The Forgotten
"The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time." Friedrich Nietzsche
Title: The Forgotten
Rating: PG-13 for now, may increase with future chapters
Pairing: Tony Stark/Pepper Potts, TS/PP
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to characters... or anything, really.
Set in the movieverse, after the first movie. This is unbetaed, so bear with me, I haven't written in a long time.
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Chapter 1: Breathless
Pepper Potts was not breathing.
Not because she didn’t want to. Not because she was incapable of it. She was not breathing because she know that if she took that desperately-needed gasp of air, it would be her last. And Pepper Potts was not ready to take her last breath.
She should have anticipated the danger. She should have known this was a possibility. Foresight was one of the many responsibilities in Mr. Stark’s employ, and her planning skills were legendary. It hadn’t always been that way, but what Pepper lacked in natural ability, she more than made up for in sheer determination. She had spent years cultivating that particular attribute, to plan for everything that her employer was too careless and too reckless and too wrapped up in his own ingenuity to see coming, and here she was, a failure at something she thought she had gotten so good at -
Slow footsteps descending the staircase interrupted her reverie.
“Peeeeeeeh-pperrrrrr.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself not to hear the voice as it echoed through Mr. Stark’s basement. This could not be happening. This was not happening. Any minute Iron Man would come crashing in and save her, and she would berate him for taking so long, and he would just laugh, maybe suggestively comment that she wouldn’t want a minute man anyway -
“Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
A tear slid down her cheek, and her chest burned for another breath. Just one little breath. Give up, give in. That was all it would take.
Laughter rang out as the footsteps paused at the bottom of the staircase. “Alright, let’s play it your way. Keep hiding.”
Pepper swallowed the lump in her throat. Keep hiding. She could do that. And he could take whatever he needed from Mr. Stark’s workshop, and then he would go. She just had to keep still, keep waiting, keep holding her breath. Tony Stark gave her far more difficult orders every day. And he was coming, and he would fix this, and until then she would keep hiding.
“I love playing games.”
Pepper’s eyes snapped back open. He wasn’t going to just grab and go. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as the footsteps began again, each one louder and closer than the last. She remained frozen, crouched tightly inside the cabinet with the door ajar. She didn’t dare close it now.
“But you know what I love even more than playing?”
The footsteps passed the cabinet, then stopped. The seconds stretched on inexorably in the silence. Pepper strained to hear anything over her own heartbeat ringing in her ears. She tried to peer through the crack in the door, but she could almost make out the familiar form -
The sliver of light on Pepper’s face widened as the cabinet door swung open.
“Winning.”
Pepper Potts took her long-await breath, and screamed.
Title: The Forgotten
Rating: PG-13 for now, may increase with future chapters
Pairing: Tony Stark/Pepper Potts, TS/PP
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to characters... or anything, really.
Set in the movieverse, after the first movie. This is unbetaed, so bear with me, I haven't written in a long time.
-----
Chapter 1: Breathless
Pepper Potts was not breathing.
Not because she didn’t want to. Not because she was incapable of it. She was not breathing because she know that if she took that desperately-needed gasp of air, it would be her last. And Pepper Potts was not ready to take her last breath.
She should have anticipated the danger. She should have known this was a possibility. Foresight was one of the many responsibilities in Mr. Stark’s employ, and her planning skills were legendary. It hadn’t always been that way, but what Pepper lacked in natural ability, she more than made up for in sheer determination. She had spent years cultivating that particular attribute, to plan for everything that her employer was too careless and too reckless and too wrapped up in his own ingenuity to see coming, and here she was, a failure at something she thought she had gotten so good at -
Slow footsteps descending the staircase interrupted her reverie.
“Peeeeeeeh-pperrrrrr.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself not to hear the voice as it echoed through Mr. Stark’s basement. This could not be happening. This was not happening. Any minute Iron Man would come crashing in and save her, and she would berate him for taking so long, and he would just laugh, maybe suggestively comment that she wouldn’t want a minute man anyway -
“Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
A tear slid down her cheek, and her chest burned for another breath. Just one little breath. Give up, give in. That was all it would take.
Laughter rang out as the footsteps paused at the bottom of the staircase. “Alright, let’s play it your way. Keep hiding.”
Pepper swallowed the lump in her throat. Keep hiding. She could do that. And he could take whatever he needed from Mr. Stark’s workshop, and then he would go. She just had to keep still, keep waiting, keep holding her breath. Tony Stark gave her far more difficult orders every day. And he was coming, and he would fix this, and until then she would keep hiding.
“I love playing games.”
Pepper’s eyes snapped back open. He wasn’t going to just grab and go. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as the footsteps began again, each one louder and closer than the last. She remained frozen, crouched tightly inside the cabinet with the door ajar. She didn’t dare close it now.
“But you know what I love even more than playing?”
The footsteps passed the cabinet, then stopped. The seconds stretched on inexorably in the silence. Pepper strained to hear anything over her own heartbeat ringing in her ears. She tried to peer through the crack in the door, but she could almost make out the familiar form -
The sliver of light on Pepper’s face widened as the cabinet door swung open.
“Winning.”
Pepper Potts took her long-await breath, and screamed.