seren_ccd | Fic - A Proposal. Maybe.

Title: A Proposal. Maybe.
Rating: PG
Pairings: Tony/Pepper UST
Summary: Tony proposes. Conversation ensues. Post-movie.
Spoilers: Well, if you haven’t seen the movie. Or the trailer. Movieverse.
Disclaimer: Not mine. All Marvel’s. I’m just having fun.

A/N: Iron Man has hijacked my brain!

Thank you so very much to everyone who reviewed my last story. You all rock! This one was fun to write and darn it if a little angst didn’t sneak in there. Please, please read and review, let me know what you think. And a big chocolate chip cookie if you spot the 10 Things I Hate About You reference.

***

“I think you should marry me,” Tony Stark said.

Pepper stopped sorting through her Blackberry and raised her eyes in his direction.

He was standing about ten feet away with what looked like one of his odd protein shakes and bare feet. She had been happily organising the week’s mammoth schedule while curled up on his couch in the peace and quiet his living room usually afforded her. Her own shoes were lying on the floor beneath her and she hadn’t even realised he was anywhere in the vicinity. He’d been banging away in his workroom when she’d arrived in the morning and had only grumbled a little when she went down to take him some coffee. He wasn’t taking this whole house arrest thing very graciously.

Not that it was actually being referred to as house arrest, more like ‘in-house recuperation’ or as she’d taken to calling it in her head ‘time-out in the naughty corner’. Honestly, the man had sulking down to an art-form. But, until the press stopped crowding the street and the office, Tony was stuck. SHIELD was only willing to go so far and they were determined to make sure they had a firm grasp on the press before letting Mr Stark/Iron Man loose.

But, back to the original question...

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Pepper asked.

“I said, ‘I think you should marry me,’” Tony repeated.

“Mr Stark,” Pepper said.

“Last week,” he said sauntering over and sinking into the armchair opposite. “It was Tony.”

“What?” she said, realising that the bare feet was due to a recent shower. She could smell his aftershave and was trying to convince herself that it wasn’t distracting. Or sexy. Or hot. Or – oh stop it!

“I distinctly remember you calling me Tony on several occasions last week,” he said with a little smile that really was not attractive in any way.

“Ah, well,” she said straightening up. “There were extenuating circumstances.”

“Extenuating circumstances?” he repeated. “Such as?”

She just looked at him and then said, “Oh I don’t know, how about having one of the Chief Executives chasing after me in an extremely large metal suit? And then having that said Executive point a grenade launcher at my head? Then having to just stand there and watch as he threw you all over the place?”

“Hey, I threw him around a lot too,” Tony argued.

“And then, by your instruction, blow up an entire warehouse?” she said talking over him.

“And watch your heart stop? And being absolutely powerless this time?” she thought. “I think that counts too.”

“Okay, okay,” Tony said. “Extenuating circumstances. Got it. But, I felt that, I don’t know, a new precedent was being set.”

He fidgeted a little and took another sip of his shake, grimacing at the lukewarm sludge.

“Mr Stark,” Pepper said uncomfortably. “I think that a lot of lines were crossed and that it would probably be best if I just referred to you as ‘Mr Stark’.”

Tony looked up at her and her breath caught a little at the slightly sad look in his eyes. Which was of course, what prompted her to continue.

“Although, I suppose that it wouldn’t be --,” she said with a sigh. “Completely inappropriate for me to call you Tony. On occasion. When no one else is around.”

“May I call you Virginia?” he said with a slight grin. That, again, was not causing butterflies in her stomach to flutter.

“No, you may not,” Pepper said firmly but smiling. “Only my mother calls me that.”

“Pepper it is,” Tony said grinning firmly. “So, Pepper, will you marry me?”

She shook her head and told herself that this was just another of his little diversions and to stop having visions of white dresses. (Honestly, she preferred ivory or eggshell. Not that she’d thought about this. At all.)

“I don’t think that I can actually answer that,” she said trying to focus on pulling up the AP wire.

“And why is that?” he said and then leaned forward and said in a low voice, “Pepper.”

“Because, it isn’t a real question,” she told him distractedly. “You’re bored and I’m the only living being around and Jarvis stopped talking to you about an hour ago.”

“Stupid AI system, never should have installed that particular upgrade,” he said. “But what makes you think I’m not serious?”

Pepper gave him a look. He rolled his eyes and sat back.

“So my track record with relationships is a bit murky,” Tony said.

“Murky?” she said raising an eyebrow.

“Rough.”

“Rough?”

“Diverse.”

“Diverse?”

“Alright, it's horrible,” Tony said firmly. “Why, how would you have described it?”

“Oh I don’t know, possibly, ‘epic and tempestuous’ or ‘fraught with disaster’,” she said casually tapping on an article.

“Too poetic,” he told her. “Point is, before I was so horribly sidetracked, that I am, in fact, quite serious. I think you should marry me.”

Pepper sighed and lowered the PDA.

“Mr Stark,” she started.

“Ah, ah, ah,” he said tilting his head and waggling his finger at her. Her eyes narrowed.

“Fine. Tony,” she said. “Why on earth do you think you need to marry me?”

“Because,” Tony said forcefully and standing up to begin pacing. “You’re here all the time anyway. You get along better with my staff than I do. Heck, you get along better with Jarvis than I do and I created him.”

He snuck a look at her and Pepper just watched him, her eyes clear and open.

“And because,” he said coming to a stop in front of the window and staring out at the setting sun, his back to her. “You always know what to do. You have a very firm grasp on right and wrong and... I’m not sure if I do.”

Pepper’s mouth dropped slightly and she felt goosebumps rise on her arms.

“How can you say that?” she whispered. “You were ready to die for what you believe in. You almost did die! You stopped Obidiah and I’ve seen the new project briefs. You’re changing things.”

Tony laughed a little. “Changing things. I should have changed those things years ago Pepper. Instead look what I did.”

He turned to look at her.

“What if I go back? To how it was? To how I was?” he asked her. “It’d be so easy you know. So, so easy.”

“You won’t,” Pepper said simply.

“How do you know?” Tony said loudly. “How do you know? I’m not sure if the choices I’m making, to be Iron Man, to be this hero, is because I know it’s the right thing to do or because I love the attention.”

She opened her mouth to say something.

“And I do, you know,” he said, dark eyes boring into her. “I do love it. I grew up on it, it was fed to me breakfast, lunch and dinner and I crave it. So how do I know that this is really me doing something because it’s right or because it’s the thing to do right now?”

Well, if it was possible to expire from one’s heart being one’s throat, Pepper was sure she was about to keel over. He stood in front of her with the California coastline illuminated at his back casting a glow over him that made him resemble some kind of modern archangel. She took a deep breath and tried to make sure her voice didn’t waver.

“You told me that you finally understood what you had to do,” she said quietly. “I’ve never seen you have such – conviction and strength ever. Ever. You’re doing this because you have to. Not because someone else is ordering you to and not because the press expects this from you. But because, for once, you expect this from you.”

Pepper took another deep breath and went for it.

“And I have never, never been as proud of anyone in my life as I am of you,” she said.

They stared at each other. Pepper was sure she could actually hear the waves crashing on the beach far away. Or maybe it was the sound of all the blood that seemed to have pooled in her cheeks.

Tony looked down first. “I think you missed your calling,” he said.

“Which was?” she asked breathlessly.

“Motivational speaker,” he answered. “Tony Robbins has nothing on you.”

She laughed a bit and looked down. He watched her play with the stylus and was struck by her slim fingers. He cleared his throat.

“And as – touched, as I am by what you, ah, just said,” he said trying to assume his usual nonchalant tone. “You did not, actually, answer my question.”

Pepper groaned and let her head fall back onto the couch.

“Now, now, Miss Potts,” Tony said teasingly with the hint of a grin. “A question has been put before you. It would be very bad manners to leave the gentleman hanging.”

She raised her head with a grin to match his. “You do realize that your chest would probably short-circuit if I actually said yes.”

Tony raised his eyebrows and bent forward cupping his ear. “I’m sorry? I don’t think I heard an answer there. Please do keep in mind any further sarcasm will be taken as an affirmative and we may have to start picking out china patterns. Something traditional and no flowers.”

“Tony,” Pepper said putting her Blackberry away. “I really don’t think that using the excuse of moral ambiguity is a basis for a marriage.”

He closed his eyes and cocked his head in her direction.

“Could you just repeat that part again?” he said.

“Basis for marriage?” she said confused.

“No, no,” he said, eyes still closed. “The first bit. The ‘moral’ thing.”

“Moral ambiguity?” Pepper said bewildered.

“Yeah, that part,” Tony said gesturing with his cup. “Say it again.”

“Moral ambiguity,” she said slowly.

“Just, just – one more time,” he said smiling.

“Moral ambiguity,” she said flatly.

Tony opened his eyes and smiled lazily at her.

“I am so turned on right now.”

“Oh my God,” Pepper said standing up, the cool floor refreshing under her bare feet. She moved to head towards the kitchen feeling a distinct need for something sweet or salty. Or both. Either way, lots of carbs were desperately needed.

“What?” Tony said following her. “Lust is a big part of marriage. No true love without it and all that.”

She stopped and slowly turned around. She took in his grin and arrogant stance. Pepper walked forward a bit, just enough to feel the warmth of his body, but not close enough to touch. She looked up into his eyes and smiled just a little. She was gratified to see the pulse point in his neck thrum a little.

“How about this,” she said in low voice. “You figure out what’s really going on in that amazing mind of yours that prompted you to ask the question in the first place and then ask me again sometime.”

Tony took a deep breath and savoured the natural scent of end-of-the-work-day Pepper and said, “You think I have an amazing mind?”

“Mmm hmm,” she murmured. “It is constantly a source of confusion and delight in my otherwise drab existence.”

“Oh believe me Miss Potts, there is nothing drab about your existence,” he murmured back leaning forward a little bit.

Pepper smirked, frighteningly similar to his own he noticed. She opened her mouth to say something else when suddenly –

“Sir, Agent Coulson is approaching the house,” Jarvis interrupted.

Tony gritted his teeth. Pepper sighed and moved back.

“Okay, now, you decide to speak to me?” Tony asked exasperated.

“Just following the protocol you installed.” Jarvis replied and then added, “Sir.”

Pepper turned around to head towards the kitchen. Tony grabbed her elbow to stop her.

“Miss Potts,” he said quickly. He struggled for words.

“Tony,” Pepper said softly. “It wasn’t a ‘no’.”

She pulled away and continued towards the kitchen and disappeared around the corner.

“So, was that a ‘yes’?” he called after her.

“No,” she called back.

“Now who’s ambiguous,” he muttered.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: the office