Yes, Virginia, There Really Is An Iron Man: Chapter Twenty-Three
TITLE: Yes, Virginia, There Really Is An Iron Man
AUTHOR: Quicksilvermad
SUMMARY: (Movie-verse) Pepper deals with Tony’s newfound lease on life and ends up making a mountain out of her molehill of emotion where her boss is concerned.
GENRE: Humor/Romance
RATING: PG13
PAIRING: Tony/Pepper
DISCLAIMER: Iron Man etc. belong to Marvel Comics et. al.
Chapter Twenty-Three:
Pepper stared at herself in her full length mirror-standing in the nude with a bottle of cover-up in one hand and a make-up sponge in the other.
She felt like she looked completely different.
There was a semi-circular bruise on her breastbone, her lower lip was still swollen from biting it hard enough to break the skin, and she had beard “hickeys” all over her. The embarrassing fact of it all was she was loath to cover any of these marks with make-up.
The clock reflected in the mirror noted that she had been standing in front of the framed glass for about twenty minutes. Her skin had long dried from her second shower and her hair hung in natural waves. The green dress was laid out on her bed.
Pepper sighed and gave up-dabbing cover-up on the telling bruise between her breasts. It took a while to hide the evidence of a well-spent afternoon. It seemed as though every blemish she covered up revealed two more.
With an irritated huff, Pepper threw her make-up onto her dresser and just gave up.
As she dressed herself she considered what to make of her current situation. She just did the one thing she had promised herself never to do when she first got the job as Mr. Stark’s personal assistant. She slept with him. Worse…
She was in love with him.
And if Pepper Potts was honest with herself, she had been in love with him for quite some time.
Ever since he first smiled at her in a way he saved just for her. Their morning banter-fests at his house, the afternoon teasing in the office, and the evening baiting had escalated once he did that.
Pepper wasn’t sure what changed his mind about her in the first place, but she did remember when it happened. It was four years ago on Saint Patrick’s day-she had come into his workshop wearing a green blouse beneath her signature black suit and she had her grandmother’s antique silver four-leafed clover pinned to her blazer.
He hadn’t been wearing any green-in fact, Tony was working on mixing the paint for the Shelby Cobra he’d just finished remodeling and was covered in blue. He even had a smudge of grey primer on his cheek.
Because he wasn’t wearing any green, Pepper immediately pinched his side before launching into the daily schedule.
Then Tony smiled. Really smiled. “Is it the seventeenth already?” he had asked.
Pepper remembered burying her embarrassment quite professionally and nodding. “Indeed it is, Mr. Stark.”
Pepper finished adjusting the scoop neck of the dress and stared at the complete picture she made with the high heels and satin-smooth fabric that made her look even paler than usual.
Green again, she wondered.
There was something poetic about the idea, but as Pepper applied a darker than usual shade of red to her lips (to hide the bruise that was her own fault) she wondered if Tony would see the connection.
Probably not. He is a man.
Her telephone rang. Pepper dropped everything and grabbed the handset-answering without checking the caller ID screen first.
“This is Pepper.”
“Virginia, it’s your mother.”
Pepper sank down to sit on the edge of her mattress and twisted a hank of hair in her free hand. “Mom? What’s wrong?”
“I was calling to see if you were okay, Ginny. Your sister and I haven’t heard from you in over a week. How are things?”
Pepper freed her hair and relaxed. “Things are great, Mom. In fact, I’ve got to go to a charity auction in about a half hour.”
“Well are you busy this weekend? We should have lunch.”
The way she said “lunch” was enough to set off Pepper’s “Suspicion Radar.” She narrowed her softly accented eyes at the closet door in front of her as if her mother was standing just eight feet away. “What’s going on, Mom?”
“Nothing! Your sister and I would just like to sit down and see you in person. I mean, we all live in the same area and the only time I really get to see my Ginny is when she’s standing over the shoulder of her boss on some news thing.”
Pepper sighed. “Fine. Whatever. I’ve got tomorrow off-we can, I dunno, spend the day out,” she cringed as soon as she said it. Bad idea, Potts.
“That sounds perfect, Ginny. I’ll swing by your house in the morning, okay?”
“-Well, Mom-”
“Love you, bye!”
Georgia Potts hung up before her daughter could say anything.
Pepper sighed, dropped her phone on the bed, and headed for the liquor cabinet in the kitchen.
TBC
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AUTHOR: Quicksilvermad
SUMMARY: (Movie-verse) Pepper deals with Tony’s newfound lease on life and ends up making a mountain out of her molehill of emotion where her boss is concerned.
GENRE: Humor/Romance
RATING: PG13
PAIRING: Tony/Pepper
DISCLAIMER: Iron Man etc. belong to Marvel Comics et. al.
Chapter Twenty-Three:
Pepper stared at herself in her full length mirror-standing in the nude with a bottle of cover-up in one hand and a make-up sponge in the other.
She felt like she looked completely different.
There was a semi-circular bruise on her breastbone, her lower lip was still swollen from biting it hard enough to break the skin, and she had beard “hickeys” all over her. The embarrassing fact of it all was she was loath to cover any of these marks with make-up.
The clock reflected in the mirror noted that she had been standing in front of the framed glass for about twenty minutes. Her skin had long dried from her second shower and her hair hung in natural waves. The green dress was laid out on her bed.
Pepper sighed and gave up-dabbing cover-up on the telling bruise between her breasts. It took a while to hide the evidence of a well-spent afternoon. It seemed as though every blemish she covered up revealed two more.
With an irritated huff, Pepper threw her make-up onto her dresser and just gave up.
As she dressed herself she considered what to make of her current situation. She just did the one thing she had promised herself never to do when she first got the job as Mr. Stark’s personal assistant. She slept with him. Worse…
She was in love with him.
And if Pepper Potts was honest with herself, she had been in love with him for quite some time.
Ever since he first smiled at her in a way he saved just for her. Their morning banter-fests at his house, the afternoon teasing in the office, and the evening baiting had escalated once he did that.
Pepper wasn’t sure what changed his mind about her in the first place, but she did remember when it happened. It was four years ago on Saint Patrick’s day-she had come into his workshop wearing a green blouse beneath her signature black suit and she had her grandmother’s antique silver four-leafed clover pinned to her blazer.
He hadn’t been wearing any green-in fact, Tony was working on mixing the paint for the Shelby Cobra he’d just finished remodeling and was covered in blue. He even had a smudge of grey primer on his cheek.
Because he wasn’t wearing any green, Pepper immediately pinched his side before launching into the daily schedule.
Then Tony smiled. Really smiled. “Is it the seventeenth already?” he had asked.
Pepper remembered burying her embarrassment quite professionally and nodding. “Indeed it is, Mr. Stark.”
Pepper finished adjusting the scoop neck of the dress and stared at the complete picture she made with the high heels and satin-smooth fabric that made her look even paler than usual.
Green again, she wondered.
There was something poetic about the idea, but as Pepper applied a darker than usual shade of red to her lips (to hide the bruise that was her own fault) she wondered if Tony would see the connection.
Probably not. He is a man.
Her telephone rang. Pepper dropped everything and grabbed the handset-answering without checking the caller ID screen first.
“This is Pepper.”
“Virginia, it’s your mother.”
Pepper sank down to sit on the edge of her mattress and twisted a hank of hair in her free hand. “Mom? What’s wrong?”
“I was calling to see if you were okay, Ginny. Your sister and I haven’t heard from you in over a week. How are things?”
Pepper freed her hair and relaxed. “Things are great, Mom. In fact, I’ve got to go to a charity auction in about a half hour.”
“Well are you busy this weekend? We should have lunch.”
The way she said “lunch” was enough to set off Pepper’s “Suspicion Radar.” She narrowed her softly accented eyes at the closet door in front of her as if her mother was standing just eight feet away. “What’s going on, Mom?”
“Nothing! Your sister and I would just like to sit down and see you in person. I mean, we all live in the same area and the only time I really get to see my Ginny is when she’s standing over the shoulder of her boss on some news thing.”
Pepper sighed. “Fine. Whatever. I’ve got tomorrow off-we can, I dunno, spend the day out,” she cringed as soon as she said it. Bad idea, Potts.
“That sounds perfect, Ginny. I’ll swing by your house in the morning, okay?”
“-Well, Mom-”
“Love you, bye!”
Georgia Potts hung up before her daughter could say anything.
Pepper sighed, dropped her phone on the bed, and headed for the liquor cabinet in the kitchen.
TBC
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