Pepperony Kisses

#18 – Surprised Kiss

"I didn't want to have to bother you, but, I didn't know what else to do."

"It's fine. I'm glad you did." Pepper Potts made her way through the maze of hallways in the Tower, Bruce Banner at her heels. She'd been reading in their apartment, waiting for Tony to return from whatever Avengers business he was on when her friend came knocking. She heard him say "We have a problem. It's Tony" and was out the door with him, no questions asked.

They reached the door to the secured infirmary area. Bruce tried to reach past her to scan his palm. "Let me just…" he began when she laid her own hand on the scanner and the door hissed open. Tony was on one of the examination tables, still in his suit minus the helmet. He was shouting slurred curse words and threats at everyone present. Pepper stopped short and Bruce barely avoided colliding with her. "There was an explosion…an IED from one of the terrorists as a last-ditch effort of attack. We, uh, neutralized the guy who set it off, but, Tony caught some shrapnel in one of the weakened places in the armor. From what I can tell by the scans on the flight back, it's not a fatal wound, but, he won't let anyone near him to get it out. He's lost blood, which explains why he sounds like he does, but, he has fought anyone who attempted to get close to him. The only person I knew could get through to him was you."

"Thank you," Pepper said, tears coming to her eyes. She knew this was a risk Tony took every time he put on the Iron Man armor, but it didn't make it any easier to see. However, there was time to be philosophical later.

A punch sent Steve Rogers sprawling to the floor. "You…you're trying to take my suit. You can't have my suit," Tony babbled. "I'm not…not gonna give it up."

Steve rose slowly, wiping his busted lip with the back of his hand. "No one is going to take your suit, Stark."

"No they're not!" he roared.

"He's been like this ever since the ride back," Bruce informed her.

Tony made an attempt to get off the table. Clint Barton tried to restrain him with a hand to his chest, but Tony shoved him out of the way. "He…he thinks he can sneak up on me and take it. He won't. I gotta have my suit to get home."

"Tony!" she called out above the din. "Stop it now!"

Immediately, he froze, staring in her direction with glazed eyes. "Pepper?"

She walked past the rest of the team and medical staff to where he was. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm keeping them from stealing my suit. They want it so they can keep me from going home. They can't have it, 'cause I hafta get home. If they try, I will…"

Whatever he was going to say was cut off when Pepper grabbed him by the front panels and crashed her lips to his. He stopped fighting almost immediately. By the time the kiss was over, he looked at her with a dazed expression. "Tony," she said gently, "listen to me. You have to stop this. You said that home was wherever I was, right?" He blinked hard a few times and nodded mutely. "Okay. I'm here, so you are home. You're hurt and they need to get the suit off so they can fix it."

"Okay," he agreed weakly. "But…they can't have my suit."

"They won't. Bruce will take it directly to your workshop and lock it up." Pepper looked around the room, "Where's the helmet?" Clint retrieved it from the counter and brought it to her. "You're going to lie down and I'm going to open the suit so Dr. Cho can get to the shrapnel that's stuck there."

"My side hurts," he confessed.

"I know it does."

"I promised I would come home."

"And you did. Now, let the doctor do her job so you can come back to our room with me."

"Okay."

He lay back on the examination table, careful not to hurt his injured side. Pepper ran her hands through his hair and patted his dirty cheek before she slid on the helmet. The retinal scan confirmed her identity and the information popped up on the HUD. "Open suit," she commanded. There was the huff of hydraulics and the whir of robotic parts as the metal armor came to life.

A flurry of activity followed. Medical staff moving around and barking orders. Machines beeping. People scurrying to either help or get out of the way. Bruce Banner watched it all from his spot near the door. In this room were the Avengers…Earth's mightiest heroes…decked out in state-of-the-art outfits and bearing the best in weaponry modern technology could offer. Yet, the battle of the day had been won by a lady standing barefoot, dressed in a t-shirt and yoga pants. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and smiled. The real hero wasn't Tony Stark, but the woman holding his hand.

Author's note: So, the first one is out of the way and you can see what these will be like. I loved the idea of Pepper being the only one who can handle Tony and getting Pepper seemed like something Bruce would do. How was it? Is this new experiment going to work? Let me know what you think. I wrote this in about 2 hours, so I managed to surprise even the BFF and nancyozz with it. :D I'm looking forward to hear from you. I love my readers and thank you so much for your continued support. Happy reading and PEPPERONY FOREVER!