Dude. There's like, so many story alerts and author alerts and favorite stories on this! I'm soooooo thankful for all of you! So I'm posting two chapters today. Besides, today was a very good day and I'm making these pretty short soooo...

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To you all, I must say, "AWWWW I love you guys! You're so encouraging and you keep me going. This chapter is dedicated to you!

FIRST OFF: I'm not a big fan of Pepper in the Iron Man comics. So, none of this will make sense if you're trying to fit it into the comic's stories. It won't work. I don't like Pepper and Happy together. Sorry. I just don't. Now. Things you have to assume before you read this: The first one is that Pepper is almost 35 in the second Iron Man movie. The second is that she began working for Stark Industries as soon as she graduated from college. The third is that, like she said in the second movie, she'd been working for Tony for 10 years.

Tony Stark didn't fall in love very often. In fact, he only believed he'd actually only been in love once. And that was back in 1990 when he was in college. But that's a different story. For Tony, falling in love wasn't something that just happened, like love at first sight. It had to go through certain steps. The steps were different for every girl, so it's not like Tony could decide 'I'm going to fall in love with this girl today by following the steps.' But if he didn't follow the steps, it simply didn't work for him. And these steps took time—something Tony didn't have a lot of. But when he really did fall in love, he fell hard.

Step 6: crush—crush

"PEPPER?" Tony called up from his shop, hoping she would hear him in the large mansion-house. Upstairs Pepper rolled her eyes. He absolutely refused to use the intercom unless he was too distracted or concentrated to remember to annoy the crap out of her.

"What Tony?" he heard coming from the intercom.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He yelled. After nine (almost ten) years, he knew how to push her buttons. And he liked it.

"Running your company, Iron man." She replied.

Tony, laughing, decided to stop torturing Pepper for once and used the intercom. "Well stop. Someone else can do that today. Meet me in the living room." And he started upstairs.

Upstairs Pepper rolled her eyes and said into the intercom, "You already left someone else to run your company and that's me. You can't keep delegating or a six year old will end up running it and—"

Tony, who had just entered the room, cut her off. "A six year old would probably do better than me."

Pepper tried to hide her grin. "Well, I'm not going to argue with you."

Tony glanced at her as he looked for something in the back of a cupboard. "So you agree?"

"Six year olds can't even read, Tony. You're not going to leave your company to someone that can't read." Pepper said, staring at him disbelievingly.

"Found it!" Tony said triumphantly, pulling a box out of the back of the cupboard. "I'll have you know that I took it as a personal insult when you told me you didn't know what Operation was. It was my favorite board game growing up."

Pepper just stared at him, mouth open slightly. "So let me get this straight. We're going to play a board game when your company is in disarray and needs a leader most? What if the press gets a hold of this, Tony! I can see the headline now 'Iron Man Would Rather Play Board Games than Save the World.' That's ridiculous."

"They'd have a catchier headline than that, Pep." He teased.

Pepper was about to retaliate before she decided to just let it go. "Alright, teach me how to play." And the duo spent the next two hours playing a silly board game.

"You did not just learn how to play this game. I don't believe you. You electrocuted me twice when the hole was way bigger and the wire was the same size as most of these game pieces." Tony laughed.

Pepper was giggling too. "Well, in my defense, my hand was in the way of seeing whether the wire was close to the sides or not."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Hey it's getting late. Are you hungry? I can order Chinese?"

"Why not? Sounds fun." Pepper sighed internally. 'I really should leave. Spending every waking minute with him isn't going to make this 'crush' go away.' She thought. 'But I really don't want to leave. I want to spend time with him.'

"Earth to Pepper!" Tony called from the kitchen. "What do you want?" Pepper quickly told him. They played a few other childhood games and eventually ended up watching a movie. After the Chinese was eaten, the games were put away, and the movie was over Pepper stood up to leave.

"Tonight was fun." She smiled. "And relaxing, I'll admit."

"Don't you feel so ready for a day full of running a company while I neglect my work and get in to trouble that you have to get me out of tomorrow?" Tony teased.

Pepper laughed. "No, but I'm going to have to." They were quiet for a few moments. "Well, I should probably get going. Will that be all, Mr. Stark?"

Tony looked at her and sighed, the playful look gone from his eyes. "I wish it wasn't, Miss Potts, I wish it wasn't."

Pepper looked confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, Pep. Nothing at all."