Tony was in the armory, Pepper and Rhodey waited outside, he wouldn't let them in.
"C'mon man, can't we come in yet?" Rhodey moaned,
"No! You set one foot in here and it will...um...explode! Yeah, I rigged it to blow." Tony yelled back. Pepper laughed,
"Oh well, lets go in, see how much of your armory it takes with it."
"Guys c'mon, two more minutes." Tony laughed back, half kidding half knowing she was deadly serious. Rhodey sighed again, Tony Stark was more than a best friend, more like a brother. Brothers, as most people with them will tell you, are a pain in the ass. Add superhero millionaire to pain in the ass and you get Tony Stark. Pepper found it funny how flustered Rhodey was getting. She knew what ever Tony was doing it would be amazing, it was Tony so it had to be. She sighed, yet another romantic thought about her friend. Friend, that's how she thought he saw her, and that's how it was going to stay.
"Uh, Rhodey I invited a couple of people over so keep an eye out, thanks." Tony called, Rhodey's eyes bugged,
"What! You told other people your..."
"Rhodey, I'm pretty sure they know." Tony laughed, he had recently blown up half of New York, including the building he was meant to be in, yet walked out of it without a scratch, and besides, no one could go to the bathroom as much as Tony Stark.
"Who is it?" Pepper asked him eagerly, "If it's Whitney, I might just kill you."
"It isn't Whitney, just some...business partners."
"Ohhhh, who?" Pepper laughed, prying for information until hearing a yell from inside, "Tony! Are you ok?" She was really worried,
"I'm fine, electric burn that's all." He said coming out. He stood behind Pepper and covered her eyes with his hands, she blushed and only Rhodey noticed. He smiled, it was so obvious they liked each other. Tony walked them into the armory, Pepper heard Rhodey's gasp,
"Tony this is..." Rhodey was cut off by Tony,
"Don't spoil it for her!"
"Let me see, Tony!" Pepper laughed,
"Ok," Tony held is breath in anticipation, "Take a look." He removed his hands to show a huge metal Christmas tree, pulsing to life with lights, an ark reactor power core at the top in a star shape. Bits of old armours hanging from the metallic branches. There were lights everywhere, the whole armory was bursting with life. The monitors and armours were covered in small lights. She smiled and laughed in disbelief.
"Tony, it's..." She started,
"Not done." Tony smiled, pulling out a little box with a red button on it. He handed it to her, "Push it, trust me I think you will like it." She gave the small box a questioning look and took it from Tony's hands, she pressed the hot rod red button and gasped. It had started to snow. Tony smiled at her reaction. Rhodey stepped to the side, letting them have the moment neither realised they were having.
"How?" Pepper laughed, a one fell through her hand,
"Virtual snow, you can catch it, throw it, build a snowman out of it. It just can be cold and can't leave this room, it melts pretty fast I hear." He laughed. "Do you like it?"
"What? Of course I do why would you...the snow." She remembered her conversation with Tony the previous week.
"I hate living here sometimes," Pepper mumbled, "Especially at Christmas." Tony gave her a questioning look,
"New York is beautiful." He looked at her, she wasn't looking at him, "A lot of things here are beautiful...uh...in New York I mean." He has started to go red,
"I know but, when I was little, before my Mom died, me and my Dad would go on holiday every Christmas. Ireland, London, France...anywhere with snow. I guess it doesn't fell like Christmas without tons of it."
"Well we could all go up to Canada if you want I could fly you there if you'd like it." Tony offered. Pepper smiled at her best friend. He was so caring, so sweet, he was also so oblivious to how in love with him she was.
"No, no you don't have to, I was only saying."
"I promise you Pepper, you'll get your snow." Pepper looked up at the sunny sky then at Tony's calculating expression,
"I hope so."
"You did this for me?" She asked, Tony went as red as the armour,
"Well, I promised you snow so I got you snow." Pepper hugged him tightly, he tensed for a second then relaxed and hugged back.
"Knock, Knock." A voice said at the door, "Am I interrupting?" Pepper and Tony quickly parted, both turned redder, Tony smiled at the visitor,
"Hey Bruce, Rick." Bruce Banner and Rick Jones walked into the armory, with present. Pepper remembered Rick,
"Rick? Oh my gosh, Hi." She laughed,
"Hey Pepper, when did it start snowing?" Rick asked confused,
"Want me to turn it off?" Tony called,
"No." Pepper threw over her shoulder before Rick could answer, "Virtual snow." She added, Rick laughed,
"Nice Stark, you got your girlfriend a white Christmas,"
"I'm not..."
"What she isn't..."
"Well I don't think..."
"We're just friends..."
"Best friends..."
"It would be weird if..."
"Totally weird..." Tony and Pepper stammered. They were saved by someone else coming in,
"You have a way with words, Stark."
"Hey Logan." Tony laughed. He fist pumped the X-Man then shook out his sore hand, "You need to remind me about the metal,man."
"Slipped my mind." Logan laughed. Rogue and Bobby came up behind him,
"Hey Tony." They said together, Tony waved and turned to Rhodey tapping on his shoulder,
"You invite every hero you know?"
"What? No." Tony defended. T'challa, Black Widow, Nick Fury, Reed Richards, Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, Susan and Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm and Peter Parker walked in, "Now I did." Tony laughed.
They were all catching up about their latest adventures, Fury stood with Rhodey and T'challa.
"Hey, Scrooge corner, come over we're opening presents." Pepper called to them. The three sighed simultaneously and sat under the big metal tree.
"Reed, this ones from Susan." Pepper said throwing a box to him, he opened it and smiled,
"A micro-transduction generator! Thanks Sue." He said kissing her on the cheek.
"No problem, oh look, Ben this is from Johnny." She tossed a huge present over to him. He warily opened it, he got silly string and cream in his face.
"An extra, extra, extra, extra, extra,extra, extra, extra, extra, extra, extra,extra large 'I love The Human Torch' shirt. Thanks flame brain."
"No problem." Johnny beamed. Rhodey pulled out a present and gave it to Tony,
"From Pepper." He smiled, Tony opened the small box. Inside was a small figure, made entirely out of crystal, handmade due to no logos or trademarks. A unique crystal Iron Man, an extreme likeness and a little note,
"Remember you're not indestructable." He read out loud. He smiled at Pepper, "Did you make this?"
"I've had a lot of free time."
"Pepper, I love it." She smiled at him. He pulled out a box from his pocket and handed it to her, "This ones for you." She ripped off the red paper and opened the little black box. A silver necklace with a ruby and gold Iron Man mask pendant, a little snowflake charm hung freely around the chain. She was quiet and played aimlessly with the little pendant.
"D-do you like it?" Tony asked nervously,
"Yeah because he spend two months on it." Rhodey laughed, Tony glared and threw a pile of virtual snow at him,
"You made it?" She asked in disbelief.
"Now you know my reaction to the Iron Man." He laughed nervously. She laughed, he loved her laugh. Yet another romantic thought about Pepper, she was just his friend. For now. She pulled him into a hugged and asked him to put it on for her.
A couple of hours later and everyone had to leave. Rhodey has purposely planted secret mistletoe, preparing it for when Pepper tried to leave. Everyone had left except the three of them. His plan wasn't going to work. Tony had put his little Crystal Iron Man in a glass case, proudly displayed on his workbench. Pepper played with her pendant while Tony updated his mainframes and repaired a few armours,
"You should put a metal Santa hat on one, then walk around the prison giving gifts, just to annoy them." Pepper suggested, Tony laughed. "You could sing jingle bombs to Stane."
"That's an idea." Tony then remembered, he looked sad and hurt.
"Tony? What I say?" Pepper asked worried she had upset him,
"Nothing. You didn't say anything. Just...Christmas without my Dad that's all."
"Tony, I'm sorry."
"Hey it's fine. At least we have each other...all three of us." He added, remembering him best friend standing there. Rhodey left the mistletoe above the armour docking station and headed out,
"Hey, I'm turning in, it's getting late."
"Bye Rhodey." Tony and Pepper called in unison. Once he had gone they felt a bit awkward, like when you want to do something when your parents leave the house for a while.
"I...better get going." This isn't what Pepper wanted to say, but it came out anyway.
"I'll walk you home." Tony said before he could stop himself. Before getting to justify himself, and alarm went off. Pepper was distracted from drawing in the snow and turned to Tony,
"Whats going..."
"A.I.M, there's a deal going down with Mr Fix."
"Mr Fix? Tony you are not going to fight him now."
"Pep, I may not get another chance."
"No, Tony."
"Why not?"
"You could get killed,"
"I could always get killed."
"Tony not on Christmas eve you don't."
"I'll be fine."
"No. You are not having Christmas in a hospital."
"Pep, you know with Mr Fix I'll either be fine or dea..." He laughed but Pepper jumped down from the computer table and stood in front of him,
"Don't even say that." Tony shook his head and headed for the armour docking station, "Tony don't."
"I have to."
"Logan can handle it, or the Fantastic four, please just take a night off." She said walking up to him. The snow had covered up a bit of wrapping paper, she slid towards Tony he caught he a pulled her up. She was inches away from his face.
"Pep, I have to do this."
"No, you don't you could stay here."
"Why?" They looked up to see the mistletoe above their heads. Pepper took in how close they were. She smiled as Tony subconsciously moved closer to her.
"Why stay?" Pepper repeated his question, "Here's why." She filled in the space between them, when they were centimetres away Tony leaned over and kissed her. She relaxed and kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his waist as he locked his arms around her neck, they pulled apart.
"Well?" She asked,
"I like that reason." He said, "I really, really like that reason."
Cute little christmas one shot. I hope you liked it ^-^
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MERRY CHRISTMAS!