Letter: A

Word: Arrogant

Set: right before Iron Man 2, where Tony has just found out about his palladium poisoning.

A/N: I just recently was allowed by the parental units to watch Iron Man 1&2, and I've been high on Pepperony feels ever since! They're just SO CUTE. So I just had to write something. Hence this fic. Enjoy!

"Will that be all for the night, Mr. Stark?" Pepper asked robotically, setting a full mug of freshly brewed coffee on the only clear counter space in Tony Stark's lab.

It took Tony a full sixty seconds to pull his head out of his latest armor's guts. He blinked in the direction of his assistant and the fresh cup of coffee. "I didn't..."

Pepper smirked, an expression adopted from her boss. "I took the liberty of assuming you would need it tonight."

"I told you to go to bed." He reinserted his upper half into the Iron Man armor.

Pepper was slightly taken back by her boss's behavior. He had been acting so differently toward her ever since everything to do with his kidnapping and Iron Man. He had never told her to go home, unless he was doing something super top secret. She had never had any discernible work hours before all this. To y was known for calling her at odd hours of the morning with odd requests, ranging from calling him an ambulance (which she was never sure why he couldn't do himself) to asking for a hand in the lab. Depending on the urgency of the situation, she had done as he asked, too. Recently, though, he had been sending her home well before ten P.M. As dumb as it sounds, it made her angry.

"What happened to you?" She asked forcefully. "Where is my self-centered, sarcastic, egotistical, arrogant boss, and what have you done with him?

Tony jerked out of the armor so quickly that he firmly hit his head, but didn't care. "He's in a cave, in Afghanistan!"

"Drop the changed man thing, Tony! There is something-"

"Can I not be changed? Is it that-"

"-bothering you!"

"Unbelievable! Nothing!"

They stood on opposite sides of a long table, staring each other down. Tony's stare was intimidating, but apparently Pepper's was worse.

Tony gave up, falling into a chair behind him. He absently rubbed a hand over his arc while Pepper turned and regained her composure.

"It's nothing," he repeated.

Pepper sighed and came around the counter to crouch beside Tony.

"I can't make you talk about it..." She gently placed a hand on his arm, taking a leap over the professional line they always kept between them. "But if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here. Not as a personal assistant, but as a friend."

Tony didn't meet Pepper's eyes, but smiled. "Thanks. You're... You're a great person."

She rolled her eyes at his attempt at sappiness. "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?"

He hummed, jumping to his feet. "It will be, Miss Potts."

Pepper nodded and grabbed the mug of lukewarm coffee, taking it with her as she left the room.

"Hey! My coffee!"

"You didn't ask for it, remember?"

She shut the door and turned to taunt him through the windows by taking a drink of it, then waving goodbye and skipping up the stairs.

A/N: And that's a wrap! I think Tony could have been written better, but I think I did Pepper okay considering it's the first time I've really written her. Anyway, if you didn't notice, this is an A through Z prompt list fic. Meaning I get a one word prompt starting with a letter or the alphabet for each chapter. So the next one will be B, then C, so on so forth. But instead of drawing from my own list of words (like I did/do in my Spidey fic Peter and Gwen, A to Z) I'm going to rely on you lovely readers for words. That means that I won't update until I get some good prompts!

Thanks for reading, guys! Maybe check out some of my other fics?

Multichapter Avengers fic, cowritten with WayToDawn324: s/9274472/1/

My multi-chapter Spider-Man fic: s/8299135/1/Aftermath

and plenty more on my page!