned over his PA's… wait no… his CEO's body to watch her face that was partially covered by her hair: definitely sleeping. He had to tell her that he was sorry though. He had been such a dick lately, and he couldn't even tell her why. Tony didn't know why he didn't have the guts to tell her, he just couldn't find it in him to let her worry about him dying. He knew her, and she wouldn't take the news lightly.

Looking around for something to cover her with, he spotted one of his leather jackets thrown on the arm of the couch on the opposite side of the room. Carefully making his way over, Tony snatched the jacket off of the couch and moved to spread it over Pepper, trying hard not to wake her. For a moment, she stirred though. Tony held his breath and stayed still, but she eventually went back to being still once more. Stark tilted his head and squinted slightly at her. He had to admit, he had taken her for granted. He always told himself that he would be better to her, but often it hadn't been happening. She definitely deserved an apology.

Spotting a piece of paper in the pocket of his jacket that was spread over Pepper, Tony cautiously reached to remove it. It was a small paper from some notepad that Tony kept in his workshop. Covering half of the small sheet was some equations. Stark ripped that part off and looked around the room for a pen.

Come on… come on… Tony thought, not finding any. Tony quietly opened the door to go into the other room where Rhodey was still sitting. His friend looked confused when Tony bopped in, took a pen from the table, and bopped out, but Tony just ignored him.

Back in the separate room again. Tony kneeled by one of the small tables connected to the jet's wall. He put the small ripped piece of paper on the surface and wrote the only thing there really was to say:

I'm sorry

Tony folded the paper in half then, leaving the pen on the table. Moving back to Pepper who still remained still in her sleep, he reached out to carefully touch her hand. He slowly and gently turned her wrist so that her hand was palm up. He placed the paper in her hand, and closed her fingers around it. Instantly afterwards, Pepper shifted, pulling her hand away with the note still enclosed in it. Tony waited until he knew that she was still sleeping before he walked out of the room to join Rhodey again.

~X~

Pepper woke up. Had she even fallen asleep? The last thing she remembered was being mad at Tony and walking into the separate room to cool down. Next thing she knew, it was who knew how much later. It couldn't have been more than 2 hours though, because they were still in the air. Pepper made to sit up, but she noticed the slight weight on her shoulders and her side. She sat up, Tony's jacket sliding off of her. At the same moment, she realized that she was suddenly holding a piece of paper in her hand.

Genuinely confused, Pepper frowned as she opened the little folded paper. On the inside was only two words in Tony's handwriting…

I'm sorry

Pepper couldn't help but smile just a little bit. She looked at the note and then the jacket. As much as she hated him for it, Tony Stark would not let her be mad at him for more than a couple hours. No matter how hard she tried to be angry at him, he always did something that made her smile and she couldn't stay mad any longer. She looked down at the note again, slightly rolling her eyes. She guessed she would just have to forgive him.