Chapter 19

Despite Pepper's explanation that a simple beach towel would suffice, Tony had bought them beach chairs, towels, and a huge umbrella to protect them from the sun. The breeze was cool and the water was warm despite it being late October, and the sound of the waves was intermingled with the laughter of children running by the shore and building sandcastles. There were also some other teenagers around playing volleyball, football or simply lazing around just like the redhead and the blue-eyed boy were doing at the moment.

Pepper was wearing a black and white, flower-patterned two-piece swimsuit composed of shorts and a halter. Tony had opted to wear a simple pair of dark blue swim shorts and had foregone a shirt. Sandals that matched their individual outfits were also present, but since they were both currently lying on the chairs, the shoes had been left on the sand. The ensemble was completed with extremely dark sunglasses for each one.

Since their arrival four hours ago, only a handful of people had approached the pair – particularly Tony – to ask for an autograph or request a picture with the superhero. Their private time had been for the most part respected by the other beachgoers, and Tony attributed it to the fact that it was now well known that he and Pepper were going out, and the bystanders figured the couple was out on a date.

"There's a shoe sale in downtown Malibu today," Pepper said as she read the ads in the local newspaper and magazine she had picked up when they had stopped for gas for the vehicle Tony had rented for the day. "Feel like carrying boxes for me?" she asked with a playful smile while looking to her right and lowering her sunglasses for a brief second to stare at Tony.

Tony smiled at her question, his head resting over his bent arms. "Would it stop you from buying them if I said no?"

"Nope," Pepper said with emphasis on the last sound of the word and returned her attention to the paper. "But it would make me borrow your suit to carry them for me."

Tony chuckled. "That'd be the day. Can you imagine the headlines? Iron Man: The Shoe Box Valet."

"Sounds better than: Iron Man – Wimp in a Car."

"Argh, Pepper!" He whined and looked to his left to pout at her. "You're still going on about that? I had every right to worry about our wellbeing while you drove. You yourself said you drove terrible on purpose."

Pepper giggled and shook her head lightly. "That doesn't make you any less of a wimp."

"You suck, Pepper." He mumbled and returned his eyes to the beach in front of them.

"Only on Wednesdays and every other Monday."

"Tomorrow's Monday," the inventor jested and raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"Not the every other," Pepper responded without missing a beat or even removing her eyes from the ads, and was about to kick Tony's leg with her foot when a group of boys arrived at their spot.

"Hey, you're Pepper Potts," Tony heard one of the boy's say in an accent he knew Pepper would like. "Would you like to join us over there?" the young man pointed behind him to where a volleyball match was about to take place. "We're playing gals against chaps and we're missing one more person."

Pepper and Tony were both taken aback by the sudden and seemingly random invitation but it was the redhead that recovered first and looked up to stare at the three handsome fellows towering over her chair. "I, uhm, sure?"

"Wicked!" the boy responded with excitement and all three of them high-fived each other before running back to the location of the pending match, leaving the redhead to put away her magazine inside her bag.

"What?" She heard Tony ask, her acceptance of their invitation pulling him out of his shock. "Pepper," he whispered as he leaned closer to her ear. "You don't even know these guys, do you?"

The ginger shrugged. "No, but what am I supposed to say?"

"Uh, jeez, I don't know. From the top of my head I guess you can go out on a limb and say: 'no'?"

"What's the big deal, Tony?" She asked while standing up from her chair. "They probably just want to butter me up so that they can ask you for an autograph or something."

"They don't have to butter your anything. If all they want is an autograph, I can give them ten. They can sell them on e-Bay for all I care."

"Oh, come on! You're making a big deal out of this. I don't mind doing it at all, autograph or no autograph. It's been a while since I've done something like this. I used to be very active before…well, you know. Remember?"

Tony's argument deflated when he realized that Pepper truly wanted to burn some energy and remembered that neither of them have had much opportunity to do normal activities that other people their age were doing every day. "Fine, Pepper. Just…well, if you get tired or…"

"I'll be fine. In fact, you should come with."

"They didn't invite me," he crossed his arms over his chest.

"No, but they invited me and I'm inviting you. Besides, it's as good an opportunity as any to show you why there is no need to worry about me."

"With a volleyball match, really?" Tony stood up and began walking next to her, heading to the court. "I highly doubt any of my enemies is going to challenge you to a sporting match with specifically nice rules, Pepper."

"No, they're going to try to chase me, hit me, throw stuff at me and try to catch me off guard so that they can capture me; all of which will happen in this game."

Tony narrowed his eyes at her logic but was not able to come up with a good response. Before he could say anything else, the two of them had arrived at the court and were being waved at by the other eleven teens. Pepper's eyes landed on the team on the left of the net – the girls' team, and noticed that there were already six of them. Her eyes then shifted to the team on the right side of the net – the boys' team, and realized that the missing member they had referenced was actually in their group.

"Hope you don't mind playing on our side, lass?"

Pepper shook her head and bit her lip before she gave her fuming boyfriend a side glance. The glare the inventor was giving the group of boys was as intense as the light of the suits' repulsors, and Pepper had no doubt it would probably cause as much damage if he was able to convert his penetrating eyes to the flight stabilizer's technology.

"You've got to be kidding me," the inventor growled. Pepper gave his right hand a squeeze and then gave him a quick peck on his cheek.

"Cheer for me," she told him before she joined the male group. As expected, Pepper was given the front and center position of the team, giving the five guys near her a good view of her assets. It was not until she was getting ready to start the game that she realized she had to do one more thing before she could begin. "Wait! My hair. I need to hold my hair or it will get in the way."

The redhead patted down her body but found she had left her hair band inside her bag. She then turned around on her heels with the intention of heading back to where her bag lay, but was faced by her eager team surrounding her. "I'll be right back, I just need to find a…"

Her sentence was interrupted by the five young men handing her different objects she could use to hold her hair. Pepper settled for a rubber band the British teen was offering, and she thanked him with a nod and a smile. The ginger then pulled her hair back and up in a ponytail and crackled her knuckles to symbolize she was ready for the game.

"Is the pretty girl ready to be beaten?" A tall, obviously fake blonde girl asked in a mocking tone from her position in the girls' team. "I'd like to do something other than stand here and bake under the sun while she gets ready to lose."

Pepper gave the girl a smirk and shrugged. "I'm sorry. I can see why you could be in a hurry since your dyed hair could fall off with the sun hitting you like this. I promise I'll make our victory quick."

Behind the ginger the boys whistled and laughed, and the girls behind the tall blonde covered their snickering with coughs.

"Bloody hell! Red can give some lip, huh?"

"I'm sure she can give other things, too," the blonde said and rolled her eyes. "But that's probably all she can give to Tony Stark, as disproportioned as she is."

"Seems the chemicals are affecting your vision," Pepper immediately responded. "Silicone implants aren't supposed to look like that," she pointed to the girl's large chest. "Now that's disproportionate."

This time the bout of laughter affected even Tony, who had by now forgotten he was supposed to be upset that his girlfriend was mingling with five fit and sweaty guys. Well, Tony thought, if Dr. Doom challenges her to a battle of name-calling, there's nothing I have to worry about.

"But enough about fake beach balls," Pepper continued. "Let's play with the real ones!"

"Alright, Red!"

Pepper crouched down and waited for the girls' team to serve. The ball flew over the net and was hit back by one of the guys. The ball was tossed around once more behind Pepper before it was sent to the redhead for the final hit. Pepper jumped in the air and hit the ball, sending it flying back to the girls' team where one of the members had just enough time to avoid awarding the point to the male team.

"Here's the come back!" One of the guys shouted and they all followed the pattern of the ball with their eyes. The girl team bounced the ball back and forth until it was sent to the fake blonde who aimed it directly at Pepper. The redhead expected this move and took a couple of steps back so that she was able to redirect the ball by performing a forearm pass.

"Dig!" Pepper screamed and one of the boys did as told. A third member of the male team ran toward the ball and sent it back to the opposite team. The girls again tried to hit it back hard enough to score a point, but the blonde's efforts backfired when the ball hit outside the court.

"Oh, yeah!" One of the boys said and threw his hands in the air in a little victory dance. "Red's got game!"

Pepper rolled her eyes and smiled, acknowledging her nickname had just been replaced. The ball was returned to the guys' team and Pepper was chosen to serve.

From his vantage point, Tony observed in awe as Pepper moved about the court with a speed and agility he was not aware she had. It was almost as if she was gliding through the sand rather than walking on it, and it was her commands that kept the team functioning like a well-oiled machine. Although the redhead was yet to tell him how much training she had to go through while away with the Makluan, he could already tell that her basic self-defense skills had greatly improved.

The game did not stop until the end of the fourth match, which by then had both teams tied 2-2. The fifth and last match would decide who won and who lost, and the members of each decided to take a quick break to discuss their techniques.

"You have some serious stamina, Red," Ian, one of the players, said to Pepper as he worked on catching his breath. "I guess it comes from hanging around with Iron Man, huh?"

"Guess so," Pepper responded, hardly out of breath, her sunglasses no longer on her after round two. "His suit flies at Mach 2 and it's a trip to chase after him on foot," she joked.

"You're cool, you know that?" Greg asked. "I didn't want Hugh to ask you to come play with us because I thought you were going to be all full of yourself because you date Tony Stark, but I gotta admit I was wrong."

Pepper laughed aloud and shrugged. "No biggie. Now let's make sure we win this match. We have to focus on their back left side. Samantha is afraid of the ball, especially when it comes at her fast. We can score some points using her weakness until they figure out we've found that flaw."

"I agree," Brent said. "I also see that they rely on Jessica too much to do the final strike, and she likes to jump a lot to do a kill shot. We need to stop her before she releases the ball."

"Right," Carl began. "And, based on what I see from here, they are more tired than we are. That means they're going to be making more mistakes."

"Let's exploit that," Pepper said. "We don't have to move around as much anymore, so let's try to volley fast rather than strongly."

"Sounds good to me, love," Hugh said before they broke the formation and returned to their spots on the court. The girls broke their own formation shortly after them, and before they knew it they were back at throwing the ball.

The match continued for ten more minutes, and by the near end of it, the guys' team had 18 points and the girls' team had 15. The sun was high in the sky by now, burning them slowly and causing them to become dehydrated much faster than before, so the group agreed that whoever scored the next point would win the match, regardless of whether it ended up being 18 to 16 or 19 to 15. It was somewhat unfair for the guys' team, but Pepper was sure that they could win.

As anticipated, the girls served the ball and tried to distract their opponents by bouncing it around before it was thrown to Jessica for a final attempt at winning the match. At first glance, it seemed the blonde was aiming at throwing the ball toward the back of the court, making everyone in Pepper's team readjust their positions to be ready for the shot. However, at the last possible second, Jessica abruptly changed direction and ended up sending the ball directly at Pepper's face.

"Pepper!" The teams heard Tony call and his eyes widened when he saw the ball stop right on Pepper's face. Everyone held their breath and expected to hear the sound of the redhead's nose breaking on impact, but instead heard the loud popping noise of the ball busting like a balloon. Half an inch before the ball hit her face, Pepper stopped its trajectory with her bare hands, clutching the sides of it with her fingertips and putting enough pressure on the would-be projectile to cause it to pop.

The collective gasp that followed the deflation of the ball was accompanied by jaws hitting the ground when they realized Pepper's face was untouched. Everyone's eyes then shifted from an unharmed Pepper to a shocked Jessica, whose hand was burning in pain after the immense force she had put on the ball to make sure it broke something on the ginger's face.

"How?" the blonde mumbled. "How did you stop that? That's my best shot!" She asked in disbelief. The blonde was actually a veteran volleyball player and had recently won a scholarship to college thanks to the exact same move she had tried to use on the redhead. It was inconceivable to her that Pepper had taken on the move that not even more experienced players had been able to contain.

Pepper glared at the blonde for a moment, making her shake in fright where she stood, before the redhead's face returned to a happy one as if nothing terrible had almost happened. "Sorry. It was me or the ball, and I like the ball, but I like me more."

"Blimey!" Hugh walked up to her with Tony and the other boys closely behind. "Are you alright?"

"Pepper?" Tony asked immediately afterwards, forcing his way inside the circle of men and cupped her face in his hands. "Are you hurt?"

Pepper shook her head lightly. "Not at all, but I think we're going to have to call it a tie."

"I don't think so!" Jessica spat, finally coming out of her shocked state. "You broke the ball, so you lose."

"Give it a rest, Jess," Laura, one the girls in the girls team said with a roll of her eyes. "They've won, even if you almost gave her a concussion. You're lucky Iron Man doesn't kill people."

"What? She didn't have to stop it. She could've just…"

"What?" Lorraine asked. "Let herself get hit by it?"

"Well…yeah…"

"You're such a bitch," Miranda said as she began walking under the net and headed to where Pepper was still being examined by her team. "Let it go. Your attitude is exhausting."

"But…"

"Whatever," Samantha waved her hand at the blonde as she too walked to the other side of the court. The five girls surrounded the redhead and Tony and gave them both apologetic smiles.

"You played awesome, Pepper. Are you in the volleyball team of your school? You would totally kill our Varsity team all by yourself."

"No, I…uhm, just need to stay in shape," she pointed to Tony who was by now letting go of her face and held one of her hands in his. "He has to work out, so I sometimes join in."

"Seriously? How do you two work out? Lifting tanker trucks? Chasing after the Hulk?"

"Something like that," Pepper responded with a smile. "It was a good game on your part, too. I had fun."

"We had fun as well…I mean, other than playing with Jess. She has an issue with you two. Not you, per se," the girl pointed at Pepper. "Just the idea that someone that is not as 'pretty as her' is dating Tony Stark."

"I don't like implants," Tony spat, trying his best to remain calm and not physically hurt the pouting girl behind them. "Or fake hair," he grabbed Pepper's ponytail and gave it a light swing.

"It's alright, Tony, we understand." Samantha said. "Sorry about Jess, though."

"It's alright," Pepper insisted. "I'm glad I got to play, anyway."

"We're glad you joined us," Brent said and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You're cool, Red."

With that final thought, and after exchanging contact information and goodbyes, Tony and Pepper left the court and packed up to head back to Pepper's home.