Pepper was having a bad week.
No, that was an understatement. In the thirty plus years Virginia Potts had been on earth, never had any week been as frustrating, debilitating, or miserable as the one she'd just had.
Starting bright and early Monday morning, a pipe burst in her apartment, ruining sixty percent of her wardrobe and rendering her brand new flat screen TV a useless hunk of junk after the water seeped into the outlet. The next day, her landlord called to inform her that due to a clause of a clause in her lease, he was under no obligation to fix the damages and she had a week to get a plumber or else she could kiss her deposit goodbye. On Wednesday, someone stole her car. On Thursday, it was found sans tires in a parking garage two miles away. On Friday, Matthew, her boyfriend of nine months, told her over dinner that it wasn't working out and he wanted to see other people. Said person being the curvy blonde she caught him making out with in the park on Saturday.
By the time Sunday rolled around, she was on her last legs. Her bank account had never looked more depressing and she'd expended all her optimism hoping the plumber would charge her a hundred dollars less than he had. A call came in at one, interrupting her game of solitaire.
"Ms. Potts, I'm so sorry to bother you, but I have the board of directors on line two. Mr. Stark missed their meeting and they're demanding to speak to you."
Pepper silenced the call. She didn't need ten voices yelling at her when her ears were already steaming. Tony's office was separated from hers by a wall of bulletproof, but not soundproof glass. He was in there right now, chatting up girlfriend number 394 without a care in the world while everyone around him was in Hell. He didn't look up when Pepper walked in, not until she plucked the phone out of his hand and dropped it on the desk.
"You had a meeting an hour ago," she said. He opened his mouth, either to answer or to ask for his phone back, but he wasn't getting an inch from Pepper today. "Don't say you'll make it up to them. Don't say you're the boss so the meeting starts when you say it starts. All of that is bullshit and we both know it. Now I have been having the worst time these last few days, so if you think you can make my life more difficult and get away with it, you'd better think again. You are going to get off your lazy ass, apologize to the board, and the next time you have a meeting you are going to be there ON TIME. NO EXCUSES!"
Pepper slammed her fist on the desk, which was a stupid move because now her hand was throbbing. Tears prickled her eyes and she turned away before he saw. That would be the icing on this seven layer shit cake that was her life.
Tony's chair squeaked, and he moved around his desk hopefully to go be responsible for once and own up to his mistakes. Instead, a pair of arms wrapped around Pepper from behind, pulling her back into a hard chest. Tony's head rested on her shoulder, just out of view. Seconds passed and he neither moved nor faded into the ether, leaving Pepper to conclude this was actually happening.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Hugging you," Tony said like this was something he did every day. "It was to my understanding that when someone is upset, they like to be hugged. Releases endorphin or something. Makes them feel better."
"Where did you read that?"
He shrugged. "Can't remember. On a plane maybe? Definitely not mine. Books are the last thing you need on my plane unless those books contain words like tantric and-"
"Tony, we're having a nice moment here," Pepper said, patting his hand. "I'm starting to feel a tiny bit better. Don't ruin it."
"Gotcha." Tony rocked her, sort of like a slow dance without music, but that was a train of thought Pepper would rather jump off a building than go down. Not so soon after a breakup and definitely not with Tony Stark. "I'm sorry about your apartment and your car and Mitchell."
"Matthew."
"Do you care?"
Fair point.
"How do you know about all that?" she asked, pulling away slightly. He took that as an invite to hug her from the front, and now Pepper had her face buried in his neck. He smelled good, way better than Matthew.
"Genius intuition obviously," he said, "also you were on the phone with the cops and your landlord the other day. We should think about soundproofing that wall."
"I'll make a note of it," Pepper said, even though she wouldn't. "Well, thanks for cheering me up."
He grinned.
"Now about the board of directors."
His face fell. "Tomorrow."
"No, you have to see them today."
"But I helped you. Do me a solid, Potts."
"I'll do you one by making sure you don't get bought out of your own company."
"Please? I'll buy you a new car. Or a new house. Or we can test the new missile prototype on Mitchell's place."
"Mr. Stark," Pepper used her 'mom' voice, the one she'd learned from her mother on the off chance she had kids of her own. Working with Tony Stark, she'd have all those instincts satisfied before she was forty. "I'll let the board know to expect you in an hour."
"Okay," Tony whined, his tone so exaggerated it took him a good five seconds to get off the second syllable. "All three offers still stand! Especially the Mitchell one!"
Pepper shook her head, amusement and bemusement warring in her thoughts. Tony Stark was by far the most outlandish human being she had ever met. The crazy part was that sometimes, she thought she could fall for him. But that would take a miracle and a half.