Chapter 8

Pepper wiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her hand as she admired her handy work. The small, two-bedroom townhouse Virgil had now claimed as his home was spotless, and she could not wait to have her father released from the hospital. It was not as if the place had been a mess akin to the one she had found in the Armory, but it had needed a good cleaning anyway. She had also taken the time to move her belongings to the spare room in the home, which Pepper had now labeled as hers. The place was larger than the apartment she and her father had lived in before, but it was still rather small compared to the other homes she had seen yesterday when Tony had driven her here.

Tony, she thought sadly. He had been rather quiet during their ride, and after helping her carry her bags inside the home, he had declined her invitation to go inside for a little while. She and Tony had hardly had time to talk to each other in a way that did not include screaming and arguing since her return, and she knew it was imperative for them to have the same talk she and her father had already had – or one similar to it – as she was not ready to tell Tony the full extent of her experiences in Makluan captivity. Hell, she was sure she would never tell him everything that had happened to her during those six months.

He will never understand what it is to be held captive against your will, and I hope he never has to.

Pepper walked to the nearest couch in the living room and plopped down onto it. She looked over to the side table to her right and found her Stark Pod staring back at her. She grabbed the device and cradled it in her hands only to see she had a few missed calls and messages from the young genius. She flipped open the phone and went down the list of messages.

The first message had been received over two hours ago and it asked her if she was visiting her Dad today. Pepper had called the hospital early in the morning and had informed them that she would not be visiting until the late hours, but had declined to tell Tony about her plans since last night it had not seem as if he had been in a mood to be around her. The second message, received about an hour ago, asked if she was growing hungry. There were no close-by restaurants in the area, and there was not much in the refrigerator for her to use to cook a decent meal. The last message, also from Tony, said that he would stop by her house in half an hour, and said had been received twenty-five minutes ago.

"CRAP!"

The redhead jumped off the couch, ran to the door for a brief second to look outside and flip the latch. Shen then ran upstairs as she texted like she had never texted before. By the time she arrived to the bathroom, Tony was receiving a text message stating the door had been left unlocked and to make himself at home while she took a shower.

xxxXXXxxx

Tony read the text message and sighed as the he rounded the corner to Pepper's home. He had stopped at a burger joint and picked up a meal for each of them after he had called the hospital to ask if she was there when she did not respond to his calls and text messages. When he had been informed that Pepper had called earlier to say that she would be visiting in the afternoon only, Tony had taken it upon himself to get them both something to eat before dropping at her doorstep. After the way he had acted around her yesterday, his father's and Virgil's words had kept him up last night, although he now wondered how much of his insomnia could have been attributed to the fact that he missed Pepper's presence in his room.

"What makes you think I'm stringing her along?"

"I didn't say you were, but the emotions are high right now since she just came back, and the two of you being so young…well, sometimes we make mistakes, or think we want something but we really don't."

"But I do want her. I want Pepper with me," Tony reasoned. The rented vehicle finally pulled up in front of her home and he exited it quickly, food bags in hand. He walked up to the entrance and jiggled the doorknob to find that it had been indeed left unlocked. After taking a deep breath, Tony walked inside the home and secured the door behind him.

He looked around the first floor of the home to find the best place to eat and settled for the living room. There was a large television he promptly turned on and tuned in to a random channel while he busied himself by setting up the food on the coffee table. By the time everything was arranged, he heard the sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs, and a few seconds later Pepper was within sight.

She was wearing a blue, denim mini-skirt, and a long-sleeved, thin pink blouse that was both loose and tight at the same time due to the scrunched fabric decorations on the sides of her hips. Her hair was loose and still damp as she intended it to air dry, and for now she had chosen to be barefoot. Their eyes found each other across the room and Pepper gave Tony a small smile.

"That smells good." She licked her lips.

"It's just burgers." He shrugged.

"After cleaning this place, I'd eat anything!" She responded and walked closer to the couch and sat next to Tony's now-sitting form. She noticed that everything was already arranged and was ready to eat while Tony busied himself with the television remote. He channel-surfed the options for a while and finally settled on a documentary of the creation of the universe. He eyed Pepper with questioning eyes as if inviting her to complain about his choice of entertainment, but she merely shrugged.

"Alright," he set down the remote. "Let's eat!"

"Wait!" Pepper turned to her left, placed her right hand on Tony's left cheek, pulled him closer to her face, and gave him a quick peck on his right cheek. "Thank you for helping me," she added with a smile before she let go of him and began unwrapping her burger as if nothing had happened.

Tony's eyes widened in surprise for an instant and he did not move for a moment as he stared at her. A second later he also smiled and returned his attention to his own food. "You're welcome, Pep."

"You know," she said after a brief silence and slurping of her drink, "the universe is not that complicated."

"What?" Tony knitted his brows and stared at her.

Pepper pointed to the screen with her chin as she continued to talk and eat at the same time. "Axon-Karr showed me a bunch of stuff about the universe that you'd never believe."

"Who?"

Pepper motioned to Tony with her index finger that she still had food in her mouth. She then chewed faster and took a big gulp of her drink before she spoke again. "Axon-Karr was the name of the Makluan Guardian."

Is this her way of telling me what happened to her? Tony wondered as he weighed the possibility of bombarding her with questions, but in the end decided to play it smoothly. He knew that Pepper liked to talk but that if he swooped in with an obvious interrogation, she would immediately shut down. "I didn't know he had a real name."

"Oh, yeah!" Pepper waved her hand to emphasize her point as if it was obvious. "All the Makluan have real names. He was the son of the Makluan Overlord, in fact."

"We…Rhodey and I…the world…we got to meet this overlord." Tony said in between bites with a tone as casual as possible.

"I know," Pepper nodded. "I saw. You guys did great. I'm very proud of you and Rhodey. Though, I wish Rescue had been there to give you a hand. For a moment there, I thought you guys weren't going to make it."

"What do you mean you saw? I didn't see you anywhere when the Makluan attacked us."

"Yeah, well. I wasn't actually there, there…I was…watching from afar."

"Front-row view?"

"The best," she added before going silent again. Tony felt the conversation could go further than what it had been, so after giving it some thought, he decided to try to continue it.

"So, what makes you think the universe isn't that complex?"

"Oh, it IS complex; it's just not complicated."

"They're kinda the same, Pepper."

"Nope; they are not."

"Care to enlighten this genius? I do have an IQ of over 150, you know?"

Pepper rolled her eyes and patted his right knee lightly. "Alright, Mr. Genius. Allow this humble girl to show you a thing or two."

Tony, who by now had finished his food, turned his body to his right so that he was facing Pepper, and rested his right elbow on the edge of the couch. Pepper mimicked his position and then bent her left leg under herself and pulled herself closer to Tony. "Where do you want me to start to pwn you?"

Tony chuckled and threw his head back. "As if you could," he said with a smile, happy that she was acting more like herself. "Why don't you try the beginning, huh?"

"OK, well, firstly, there are the three fundamental Cosmic Forces of the Universe." She began as she counted with her fingers while she spoke. "You have Eternity; the metaphysical embodiment of All That Is. Death; the metaphysical embodiment of the End of What Is. And, then there's Galactus; the Devourer of Worlds, who is the balance between Eternity and Death. AND, as long as he eats a planet every other week or so, the universe doesn't implode!"

Tony's mouth hung and he blinked a few times. He then looked away from her for a minute as he gathered his thoughts before returning his attention to Pepper. "Did you just use the word 'metaphysical' in a sentence?"

"TONY!"

"I'm sorry, Pepper!" He lifted his hands defensively. "I'm trying forget the part about the guy or thing that EATS worlds for a living."

"Galactus? He's not that bad of a…being…"

"Oh, sure," Tony crossed his arms over his chest. "Tell that to the planets he's had for dinner!"

"You just don't understand the poor guy."

Tony sighed at her statement. No matter how terrible a person acted, Pepper always saw the good in people, which had been the reason why she had kept trying to help Gene turn his life around. Her faith in the goodness of others was a trait he both admired and despised in her, since it was something that could place her in real trouble one day. "Anyway, what else?"

"Well, those three are the main forces for the structure of the universe. And then for the main Cosmic Forces for how the universe works, you have Master Order and Lord Chaos, who are the abstract counterparts of Eternity and Death; although, I'm not sure which one's the counterpart of which." She tapped her chin with her finger. "And then there's their balance, the In-Betweener – the abstract counterpart to Galactus – he serves Master Order and Lord Chaos, but he hates them for forcing him into the job. And then there's the less impressive ones; Kronos, the God of Time; the Love-Hate Sisters, etcetera."

Tony's face resembled one of incredulity rather than surprise as it had before while he waited for the punch line or a sign that Pepper was just pulling his leg. When her bright eyes remained neutral and her face showed no sign that she did not believe what she had just said, Tony shook his head at her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Pepper, I love you, but do you really believe all that crap? For all you know, these guys are just comic heroes of his planet."

Pepper scrunched her face, crossed her arms, and looked away from Tony. "I guess you don't love me enough to believe me, huh?" She spat back to him before thinking about her words, and when Tony whispered her name, she had to force herself to face him despite the slight red tint on her cheeks. "I, uhm, what I meant to say was…"

"Pepper, I…" Tony pursed his lips, his heart beating faster than just a short second before. He gulped down his heart that was now caught in his throat and licked his dried lips. "I want to…I need to…"

She felt his hands tremble as they slid down to her upper arms and remained there. He leaned in closer to her, his breath caught in his throat. He replayed in his mind all the times he had uttered the words that refused to escape him now, and cursed himself for losing his nerve in front of her. He knew it did not have to be this difficult; he had already told her how he felt a couple of times since her return, although the context of the situations had not been the best.

"Are you alright, Tony? Is something wrong?" She encouraged him. Her hands moved from her chest to his, laying them flat on his torso before she slowly slid them up to rest on his shoulders. Tony closed his eyes the moment he felt her hands on him and he did not open them again until her dainty hands stopped moving. His eyes found hers again. He opened his mouth to speak, but his voice declined to work. Pepper could see the struggle within him on his face, so she decided to make it easier on him.

She began by sliding her hands up from his shoulder to his neck and then to the sides of his face. The sweet touch made Tony close his eyes again, all his energy focused on feeling her skin on his. She traced his forehead with the tips of her fingers and gradually outlined every curve of his face: his eyebrows, his nose, his cheekbones and then down to his lips. Tony felt himself calming down under her ministrations, his squared shoulders relaxed and his breathing slowed down. Pepper repeated her tracing up his face, cupped his face with her hands, and then whispered to him. "Show me."

Tony's eyes opened up slowly to see her face inches from his, just as they had been back at the lab when he had been teasing her about losing her touch in her research. This time, however, there was no one there to interrupt them. His father was back in New York, and Virgil was still at the hospital. There was no Rhodey, no Happy, no Whitney, no Makluan Guardian or anyone else around to bother them. It was just the two of them, alone, together, with the opportunity make up for lost time. "Show you what?" he whispered.

"If you can't tell me yet, show me."

While her fingers had been all over his face, his hands had come down to rest on her waist. He lifted his left hand to her cheek and pulled her closer to him. Pepper responded immediately and closed her eyes and he did the same. He brushed his lips on hers like they had before, but this time the second brush turned into a short kiss. He pulled away slightly to stare at her and used his eyes to ask permission to continue, and she responded by initiating the next kiss. This one was a little longer, both teenagers worrying more about exploring every part of the other's lips in a tender manner.

As the third kiss began, their actions became bolder and more demanding. He slowly shifted her body so that her back rested against the couch. He then moved himself so that, while still seated next to her, his upper body arched at an angle in such a way that it appeared as if he was facing her almost completely. He swapped his hands so that his left rested on her side, and his right supported the back of her neck as he bent down his face to kiss her more fervently. Pepper's position did not allow her much room for her hands, so she opted to do the only thing she could do and held onto the sides of his shirt to keep him where he was.

The fourth and fifth kisses were much easier on both of them, and after the sixth Tony finally pulled away from her. He gave her an apologetic smile when she tilted her head to the side in silent inquiry. "Back's starting to hurt."

Pepper chuckled lightly and shook her head. "Being Mr. Iron Man is not doing any favors to your back, isn't it?"

Tony shrugged and held her hands in his. "It does have some perks," he took her hands to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. "I can show you later, if you'd like."

"Tony!" She said with a tone that was supposed to be chastising, but it actually made her sound embarrassed, and it did not help her case that a blush followed her response. "You're terrible."

"What?" he asked innocently. "I meant that I'd like to show you my upgrades. What did you think I was talking about?"

Yup, Tony thought about his Dad's statement; they were not kids anymore.

"Whatever," she said before she pulled her hands away from him and began tidying up the coffee table. "Now help me with this. I didn't spend hours cleaning up here so that you could swoop in and make it look like your place in two seconds."

Tony took a hand to his heart. "You wound me, Pep. I'm just trying to make sure my girl has something to eat."

Pepper chuckled nervously at the term he had used with her, but realized she would have to get used to it soon. "Less talking and more helping, OK?"

"Alright, Cleaning Nazi." He mumbled as he began cleaning up after himself.

"Hey! Do you want another kiss, Mr. Stark?"

"You mean, like, right now?" He asked he stared down at his watch. "I think I have some time, Ms. Potts."

"I meant, ever again."

"What? Aww! Come on, Pepper! We just started!"

"Oh, that we surely have, Tony," she winked at him before she stood up with the trash in hand and headed to the kitchen to dispose of it. Tony smiled at her retreating form and thanked any of those weird-named beings Pepper had just talked about that allowed them to be together, and for not eating planet Earth.