Here's another one.
Chapter 6
Pepper wakes to find herself still sitting in a desk chair. She has been staring at the computer screen for hours, sorting documents and emails and god knows what else for Tony. She glances at the clock to see that it is two in the morning. Sighing, she raises herself from the chair, gracefully strides across the room to the stairwell that leads to Tony's workshop in the basement. She takes the steps two at a time, and lets herself in at the glass door. Tony is there, still awake, still working. The new suit lies in pieces across several work tables, and he is poring over it with extraordinary concentration. She closes the short distance between them and comes up behind him, lays her arms across his broad, strong shoulders. He doesn't look up from his work, but absent-mindedly lifts a hand to rest it on one of her arms. He isn't moving, just stares down at the suit, and she can tell that he is seeing something she isn't, that behind his eyes he is calculating, formulating, seeing. She sighs again.
"Tony, come to bed. It's late."
He still says nothing, and she lowers her head to slowly kiss his neck. He shudders, but remains still, and so Pepper grabs his face roughly and turns him to face her. This seems to break him out of his reverie, and he finally sees her. He smiles morosely. "Sorry." He says.
" It's getting worse."
"I know. But it's just hard to ignore all of it, you know?"
Pepper is concerned for Tony, but she doesn't say anything more. Instead, she reaches her arms up around his neck and grabs a fistful of his dark hair, pulling him close. He responds to this and wraps his arms around her, one hand coming to rest on the small of her back. His expression is unreadable as she pulls him in for a deep kiss. His lips are soft and yielding to her, and she loses herself in him, his scent, his feel, his taste. But then she feels him become frozen and unresponsive, and she pulls away slightly, opens her eyes but remains close to him. He is there, frozen, his eyes looking at her yet not seeing her. A pang of sadness rises within her until she shoves it back down, and she gently bites her lower lip. She feels guilty. She was the one that injected him with Extremis. She did this to him. How could she get mad at him for something she did to him?
"Oh, Tony," she sighs. She pulls his face back to hers with more force, and he blinks, stunned, and his eyes come back into focus. He returns the kiss for a few seconds, then pulls away, extricating himself from her arms to fall into the nearest chair. Tony rubs his temples for a few seconds, attempting to lessen his pounding headache. Then he leans forward, rests his elbows on his knees, and buries his face in his hands.
When he speaks, his voice is surprisingly clear. "It's getting worse." He repeats her exact words, and Pepper wishes she could comfort him, could understand what he was going through. But she doesn't understand, and so she says nothing.
And it doesn't stop getting worse.
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