Re: Tony & Pepper
He could tell from her face that Plot: Night at the Museum was a total success. His face relaxed with pleasure and relief, since Tony had a habit of trying to express his affection with grand gestures that fell short, and he rarely knew why until the crashing and burning was already underway. In the doorway, she leaned close to him again and he realized with some surprise that P:NatM was not just a success, it was a grand slam. He grinned in surprise and somewhat smug delight. "You're getting kind of choked up there. You need a hankie?" He took advantage of her nearness to kiss her, not deep, just a press of lips to her mouth as she came away from his cheek.
Tony kept her hand but let her wander through the museum, a swan through the water, and he paddled absently in her wake. There was nothing in particular he wanted to see, and he let his eyes drift over the artwork as they moved from exhibit to exhibit. He was surprised at the number of signs that read "On loan from Tony Stark, private collection" because typically he would look at the piece blankly, and he didn't know if he had just never seen it before or if he had and didn't remember. Tony's taste was simple, much like when he was dealing with decorators. He either liked it or he didn't. Sometimes he was predictable in his admiration, and sometimes he wasn't. He talked a lot, just like normal, an endless string of wry observations that were sometimes funny but mostly not.
The limp did not grow any more pronounced, but he itched at the strap holding his arm up whenever he could, and the pain killers made him a little more distracted than usual. He put his phone on silent with JARVIS instructed to interrupt only in the most extreme of emergencies, yet still his mind drifted. He was thinking about the Bat in his cave and the broken body in the Gotham hospital in the backdrop of churning equations. He kept hearing the bones snap, sometimes even while he was talking.
He let her move him along, until finally they climbed a stair and he pulled on her hand for the first time, blinking out of his distraction. "The cafe is over here."