Tony was annoyed. At everything. All he wanted was to be left alone, but he couldn't even have that. Everyone was telling him what to do from left and right and it was infuriating. He could more than well make his own decisions. Sign all this by Monday. We need a replacement chosen by Friday. There's a meeting at ten you have to attend. He had no time for himself. It was always this or that. Two months had passed since his parents' supposed death and people were acting as if nothing happened. Maybe that was how long it took to forget, but for him, not enough time on this Earth could erase the emptiness in his heart. Was it too much to ask for someone to think about him and what he needed for a change? He thought about lighting the building on fire. With everybody inside. This legacy his father had made for himself was a thorn to his side. It was a reminder of what had always been more important and now its presence served an even sadder memory.

He leaned his arm against the interior of the car outside Pepper's house and sighed, squeezing his eyes shut and digging his knuckles into his forehead.

By the time he saw the messages, he jumped to conclusions, his thought clouded by anger and frustration that somewhat had nothing to do with Pepper but more to do with the day he'd had. He was mad, pissed beyond belief, and proceeded to treat her harshly, bitterly, and had bordered controlling. He preyed on her insecurities, her weaknesses, and he hated himself for doing so. He had forgotten about restraint and patience had left the building. He refused to listen and responded with accusations he knew didn't hold an iota of truth, yet he said it anyways, no hesitation at all.

Looking back on it now, he could see how asinine he had acted. Everything he'd been keeping inside had bursted and he had chosen her as target practice. He wasn't proud of what he'd done and knew he crossed the line as Pepper put it earlier today. He had backed her into a corner and all but interrogated her for no reason at all. He'd gotten physical and regretfully so. He never meant to do that and he'd apologize for his actions tonight.

"More bad news for Stark Industries. Major deals are falling apart and shares are being sold. Just today, stocks plummeted 8% and is expected to decline another 12% this weekend. With the COO MIA, sole heir to the company, Anthony Stark, is left to take the helm. The million dollar question is if he can handle it, and if so, will he succeed? Sure, the kid is smart, but immaturity and inexperience will speak for itself. Can he keep the business afloat? Will it remain the number one weapons manufacturing company in the world? Only time can tell. The Board of Directors have voiced their opinions and unanimously agree the boy is too young to take the reigns and have made it clear that they are desperately searching for a loophole, but little progress has been made. However, given the fact the boy is sixteen with a bright future ahead, analysts believe Stark will step down and not take the throne until his twenty first birthday, maybe even longer as he is expected to enroll at MIT in late Fall 2017. A private ceremony has been set at Woodlawn next weekend for the tragic loss of Howard and Maria Stark and is expected to be open to the public once procession is over. Tune in tonight for updates."

A sudden knock crept up on him, and despite the radio playing, he jumped. "What the hell!" He turned his head, his heart racing, and saw Pepper glancing worriedly at him through the glass window of his car. He had to have dozed off.

He groaned and got out with the bouquet of flowers he had picked up earlier for her. "Here."

Pepper smiled and took the bouquet of white and lavender roses. They were beautiful and he'd gotten them in her favorite color. "Thanks." It was a nice sentiment and was probably his first attempt at apologizing for his behavior. "I'm gonna put these in water. I'll be back in a couple minutes."

"About that." He cleared his throat. "Look, I don't want you to think I don't care, so I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm exhausted, Pepper. I don't have the energy to go out with you to dinner tonight. It's too much for me, so could we maybe reschedule for next Friday or whatever? Because I can't do this right now."

"Oh," she mumbled, disappointed, but hiding it well.

"You're not upset?"

"What's the point?"

"I kind of thought-"

"I mean, I guess it could had been nice if you told me beforehand so I didn't have to get dressed up, but you didn't."

"Here we go," Tony muttered.

"You say you don't want me to think you don't care, but your actions say otherwise."

"Fine, if you're going to be like this, then let's go," he huffed. "Get in the fucking car."

"Don't speak to me like that."

"Yeah, well, it's sorta hard not to when you keep picking an argument for no reason."

She scoffed. "I'm picking an argument? I'm trying to explain to you how I feel, Tony."

"And so was I, but you could care less about that, right?"

"Fine, tell me," she replied, glaring daggers into his eyes.

He gazed back with equal intensity. "Forget it. I'm done."

That threw her in for an unexpected loop. "You're done?"

"Yeah," he stated. "With you, with everybody. I'm tired. I'm tired of having to constantly explain myself to you, to the media, to the idiots at Stark Industries. It's fucking frustrating. I can't do this any longer. Everyone's expecting this or that out of me and when I fall short, I get blamed for it and I'm putting an end to it now. Do you understand what I've been through? What I'm still going through? Because if you do, you're doing a shit job at it. Everyone is. As long as you get what you want, that is all that matters, right? Forget how I feel." His voice cracked a little. "You did it just now, Pep. I say I'm exhausted and it's like you don't even hear me. I should have told you? Yeah, well, I would have if I had the opportunity, but taking care of SI is extremely difficult, especially when no body's there to help out. When the people there would rather you fail than help succeed. I've got enough to deal with and everyone wants me to think about them, and sure, at first it's not much, but it builds, and I'm just at the end of my breaking point. And those?" He pointed to the bouquet of roses he'd given her. "They're just a lame attempt at lessening the blow, because as difficult as it sounds, I don't like making you angry. Or sad. I guess it's just not paying off. I didn't come here intending to say this, but maybe we should take a break from each other."

"A break," she repeated, his words sinking in. Her facial expression turned solemn and she couldn't help the tears building up in the corner of her eyes. Her anger faded as quickly as it had appeared. If he would had told her what he was going through earlier, this would not be happening to them.

She wiped the tears with the palm of her hand and nodded. He was talking but she wasn't listening. Why was this happening to her? She didn't deserve it, but it was on her. She knew from the get go that being in a relationship with Tony wouldn't be easy, but she never expected it to be so hard.

"Look, it's only temporary." He walked up to Pepper and drew his brows together, stuck on what to do or how to go. "I don't like the person I'm becoming; I don't want to hurt you like I did yesterday." He helped wipe a missed fallen tear and smiled, a sad one at that. "I'm sorry about how I acted and I'm sorry for everything I said. I know it doesn't change what I did, but I thought apologizing might make a difference. If you want to hit me or slap me, or something, I've got no problem with it."

"I'm alright," Pepper whispered as he stepped up to let her do so. Hitting him won't make a difference, but she knew he only offered so she'd feel better. Maybe they both needed distance. Maybe this was the step in the right direction. Maybe they needed space to get through this. She could try, and like he said, it was temporary.

He rubbed his hand up and down her arm hoping to soothe away the pain he had brought onto her tonight. "You look really pretty if that means anything."

"Don't try to make me feel better." He had no right and she was furious that Tony was trying to lighten their situation with compliments. "Just go, alright?"

He retracted his hand and nodded. He wasn't going to make this any harder on her.

"Tony," she called out as he got to his car door. He whipped around. "Don't do anything stupid."

"Oh, you mean like what Ross did to Rachel on FRIENDS?"

She laughed despite how she felt. "You know about that?"

"Yeah, mom loves it." He made his way over to her and grabbed her hand that was free of roses. "I promise," he added for affirmation, seeing the doubt in her eyes. "I know what we have and I'm not gonna screw this up." He leaned in and kissed Pepper's cheek softly, but meaningful. She could feel his warm breath on her skin and for just a minute she wanted to turn her head and press her lips to his and forget about the fight and the pain that accompanied it. She chose not to and he had pulled back before she could.

"See ya, Potts." The left side of his lips quirked up in a smile before he turned to leave. To his surprise, she stopped him by grabbing onto his wrist. "What?"

"Nothing. I'm just gonna miss you," she honestly replied. They'd spent a month apart; who knew how long it'd be until they saw each other again this time around. Like time, he was unpredictable.

"We're still lab partners, aren't we?"

"It doesn't matter when you're never at school."

He sighed. "Okay, uh, I'll try to make it Monday." As much as he needed a break from her, he knew he couldn't close her off completely. It didn't feel right in his heart for him to do that.

"You know if you miss too much class, you're gonna get kicked out."

"Not like I need a diploma."

"That's not a good excuse."

"Look, I get you're just looking out for me, but you don't need to. I'll be fine, Pepper."

"Will you quit saying that, Tony, cause you're not and it doesn't help that you're lying about it. I mean, you said you wanted me to listen, and I'm more than willing to do that, but you're gonna have to trust me and let go a little."

He looked at her, knowing Pepper was right. He reached for her, pulling her into a hug she wasn't expecting. She wrapped her arms around his middle, affectionately squeezing him. "You're too honest."

"No one else will with you."

"That can't be a perk of having a girlfriend."

She smiled into his chest, knowing she'd just gotten through to him, even if it was just a little. She pulled away and looked into his eyes and for the first time she could see a bit of sparkle in them. Her eyes closed when she felt him kiss the side of her neck; she squeezed Tony one last time before letting go. "You're tired. Should you be driving? It'll be alright if you stayed the night and left tomorrow."

"Is your dad there?"

Pepper laughed lightly at his question. "Yeah, but he's upstairs. My mom's worried about you. She's the one who told me you were out here. If she didn't notice, I think you'd still be out here sleeping."

"You really think it-"

"I'll feel better if you do," she said, knowing he couldn't resist that. "What if something happens and I could've prevented it? I'll feel terrible."

He wasn't going to be difficult. Plus, a bed sounded pretty good right now.

"What happened to going out," Victoria asked as the young couple entered the living room. One look at Tony and she had her suspicions confirmed. The boy was exhausted. "You don't look good, Tony."

He offered Victoria a shrug of his shoulders.

"Is it alright if Tony spends the night here?"

"Oh," Victoria said, surprised by her request. "Sure." She smiled, but was stern in a second. "He sleeps on the floor or on this couch though."

"Got it, mom." Pepper made her way up the stairs, Tony following behind.

"She's never gonna trust me, is she," he asked once he heard Victoria yell out that they had to keep the door opened.

"No," she plainly stated.

He smirked and kicked off his shoes. "Awesome."

Pepper raised her brows. "Really? It's awesome?"

"Yeah, I mean, it'd be weird if she did." His hand moved up to his neck and his fingers go to the knot of his tie to loosen it before sliding the silk material out the collar of his dress shirt. "It'd be amazing if she liked me, but I'd rather earn it than be handed it."

"She's warming up to you," Pepper said, the realization hitting her at the same time. She'd have to ask her mom about it later, but she had a feeling it was because she could relate to him. Her mother had lost her father at thirteen due to cancer.

"Every time I pass your dad I get this feeling he wants to shoot me." Sliding his hands down his chest, he unbuttoned his shirt and took it off, tossing it next to his tie on the bed. "Should I apologize?"

"Well, he is upstairs," Pepper reminded him.

"Yeah, but it'll be a lot safer if I did it at SI."

"Sounds like someone's afraid."

"Hey, I go up there and he can claim self defense. But work? No. You know I'm his boss now, right? He reports to me and all that stuff. I think there's a meeting in a few days and he's gonna be there."

She chuckled and watched as his hands move to his belt buckle, unclasping it and pulling it out of the loops. "Don't ever say that to my dad. Is that where you came from?" She wondered why he even dressed up if he planned to cancel on her, but now she realized maybe he'd driven here straight from Stark Industries.

"Yeah. If you can't tell, I hate being there."

Progress, finally. He was opening up to her.

"But then again I could just fire everyone," he said, to himself in particular, as he thought about it. "Wait, that is actually not a horrible idea."

"No," Pepper said, shutting down the idea.

"But," he pouted.

"No, Tony. End of conversation."

"You don't know what it's like there, Pep."

"So tell me." She walked up to him with hopes he would do so. "Don't keep it bottled inside. It's not healthy. Look what happened Saturday."

He sighed and averted his gaze, and in that split second, his eyes caught something. He brushed past her lightly to get a better look. Everything that'd been on her modernized storage shelf before had disappeared. "You took all the stuff down."

"Yeah, I did," she said, walking up to him.

He instantly felt bad. "Pepper, look, I overreacted." He turned around and faced her. "I shouldn't had acted the way I did. It's just that I was so furious and he made me feel like I meant nothing to you. And I know that isn't true because you're one of the only people who's stuck along, who's willing to put up with my crap. You sat on the bleachers for nearly two hours just so you could apologize and I ignored you; I snapped. And you're right, I should be the one apologizing: for doubting you, for saying what I said, for making you cry, for worrying you; for hurting you, but I promise, Pepper, it'll never happen again."

"Tony, an apology doesn't erase what happened. You really scared me."

He swallowed the lump in his throat. He'd been afraid of that. "I would have never taken it that far." He felt a need to defend himself, even if his words were futile.

"And I want to believe you, but I don't know if I can. This person you're becoming, I don't know what he's capable of and I'm not sure I'll stick around to find out."

How was he supposed to respond to that? She just told him she was afraid to be with him.

"If you're telling the truth, then you'll change. Because if you don't, this is just gonna happen all over again and I refuse to be another target. Once and I can understand, but twice, Tony, I'm finished."

"So I'll try. That sounds good?"

"You have to mean it though."

"I do."

"You should try because you want to, not because I said so."

"I did tell you I didn't like the person I was becoming earlier."

"And?"

"And I want to change," he honestly said. "That's why I think we should take a break, so I can get my head straight."

"Alright." She liked what she was hearing, proud Tony had recognized that by himself. "I'll get a vase for these roses."

He nodded and took off his pants once she left before diving into Pepper's bed, the comfort of her blanket surrounding him. He grabbed a pillow and made himself comfortable, going into dreamland the instant his eyes closed.

So they're broken up, but not really. Hope you guys can settle with that. I'll say it once again, reviews are definitely amazing motivators. :)