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I cannot wait for Thor or Captain America! This is going to be a great year for superhero movies…
Engine Grease
Pepper can't remember when she stopped caring about the grease stains on her clothes. It was probably sometime after Tony returned from Afghanistan, but the exact date is uncertain.
It used to bother her. A lot. She had hated coming home at night to find the dark smudges on her new skirt, her favorite blouse. The grease was impossible to get out of fabric and even more impossible to remove the smell from her hands. It was a smell she subconsciously associated with Tony, a careless, selfish, reckless Tony. The smell made her think of him, and she hated that he forced his way into her thoughts, even if it was unintended. Pepper hadn't wanted to think about him, to have to admit that she cared for him. She told herself that he was an arrogant, self-centered jerk that could never have the capacity to return her feelings. She didn't want to be in love with someone so messed up, so she lied to herself. But, deep down, she knew she cared for him.
And when he changed, she finally decided that maybe it wasn't terrible to actually exercise those feelings. Who was she kidding? She was in love with Tony Stark, and it was clear that he was in love with her.
The number of grease stains increased once she admitted those feelings. It seemed that she couldn't get enough of Tony, and Tony couldn't get enough of her. She would settle in at the end of the day to find them all over her clothes, blotchy handprints where his rough hands had rested on her body. And now she smiles at the sight of them, because they are so completely Tony. Gruff and pushy, yet precise and tender.
He knows better than she knows herself, and she loves him for it. That man can read her every facial expression, her every little action and mannerism. Tony is so very observant and talented in analyzing things. Sometimes it bothers her, how he occasionally looks at her like she is a machine, how she can practically feel his brainwaves spreading through the room as he stares at her. She has had boyfriends in the past, but none like Tony. He knows the perfect little comment to make her smile when she is stressed out, how to find the spots that make her melt in his arms.
That man fills her entire life with trouble, but she loves it.
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