"Glad to have you back," Coach Martinez told him as he entered the field clad in shorts and his soccer jersey for practice after the first day from winter break.

Tony smiled. He was glad to be back. New York had gone off without a hitch, expect for the fact that Obadiah had left him out to dry, giving him the daunting task of conducting business meetings with their international bases.

I'll take care of them, the bald headed man assured. All you need to do is show up. He was halfway to New York when Obadiah called. The Middle East needed his attention. Nothing too important. This sort of thing happened on a regular basis.

"I guess I'm back to playing second forward," Brad announced.

Tony turned around and smirked, shaking his hand along with his other teammates that had followed Brad out from the locker room. "I said don't make yourself too comfortable."

"It's all for the best, right," said the forward player.

"Yeah, Jacob said you weren't going to make it into tournament without me."

"Okay, let's just start the game before we hear him brag about it," Brad said.

The team laughed and headed out into the field. He trailed behind the others with Mike, the forward player.

"So there's a rumor about you being in the market again."

"And you care about that," Tony asked with a raised brow.

Mike shrugged. "Just curious. Everyone knows you've been sniffing around that redhead for months and the girls in PE were saying how you haven't talked to her the entire day."

"Your point being?" He knew this was leading into something else.

"There's a pool going around. $80 yes. $20 no. Did both-"

"Really? Just $20?"

"I don't know, man, for whatever reason, Rex thinks it's not just about sex. Thinks she has you whipped."

Before Tony could get a word out, a female voice very familiar to him called his name and scared him stiff.

"I'm gonna head outta here," he quickly said as he turned around for the locker room. Sadly, for him, he miscalculated where Pepper had called him from and nearly crashed into her instead. "Oh, hey, baby." He smiled and attempted to kiss her, to which she rejected.

She kept her glare at Tony and grabbed his arm tightly, ignoring his protests of pain as she directed them to the bleachers - the only current unoccupied space on the soccer field.

"Hey! Ow! What is wrong with you?!" He pulled his arm out of her grasp and rubbed the distinctive red spot she had made.

"Ugh! Me? What is wrong with you?!" Pepper crossed her arms and looked at him indignantly. "Aren't you gonna explain yourself before I murder you in front of all your friends?"

"It just slipped," he quickly responded in a single breath, shoulders raised.

"You were so..." She groaned in frustration and pushed him, causing him to loose his balance and fall backwards. Luckily for him, his hands broke the fall, he barely hit the bleachers. "...inconsiderate!"

He glanced up and raised his pointer finger. "Pepper, before you get mad-"

Pepper took several steps closer to him and he instinctively held his hands up to defend himself. His teammates were at a standstill watching the scene play out with laughter and smiles on their faces.

"Madder," he corrected, picking himself off the cement. "I have a reason."

"You told everyone we had sex!"

"Wait, hold up...I did not tell everyone. I told one person and he just-"

"It hardly makes a difference when you practically yell it out in class!"

"I didn't yell it! Rhodey was being a dick, telling me how he got to spend time with his girlfriend and all that stuff and I got a little mad. And besides, I didn't even confirm it, like you just did right now!"

Her current demeanor dropped and turned into full panic instead. Her eyes widen and her cheeks reddened and she stared at him in absolute horror.

He responded in an arrogant manner, unable to wipe the grin off his face. "Yeah, that's right. So if you want to be mad at someone, Pep, go look in the mirror because you're the one that screwed up."

"But, but...I heard...everyone-"

"Saying I finally nailed you? Yeah, sorry about that, but it was just a rumor going around. And now...well..." He turned around and nodded to the guys on the soccer field - who were now whistling and hollering him various congratulatory sayings. "Good going, Pep." Tony smirked and sat both his hands on her shoulders. "Everyone on campus will know our business in a matter of minutes. Be proud."

"Oh my God," Pepper muttered.

"Look, the guys are waving at you. You should meet them sometime."

"Oh my God, I can't believe I did that." She covered her face with her hands in embarrassment. She had been too caught up with what he had 'said' that she had forgotten it was just a rumor. "Didn't it occur to you that maybe you should have stopped me from talking?"

"Uh, you kept interrupting me every time I tried. Why do you care so much? Everyone's going to forget about it by next week."

"For you. I mean, all they're going to think is 'oh, he finally got what he wanted. Who's next on the list?' You know how that makes me feel? Used."

Used? The word irked him. He would understand if she felt hurt or insecure or mad, but used? How many times did he have to prove to her that he wasn't with her for kicks? "Who fucking cares?" The delivery of his words had been harsher than he intended.

Her head whipped up. Did he really just say that? "I do!"

Tony took a deep breath and cracked his neck. That was when he realized it wasn't because she cared, but because she had let the notion bother her to begin with, no matter how brief it had been. He softened his features. "Why does it bother you so much?"

Pepper attempted her best poker face. "It doesn't, okay?"

"Yeah, it does. I get it." This was one of those things they've talked about but never actually discussed before. "You're bothered that you let yourself think it was true, even if it was for a moment. Pep, their opinions shouldn't matter, that's what I was trying to say before."

"It's not as easy as you're making it sound."

"I know you don't completely trust me yet and I'm fine with that, but have I ever given you a reason not to? Shouldn't that be enough? You know I'm not using you, but you think it and it makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. I shouldn't had blabbed to Rhodey and I deserved that shove, but he was just going on and on about getting to spend time with his girlfriend. I got jealous. I spent winter break in a suit, in fucking conferences with people who don't even take me seriously talking about the direction Stark Industries is heading as if my parents had gone off to vacation on an island or something. You learn to develop a thick skin, Pep. They don't even have the courtesy to listen to anything I say but I don't care because at the end of the day, I own their asses and I'll fire each and every one of them if I wanted to and they all know I would in a heartbeat. You don't think I'd had rather spend that time somewhere else? I missed you, Pepper. A lot. I know we did Skype and all that stuff, but it isn't the same." He shrugged. "If you weren't grounded, I would had sent a plane for you so you'd be in New York with me. That is what winter break should have been. You. Me. Together."

Pepper looked deep into his chocolate brown eyes and smiled. She stormed over here ready to give him a piece of her mind, but his speech all but made up for it. "I guess I just need to work out a few of my insecurities. And I do trust you, Tony. Completely. And what you said just then was sweet, but seeing how things ended with my dad, I don't think that would have been possible."

"Don't underestimate me." He laced Pepper's fingers in his and bent her arm with his hand behind her back, pulling her closer, but at the same time backing her onto the fence currently around them. "Why'd you cancel on Saturday? I got you a present like you asked for."

"Don't you have a ball to kick," Pepper asked instead.

"Don't you have a boyfriend to kiss," Tony countered.

"Oh, yeah, I do, don't I? I'm gonna go find him now."

"That's uncalled for."

Pepper chuckled as she felt him press up against her.

"You're not gonna give me an answer," Tony inquired, staring into her eyes. He couldn't deny the fact that he missed Pepper and the fact that they had agreed to spend Saturday together the weekend he got back was the only thing keeping him sane his entire duration on the East Coast. He was a little more than upset when she canceled on him.

"It's embarrassing."

"Oh," he said, not thinking more of it at first. Then the possibilities hit him. "Oh," he dragged out, a disgusted look on his face. "Okay, I don't want-"

Pepper rolled her eyes. "That is not what happened."

His brows furrowed, he was lost. Okay...then what?

"My mom scheduled a doctor's appointment for me."

If she was hoping he'd get the hint, he didn't.

"And it's the type only women have to go to."

"The obstetrician?"

"No, gynecologist."

He waved her comment off. "Same difference."

Pepper scoffed. "Believe me, it's not. He wouldn't had looked down there if he was an obstetrician."

The only thing he caught off her sentence was that her doctor had been a he. He took a step back, blinked several times, and tried to tell himself he had to have heard Pepper wrong. "You're telling me a dude looked between your legs? That is just wrong. The only dude allowed to do that is me, Pep."

Pepper resisted the urge to roll her eyes again.

"That's not right. You need to change doctors."

"Or we could just not have sex," she challenged, knowing full well she'd won their disagreement on that comment alone.

"Potts, that's low. Even for you."

"What," she inquired innocently.

He knew he had lost this fight so he just gave up. "Okay, so if you're not on your stuff, you want to get out of here and..." His voice was low and suggestive and his eyes bored into hers with desire and passion. He put his hand against the wall and leaned in just close enough so their lips would touch.

The first few kisses were soft, innocent, their senses igniting, and for Tony, he was ten steps ahead. He sought her hungrily and pressed her harder against the fence, the heat and friction converting to a familiar pleasure that would soon rise in the pit of his stomach. His hand trailed up her arm to her face, his thumb rubbing her cheek in a back and forth motion as he gentled their kiss. A quiet groan escaped his lips as her hand trailed down his chest to the curve of his spine, the touch making his shiver.

They slowly pulled apart and his eyes opened. He could see most of her lip gloss had smothered off. He had gotten carried away, but who could blame him after how they left things three weeks ago? It killed him they couldn't spend that night together and he'd been aching for another night with her like that since. Given how she enjoyed every second of their little impromptu make out session, Tony knew it would not take that much convincing.

"Oh, I almost forgot, I have something to tell you." He motioned her to take a seat. "You can't tell anyone. I mean, I would had told you the moment I found out, but I couldn't risk it over the phone."

"Okay," she said cautiously.

"I was looking through the footage of my parents' car accident and I don't think they're dead."

"Tony..."

"No, don't give me that look. I'm not insane."

She sighed inwardly and stared at him. What was she supposed to say? That she believed him? She couldn't because she didn't and she wouldn't lie to his face and pretend she did.

"Even JARVIS believes it's possible."

"JARVIS isn't real," she said to him.

"So you're not even going to let me explain?"

"No, I'm not saying I won't." I just don't get where you got that from. "The footage, Tony. Everyone's seen it. Their car exploded. Into the air. They died the moment the detonation was pressed."

"Look, that's the thing. Everyone just assumed it was my parents because of the license plate and all that, but what if it wasn't them? I pieced together a timeline and made a map of the route they'd been driving on and four minutes are unaccounted for. They're at this tunnel due to a train and the cars behind them were caught in the same situation but an intersection behind. If you assume they knew about the attack, that they knew it would happen on the way back from the benefit, don't you think they could had maybe came up with a game plan? I checked the tunnel and there's a locked door that leads to the sewers. My parents could have easily gotten out of their Escalade towards safety in that four minute timeframe."

"You don't think people would have noticed?"

"Pep, you know how it is when you're waiting for a train to pass. Everyone's on their phone and shit. No one's looking in the rearview mirror thinking what's happening behind us."

"Tony, even if that were true, they couldn't have possibly known when the denotation would had taken place."

"Their car exploded on 10th where there's minimal traffic, minimal casualties, and minimal damages. And given that mom and dad were the intended targets, it makes sense they would try to contain the situation. That leaves Manchester, Maddox, and 10th."

"But you're assuming too much. That they knew when the train would be arriving, that they knew it'd be on 10th. And let's just say it wasn't your parents in the car, then who was? They found body parts. They found your mother's necklace. Whatever material they could salvage from clothing was sent to the lab and analyzed. It was a good enough match for them to call it a day. Maybe you need a break from this. Do you remember what I said about too much determination? Remember what you said about grasping at straws? I think you might have reached that point. You need to step back and take a break before it starts consuming your life. You're just making it worse for yourself. I mean, if you're right and they did orchestrate all this, that would mean they kept you out of the loop. It would mean they let whoever was hired to plant the bomb plant it and it would mean that they were willing to let you go through all this pain just so they could fake their deaths. I've met your mom, she looks at you like you're her entire world. She wouldn't put you through that."

He looked down at his hands and held back the tears. Pepper should be helping him, not pushing him down. He thought she was in his corner, but now he wasn't so sure.

He stood up and collected his thoughts. "Maybe you're right and I am seeing things that aren't there, but I told you because I thought you'd be supportive, and I guess I was wrong. You're just like the rest of the people out there. Just forget about it. I'm sorry I fucking mentioned it to begin with."

"Tony, that's not..." She stood up and tried to put her hand on his arm to calm him down, but stopped when he interrupted her.

"Just fuck off, Pep."

She ran a hand through her strawberry blonde locks and watched as Tony made his way onto the soccer field. She was frustrated with herself. All he wanted was her to lend an ear and instead she had opened her mouth.

And now here they are: their first fight. It wasn't like she didn't see it coming. It wasn't like she was shocked. Any parent dying would test a couple's relationship and the fact that both his had gone, it just meant double the work. Sitting there, Pepper found herself asking whether to stay and watch him or just get up and go. He probably didn't want to see her anyways.

Yes, I've decided to create drama for our couple, be prepared! Until next time!