Waffles
Sleep deprived and hungry, Tony shuffles up the stairs, convinced the sweet smell is nothing more than a hallucination; the sight that greets him seems to go against all logic.
Pepper moves about within the kitchen, placing silverware and coffee down on the breakfast nook, fully engrossed in her task; a large stack of waffles sits next to the stove.
"Waffles?" Tony asks in confusion, shifting nervously just outside the kitchen. The fact that Pepper has taken the time to make breakfast on a workday tells him she hadn't slept well through the night and was likely up earlier than usual.
Pepper looks up, a small smile breaking through, "I wanted to apologize for what I said last night." She offers in explanation, sliding the stack of waffles in the middle of the nook.
Tony shakes his head, moving forward and plucking a blueberry from a near by bowl. "You don't have to apologize, it was my fault, it shouldn't have happened." Sitting down on the stool he pops the berry in his mouth.
"I still shouldn't have said what I said-"
"You were scared," Tony interrupts, his jaw locking in anger as he clenches his fist on the counter top. "The suit-" he coughs, clearing his throat, clearly distressed as he chokes on his words. "It was going to—" he stops unable to get out the words as his eyes fall shut; he could never live with himself if she got killed because of him.
"Tony," Pepper calls softly, reaching across the counter to gently squeeze his hand.
His body begins to relax at her touch, his hand wrapping around hers as his eyes open. "It won't happen again," he tells her, fear still thick in his voice. "I've re-calibrated everything."
Pepper forces a small reassuring smile, knowing there is nothing she can say to ease his worry; her best option is to let it go. "Okay," she concedes letting the topic drop. Squeezing his hand one last time, she moves on, "Let's eat."
A/N: I think it's safe to assume the glutton free waffles were not Tony's idea and I love that Tony has the wired association with food in movies. (See: Iron Man 2 with the omelet when he tries to talk to Pepper on the plane, the strawberries when he's apologizing to Pepper, insisting he was going to make Pepper an omelet and tell her he was dying. Then you have the blueberries for positive reinforcement with Bruce and Steve in Avengers). So now Tony's kinda rubbed off on Pepper, I couldn't resist!
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