FICLET: Winning This Argument; Tony/Pepper; PG-13
Title: Winning This Argument
Rating: PG-13ish for implied sex.
Pairing: Tony/Pepper
Summary: The excuse is wearing thin.
Notes/Warnings: As always, can't thank thewlisian_afer enough for the assistance. Set after Iron Man 2. 500 words. My first attempt at Tony POV, so feedback is especially encouraged.
Pepper is, without a doubt, even more of a committment-phobe than Tony.
She can say things like, "You've sabotaged every relationship I might've had in the past ten years," or, "I think one long-term relationship is all I can handle," but it's always been her choice. He was just the excuse.
And the excuse is wearing thin.
Case in point.
He spoons up behind her in the sort of post-coital haze where the only thing in the world is the sound of heavy breathing and the smell of sweat and ozone and the faint blue glow of his RT.
His hand starts to explore the skin just below her belly button, and then he examines her hip bones, and sure enough she makes that nnnnn sound in the back of her throat, the sound that's somewhere between a moan and a purr and is totally unique to Pepper and is the single sexiest thing he's ever heard.
Part of his mind is gauging the speed and pitch frequency of the nnnn sound (and filing away particular touches, or sensitive places that get the best reactions), another part is occupied with the smell of her hair, yet another part is meticulously making some calculations for an upgrade to the "football" prototype, and still another is having a brilliant idea.
"Why don't you move in with me, Pep?"
"What?"
"Whereby a person packs up all their worldly possessions and transfers them to -"
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"It's a great idea. Besides, you practically live here, anyway." Even before she was sleeping with him, when she was his PA, she'd claimed one of the guest rooms and he knew she kept clothes in the closet. Hell, she'd done a lot of the decorating when he redid the house after the combined destruction of the birthday party from hell and the installation of the particle accelerator.
"I like my condo," she says.
"You're almost never there."
"I like knowing it's there."
"You got it paid off already?" Good way to win an argument, take control of the conversation and start steering it in another direction. Hopefully. Sometimes.
"With the 'you came back from Afghanistan alive' bonus."
"I thought you bought a car with that."
"No, that was the 'sorry Obadiah went insane and tried to kill us and you made me blow him up' bonus."
"Oh, right."
"I need somewhere to get away from you, sometimes, Tony," she says with a sigh.
"Ouch. That hurts. Right in the cockles of my shrapnel."
"I need something that's mine."
"I'm yours."
She turns her head then, with an incredibly attractive mixture of confusion and annoyance on her face, and when she sees his shit-eating grin she swats his arm, trying (and failing) not to smile. Point, Stark.
"I'll think about it," she finally says.
And that’s when Tony knows he's won, because JARVIS once calculated that 93% of the time, when she says 'I'll think about it,' she ends up giving in.
Rating: PG-13ish for implied sex.
Pairing: Tony/Pepper
Summary: The excuse is wearing thin.
Notes/Warnings: As always, can't thank thewlisian_afer enough for the assistance. Set after Iron Man 2. 500 words. My first attempt at Tony POV, so feedback is especially encouraged.
Pepper is, without a doubt, even more of a committment-phobe than Tony.
She can say things like, "You've sabotaged every relationship I might've had in the past ten years," or, "I think one long-term relationship is all I can handle," but it's always been her choice. He was just the excuse.
And the excuse is wearing thin.
Case in point.
He spoons up behind her in the sort of post-coital haze where the only thing in the world is the sound of heavy breathing and the smell of sweat and ozone and the faint blue glow of his RT.
His hand starts to explore the skin just below her belly button, and then he examines her hip bones, and sure enough she makes that nnnnn sound in the back of her throat, the sound that's somewhere between a moan and a purr and is totally unique to Pepper and is the single sexiest thing he's ever heard.
Part of his mind is gauging the speed and pitch frequency of the nnnn sound (and filing away particular touches, or sensitive places that get the best reactions), another part is occupied with the smell of her hair, yet another part is meticulously making some calculations for an upgrade to the "football" prototype, and still another is having a brilliant idea.
"Why don't you move in with me, Pep?"
"What?"
"Whereby a person packs up all their worldly possessions and transfers them to -"
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"It's a great idea. Besides, you practically live here, anyway." Even before she was sleeping with him, when she was his PA, she'd claimed one of the guest rooms and he knew she kept clothes in the closet. Hell, she'd done a lot of the decorating when he redid the house after the combined destruction of the birthday party from hell and the installation of the particle accelerator.
"I like my condo," she says.
"You're almost never there."
"I like knowing it's there."
"You got it paid off already?" Good way to win an argument, take control of the conversation and start steering it in another direction. Hopefully. Sometimes.
"With the 'you came back from Afghanistan alive' bonus."
"I thought you bought a car with that."
"No, that was the 'sorry Obadiah went insane and tried to kill us and you made me blow him up' bonus."
"Oh, right."
"I need somewhere to get away from you, sometimes, Tony," she says with a sigh.
"Ouch. That hurts. Right in the cockles of my shrapnel."
"I need something that's mine."
"I'm yours."
She turns her head then, with an incredibly attractive mixture of confusion and annoyance on her face, and when she sees his shit-eating grin she swats his arm, trying (and failing) not to smile. Point, Stark.
"I'll think about it," she finally says.
And that’s when Tony knows he's won, because JARVIS once calculated that 93% of the time, when she says 'I'll think about it,' she ends up giving in.