Tony woke up to the feeling of something lightly grazing his face. He shook his head to get rid of it and was happy it worked. The feeling came back seconds later. "Go away," he mumbled. It didn't. He opened his eyes, frustrated it was disturbing him from his sleep. The thing he laid eyes on shocked him. He quickly shot up and scooted back until he hit the side of Pepper's bed.

It was a brown patched tabby cat. Its bright hazel colored eyes were staring back at him with curiosity. It was longhaired and had curled ears. Its face was round, it had distinct whisker pads, and a plume tail.

It had one of its paws out as if it was trying to reach him and he grinned. "Come here," he whispered, being mindful of Pepper's sleeping form. "Aw, you're cute." He watched as the cat came over to him and started nuzzling his leg, quickly purring as he pet down its soft coat.

"I like you, too," Tony said, grabbing the paw that was patting him. He grabbed one of the wires off the carpet and held it over the cat's head. The feline instantly started playing with it. "Don't break it though." Not that he cared, but if Pepper asked, he could at least say he tried stopping it from happening.

"That's my phone charger, isn't it?"

He turned around at the sound of Pepper's voice and shot her an impish smile. Upon seeing her, the cat meowed and left his side. He frowned and watched it go.

Pepper picked up her cat and scratched between its ears. "Hi," she greeted. It didn't take much to satisfy the animal; it quickly got up and left. "I'm really sorry I fell asleep on you," she told Tony apologetically. "I was really tired."

"I get it," he smiled.

"I thought you left. I woke up at six and didn't see you."

"I slept on the floor."

"Yeah, I noticed, and I got you a blanket. You seemed kinda cold."

He shrugged and looked at the time. Great. It was 9:21am. Way too early for his liking. "I'm gonna head out and shower so I can meet Rhodey at the game," he told her, grabbing his jacket and putting it on. "I'll see you there?"

Pepper shook her head. "I'd rather sleep."

"Yeah, me too." He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. "Bye," he whispered against her lips before putting his shoes on.

"You know you can't just walk out the front door, right?"

"Why not," Tony asked, standing up.

"Because I snuck you in."

"Oh, right."

"And my parents are having breakfast, they'll see you going down the stairs."

"You could distract them."

"Or I could sit back and watch you make an idiot out of yourself."

"You wouldn't do that," he responded.

"No?"

"No. You're too terrified your parents will find out I'm here. You wouldn't chance it," he said with certainty.

"Maybe I would."

"Alright. Let's go then," Tony dared, opening the door and waiting for her to get up. He knew she couldn't, wouldn't let him do it. Maybe he'd get to go down four or five steps, but that'd be it. "And what if I do get caught? What are your parents gonna think happened?"

"Nothing did happen," Pepper deadpanned.

"But they don't know that," he pointed out, not missing a beat.

"So you think they'll believe you; not me?"

"Probably not, but I'll sell it. I'm good at it."

"Tony, I don't think you thought this through," Pepper said, getting out of bed and closing the door. He smirked knowing he had just won their quarrel, but when he saw the gleam in her eyes as she turned around, he wasn't so sure. "I mean, I was looking forward to our date," she started, placing a hand on his chest. He gulped. "If my parents find out you stayed here the entire night, I'll be grounded for the week...maybe even longer because it's you."

"And...what's...that's not good," he realized, the words fumbling out. He knew what she was doing and couldn't believe it was working.

"Correct," Pepper said nonchalantly, running her hand up his chest and fixing the jacket's collar. "It's our third date. Third," she repeated for emphasis. She knew he'd been looking forward to it for awhile; she planned to use it to her advantage.

He looked back and forth between her eyes, hand, and lips before settling back on her eyes. "I know what you're doing, and I'm gonna tell you right now, don't."

"And what am I doing," she questioned, stepping closer.

"Pepper," Tony warned.

She innocently smiled.

"Don't do this." He had a minor hiccup back there, but was now back in complete control.

"Don't do this," she asked, slipping her arms around his neck and bringing his lips down to hers in a slow, lingering kiss before letting Tony take control. Once she felt him traveling down her hips towards the back of her pants, she stopped him. "Sorry," she smiled, pulling his hands off her. "That's a third date kind of thing."

"It's not gonna work."

"Funny, I think it did." She made her way over to the window and opened it. "I'm not saying you can't leave through the front door, alright? I'm just providing a better option. There's a ladder on the right side of the house."

"No, it was...but not anymore." He shrugged. "And I'm scared of heights so that is out of the question." Then he smirked. "But I'll counter with my own option."

"No," she denied. "You don't get to do that, this is my house."

He ignored her and continued. "Help me out or watch me walk into the kitchen. I'll even sit down and ask them what's for breakfast."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Pepper, don't dare me. It won't do you good."

She frowned and stared up at him with hurt in her eyes, using the guilt trip route. "You're really gonna do that to me? After how sweet I was to you last night?"

"Nope," Tony dismissed. "Don't start that crap. It doesn't work on me." He smirked when she let out a breath of annoyance.

"You're such a dick," she muttered, brushing past him.

"Hey, I was kidding." She turned around. "I wouldn't have actually done it."

"Oh, don't even pretend."

"Yeah," he replied in a bashful manner. "You're right. I would have done it."

"It's important to me that they like you. Don't you want them to like you?"

He scratched his head and sighed. "Okay, fine." This was important to Pepper. She wanted her parents to turn their opinions about him around and he could help her out with it. "It's just that I don't care about that sort of stuff. If they don't like me, then they don't like me. I'm not going to pretend to be someone I'm not. It's not worth the effort."

"I know, but even if you don't care, would you just pretend you do for me?"

"Alright," Tony smiled. "Can we go? The game starts at eleven and I don't wanna be late."

Pepper nodded and walked out the door, looking in both directions. It turned out she'd been worried for nothing. He made it out the house without any problems.

Pepper frowned staring at her physics homework. She didn't know what to do or where to start with the numbers she had wrote down. She had also written the equation she knew needed to be used down, but that was it.

"I hate this class." She leaned back in her chair and sighed. A chirping sound came from her phone and she picked it up, grateful for the distraction.

Tony: Look outside :)

She walked to her window and rolled her eyes, but had a smile on her lips. "What are you doing here," she yelled, seeing him standing on the lawn.

Tony shot her a quirky smile. "I need a reason to see you?"

"Well, no...but I can't help but think this is about something else."

"Something else, hmm," he pondered.

Pepper watched as he falsely creased his brows, thinking about it.

"Yeah," he shrugged, looking up. "I don't think so."

"Maybe these," she suggested, grabbing Tony's keys and dangling them out the window for him to see. "How did you even get into your car without them?"

"I had JARVIS."

Pepper hummed in acknowledgement. "I'll be down." She closed her window and made her way downstairs noticing her mom in the living room. She winced, but walked out the door.

"Hey," Tony greeted.

"Hey," she smiled, handing him the keys. "Going somewhere?"

"Nah. I was just close by and thought I'd come over and grab them."

"Okay, bye."

"Wait," he pouted, grabbing Pepper's hand as she turned around.

"Oh, did you want something," she amusedly asked.

"Haha," he responded. "You're not gonna let me in?"

"Not a good idea."

"Because your mom's there? Didn't you tell me you want her to like me? How is she ever gonna like me if you never even let her see me?"

Pepper squinted her eyes and glared at him. She hated when he was right.

"Come on, I'll play nice."

She looked back at the door reluctantly and bit her lip. "Okay, just don't be inappropriate."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Tony dismissed in a nonchalant manner. "I'm never like that."

"Right," Pepper replied in a similar tone. "Stop lying, Stark. It isn't attractive."

"Attractive?" She regretted saying it the instant it came out her mouth. "Just attractive?"

"Now you're even less," she responded, turning around and nearly colliding with Tony's chest. He was standing right behind her.

"I'm sexy and you know it."

Pepper couldn't stop laughing and had to put a hand over her mouth to stop herself.

"See? You're not denying it."

She just shook her head at him. It was just when Tony said that, the LMFAO song popped in her mind and she had immediately pictured him singing and acting out everything in that video.

"Mom, can Tony stay awhile?"

A nervous feeling washed over him as Pepper's mother turned her attention away from the television and towards them. "Oh, sure," Victoria smiled, getting up. "I didn't know he was coming though."

"Sorry, it's my fault," he interrupted. "Pepper didn't know I was coming, but I'll remember to tell her next time."

Victoria smiled. "Don't worry about it."

"We'll be upstairs," Pepper said, grabbing Tony's hand.

"Oh my God, kitty," Tony gasped, leaving Pepper's side once upstairs and going over to where the feline was at.

"You know," she began, coming towards him. "You're never this excited to see me."

Tony glanced at her and smiled. "How come you never told me you had a kitty cat?"

"You never asked."

"Can I take her home?"

"No, this one's mine. Get your own."

He sighed dejectedly.

"Come on, Tony," she urged, walking towards her room. "Unless you wanna spend the entire night playing with my cat."

"Would you be mad if I did?"

Pepper looked at him knowing he was being entirely serious. She smiled. "Knock yourself out."

It took no longer than fifteen minutes for her to hear him walk in.

"Your kitty bit me."

She turned around and quirked her brow. "What'd you do to her?"

"Nothing," Tony mumbled. "Whatcha doing," he asked, glancing at the papers on her desk. He thought about the problem for a few seconds. "0.625, 50, and 5."

"That doesn't help," she explained, still writing it down.

"Fine. I'll help you."

"Oh no. Your definition of helping isn't the same as mine; it's annoying."

"Hey," he yelled, taking offense to that. "I help. Remember those tests you aced? That's all because of me."

"You steer off topic."

"To entertain myself. You can't expect me to help you without wanting something in return."

"And you volunteer?"

"That is a completely separate thing."

"No, it isn't."

"Scoot over," he told her, pushing her so he could sit down on the chair.

Pepper huffed, getting up. "You know you just took all the space?"

"Just sit on me." Tony pulled her to his lap. He smirked as she made herself comfortable and leaned in to kiss her cheek. "Alright, so you wrote the area equation down. What other equation have you learned that integrates area in it?"

"Continuity."

"Yep. You can manipulate it and find the speed at Point 2. Then there's pressure...it's gonna be P2-P1, but the values aren't given. You're going to have to use-"

"Bernoulli's Principle. There's no potential energy, so it'll just be..." She trailed off, grabbing her homework.

"Remember you need to find Point 1's speed."

"Right." Pepper grabbed her pencil and started rearranging the equations on her paper to get the answers. She grinned when the right answer was produced out the calculator. Listening to him explain the last part to the question, she went ahead and worked on it; both unaware Victoria had been listening the entire time.

She smiled and made her presence known seconds later. "I brought you two pie."

Pepper quickly got off Tony's lap and turned around. Victoria pretended to be none the wiser and took her time strolling in.

"I forgot napkins though, so I'm gonna-"

"Oh, I'll get them," Pepper happily interrupted.

This is awkward, Tony mumbled under his breath once Pepper left the room. He watched as Victoria made her way to where he was sitting.

"So what were you guys doing?"

"Oh, nothing." He smiled, hoping to charm her a bit. "I was just helping Pepper out with her homework."

"Sounds like you know your stuff."

"Yeah, it comes off as second nature to me."

"Well, I appreciate all you've done. Were you in the neighborhood last night?"

"Last night," Tony asked as he felt himself beginning to perspire. "Um, yeah."

"So that was your car parked across the street," she questioned.

"Uh huh," he admitted.

"You didn't tell Pepper?"

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. How was he supposed to respond to that?

"I'm not saying you had to," Victoria immediately said upon seeing the look on his face. "I just thought since you were around, you'd come by and tell her hello."

"Oh, right," he responded sheepishly. "I didn't. It was late."

"Really? Because when I asked my daughter about it, she told me you had."

"What," he asked, not believing what he'd just heard.

"Here you go." Pepper's voice suddenly appeared and he couldn't be more thankful.

"I'll leave you two alone," Victoria casually said before walking out the room.

"You told her I was here last night," Tony asked Pepper in a loud whisper; she turned to look at him in confusion. "And did it occur to you that maybe you should have told me that before you left me alone with her?"

"What? No, I didn't...wait. Oh my God," she suddenly realized. "What did you say?"

"Nothing. I told her I didn't come over."

She breathed out a sigh of relief and ate a piece of her pie.

"So your mom lied?"

Pepper shook her head. "She's just comparing our stories."

"And you're okay with that?"

"Just relax. We're fine, Tony."

He glanced at the pie in front of him. "She probably put poison in it."

"Then don't eat it."

"But..." He looked at it and frowned. "It looks good."

She sighed and replaced his plate with hers, which made him smile.

"Thanks."

"You could have just asked."

"This way's better."

She hummed in response. "So when were you planning on leaving?"

"Not sure," Tony mumbled through his food.

"Well, I'm pretty sure my mom will tell you."

"What? Is she going to come in and grill me again?"

Pepper chuckled. "No, she'll just say it's late. The sad part is that she actually thinks she's being subtle about it."

"Yeah, I don't think subtlety's in her nature."

"Yeah, it isn't. Just leave around eleven and you'll be fine."

"Or I could spend the night."

"What? No," she disagreed. "You're just asking for us to get caught."

"Come on," Tony plead. "It'll be fun. We can do stuff."

"Stuff," Pepper questioned.

"Yeah, like...truth or dare."

"Why do you always bring that up?"

"Because I wanna play it with you."

"It'd be fun with a lot more people."

"Maybe," Tony shrugged. "But it can be fun this way, too. We can get to know each other," he pointed out, an innocent smile on his face. "Unless you're scared."

Pepper set her fork down and stared at him. "Scared?"

His innocent smile turned into a sly grin. "Why else won't you play with me?"

"Cause you have ulterior motives."

"Oh, so you are afraid to play then," he concluded.

"I'm not."

"Then let's play."

"Fine, let's play," Pepper agreed. She was going to make him regret this.