She wished she could peel off the piece of anger that was smothering her heart. What was the point in staying? She sure as hell wouldn't watch him. She turned away from the crowd and quickly sought out a drink for her arid mouth.

"Pepper!" She had heard the same voice call her earlier and had ignored it. Turned out the person was Rhodey. He had seen her in the crowd the minute she rushed off and he had immediately ran after her.

She didn't know Rhodey all that much, but they had a class together.

He plainly stated, a little out of breath, "He's not there. I don't know where he's at, but he is not there." He emphasized it again just so he was sure Pepper heard him. "Tony is a complete idiot, but he would also do anything he can to not disappoint the people he cares about."

"Right," Pepper sarcastically replied.

"I thought the same thing a year ago. Look, Pepper, he's messed up. Tony's damaged, but not beyond repair. I've never seen him put so much effort into anything the three years I've known him like he does with you. I mean, and don't tell him I told you, but the second he saw you, he was hooked. He literally spent thirty minutes talking about you after school; it was disturbing. But then I saw the way you guys interacted and I understood way before he did. You can hold your own against him and you don't take crap from him and he needs someone like that in his life. You know he was never going to talk to you again? I found him in the locker room that one time just sitting there, heartbroken. He was hurt you turned him down, but he was more upset at himself for having let someone get to him the way you had. Because he's spent his entire life building this wall up to protect himself from that very situation. I convinced him that he should go to your house and apologize for snapping at you and he did. He didn't do what I thought he would, but it still worked and I'd like to believe that night was the catalyst for you two being together."

"If you're saying all this just so I'll-"

"I'm not. Tony's dealing with a lot of crap at the moment. He's running SI, he has school, and he's looking for his parents."

"You actually believe they're alive?"

"Tony had a compelling argument and I couldn't refute it."

"How? You could easily argue that-"

"Maybe if you had bothered to hear the entire story, you would understand," Rhodey said sternly. "How it's going, what progress he's made...that doesn't matter. All Tony wants is support and he came to you for that."

"I know." Pepper played with the ring of water the shot glass had imprinted onto the counter and sighed. Her anger subsided as she took into consideration what Rhodey had said.

"Try the pool house. Code's 8201, but it's also fingerprinted to the touch. JARVIS might let you in."

"Thanks." She offered him a sincere smile and got up. "And your secret's safe with me. I won't tell him anything you said."

The pool house wasn't far, and by the time she got to it, she took a moment to admire how beautiful it was. The party was isolated from it, but there were a few kids that had sneaked onto the property for a bit of fun.

The building resembled something out of the 1930's. The pool house had a Limestone façade, a French door to create a pavilion effect, pilasters, and carved Masonic motifs that trimmed the exterior. It was a perfect compliment to the main home.

She reached the door and frowned when she punched the code in and was denied. "Damn it." She just about attempted again when she heard the door unlock. "Thanks, JARVIS."

"You're welcome, Ms. Potts."

"Yeah, that's still weird," she muttered. She still couldn't believe his AI system existed.

Pepper walked into an open living room, its décor matching the exterior of the building perfectly. Uncolored, glazed poplar planks highlighted the walls and ceilings, matching the Limestone tiled floor. She took a peek around the corner and could see doors to rooms. She didn't want to snoop, but she had to find him. She was about to go down that very hall when she heard a familiar song playing from the right end of the room. Her vision was blocked by a wall. The music became louder as she silently rounded the corner. She would never guess he knew how to play the piano, but the fact he could wasn't that surprising.

She listened as he played the instrumental piece to A Thousand Years, curious as to why he had chosen that song. It was odd, especially since she had no idea he knew it.

Tony finished playing and sighed, staring at the keys for a minute. He hadn't sat down on a piano bench and played since he was six, but something about tonight compelled him to do it. He was rusty, but he chalked it up to having not played in a decade. He only threw the party to get his mind off his hectic life, but no surprise, it hadn't worked. So he took a bottle of scotch and went to the pool house to wait the party out. He had great memories here; there was solace in that.

"You're really good at that." She descended down a series of steps to get closer to him.

He jumped at her voice and turned around. The last thing he expected was her being here, and he wasn't referring to their current location. "How did you get in...Rhodey," he angrily realized. "I'm gonna kick his ass." He slammed the piano cover down and stood up.

"Don't." She grabbed his arm as he passed her and silently plead for him to leave it be.

"You came here to spy on me?" His tone resembled that of an interrogator questioning his suspect, similiar to last time, but the only difference was that today it was under control.

"Maybe just a little," Pepper admitted. "I'm guessing you're mad."

"More like disappointed," he corrected. "I didn't do anything, Pep."

"I know," she softly said.

"So my promise was all bullshit to you."

"What? No!"

"Why else would you spy on me for? It's that you don't trust me."

"That's not true."

"Fine, it's that you don't trust me enough," he corrected. "What did you think? That'd I get myself so drunk to the point where I forgot about you and took some girl in here to fuck her? I'm not that stupid."

He ran a hand through his hair and was suddenly exhausted by it all. Being at odds with Pepper for the last week was physically draining. He was working himself up over nothing. The doctors had told him he didn't need any more stress. He headed to the bar and hunched over its side, his head hung, his hand grabbing the scotch filled glass and he looked into it. He didn't want to fight, which was why he'd left her house last night.

He realized he was similiar to his father. The look of anger that told everyone in his path that with enough motivation he was capable of any extreme. And that scared him. He did not want to become his dad.

"I don't think you would do that." She had to be the one to swallow her pride and admit she was wrong. "I also came over because I needed to apologize." It was the only way they would smooth things over.

"For what?" He twisted his head to look at her as she approached.

"I've been acting like you're the one responsible for where we are and you aren't. It's like 12% my fault."

"12%?" He shook his head at how random her number had been.

"Well, I'm not 15% at fault, but I know I'm more than 10." She wasn't sure why she was elaborating, but this little moment was reminding her of how they used to be.

"I don't even know how to respond to that."

"You don't have to." She cleared her throat and leaned in closer to him. His shoulders relaxed the tiniest bit and she felt relieved. She knew she was still in uncharted territory, so she tread lightly. "I can go."

"No," he immediately said. "Don't." He turned in his seat and faced her. "I just..." He trailed off, sighing. She tried searching his eyes to see if his wall of defense was raised and was more than sure it wasn't.

"You don't want to fight anymore."

"Yeah," he said, averting his gaze.

She felt the same. "I don't either."

"Now what?" He looked at Pepper, waiting for guidance.

"Well, we have to talk about it. You can't just sweep it under the rug and pretend it didn't happen."

"Great," he muttered. That was the last thing he wanted to do. "Can't wait." He brought the glass of scotch up to his lips and downed it.

"It's not gonna work if you go into it with that attitude."

"Sorry," he apologized.

She walked to the sofa and sat down, him trailing behind and eventually leaning against the crook of it, facing her. "Maybe we could start off with what's been bothering you?" She would let him set the pace.

He complemented the choices and made a decision. "Saturday."

"I didn't know he would be there."

"But you didn't say anything even when you found out."

Knowing his statement was right, she averted her gaze.

"And you were never gonna."

"He blames you for us breaking up and he told me he wanted a second chance," Pepper admitted. This was all breaking news to him and he was desperately trying not to get himself riled up over this. "I told him no and you can guess how well it turned out. I didn't care what he had to say because he doesn't matter to me anymore. His words mean nothing. I had every intention of telling you when we saw each other again, but I just didn't think it'd be the same day. I was unprepared; I thought I'd have time to figure out how to bring it up. And don't get me started on the shit you brought up. I understand most of it was because of Robert and you weren't level headed, but it doesn't make what you said any less hurtful, Tony. I mean, just to make sure, you do know we aren't together cause of an explosion, right? That the reason we slept together wasn't because I felt bad for you."

He debated on lying to her, but chose truth instead. "I know it's not because of that, I was just upset, but could you still tell me why though," he asked. Mostly because he needed to be reassured.

"I realized how huge of a mistake I made, but you made a point that day." Once he heard that, he tensed up. "Maybe we wouldn't be where we are at this second, but I don't doubt that we wouldn't be here eventually. It's just that what happened accelerated things, kinda how when a force is applied to an object, its velocity picks up. Does that make sense?"

Tony didn't respond, but his eyes widened. Pepper had just mentioned physics to describe their relationship.

"What?" Pepper glanced at him, confused. "Did I say that wrong?" She had worked on it for hours. "A force applied to an object causes-"

"Would you slap me if I kissed you?"

"Would I...what?" She didn't understand his sudden transition in topic. "What are you talking-" She was cut off with a sudden kiss, which she tried to pull back from, but he was having none of it. He muffled her gasp and his hand went to her hair, pulling her closer as he switched gears and turned the kiss from innocent to fiery and consuming.

Then, as if on cue, the gears in her own brain switched and she moaned, kissing him back. She missed this part of their relationship and could feel the kiss they were sharing was one he had been wanting to let out for quite awhile.

"Tony, stop it," she said in between kisses. She put her hands on his chest and pushed him back as hard as she could. "You do not kiss someone in the middle of an argument!"

"Yeah, well, you kissed back...so who's fault is it really, Pepper?"

"For a second!"

"More like ten."

"Okay...back to what were talking about."

"You're like nine thousand times hotter when you talk science."

"Why do guys get turned on when girls say stuff like that?"

"Because it's hot. Duh. Do you know anything about cars?"

Pepper could see it in his face that he was hoping she did. "No."

"Oh," he said disappointedly. "Alright, so you really believe we'd be together? That's kind of nice to hear," he smiled. "And, on the record, I want to apologize for everything I said that day. I was in a bad mood and your ex was just baiting me with all this crap and I fell for it. I shouldn't had twisted our words around or exploited them to suit my needs. It was wrong of me to do that."

"Apology accepted." She cleared her throat and transitioned to a much more difficult topic. Tony's parents. "So about the thing that started all this..."

"What about that?"

"Well, Rhodey told me there was more to the story and I had laid all my thoughts about it on you before you ever finished. If you still want to tell me about it, I'll gladly listen."

"You know what hurts? The fact that if they are out there...they did this to me," he confessed, his voice broken. "I'm so mad at them, but then I remember this has to be hard on them, too. Especially mom. People think she's strong because she's been with dad for so long, but she isn't."

"Maybe they didn't have a choice."

"The more I think about it, the more I think they knew this would happen for months. I thought me working at SI was to prepare me for taking over in the future, but if you take a step back, me being there for every meeting, him teaching me how to handle business, spot the fakes...it feels purposely set up."

"So now you think he did it to prepare you for this."

"If he hadn't, I wouldn't know crap, giving the Board a good enough reason to overrule dad's decision."

"They're still trying to. I heard in the news they're-"

"You know what's funny? In their contracts, it clearly states if a new CEO rises, said CEO has the right to terminate them if he deems the person unfit for company operations." He was going to blurt that out at the funeral and fire each and every one of them. Spring cleaning. Make a debacle of it all. Or demote them to assistants as he promoted their assistants. He wasn't sure which one he'd pick just yet, but he was sure of one thing, he'd win with either decison.

"I don't know how to run a company, but isn't that a bad idea," she questioned.

"I've got people lined up. I've done the research, the interviews. It'll be alright."

She still wasn't sure, but it was his business, his company. She knew nothing about it, which made her opinion meaningless.

"I got this package and inside it was this bow tie. I didn't think anything of it and then I noticed Waffles...do you remember-"

She smiled. "The teddy bear. It's cute that you carry it around."

"I don't carry it around," he argued, like a child. "No one knows about Waffles expect my parents, Rhodey, and you. He's got a bow tie and I realized it was the same size as the one that was sent to me, that it was the same color as his fur. Isn't that weird?"

Okay, so she had to admit, Rhodey was right. She couldn't refute that if what Tony said was true.

"And that's why I started looking into it. I know it sounds stupid to do, but it's-"

"It's not," Pepper interrupted. "You're holding on to what you think is right in your heart and that's not stupid. It's brave in a sense. I'm just worried things might not end up the way you think it will because the effects will hurt that much worse."

"That's what you were trying to warn me about?"

"Yeah. So do you have any idea where they are?"

"It's impossible."

She understood. If his parents didn't want to be found, they'd make sure of it.

"They're going to kill me for what I did to the house."

A laugh escaped her lips. "You had a good reason to."

"Maybe it's just not safe for them to come back yet. Or maybe they're still taking care of whoever did this first."

"Does that mean you've quit searching?"

"I don't have the time," Tony responded. "But JARVIS is helping me."

Pepper nodded.

When a silence fell between them, he took the opportunity to ask, "We okay?"

"We're fine," she confirmed.

"Is it done," a voice asked with a sense of urgency.

"Six hours."

"When?" That was the only question that mattered, the one question she'd been asking since this entire thing began. After being patient, understanding, and strong, she could finally see the light.

"Friday. Just in time for the funeral. Ironic, isn't it?"

She sighed, then chuckled. It was a relief to know she had not been put through this ordeal for nothing.

"I spoke to Fury. He's getting into trouble, but it's nothing terrible."

"I miss him so much." She walked over to the window and stared out the city lights like she'd been doing the last two months. "It's been too long. He's going to hate us."

"Us? Me, yeah. You, impossible." He put both his hands on her shoulders and ran them up and down her arms to help soothe her fears.

She sniffed. "Doesn't erase what I did, what we did. He's my baby."

"And he turned out to be one, Maria. Look what you did. He's soft."

"He's sensitive," she corrected. "There's nothing wrong with that. What if he didn't get the message? You know how he gets when he's upset, he tears everything apart."

"He got it. You were smart for thinking that."

"Howard, what if he hates us? What if he never forgives us for doing this to him? What kind of parents would do something like this to their child?" She couldn't help the thoughts running through her mind.

"It was necessary and he'll understand that."

"He's a kid," she argued. "Where is he now?"

"At home. Pepper's with him."

Maria turned around in his embrace. "That's the first time you called her by her name."

"She's proven herself," Howard said.

"So I was..." She trailed off, waiting on him to finish her sentence.

"Right. There, you happy?"

"Of course. I can't wait to go home."

"Me, too," he said softly, smiling at her. "Just four more days here at SHIELD. Promise."

"I can't believe it's raining." She looked out the window. It came out of nowhere. The forecast had predicted it would, but towards the end of the week. "Looks like it's gonna turn into a storm."

"Yep," he responded, taking a glance behind her shoulder as he drank another glass of scotch. "You want to spend the night?"

Pepper turned to face Tony when he had quietly asked that question. "Whatever you're thinking, it's not on the table tonight."

"Yeah, I figured. When will it be back on," he skeptically asked.

"When you prove to me that you meant everything you said tonight and last night."

Tony nodded and cast his gaze elsewhere.

She cleared her throat at the awkwardness that followed and changed the subject. "When'd you learn how to play the piano?"

"When I was two or something. Kept me out of trouble at Stark Industries." His mom had left the sheet music here from when she was practicing for the benefit; he was curious if he remembered the notes.

"I think you should play a song for me." Pepper walked up to the piano, exposing its keys.

"Not if you begged."

"But I said I loved you, remember?" With an affectionate smile, she watched as Tony approached.

He was amused with the tactic she had chosen. "For some reason, I didn't feel like you meant it."

"Oh, like you meant yours," Pepper shot back, following him down the hall.

He shrugged. "I'm too tired." He walked into one of the guest rooms and smiled behind her back.

"Nice try," she said, not falling for it. "It's 12:30. You never sleep this early. Why can't you play?"

Tony turned and met her gaze with an amused quirk. "Okay...let's say I did. What's in it for me?"

"A happy girlfriend?"

"Nah, that's not good enough."

She huffed. "Why do you have to be so mean?"

"Pep, I want to be reimbursed for my services."

"Now you sound like a prostitute."

"Like you could afford me," he quipped.

"Even if I could, what makes you think I'd pick you? At all? I'm pretty sure a lot of hot guys would want to spend time with me for free."

He had his back facing her and was in the drawer rummaging for something when he heard that. He quickly forgot what he was doing and twisted around, giving her a look. "You better be kidding." And, just like that, he was feeling territorial.

Pepper innocently shrugged. If he was going to play with fire, he was going to get burned.

"You just said that so I would give in, but I won't." He quickly recovered at the realization and smirked. Going into the bathroom, his smirked turned into a faint frown, his brows creasing. She probably didn't want to sleep in the same room as him given how things were between them. "Great." Now they'd have to talk about an uncomfortable subject that was bound to be brought up. If not by him, by her.

"You can have this room. I'll be outside."

Pepper turned to look at him. "No, it's fine. We can share the bed. As long as you keep your hands to yourself."

"Hey, I can control myself," he said, taking offense to that. "I'm not gonna do anything." Even though he'd like to. A month. That'd drive any teenage guy crazy. He kept his face as neutral as possible, hiding his excitement that he wouldn't be sleeping alone.

"Do you have another shirt I could sleep in?" It was difficult to in a dress.

"No, sorry."

"Oh," she realized.

"Just take off your dress."

"No," she refused.

He was surprised. "Why?"

"I don't want you to see me naked."

"Uh, hate to burst your bubble but-"

"That's different!"

He shook his head and went over to one side of the bed, looking at Pepper. "What do you want me to do then?"

She glanced apprehensively at the bed and then at him. "Don't look at me." Tony, on the other hand, was getting out of his own clothes, not embarrassed at all. After all, like he said, what was there to hide?

He laid down on the bed and could feel her eyes on him. She was making him work for it, but that didn't mean he couldn't get her flustered in the process.

Get it together. Her eyes ran over his body again and noticed his defined biceps, his shoulders, and abs that drew in more attention than she had previously remembered.

"Okay, I'm gonna face down." He laid on his stomach, head on the pillows.

"Don't peek," she said, her voice strict.

He waved off her comment with his hand. "Are you trying to suffocate me? Hurry up." He could only last on so many breaths. Once he heard rustling, he turned his head just slightly and snuck a peek. What she didn't know wouldn't kill her. Because of her dress, she had nothing on above her waist. Seeing her turn around, he quickly retracted his head back to his pillow and pretended to be none the wiser.

She was wearing nothing more than a pair of underwear. Her fingers grabbed the comforter as she got into bed beside him. "I'm finished."

His face lifted from the pillows and smiled.

"Oh my God, you looked." It was a blunt statement.

"What? I didn't!" His eyes betrayed him as he looked up her legs and towards her thighs until he hit comforter. He frowned and met her gaze. "Alright, but it was just like a second. You'd be upset if I hadn't."

Pepper hummed her response and slid next to Tony.

"Which I shouldn't had done." He shifted uncomfortably in bed, feeling an inconvenience starting to form. It was just that she had supermodel legs and he'd always been a fan of them.

She decided to have a little fun with him and snuggled up close to him, resting her head on the crook of his arm, her leg up over his as she let her nails lightly rake the expanse of his chest. She felt Tony gulp nervously as he made sure not to turn his head to look at her.

"Hey!" He grabbed her leg that was rubbing against him and glanced at her. "Are you trying to get me in trouble?"

She looked up to meet his gaze, hearing that his breathing had become slightly hoarse. "I thought I was helping."

He noticed a teasing smile on her lips. "You're cruel. You can't just cut off sex then do that to me. It's inhumane."

She didn't respond and merely dropped her head back on his chest, getting comfortable to the feeling of his hand massaging her waist.

"What do you want to do for Valentine's?"

"Your choice."

"But that's not fair," he whined, glancing at her. "How come it falls on us?"

"That's just how it goes." She propped herself up on her elbow and shifted under the comforter. "But, since this is your first time, dinner sounds good."

"We go to dinner all the time."

"I don't know then. Rent out an ice skating rink."

"Did you want that," he seriously asked.

"No."

"Aw." Tony frowned. It actually sounded like fun. He still had a couple weeks to decide. More than enough time. At least he hoped so.

"But ice skating does sound nice."

Tony made a mental note of that and smiled. "What did Platypus tell you?"

Pepper creased her brows. "What do you mean?"

"What did he tell you? That way I can properly thank him by putting itching powder down his pants."

"He didn't-"

"Pepper, you do know you're a bad liar, right? Don't make me tickle it out of you."

"He didn't!" She could feel him tightening his hold on her, not allowing her out of his embrace.

"Right," he sarcastically said. He watched amusedly as she squirmed. He positioned himself over her and trapped her between his arms. "Last chance."

"No, Tony, don't!" She started screaming and laughing uncontrollably as he did his best to get the information he needed.

There's a lot of patching work to do, but I'm glad the drama's over. Biscottenera mentioned in the reviews Pepper might be 12% at fault and I HAD to put that in once I read it, so thanks for that!