mrtonystark (mrtonystark) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-06-01 06:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, pepper potts, tony stark (iron man) |
Who: Pepper and Tony.
What: Tony’s been out fighting Stormtroopers.
When: End of the day, May 4
Where: Stark Industries.
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete.
Orange County was going to be bad for her nerves. Pepper was becoming very aware of that. And she already knew she could be a nervous person as it was, she didn’t need all this anxiety on top of it. When combined with all the action that had just happened in her dreams, all she really wanted was a moment for peace and quiet. But that was apparently not going to happen.
She stood in her office at Stark Industries, the only place where she felt moderately safe and out of the way. There was no way she was going to try to drive home through all this. And - Tony was out there. Being a hero, being Iron Man. If she said she wasn’t worried, then that would be a massive lie.
It’d been a long day. Tony did his best to send updates back to Stark Tower in the beginning, but as the day went on, he kept getting distracted. There were just too many of those white-armor clad bastards. Tony was a big Star Wars fan--he and Clint bonded over their Lucasfilm quips pretty much all day--so a part of it was awesome. The other part wasn’t so great. He had to save people from space men all day.
Exhausted and slightly singed, Iron Man flew back to Stark Tower, zooming once around the building to glance through the windows as he made his way up to his lab.
From her spot by the window, Pepper saw him get back. It still boggled her mind that the suit was real. It was all still moderately new to her in the dreams, too. Crazy place, Orange County.
She found herself leaving the office and making her way to the elevator. It was moderately eerie being in the tower after hours. Not many people worked this late, and less so with all the fighting happening. She wouldn’t think about the quiet. Her feet took her to the lab on their own accord and she knocked on the door.
By the time Pepper made her way up to the lab, Tony was already climbing out of the suit. Well, the suit was doing most of the work; peeling itself away from him mechanically. He turned his head and called out, “come in,” at the sound of the knock.
The good news about wearing a huge suit of armor during all these things was that Tony himself often didn’t get damaged. He was sore from the fighting and the work, but mostly unharmed.
How strange, to see the suit like this in real life. She remembered dreaming about walking in on Tony, catching him out. Her lips quirked up as she walked inside, keeping her distance but, well, she was curious. How could she not be?
“So you don’t just dream about being a superhero, I see,” Pepper said. “You actually are one.”
Tony turned, and for a moment was caught off guard. Pepper was incredible. Her beauty, her poise. He thought about how she was his in his Dreams, about how they shared everything. And then he thought about how she died. His face fell just slightly.
“Well, I try my best.” He offered in response. The suit was finished peeling itself away from him, and he stepped forward on the platform. “I just hope Clint made it home safely. Probably should have escorted him.” Though it was possible Hawkeye was gonna go spend the night with his lady friend instead, and Tony didn’t want to get in the way of any of that.
“Oh, I’m sure you do.” Pepper’s steps carried her further in, nearer to Tony now that he wasn’t Iron Man anymore. Just Tony. Well - she supposed they were the same, in the end, but for now it was easier to differentiate that Tony was just himself when he wasn’t covered in the armor.
“I have a feeling he’ll be all right.” She paused. “And you’re all right?” Just because he was covered in metal didn’t mean Tony couldn’t sustain some damage. She’d dreamt of witnessing the fall out of Tony’s first major fight. “Are you staying here for the night?”
There were times when Tony stepped out of the armor, and he was one hundred percent. Today, though, he was considerably less. It wasn’t that he was injured, he was hot and sweaty and sore. He hadn’t taken a beating so much as he’d done the kind of work that he wasn’t really used to. Both his brain and body felt a bit spent.
“I do have space here.” There was a bed. It wasn’t a great bed, but it was a bed. “Not really sure I’m up to the task of driving myself home, and the self-driving car isn’t exactly street legal. Yet.” He took a couple more steps toward her. “You’re here late.”
Pepper seemed unsurprised. Tony was a genius (not that she’d say it out loud to him), and it made sense that he’d be up all the time to work. It seemed reasonable he’d have a bed or something near his work space. At his observation, she shrugged a shoulder.
“I wanted to make sure the stragglers were going to be all right when they left. I think the last of them only left about an hour ago, and then I -” She paused, a slight smile turning up the corner of her mouth. “Well, I had to make sure you were going to be all right. So here I am.”
The little smile on the corner of her mouth was so familiar to Tony. He matched it with one of his own out of pure instinct before he realized that his Pepper, the one from his Dreams, had died. Her death was mostly his fault. It made the smile slide from his lips.
“I appreciate it, Ms. Potts,” he offered, nodding his head a little. “But I’m quite all right. The suit needed a rest more than I did.” He took two steps, then leaned to the side and took hold of his workbench to steady himself. He was suddenly more exhausted than he’d thought he was.
Mostly on instinct, Pepper moved toward Tony, reaching out to put her hand on his shoulder. Quite all right, as if. She tried to coax him toward a chair. “I’m not sure if anyone is even making deliveries right now, but I’m going to find out. And you’re going to rest and eat something, or else.”
Despite her smile, there was a lingering threat in Pepper’s voice. Tony would probably know that well enough.
Tony knew that tone. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t fight Pepper when she used her stern voice. The hand on his shoulder was warm and comforting. Tony nodded, resigned to letting her take care of him. (What else was new?) He moved to the chair, plopped down into it, tipped his head back against the headrest, and closed his eyes.