"Oh God," Pepper said, shooting up in bed. "It's just a dream," she told herself, calming her breathing.

Why was she dreaming about Tony...him being her boyfriend no less?

Memories from the previous night came to mind. Robert surprising her. Tony irritating her. Her fight with Robert - not that it was one, per se. He was jealous and didn't like the way Tony was acting around her. She understood and assured him nothing was going on. It was just Tony being Tony. At least that's what she said. In retrospect, last night was odd. Weird. There was something about it that didn't add up. Maybe it was because of the way Robert treated him, but she felt as if Tony had wanted to get caught in a compromising situation with her.

"What's wrong," Robert asked, stirring.

"Nothing," she replied, letting him wrap his arm around her waist. "I had a bad dream."

"Want to talk about it," he offered, mumbling into her neck.

"No, I'm fine."

"You sure? Kind of sounded pretty bad."

"Don't worry about it," she told him, but thought of a story just in case he kept asking.

"Alright then."

"What are you doing," Pepper mumbled seconds later as she felt Robert kiss his way up her neck. She laughed softly when he kissed behind her ear. "We cannot do this," she said in a hushed tone.

"Why not," Robert asked, watching as she turned to face him.

"Why not? My parents are sleeping. In the room next door. It's weird doing things like that."

"Doing things like what," he asked, slipping his hand underneath her shirt.

"Like that," Pepper hissed, removing his hand. She smiled at him when he positioned himself above her. "And to think my parents trust you."

He chuckled. "Be honest. You want to kiss me."

"Well, duh. But it's not a matter of wanting to," she said, putting her hands on his chest to stop him from leaning down further.

"Of course it's not," he laughed, kissing her. He grinned when he felt Pepper kiss back.

She lost herself in the moment until she felt Robert pulling down her shorts. Maybe he'll let go, she thought. Nope. If anything, he had tugged at them more.

"Wait," she said, dodging his kiss and putting herself in a position that would make him sit up.

"What," Robert asked.

"What are you doing?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I thought..."

Pepper raised her brow. "You thought what?"

"I thought it was what you wanted." He regretted the words the second he finished. He didn't mean for it to come off like that.

"What I wanted?"

"Okay," Robert said, holding his hands up and scooting back. "I didn't mean it that way. It's just that...okay, fine," he surrendered. "It's what I wanted. But did you not want it, too? I mean, you let me sleep in your bed. What was I supposed to think?"

She sighed, anger building inside.

"Oh, come on. You don't have the right to get mad," he told her. "You're sending me mixed signals."

"At what point did I explicitly tell you that I wanted you to jump me?"

"Look," Robert replied, taking her hand. "That wasn't my intention. It wasn't. But I actually thought it was where we were headed."

Pepper cast down her gaze and remained silent. He was right. She thought she was ready for it, but tonight showed her she wasn't.

"And I don't want to be that guy, but, seriously, Pepper, I'm tired of waiting."

His voice felt defeated, as if he was tired of playing a losing battle. "I can't deal with this right now," she said, finding her voice. "Just get out." She got out of bed and went to open the bedroom door.

"So we're not even gonna talk about this," Robert asked, grabbing his pillow.

"We will. It's just..." She sighed. "...the middle of the night. I don't want to fight."

"Same here," Robert agreed, stopping in front of her. "Why do you think I'm canceling the trip? You deserve better than what I've been giving you. I understand that now. I love you and I guess what I pulled just then was me trying to show you that." He looked into her eyes, hoping she'd understand. "It hurts when you pull away like that. It makes me feel like you don't trust me."

"Robert, wait," Pepper whispered. She tried to run after him, but he had already started down the stairs. All this time, she'd been thinking about her own needs; not how it was affecting him. But Robert was wrong. She did trust him. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to bend the rules a little.

Tony walked out of seventh period having finished their work in record time. There was still thirty minutes until school ended and an hour until football practice began, so he texted Happy and told him to meet up at the parking lot so they could grab a bite to eat since he had spent most of his lunchtime in the bedroom of a certain cheerleader he'd been wanting to get his hands on - not that he mentioned it in his text.

"I'm glad you texted me. Mrs. Cortez's jokes were killing me."

"You do the same to me," Tony quipped.

"Haha, very funny," his friend humored. "Where's Rhodey? He's not coming?"

"Nope. Something about an army meeting."

"Yeah, right. He has plans with a girl from the water polo team."

"Really," Tony asked, surprised. Rhodey wasn't the 'take action' kind of guy when it came to girls. "When'd this happen?"

"At lunch. Speaking of lunch, where were you?"

He shrugged. "Had something to do."

"Don't you mean you had someone to do," Happy corrected.

Tony glanced Happy's direction. How'd he know?

"Yeah, you heard me. And don't even deny it, man. I know."

"How?"

"It was all Katie could talk about during P.E."

"I was good, wasn't I?"

"Gross," Happy shivered. "And yes," he mumbled.

"What the fuck is he doing here," Tony suddenly said, seeing Robert in the parking lot.

"Who's that?"

"Pepper's boyfriend," he replied, rolling his eyes. He'd rather take a bullet than refer him as her boyfriend again.

"Oh, the girl you're in love with," Happy teased.

"Okay, say that again..." Tony glanced at him. "...and I'll kick you in the nuts."

"Tony," they heard Robert say. "Do you know if Pepper's out?"

"Why don't you call her and find out? Your phone's right there," Tony said instead. He wasn't going to help him.

"I did. It's off."

"Well, I'm out, so that means she's out, too. Just call her again."

"Could I actually talk to you about something?"

Tony stopped dead in his tracks and turned around. "I have places to be."

"It's not going to take long."

Sighing, Tony made his way over to him. Happy stayed behind.

"Look," Robert began. "Pepper might not see it, but I do. Leave her alone. She's not interested."

Tony considered what he said for a moment. Then he did what he did best. "Does she know you're here speaking for her?"

"Just stay away from her. I don't want to ask again."

"Yeah, well, you're gonna have to because you don't get a say in who I can and can't see."

Robert scoffed. "You can pretend like you don't have an ulterior motive all you want. I don't care. It's just not going to go well once she finds out."

"And what's gonna happen when she finds out about this?"

"I'm looking out for her. That's the difference."

"That's gonna be hard to do. Right," Tony taunted. "Pepper said you were leaving soon."

"That's none of your business," Robert responded, taking several steps towards him. "Plus, I live in the real world. Something you wouldn't understand. I don't have the luxury of spending daddy's billions and doing nothing my entire life."

"Repeat that. I dare you," Tony told him. "See what happens." He was ready to punch the crap out of him.

"Just stay away from Pepper," Robert repeated. "Stick to girls you actually have a chance with."

"And what makes you think I don't with Pepper? I mean, she already spent the night in my bed once, sleeping with her a second time shouldn't be-" Tony was cut off with a hard punch to the face, his nose to be exact. Instinctively, he stepped back, his hand coming up to wipe the blood.

"What the hell is wrong with you," they heard someone yell.

"Tony, you alright," Happy asked, running over.

"Yeah," he shrugged off, wiping his nose again. He hadn't expected the punch to be that hard. "Go find me something to clog up the bleeding."

"God, you're bleeding." Tony looked up from the small pool of blood in his hand and saw Pepper. "Tilt your head forward and sit down."

"I'm fine."

"Tony, just do it," she told him, like he was some five year old that had been sentenced to time out. "And pinch the end of your nose."

"You don't have to be mean," he shot back, sitting down. "And when'd you become a doctor?"

"My brother had a lot of nose bleeds as a kid," Pepper replied, checking the bleeding. It didn't look like it was going to be stopping anytime soon.

"Pepper, seriously," Robert spoke, walking up to them. "He deserved it. If you heard what he said, you'd punch him, too. He's not innocent in this."

She snapped her head to look at him. "I don't want to hear it." She sighed, then turned to Tony. "You should get it checked out."

"I'm fine," Tony told her once again. "Just need to clog it."

"With what?"

"Cotton or something?" He hadn't exactly thought it out, but there was one thing he did know: he didn't want to be here. The locker room was nearby and he knew there was a first aid kit in there. "Happy's taking too long so I'm gonna go fix this by myself."

"What'd he say to you," Pepper asked once he left. She knew it wasn't good when she saw Robert fidgeting.

"Nothing," Robert simply replied. "I overreacted. Can we go?"

"Okay, first of all, I don't appreciate being lied to. And, second, if you don't want to tell me, I can just as easily bother someone who will."

"Come on," Robert yelled to her retreating figure. "Look, I'm sorry!" Yeah, I'm in serious shit. He'd still wait for her though, knowing he'd most likely get yelled at the moment she came back.

"Tony," Pepper hesitantly called out, standing at the entrance to the football locker room, which smelled. Badly. If it weren't for the circumstances, she would've left already.

"Yeah," he asked. Seconds later, he saw her walking in. "What are you doing here?"

She shrugged as she sat next to him. "I want to make sure you're okay."

"And," Tony pressed.

Pepper sighed. "And to find out what that whole thing was about. Robert won't tell me, so I think he might've started it. But, seeing how he punched you in the face, I know you're not innocent in all this, either."

"He said something that rubbed me the wrong way and I said something back. This," he said, pointing to his nose. "Was the result of it."

"You're not telling me everything."

"And I won't," he responded, ill-mannered.

"So I'm guessing it's about me."

Tony looked away, giving her the answer she needed. He didn't know what to say. If he told her, he knew she'd find out. She wasn't dumb. She would connect the dots and realize how he felt. All she needed was a piece to the puzzle and, right now, that was what his heart was urging him to do. No more stalling.

"Which isn't surprising. Robert doesn't like you."

"Yeah, a lot of boyfriends don't," he pointed out.

"With good reason."

"Yeah, I'm aware of that," Tony agreed. Sighing, he looked at her. "Can I tell you something?"

She was skeptical to let him, but nodded.

"I knew you had a boyfriend."

His confession caught her off guard. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She couldn't respond.

"Even before the night he came over."

"Yeah, I got that," she muttered.

"Well, you could've said something," he mumbled, so low that Pepper couldn't had heard.

"When?"

"When what," he asked, taking the ice pack off his nose.

"When did you find out," Pepper rephrased, looking him straight in the eyes. She didn't know what else to feel but anger. If he knew about Robert, why pretend he didn't? And, more importantly, why didn't he stop hitting on her the minute he found out? He had to know he had no chance with her.

He shrugged. "I don't know. A couple weeks ago? When we bumped into each other at the mall."

She remembered that day. Morgan visited her. They had a good time. Then she remembered the day after. Tony had been, for lack of a better word, a dick to her. Slowly, things sunk in.

Tony looked down, picking the towel holding his ice pack. His insecurities were rising with each passing second. All his cards were on the table and she was taking her sweet time responding.

Pepper had all the pieces to the puzzle now, all she had to do was connect them. Okay, but that doesn't explain why he acted that way. And what about Cassidy? His comment about choosing to spend time with her instead of a cheerleader. He brushed it off as a joke, but what if it wasn't? It couldn't be, she finally realized.

She looked at him and gulped. "Can I ask you something?" She was already scared for his response. "And could you give me an honest answer?"

"What," he asked, meeting her gaze. Judging from the look on her face, Pepper had figured it out...but he wasn't going to jump to conclusions. At least, not yet.

"Do you..." She trailed off. Her heart was racing and she chickened out asking the last minute. Maybe she could still get out of this if she quickly got up and left. "Never mind. I'm gonna go," she said, getting up. "Forget it. It was stupid anyways." Besides, Tony didn't like girls. Not the way she was thinking.

"Pepper, wait." She had only walked a couple steps when he said that. "What were you gonna say just then? I want to know," Tony said, making his way toward her. She didn't know it, but he was just as scared as she was. He just hid it better.

"Nothing."

"Really? Because you didn't actually say anything to me five minutes before that," he pointed out.

She went with a lie. "I was just trying to figure out what you two were arguing about."

That was bull and he knew it.

"Okay, how about this," Tony said instead. "You tell me what you were really thinking and I'll tell you what happened."

"How will I know it's the truth?"

"Easy. You don't lie to me, I don't lie to you."

"Fine. But you first."

"Okay," Tony said, unconsciously shoving his hands into his pockets. "I was walking to my car when he came up and told me I should stay away from you. And that's fine, you know? I don't care. But then he started talking about me like he knew my life or something with this patronizing tone and I decided to hit back by saying something I knew would set him off, which is why he punched me in the face." That summed it up without giving much detail. "Your turn."

"You're not telling me the whole thing," Pepper said, calling him out on it. If she was going to tell him what she was thinking, she expected him to tell her every fact of the argument in return.

"That was everything," he replied, a bit louder than he should have. She stared at him with an 'like I'm gonna believe that' look. "So stop looking at me like that. And, uh," he transitioned, clearing his throat. "Like I said, it's your turn."

"Not until you tell me everything."

"You should've specified that then."

She couldn't believe him. No, scratch that, she could. "I'm leaving," she said, turning to walk out the door.

"Hey, you can't just go," Tony told her, grabbing her wrist. "We had a deal."

"What's the point," Pepper asked, facing him. "You're obviously not telling me everything, so why should I?"

"Fine. Then, yes or no?"

"Yes or no? To what," she questioned. She was confused, but also getting more irritated.

"To the question you were gonna ask. What do you think I would had said?"

"Um, I...I'm not sure I follow," Pepper stammered, casting down her gaze for a second. In the process, she failed to see him closing the gap between the two of them. "What question did you think I had in mind," she asked, meeting his brown eyes. He couldn't know? Could he?

Tony could tell he wasn't going to get anywhere with her, not the way she was acting. Then, for the second time today, he did what his heart told him to do. He leaned in and kissed her.

Sorry this update took so long! Long story short, I just graduated college and just took time out to relax! This is the longest chapter I've ever written, but you all deserve it! I promise to get the next chapter out sooner. In return, leave an review? You guys rock. See you all next time. Thank you for reading :)