Author's Note: Hello everyone! Sorry it's been awhile since I posted anything. I was rewatching the first Iron Man movie the other night, and it inspired this little fic. Updates will hopefully be every weekend. This story is based on the movies and disregards comic canon (sorry!). Reviews are always appreciated!

"No, Anna – Anna! Slow down. You're not serious – England?"

Pepper Potts stopped suddenly, much to the annoyance of the commuters shuffling around her. One man gave her a particularly dirty look as he crashed into her, glaring and sending her a one-fingered salute as he scurried away.

Yeah, same to you, buddy.

"Just, hold on a minute, okay? Let me find a place I won't get run over or cause a pileup."

"I thought you were walking?" came the puzzled reply from Pepper's cell.

"I am. I was being – well, never mind." Pepper ducked into a narrow pocket of emptiness – the storefront of an out-of-business shwarma place – and sat on the stairs, placing next to her the beverage carrier containing two cups of steaming, overpriced coffee.

"Now, start from the beginning. I thought you and Chad broke up?"

Anna's voice filtered through the phone, tripping over syllables in her excitement. "He just showed up and told me that he'd made a huge mistake and he wants me to come with him! He says he's finally ready to be a mature adult and support a family and, Pepper, he wants to get married!"

Pepper checked the bars on her phone. Yes, her service was fine. Which meant the buzzing was only in her shell-shocked head.

"Yes, but, England?" Pepper asked weakly. Her heart was trembling, but she couldn't let her roommate – ex-roommate, it seemed – hear her panic. After all, Anna was her friend, and she really was happy for her, but…

"England?"

Anna sighed impatiently, a great gust of breath that mirrored the wind howling around Pepper. It tugged at her hair, her clothes, urging her to hurry home and stop her!

"Yes, well, you know his firm transferred him over there, and really, I'm glad that he's taking his job seriously. Oh, Pepper, can't you see? This is finally my chance for a happily-ever-after, fairytale romance. It's all I've ever wanted. And I love Chad!"

You didn't love him two days ago, thought Pepper darkly, but she won't say that out loud. Not now, when Anna's so happy Pepper can see her glowing through the phone lines.

"I am happy for you, sweetie, really. It's just…the rent…"

"I know. And I'm sorry to dump this on you what with you losing your job and everything, but you know you're always telling me to carpe diem and all that. Well, honey, it's finally my day to seize!"

"I understand." Pepper stood slowly, hearing the sound of frantic packing in the background. She could picture it now – Anna's curly black hair flying into her eyes and mouth as she spun in frantic circles, trying to make sure she had her deodorant and hairbrush packed. She'd probably forget something important, like her wallet or her laptop, and as soon as she landed she'd be calling Pepper and begging her to ship over the forgotten items. Impulsive and scatterbrained, that was Anna, and these spur-of-the-moment decisions never ended well for her – at least, not in the 20 years Pepper had known her.

But it was too late. Pepper could tell now that this phone call was a courtesy, nothing more. She'd gone out for coffee for fifteen minutes, and when she'd return, it would be to an empty apartment she could no longer afford on her own.

"Pepper? You okay, sweetie? I'm sorry, I really have to pack, Chad will be back any minute…"

The call went dead, and it took Pepper three slow seconds before she realized she's dropped her phone. It was an ancient model, a flip phone that fell apart with no encouragement whatsoever. Sure enough, when Pepper went to retrieve it, she saw the battery had fallen out who-the-hell-knew-where.

"Perfect," she muttered.

Phone reassembled, Pepper grabbed her drink carrier and sat on the bench of an abandoned bus stop. She hadn't ridden the bus in ages – she'd been saving her money carefully ever since her firm had "downsized" and she'd been left jobless. Right now, she couldn't care less. The wind was really starting to pick up, her feet where aching from the heels she'd worn to a job interview that morning (she hadn't had time to change before Anna sent her straight back outside on a quest for caffeine), and she currently had two cups of coffee and no one to drink them with. She was going to be evicted from her apartment, and all she really had to pack was her stack of Help Wanted ads currently testing the strength of her TV-tray-sized desk.

"Oh my God," she whispered to herself. "I'm going to be homeless."

Pepper Potts did not do homeless. Pepper Potts had worked from a young age to be successful in everything she did. Pepper Potts got up at 6 am to jog around the city and reported to work promptly by 9, shower-fresh and ready to slay dragons, if that's what her job demanded. Pepper Potts was efficient, she was dependable, and she was self-sufficient, damn it.

Dang it. Pepper Potts did not swear, because Pepper Potts was a mature adult.

"Hey, I don't mean to be a dick or anything, since your face looks kind of tragic and heartbroken right now, but then stuff like that's never bothered me before. So. Are you going to drink both of those?"

Pepper glanced up, surprised that anyone would dare bother her in the middle of her crisis. Could this man not see that her world was imploding?

Well, good. Don't let him see. Strength, confidence, poise, Potts.

The man wasn't older than her, she thought; or if he was, it wasn't by much. He was wearing (nicely-tailored) tan pants and a navy jacket – he would've look right at home on a yacht, smoking a cigar and drinking brandy, if he hadn't been wearing old tennis shoes and a cheap pair of aviator sunglasses from the vendor down the block.

"Excuse me?" asked Pepper, infusing her voice with all the confidence she could muster. Heaven forbid this man try to hit on her right now.

"It's just, that extra coffee looks like it's causing all kinds of mental anguish for you. So I thought I'd be a good neighbor and take it off your hands. Plus, it's freezing and I really want coffee."

"Sure, take it." What was the point in refusing him? What was the point of anything? Oh, what if she had to become a prostitute? She couldn't handle that kind of lifestyle! What if –

"What is it?"

"Sorry?" Control yourself, Potts, you're not going to end up a hooker. Not today.

"The coffee?" He gestured towards the carrier, and Pepper noticed the watch on his right wrist.

Wow. Definitely right at home on a yacht.

"Oh, the one on the right is a caramel macchiato, and the other is just plain black coffee."

She was about to add, "And it's mine," but the stranger already plucked it out of the carrier.

"Hmm. Dark roast. Costa Rican? Good taste. See how random acts of kindness can make someone's day a little brighter?" He tilted the cup towards her in a mock toast, before turning to stroll away.

"You're welcome!" Pepper shouted back at him, exasperated. "Wish someone would make my day, for once."

The latter was muttered under her breath, but evidently the stranger heard, because he spun almost comically on his heel and jogged back to her.

"Bad day? Let me guess…boyfriend dumped you? No? Girlfriend, then? Don't give me that look, I'm just being progressive, sheesh. Your dog died – no, your cat died. No, you don't seem like much of a cat person. You just won the lottery but on the way to redeem your ticket you were mugged by some hoodlum teens in saggy pants and all you have left in the world are these two cups of coffee? You – "

"My roommate is eloping. To England, of all places." Pepper wasn't sure why she was telling him this, except that the person she would usually vent her feelings to was halfway to the airport at this point.

"Ah, England. I have fond memories of that country. Actually, I can't remember much of my trip, but there're some excellent pictures – "

Pepper rolled her eyes, and maybe he could tell she wasn't in much of a friendly mood, because he paused thoughtfully for a moment. "People come and go, you know? You'll get over it." Which was strangely comforting. Perhaps because it was the most honest response to her situation, not the usual litany of empty promises.

"In the meantime, I have to either convince my landlord to take pity on me or find a new place to live. I can't pay for it without Anna."

The words slipped out, unbidden; though Pepper couldn't see much of the man's face, there was something almost endearing about the laugh lines folded around his grinning mouth.

"You know, if your job isn't paying enough, I hear Stark Industries is hiring."

"I don't know much about weapons technology," admitted Pepper. "I'm more the secretary, event-planner type. Or at least, I was."

"Great, then. It's settled. Tony Stark is looking for a new PA."

"Tony Stark? As in, the Tony Stark? I thought he renounced his claim on the company years ago." Pepper always made a point to stay updated on current events, and the story of the black sheep rejecting his father's business empire had dominated the news more than once in the past few years.

The stranger stood, draining the last of his coffee and cramming the empty cup back into the carrier. "Well, word on the street is, he's back and ready to take the company by storm. Or something. Check tomorrow's papers, you'll see. And when I've been fully validated, drop off an application. Stark Industries is way into finding new faces."

Pepper wasn't sure if she was more surprised by this supposed omniscience or the rudeness (he could very well throw his own cup away!), but before she could reply, he was already walking away.

"Best of luck to you, Pepper!" he called over his shoulder, before a sleek black town car pulled up to the curb. The man slid inside without another backwards glance.

Pepper sat in shock, wondering how on earth he knew her name. She glanced at her empty cup and, sure enough, Pepper was scrawled in impatient black ink across the side.

Shaking her head, Pepper threw the carrier away – she hadn't sunk low enough yet to drink the sugary mess Anna called coffee – and stepped back into the fray of moving bodies. Her head was full enough to occupy her on the way home, and she didn't want to waste money on the bus, anyway.

It was the first time Pepper Potts met Tony Stark.