I decided to start a collection of Tony/Peper viggies. I won't be updating often since I never write. But I had a couple of ideas. Here's the first one. I want to thank the lovely
zionangel for beta'ing this and helping me with an ending.
Title: The 10
Author: Lady_S
Pairing: Tony/Pepper
Rating: PG
It was nearing 4 o’clock in the afternoon when Pepper got the e-mail. She was sitting in Tony Stark’s living room, finishing up an expense report when the new e-mail indicator dinged in her window. Her eyes widened as she read it.
Pepper quickly jumped off the couch, grabbed her notebook and phone, and raced down the stairs as fast as her heels would take her. As she reached the workshop where Tony tinkered away, she brushed the bangs out of her eyes and tried to look a little more dignified as opposed to the panic she felt inside.
Rather than getting annoyed as Pepper yet again turned down his music upon her entrance, Tony asked, “Yes, Ms. Potts?” He didn’t look up from his work table as he sketched new ideas down.
“Tony I just received an e-mail from Ms. Yamashita, the new clients’ representative. They moved up the meeting.” She spoke clearly, but with a crisp bite that meant he ought to listen.
He finally looked up at her and leaned back in his chair, giving her his undivided attention. “How can they move it up when it’s you that makes the appointment? I mean, I’m not one to point fingers or anything, but isn’t that what I pay you for? To make the appointments?”
Pepper just rolled her eyes and tried again. “Tony, they’re at the office now. Waiting for you.”
“Now?” He stood and ran a hand through his hair. “What happened to tomorrow? I’m not gonna just go running around whenever they snap their fingers.”
“That’s exactly what you’re going to do,” she interrupted him. “We need this contract, Tony.” She crossed the room as she spoke and found a nicer looking shirt and leather jacket on the back of the couch. “Put these on quickly. If you leave now, you might get there in…” she checked her watch. “JARVIS, what’s the traffic like on the PCH and the 10?”
“The Pacific Coast Highway is moderate, but I’m afraid that Interstate 10 is very congested. My calculations would estimate that it will take you 47 minutes to arrive at Stark Industries,” the AI replied.
With a sharp intake of breath, Pepper put her hand to her forehead. “That’s too long. I know these clients. They’re very impatient.”
As Tony shrugged into his jacket he gave her a smirk. “Well, I supposed there’s only one solution.”
Pepper looked at him, her eyebrows raised, clearly waiting for the answer.
“The Ducati,” he said, walking over to his fastest and finest motorcycle and wheeling it out.
“No. You know I need to be at that meeting, too. I’ll just call Ms. Yamashita and explain what’s going on.”
“Pep, this one seats two. Come on. You know it’s the only way we’ll get there in decent time,” he said, grabbing two helmets.
“What?! No, no way. You know I don’t like those.” Panic was finally breaking through across her face.
Tony walked up to her and put a helmet in her hands while placing the other over her head. “Trust me.” He had a glint in his eye that made her breath catch. And then he was gone, putting on his own helmet and getting on the bike.
He lifted his visor. “You wanna wait?”
She rolled her eyes…again, and grabbed a backpack from a corner of the room. In it, she stuffed her blackberry and notebook, and threw it on. She walked up to the bike and then it hit her. She looked down.
Bad day to wear a pencil skirt, she thought.
She looked up at him with her hands up in a not-knowing gesture.
“I won’t look. Come on, Pep!” He started the bike and the room was filled with the loud rumble from the exhaust.
She took an annoyed breath and hitched up her skirt to straddle the bike behind him. He looked around at her and the only thing she could make out through the open window of his helmet was a flirtatiously quirked eyebrow.
“Tony!” she yelled as she hit him on the shoulder.
“You might want to hold on,” he replied.
Pepper placed her hands lightly around his waist. He chuckled, closed his visor, and revved the bike. As the bike lurched forward, she yelped and wrapped her arms tighter around him. Tony couldn’t suppress the smile that spread across his face. He was just glad she couldn’t see him.
Pepper screamed the entire 15 minutes they spent weaving through the congested traffic on the 10.
When they arrived, Tony was beside himself laughing. Pepper unwrapped her arms from him, dismounted, and threw her helmet in his arms. “Never again!” Pepper yelled.
“Oh, please. You liked it,” Tony replied.
She glared at him and straightened her hair as best as she could. “Needless to say, I will be calling Happy to take me back once this is done.”
They quickly walked into the building and into the conference room used for higher up clients. The two men and Ms. Yamashita stood to shake their hands.
“Thank you for meeting us on such short notice,” Ms. Yamashita said.
Pepper waved it off. “Oh it was no problem at all.”
“We took the Ducati,” Tony explained. “Nothing like that much horsepower between your legs, right Pep?”
He looked at her and her eyes widened in embarrassment.