Pepper sighed, staring out the window as she listened to the rain pound against the side of the cáfe walls. As soon as she arrived, the skies above Malibu opened up and rain poured down. It was getting louder with each passing second, and from what she could hear, so was the thunder.

Pepper: This is one of those times I question why we're even together.

Robert: It's called living a little.

Pepper: It's disgusting.

Robert: Just wait until you try it.

Pepper: I'd rather sit through one of your dumb action movies.

Robert: Oh, really? I'll remind you of this when the Godzilla movie comes out.

Pepper: BRING IT ON.

"Miss, here's your iced vanilla latté."

She looked up from where she sat and thanked the barista. She has been here twenty minutes and Tony had yet to make an appearance. She didn't know why she bothered coming on time.

Her phone buzzed again and she picked it up. For some reason, she hoped it was him telling her he was almost here. The thunder was getting stronger and the rain was now falling down like the sound of hail. She didn't want an accident.

Robert: Just remember you said it.

"Hey, Pep. Did you miss me?"

Glancing up, she saw Tony in front of her, drenched in rain water. "Depends. Did you miss me?" Sometimes with Tony, she had to amuse herself.

"Course I did," he replied, a smile on his face. "Who else am I gonna annoy?"

"How about someone other than me," she impassively suggested.

Tony took his seat. "Are you always this moody?"

"I am not answering that," she told him, taking a sip of her drink.

"You just did," he responded, grabbing a handful of napkins from its stainless steel container and running them through his hair. He knew enough about girls to know when they refused to answer a question, it was because the guy had a point.

"Can we just get this over with," Pepper asked, pulling out her lab manual and flipping to a certain page.

He smiled. He was already getting under her skin.

"I thought one of us could do the intro, calculations, and graphs while the other does the discussion since it has to be 8-10 pages long."

"You can't write the discussion without first finishing the graphs."

"I know. And since I have all the data, I thought you could do the discussion."

"Okay," he agreed. He understood her logic.

Pepper, on the other hand, could not believe just how well her suggestion had turned out.

"Why are you looking at me like that," Tony asked, averting his stare from the window as another flash of lightning illuminated the dark contrast of the sky.

"Why are you being so reasonable?"

"What? I'm not allowed?"

"It's weird," Pepper countered, staring at him.

"It's practical."

"It's...you know what? Never mind." It wasn't worth arguing.

Tony smirked. This day was getting better already. He was annoying Pepper by not being annoying at all.

"Can we go over the presentation questions?"

"What are they," he asked, wary of her reply.

Pepper looked up from her paper and sighed. "You didn't look at them?" She should had known better than to think he'd come prepared.

He innocently responded. "It's what I have you for."

"You're impossible," she retorted, handing her paper to him. As he read through the questions, she pulled out her phone and replied Robert's text.

Pepper: I won't even complain.

She got his response seconds later.

Robert: I wouldn't be too sure. I hear it's over 2 hrs long.

"You don't get this," Tony asked. "It's fifth grade science."

"You learned about the role of arterial carbon dioxide and pH in ventilation regulation when you were ten?"

"Yeah. Who doesn't?"

"Well, for starters, everyone in this room," Pepper responded, gesturing with her hands.

"I must be special then," he concluded. The smile he had plastered on his face caused her to roll her eyes. "Anyways, it's really simple. There's a receptor in your brain that senses change in carbon dioxide in your body. Let's say you're doing cardio. When you exercise, your muscles quickly accumulate a high concentration of metabolic waste, which is what carbon dioxide is, and that's cause oxygen's being used at a greater rate. To put up with the high demand, your heart is gonna pump faster to deliver more blood to the tissues. In return, your respiratory center will increase ventilation so the waste can leave the body. pH decreases during low levels of oxygen. It's why you feel fatigued after a workout."

"Okay," Pepper cautiously said, trying to articulate everything she just heard. It wasn't working too well. He had said the information too fast. "What about that receptor you mentioned?"

"It's the respiratory center, which is activated by a neural signal sent from the heart."

"Alright," she cautioned again. It'd make more sense to her once she read their text.

"I'll draw it out for you," Tony offered, taking her pen and paper to map out a diagram that would be easy for her to understand. He had a habit of forgetting that people weren't as smart as he was. But, before he could finish, the lights in the cáfe turned off.

Looking up, he could see that the buildings nearby had experienced the same problem. In fact, if he looked further out, the entire town seemed affected by it.

"This is your fault," Pepper said, looking at him once the manager had finished announcing the entire town was experiencing a power outage.

"How?"

"If you hadn't chosen Saturday, I wouldn't be stuck here."

"Um, I did offer to do this at my house," he reminded her.

"For completely different reasons."

"At least we'd have electricity," Tony remarked.

"No one has electricity, Einstein." She grabbed her phone and sighed upon seeing the 'no service' words.

"As usual, I'm the exception," he told her, getting up. He was soaking wet, so he sure wasn't going to spend the rest of the night waiting for the power to come back.

"Where are you going?"

"Home," he said, like it was the most logical answer.

Pepper's eyes widened. "Are you nuts? You can barely see, let alone drive!"

"I'll risk it."

"It's dangerous, Tony," she sternly responded.

Now he was amused. "Are you saying you care about me?"

"If you don't wipe that stupid smile off your face, I'm gonna toss my drink at you."

"That's a bit excessive, don't you...alright," he said, raising his voice as Pepper picked up her drink. "But I can't stay here. I'll get bored, and trust me, me being bored is a lot worse than me being annoying."

"You can get worse than this," Pepper questioned. He nodded. Maybe she'd try a different route. "You drive like a maniac."

"I got you home safely, didn't I?"

"That's not the point."

Then an idea struck him. "You could come with me."

"You can't be serious," she deadpanned. It was like he hadn't listened to a word she said.

"I'll drive slower and safer knowing you're there," Tony replied, shrugging, and obviously taking full advantage of her concern for him.

Pepper looked around the room, weighing out her options. She couldn't call her parents and Peter had dropped her off. She couldn't do anything but sit here and weather out the storm. There was no telling how long that'd take.

But, then again, could she really trust him? They barely knew each other, and given his reputation, it wasn't the best idea.

She looked at him intently, trying to decide whether or not he was up to something. He stared back at her, almost as if he knew what she was thinking.

"Look, I know I'm not the most trustworthy guy to get in a car with, but I'm not gonna try anything."

"Alright," she said, getting up. She didn't know why, but when he said that, she believed him. After all, he'd been nothing but nice to her since they met, so she couldn't think too badly of him.

Pepper couldn't believe her eyes. They were currently driving down a private, lit up driveway made of stone pavers, no doubt to his home. The storm wasn't any better, but she did notice a subtle change. The skies weren't ridden with lightning every few seconds. But that didn't matter right now. She was too busy staring out her window. Granted, she couldn't see much, but what she could see left her speechless. The Stark property was beautiful.

Tony glanced at her, knowing she wasn't paying attention to anything but the property. He didn't understand why people were so fascinated by their home. They were loaded and everyone knew it.

Pulling to a stop on the circular driveway, he sighed.

"What's wrong?"

"You sure you don't wanna run in the rain?" He had asked her the same question earlier.

Pepper laughed. "I'm sure."

He pouted. "You're no fun."

Together they got out of the car and made a dash to the door, immediately heading inside once they got to it.

"I'm gonna go change, so...um, you can...do whatever you want," he finally said. He didn't know why, but he was having trouble directing where she should go. Aside from Rhodey and Happy, he didn't have guests.

"Thanks," she said with a small smile. Once he retreated up the stairs and was out of sight, she looked around. She didn't know what to do or where to go. The living room was next to her, but instead of heading over, she went to the kitchen. There were far less expensive things there.

She sat her bag down and took a seat, glancing around. It was a French colonial kitchen. The ceiling was high and there were beige colored emblematic wooden arches that connected with the dark wooden ceiling of the living room. There wasn't much to look at kitchenware wise, but it was still stunning.

"Tony, there's something I want..." Pepper turned her attention to the sound of heels clacking on the stone tiled floor. "...to talk to you about. I know your dad's making you...oh," said Maria suddenly, realizing it wasn't her son in the room. "I'm sorry. I thought you were Anthony."

Pepper got up from her seat.

"I should had known." Maria laughed, extending her hand. "Tony's never this quiet. I'm his mother, Maria. And you are?"

"Pepper," she said, taking her hand. "We were just working on our lab report."

"Really," Maria asked. That was the last thing she expected to hear. "Well, he's lucky to have you then. You seem like a smart girl."

"Thanks. I'm sorry if I'm intruding. I know it's kind of late."

"Oh, relax. I was just doing some online shopping."

Pepper kindly laughed and watched as Maria walked into the kitchen. She was beautiful. The pictures in the magazines didn't do her justice. "I like your outfit."

Maria smiled, pulling out a plate of cookies. "I knew I liked you. Are you hungry? I can make you something."

"Oh, that's not necessary, Mrs. Stark," Pepper quickly said.

"Alright, but if you need...there you are," Maria exclaimed, seeing her son making his way into the kitchen. "You know, it's not nice to leave Pepper out here this long."

"Did you say bad things about me," Tony asked, directing the question to his mother, but looking at Pepper for an answer.

"I would never. And your friend didn't either, so you can stop staring. We were talking about clothes."

"Sure," he sarcastically said.

"So what's going on," Maria questioned, shooting her son a scowling look when he shoved a cookie into his mouth.

"I found out Pepper likes me."

"What?!"

Pepper acted like he thought she would. "You practically begged me to take you with me."

"That's ridiculous."

"You wouldn't let me leave! I mean, besides that being the reason, what else could it be?"

"How about not wanting you to crash into a tree?"

Maria stood back and watched the argument in amusement. It was clear to her that her son was fond of Pepper, and not just in a platonic way. It was too bad he didn't realize it just yet. "Ahem," she voiced, clearing her throat.

Both Tony and Pepper turn to look at her. Pepper put her head in her hands, clearly frustrated and embarrassed by the situation. Tony, on the other hand, smiled and took a bite of another cookie.

"Get some work done, alright? I'll be upstairs in a conference call with Milan," Maria said, treading back to her office.

Pepper sighed. "That was embarrassing."

"Please. She's caught me doing worst things," Tony responded, walking over to the refrigerator and taking out a tub of ice cream. "You want some?"

"Just a little."

"So what did you and my mom talk about," he asked, grabbing two bowls out of a cabinet.

"Clothes," Pepper responded, rummaging through her purse for her cell. Maybe the power had been restored.

"You're gonna stick with that?"

"Well, yeah. It's the truth." Damn it. No signal.

"Fine," Tony said, handing Pepper her bowl. Grabbing one of the stools nearby, he dragged it across from her and sat down.

"JARVIS, turn on the TV, will you?"

"Certainly, sir."

Pepper jumped at the sound and looked at the ceiling, perplexed.

"That's JARVIS. He's an intelligence system I created."

"You created that," she asked, not entirely believing it. She knew Tony was smart, but she had no idea he had the ability to create multifunctional systems.

Tony shrugged. "Yeah. I did it one day when I was bored."

"So what does he do?"

"Anything. Make phone calls, do research, turn on the sprinklers, control security cameras, break into databases and-"

"Oh," Pepper interrupted. "So everything but knowing how to make you less annoying."

"That's mean," Tony said, pointing his spoon at her.

She just laughed and ate a spoonful of her ice cream. "I'm pretty sure your ego can take it."

"I'm not sure it can," he responded. "I think my heart's hurting."

Pepper rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the noise coming from the TV. The Big Bang Theory was on.

The two stayed quiet after that, except for the occasional laugh or comment.

"Do you know if the power's back," she asked when the credits rolled.

"Power is not expected to be restored until the storm has passed," JARVIS announced.

"He keeps himself updated on currents events, too," Tony told her, rolling his eyes. He got up and grabbed Pepper's bowl before throwing them into the sink. "What are you doing," he asked once he turned back around.

"What," Pepper asked, looking up. Since she had nothing better to do, she thought it'd be a good time to get some work done.

"Come on," Tony said, walking over and taking the pencil from her hand.

"What," she exasperated.

"Stop being an overachiever. It doesn't suit you," he said, then grabbing her notebook and closing it.

"Fine." Pepper sighed, taking her belongings back. Then she stared at him indignantly. "What did you want to do?"

"I, uh..." Crap. He hadn't thought that far yet. "Oh, wait. I got it." Pepper furrowed her brows when she saw the grin on his face. She wasn't sure she wanted to know. "Truth or dare."

"Absolutely not," she remarked, quickly excusing the idea.

"We'll keep it PG-13," Tony noted, smiling innocently.

"It's still a no," she said. He wouldn't hold up to his end of the deal.

"Spin the bottle?"

"With two people," Pepper asked.

Tony perked up. "So you're open to it?"

"No. Don't you have board games," she asked, changing the subject. He shot her a lopsided frown and shrugged. "Okay..." There must be something we can do.

"20 questions," he suggested.

"Tony, how is that any different...you know what? Fine," she decided, setting her notebook down.

"Really," he asked, surprised.

"As long as you keep it PG," she reminded him.

"Not a problem," Tony told her, before taking a seat at his stool. "I'll go first. You like pickles?"