There. She'd admitted that she she was in pain because of what he'd done, and really, that was all Tony needed to hear to straighten up his act. He had gone into his mind and replaced ever instance where she'd said 'a woman' to love him and ecetera to her own name, and it all made more sense to him. Poor Pepper was just as in love with him as he was with her and neither of them would say what was hanging right there between them.
Anyone would label them stupid and that they should just get it over with and clear the tension out of the air, but that tension was required to make them work. Neither of them could function when their homeostasis was disrupted by the least little thing, and this "affair" of Tony's had monumentally screwed them up.
"It's after nine. You're late for work then. Maybe I should dock your pay. Or make you stay later to make up for those lost hours." Then Tony paused in his tirade of snark, his face shifting to a somewhat worried look. "What if we never get back home, Pepper? You know I hate it when we're fighting."