Someone needs to remove my XBOX from my room. Seriously. That's the only reason I haven't updated sooner. My bad. I'm very easily distracted. Had to get someone to hide the power cable for my XBOX, my Freeview box and my PC's wireless antenna just to get this written.

So, as some of you may know, RDJ was in London from at least the 10th of August. I came home from London on the 8th. I MISSED HIM BY TWO DAYS. I hate my life.

P.S. For Pepper's dress, think Cameron Diaz at the end of The Mask. And I've never been to the restaurant mentioned below so I'm going off it's website and my imagination. Finally, my Italian sucks wore than a cheap hooker so for most of the Italian dialogue I'm using an Italian dictionary and basically word for wording it, which is why I've limited it to the odd phrase.

It was half past seven, and Pepper had no idea what to wear.

She'd barely had a minute to herself the entire day, and when she finally did get a chance to call Tony and ask where they were going, he clammed up, which left Pepper curled up on her couch, makeup done, hair done, bathrobe on and waiting for Tony to literally dress her. She'd just finished the last of the coffee she'd made herself when a knock on the front door startled her. Pulling it open, she saw Tony standing on the landing, smiling and dressed in dark blue jeans that were faded on the thigh and a black polo shirt. His smile grew even wider when he saw what she was wearing.

"I completely approve of you dressing like that more often." He said, wolf whistling. Pepper rolled her eyes and let him inside.

"You didn't tell me where we were going so I couldn't chose an outfit." She explained.

"Well that outfit seems fine to me-"

"Tony." She said his name with a warning tone even he picked up on.

"Ok, ok, it's smart casual, nothing too fancy, but not a shorts and sneakers joint either." He walked forwards into her apartment and headed straight for the couch. "You know, I had a nap on this bad boy when I moved all your stuff in. I think I might have to steal it, comfiest thing I've ever laid on." He shuffled his shoulders back into the pillow on the armrest and sighed contentedly.

"I might take issue with that." Pepper chuckled. "Don't fall asleep, I won't be a minute, just gotta get dressed and then we can go." She turned on her heel and headed down the hall into her bedroom.

"I wouldn't be too long or you might be missing a couch when you come back." He mumbled, eyes slipping closed. He'd just started drifting off when a pillow hit his face.

"I told you not to fall asleep." Pepper chuckled as Tony peeled the pillow off his face.

"Couch's fault, not mine." He said, muffling a yawn.

"Tired?"

"Yeah, late night." He got up and stretched before looking her up and down, smiling wolfishly.

"You approve then?" Pepper asked, looking down at herself. She'd let her hair fall naturally around her shoulders and had donned a slim fitting, long sleeved, black and burgundy striped dress that stopped just below the knee, complete with three inch black stilettos. The latter was doing funny things to Tony's stomach.

"Approve is too lax a word." He managed to croak out.

She bent down to retrieve her earrings from the coffee table and looked up at him. "So what word would you use?"

Tony swallowed and cleared his throat. "I'll tell you when my brain starts working again."

Pepper chuckled and straightened up. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Tony made a derisive snort and held his hand out to her, which she eyed warily. He smiled at her and shook his hand. "I don't bite. At least not on the first date." He added with a wink. Pepper rolled her eyes and took his hand. "There we go." He led her outside to his car and opened the passenger door for her. Once they were both seated, he turned the key in the ignition and the car roared to life.

"Are you ok to drive?" Pepper asked him. Tony scrunched his eyebrows at her.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Your eye." She clarified. "It still looks bad." She restrained herself from touching the wound, but tony just shrugged and pulled onto the road.

"It's fine, Pep. Told you, nothing serious." He glanced at her briefly to flash a smile before re-focusing on the road. "Well, we've got a bit of a drive to the restaurant, so I'm giving you the very rare honour of choosing the radio station." He gestured to the centre console and Pepper blinked at it. There were several buttons and dials on it, none of which looked like they had anything to do with the stereo. Tony, sensing her confusion, smiled and told her to just tell Jarvis which station she wanted.

"Jarvis?" she asked, even more confused.

"Yes, Miss?" a crisp, British voice came from the speaker system and Pepper jumped.

"Jarvis." Tony clarified. "Just A Really Very Intelligent System. He's an AI system I invented myself. Installed him in the house, the cars, the-" he stopped mid sentence. "Well, you get the picture." He cleared his throat and spoke again. "Jarvis, this is Pepper, her word is law, got it?"

"Yes sir." Came the reply. "Would you like me to apply vocal recognition to my central server as well?"

"Basic level only." Tony said. Pepper's gaze flitted between the man and the machine, still extremely confused as to what was happening.

"Task complete." The AI beeped once. "Good evening Miss Potts, which radio station would you like?"

"Umm...KCBS? Please." She added as an afterthought.

"Of course, Miss." Jarvis beeped once more and then Whitesnake blasted through the speakers.

"Volume ten." Tony said and volume lowered to one more acceptable for conversing. "Very good choice of music Potts." He merged onto the PCH and put his foot down, chuckling to himself at the still bemused look on her face.

"So...you have a computer in your car that controls the radio?" she asked, scrutinising the centre console. There were no obvious signs of any external hardware being mounted, just the standard, or what she assumed was standard for an R8 Spyder, stock radio, so he'd either done something with the insidey bits or...oh screw it. It was melting her brain just pondering.

"Oh, he does way more than that." Tony said, suddenly becoming more enthusiastic about the conversation. "He could hack into the White House security feed if I wanted him to." He said smugly. "In this instance, he took a recording of your voice and uploaded it to the central server so you can get into the mansion."

Pepper looked back at the console. "But I can't see any modifications or anything."

"That's the beauty of me." He said as 'Is This Love' came to an end and a news report started.

"Iron Man has once again made his presence known by helping our boys in Afghanistan." the DJ said excitedly. "He assisted a small squadron in the evacuation of a small town East of Kabul and once again saved the day when things got heated. Whoever that guy is, more power to him. Tony Stark is one lucky S.O.B having a superhero for a bodyguard. Now, we got some Billy Joel for ya' after these messages."

As the commercials played, Pepper noticed Tony's hands had tightened on the steering wheel as the DJ had spoken about Iron Man.

"Do you worry about him? When he's away being...Iron Man?" she asked him.

Tony seemed to come out of some sort of daze when she spoke and blinked at her. "Uh...no, not really. I mean, he's more than capable of handling himself." He shrugged and turned back to the road, pulling off the PCH onto the Santa Monica Freeway. "Sometimes I think he needs to do more. When he's out there, I mean."

"He seems to be doing more than enough in my opinion." Pepper sighed. "I mean, to think there's actually a person under all that metal, and the situations he puts himself in." She shook her head. "Unhappy the land that has no heroes."

"No." Tony said. "Unhappy the land that needs them."

The rest of the drive passed in relative silence, occasionally one or both of them would break into song along with the radio, until finally they arrived at the Ago Restaurant. Tony pulled into the parking lot, opened his door and rushed round to Pepper's side to help her out. They walked in together, Pepper's arm wrapped around Tony's, and were immediately greeted by the warm smell of Italian gourmet cooking. A stocky moustachioed man beamed at them as they walked through the door and bounced over to them.

"Antonio! E'stata troppo a lungo." (Antonio! It's been too long.) He grabbed Tony's outstretched hand and shook it roughly.

Tony mirrored the other man's smile. "Zio Gualtiero, uh, e' bello vedere ancora una volta." (Uncle Gualtiero, uh, it's good to see you again.)

The older man laughed. "Ah, Antonio, your Italian is as bad as it ever was." He let go of Tony's hand and looked at Pepper. "And who is your beautiful friend?"

Pepper blushed furiously and Tony grinned at her. "Uncle Gualtiero, this is Pepper. Pepper, this is Gualtiero Milanesi. He owns the restaurant and he was a friend of my mother's."

"We haven't seen much of Antonio for a while." He shot a scolding eye at Tony and then smiled fondly at Pepper. "But come, I get you a good table." He span on his heel and led them through the crowded restaurant and out onto the courtyard.

"Now, to drink, I bring you some red wine." Gualtiero handed them a menu each and tottered off into the kitchen.

"He seems very friendly." Pepper said after a moment. Tony smiled at her.

"He is." He agreed. "He's always been a good man. He practically raised me as a kid."

"You've known him a long time then?" Pepper laid down her menu to focus on him and he did the same.

"He was my mother's best friend growing up, I've known him since I was born. He would have been my Godfather if Stane hadn't been around." Tony spoke the man's name with a certain bitterness Pepper didn't quite understand, and a silence enveloped them until Gualtiero returned with a bottle of very old red wine. He poured for Pepper first and then moved to Tony, who stopped him.

"Ho installato Zio, ca non è d'accordo con me." (Not for me Uncle, it doesn't agree with me.) He mumbled.

"Qualcosa di più forte?" (Something stronger?) the older man asked.

Tony shook his head. "Fresco succo d'arancia se hai." (Fresh orange juice if you have it.)

Gualtiero nodded. "Un momento." (One moment.)

"Grazie, Zio." (Thank you, Uncle.) Tony smiled and turned back to his menu, catching Pepper's eye as he did so. "What?" he asked her.

"You." She said. "For someone who apparently speaks very bad Italian, you do it very well."

Tony laughed. "Both Zio and my mom tried teaching me before I went to MIT. I never saw much incentive to carry on the practice but I used to come in here a lot up until last year, and if you want to get on Gualtiero's good side, you learn the language." He chuckled again.

Once Gualtiero brought Tony his orange juice, they ordered their food and Pepper even let Tony order for her.

"You're not drinking." She said after a while. Tony flinched somewhat and shook his head.

"No." he agreed. "I, ah, I haven't since I came back from Afghanistan."

Pepper chewed on her lip. "You don't mind that I-"

"Oh, no, of course not." He smiled reassuringly. "This…it's a personal choice, don't worry about it."

She nodded and took a sip of her wine. "So do you see much of James these days?"

Tony, who had been raising his glass to his lips froze. "James?"

"Yeah, Rhodes? Didn't you arrive with him to that party all those years ago?"

Tony put his glass back down and half smiled, half grimaced. "Yeah, we haven't spoken in over a year. We had a bit of a falling out."

"Oh." Pepper mumbled, wondering just how many more times she could put her foot in her mouth. "What happened?"

Tony shook his head again, silently saying he didn't really want to talk about it. "Let's just say…he took something of mine without my permission."

"Damn." Pepper sighed.

"Yeah." Tony chuckled sadly. "What about your friend? I remember Rhodey saying something the next day about you hanging with someone."

This time it was Pepper that looked uncomfortable. "Kind of the same story, I haven't spoken to Carrie since about three months after that party." She picked up her wine and took a sip. Tony made a motion for her to continue. "Well, we went to different colleges, and while I was away at mine, her mom died. I still didn't have a cell at this point, and my roommate was constantly on the phone, so by the time I got her message it was four weeks later and she couldn't understand why I hadn't been there for her. I tried to explain stuff but…" she trailed off and shrugged sadly. "I lost contact with her years ago so I've never had a chance to try and make things right."

Tony reached across the table and grabbed her hand. "I'm sure she'd listen to you now." But Pepper shook her head. "Hey, come on, I bet if you tried-"

"It's too hard." She said softly. "She was my best friend, Tony, and she just dropped me without even listening. It was hard enough the first time, I don't think I could do it again."

Tony sighed and brought her hand up to gently press his lips to her knuckles. Pepper swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Ah, love birds, your food will get cold!" Gualtiero appeared out of nowhere with two waiters flanking him brandishing dishes. Pepper blushed again and extricated her hand from Tony's and sitting back.

"Smells wonderful, Gualtiero, grazie." He shook the man's hand again and they tucked in.

Over the course of the meal, they settled back into a comfortable, warm atmosphere, chatting about this and that. Tony even tried to teach Pepper a little Italian, with a lot of help from Gualtiero who kept swatting Tony on the back of the head for using the wrong phrasing and grammar.

"You have Italiano blood, Antonio! How can you not know this?" he chuckled when Pepper ended up having better pronunciation than Tony did. "When you have children, you bring them to me to learn, ok?" he didn't wait for either of the baffled adults to reply. "You don't pay tonight, Anthony, but you promise me to bring bella senorita back soon."

"We'll be back, Zio, thank you." Tony said, standing up and shaking the man's hand once more before pulling Pepper's chair out and escorting her out to the car.

The drive back to Pepper's apartment was relatively quiet, punctuated occasionally by Pepper who seemed to have gotten to grips with Jarvis. She was even conversing with him fully.

"I gotta say Tony," she said to him as they pulled up to her building. "That thing is pure genius."

"Yeah, I know." He said smugly, holding the door open for her. "He's gotta be to keep the house in order."

"I can imagine." Pepper chuckled. She stood awkwardly for a minute before Tony cleared his throat.

"Can I walk you up?" he asked. She smiled at his nervousness and nodded.

"Thank you for taking me out tonight." Pepper said as they began the slow walk up the stairs. "It was great meeting your pseudo Uncle, even if he is a little…"

"Overzealous?" Tony supplied. Pepper chuckled.

"Yeah, I'd say that about covered it." They stopped outside her door and she opened the clutch she'd brought with her to fish out her keys.

"Well, that's the Italians for you." He laughed softly. "And extended family. Always out to embarrass you at a moments notice." He leaned against her door and watched her nimble fingers search for her keys. She finally located them and smiled at him.

"So…"

"Yeah." Tony agreed. Pepper fiddled with her keys.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Tony said again. He pushed back from the door and stepped forwards slightly, zeroing into her personal space.

She stopped breathing when his hand ran up her arm and trailed it through her hair. He dipped his head so they were nose to nose and his other hand landed on her waist. Closing the gap between them, his lips pressed softly to hers for a moment and he pulled back to gauge her reaction. When he saw nothing adverse, he leant in again with a bit more force, the hand in her hair weaving into the strawberry tresses and cradling the base of her head. Pepper's hands landed on either side of his neck, grasping at the collar of his polo shirt as she pulled him closer. Tony turned them slightly and pressed Pepper up against her door, running his tongue along her bottom lip. The sensation elicited a hum of appreciation from Pepper who opened her mouth to him. The hand wound in her hair moved up to brace Tony against her door as his tongue invaded her mouth. He pressed impossibly closer and Pepper's head dinked against her door.

She froze.

"Tony." She mumbled, slowing the kiss and nudging him away slightly.

"What's wrong?" Tony whispered, backing off and running a hand down her arm.

Pepper shivered slightly. "Umm, I don't think this is a good idea."

Tony's arm stilled. "Uh, ok." He stepped back slightly. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She insisted. "It's just…" she sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I know this is a shitty line, but I think it'd be best if we just stayed friends."

"Oh." Tony exhaled and pressed his lips together. "Yeah, sure."

"And I know you took me to dinner and everything and got me this job-"

"Pepper…"

"-and I'm sorry if I did anything to lead you on-"

"Potts!" Tony said sharply, shutting Pepper up. "Don't worry about it, ok?" he smiled kindly. "It's fine. Honestly."

"Yeah?"

"Of course." He grinned again. "Friends is good, I need more of those actually." He laughed. Pepper smiled awkwardly. "Look, it's seriously fine Pep. Ok? Probably is best in the long run anyway." He winked. "Thank you for accompanying me for a lovely meal and I'll see you bright and early…well, I'll see you at some point tomorrow anyway."

"Ok." Pepper sighed gratefully. "I'm sorry Tony-"

"You have nothing to be sorry for." He said. "Now go get some sleep."

He watched her until she stepped through her door and heard her lock it before he made his way back down the stairs and into his car. He sat in the drivers seat for a few minutes before shaking his head, revving up the engine and driving away.

And all of this was seen through a pair of binoculars.

Once again, MAJOR apologies for the immense delay, I just have way too many distractions!