A/N: OK the next chapter is here! I need to make them dance a little around each other before I let them be happy but the fluff is coming trust me. You will need to wait for the next chapter a little longer (kind of busy this weekend) but it will be there.

I would like to thank very much louvreangel who was kind enough to beta this story. THANKS!

Ch3# Home

Going back home that day was something that Tony had been dreaming about ever since he finished that conversation with Obi. He was tired and confused and moreover he wanted a drink. So when he finally was able to shut the car door after biding a short goodbye to Hogan in front of his house, he was beyond relief. Until he crossed the threshold. JARVIS greeted him as soon as the door closed after him and then the house went silent. Somehow the first thought that came to his mind was why he didn't invite Pepper to go with him. She stayed at the office, too busy to even look at him when he went to her office. He gave her a fair amount of work with his press conference that day and he somehow felt sorry that he didn't prepare her for what would come. But he didn't know how to explain everything to her yet, so he did what he had been doing best for years - he acted on impulse. So he said a quick goodbye to her. He was trying to say something else which sounded more like 'I'm sorry' but he didn't voice it loud enough so before she had a chance to respond, he was out.

Tony wandered around his house for couple of minutes, absent-mindedly opening some cupboards in the kitchen, not really wanting to find anything. Then he followed his well-known path to his workshop. Everything was how he had left it. All his scattered papers and schematic were lying where he had thrown them so long ago. His dirty rug was still hanging from the corner of the workbench where he had hung it, before he had left that morning. Even his coffee mug was still siting perched at the closed lid of some tool box. He frowned. His house was spotless clean upstairs, the fridge was full, all the furniture was clean and dusted and he even had fresh flowers in the living room. But in his workshop nothing happened, like the time stopped for the three months he was out. He wondered if Pepper had forgotten about this place… or she just hadn't come down here when he was absent. He walked round the workshop touching and checking his things, patting his robots and talking to them in a soft voice as if they were dogs that he didn't see for a long time. Even Dummy had its fair share of greetings and kind words and if it was truly alive, it would store that memory for future barkings and yellings, which it knew very well would follow after that warm welcome. Finally Tony had collapsed on the sofa and just stared at the opposite wall. He didn't have the will or energy to switch on the TV. He just sat and listened to silent whooshing sounds of the 'boots coming alive and tried to clean. It was soothing, it was something he remembered, and it was something he called home. One thing was missing here and he couldn't really put his fingers on this feeling but he was just too tired to analyze what else was missing to call it truly home.

He woke up with a start sweating and breathing, fast the scenes from the cave still vivid in front of his eyes. It wasn't long since he had closed his eyes on the sofa in the workshop when his beaten up mind decided to again put him through the hell he was recently saved from. He sat up and wiped his sweaty face with his hand, and then discovered that his shirt was also drenched in sweat. He took it off with disgust and then stared into his arc reactor; its blue light was a significant part of his life now and he had gotten used to its constant presence. He drummed his fingers at the frame 'I need a new one, I need a better one, the one not built in a cave' he thought darkly to himself. He signed tiredly and looked at the sofa; sleep was out of the question, he would not get back to those nightmares. He got up and ventured to his coffee machine, when he switched it on he remembered the last time he had made himself coffee downstairs. It had been the day of the trip to Afghanistan and it had also been Pepper's birthday, which he had forgotten as usual. God he could be a royal ass sometimes. Suddenly he felt the impossible urge to just hear her voice. Somehow he wished she was still in the house so he could go and talk to her. It would make him feel normal again. He glanced at the clock taking a sip from his newly brewed coffee. One in the morning was flashing back at him. 'It is either too late or too early to call her' he thought sadly, but when something like that had ever stopped him before? He just needed a good excuse to call her. After like the fifth tone her sleepy voice spoke from the other line of the phone and Tony couldn't help but smile.

"Hello."

"Pepper, could you tell me if there's some coffee in my house?" Tony said without blinking, staring down at his mug of dark liquid.

"What… Tony?" Pepper sleepy voice was beyond confused, what made Tony smile even wider. Potts in that state was just plain cute, he somehow wished she was here so he could look at her.

" Oh Miss Potts, I have been away only for three months and you already forgot my ability of consuming coffee." Tony was still smiling broadly into his mug trying not to sip loud enough for her to hear that.

"What, no, oh my God what time is it?" She sounded more awaken this time.

"Around one I think…" He answered dutifully, wincing at the time. He could let her sleep after that day he had put her through but a small part of him was so happy to be able to talk with her right now that his selfish side didn't let him to hang up.

"Oh OK… Coffee… That's weird because I was sure that the coffee machine was full this morning…" She said more awaken but still highly confused.

"I'm downstairs." He chipped in fast.

Pepper frowned at the other side of the line and lifted her up in the bed. She glanced at the bedside clock; it was 1:15 in the morning. She was really trying to wake up herself fast. In those ten years she got used to Tony's weird phone calls at wired hours but she was just very tired. She had gone to sleep half an hour ago after a whole day of trying to get some damage control of SI after Tony's press conference. So she had to excuse herself for not understanding half of the current phone call.

"Oh… There is a new packet in the kitchen cupboard, the first on the left…" She remembered finally where she had put the fresh packet when she had been restocking the kitchen lately. She wondered absent-mindedly how on earth she could forget to fill the coffee machine in the workshop.

Meanwhile when she was explaining, Tony hopped on the countertop next to his coffee machine, still grinning. It was so nice to hear her voice so he actually didn't pay attention to what she was saying as long as her voice was on the other side of the phone. But a loud beep from the coffee machine informed that the next cup of his coffee was ready and Tony almost choked at the current one he was drinking. 'She didn't hear that, did she?' he thought fast holding his breath but on the other side of the phone came a wired silence as if Pepper was listening to something.

"You were saying Pepper…" He asked fast, hoping that she didn't notice the hustle tone of his voice, he was trying to switch off that offending machine with his second hand.

Pepper held her breath for just a second, she knew that sound. She would know that sound even if she would be half awake. He was in the workshop and that sound was the coffee machine beeping the next cup ready. She was sure of that. "Tony where are you?" she asked. But she already knew he was lying.

'Think fast, think fast' Tony was thinking frantically, trying to come up with anything believable. He knew that she had heard that.

"In the kitchen…" he blurred out "Didn't you just say that the coffee was in the kitchen? I'm switching the coffee machine on…" It was so lame, he could hear it was lame but either he had lost his ability to lie or he didn't practice that for a long time. He just hoped that the 'boots wouldn't crash into something loud enough for her to hear that as well.

"Oh good… Since you found the coffee, can I go back to sleep?" She said slowly as if listening to something intently.

"Oh yes…" He answered automatically and regretted that the moment it left his mouth. He didn't want to let her go. Actually he was fighting the need to ask her to come here and spent time with him.

"Good…" She signed and he imagined her snuggling back into her bed. Somehow he wished to be there with her. Maybe he would even try to sleep again, or he would be doing something else… Oh God he was back with those thoughts of his PA which weren't so innocent. He was pretty sure he was done with that. 'I need to think something so she doesn't hung up' he was thinking foggy.

"Oh… Potts I can't find the car keys of AUDI. Have you seen them anywhere?" He said the first thing that came to his mind, like he would bother to even look for them.

"Tony, are you going somewhere?" She questioned him slowly.

"No." He answered coming to his workplace and sitting in front of the computer. Maybe he would focus on something. Maybe he would start to make the new arc reactor and just let her sleep.

"So what for?" She asked again.

"No reason. They aren't in their usual place, did you play with my car when I was away?" He asked lightly playing with a screwdriver he found on his desk.

"What… Tony, what's really going on?" She asked tiredly and he really regretted waking her up. For all he knew, she was probably working her ass off the whole day and he was keeping her awake because he was too afraid to close his eyes.

"I'm bored…" He answered half truthfully. He was tired, afraid and was trying very hard to feel like home again.

"What happened to JARVIS?" She asked.

"He's being updated. Three months without a supervising parent will get you astray." He answered, muting the AI at the same time just in case it had a different opinion on that. At the same time Tony switched on his computer and started to think about the arc reactor.

"He was perfectly OK…" She answered fast without thinking. She had spent that three month period daily with the AI and hadn't noticed anything wrong with it.

"So you did play with my toys." Tony said, amused. He threw down the screwdriver and started working on the new project of the reactor.

"No I did not…" She was trying to explain.

"No need to explain… you can play with my toys whenever you want." He answered, he was starting to feel normal again. He was back again, bantering with his PA and it was giving him a nice feeling inside. God he missed her, he missed them. That last thought kind of scared him and excited him at the same time.

"Tony…" She warned.

"Pepper…" He mimicked her tone and was fighting the urge to laugh at her.

"What is really going on?" She asked after a long pause. There was something weird with the way he didn't let her to hang up and she began to worry. The silence on the other side of the receiver was very long; so long that Pepper even looked at the screen of her phone to check if she didn't lost the connection.

"Can't sleep…" Tony answered in a tired and sheepish voice. Pepper almost lost the ability to breathe hearing his voice. There was no playful tone there; instead there was pain and something else which she couldn't name.

"Oh…" She answered, not really knowing what she was supposed to say to him now. She just wished to be there with him. Maybe she shouldn't have left him alone today.

"Yeah…" Tony was trying to sound more like himself but his voice still had this wired edge.

"You want to talk about it?" She offered in a small voice. 'Maybe I will come there to you' she was thinking but she didn't have the courage to propose that. Tony was silent for another long moment, then she heard him sigh with resignation.

"No, not really… I will let you go back to sleep." He said slowly, he didn't really know what he really wanted 'I think I would like you to be here' he thought but he didn't find the words to say that at loud.

"Hey Tony, do you want… I don't know… to just talk?" Pepper offered one more time 'We don't need to talk about that, just talk to me, I will be there with you' she was thinking when waiting for his answer.

"Do you mean it as you will tell me what you are wearing kind of talk, Potts?" Tony was fighting to go back to being his old self, there was nothing better than making his PA a little uncomfortable.

"You are not helping…" She answered fast but she smiled involuntarily, it was like talking with her old Tony. But she could still hear in his voice how much he needed to be his old self.

"Sorry… what do you want to talk about?" He questioned. He didn't know what he wanted to talk with her but as long as her voice was on the other side of the line, he didn't need to think about sleep or the lack of it.

"I would talk you through your week but since you kind of messed up today…" She started giving him the opportunity to try and explain his behavior on the press conference. They didn't have the time to talk about that yet.

"Oh yeah I'm sorry for that… that I didn't tell you what I was planning to do, I didn't know what I was supposed to say it was kind of an impulse…" He tried to explain himself. 'Wow it is the first time that I have a need to explain my behavior to anyone…' he thought, surprised.

"Yeah you are good at that…" She answered lightly, there was no reason to scold him in the middle of the night.

"I don't know if I'm supposed to thank you or to be offended…" He answered chuckling to himself, focusing his eyes on the screen when the first drafts of his new reactor where circling on the screen. He started typing frantically on the keyboard finally finding what he needed in his head. This talk with Pepper was making him relaxed enough to get back to work and only for that he should thank her in the morning.

"What are you doing?" She asked after a moment of silence during which she heard him pushing the buttons.

"Nothing much… I'm working on something." He answered, little distracted now when the idea sprang to his mind, he could focus only on that.

"That's nice…" she answered and tried to fight a yawn. Tony found his creative mode and he was no longer in need of her distraction.

"Hey Potts, I'm sorry I woke you up. I think I will let you sleep now…" He said distracted, playing with the pencil he had found on the desk and staring down on the screen where Jarvis was remodeling the setting of the reactor on the screen.

"It's very kind of you." she said sweetly.

"Goodnight Pepper." He focused again on the phone.

"Goodnight Tony… and Tony?" She added.

"Huh…"

"If you ever want to find that coffee again… Just say you want to talk. I would recognize the coffee machine in the workshop even in my sleeping state." She said fighting the urge to laugh at him.

"Thanks…" He answered sheepishly and hung up the phone. Then he focused his mind on his new invention on the screen, hoping that the morning would come faster than he thought.

Note: Please leave a review I really want to know what you think. I kind of know where I want this story to go but if you have any ideas feel free to write! PLEASE, PLEASE tell me what you think

-Ann