Its Always Been
Valentine's Day
Pepper decided early in her life that Valentines was a pointless holiday. This revelation probably occurred sometime in elementary school when Jason Michaelson told her he would be her Valentine, then proceeded to to kiss her best friend Gillian the next day on the playground. Years to follow would prove that chalky hearts, cupid stickers and cliché "Beeee My Valentine," cards did not a romantic holiday make.
However, despite her qualms with the holiday, it was always one of her favorites to celebrate with Tony Stark. Of course there was the mandatory flowers and jewels for the arm-candy of the weekend (usually something gaudy and thoughtless). Playboy Tony knew how to work the ladies. But Valentine's also brought out a part of him that she rarely saw.
There was always an arrangement of roses placed on his mother's grave. And usually there was a generous donation to one of his mother's favorite charities around February 14th. She never commented on it to him directly, but to herself, she used it as a reminder that under the careless playboy billionaire there was a man with a kind heart, even if he rarely showed it.
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It was her second year working for him when he got her a gift for Valentine's day. She suspected it was, in part, due to a disagreement over his schedule; a sort-of apology. But the bouquet of roses that appeared on her desk in a Waterford vase would become an annual tradition. Sometimes there was the addition of chocolates, or Jimmy Choos. Ever year included an off-handed, "Happy Valentine's, Potts," as she headed out of the workshop at the end of the day.
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Four weeks. She hadn't expected it to take this long.
Countless calls, press conferences, news reports and military interviews. Things were just starting to settle, and in the back of her mind, she knew it was because people were giving up. The world did not stop, even for Tony Stark.
The floral agency called late in the afternoon. Did the arrangements he'd paid for in advance need to be delievered tomorrow, as he would not be there to pick them up? The next day, Pepper drove to get them, placing one arrangement in her backseat, before carefully placing the other in the front and making her way to the grave site.
As Pepper sat on the bench across from the two headstones with the rose bouquet between them, she let out a shaky sigh, admitting to herself what she'd avoided acknowledging for a week now.
He's not here for Valentine's Day.