Industrial Lullaby

Summary: It evolves around her, his world. OneShot- Tony Stark, Pepper Potts. Scenes.

Warning: -

Set: Post-Iron Man 2, might contain spoilers. Pre-Avengers, I think. And post.

Disclaimer: Standards apply.

A/N: I received an amazing review in form of a private message. It made me want to write more for this fandom, immediately and quickly. I hope this fic rises up to your expectations. Thanks again for everyone who reviewed my other Iron Man fic!

Edit: Thanks to Michelle, who pointed out a quite embarassing mistake - I should have known better, really, since Energy Science is part of my studies :)

vi. statements

The atmosphere was stifling.

The board meeting had been going on for hours already while the numbers of points on their agenda didn't seem to decrease and every man and every woman in the room was either dreaming of being able to leave or was currently asleep. Franck Van Der Werve was droning on about sustainable energies and how Stark Industries was currently hovering on the brink of a new future. Which was well and good. But Virginia Pepper Potts – and not only her, from the look of it – was having trouble keeping her concentration upright. She didn't even feel guilty for it, seeing as the board member to her right was doodling something onto his note pad that looked suspiciously like a caricature of the speaker, Dr. Stern two chairs from her was reading the newspaper on his tablet and whatever the people on the other side of the table did Pepper was quite sure it did not involve listening. Of course, there was one man in the room whom she was pretty sure of was still alert and concentrated. Had someone told her years ago it would be Anthony Edward Stark, she would have laughed in his face. Now she knew – with the weird, possessive security that seemed to take hold of her when it came to him – that he might be chatting with Rhodey via facebook, that he probably was monitoring the stock market and creating a new version of his Iron Man suit at the same time – but that his attention was on every word the old board member uttered. Genius he was he'd come up with a dozen ways to raise Stark Industries' market value while, at the same time, starting an image campaign and releasing new technologies. Successfully, of course. Tony Stark did everything successfully. Pepper could not help the smile that stole itself onto her face.

"Are there any questions or comments?" Van Der Werve asked and Pepper lifted her head guiltily, knowing full well she hadn't listened to him at all during the last ten minutes. There was a great lot of awkward shuffling and huffing, but no board member was ready to admit they either hadn't understood what the talk had been about. Or hadn't been listening.

The board chairman, Dr. Jacob, still was right on cue. "Thank you, Mr. Van Der Werve, for these most interesting insights," he said and his light eyes seemed to look at everyone in the room. Pepper could see the backs straightening, the people recalling their attention. One or two tablets were put down and even one iPhone. Pepper smiled inwardly and tapped her pen against her notepad softly. Of course, she thought, the only one who didn't react at all was Anthony Stark. He did not stop tapping onto his tablet but from the subtle shift in his shoulders she could see he had registered the change. "It does not seem as if there were any questions left, so we will be moving on. There still are three points on our agenda but I propose we call it a day. We have more than enough results to excuse our missing concentration, and I am sure each one of us has better things to do tonight. So if there are no last thoughts or comments, I would like to… Yes, Mr. Stark?"

Every single pair of eyes in the room turned to Tony. Pepper frowned. Her boss had finally looked up from his tablet and was leaning back into his chair, his hands relaxing in his lap after having been lifted to draw the attention to him. His attention, meanwhile, was fixed on the board chairman.

"I am thinking," he said, matter-of-factly, "Of getting married."

Baffled silence answered him. Pepper's hand let go of her pen. It clattered onto her notepad almost noiselessly. On the other side of the table, though, a committee member squeaked in surprise and rocked back in his chair, and many sharp intakes of breath were heard throughout the room. Daniel Touchstone, head of Public Relations, accidentally upset the glass of water he had just wanted to place back onto the table again. The water dropped into Leslie Gate's lap, who cursed rather unladylike. The chairman lifted both his hands and sighed in defeat. On any other day Pepper would have thought he was more than capable to solve the mess that had ensued Mr. Starks announcement, but today it did take him a whole two-and-a-half minutes to calm the board again.

"Mr. Stark," he finally said, his voice not betraying his emotions at all. He looked quite the opposite of how Pepper felt. Her inner turmoil currently overrode any other instincts she had trained on herself. The only thing she could do was sit there and stare at Tony. She was well aware of other glances that went into her direction surreptitiously but she ignored them. "I think the board members agree that it is a more than joyous declaration you have just made. But-" And here, for the first time in the long years Pepper Potts had worked for Tony Stark, Dr. Frederik Jacob faltered. "But why are you telling us this?"

"And whom?" Peter Bishop, Research and Development, called out unembarrassed. He seemed to find the entire scene tremendously enjoyable. "And does she already know of your intentions?"

"I did not state them prior to this moment," Tony amended and stood. Buttoning up his jacket, he produced his usual pair of sunglasses from a pocket and donned them. "Anyway, good evening to you, Ladies, Gentlemen."

"Wait," Leslie Gates protested, her wet skirt entirely forgotten. "What was this? Are you messing with us, Mr. Stark?"

On his way to the door, he turned and flashed her a brilliant, Stark-trademarked smile. "When am I not, Leslie?" With that, he passed the glass doors of the conference room and disappeared into the lobby.

"So he is thinking," mused Peter Bishop, a mischievous smile spreading across his face. "Damn bastard. The day he commits himself the world will end." Other agreed, but their words were indiscernible. Once and again, a pair of eyes would stray in her direction guiltily.

And the whole time, Pepper thought numbly, Tony hadn't looked at her at all.

i. love letters

She was good at her job, which was why she was all business when she stepped into Tony's workshop after the ceremony in which he had received the badge of honor. For the millionth time Pepper wondered what had been so difficult to understand in "I quit". Somehow Tony must have misplaced her letter of resignation, had overheard her obvious words, and two weeks later she still was CEO at Stark Industries, one of the most influential and important women in the world and babysitter to one Anthony Edward Stark aka Iron Man.

The digital lock beeped as she entered her access code. Jarvis' voice greeted her. Or so she supposed because the second she entered the basement sanctuary of Tony's a missile hit the glass door right next to her with an echoing clank and clattered to the ground, where it rolled another meter and then stilled, its metal still ringing with the impact.

"Tony," Pepper said very calmly and very carefully. "That was bullet-proof glass. I am not unbreakable. Next time you hit me and you'll have a nice spot to clean off your walls."

Tony appeared from behind his digital interfaces as if by magic. "Pepper." He sounded half apologetic, half terrified, which calmed her – to an extent. "I didn't see you coming. Jarvis, didn't I say…"

"You told me to apprehend any unauthorized visitors," the A.I. responded. "The last time I checked Miss Pepper had a generalized access code only to be overridden by yours."

Tony scratched his head. "Dammit." With a grand gesture of his right hand the digital interfaces shrank into themselves and disappeared. "Jarvis, power up project Theta-Twelve-Six and let's see whether the enhancements are functional. Why are you here, Pep?"

Usually his nickname worked. Today it did not. Pepper glared at him and followed him to the next workstation, knowing it wouldn't be enough to just wait for his attention. The man would never listen while standing still.

"General Fury left two messages and asked for you to call back. You know you don't want to wait for the third call after what happened the last time. You missed your photo shoot with the Peoples' magazine. And there is a certain science fair for kids for which you promised to prepare something." Pepper tried to sound as usual but had the feeling she was failing miserably. Perhaps Tony noticed, because he actually turned to her and cast her a questioning look.

"You okay?"

"I am," she waved him off. "Tony, what on earth have you been doing this time?"

He threw her another look, all misunderstood, innocent childishness. "I have been working?"

Sighting, Pepper accepted his excuse. It was a Stark-maneuver, well-used and renown. Pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers – she sensed a serious headache coming – she tried to remain calm. Who did he think he was? Or rather, who did he think she was? "Mr. Stark," she said. "If there isn't anything else you'll need tonight, I'll be taking my leave." There still were meetings to reschedule and calls to answer.

In one fluent movement he stood again, startling her with the grace of his movements. She saw him so rarely like that, she reflected, tense and ready to fight. It wasn't that she wanted to see him like that. It was, supposedly, just that she preferred to see him as Tony Stark, playboy and billionaire extraordinaire, instead of as Iron Man. Because the first was a man whom she did not suit, but the latter was someone she would never even reach, and it only made it the more painful to look at him.

He just stared, a strange expression on his face, just looked at her until Pepper turned on her heel and walked from the room.

Left alone again, Tony blinked, then sighed. "I'm an idiot," he said to himself.

"I could have told you that," Jarvis replied.

Upstairs again she found that General Fury had been contacted and that the photo shoot was rescheduled already. And there was a twenty-minutes presentation for the science fair in LA, complete with script, references and material list, and Pepper sank unto her chair and buried her face in her hands.

ii. nightmares

He didn't sleep in the caves.

He passed out, of course, desperate and exhausted to a point in which his body just caved in to unconsciousness. Two hours, four hours, here and there, restless and riddled with nightmares. Sometimes Yinsen stayed awake and somehow at those times it was better, as if Tony, even subconsciously while being asleep, sensed someone still stood between him and the terrorists. But Yinsen was only human, as well, and older than Tony by a few degrees. He was exhausted more easily and slept longer and equally restless. Tony was left to the demons that visited him at night. The background sounds of men laughing and shouting, of women screaming in terror and children whimpering, of bombs and mines and guns followed him into his sleep, and when he woke he felt even more tired than before.

At one point, being back, he started sleeping in his cellar workshop.

Of course, he wasn't sleeping. Not strictly speaking, at least. He closed his eyes, perhaps he dozed off – but it was dangerous, treacherous the paths of his mind. He saw Yinsen die, again and again (it didn't matter he only barely had seen the man die but he had been a friend), and the faces of the children and women in the camp. And blood – so, so much blood – and how his own weapons had destroyed so much and kept on wrecking destruction all over the world. Obadiah could fight him as much as he wanted but Tony had made up his mind. Stark Industries would not continue selling weapons. Protecting was better than attacking, even if attack sometimes was better than mere protection, but who was he to decide over life and death? Such questions had never bothered him before. Now they came, full-force, day and night. He fell asleep to the soft hum of Jarvis' reactor and the pressure pumps, the air conditioning and Dummy's hydraulic sensors when it moved. It became a lullaby, in a way, sending him off to la-la-land faster than any other sounds. The reassuring noises helped to keep the nightmares at bay. But still unconsciousness had unpleasant side-effects on his mind, so he preferred working to sleeping.

Pepper was the only woman he didn't take into his bed immediately.

There was a line somewhere between them, drawn tightly and in blood. At first it consisted of unspoken consent – she was his PA, nothing more. Or perhaps nothing less. Because she ran his life, one way or another. What she did not do was sleep with him. And then he almost kissed her and suddenly the line was flashing crimson, and it was oh-so-tempting to step over it but still she held her distance. And then she kissed him – he would forever tell the story that way – and something just changed. Fundamentally. Earth-shatteringly so. For the first time in his life he tried to thread carefully, slowly, he made her breakfast (and burned the toast) and bought her flowers (had them delivered and forgot about them for two days) and wondered why he wanted to touch her so damn badly. But she wriggled away when he tried, and something in her gaze made him think she was afraid. So he called Rhodey and his friend told him to show what he felt, so Tony went and ordered another bed and had his entire bedroom re-decorated. And he loved it – loved the way she was warm and real against him, how her hair spread out under her head like a halo, loved the way her eyes shone when she looked at him. The night they had sex for the first time Tony fell asleep and did not dream anything. He woke well rested and, seemingly for the first time in his life, with a mind as clear as crystal, but he forgot to tell her so she was gone when he woke up. Nightmares returned full-force the next day. He broke down some time later, waking in the middle of the night shivering and trembling, and there she was: firm and solid and alive, so incredibly alive he couldn't think anything anymore. Sshhh, Tony, she said and her hands stroked his face. Sleep. I'll be here when you wake up. "Promise it," he had demanded, his voice rough and his grip on her arm desperate. "Promise it." I promise. And really, she was there when he woke, asleep next to him and still wearing her blouse and skirt. He thought she'd never looked more beautiful than then, in her rumpled blouse, messed-up hair and with sleep marks on her face. Her breathing was a melody softer than any sound he knew from his workshop, and yet he hadn't heard anything more calming ever before.

iii. background noise

The siren went off.

Again.

Virginia Pepper Potts rolled her eyes and sighed, and tried very hard not to be annoyed. There we go. The siren was followed by a whirring noise, a bubbling sound and a strangled curse. Apparently, Tony's new experiments weren't functioning the way they were supposed to. Unfortunate for the billionaire. Unfortunate for her, because, as his PA and CEO of Stark Industries, she would have to deal with the fallout that came with a boss who refused to attend meetings when he had better things to do, and, as little as she liked it, being in the middle of developing a new, clean and safe energy source for the world to use did count as better things for Tony. Not that she disapproved. She just wished he'd prioritize.

"Dummy, I swear, I will dismantle you and sell your parts to what remains of Hammer Industries where you most probably… Oh, come on, stop moping, you look like a little girl…"

Shaking her head incredulously, Pepper focused on her laptop screen again. The barely unnoticeable humming of its processor was comforting. One thing that worked as it should, that did work as she wished.

"Miss Potts, there is a call on line seven, the British Ambassador is requesting a personal meeting with you. Should I set up a time?"

"Thank you, Jarvis, that would be fine."

"My pleasure, Miss Potts."

Pling. With a soft chime, a new entry appeared in her virtual calendar. Pepper barely noticed the soft, green glow that went with it as she continued reading the document on her computer attentively. The lights flickered, then went off. Thankfully, the sunlight streaming in from the huge windows towards the ocean and the background lightning of her screen provided enough light to continue reading. Two and a half minutes later, the light went on again.

"I apologize for the inconvenience, Miss Potts."

"It's okay, Jarvis."

For some time, Pepper worked quietly, the tapping of her manicured nails on her keyboard silent in the room's atmosphere. From the workshop, the eventual clanging and clacking of tools on metal could be heard. It was a sound so intimately familiar to her it was unable to distract her, rather the opposite. Smiling slightly, she glanced up once when another curse was heard, and then the lights went off again.

"System on emergency power only. Four minutes until complete restart."

Her laptop battery was fully loaded. For the next seven hours, she would have no problem. Pepper continued to work. Her phone rang.

"Yes?"

There was no need for formalities. Whoever called on her private phone had the allowance to do so and did not expect her to answer as the CEO of the biggest company in the whole world.

"Rhodey here, Pepper. Tell me, is Tony freaking around again? Because we're detecting huge shifts in the concentration of atmospheric gases on our lidars. Please tell me he's not screwing with us. Or tell me he is because then it isn't someone else."

"For specifics you will have to ask him yourself," she told him and sighed. "I just know what he told me, and he's working on something today. You know him. It's the energy research program again. I wish he'd just leave the lab work to others."

"There are few labs as well equipped as his," Rhodey told her and she heard his chuckle. "He'll figure out something eventually and it'll be peaceful again."

"So God will," Pepper answered, wished him a nice day and disconnected the call. God, a man who could assemble a synchrotron in his own basement and create a new element probably would find the solution to nuclear fusion, as well… And soon, too, probably.

Sirens went off in the basement. Tony cursed. Loudly.

Pepper smiled and went back to work.

iv. reoccurring patterns

The minute she walked through the doors he knew something was wrong.

Her color was off – just slightly, merely a little bit, anyone who didn't know her as well as he did probably wouldn't have noticed. But she was in what Tony liked to think off as her CEO/PA mode, all business, efficiency and no-nonsense, so he stayed where he was and even snuggled down into the soft, expensive pillows of his couch more thoroughly because he knew how it made him look. True to her form, Pepper threw him a look that clearly said Mr. Stark, other people have been working while you are sitting here doing nothing. Her heart wasn't in it, though, and her eyes smiled where her lips did not. Grinning, he crossed his arms behind his head and wriggled his eyebrows seductively.

"Like what you see, Miss Potts?"

"Mr. Stark," she greeted him. She did sound normal. Her business suitcase, an expensive leather one he had given her for Christmas – she had informed him about it smugly a week later – was gingerly set aside next to the door, her laptop bag already on the counter of the kitchen island.

"Back from the sticks again, I see."

Predictably, she rolled her eyes. "You haven't changed."

"Why should I?" He challenged. "I'm perfect already."

"Your ego, Mr. Stark," she began. Then she sneezed, said "Damnit!", and continued sniffling rather pitifully while she frantically searched her pockets for a handkerchief. Which explained a lot.

"You're sick," Tony said rather stupidly and sat up.

"I wouldn't have thought," Pepper retorted, blew her nose and sneezed again. "Oh, I hate this."

"Don't you think it's weird?" At Pepper's frown, Tony continued. "Every time you return from a visit to your family, you end up sick. What do they do to you over in Nebraska?"

"That's not true," she protested, still sniffling, and turned her back on him.

"It's a reoccurring pattern," he shot back.

"Whatever, Tony." She said a swear word that made him laugh in delight as she turned to search for an Aspirin in her laptop bag.

"Pepper!"

"You think it's funny?" Her grey eyes glared at him, bright in her flushed face. "I don't. Anyway, don't worry. I won't get close to you, Mr. Stark."

For a second he considered what she meant, then jumped off the couch and gathered her into his arms, successfully preventing her from booting up her laptop. She felt good there, warm and soft and familiar. Burying his face in her silky hair, he chuckled because he suddenly realized what had been the constant source of indisposition to him over the past eight days.

"I most certainly caught a cold," she warned him, her voice muffled by his T-shirt.

"I don't care about your flu."

She stiffened in surprise, then relaxed as she wrapped her arms around him as well. "I've only been away for a week, Tony." Despite her words, she clung to him as tightly as he held her.

"Eight days," he corrected her. "This is why I don't give you holidays. You leave to visit your family and when you come back you're sick."

"Nonsense."

"Happened twice already, Pepper."

"Again, nonsense. You just don't want me gone because there is nobody who puts up with your temper tantrums when I'm not here." But she didn't sound like she meant it.

Tony chuckled and held her even tighter. "No more holidays for you."

"We'll see about that."

He lifted her up and carried her to the couch, placed her down carefully and kneeled to unbuckle her shoes. Then he slid onto the wide sofa next to her, wrapping his arms around her again. Pepper's eyes were closed.

"How do you feel?"

"Headache," she mumbled. "Like I've been a victim in a hit-and-run."

"Sleep," he told her. "You should rest."

"Wait," she said and struggled to sit. "I can't stay here. You'll catch my flu, Tony."

"I don't care." Really, he didn't. He was too glad she was back. "Just sleep, okay?"

Her eyes dropped.

"I missed you," he whispered, but perhaps she was already asleep.

The next day his head was pounding and Tony was sniffling and sneezing. Pepper's voice was a bit hoarse but otherwise, she was fine. While she wandered through the room, checking her emails and returning calls, Tony stayed on the sofa and whined for her to not ignore him, he was dying here. Because, heck, it was what was expected of him and the annoyed looks she kept shooting at him were absolutely hot.

v. relevant questions

"Are you dating me?"

Tony was buttoning up his dress shirt in front of the mirror, his eyes watching her warily from their mirror images. Pepper, holding his bow and watch, thought that he looked better than he had months before, when he had been dying from Palladium poisoning and had refused to tell her. His brows were scrunched up in a frown, a look that was rather adorable as long as he didn't leer. He didn't, right now. Instead, his expression was serious, almost as if he was scared of her answer.

"How should I be dating you, Mr. Stark?" She asked back and handed him his tie. "You're my boss."

"Twelve percent of this company belongs to you."

"It still would not be appropriate."

"I guess it wouldn't." He folded down his collar and tugged at the bow, then held out his hand. Pepper let the watch – heavy and expensive, her favorite with the red leather band – fall into it carefully.

"Well then, am I dating you?"

"I am your personal assistant. It would hardly be less inappropriate."

"But you are the CEO of Stark Industries."

"Not now. Now, I'm just your PA."

I wonder how you do it, her sister had told her over the phone. You manage the whole company and still have the time to babysit Tony Stark. You're something else, Ginny. Take care, okay? You're going to drop dead from exhaustion one day.

"I guess so. It would definitely not be appropriate to have my CEO manage my personal life the same way a PA would do."

"Definitely not."

There was a lack of his usual playfulness in their bantering. Pepper wasn't sure whether it was because he was nervous – after all, he would soon present a cheap, safe way to nuclear fissure, something the world had been searching for for decades. There was something else in his eyes, in the way his hands seemed to tremble slightly as he shrugged into the vest and jacket and buttoned it closed. Pepper tugged him to face her and straightened bowtie and lapels, brushed away a fleck of imaginary dust.

"You're all settled, Mr. Stark."

He didn't move. "It's a serious question."

"I answered seriously." She turned away to hide her face. It was in times like these, when his face was oh-so-serious and his eyes so pleading, that she found herself unable to look at him. He was a child playing super-hero which meant he would either die soon or crash onto the hard floor of reality. It would hurt both of them.

"Hey, Pep. If you don't answer…"

"Then what?" She challenged him. He was already smirking again. "Then I'll go out there and announce our relationship publicly."

"What makes you think we're not already rumored to be in a relationship?"

"Seriously? You're asking me this?"

Flipping out his smartphone, Tony attempted to open Stark Industries' twitter account and found his hand empty. "Hey!"

Pepper dangled his phone in front of him, just out of his reach. "As your CEO I have to inform you that posting confidential information on public sites leads to expulsion from the board and evocation of all your legal rights concerning the company."

Tony pouted. "Does that mean I am not allowed to kiss you any longer?"

"You're not allowed to kiss your CEO unless you want to be charged for harassment. Again."

He moved.

A second later Pepper found herself pinned against the desk, Tony's arms encasing her safely on each side. His face was so close her heart leapt out of her chest and slammed against her ribs painfully. His sudden closeness was breathtaking.

"Enough," he whispered. "Enough of this. Tell me you belong to me, Pepper."

Pepper opened her mouth to shoot back a witty retort and then saw the look in his eyes. Naked. Vulnerable. Pleading. Wordlessly, she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him.

Sometimes he kissed her like she was air.

vii. industrial lullaby

"What," she asked him in the evening, still angry and hurt and embarrassed beyond reason, and everything was clear in her eyes. "The hell was that, Tony?"

Tony looked up from his asparagus soup – he knew it was her favorite, he had ordered it specifically – and failed to hold her glance. "What do you mean?"

Her spoon clattered into the soup, splashing cream and liquid onto the dark marble of the kitchen island. "Don't play with me. You know what I mean exactly."

In the sudden silence that separated them the hum of the refrigerator was especially loud.

"You mean what happened earlier today." He didn't look at her. Tony Stark, Iron Man, afraid to look at the woman he loved.

"Happened?" She repeated incredulously. "You call it happened? You stupid- stupid-" She spluttered, unable to come up with an appropriate swear word. He almost smiled, because it was so like her.

"Accidents happen, Tony. Bad ones. Good ones, too. Your Avengers moving into Stark Tower-" She calls them "his", again and again, although she knows each one of those individuals molded together into a team of reluctant superheroes belongs to nobody but himself. "Your Avengers moving into Stark Tower happened. Happy pouring coffee over the leather seats happened. Dummy trying to reduce the lab to ashes happened. Don't tell me for a second something happened up there today because you and me both know it was nothing of that sort."

She was right, he knew it. He had announced it deliberately, intentionally. If someone was to blame for her state of mind it was him. He hadn't quite expected the fall-out to be this severe. Had he?

"Umm," he said. Taking about brilliancy.

"That's what you say?" Pepper glared at him over asparagus soup and white wine. "Just brilliant."

"Yeah, well." Tony scratched his head, glanced at his glass, opened his mouth, closed it again and returned to watching the table intently. "I botched this one, I guess."

Pepper took a deep breath and let it out again. She seemed to shrink with the exhale, suddenly her eyes were sad and her shoulders were tired. "It's not supposed to be this way, Tony."

"I know. I'm sorry. I really am."

"I know." Carefully cleaning soup from her spoon, Pepper went back to eating. With his apology, part of her anger seemed to have faded. "This is very good," she said and spooned down her soup. "Where did you order it from?"

"I had a cook flown in from Germany. Germans – they have a knack for preparing it, although it is said it was the French, specifically Louis XIV., who reintroduced asparagus in Europe in modern times…" He bit his tongue.

Pepper laughed – a clear, soft sound that made his lips twist into an involuntary smile as well. He watched her eat for a while, listened to the rustling of her blouse as she moved. Her red-and-golden hair gleamed in the soft candle light. What, he wondered, had he done to deserve a woman like her? Nothing came to his mind. He was Tony Stark, he was Iron Man. He had money and brains and houses and cars. And he knew while some women found it attractive he also knew it wasn't his wealth or his achievements that held promise for Pepper. If only it made him less attractive in her eyes, he suspected, because she was one of the few women who did not only say that money did not matter but also felt it and lived it. Despite everything she had continued working for him, had stayed with him when everyone else left. She had believed in him when nobody had, had hoped for him when everyone else had been sure he would fail. She had stood with him through "heart" failures, palladium poisonings, arrogance attacks, pigheadedness, recklessness and embarrassment, but also through nightmares, loss, throw-backs and insomnia. If someone was to be honored for devotion it was her and Tony likes to think he reciprocates. It was hard to tell, though, because it was difficult to compare. When it came to common thoughts and brain processes, he was at a loss.

"Let's go outside," he said abruptly and stood so fast the table shook. Pepper looked up, her eyes confused.

"But there is a main dish, isn't it?"

"It'll wait. Pep, please."

Some women had told him he made puppy eyes when he wanted something. For Pepper, Tony didn't want to look like a puppy, he wanted her to look at him and see him. He didn't want to make her do something just because he looked adorable. He wanted her to do something because she wanted to do it, and making dog eyes at her would never be the means of his choice anymore. Perhaps he had gotten it right because Pepper sighed and smiled.

"All right. Lead the way."

"All the way up, Jarvis," he told the A.I. in the elevator.

"Yes, Mr. Stark."

The ride was silent. Pepper stood so close he could feel her body warmth. It filled him with a fierce urge to pull her close and hold her. Just feel her in his arms, just touch her hair, listen to her heart beat.

The night air was cool but not uncomfortably so. Far, far underneath them, the city was alive in lights and movement, but the sound of the wind was the only thing they could hear. Pepper took a deep breath. Tony watched as her shoulders lifted and fell again and she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the last traces of her previous hurt and anger had disappeared.

"I've seen the sight so many times," she said, her voice hushed. "And it's still incredibly beautiful."

Tony nodded, but he did not look at the lights beyond them. The words burned in his throat, on his tongue. He swallowed them.

Not now.

Pepper turned around, reached out to him. He took her warm, small hand and let her draw him closer to the balustrade. Side by side, they stood and watched the last golden sheen of the setting sun disappear behind the horizon.

"Tony?" Pepper said softly. "Ask me again, okay?" She smiled.

"Oh." He perked up visibly. "When?"

Laughing softly, Pepper shook her head.

"I don't know."

Tomorrow.

Maybe.