3561/Making it work

Making it work
Date of Scene:	25 September 2020
Location:	Stark Tower: Penthouse
Synopsis:	Tony and Pepper sort out more of their FEELS.
Cast of Characters:	Tony Stark, Pepper Potts

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Tony Stark has posed:
Upon return from Wakanda, Tony was just exhausted. The travel was short, but moving everything back across to the tower while still certainly feeling the drag and recent surgery was a lot. Assistants had rushed to help, collecting their boss, all of his stuff, all of that back to the tower upon return home.

Tony, with his usual bravado in front of everyone about his 'great vacation' didn't maintain that long after returning to the penthouse itself. "Welcome back, sir," HOMER had said. He had welcomed Pepper too, when she followed up shortly after - but Pepper found Tony sacked out on his bed, still partially in clothes, though he got his shoes off. He held it together long enough, like always, to show no weakness, but it had used the last bit he'd had.

--

Hours later, Tony has surfaced; sounds of him cleaning up in the bathroom, relieved to be among his own things and comforts of his tower.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Jet lag is the worst, truly. Though the visit was amazing, the flight holding nothing to complain about, there is something about being home, or at least in completely familiar surroundings. Staff helping with things certainly does make all the difference, and being greeted by HOMER upon arrival?

Even being away for such a short time, she'd missed that.

While Tony slept, then, Pepper remained out on the couch in the sunken living area, her feet tucked up and under her, a laptop on the coffee table and a tablet in hand. It's given her a moment to catch up on work, the tech news, stock information.. all that which wasn't done while they were hidden away in Wakanda. In front of her? A glass of white wine, the stemware half-filled, and she's dressed casually, in bare feet.

Finally, to hear the stirrings from the other room, green eyes rise towards the direction before she sets the tablet aside, laying it next to the laptop. Her feet slide from the couch, and she gains her feet, all while keeping an eye on the portal.

Tony Stark has posed:
Sounds and movement supplies that Tony's washing his face, restoring some semblence of humanity back into place after his snooze that went on longer than expected. When he comes out into view, he's also changed his clothes, out of the rumpled array he traveled in, and into his more comfy set of wear that is both worn around the penthouse, but also during various invention-sprees of designwork. He's probably removed all his bandages - but they weren't 'required' anyway. So of course he did.

He's surprised to see her at first; he wasn't sure that she'd be there, evidently. "Hi, Pep," Tony asks, brightening clearly. He crosses towards her, one hand coming up under her forearm to see her elbow, and also leaning in with an expectation of a light kiss on her cheek. It's comfy, it's easy, and lacks any type of overthinking. "I keep you waiting?" he asks, bemused.

Pepper Potts has posed:
To see him emerge brings a lightening and brightening of expression to her face, and there's a ghost of a smile in greeting. It's a quick but appraising look that is given to fully remind herself that he is, indeed, fine. Everything went well, the bandages are off, and if there's a little stiffness, it'll disappear as he moves more. So this is good for him.

It's the fact that he's evidently suprised by her presence that gives her a little tilt to her head, though the smile grows again when greeted. The kiss on the cheek, the familiar touch on the arm just feels right. Unforced. Natural. She leans in, her kiss in return whisper light. "No," and she shakes her head, red hair moving a little in the motion, "just catching up on some work." A gesture is given towards her 'work area', as it were, before she turns to sit down again, one leg tucking up and under her.

From her seated, Pepper looks up, "Get a good sleep?" She didn't hear much stirring at all.

Tony Stark has posed:
"I don't remember any of it, so I must have: here I am, hours later," Tony laughs some. He then reacts a little belatedly to her comment about the work, with a poo-poo wrinkle of nose, but comes over anyway, after only a bit of thoughtful hesitation.

"I'm not in the mood to get back to work yet. I'm healing. How are you not fiercely jetlagged, anyway?" Tony asks her, with some suspicion. "If you are a pod person that replaced Pepper on return, I should be told about it, as a priority on new information," Tony requests. He sits next to her and looks at her 'work area', though his chin lingers near her shoulder, eyes upturned aside at her face. His gaze is tinted with recent sleep, but warm: amiable, a good mood. He's neither high or low, just in the middle, just himself.

Pepper Potts has posed:
No bad dreams, then! Something that had concerned her, to be honest, and the news that he hadn't remembered any of his sleep gains something of a relieved exhale, her shoulders losing a little of that tenseness.

"Well," Pepper picks up that other bit, her smile turning to a light, easy smirk, "someone has to. I'll just resist the urge to hand you things to sign until.. next week?" When the schedule will probably start filling up again. "And.." Pepper actually laughs, and points to the half-gone wine in her glass, "this helps." Her voice lowers, "I'm actually exhausted," is admitted. "So, really me," is followed up.

Pepper watches him for a long moment before, "I am going to turn in soon. I just wanted to be sure you got sleep first."

Tony Stark has posed:
"You know," Tony sighs, "You don't have to stay up while I'm asleep, like you're keeping watch or vigil. HOMER can do it. Right HOMER?" Tony asks the ceiling.

"Yes, sir."

Tony gestures vaguely upwards. "Ah, the sweet sounds of home, dulcet tones of the AI," Tony laughs. But he centers his gaze on her. "But we can sleep together, now," Tony clarifies. He lets that sit. "In the multiple meanings of that, however you're interested in taking it." Cheeky, tired, but still the same sort of Tony. With a little bit 'extra' of this vibrancy that's come up: almost as a show of how healthy he is, that the surgery and problems didn't best him.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"I had to get a few things done. Remember?" Pepper gestures to the laptop and tablet again, though she's keeping it light. Leaning to pick up her wine, she sits back in her seat, green eyes on the amazingly handsome man sitting beside her, so close to her that she can feel his warmth. "Until you tell him not to." After all, HOMER can be turned off. JARVIS, on the other hand, will simply stop commenting but his scanning never truly ceases.

The thought of sleeping together, though.. in any way brings something of a pink to natural cheeks, and brows rise before she leans forward to set her wine down, unsipped for the moment. "You know," and she begins softly, "We need to talk," which sounds suspiciously like 'I need to talk to you'. "Only because that sounds like a wonderful idea.. but I need you to understand something."

Tony Stark has posed:
Tony's brows lift immediately at the statement that they need to talk. He doesn't go into a defensive mode, though; he's not aware of something he did to be in /trouble/ for, and usually is quite willing to agree when he did do something that wasn't great. He's just about impossible to shame, anyway.

"Do I also need a drink for this talk?" Tony asks, a little playful, but not dismissive of her request. He reaches out to take HER wine when she puts it down, eyes entirely on her, while he sips it while she watches him do it. Entirely on purpose.

"Okay. I'm exceptionally good at understanding things. Try me."

Pepper Potts has posed:
The fact that Tony is so open and willing to talk, as opposed to pacing and avoiding things at hand is a promising start as far as Pepper is concerned. She turns a little to face him, her leg still tucked and under her, and with a quick tuck of her hair behind her ears, lays her hands into her lap. There's a quick laugh that exits the woman as her wine is stolen, but that's okay. She relinquishes it easily; all fair, after all, after all those times she's made his glass disappear.

"You know I'm not only here when you're not feeling well, right?" There's a pause before she exhales, and shakes her head, and tries to reform that, rewording it. "I don't want things to go back to the way they were.. now that you're feeling better."

Tony Stark has posed:
Tony had the glass up, covering his mouth some with it, but his expression is still readable if her gaze is steady on him. "Yes," Tony says, his tone a little bit prompting, as if he needed more information than just that. He isn't anxious yet by any means, though there's a lot of potential for something to get awkward, for sure.

"The way they were? Before...?" Tony gives a loose gesture of fingers still holding her wine glass. The gesture goes between them, and indicates whatever is going on between them in just that tiny motion.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper cants her head, her green eyes ready to do the long-suffering roll-back as the silent prompt might hit. Just in case? "Las Vegas," she begins, and she doesn't even have to count them on her fingers. It'd be way too many to even begin to try. As she begins to start to list them, though, her words get softer once more, wrapped in the memories, "The Expos, the parade of super models, the women that I end up escorting out in the morning," because he won't face them. He never did have time.

She shakes her head to dispell the webs there, the 'other duties as assigned' portion of her Personal Assistant'ing. "You told me that I deserve the best of you." Pepper's eyes meet his, even with her captured wine glass between them, "I was wrong. It's not just the best, but you. I really don't have anyone but you, and I'm not interested in anyone but you. And I'll be honest?" As if she's not? "I don't think I'd be able to start escorting one-night stands out the door anymore."

There's a moment where Pepper sits motionless, the span of only a couple of heartbeats, but her expression turns.. wry. Self-deprecating, "I'm sorry.. that just sounded a whole lot more desperate than it should." She shakes her head, brings her left hand up to waves off the thought. //Way to go, Pep!//

Tony Stark has posed:
Tony calculates a little, watching her struggle, with a bit of discomfort - empathy? - on his end, when he puts the drink down.

"...You're asking for exclusivity," Tony translates, in his quick way. It's the same tone used when an inventor comes to him with a very longwinded sales pitch about how the new network tool will do all sorts of fantastic things, only to get a 'so it's a fancy server?' from Tony. It's analytic, critical, very engineer-brained. Tony, the puzzlesolver found the answer!

Which... is sort of an awkward answer, isn't it. Tony starts to shift into his chatterboxy mode. "Yeah. Sure, I mean. I don't really want you to date other people either," Tony says, framing this to his own view quickly. The threat of her out with others!

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper is obviously almost drowning here, and there's that moment when he pares all that down into a single word. She sits up a little, her head pulling back some as she gets first that quizzical expression before she exhales as it translates to 'being Tony'. Cutting to the chase?

"Yes." There, there it is. Not quite as she expected things to work out, but exactly how and what does she expect? She expects him to be, well, him.

And that is exactly who he is.

There's that exhaled chuff of air that comes next, particularly when the 'Yeah, sure' exits him. Her head cants and she blinks before she breathes something of a relieved laugh. From self-conscious to relieved and happy, 0-60 in seconds.

It's that next bit of admission, that makes her brows rise slightly, "Me? Date other people? I think the last time I went out with anyone, that was T'Challa. You know, the King of Wakanda? I don't think that would get anywhere."

Tony Stark has posed:
Pepper opened this door... "The last person /I/ went out with was..." oh shit, names. "Julia." Was it? That's close. "HOMER?" Tony addresses the ceiling.

"Ms. Jasmine Kiley," supplies HOMER.

Tony accepts that he misremembered with ease, and a snap of fingers at the ceiling/HOMER. "I don't think that was going anywhere either." Well, other than into bed? And Tony recognizes he needs to pivot. He struggles a little bit with framing this.

"I just --- if you want to make this work," Tony says, uncomfortable, but finding his footing. The same way he made a choice to say he was Iron Man, and did it. Knowing himself, finally.

"I'm in."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper did, indeed, open the door and walked through. Why would she expect that he wouldn't do the same? Tony has no shame, and really very few secrets when it comes to, well, most anything. It's why she's been so good at her job over the years, and why she's under absolutely no illusion that he's been a saint. She's in love with him, with all his bumps, bruises, ego.. and while she's aware of his past, it's the future that she's looking to.

When Tony asks HOMER as to the identity of the last person he'd 'gone out with', he really didn't have to. At the same time, Pepper's got the name forward, "Jasmine," and she can even go on to describe her.. what she wore that evening in question. That, because, well, like usual, Pepper had escorted the confused woman out the next morning.

The emotion from that morning has long since subsided; each is different in their own ways, and with his answer, she offers up a ghost of a smile. An honest, warm one.

"No super models? Do you think you can handle that?" Now, she's not willing to share. She already has to do that with the world at large.

Tony Stark has posed:
"Since that means I get /you/, I don't think it's a problem," Tony says, without much pause. Which is, of course, wonderfully said, but Tony /keeps talking/...

"I mean, were this an arrangement where I'd swear off all women entirely and devote to a life of suffering, I don't think that'd be something I'd be interested in," Tony explains, but then pauses, and lifts a hand across to try to touch her cheek and lean in to somewhat tentatively kiss her. But he stops just a bit short.

"But I haven't missed them so far. I've got the best woman right here."

Pepper Potts has posed:
See, when Tony starts talking, the things he says are just so.. heartwarming, touching.. and her features brighten perceptibly. It's when he continues, however, when she puts a hand out,

"Tony... please.." Stop.

Her hand doesn't so much as intercept his own, and it more goes to lie upon his forearm..

And once again, the great save! Pepper actually gives a soft, breathy laugh, and shakes her head, her green eyes rolling briefly as Tony manages to extricate himself with grace and good humor.

"That was," and she nods her head appreciatively, her cheeks a touch pink with the compliment, "impressive." She's both fondly teasing and honest, all in one go. Her head cants, her cheek into his palm for the briefest of moments before,

"You.... are just..." Pepper shakes her head again before she shifts her position, legs dropping in order to move to lean against him fully. "Mine."

Tony Stark has posed:
"Okay," Tony replies, in his simple, probably sort of boyish, way. He uses the tone when he's complimented fairly often: no humility, just accepting the 'truth' of it. He also uses it when told he gets a fun thing that he wants, such as an open bar.

But he draws his other hand up and in, cupping her chin gently in his hands, looking at her steadily, and some of the bullshit is left behind. He can move liquidly from playtime to a more serious tone, though the shift is relatively rare. He's searching her face, checking to see how much he should go with this being a light game, or ...

It's possible to crack into part of Tony that /can/ be injured, that can be hit, and there's some of it exposed now, with a slight move of dark brows downwards, brown eyes seeking out something in her expression. He's showing his uncertainty, about deeper feelings and how to handle them. But he's letting her see that they are, in fact, there.

Pepper Potts has posed:
To Pepper? This isn't a game. It hasn't been one for some time. She may have kept things seemingly at arms length, hiding her feelings behind that facade of 'Yes, Mr. Stark'.. only catching the momentary glance on the off chance she's caught his eye for one reason or another.

But here and now? With her own, real feelings out there, laid bare as it were, it's.. real.

"I'm serious," and her voice is low, green eyes looking into his brown even as he holds her head just so. She can see him, someone that had only hinted that sort of depth of feeling, of vulnerability of heart. She's shown over and over that her first thought is of him.. regardless of what sort of danger might be before her. Even as the Tower threatened to fall in places, there was nothing that could keep her from him.

"I can't imagine my life without you," is whispered. "You're.. everything."

Tony Stark has posed:
Tony releases a slow breath, quietly at first. "I didn't see you for ... a long time." Not like THAT anyway. Years? Years. And maybe he wasn't ready to see anyway. Some other things and pieces of his life had to come together to where he'd be good enough for her /and/ to see her properly. He relied on her for so much, but it was pretty blindly.

"But now it's just... good. The us. Right?" Right.

"So just ...." He cracks a bit of a grin, "Help me to not mess this up, okay?" Tony asks of her, as if he were asking her to be sure to prep him before going on stage. Help him look good.

Tony moves his thumb, feather light, along her lip, but then releases her face to instead embrace her.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"I know."

It's a statement of fact. Pepper's not sad, upset, angry or.. anything. It was and is her responsibility to make him look as good as possible to as many people, all while spinning the PR when the inevitable gaffes happen. Or, barring that, to hire people who can do just that.

"You were a little preoccupied," is returned softly. And maybe she blended in with the rest of his 'things'.

There's that smile again, though,, as it rises, her expression brightening, bringing something of a glow to her face. "This is good, yes." That is followed easily with, "I.. will do my best." It ends with a soft, affectionate laugh as she finally finds that moment to breathe.

It's in the embrace, when she's held that she first buries her face in his neck, finding that spot to tuck in before she tilts her head back and whispers, "Still recovering?" There's a touch of .. something in those eyes, and her ghosted smile rises in echo.

Tony Stark has posed:
Tony tilts his head a little to look at her, as she draws in to nestle close, tuck herself in against him. Can she hear his heart beating from there? Probably not easily through the bandages still on his chest, but maybe through the pulse in his neck. It picked up a little when she cuddled in - just a newer thing. Something evolving. A good scary.

"Recovering? I wouldn't say /that/, no," Tony answers overly /casually/ as she inquires about his recovery level. "If something does go wrong, I want it to be you that gives me mouth to mouth, though."

Cheeky, Tony lifts his hand to tweak her ponytail, and then adjust to kiss her strongly. With some mixed relief, hope... and growing interest.

Pepper Potts has posed:
It's .. a new sort of scary. Before? It was a new way of looking at things, at new approaches and setting what once was on it's ear.

But now?

Pepper's leaning in, and she can feel his warmth, feel his breath as its drawn in and slowly escapes, and it easily brings her own heart to thumping. His words reverberate in his chest, and he's...

Pepper laughs again, but not because it's a ha-ha funny observation, but more a 'oh god, so cute.. and how does he make something like that sound sexy?'.. "I promise, it'll be me." There's the pause before, "But please.. if anything could go--"

If there is anything left to be said in that brief protest, it's gone in the kiss. The depth, the swell of emotion and feeling is demonstrated by her wrapping her arms around his neck as he leans in. It's returned, echoing the passion, if not perhaps signalling her own rising .. interest in drawing this further. The important (to her) conversation's been had, and fears have been allayed, put to rest in the face of honest feelings and a shared trust.