Chapter 7: Clearly Only Friends

Pepper's brows raised before quickly furrowing in anger. "What? Are you serious Tony!"

He laughed and gave an innocent shrug. "Rules are rules, I mean- ow!"

Pepper had whacked him in the chest. "That was definitely more than nine seconds, I was counting."

Tony chuckled, "Really? Then how long was it?"

There was a bit of a pause and after a moment Pepper slumped her shoulders. "I… may have lost count."

"Mm."

"But I know it was more than nine."

He didn't seem too fazed by it. "How much more than nine then?"

Pepper looked away, pausing. "Well I don't know, a few more seconds at least?"

Tony threw a smirk at her, that being exactly what he wanted to hear. "So… ultimately, that would be longer than our agreement of ten seconds."

She rolled her eyes. "So?"

A corner of his lip twisted up. "So, seeing as though you didn't pull away as soon as the clock struck ten… it means you actually wanted to kiss me."

"Or I'd just gotten carried away."

He smiled. "You wouldn't have gotten carried away if you didn't want to kiss me."

She frowned at him, her eyes glaring as she thought over what would be the smartest thing to say.

Here they'd finally come full circle. He asked if she wanted to kiss him, and now… she supposed the best option would be to just give him a straight answer.

Her shoulders slumped and she rolled her eyes. "Maybe… I the thought of kissing you… had entered my mind."

There was a pause, and then Tony grinned rather boyishly. "Good."

"Good?"

"Yeah, because I wanted you to kiss me too."

"Ah- oh." Pepper's response died in her throat. "You did?"

He gave a shrug. "Why wouldn't I?"

Pepper looked down somewhat shyly. "I don't know." she shrugged, looking back up at him. "Because we're best friends?"

He shrugged right back at her. "So what? Now we're best friends who've kissed each other. I certainly don't mind, do you?"

She paused, smiling a little before replying in a quite voice. "No."

The boyish grin came back to Tony's face, bringing them straight back into their childhood. "Cool."

Pepper chuckled at that and lightly whacked him in the chest again with the back of her hand.

Tony smirked and brought his hand up, quickly grabbing hers before she could take it back. "You know, I thought it was little boys who'd hit the girls that they had crushes on."

Pepper was surprised that he'd taken her hand, though his response had taken away more of her interest. "Who said anything about me having a crush on you?!" It seemed the more they teased each other the easier everything seemed to just spill out.

Tony shrugged. "You sort of just did."

Pepper rolled her eyes at him pointedly. "Well, to make it clear, I don't have a crush on you."

"No?" Tony asked, though it wasn't in insult. He seemed just genuinely curious. As if it would only be natural if she did.

She gave the hand still in hers a squeeze. It was weird holding his hand, though neither of them made any moves to let go. "I'm sorry?" she chuckled.

Tony hummed skeptically. "So you just wanted to kiss me, …platonically?"

Pepper laughed at the notion and was about to say something, though she was cut off by the short ding of her text tone from her phone. "One sec." She quickly fished it out of her pocket and read the message, smiling still before putting it back away. "But sure, let's go with that." She gave him a quick little grin before she began to get up off the couch without much warning, tugging at his hand for him to stand up with her.

Tony had curiously tried to look at the message on her phone, though she'd put it away too quickly for him to catch a glance. "I'm not so sure if I'm okay with that." he said, getting up and watching her with a raised brow, wondering why she'd gotten up suddenly.

"No?" she asked, slowly beginning to slip her fingers out of his hand, "So, does that mean you don't want to give me a purely platonic kiss goodbye?" her voice raised slightly at the end of the sentence, and she hoped he wouldn't sense the nerves she felt from simply asking something like that. As comfortable as she was with Tony, this whole… situation definitely wasn't … easy. "My dad's here." she explained, tapping her phone in her pocket. "Came to pick me up."

"Oh." Tony said in understanding. He looked down to her hand, now absent from his own before his gaze slowly came back up to her. "Already?"

She gave a slow nod, wondering if she should have asked or not. "Yeah."

Tony's eyes met hers, and the both of them just stayed there, watching each other. A lot was said today, but not a lot was done. And well, if a girl asks Tony Stark to kiss her, he's not gonna leave her hanging. "Sure then." he said, taking a minuscule step towards her. "Purely platonic." he teased lightly.

"Purely platonic." Pepper whispered in return, seeing him beginning to lean into her. She liked seeing him lean in first. Proof that he in fact, did want to kiss her. It was still such a strange concept, though she loved it all the same.

She tilted her head to the side as his lips softly came over hers, a bit more surely than their last few attempts. It felt different. There wasn't a game, and it wasn't to prove a point. Tony Stark was simply kissing her goodbye.

He lingered there for a moment, but ultimately the kiss didn't last very long. When he pulled back Pepper found herself wanting more, though she didn't want to push anything. It was supposed to be platonic anyways, she mused to herself. Better not risk it.

She smiled at him genuinely, and he gave her a grin right back. A new sort of understanding coming across the both of them. Something that was surely far from simply platonic.

"Come on." Tony said, placing a hand on the small of her back. "I'll walk you to your car."

"How friendly." Pepper teased. "You're such a great friend."

xxx

Hey everyone! I was so surprised by the amount of messages I got from you guys, asking if I was continuing or still able to update! So yeah I'm still here, and still liking this story! Please leave a review and tell me what you thought, or if you have any questions, or even suggestions that you'd like to see Tony and Pepper in. I've got most of the rest of this story planned out, so you should be seeing more in the near future! Thanks for being so supportive! :)