About the t-shirt from the last chapter: Remember the scene where Tony and Pepper are sleeping (after having wild shower sex, I imagine)? She's wearing a blue shirt with two atoms on it saying "I lost an electron!" - "Are you positive?" It was so cute.

Oh my god, how did I manage to write this so shortly after the other one? I've no idea, I was sorta inspired and wrote this. Plus, I don't really have a busy schedule these days, maybe I can get myself to write the next chapter until Monday or Tuesday - emphasis on maybe. No Natasha or Bruce yet :-(((( but at least I know they'll be coming soon. Again, if I've made any grammatical mistakes, tell me. If not, I'm just gonna go ahead and assume it's error free.

Thank you, Avalon West, although I do not agree with the "parfait" part ;-) I'm really proud of the title, although I did check twice if I've written it right. And K, I've been trying to appear as an english speaker on the Internet, but in real life, I'm as german as one can get. I'm glad to know my efforts weren't in vain. But TBQH, I sincerely doubt we'll get more Pepperony scenes than we've already got. Maybe 2 more (I make it sound like that's bad), I mean, look at the deleted scenes they put in the other Iron Man DVDs. Maybe, once the Bluray comes out, we'll get lots of cut Pepperony scenes (booh) and I can fangirl some more. LVB, I'm shocked nobody has written anything for our lovely Pepper yet. I thought people would be dissapointed with the way she was isolated from the world for half of the movie, not to mention I'm not too fond of the damsel in distress (the ending did improve that though) types of storylines, especially if it's used as a plot device for the male hero to open up. NCISVILLE, that'd be great! I'd love to have a beta reader, I just didn't think anyone would give in a request or something. :-)

Okay, calm down. This is your body, you are in perfect control of your actions and feelings. A stupid injection does not erase the years of hard work you've had to endure to get to this point. You can't just quit because of Killian. Everyone always tells you that you need to be protected, Rhodey, SHIELD, Happy, even Tony. But you know better. You may have never been physically strong, but you've never been weak. If you can handle being CEO of Stark Industries, you can handle this.

"Tony?" She tried to appear cool and in control, but one glance over her panicked face showed quite the contrary. She wasn't in control, she'd just hurt Tony and now she didn't know where he was. Knowing him though, he was probably in his lab, trying to fix her. It broke her heart to know that she could treat him like that and he'd still do everything for her.

The house (similar to their destroyed one in Malibu, this one was totally new, she hadn't even unpacked all her things yet) was completely silent. This wasn't normal. Silence wasn't normal when you're Tony Stark's girlfriend. She'd gotten used to loud, noisy experiments of his, him bickering with her or the Avengers, the Radio, anything. Everything else sounded eerie and alarming to her. Reminded her of her old apartment, abandoned after their kiss on the roof and now only filled with lonely memories and probably new landlords. She didn't miss her old home, living alone had only been comfortable for a few months.

Don't delve into memories, find Tony.

"JARVIS, where's Tony?" It took awfully long for him to answer, his voice always calming her a little bit. "JARVIS? Tell me where Tony is."

A minute, which seemed like eternity, passed before he responded. "Master Tony is in his lab. He has instructed me not to let you enter."

"Not even Tony Stark can shut me out of my own house," she murmured while practically running towards the lab - bad idea, her body started to feel warmer again, especially her now healed hand seemed to start glowing at any moment. If she wanted to face Tony, she had to be stable, because he sure as hell wasn't. Pepper was always the stable one, the anchor, in their relationship. But now that both of them weren't really in their best shapes, handling casual interaction seemed way harder than it used to. Tony'd even once asked her if it wouldn't be better if she got her own apartment for the next few months. He'd swallowed and stumbled over words and had looked like a lost puppy, wanting her to leave the danger zone and get better but also not wanting her to leave him. He didn't want to be a trigger, she could tell. But he could never be that, not in a million years. And even if he could, she refused to let him become one.

After finally steadying her breath, she opened the door. JARVIS didn't even try to stop her, and she was thankful for that. What awaited her was even more peculiar than her increased aggressive behaviour though: the whole lab had been rearranged. The cars were no longer there, seemingly thrown out, and Tony's usual devices could no longer be found (she doubted he'd thrown them out as well). There was a life sized poster of the human body on a wall, another one of a human brain right next to it. This wasn't a workshop any more - it looked like a conference room for doctors now. And everything seemed bathed into a glowing red. After taking another few steps, she found the source of light - a hologram of the human DNA, or what looked like the human DNA. If only it wasn't glowing extensively.

"You've been rearranging, I see," she began. It caused Tony to jerk back from what he was doing. The sight of him made her insides turn, so small and afraid of how to react. Her immediate repulse was to start with harmless small talk. "Why?"

"I ..." He turned to her, his mouth open and staring at her like he'd never done before. He looked almost scared, of her. He coughed. "Needed some space. I can't fix you if I don't have the right devices." His cold ego was speaking again, shutting her out.

Unable to handle the situation and feeling so vulnerable and awful, she lunged forward to wrap her arms around his stomach and squeezed him tightly before she buried her face in his neck. He was exhausted and sweaty, but she didn't mind one bit. "I'm sorry," she whispered with closed eyes. "I'm so so sorry ..." This wasn't right, it wasn't supposed to happen. He wasn't at fault here, no matter how much he took (or wanted to take) the blame.

"I don't ... I don't understand."

She sighed and kissed the parts of him she could reach in this position. He automatically tensed up, but held her hands in his. "I overreacted. It's just ... You can't surprise me like that. I need to be in charge of my body and Extremis, it ... it changes me, makes me violent and harsh. Not you." He stirred in her grip and she let him go, waiting for him to face her. He looked utterly confused.

"So ..." He still seemed a little unsure, but at least he wasn't shutting her out again. "You're not angry?"

"Not with you." He wanted to say something, she cut him off like he'd done before. This was the first time she'd ever overcame herself and talked with him about this. This was important, it needed to be said. Tony needed to hear it, no matter how many times she'd thought it in her head. "This ... this thing is what's making me angry. You've no idea how it feels like if you're no longer in charge of your own body. Especially after a life of taking control and being the adult figure. This is new territory to me. You once said that the only reason you haven't cracked open yet is because of me. But how do you think am I handling this, if not for you? I need you and I don't want to lose you again." He was dumbstruck - well, that was a first. Sort of satisfying to her, though.

"Wow," was all he said. Also a first. His eyes wandered from her to whatever he was working on. "And I thought you were gonna punch me." Her laugh ringed in his ears like church bells and his genuine smile made her smile just as wide. "We're good?" She nodded. "Does that mean I can kiss you again?"

"Depends," she replied. Despite the warning signs ringing in her head, she leaned in and kissed him, like she was an innocent school girl kissing her first boyfriend. Pepper wasn't stable enough for anything else yet, but she would get better. And to be quite honest with herself, she had missed him, his smell and especially the taste only his lips provided. He tasted like metal, through and through, and she'd come to take a liking to it. (People were right to call him Iron Man) He was also extremely cold and her mind was screaming, but her body was at rest next to his. Tony murmured words of protest for the no tongue policy, but worked with what little he was given. Thanks to Tony though, she almost forgot the importance of self control, when he went ahead and hugged her body to his. With Tony Stark, nothing was ever just innocent, she learned that a long time ago.

Her lips went to his ear after a long time of just standing there kissing. Her lipstick was now partly on his, which made her smile. "What're you working on?"

"You." Tony left her side for only a second before turning to face the same reflection she did and grabbing her by the waist. "Well, your DNA."

"I don't know much about the human DNA, but I know that it isn't supposed to look like ... this," she murmured. Her inner secrets were facing her with a sinister colour only Extremis could have given her. It scared the devil out of her and it seemed to have the same effect with Tony. "It regenerates DNA?"

"It has to, really," he said. She only noticed her stillness after he'd tightened his grip on her waist. He thought she was gonna break down, maybe she was. She couldn't tell, emotions were so peculiar these days. "For it to ... function."

"How are you planning on freeing me from it then?" It was funny, she wanted to know but she also didn't want to know just how much it had changed her without her knowledge, without her consent. "You must have some plans up your sleeve for these kinds of things, Stark."

"I've no fucking idea, Pep." Him swearing usually meant he was frustrated. Or horny. Or both. "I only know that it makes you hot ... hotter than usual, which to me isn't really that bad. But in a way it affects everything about the body it possesses. You even eat differently because of it! I don't want to just go in there and destroy everything I can find while also destroying ... you." This time, it was her turn to calm her nervous boyfriend from too much information. "I just need to find a way to detach it from your DNA ... and brain, if that's possible."

"You've got all the time of the world for that, Tony, trust me." He didn't believe her, typical. With him, everything had to be fixed immediately, especially if it was one of his projects. And at the moment, she was that project. "Come on, we're almost out of food and I need a new mug." He protested a little when she linked her hand with his and led him to the stairs. "We won't survive with cereal and a few pieces of bread."

"But I bought things yesterday!"

"New equipment for your lab are not groceries, Tony. There's a super market 10 minutes away from here, we also need to take care of our coming guest in some way. He can't just bring food with him."
Tony stopped dead in his tracks. "Guest? Oh god, please tell me SHIELD hasn't found out yet."

Tony liked his team mates, but that didn't mean he liked the men they were working for. SHIELD were dangerous people, they had first tried to capture Bruce when they found out about his abilities, what's to say they wouldn't just try to do the same with Pepper? "Tony, relax. I called. Bruce is on his way, he may be able to help."

"You called Banner?" Realization kicked in and his muscles untensed. The surname startled her at first, but she couldn't really scold him for that when his face lit up like it was Christmas time. "We're gonna have a sleepover with my Science Bro?" She nodded and therefore convinced him to follow her. But before they finally reached the stairs (he acted like such a child some days), his hands pulled her away. "Wait, how did you manage to talk him into coming here? Isn't he in Kolkata or something?"

She raised her eyebrows, he probably just came up with this now. "He is. I just said it was urgent. I think he trusts me more with these things than you." Of course she wouldn't tell him that she had been crying the first 5 minutes of the conversation, Bruce really didn't have that much of a choice after all. "Anyway, I can imagine the Hulk to eat more than just a few snacks, so it's really important that we go before he comes here. He said he'd be here in 2 days. Can you drive?"

Tony grabbed his keys, glasses and a cap. It looked ridiculous on him, but at least that would cover up the fact that he was Tony Stark – and that most people still thought he was dead. "Yeah. You sure you don't want a disguise of some sort as well?"

"I don't think people here know my face that well. And besides, a t-shirt and jeans is disguise enough."

"Ok," he replied and scanned her from head to toe which made her face hot, and it wasn't the Extremis virus this time. This would be first time she would buy groceries with him and she was kinda excited. "But you handle the groceries!"

"Fine."

Bruce was in Kolkata, right? I don't know, I should really rewatch The Avengers. No Bruce and Natasha in the next chapter, I guess. Or maybe it's gonna be a lot longer than this one and/or they'll appear on the end ...?