"You're a horrible patient," Pepper agreed, but she was smiling. Sometimes she felt like his mother, letting him cry until he wore himself out, and at other times pampering him to extremes. "But I'm used to it."
She was more willing to dance with him now than she had been the first time. It hadn't gone off as badly as she'd feared, and perhaps more importantly to her, she'd enjoyed it; even more than she'd worried she would. He was a good dancer; light on his feet and surprisingly graceful, something he'd probably inherited from his mother. "As long as you're not too busy," she pointed out with a knowingly arched eyebrow. "Besides, I think that might be the last time Phil asks me to dance." For a very long time, at least.
Tony wasn't a ballet dancer, but then, a lot of a male dancer's job was to support the female and make her look pretty, and Tony was doing an excellent job of that, even if none of what they were doing was strictly practiced or professional. It felt nice, and Pepper enjoyed the movements almost as much as she enjoyed having him as her partner.
"Okay," she grinned wider. "We're going to try a lift." Turning in his arms again, she put his hands on her hips. "We just did the two turns, and I'm going to take a wide step like this, which lowers my center of gravity," she demonstrated. "You have hold of the center of my body so when I come down, you come down with me and we both lift at the same time, only I push up and you lift so that I'm balanced directly over your head." Straightening, she lifted her arms to demonstrate.
"Three things you need to know - first, lock your arms so that you're supporting me. Two, I'm supporting my weight as much as you are. I'm keeping my body tight so that I'm not dead and heavy. Three, it's all about balance. This is where your engineering skills are important - where you're holding me counts, so stay on my waist. I'm going to be bent into an arc, and as soon as you have me, walk in a semi-circle, like this," she showed him. "Put me down facing three o'clock, then turn to six and extend your right arm and put your other in front of you like so." She showed him again, smiling challenging. "Think you can do that?"