Hello dear friends, contrary to popular belief i did not forget about this story as some of you may know it's been rather crazy in my life and needless to say i've been dead these past few weeks but especially this week. But today is the only break i've gotten and i should have gone to bed five hours ago i'm so tired but i really wanted to ive this to you guys as a way to say thanks. I'm finishing writing the next chapter of the Puzzle tomorrow and i just am forewarning you i do not know if i will update again this month. This is when i have my major tests, A.P. exams, had english today. and then standardized testing. We call them SOL's but they are referred to as different things. They are state given tests. Then i have my final exit interview for spanish coming up and finals and then i'm home free come the week of june 13. Thanks again for all of your reviews and favorites. I do apologize again. So i'm going to go crash now. I've been putting it off for a very long time and now my system is shutting down. it's pretty bad. Apparently i look and am acting high. lack of sleep most likely and stress. But yeah. enjoy por favor.
oh and the song i could not find the full french lyrics for. wish i could have.
Chapter 7: Friends Night
It was elected by nearly everyone in the new circle of friends that they all go out together and have dinner, then go and do some fun event on the ship. The only person who had not been in conjuncture with this plan was unsurprisingly, Tony; who had stated that he'd rather just be locked in a room all night with Pepper. Said person had elbowed Tony in the ribs and contradicted his statement saying that they were in.
Now everyone was around a table in the buffet lounge and laughing at a story Tony and Rhodey had told of a fan that literally thrown themself at Tony. Everyone at the table had something different on their plate that had barely been touched in the hour they'd been there because they hardly ever stopped laughing long enough to take a bite and keep it down.
"Wow, you must have trouble trying to ground him Rhodey." Pepper said with a teasing glance to her boyfriend.
"Hey! He's no walk in the park either!" Tony defended.
Pepper just laughed and replied, "Oh right sure."
"It's true!" He cried.
"When exactly have I ever gotten in over my head?" Rhodey asked.
A wolfish grin appeared on Tony's face and he answered cockily, "Ivan Celion."
Rhodey's face had instantly paled which only further intrigued everyone at the table.
"Who's Ivan?" Michelle asked voicing the question they all held.
"Tony no. Don't do it." Rhodey pleaded, but Tony was not going to not tell them.
"Ivan Celion was Rhodey's second best friend. The three of us always hung out together. So, it was senior year and we were at a party. I was sixteen at the time and Rhodey and Ivan were twenty-one. It was almost one and everyone left had clearly been drinking, especially Ivan. Me and Rhodey-"
"Rhodey and I." Pepper cut in correcting him.
Tony rolled his eyes and began his sentence again, "Rhodey and I were in the kitchen getting another shot of scotch when Ivan comes stumbling in. Ivan was like 6 '1', 250 pounds. Dude was big. Anyways, he comes stumbling in and makes his way over to Rhodey. And here is where it gets fun."
"Tony please, no." Rhodey begged to no avail.
"Anyways, so he comes in and shoves Rhodey into the corner of the counter and kisses him. And not some light peck but like full on hot and heavy, lustful, tongue action and he has Rhodey pinned, unable to move. And let's just say some inappropriate touching happened in the southern hemisphere. That's finally when I come in and help pry Ivan off Rhodey. Rhodey then slams a fist into his face and needless to say Ivan never came by again haha but we did still occasionally see him in some classes or in the cafeteria." Tony said with an amused grin.
Rhodey had his face buried in his arms on the table, his face was hotter than magma. Nelia especially began to laugh aloud but everyone else's laughs and snickers were a distant echo compared to hers.
"Wow James, you sure know how to pick your friends." Nelia teased with a playful shove. Rhodey just groaned in response and everyone laughed again.
"So Rhodey, do you have any interesting and embarrassing stories of Tony?" Pepper asked curiously.
Tony ribbed Pepper and said with mock hurt, "Hey, you're supposed to be on my side Pep."
Rhodey whipped his head up as a story came to mind and he met Tony's eyes with a devilish grin. Tony's heart stopped.
"Rhodey no, No, not that one, anyone but that." He said as his voice elevated in panic.
"Oh yes Tony, revenge is sweet." Rhodey said seriously his eyes glazing over as if he was raving mad.
"Shit." Tony cursed hanging his head.
"I take it you have one in mind." Marissa said who sat adjacent to Nelia and opposite Tony and Pepper.
"Oh yeah. So Tony came to MIT when he was fourteen which means during college he went through puberty." Rhodey began with a sly grin. Pepper snickered and Tony glared at her. "It was close to ten at night our freshman year and I was coming back from the seven-eleven down the street with some Monster and NOS per Tony's request. So I get into the dorm and Tony is nowhere to be found. I start calling out trying to find him and he says in a worried tone that he's in the bathroom and that something is wrong. Naturally I'm worried in a protective older brother type way, so I tell him to open up but he's reluctant. So you guys know the door handles with the tiny holes in the middle for a key right?" Everyone nodded their head and waited for Rhodey to continue. "Well, you can open those doors with a broken Q-tip. So I grabbed the make shift key and opened the door and Tony is standing there wide eyed, red face, 5 '6', and there's a tent in his sweats." Rhodey stopped and laughed a little at the mental image memory. "So he starts saying there's something wrong and that it happened spontaneously while he was watching a movie and I just laughed. I couldn't help it. I spent the next twenty minutes trying to calm him down and explain what happened and that it was normal. Haha, a fourteen year old freshman in college freaking out over his first boner. It was a pretty hilarious, embarrassing sight, especially since the movie he was watching was The Lion King."
Pepper lost it. Michelle, Marissa, and Nelia joined in the laughter while Tony just shook his head and groaned of embarrassment.
"The…the…the Lion King…really?" Pepper asked in amusement between laughs.
"Oh please, like nothing bad happened to you during puberty." Tony muttered.
"Actually no." Pepper replied gratefully. "However, I had an entirely different problem, my father."
"Oh, Jake?" Michelle asked familiar with the story.
"Yeah." Pepper said with a smile.
"Who's this Jake character?" Tony asked feeling a twinge of jealousy even though he knew he had no reason to be.
Pepper sensed the jealousy and squeezed his knee.
"Relax, Jake Winters was my first boyfriend. It was my sophomore year of high school when he finally asked me out. We were going to be going to see some new PG-13 movie. Now, at the time I was sixteen and he was seventeen. Before I continue, you should know my dad is a Special Agent for the F.B.I. Homicide Division who loves guns." Rhodey snickered and Pepper laughed a little before she continued. "So Jake walks up to my house, rings the doorbell. I'm upstairs per Dad's orders and required to wait five minutes until he's done. Mom opens the door and invites Jake into the formal living room where my dad and my older brother, Curtis, are polishing their guns. Turns out that my dad had run a background check on him before hand and began cross-interrogating him with Curtis."
"Oh God." Tony said appalled picturing himself in Jake's place.
"Yup, that's what my life consisted of."
"Still does." Marissa added.
"Yeah." Pepper scoffed. "You can say that again."
"So does that mean…" Tony began fearfully.
Rhodey began to laugh and answered, "Yup, sure does buddy."
"Don't worry; you don't have to worry about that anytime soon Tony." Tony released the breath he had been holding and sighed in relief.
"Oh thank god. I don't think I could handle that. Not yet anyway."
"You'll do fine." Pepper reassured.
"Pssh, no he won't." Rhodey countered with a snicker.
Tony glared at his best friend. "Boys, boys, save it for the games." Michelle piped up teasingly.
"Let's go now then." Tony said eagerly
"Oh, you wanna bumble with the bee huh." Rhodey challenged.
"bzzzz." Tony answered staring down Rhodey.
"Hey, babe, chill out." Pepper said with an amused smile as she shook Tony's shoulder.
"Rhodey just declared war." He said while continuing to stare down his challenger.
"Yeah well you both declare momentary truce for dinner. You can beat each other to your heart's content after we all eat." Pepper said gently but firmly.
Tony held Rhodey's stare before giving in to Pepper. "Fine." He said reluctantly taking a forkful of mashed potatoes and corn.
Pepper rolled her eyes and the girls met each other's eyes and said in unison, "Boys.", with a shake of their head.
Tony smirked as he took a bite of Mac N' Cheese and placed a hand on Pepper's knee. His hand slowly began to slide up and Pepper briefly looked up from her lasagna and shot a look to Tony. He withdrew his hand with a grin and took another bite. The group sat relatively quietly, finally eating their food with small talk in between. Marissa casually observed Pepper and Tony and took note of her friend's easy smile that seemed to now always be present on her face since Tony came around. She also noticed how her eyes seemed a shade lighter and more playful as well. Her body looked relaxed and Marissa doubted Pepper realized it. Her body also seemed to lean more towards Tony's all of its own accord. Love did come in mysterious ways with strange people but even she couldn't deny that they seemed complete together. A playboy and a Girl Friday. Marissa laughed a little at the odd match.
Another hour passed by before the group wandered around until they stumbled in on a game of blackjack. "Ready to see your man in his natural habitat?" Tony asked with a gleam in his eye and a cocky grin.
"Well I'm sorry to say you're not the only one that's good at blackjack Mr. Stark." Pepper said with a grin.
"Alright, I see you. Bring it Potts." Tony challenged.
"With pleasure." She accepted.
As they sat down amongst the others there, Rhodey, Michelle, Marissa, and Nelia stood back. "Man she has no idea what she's getting into." Rhodey said with a shake of his head.
"Actually, I believe it's the other way around." Michelle said with a confident smile.
"Care to make this interesting Burrito?" Rhodey asked with an eyebrow raised.
"It's Barita. Game on Rhodes." Michelle said with a cocky grin.
"Whoever's person wins the most rounds receives a hundred." Rhodey said setting the ground rules.
"Deal." Michelle said shaking Rhodey's hand confident in Pepper's ability to win. They stood back at a close distance to keep track of who was winning each hoping that their friend would win. As Tony sat at the table beside Pepper he took note of each card dealt and the number of cards possible to be dealt.
As the first guy got another card Tony leaned over to Pepper and whispered, "He's gonna bust." Sure enough an angry fist slammed on the table coupled with an angry rant.
"That was a coincidence." Pepper said not believing Tony's ability to count cards and figure out the percentage of busting or getting twenty one.
"Look, this next guy here has thirteen, he's either going to get a seven or a five."
As the card was revealed it was indeed a seven. "How…how did you…?"
"I'm really good at math, that's why I'm a genius." As Tony's turn came he winked at Pepper and said, "Hit." She held his gaze not wanting to look at the card and he smirked. Finally she tore away her gaze and looked down at the cards. Exactly twenty-one. Two face cards and an ace. She looked down at the cards and her mouth hung open, but she decided to not be intimidated by his genius. She cleared her throat and shifted in her seat.
"You want to give in now before this goes any further?" Tony asked with a grin.
"Never give up, never surrender." Pepper said with a challenging grin.
"Alright then Potts, it's your turn." Pepper smirked and flipped over her cards. She had twenty-one on the draw. Tony groaned and Pepper smiled.
"Didn't see that one coming Mr. Stark, did ya. You may have the advantage of being good with math but I get very, very lucky." Pepper whispered in his ear. Tony grinned and suddenly turned his head and captured her lips in an unsuspecting kiss.
Pepper pulled away pleasantly surprised and asked, "What was that for?"
"Because you looked hot in that moment." Tony said with a smile.
"So me beating you at your own game is a turn on?" Pepper asked with a smirk.
"No one has ever dared challenge me at blackjack. No one in their right mind anyway." Tony mused.
"Well you'll just have to wait until later tonight after everyone is in bed."
"And you'll be mine." Tony said with a grin.
Pepper playfully slapped his arm and said, "Behave."
"You started it!" He cried.
"Pay attention or I'll end up whooping your ass."
"There's an idea." Tony said with a smirk. Pepper punched his shoulder and Tony laughed. They continued to play blackjack for another twenty minutes before they stopped and Tony had beat Pepper six games to four and Rhodey had become a hundred dollars richer. It had seemed though that Rhodey and Michelle were more into the game than Tony and Pepper were.
"Where to next?" Nelia asked.
"They're having an open mic night at the Haven Bar tonight." Marissa said.
"Oh yes!" Michelle said excitedly.
"I'm game." Rhodey said with a shrug of his shoulders confidently knowing he could hold his own if push came to shove.
"Ugh, do I have to?" Tony whined.
"Yes, you do." Pepper said and slipped her hand into his.
"You fight like an old married couple who have known each other forever." Rhodey said with a chuckle as they began to walk towards the Haven Bar.
Tony groaned feigning displeasure but inside he was ecstatic. He could surprise Pepper and sing to her while playing piano. And he knew the perfect song to play that would surprise her. All he had to do was keep on complaining, say he was going to the bathroom, then sneak up to the stage and steal her breath away with his impressive French and piano playing. When they reached the bar it was quiet with some whispers amongst the people sitting at the tables enjoying some other shmuck play the piano. The five of them together took up two tables pulled together side by side. They ordered a round of shots trying to gather their liquid courage to go up. As the pianist ended the piece everyone clapped and cheered and began talking amongst themselves at a dull roar.
"He was pretty good." Rhodey noted.
"Eh, I've seen better." Tony said crossing his arms.
"Be nice. You can't do that." Pepper reprimanded then directed her attention to the rest of the group who began to argue and try to pressure one another into going first.
"I'm going to go to the bathroom." Tony said but no one addressed him or acknowledged he had spoken so he smirked and slipped away. He made it to the stage without a single one of his friends noticing and talked to the guy managing the performances for a few minutes before finally sitting down at the piano and flexing his fingers. He tapped the mic on the top of the piano to make sure it was on and cleared his throat.
He heard Pepper's voice amongst the crowd ask, "Where's Tony?" and he grinned before speaking into the mic.
"Evening everyone. My name is Tony Stark and this song goes out to someone especially close to my heart that I met here. That beautiful red head in the middle table." Tony said with a smile as he saw her blush. "Ms. Pepper Potts, the love of my life." He said sweetly before turning his attention to the piano and began to play the melody to Ne T'en Vas Pas (Don't You Go Now) by Dani Thompson.
"Ne T'en vas pas." He began sounding very fluent in the language. His voice sounded like that of an angel to Pepper and the way he seemed so at ease up there on the piano left her in awe. As he continued to sing in French she looked on at him adoringly and became enchanted by his fluency and emotion. It was clear that this song was close to his heart. His facial expressions gave it away and she smiled as Tony sang pouring out his soul fluently. "Don't you go now." He began singing the translation in English. "Don't you run away from me. I need you more than ever. I won't set you free. Don't you hide now. Don't you slip away. I want you for myself each and every day. I need you now. Need you every moment. I want you. Want you standing here beside me. I need you now. Need you close to me. Don't you go now." He sang beautifully as his fingers effortlessly glided across playing the familiar song. He continued to play the piano for a while before switching back to singing in French and finishing off the song. Everyone in the room was mesmerized by Tony; unable to move as he moved their hearts. When he finally stopped playing the magic spell broke and everyone erupted into cheers. Claps and whistles could be heard all around and normally Tony would have absorbed it and basked in the attention; but tonight he wordlessly accepted it and walked back over to his shell shocked new friends and girlfriend. When he took his seat next to Pepper he nonchalantly took a swig of his drink and looked at all of their faces and smiled innocently.
"So, who's next?" He asked. They all continued to stare at him in amazement and confusion. "What?" he asked.
"When did you…how…where…?" Rhodey stuttered unable to form a coherent question.
"I don't speak gibberish, sorry. That's not one of the languages my mom had me learn." He answered. Tony felt Pepper give his leg a gentle squeeze and met her eyes that told him more than she could express with words. It was like he was so in tune with her that he could hear what she was saying loud and clear.
He sent her back a message with a nod of his head and she smiled and kissed his cheek whispering, "You can sing me to sleep anytime."
Tony smiled and nodded his head in agreement. "Well, who's next, I already went."
"I'll go." Marissa piped up. "Do you know how to play the piano piece for Sarah McLachlan's song Angel?" She asked Tony.
"Maybe." Tony said followed by a manly cough.
"Great, you're playing while I sing."
"Whoa, hold on. What's in it for me?" Tony asked.
"What's in it for you?" Marissa repeated.
"Yeah, what do I get from helping you?" He asked crossing his arms.
"How about my affection." Pepper offered.
"Alright, I'm in." Tony said jumping up from his chair.
"Wow, I never thought I'd see the day when the great Tony Stark would be reduced by the promised affection of a woman." Rhodey said with a teasing grin. "You're becoming such a big softie Mr. Playboy."
"Oh shut it." Tony said.
"Wow Pepper, I can't believe you've managed to strip him of most of his playboy tendencies."
"He was just waiting for the right person to do it." Pepper replied with a happy smile and a soft kiss to Tony's cheek who in turn beamed her a look of adoration.
"Alright, let's go before someone else starts trying to walk up there." Marissa said to Tony. He took another sip of his drink then got up and followed Marissa back on stage and over to the piano where he shot Pepper another quick look and winked.
As Marissa sang Pepper became lost once again as she watched Tony intently. He looked so engrossed in the song as he moved and had his eyes shut as he played only occasionally looking down and opening them. The magic of Marissa's voice combined with Tony's playing immersed Pepper in the magic and she felt the words pierce her soul as she thought of Tony being her angel. When the song finally ended Pepper felt a little sad. She wanted to continue hearing Tony play on the piano.
The night finally ended close to midnight after everyone had sung their choice of song. Pepper, Nelia, and Michelle had changed the atmosphere and sung Cyndi Lauper's, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Rhodey had in turn also changed up the atmosphere and decided to go soulful with Luther Vandross', Never Too Much. The group had a couple rounds of shots and bonded over a couple stories before splitting off back to their rooms. Tony escorted Pepper to her room and briefly kissed her goodnight before he took off for his room. Just as he emerged from his bathroom however, there was a soft knock that resounded on his door and he padded over in grey, M.I.T. sweats and a bare chest. When he opened the door he saw Pepper standing there in shorts and a tank top with a small backpack slung over her shoulder.
"Is that an overnighter bag?" Tony asked with a grin.
"Maybe." Pepper replied evasively.
"I thought you were going to stay in your room tonight?"
"I wanted to be in the arms of my angel." She replied with a smile. Tony beamed her a smile and stepped aside to grant her entry. She followed behind him into the bedroom and slung her backpack in a chair. Tony peeled back the covers that had been remade and climbed in. Pepper crawled in beside him and he pulled her closer to him and the covers over them. She snuggled up into him and sighed contently. "Goodnight Tony." She said softly.
"Goodnight Pepper, sweet dreams." He murmured as he placed a kiss on her head before he released a sigh and closed his eyes welcoming the whispers of a peaceful slumber with his other half.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxSpring Breakxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx x
alright so i hope you enjoyed this. And for those of you wondering, i have been asked if i was planning on writing any IM3 stories and right now the answer is not currently but come June i'll probably have one shots and then after i finish this story i will be starting the sequel to Fear! that's gonna be one intense story. Almost if not more intense than IM3, i'm gonna be so bold as to say i think it is because there is a lot of action in this next one that MARVEL would never be allowed to play with. so leave me a review to wake up please :) if you'd be so kind.
P.S. i loved IM3 the marathon was awesome leading up to it. I cried when the music began playing for IM and then the marvel credits for IM3 and the compilation of all the movies end credits for IM3 lol. Now my friends just keep laughing. lol. Enjoy your weekend everyone!