Pepper walked through the front door with her purse hanging off her shoulder and collected papers filling her arms. She tapped the door behind her to close it and carefully walked over to the couch to set her belongings down. She looked behind her and saw the kitchen perfectly clean. I thought Tony said we were going to watch a movie tonight. She thought to herself as she walked towards the kitchen. She shrugged it off and opened the fridge to grab a cold bottle of water. She bent over and carefully inspected the fridge's contents. She eyed the bottle of water, and quickly took a swig of it.
"Miss Potts?" JARVIS asked.
She capped her drink. "Yes, JARVIS?" She responded.
"Mr. Stark is summoning you in his workshop."
"Okay. I'll be there soon." Summoning? She decided to take her bottle of water with her. Her heels clicked down the stairs efficiently enough to alert Tony. He looked behind the glass door and saw her punch in her access code.
A small smile swept across his face as her clicking heels echoed throughout the workshop.
"Hi." She greeted him with a small smile across her face.
"Hi." He casually walked over to her to give her a kiss on the cheek. "How was work?"
"Depends on how you look at it." She held her bottle of water in front of her. "Want some?"
"Nah, you've got cooties." He joked, taking the bottle from her. She rolled her eyes at him before she saw him practically down the whole bottle. "Thanks." He placed the bottle back in her hand.
"Thirsty?" She chuckled.
"I fixed some of the suit while you were in the office." He announced, walking towards the couches, with Pepper trailing behind him.
"Oh, and how'd that go?"
"It was… interesting, to say the least." He plopped down on the couch with a soft thud, and gestured beside him.
"Did you even make popcorn?" She glanced over at the kitchen and saw no mess.
"Did you want me to burn down the house, again?" He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Fine. I'll make it." She smiled in his direction before walking over to the kitchen. She opened one of the cabinets and had to get on her tippy toes to reach the box of packets of popcorn. She brought the box down and closed the cabinet door. She unraveled one of the popcorn packets and placed it into the microwave. She pressed the popcorn button and began to throw away the wrapping. "You do know, there is a popcorn button on the microwave."
"Must've slipped my mind during all those times I've failed at making popcorn." He smirked, turning his head to watch her.
"Please tell me you didn't burn down the house just to get my attention." She huffed, carefully eyeing him.
He looked away, almost guiltily. "No?"
"Oh my god, Tony." She pressed her lips together.
"You were always at the office…" He pouted.
"Yeah, because that's where I work."
"Well, I'm a billionaire, so fixing the house didn't take a notch off my bank account – and I have you now. So you don't have to worry about burnt houses – unless I have an intense urge to cook something." His lips formed a small smile before turning to face her. She stood there with her hands resting on her hip and her mouth crooked in a disappointing fashion.
"You're incorrigible." She finally breathed.
"Aw, don't say that Peppy." He frowned.
Peppy? She furrowed her eyebrows, while staring at the microwave. The microwave dinged. Pepper opened the microwave door and carefully grabbed the hot bag of popcorn out of the microwave. She set it down on the counter and rummaged through the cabinets for a bowl. Once she found a red plastic bowl, she carefully opened the bag and poured the buttery popcorn into it. She threw the greasy bag into the garbage can next to her and carefully walked towards the couch.
Tony sat there with his sling'd arm resting on his stomach and his good arm at his side.
"So, what movie are we watching?" Pepper rounded the couch and mindlessly sat down next to him, thus putting pressure on his injured arm.
Tony winced in pain. "Ow, ow, Pepper—you're sitting on—" He tried to tell her. Pepper immediately got up in worry and noticed that she was sitting against his right arm. He sat there, with his eyes closed, trying to withstand the pain.
"Oh god, Tony, I'm sorry – I—"
He cut her off and flashed a small smile. "It's okay. I'm fine."
Pepper stood there, with the bowl of popcorn shaking in her hands. She hated seeing him in pain. It's why she always patched him up. She didn't like seeing him enduring the pain – the pain he had to go through because he wanted to, not because he was forced to.
"No—you know what, I'm tired. I bet you're tired, too. Why don't we just continue this tomorrow night? I can make dinner and—"
Tony patted the spot next to him. "Come here."
Pepper solemnly frowned at him and looked down at the bowl of popcorn. She pressed her lips together and carefully sat down next to him, on his good side. He protectively wrapped his good arm around her waist and kissed her on the cheek.
He knew what she was thinking when she heard how ragged his breathing was, and when he told her – no, practically begged her to move. Tony squeezed her waist and gently rubbed it.
"I'm fine, Pepper." He finally told her.
Pepper kept her gaze on the bowl in front of her. "I didn't mean to—"
"I know." He tenderly kissed the side of her forehead.
"What movie…?" She felt an uneasy feeling overwhelm her as she changed the subject.
"I was thinking Alice In Wonderland." Just as he said the movie title, JARVIS dropped down the projector screen in front of them.
"The old one or new one?" She swung her legs up onto the couch and leaned into his embrace, molding nicely against him.
"The new one." He glanced over at her while the projector warmed up. He felt her body gently press into his side. The awkwardness started to shift between them. He knew how sorry she was, he just didn't know how to tell her it was never her fault. In some way, he could always see, in her eyes, that she always blamed herself for his injuries.
"I thought you want to see something action packed." She glanced over at him again.
"This movie got great reviews, so I'd thought I should watch it. And what better way to watch it than with my girlfriend?" He widened his smile at her.
Pepper's lips formed a small smile for a split second before looking away. Truth be told, she had a dislocated shoulder before. It was during middle school, in gym period. She was playing soccer with her classmates and a collision with two other people made her land in an awkward position. It hurt like hell. She didn't think she'd ever live to feel that sort of pain. It took a month for it to heal, but when people bumped into it, it felt like knives were piercing her shoulder with an almighty force.
"Pepper, don't feel like it's your fault." He finally breathed, squeezing her hip one more time.
"I've had a dislocated shoulder before and—"
"I know." He nodded. "It did hurt, but I think of it as a love bite." He kissed the nape of her neck, making her squirm a little in his grasp.
Her lips formed a sweet smile again. "Tony—"
"It was never your fault." He interrupted her again. She gazed up at him with those beautiful blue eyes of hers. "Hardman wanted to kill me because of a misunderstanding. I didn't get hurt because he targeted you."
"That's not how I saw it." She mumbled.
A blue screen was projected onto the screen, but just as the movie was starting, Tony halted it. "JARVIS, stop the movie for a minute."
Pepper immediately glanced over at him. "Can we talk about this after—"
"Nope." He cut her off again. He didn't want them to put off this conversation, and he didn't want her to feel like crap during the movie. He had to talk about this now. "We're talking about this, right here, right now." He pressed his lips together and turned his body to face her.
"I really don't want to talk about it." She heavily sighed, looking away.
"I'm going to tell you what I think is going on in that beautiful red haired head of yours." He told her almost sweetly. "Stop me if I get something wrong."
Pepper pressed her lips together and slowly turned her head to gaze up at him. He sat there, in all his adorable handsome glory, staring at her. His eyes turned a softer shade of brown, showing how much he cared for her.
"You think that it's your fault." He first started out. "You think that you were the cause for what happened that day. Maybe you thought if you weren't my personal assistant, then maybe he wouldn't have targeted me through you. You hate seeing me get hurt, and seeing me scream in pain scarred you. You're even considering the factor of breaking up with me, because you think it'll make my life easier."
"Okay, stop there." She snapped at him. "The breaking up part – that's not true."
"Good." He widened his smile, and affectionately squeezed the section above her knee. "Because, if you were thinking that, I would've had to take drastic measures in persuading you otherwise." He pumped his eyebrow up and down at her.
Pepper breathed a laugh before frowning again; she gazed up at him. "But, it did scare me… Seeing you getting hurt like that…"
"Fury said he took care of Hardman's little device. Iron Man will, hopefully, never experience it ever again." He leaned back in the comfortable couch that molded nicely around him.
"That's good." She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder.
"I also took the time to formulate an antidote against it using the specs of the device Fury sent me. It's for 'just in case' purposes." He reassured her, draping his arm around her waist. "So, you don't have to worry about me anymore."
"I worry about you all the time." She reminded him.
"Force of habit?"
"At first, it was. Then it turned into a general habit." She explained to him.
"You shouldn't have to stress yourself out over me." He heavily sighed.
"It's what a girlfriend does." She tilted her head up and placed a gentle kiss on his neck, just below his jaw.
Tony widened his smile and squeezed her back. He honestly couldn't believe how lucky he was to have her. He loved her, he really did. He just had trouble saying it. It was like seeing Fury dance. No one would believe it happened until they saw it themselves.
Pepper's smile grew when she felt him kiss the top of her head. She snuggled into his embrace and placed the popcorn bowl between them.
"Please." He practically whispered. "Don't blame yourself for what happens to me. It's never your fault."
Pepper sat there and silently nodded in response. She didn't know how not to blame herself. He saved the world and he constantly thought of innocent lives before his own (kind of). He always tried to find time for her, and all this time, she thought she was a burden to him. It was hard to see him enduring so much pain and agony where there probably was another way. There always is another way.
She laid there in silence as the movie began, and Tony sat there next to her, quietly running his hand up and down her waist. It wasn't long before Pepper endearingly gripped his hand with her own, and entwined their fingers together. He pressed a lingering kiss on the top of her head and sighed in content. It was a perfect evening for a somewhat perfect date. Neither one of them wanted to sleep alone that night.