Okay…well it's been nearly three years, and I thought I'd better update this. Sorry it's short, I'm trying to get back into the flow. But I know now what I want to do with this seeing as I cleaned my room and found the notes I'd written for it, so expect quicker updates!

Pepper arrived the next morning dreading the day ahead of her. She could see it all being so awkward having turned Tony –her boss- down the previous evening, so much so that she could barely get any work done for the majority of the day. She was in the middle of trying to concentrate on the stock invoices in front of her when Alex knocked on her door and walked in.

"Alex." Pepper acknowledged, smiling. "What brings you down here?"

Alex shuffled inside awkwardly and held out a file to her. "Mr Folan wanted me to give you this. And…I just wanted to apologise again for being out of line yesterday, and-"

Pepper held up her hand and sighed. "Don't worry about it, Alex. If Tony's…reputation is to be believed, I understand where the idea came from."

Alex breathed a sigh of relief and smiled back. "Ok, good." She nodded and shoved her hands into her pockets. "So…how was dinner?"

Raising an eyebrow, Pepper smirked and opened the file Alex had handed her. "Dinner was great. We went to this Italian place in Santa Monica that his Uncle owns. It was good to catch up."

Clearly dying to know more, Alex hovered over the desk. "Italian, huh? Sounds…romantic."

Pepper rolled her eyes and looked back up at the young woman in front of her. "Nothing happened, Alex. It was just dinner, that's all. We're friends, ok?"

Realising she'd pushed a little too far, Alex nodded and hurried back out of the door, just in time to bump into Daniel on his way in.

"Someone's in a hurry." He drawled as Alex stepped around him.

"Don't ask about the date." She whispered harshly as she passed, hurrying back down the corridor to her desk. Daniel laughed and stepped inside Pepper's office, closing the door behind him and eliciting a questioning look from Pepper.

"I wanted to talk to you." Daniel said, crossing his arms over his chest and walking up to her desk. Pepper leaned back in her chair and raised her eyebrows. "How was your date?"

"Oh my God." Pepper exhaled heavily and rubbed her forehead. "Why does everyone care so much about what their co-workers get up to?"

Daniel laughed again. "Haven't you ever worked in an office before? This is what we do to pass the time."

Pepper shook her head and smiled at him. "Dinner was fine, it wasn't a date, it was two friends catching up after a seventeen year gap."

"Not a date, huh?" Daniel said, smoothly sauntering around her desk to stand next to her chair, leaning against it. "So I take it you're free for an actual date then?"

Biting her lip, Pepper dragged her gaze over Daniel's form and matched his body language, crossing her arms over her chest. "Depends who's asking."

"Ah, no one really." Daniel sighed. "Just a devilishly handsome and charming Irish rogue. With a Porsche."

Pepper barked out a laugh and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Mmm, well the Porsche does sound interesting."

"Well," Daniel said, shoving himself off the desk and heading back to the door. "The Porsche will be waiting out front after work, maybe it'll see you there?"

Pepper tilted her head, smirking at him. "Maybe it will, maybe it won't."

Daniel laughed again and winked at her before pulling the door open and exiting the office. As he headed back to his own, he pulled out his cell and typed a message as he walked.

Phase one in motion.

Tony's house was ridiculous, Pepper thought as she drove slowly up the driveway. Beautiful from an artistic point of view, yes, but ridiculous all the same. It was huge, it had obscure angles, and it had obviously cost him a bomb. If the interior was anything as grand as the exterior, and Pepper suspected it was, she was in for a shock.

After parking at the side of the circular fountain in front of the house, she trotted up the steps and stopped at the front door. She could see a handle on the clear glass door, or even a doorbell for that matter. There was a rectangular pad to the right of the door, and going off her knowledge of action movies, she guessed it must be something to do with fingerprints, and going with her guess, she pressed her palm to it. Blue light flashed immediately below her palm and scanned the surface before a single beep indicated that it had finished.

"Virginia Potts." Jarvis' voice came from the pad. "Please confirm vocal security." And then another beep.

"Um." Pepper blinked, flustered. "Jarvis? It's me? Pepper?" she tried, gazing curiously at the pad. Yet another beep sounded after she'd finished talking and the pad went green.

"Vocal security confirmed." Jarvis said, and the door automatically opened with the sound like air escaping from a vacuum. "Good morning, Miss Potts. There is fresh coffee brewing in the kitchen."

"Thank you, Jarvis." Pepper mumbled, too busy gawking at the interior to Tony's home. She hadn't been wrong when she'd guessed what it would be like – wide open plan spaces, an entire wall of windows showing the coast and ocean, a freaking waterfall in the middle of the staircase. "Wow. Where's Tony?" she asked the AI.

"Mr Stark is still asleep, Miss." Jarvis replied. "However due to the frequency of his nightmares through the night, I doubt he is sleeping heavily."

Pepper frowned at this. She didn't realise he had nightmares, but then again after what he'd been through in Afghanistan…

"Don't tell him I'm here until he wakes up properly." She said, deciding to let him sleep for as long as he could. "I'm just going to get some work done while I wait. Did you say something about coffee earlier?"

It was a good hour and a half before Tony got out of bed and wandered downstairs. Pepper guessed Jarvis must have told him she was there because he was fully dressed, something she doubted very much would have been the case if he was alone.

"Hey, good morning." He greeted, smiling at her as he padded across the marble floor from the stairs. "Or good afternoon. You want a coffee?" he asked. Pepper shook her head and motioned to the one she already had – her second while waiting for him.

"Thanks, but I think if I have any more without food I'll get hyper." She joked, closing her laptop. "Did you sleep okay?"

Tony raised an eyebrow as he poured himself a mug of coffee. "I think Jarvis has been telling tales about me again." He chuckled.

"I'm just being polite." Pepper shrugged, but it wasn't fooling Tony.

"I have nightmares sometimes. About the kidnapping." He said, as if it was nothing. "No big deal. But I slept fine, thank you. Anyway, not that I'm not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?" he'd joined her on the couch by this point and gazed over at her laptop and documents. "Please tell me those aren't for me." He whined.

Pepper laughed softly and sighed. "Sorry, Mr Folan needs an answer on these as soon as possible. He literally told me to "do whatever I had to" in order to get you to sign off, and I think he meant it." She shivered. "He's such a creep."

Tony snorted and took the documents from her, glancing at them quickly before frowning. "Steve's not coming back for at least six months." He said. "He wants Daniel to handle all his work. Weird, where the hell has he gone?" he shrugged and quickly signed the document. "Yeah, that's fine, anything else?"

"Nope, all set." Pepper smiled and filed the documents away with her laptop in her bag and picked up her coffee to drain what was left. "I should get back to the office." She stood up, raising an eyebrow when Tony did too.

"You sure you can't stay?" he asked, a hopeful look in his eyes. Pepper smiled wryly and shook her head.

"This is two days in a row now that you've tried to get me to play hookie with you." She said. "And I've only had the job two days!"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Well, lucky for you, the boss likes you, I think you'll be okay." He put on his best puppy dog look. "C'mon, please?"

Pepper sighed dramatically. "I'd love to, but I've gotta get this files back before Folan has a fit, and…" she blushed a little, realising too late how her next words were going to hit him. "And I've got a date later."

If the situation hadn't been so serious, Tony's face going from boyish teasing to looking like he'd been slapped would have been comical. "A date? But…who with?"

"Well, not a date, date." She tried to recover. "Daniel asked me out…he's just being friendly." She bit her lip and watched Tony's reaction.

"Huh." He huffed, managing to shrug off the hurt look and smile at her. "Okay, Potts, you win. Off you go." He patted her shoulder once and then bent to grab their mugs, carrying them into the kitchen. Pepper stood awkwardly for a moment before grabbing her bag and hurrying out of the house. For some reason she felt like crying as she got into her car, feeling like she'd betrayed Tony in some way. But they were just friends, she'd managed to convince the both of them that the night before. Did he think she wasn't going to date anyone at all while she worked for him? Had he only hired her because he thought he could get a lay out of it? She shook her head free of those thoughts, dismissing them. Tony had taken her on board to repay the favour she'd accidentally dealt him all those years ago, and definitely something more than sexual tension between them…she didn't want to think about it. They were friends, and that was how it was going to stay. Hopefully.

Tony, meanwhile, was stewing in the kitchen. He was annoyed, mostly because she hadn't wanted to be anything more than friends with him, but even more so that is was that Daniel guy she'd chosen over him. He shook his head and sighed, rubbing his hands over his face.

"Jarvis?" he called out as he walked out of the kitchen and made his way down to the basement. "Tell Natasha I'm on the way to base. I feel like kicking some terrorist ass." He entered his code to open the door to the basement and walked towards the suits of armour displayed around the walls. "Now, however will I choose an outfit?"

Her date with Daniel had been…nice. A little more fancy than Tony's had been, but missing the warmth of being somewhere friendly. He'd taken her into the heart of the city to a posh French bistro, and while his butchering of the French language had been purely for her benefit to make her laugh, her head wasn't in the game and she'd had to force it.

"Something on your mind?" he asked her as he watched her push her desert around the plate. "Do you not like…whatever the hell that is?"

Pepper smiled and laughed softly, shaking her head. "It's lovely, the whole night's been amazing, it's just…I'm somewhere else tonight. I'm sorry." She sighed. "I should have asked for a rain check for when I can be more focussed."

Daniel wafted his hand at her. "Don't worry yourself, it just means we'll have to have a do-over." He grinned. "Maybe something involving…miniature windmills?" he winked at her. Pepper blushed and ducked her head shyly. "Look, Pepper, the thing that's bothering you, will it get fixed if you fixate over it?"

She shook her head and took a bite of her desert. "No, but-"

"Then maybe…" Daniel reached over the table and took her hand, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. "Maybe try not thinking about it." He smiled.

Pepper sighed again. He was right, she was thinking about something she couldn't fix, about another man, while on a date with him. If anything, it was rude.

"You're right, you're absolutely right." She agreed, smiling at him and placing her fork down. "I'm in the zone now, promise."

"Fantastic." Daniel beamed and was about to open his mouth when his phone buzzed at his hip. "Shite, sorry, I have to take this." He cursed and answered the call. "Aye?"

"How's it going?" an irritated voice came from the other line. "Anything new to report or are you still enjoying yourself on my dime?"

"Ah, alright buddy?" Daniel covered, smiling at Pepper. "I'm actually on a date right now so I can't really talk. Is it quick?"

"Just hurry the fuck up, alright?" the voice sneered. "I want this over with as quickly as possible. I want what's mine." And with that he hung up.

"Not a problem." Daniel muttered into the phone, nodding along. "Yup, well that's fine, I can come round tomorrow? Sorted. See ya tomorrow pal." He pretended to end the call, wincing apologetically at Pepper as he stowed his phone away again. "Sorry about that. A pal of mine wants me to help him shift some furniture tomorrow. Good timing." He chuckled. "Are you about done? I can take you home?"

Pepper nodded and after Daniel had paid, they headed back to his car. He was a perfect gentleman, giving her a kiss on the cheek once he'd dropped her off and waiting until she was inside, like Tony had done, before setting off. This time, she even arranged a second date. Whatever issues Tony had with her dating Daniel, he'd just have to deal with them.