Tony hissed in pain as he slowly removed what was left of the bandages around his hand. He had spent the last two hours beating the living daylights out of the punching bag that was anchored to the ceiling.

His breathing was still erratic, but it had settled for the most part. It was Friday. Four days had past since he'd shown up to school. Alone time. That was what he wanted. No phone. No visitors. JARVIS had taken a holiday. It was just him, and he had to admit, it had been the best idea ever.

His knuckles were scraped, but the wounds were superficial. A couple weeks and they'd heal. Letting out a deep breath, he got off the floor and walked upstairs into the kitchen in search for something to drink. He grabbed Gatorade and that was when he realized looking into the refrigerator there wasn't enough food to last him another week. Should I go grocery shopping? Yeah, if you knew where it was, or where things were so you don't have to walk up and down the aisles like a dumbass. He quickly scratched the thought off his mind and made a mental note to tell the housekeeper to grab him a couple things before she left for the weekend.

And what the hell am I gonna do with Pepper? So I snapped, but she deserved it! I'm not apologizing. Besides, girlfriends are supposed to support you no matter how dumb, crazy, or stupid you sound.

She hadn't even bothered to entertain the possibility of his words before tearing them apart. So here he was ignoring her because he was upset at her. He was well aware this was what people half his age did when they didn't get their way, but he didn't care. Pepper hurt his feelings and he was going to make sure she knew that.

"Sir," JARVIS announced. "I can't seem to get ahold of Mr. Stane. Shall I try once again?"

"Why the hell not? The guy's been MIA for three weeks. He's supposed to be taking care of the fucking company. I can't handle it."

"Sir, Mrs. Linden says she's spoken to him just this morning. Things are worse than it seemed. Mr. Stane is trying his hardest to wrap things up so he can fly back to the States as soon as possible."

"Yeah, well, sounds like an excuse for a vacation. Tell him to call me back or I'll do something that'll make him wanna come back."

"Mom is so going to yell at you when she finds out."

"Not if I get to it first," Pepper winked as she took another bite of the macaroni and cheese from her plate. It was their parents 20th anniversary and they were throwing a party to celebrate. Everyone was invited. People had even flown in from Maryland for the weekend.

"Not if I tell her first."

"Fine, then I'll just tell mom about the time you invited your friends over and how you were the one who destroyed her figurines."

"Yeah, well, I could tell her Tony was over when she and dad left for that concert."

"Go ahead." She shrugged. "It's not like mom can hate him more than she does."

Peter took a seat next to his sister. She had a point. "Fine, give me some of that."

"No." Pepper pulled her plate closer to herself and smirked.

"Bitch," Peter retorted before leaving her alone at one of the backyard tables that had been set up for the guests.

She hadn't seen or talked to Tony since Monday and she had even waited for him after practice to apologize. He was right. She should have supported him. And who knows? He could be right. He made valid points and she should have tried to reason them out with him instead of dismissing them.

Should I call him? She'd been wanting to the entire week, but had always chickened out believing it was better to give Tony space.

If it hadn't been for the small poke on her shoulder, she wouldn't have noticed the figure behind her all together, and she couldn't had expected who it was if she had all the guesses in the entire world.

"Hey," he smiled, taking a step back so she could get up.

She returned his smile. "I thought you weren't coming."

"Mom made me," he shrugged. "Anyways, I saw your brother. He said you were out here and I thought I'd come over and say hi."

"When's the last time we talked," Pepper asked as they both took their seat.

"When you dumped me for Tony."

Is he trying to make me feel bad? She still felt awful for the way things ended between them and didn't want to bring up the past. She remembered and smiled sadly. "So what's happening with you?"

"With school? Nothing interesting. I've been slowing down on classes and internships and just enjoying life. I've been having fun with the guys ever since I joined the fraternity."

"Really," Pepper asked. "Bet you're getting a lot of girls."

"Not interested," Robert shrugged. Mainly because his heart was still set on her, and he couldn't let that go, not that he would tell her. He was still hoping she'd wake up and realize what a mistake she made and go back to him.

"I don't believe that. You must be interested in someone," Pepper teased. It was better this way, to keep the conversation from dying. As much as she didn't want to know about Robert's romantic life, she hated the potential silence a lot more.

"Believe it. No girl's ever gonna beat you."

"Robert..."

"What," he asked, turning his attention away from the food laid out on the table and back at Pepper. "I'm just being honest with you. Is that your mom's mac n' cheese? I did not see that over there."

Pepper smiled. "I stole it."

"Oh, you're bad. Let me in on some of that." He sat up and scooted his seat over so he was right beside her, their shoulders touching. "And what about you," Robert asked, glancing at her. "You're with that ass...guy still?" He amended his words after seeing the glare she had shot him.

"Yeah," Pepper responded.

He looked up at her solemn tone. "Uh oh. I know that look. What did he do to you?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, come on. I promise not to say anything bad about him. I mean, I can probably guess what it's about."

"No, I don't think I wanna talk about it."

He wasn't offended. "Your choice. Just thought you might need someone to talk to."

Knowing Robert he was telling the truth.

"We're starting a basketball game outside, so that's where I'll be. If you get tired of staring at your phone, I could use you on our team. I have the skills of a four year old."

Pepper let out a laugh and told him she'd meet them out there in a couple minutes.

She sighed once Robert was out of sight and returned to her phone, staring at Tony's name on her contact list and deciding whether or not to push the 'call' button or not.

Robert smiled when he saw Pepper walk out the front door and over to him. He aimed the basketball at the backboard and it hit the rim and bounced out over to her. He looked apologetically at her and shrugged.

She bounced the ball back to him and shook her head. "You lost."

"Of course we did. Three of your cousins are on the school team."

"It's your fault you picked a crap team."

"I didn't have the choice," Robert replied as he strolled up to her.

"Cause you wasted time talking to me."

"You can never be waste of time," he said genuinely. "Can I ask you something? It has been bothering me ever since we broke up."

Pepper was hesitant to let him, but she still said yes.

"Do you think if you guys never moved here that we'd still be together and none of this would have happened? Because I think so."

"Robert, it's hard to call. Maybe something else would had happened, broken us apart anyways."

"Yeah, I get that, but I just think that without him being in the way, things would had worked."

"Why do you always blame him for us breaking up? We did this to ourselves. We fought and instead of talking about it, we ignored each other and pretended it never happened. It's our fault. We did it."

"He complicated things. Look, Pepper." He took a deep breath. "I still love you. I can't get over you, no matter what I try, and believe me, I tried. I lied earlier about coming only because my mom said so. When I got that message from you, I just smiled. These past few months have been hell and I keep hitting myself over the head because I realize this is all my fault. I undermined our relationship and lost trust in you all because I got jealous. I couldn't stand the thought of losing you. And to that playboy? That just drove the sword into my heart a little further and I couldn't understand why he had your attention, but I do now. I wasn't here and when I was, we fought 90% of the time. He was there and he was the distraction from me. If I said I wanted to start over, will you think about it?"

She shook her head without even a thought. "It's too late, Robert. If you had said this a couple months ago, then yeah, maybe I would had thought it over, but it's too late now. You should move on."

"Pepper, you know he's gonna break your heart."

"If he does, then it'll be my problem. Not yours."

"Do you love him?"

"I'm not doing this. It's counterproductive."

"I'll take that as a no. Do you still love me?"

"No, I don't, Robert," she responded, clearly and bluntly.

"But you still care a great deal."

"And that's all. I don't want to hear this anymore."

"If you're sure this is what you want." He was pretending to understand, but truth is he was going to do whatever it took to get her back, starting with his transfer to UCLA next fall.

"It is. So this is how it's going to go. If you wanna be friends, we can, but this never comes up again. We keep it neutral, we keep it friendly. You step over that line and I never want to see you again."

"Fine, yeah, I get it."

She stared him down hoping he really meant that. "Good." She let out a smile to relieve some of the tension. "I just came out to tell you I'll be in my room if you need me. Think I'm gonna take a nap until dinner."

He kept his cool until she was gone. That was when he kicked the basketball out of frustration.

"Just stick to what you're good at," Peter told him as he went up to him with a bottle of water.

"Your sister's driving me nuts."

Peter grabbed the ball from the curb and made a basket before responding. "What happened?"

"She's actually serious with Tony Stark?"

"I think so. I mean, they slept together."

Robert's eyes all but bulged out of their sockets. "What?!"

"Yeah, a couple weeks ago," Peter told him. "He probably got her on his first attempt, too. Sucks to be you, doesn't it? I mean, you've tried what? Ten thousand times," he joked.

"Don't remind me."

"They got caught in the act."

"Unbelievable!" Out of anger, Robert threw the bottle in his hands onto the street, nearly hitting the headlight of a passing car.

The car immediately screeched to a stop at an empty spot on the side of the road.

"Um, you just hit a Porsche."

Robert was just as shocked as Peter was and he stared at the car just waiting to see who was in there. "Not intentionally! And I barely grazed it."

They both turn their heads the moment the car door opened.

"Dude," Peter drew out, quickly realizing who the person was. "He's going to think you did that on purpose."

Tony couldn't believe who he thought he saw as he drove down the street. He screeched his brand new Porsche 918 Spyder into a vacant space on the side of the road and stepped out, none the wiser to the bottle of water that had almost hit his car until he'd been informed.

He was already on edge no thanks to Obadiah and the adrenaline from his workout was still coursing through his veins. Why the fuck is he here?

Peter was the first to speak up when he neared. "Hey, Tony."

"Hey," he responded as casually as possible before turning his attention to Robert. His stance was confrontational and his tone matched his posture. "You know, I get you're a dick and all, but shouldn't you apologize for almost hitting someone's car? Unless you did on purpose."

Again, it was Peter who spoke up. "He didn't. I don't think he saw your car."

Tony ignored him and kept his focus on Robert. "Peter speaks for you now?"

And that was the moment Robert intentionally picked a fight. Let Pepper see Stark for who he really is. "My only regret is missing the headlight."

"Right," Tony responded, nodding his head. The guy couldn't lie to save his own life and the fact that he was provoking him told him everything.

"If you're here for Pepper, I think she's upstairs," Peter said. He hoped Robert would leave it at that, let it go, and not make this any worse.

"Hold up, I just spoke to Pepper. She doesn't want to see you. In fact, you should go. Throw your own party instead of crashing someone else's."

This time, Tony scoffed. "And who's going to make me? You?"

"Didn't Pepper tell you? We talk all the time; she asked me to come down here for her parents' anniversary. I guess it must've slipped her mind."

Now, that time, he wasn't sure if that was a lie or not. Partially because he was just seeing red.

"Yeah, you heard me," Robert taunted. If he continued down this path, he could tell he was going to get his desired results. "She told me she slept with you. You wanna know what I think? I think she did it because she felt sorry for you. What girl wouldn't give you a pity lay after all that's happened to you?"

"God, it just kills you that I've gotten further with her in a couple months than you ever had in two years."

"If that's what you have to tell yourself, fine. Deep down we both know she would had never gone to bed with you if your parents weren't gone."

"You mention my parents one more time and I will beat the shit out of you."

"Guys, just calm down," Peter said, getting in between the two hostile men.

"If Stark wants to prove to himself he can beat the crap out of me, let him."

"Rob, you might be two years older than him, but he can still kick your ass."

"If he wants to talk to Pepper, he's gotta get past me," Robert responded, his eyes locked dead with Tony's.

"What? You think because she sends you a couple texts that she still has feelings for you? Even loves you? You're living in a fucking delusional world and it's population one. Oh, and wait, that transfer you put in to UCLA? That's to get closer to Pepper, right? Try and win her back? Yeah, well, don't bother packing your stuff because I stopped it. And while you're at it, find a whole 'nother career path."

Robert felt the anger inside him stirring up. His hands balled into tight fists.

"You have the audacity to tell me I haven't worked for anything my entire life? You're a fucking hypocrite. You missed Harvard's application deadline, and yet there you are, at Harvard. How the hell did you get in? Dad? Contacts? Magic? You've squandered someone else's dreams and that's wrong. So, yeah, you heard me: choose a different profession because I'm not letting you have your dream job when you took away someone else's."

"Um, and you're gonna do that how?"

"You were right. My dad is a billionaire. It's amazing what a few donations and promises can do. Personally, I think you should major in dance. I could see you teaching ballet to little kids in the future."

"You son of..." Before he could think clearly, Robert lunged forward.

Too bad for him that Tony saw it coming. He merely took a step to the right and chuckled to himself as Robert stumbled onto the ground. What an asshole. He was going to find Pepper now. They had a lot of things to talk about.

He had only taken a few steps when he felt someone grab his shoulder, turn him around, and nearly deck him on the left side of his face.

"You're so going to pay for that." Tony quickly recovered as Robert hit air. He blocked his next hit with his forearm and used his momentum to punch him square on the jaw, then another to his lips. He heard him make an 'umph' sound and it was music to his ears. He took a hit at the gut when Robert was still in a daze, the punch sending him straight to the grass, his arm clenching his stomach.

"Hey! Hey!" All three teenagers heard the unmistakable voice that was Richard Potts. "What the hell is wrong with you two?! This is a party! There's kids!" He got in between Tony and Robert. His tone was authoritative, firm, and without a doubt, disapproving. "Your behavior is worse than the four year olds here! Get it together or I'll throw you both out."

Tony wasn't even listening. He just glared intensely at Robert, daring him to make another move, before walking into the house. He had drove over to talk, but all that seemed to have been forgotten.