It's been twenty eight hours since they'd last seen each other. Twenty eight hours since their last kiss, and regardless of how many hours had passed, it was all she could think about. It was amazing how something so simple could affect her so profoundly.

She remembered every detail of it. His hand cupping her cheek, the softness of his lips, and the look in his eyes as they broke apart. It was painful. Her heart ached.

Him diving in for another kiss. The feeling of his mouth on her neck and his hands on her waist.

Regret. She was kicking herself for what she had done just twenty eight hours ago. It was such a big mistake. A mistake she wanted to take back so badly and yet wouldn't because together they agreed.

She wasn't fine. Not for the next couple months. She lied. A part of her hoped he'd be miserable and another part hated him. He had barged in without so much as a hello. Asserting himself anywhere he could, bothering her with his quirks and inappropriate jokes and innuendos. She wasn't sure when they crossed the line of infuriating to what she looked forward to most during the end of the school day.

She remembered the first day they met. The way his brows creased as he tried to figure out if she had been telling the truth about her name.

It surprised her just how long he had taken to come up to her when she'd seen him staring at her several times.

"That's what you're going with?"

She recalled neither confirming or denying his question, which made the gears in his brain turn a little bit harder.

"It's not like I'm gonna bug you until you tell me your name or something."

She responded by asking if he didn't believe her and she laughed at his response. Something about how her name could only be 'Pepper' if her parents were stoned when she was born. Whether she liked to admit it or not, he had made an impact on her with that moment alone.

The way he had so not casually slipped in the fact that he was having a party and asked if she would come.

Then there was the time she found out she'd be stuck with him as a lab partner. Granted, she wasn't as overjoyed as any girl would be at the news, but in the end, she was grateful for alphabetical order.

She remembered how he made her smile for the first time. She called him annoying because he kept bombarding her with questions.

With this genuine eye creasing smile on his face he replied with, "Well, I happen to think being annoying is the same thing as being adorable."

Calling him an ass wasn't her proudest moment, but it was what she had.

"An adorable ass, which I do have, by the way. If you're interested, I'm..."

It was also the first of many times he had made her cheeks red. Everything was all just light-hearted teasing until it wasn't.

He admitted his feelings. She refused to believe it. It left him devastated, and that kind of devastation had spoken volumes.

"I've never seen him put so much effort into anything the three years I've known him like he does with you. 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." Words from the mouth of his friend. "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."

She just never knew how true that was until she dove head first into a relationship with him. Even now, it was tough to crack, but with his help the bricks were crumbling down centimeter by centimeter.

The hurricane of these last three months. His parents' faked deaths. It had almost ended them, yet it didn't because they fought against it, even if they were at each other's throats. Because they valued what they had and didn't want to see it burn to ashes.

So why wasn't it like that this time around? Compared to everything else, this should be simple.

"I keep wondering if our relationship is even strong enough to...if a relationship like yours that had been going on for two years had such an ability to fall apart just because of distance, how long is ours gonna survive?"

"I want simple. I am tired of complications and that's what defines a long distance relationship."

"It's more like I know you can do better than me. It's more like I'm afraid someone will come along who's better suited for you and you'll notice and think 'look, he's got his entire life together.'"

And the one admission that hit her the hardest? "I'm scared of losing you."

As much as she tried not to see his point, she did. The raw honesty in his voice silenced her in a brutal manner. Like she had said, he saw things in numbers and percentages. It wasn't his fault. That was how his brain was wired. He was the type of person who liked things that were concrete. Ocean currents. The sound of a tree falling in the middle of the forest. Natural selection. How fast light can travel. Things you honestly say worked a certain way. Love wasn't defined as such. It never would. He couldn't measure it or make an equation for it and it scared him enough to believe this was what was best.

But then she remembered what he had told her at the benefit.

"Life is too short...live in the moment. Don't let fear of the unknown run your life."

Isn't that what he was doing? Letting fear make his decisions?

She wouldn't even make it if she drove to his house right now. Her heart was telling her to pick up the phone and dial his number, but her instincts overrode the decision every time she tried to pick it up. She couldn't bring herself to hear the sound of his voice again.

Part of her thinks he'll call before he boards the plane, but she knows the chances of that happening are slim. She gets as far as the call screen before backing out seconds later. What was she even going to say? She looks at the photo of them she had set as his contact and deletes it, but she knows seconds later she'll go back and re-add it to her photo album. For now it lessened the temptation of calling if she couldn't physically see happier times.

And then suddenly it hits her. He may not come back. This was it. Did she want that? No. Because some where in their argument she did what she swore she would never do. She gave up. Not him. Her.

"But, still, I know you're in my life for a reason, and I don't want to give up on us, so whatever you want I'll do it. Just tell me."

She had gone back on her own words. She was the one who said they had something special. He was willing to do whatever she wanted even if he wasn't sure he should. Her eyes that were once blinded by tears were now crystal clear. This didn't have to be it. She could fix this. She could write her own happiness. Their happiness.

I'm doing the right thing. She ignores a momentarily hesitation and goes ahead in dialing his number. I'm doing the right thing.

Let me guess, you guys are dying to know what happens next? This chapter was in Pepper's POV and the next, and final, one will be in Tony's. Homage to how this fic began. These last two chapters are relatively short; I was able to bang them out quickly, so for the last time I will definitely relieve your suspenses and upload it up earlier than usual if I get 10+ reviews. Just give me some time to proofread and make final changes :)