Author's Note: comes creeping in, hoping that everyone will be too happy to see a new chapter to harangue the author You know, it's a whole lot harder to write by myself than I remembered. :P Between joint fics, two jobs, and my sister getting married, I've been distracted. But never fear, I AM planning to continue on with this fic. :)
Thank you all so much for your patience.
On Friday night, Pepper Potts rocked Tony Stark's world and then sent him home to sleep off his intoxication. On Saturday, when he finally woke up long past noon it was with a headache and sense that his world was dangerously off-kilter. It was not a good time for a fuzzy memory. In fact, he doesn't remember much except that he'd had too much to drink and then Pepper had either said that she loved him or that under no circumstances would she ever sleep with him. Which was a concept he'd kind of gotten years ago.
God, had Pepper really kissed him last night? The immediate response of his body assured him that yes, she had. And he'd enjoyed it. Feeling a little overwhelmed, Tony braced both arms against the walls of the shower and hung his head so that the spray pounded into the back of his neck.
"I'm tired of seeing you mistreat and whore out what belongs to me."
"Yes. You. You do. You belong to me."
"What's going on, Mr. Stark, is that I accept your offer."
"But I'm more than a quick fuck, Mr. Stark. And so are you."
It was too much to dump on a guy in a single evening. And frankly, he considered it damn unfair as well.
Saturday evening was spent in a lack of occupation. After getting Pepper's voicemail the first seven times he called, Tony parked himself on his sofa and watched TV. Normally he found NBA games pretty diverting, but tonight his brain was too busy processing…processing….
It wasn't just her behavior the night before that he considered, but everything about her that he could remember. All of it, every shred of memory was a variable in a massive equation that he worked through step by step, year by year.
At eleven Tony called it a night. It was strange to get into bed so early, but he fell asleep almost immediately. When he woke up the next morning, it was with purpose. His brain had finished its calculations while he slept. He dressed, taking care to walk the line between what he wore as her boss and what he wore in the garage.
He wanted to be a different man for her, not the one who brought women home she had to get rid of or the one who blew off appointments and made her work so damn hard.
He took no notice of time as he left his house. In fact, he took little notice of anything at all. He was impatient and still just a little angry that she would dump all this on him and leave without a single explanation. One moment he was climbing into his car and the next he was parking in front of her condo with absolutely no memory of the drive over. But he's there and can find no reason to put things off any longer.
He pounded on her front door – unaware of the spectacle he was making until it opened. His first instinct was to step forward, but the door came to a sudden stop, halting him in his tracks. It closed again, and he heard the rattle of a chain before it opened, this time all the way. Pepper stood there, blinking against the light. She must have been asleep, and he felt ashamed for roughly 2.6 seconds before he realized she'd answered the door in her pajamas. The cotton shorts were short enough to show off her legs along with most of her thighs and her tank top was just about low enough to give him heart problems. But his absolutely favorite part was the hair that hung tangled and loose around her face.
"Tony." She rubbed a bit of sleep out of her eye before looking at him with a half amused, half expectant expression. "You're late. I expected you yesterday."
He ignored her. "I am Iron Man," he said defiantly, daring her to make any sort of objection. "So therefore it stands to reason that the woman who knows everything about me must be my girlfriend."
Then, before she could object or say that wasn't what last night had been about, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her for all he's worth…or perhaps for all she's worth. Yes, he kissed her for all she's worth, because he valued her infinitely more than himself. He wanted to burrow under her skin and live there, wanted to know her from the inside out so he's not caught off guard again. While this surprise of hers had been enjoyable this time, as a rule he didn't like being so clueless.
She let him kiss her for several minutes. She even kissed him back, her hands settling on his biceps and kneading, sliding over his shoulders and stroking the back of his neck. It wasn't until he slipped his hands under the soft material of her tank top that she pulled away. Her hands slipped down to his wrists and pulled his hands out from under her shirt.
"Go start my coffee pot," she told him as she turned him in the direction of the kitchen. She closed the still-open front door behind him. "If you're dragging me out of bed at 7 A.M. on a Sunday morning, I want coffee."
"Why stop at coffee?" He pulled her close by the hand he was still holding. "Why don't you go back to bed and I'll bring you breakfast?" His other hand slid down her body to cup her hip as he stepped forward to press himself against her.
"Tony…" Pepper put her hand against his chest and stepped back. "Why don't I take a shower and meet you out here for breakfast?" she says. Her eyes tell him that she knows exactly where he's going with this, and that she's not touching it. "Give me half an hour." She pulls her hand from his and leaves him standing in her living room.
She took him out to breakfast. Not to a restaurant or an out of the way corner bistro, but to the local farmer's market. He tried to pay for the things she bought – the homemade cinnamon rolls, the hand-picked strawberries, fresh-squeezed orange juice – but she turned him down, telling him she doubted he had anything smaller than a fifty in his billfold…if he had any cash at all. And because it made her happy, he didn't protest, he'd just accept whatever small offering she would buy when they finished the next part of their meal and carried the things she bought that weren't for immediate consumption.
He found it…strange…to walk at her side, to follow her lead. It wasn't unpleasant – far from it in fact – but it was a direct turnaround for them. He was used to having her direct his days, to moving from event to event to the accompaniment of her voice. To walk by her side with no destination in mind and to talk about inconsequential matters like the weather, or current events, or office gossip relaxed something in him, soothed the restlessness that'd driven him to her house.
She was letting him inside her life with grace and welcome, and he hadn't known how much he'd needed her uncomplaining acceptance.
At the end of the market they came to the flowers. Pepper passed most of the booths by without pause. The only one she hesitated for was a stall selling bonsai. She kept up her end of the conversation as she slowed and paused, examining a miniature fir closely. He watched her find the placard with the prices listed. The one she was looking at was listed at 75, and the booth didn't accept checks.
Pepper ran her finger along the edge of the pot one last time and turned as if she were going to leave.
"We'll take two," Tony said, interrupting the flow of their conversation. Pepper of course tried to protest but he just handed all their parcels over to her so he could dig out his billfold. "One for your office at the house, one for your office at the…office." Pepper laughed as he'd intended her to and didn't try to stop him again, though the look on her face communicated that she was allowing this because he so obviously wanted to do it for her.
The young man running the booth looked amazed at the sight of the two hundreds Tony handed over, but he soon had two of the miniatures packed up in a shallow cardboard box.
"Trade you," Tony offered as they walked away.
"I don't think so, Mr. Stark. You bought them so you can carry them."
They didn't talk about that night on the roof of the concert hall, or the day of the Press Conference, or even of just the other night when she'd kissed him. As anxious as he'd been to clarify these matters, Tony found himself reluctant to raise the subject. It was infinitely more satisfying to observe Pepper as she behaved outside the office. Or outside of the workforce, Tony supposed. Whenever Pepper was usually in his company she was ready to work at the drop of a hat. But on this sunny Sunday morning she was content to get coffee with him and grab a newspaper and an old blanket out of the back of her car and sit in the grass at the park.
She headed towards a massive old oak with the ease of long routine. The trunk was broad enough to support them both and the shade was welcome on a day that was starting to get warm.
It was an oddly pleasant way to kill a couple of hours. When Pepper folded one section of the paper into quarters and pulled a pen out of her purse, Tony smiled. "Crossword, Ms. Potts?"
"Always, Mr. Stark." She glanced up at him through her eyelashes. "Keeps the brain nimble. I need the exercise to keep up with you."
Her tone was flirtatious. He laughed and shifted until he was lying down. After crossing his arms behind his head to pillow it – though he would have preferred the pillow of her lap – he said, "Read me the first clue."
They did the crossword together. Or more accurately, Pepper read him the clues before telling him the answers. She only rarely needed his help. He knew she was smart. Hell, he'd hired her because she was smart. Had come to rely on her because she was not only smart, but intelligent. But for some reason the speed with which she finished the Sunday New York Times crossword only drove home again how smart she was.
It was one of the reasons he adored her.
She treated him to a light lunch and then they drove back to Santa Monica, taking the costal highway instead of the tributaries of I-5. The afternoon was spent down at the historical waterfront where Tony followed her in and out of art galleries and tourists traps. He takes note of the things she lingers in front of, cataloging her taste in art and jewelry, handmade one of a kind knickknacks and mass produced tourist offerings.
Sometimes she would catch him while he was watching her, and he could see that she would try to appear unaffected. No, that was the wrong word. She did look indifferent at all. But she wore confidence like an expensive evening gown – she looked good in it but sometimes something would slip farther than she meant it to and she would have to pull herself back together.
The slips didn't destroy the illusion though, because she was in control. She was the one who initiated the dance this time, and he was content to let her lead him through it. Especially since she wasn't nearly as confident of him as she pretended to be.
It pleased him to think that no matter how comfortable they are around each other, no matter how well she knew him, she didn't see him as a "sure thing." It's a silly ego boost, but he'll take what he can get because Pepper Potts has never been one to stoke his vanity.
She is a sure thing where he's concerned though. He'd been committed to her for months now, and was pretty sure she'd noticed even if she hadn't acted on it until now. The only thing that'd been holding him back had been her lack of commitment. But all that had changed now. The moment he's gotten the rhythm of their new dynamic, that he understands where she's coming from and where she intends for them to go…
Well, he is Tony Stark, and everyone knew that Tony Stark always got what he wanted. Now that he had the possibility of Pepper, he doesn't want anyone or anything else. So he followed her willingly wherever she chose to go. He enjoyed the simple satisfaction of walking down the street with her, of being free to ignore the curious glances passersby gave them. They're outside his usual world; people might recognize him, but no one knew him and so no one stopped them to talk. It was strange but good to just be a man spending a day with his woman.
Tony hoped that this was part of what Pepper intended them to be, because it's something he's needed for a long time. He'd been starving for this without ever realizing it, starving for a chance to escape the pressure of being Tony Stark the CEO; or Tony Stark the gold and titanium clad hero; or even of being Tony Stark the inventor who was always locked away in a cement grey world with only robots for company. It's much preferable to be a man walking down a tourist-crowded street, wondering if he should reach out and take the hand of the woman at his side.
He wondered if Pepper even knew how attractive her predilection for simplicity was to him.
She took him to the Santa Monica pier. The sun was getting low by the time they got there. The candy colored lights of the rides and attractions along the midway glowed dimly, blinking in and out in a dozen different tempos. Out of the corner of his eye they gave off the impression of a live-action pointillist painting.
Pepper laughed softly when he looked around for an admission booth. "It's not getting in the costs you, Tony. It's not until you want to do something that they charge you." There was a mischievous look in her eyes that caught at him. He wondered if she was the same way; if he could have her for nothing but would be required to give things up in order to gain full admittance.
They played two rounds of miniature golf. Pepper beat him both times. He blamed it on her superior knowledge of the course. She asked what that had to do with the five times he'd ended up hitting his ball onto another green entirely. For that he silently resolved to take her to Cypress Point in Pebble Beach some weekend and see how she did there.
After golf, Tony offered to take her to dinner, but Pepper declined. Instead she pulled him over to the funnel cake stand and ordered two monstrous, deep-fried and sugar covered confections. She topped hers off with a mass of orange marmalade, then turned to Tony expectantly.
"Pepper, this thing is already a disaster waiting to happen," Tony told her as he accepted his plate. True, he had a fondness for all things greasy, but he doubted he was going to be able to finish his…and knew that she wouldn't be able to finish hers. "The fallout from the powered sugar alone is probably enough to merit the attention of FEMA."
She bumped his shoulder with hers playfully. "Ha-ha. Laugh it up, Stark." For one breathtaking moment her face was just a few inches away from his, easily within kissing range. He wanted to kiss her, wanted to lean in and close those few inches. He wanted the soft, quiet intimacy of the other night when they'd been in the back of his limo. He wanted to be free to kiss her without the haze of intoxication that had hung around him the last time.
What he really wanted was to leave her as speechless as she'd left him. Considering the lead she had on him, he needed to work hard to catch up.
The light was dim, but Tony could see Pepper's eyes darken as she noticed how intently he was watching her. Their steps slowed, and for a second Tony thought that he was going to get his kiss right there in the middle of the pier as people hurried past them on either side. Then Pepper's eyelids swept down; when they rose again her eyes were…knowing.
Tony shivered as he realized that Pepper Potts was flirting with him.
"Finish your funnel cake, Stark. I want to go on the rides."