So, here it is...the last chapter! :) :( Its VERY long! I think it's pretty good! I sure loved writing it!...well at least the last half of it...:) I really feel proud of this chapter!
I don't know if i ever mentioned the identity of Iron man in any of the chapters...but if i did, i'm not sure what i said...but in this chapter, i wrote it like it was still a secret so you know. no one knows who iron man is, except for Howard and Roberta (though i don't think i ever mentioned her knowing...) But she does.
Disclaimer: IMAA is not mine. Nor will it ever be... (stick around at the end for some shout outs!)
The next day after Tony was signed off, they were hanging out at the armor. Rhodey was still trying to catch up on missing work, while Pepper rolled Tony around on his wheel chair, no matter how many times he asked her not to.
"Pepper is this really necessary?" He questioned.
"Yes." She said smiling. "You're lucky to get a wheel chair for your leg. I just got a crutch that I only needed for about a week."
Tony looked down, not wanting to be reminded that Pepper had also been hurt. "So…how is your leg?"
"It's great! I don't need to take the pain meds anymore, so all is good!"
She continued to roll Tony around while Rhodey just rolled his eyes at the two. Muttering to himself that he was the only normal person in the room. Howard later on came in to work on his own thing. Which Pepper had still thought was really weird because he had Stark International labs and probably one at his house, but instead he chose to work on personal inventions in the armory. She had asked him why he decided to do that once, and he had replied that he liked working near his son, and his son was now almost constantly in the armory.
When Pepper stopped rolling Tony around, he got to work on fixing his armor and testing extremis out by forming and unforming the armor. Pepper and Rhodey soon left off to fight of killer shrike and Unicorn that were spotted robbing a bank. Leaving Tony and his father alone.
"So son, how's everything been?" Howard asked of his son.
"Good." Tony replied looking up from his armor.
"How's Pepper?"
Tony blushed as he always did when Howard brought the redhead up. "She doing great!"
"So, I hear you two are dating…" Howard said with a smirk.
"Dad!" Tony exclaimed.
"Well, I just thought since we're here, alone I could talk to you."
"If this is about 'the talk', I know all about it! Roberta and school made sure of it!" Tony said holding his hands up.
Howard laughed. "No not at all, I just want to tell you how proud I am of you."
"Oh…okay."
"Son, when you were just a little boy, I thought you were going to turn out just like me. Which, I feared because I had no friends growing up. I was alone and I didn't even have a girlfriend until I met your mother when I was about 19. I feared that was going to be you, which is why I always tried to get you to be friends with that Whitney kid. But now I see, that you have those two and you even got a girlfriend. And I'm proud that you found someone that loves and cares for you."
Tony bit his lip nervously. "Yeah…okay, thanks…"
Howard chuckled. "I gotta go home. See you tonight son."
The moment Howard walked out, Rhodey and Pepper came in through the tunnel place. Pepper pranced over to Tony to give him a hug as she broke into story of what happened at the bank. She explained how she beat Rhodey to the place and had even scared the two villains for a moment of her sudden appearance since they still believed she was missing. Then she went on about how she beat them with the help of Rhodey and how the city cheered her name.
Tony smiled. "Sounds exciting! I only wish I could have been there."
"You will when they remove you're cast next week." Pepper said standing up straight from bending down to hug Tony.
"Which reminds me," Tony started. "Is your dad home?"
"Yeah, he won't leave the house because he's too worried I'm going to get kidnapped again."
"Good, because I still have to ask him a question."
Pepper blushed as she remembered what Tony wanted to ask him. So, she just nodded and started to roll him out, but he just shook his head and asked for the crutches, much to her dismay. She really liked pushing him around on the chair. Either way, they both left Rhodey, who had started working on the last of his homework, to go to her house.
…
"What brings you two here?" Virgil asked yawning as he closed his laptop.
Tony took a deep breath before grabbing Pepper's hand for reassurance. "I would like to ask….um…for you your permission to…uh…" Tony paused shaking his head. "Let me start over."
Pepper laughed at Tony's loss of words, but squeezed Tony's hand telling him to go on.
"I'm asking for your permission to date you daughter." Tony said quickly.
There was a moment of silence before Virgil practically burst out laughing. "Of course you can! It's not like I can stop you! Plus, I didn't even know kids these days asked that anymore!"
"Well, some kids do!" Tony defended, blushing.
Virgil patted him on the shoulder. "Son, I'm not trying to embarrass you. I'm just happy my little girl is happy, so be good to her."
Tony sighed relieved. "I will."
Virgil yawned tiredly. "Well, I'm off to go take a nap. You two go have fun or whatever you kids do these days."
Virgil then walked off to go to sleep, while Pepper and Tony both went to go the armory again to pick up Rhodey to go hang out somewhere.
…
A couple weeks passed and Tony was more than excited to get his cast removed. Pepper and Rhodey came along with Tony and Howard to doctors as Tony had wanted. The instant the cast was officially off, Tony want to just go out and run around, but the doctors told him not to. They told him, if he were to stress it too much too fast, he could possibly have permanent damage. At least, damage adding to the limp he would now forever have. It wasn't always noticeable, but still, it stunk.
The doctors gave him one week, to take it easy. Though, they told him that every moment he got to walk, do it. Without the constant use of it, his leg was almost only skin and bone. So, the doctor told him to eat plenty, take tons of walks, stretch a lot, and if it ever got sore, he was to lay down with his leg on a pillow or couch arm or something higher than himself.
Rhodey and Pepper continued to protect the city in Tony's place until Tony was positive that his leg could take iron man again. Which was probably the worst two weeks of his life. Pepper never stopped telling him, in perfect detail, what happened if he wasn't able to watch from the controller chair. Even if he was there, she tended to tell him her point of view. Rhodey would chip in at times, mostly when he heard Pepper exaggerating about an injury or something.
So at this moment, Tony was walking with the slight limp that he was stuck with, to the armory to where his friends were meeting him. He honestly could say that he felt happier than he has in a long time. He just walked slowly, taking his time to get to the armory. He ended up thinking about what he had in life.
He had a beautiful, smart, brave girlfriend, a best friend that he would, without pause, call his brother, his dad, a woman he'd easily call mom, if it wasn't awkward to think of, a city who called him a hero and cheered him on, and he had iron man. Sure, he also have plenty of villains and people who wanted to kill him, not to mention all the near death experiences he has every so often, but that was only part of who he was. If he didn't' have villains, he wouldn't need iron man. Pepper wouldn't need Rescue, and Rhodey wouldn't need War machine.
When he arrived at the armory in a daze, his friends were already inside waiting for him. They were curious as to why Tony had called them over to urgently, only to take forever to get there himself.
"I was thinking about life, I got distracted." Tony said in excuse, which was only a half-lie.
Rhodey was seated where he normally is these days, on the couch, studying. Tony didn't blame him. There was finals going on soon, and they were going to graduate. Pepper was studying via computer while watching some reality TV she liked to watch just to annoy Rhodey. Though, she actually hated the show.
"Anyways, anything going on in town?" Tony asked giving Pepper a hug from behind.
"If you mean anything dangerous, then no, but there is going to be fireworks tonight to celebrate some political thing down on the ocean?" Pepper said, her voice 'secretly' suggesting that they go.
"On a boat or something? Sounds like fun." Tony replied. 'Secretly' agreeing.
"Yeah, so what was it that you called us hear for?" Pepper asked. "You never answered."
"Well, I thought it might be a good time, especially since there's nothing going on in town right now, to go for a ride in the armor for the first time." Tony said again hinting they do something together.
Pepper looked up over her shoulder at him, smiling. "I'd love to."
Tony gave her a quick kiss and looked over to his best friend/brother. "Rhodey would you like to come with?"
"Nah, I think I'll leave you two lovebirds alone." Rhodey said shaking his head. "It bugs me when you two start kissing or something."
As happy as he was that they were together, it was still as awkward as heck being the only single one of the three. Especially when the two got all lovey dovey with each other; kissing and all.
"You sure?" Tony asked smirking.
Rhodey just shook his head with a smile. Tony just shrugged and looked back to Pepper. "His loss."
Tony let go of Pepper and walked to the center of the armory. Just as he was about to armor up, his dad walked in. "Oh Tony, I thought you guys would be at Rhodey's house."
"Why?" Tony replied.
"Roberta told me that you guys were planning to study together today." Howard said.
"No, we changed plans." Tony said about to armor up again, but stopped when Rhodey spoke up.
"Only because Tony told us to meet at the armory instead."
Howard nodded his head in understanding and actually took the moment to look at how his son was standing. "Oh, you going in the armor again?"
"The lovebirds are going out on a date." Rhodey said not bothering to look up from his book he was studying from.
"Are not." Pepper said.
"I wanted us all to go, but you said you'd rather study." Tony said.
"Okay, fine. You guys are just going to 'hang out' until tonight when the fireworks go off, then it's a date." Rhodey said with a smirk.
Tony just rolled his eyes and finally used extremis to form Iron man around himself. He smiled at the familiar sound of metal connecting and electricity echoed in his ears. He loved the feeling of the armor around his body, it felt so natural, like he was born in the suit. He was born to be iron man.
When the face mask closed, the first sound was Pepper squealing in excitement. She took a small moment to clap her hands and rush over to give Tony a hug, before she went over and armored up herself.
"I'm ready." She said.
Tony nodded and gave a short wave to the other two. "Let's go."
Together, the two flew out of the armory. Tony cheering in joy the entire route.
…
"Where we headed?" Pepper said through the com. link.
"I don't know." Tony replied speeding up.
Pepper smiled and laughed as she sped up to catch up. They flew around aimlessly for a while in the setting sun. At some point Tony had grabbed Pepper's hand in one of his and started to spin the two around as they flew. He brought her along as he did some flips and other things.
"Tony, what if someone sees?" She asks.
"Who cares?" Tony said grabbing her hand again.
"I care, the whole city is below us!" She replied making them stop.
"Come on, you're going to let that stop you?" Tony asked. "What happened to being able to handle anything? Oh and don't forget that you were the one to tell me 'not to think of what the city thinks'."
She shook her head, but took his hand again. This time, she pulled him around in circles and twists. At some point the two ended up flying just below the roofs of some buildings. In clear sight for the citizens to just look up and see them. Which they did. They cheered as they saw their famous hero, iron man, back in action.
"I'm never going to stop loving that." He said to himself.
"I bet you won't." Pepper agreed.
He waved to the city below him, which made them cheer louder. He laughed excitedly as he saw cars and trucks stopping just to get out and wave back. Luckily, there was no crash. He smiled at Pepper when he heard them, not only cheering for iron man, but for Rescue as well. He blushed as he laughed with Pepper as they clearly heard someone, who definitely had a megaphone, shout at them to kiss.
With a shrug, the two quickly removed their face plates, and kissed. When they pulled away, their face plates were closed again. They stayed there for a minute listening to the cheers.
Tony was just appalled by how happy the city seemed to be to see him. And to see him with a girl, hand in hand, made them all the happier. Pepper was just as shocked. Though she smiled and waved, and even bowed after they kissed like it was a show.
With one final wave to the citizen of New York, the two flew off as the sun continued to set.
…
Later that night, when the fireworks started, Tony and Pepper armored down somewhere and went to where most people were. The ocean's beach. They didn't really know why, none of them said, but they ended up climbing a tree that was right before the sand started. One the plus side, the tree didn't have many leaves, so they had perfect seats for fireworks. But on the down side, they both knew it would be harder going down than it was to come up.
Pepper leaned her head on Tony's shoulder. "I just love fireworks."
Tony smiled as he tightened his protective grip around her waist. "Me too."
"I'm lucky to have you." Pepper mumbled as she looked up at the sky.
The light from one of the fireworks illuminated their faces. "And why's that?" Tony questioned.
"Because of many things. You're smart, strong, brave, handsome, and so much more. I almost ended up with Happy. I mean he's not a bad guys…just not the smartest…or bravest…" Pepper said rambling. "Plus, you make up for the boring person I am."
Tony blinked. "Pepper."
She sighed. "You're so much better than me. What do I do that is ever useful?"
"Pepper, look at me." Tony said.
But she looked away.
"Pep," He said flatly. "Patricia Potts, look at me, now!"
Reluctantly she turned her head to face him. But she didn't look in his eyes. His lifted her chin with his hand, and when he had her eyes on his, he held her face between his hands, rubbing patterns onto her cheeks with his thumbs.
"Listen to me when I say this." Tony said as the fireworks, bang dulled out. "You are beautiful, gorgeous, smart, gifted, brave, pretty…beautiful."
"You said beautiful twice." Pepper replied.
"Exactly." Tony said smiling. "You are beautiful and don't you ever tell yourself that you're not. And you do mean something. I wouldn't care if you were the stupidest person on the planet, I am no better than you."
Pepper opened her mouth to deny, but tony put a hand over her mouth. "No, you listen to me. You saved me from a life of loneliness, you even saved my life countless amount of times. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you. So, don't you tell me you're useless, okay?"
He removed his hand and she nodded. "Okay."
"Okay?" Tony repeated to be sure.
"Okay!" She responded.
Tony smiled and kissed her as they heard the crackling boom of a colorful firework.
…
"Tony!" Rhodey shouted from across the house.
Tony jumped as he put the pencil he was writing with down. He currently was at Rhodey's house writing down ideas he had for inventions before he could forget them. Pepper had gone off to see her dad who was just coming home from a week long mission.
Tony ran into the kitchen where Rhodey was found, drinking milk. He held a rolled up newspaper. Tony eyed the newspaper worriedly, thinking it was something bad like madam masque pretending to be him again. Or iron man being accused of something again, or something bad about himself.
"What?" He asked as Rhodey slowly set his cup down.
"You'd never believe what's on the front page of the newspaper." Rhodey said unrolling the newspaper and sliding it across the kitchen table.
Tony picked it up cautiously. He started to read aloud: "Iron man returns and gets personal with Rescue…" he raised an eyebrow as he looked to the picture next to it that was of him and Pepper kissing. "I don't see the problem. You can't see our faces."
"Yeah, but when did this happen?" Rhodey asked walking over to him.
"Two days ago, when me and Pepper were out flying." Tony responded unsure where Rhodey was going.
Rhodey slipped the newspaper from Tony's hand and turned it to another page. "Okay, now what's this?"
Again, Tony started to read aloud after he saw a blurry pic of him and Pepper kissing. "Tony Stark found kissing his best friend in a tree." He paused. "Seriously, what's wrong? Besides, didn't the press already find out about me and Pepper?"
"Now, look at the dates of each photo." Rhodey said.
Tony did. "They're the same date. So what?"
"Tony you're getting sloppy. One of these days, they're going to find out you're iron man." Rhodey said finally getting to the point. "They're already conspiring about it."
"I'm not seeing your point though."
"Really?" Rhodey deadpanned. "Okay fine, they see a pic of iron man and rescue kissing, for the first time. Then only hours later, they see Tony and Pepper kissing. For the first time. See the link? The public do."
"Oh…" Tony said. "Well, I'll just have to be more careful about it." Tony said.
"Yeah, you better be. Because once they find out who Iron man is, it would be easy to tell who Rescue and war machine are."
Tony nodded, understanding. He took the newspaper and left to his room to read the details of what the city is brewing up for him this time.
…
Tony and Rhodey lay side by side on the hill by Rhodey's house. Pepper laid on Tony's other side with her head on his stomach, holding his hand.
No one really said a word, none of them even knew why they were laying there. It was just someone following the leader and the other one followed them. They didn't really care who the leader was, they just followed each other.
It didn't even matter. They had each other and they knew that. They knew that if one wasn't paying attention, the others were. They knew if something happened to one of them, that the others would do whatever it took to save them.
Either way, they were family.
Either way, they weren't alone.
And now, Tony finally knew that.
Well, that was an odd ending, and there was lots of cheesiness! ^.^ But i hope you guys liked this story! :) I'm finally finished! I'd say the fastest i've ever written a multichapter story!
Fun Fact: Sometimes, when i feel completely alone or want a hug really bad, but can't because everyones always asleep when i need one, i hug my teddy bear, Mello...(psst! I sectretly sometimes talk to her... O.O) ...
Now for some shout outs! (I'm thinking to start doing these again...you guys deserve more attention from me...i tend to focus on myself sometimes. (oh and I'm also doing shout outs to people who reviewed the other chapters, because well, not all of you guys are consistent with reviewing. Which i have no problem with that.
Haytar96: thanks so much for reviewing as much as you did, it made me smile! :) You have awesome chapters too! :) And YAY Pepperony!
Roninarnia: Thanks for the reviews! I'm always glad to know you read my stories!
Finny-Kun Goddess: I'm glad to read your reviews! Thanks!
Keotey1228: I already said this to you, but THANKS for the reminder of what i messed up on! It was great help! THANKS!
Arista17: Thanks! I love writing suspense! Did i ever update Baby Genius since you asked? I can't remember...usually i'd do it right after you ask...but...well...THANKS!
PottsXStark: Thanks for the review(s?)! :) :D
iloveyou29: THANKS for the review! Glad to hear from someone i haven't seen around a lot! (not literally)
AND finally...
PercyJacksonLover14: THANK YOU for ALL your reviews! I LOVED reading them, honestly whenever i saw that you left a GIANT review...especially the first time, I almost had a heart attack! XD Literally too! My mom once asked my why i was smiling so much, because i couldn't stop smiling! THANKS A TON! ^.^
Well, I'm off for now! Next I'm going to start working on the next chapter for Baby Phase, then update Not So Ordinary, or start this new request I've got! Heehee! Its a good one! I promise! :P Then, I'm going to tackle Sins of Insanity again.