Theme 6- Green
Title: Risk
Author: ZionAngel
Theme: 6 - Green
Rating: PG-13
Length: 1817 words
Summary: Pepper takes a risk at Agent Coulson’s promotion party
Recap: Tony and Pepper have been invited to a party to celebrate Agent Coulson’s promotion. Recently, at a special lunch to celebrate Pepper’s employment anniversary, she failed to follow through on a plan to kiss Tony on the cheek, but later decided it was the safest (if rather disappointing) move.
Pepper is talking with Agent Coulson. Well, Phil, actually, though she’s having a hard time getting used to calling him that. She hasn’t been able to get it right on the first try since he gave her permission to call him that twenty minutes ago. They both laugh a little each time she fails.
It’s odd to talk to him this way, too, not about business or security or what trouble Tony’s been getting into, but about little things, their likes and dislikes, their histories. But it’s nice. It’s been too long since she’s had an easy-going, casual conversation with a friend, instead of some colleague or businessman or the man she secretly loves. The little bit of perpetual tension has fallen from her body just from talking to Agent - to Phil.
A few of his colleagues wander over after a while, offering up more congratulations for his promotion, laughing and smiling, and they pull his attention away from her for a few moments. While he’s occupied thanking them, telling them how excited he is, Pepper looks around the small but crowded hotel ballroom, searching the smiling faces at the bar, sitting around the scattered tables, and a few twirling around the dance floor. Soon she finds Tony, talking with a few people at the far end of the room. The conversation doesn’t seem to have his full attention, and he seems far more interested in the contents of his glass.
She frowns, feeling a slight flare of tension run through her shoulders. Tony doesn’t seem to be doing what he had promised - smoothing things over with the SHIELD agents, laying on his charm and doing everything he can possibly think of to make the people he meets here like him, and hopefully forgive the trouble he caused them by announcing his identity. But before she can decide on a course of action, choose whether to go and tell him to put on a smile or ignore it and hope he shapes up on his own, he turns her way, eyes finding her instantly, as though he already knew where to find her. He looks… something. Upset, disdainful, mad maybe… it isn’t good, it isn’t happy. But he looks away too quickly, and he’s too far away for her to get a good enough look.
Her brow furrows slightly as she stares at him. The obvious answer is that he’s bored. But there are a lot of fun, interesting people here; she happens to have met two of the people Tony is talking to, and he should like them. And there had been something else in his eyes, or at least she thought there was, something like… jealousy, or longing maybe? Or is she just imagining it… she must be imagining it.
She tries to put it out of her mind, hope that seeing her reminded him of what he’s supposed to be doing, and gives him a chance to plaster on a smile without being told. She tries to fall back into the rhythm of the conversation, to just enjoy the company of Phil and the others. Until, not two minutes later, he appears at her side and, announcing that he needs to “borrow her” pulls her away and toward the dance floor.
This seems to have become their custom at parties, Tony pulling her into a half-willing dance. She’s afraid to let herself enjoy it too much.
“So, how are things going?” She asks, trying to diffuse some of the tension that emerges when his hand finds her waist and they start a little sway.
He avoids her eyes, and the question. “You seem to be having fun with Agent Coulson over there.”
She wonders if that faint undercurrent in his voice is spite - but she doesn’t quite trust her judgment of his emotions tonight. “Well, Phil is a very entertaining person when he’s not on duty.”
“‘Phil’?” He raises an eyebrow, and finally looks at her. “That’s awfully unprofessional for you.”
She eyes him carefully, wondering what she’ll have to do to get him out of this childishly angry mood. But she keeps her tone light. “There’s nothing the least bit inappropriate about being on a first name basis with an associate, especially an unofficial one.”
Tony huffs a little and drops the subject, though he’s clearly still unhappy. Studying him closely, she can’t help but wonder if maybe she was right earlier, if what she saw in his features really was jealousy. She becomes even more suspicious of this when she remembers that, even when he’s bored and wants to leave a meeting or party or some other obligation, he usually behaves a bit better than this. No, this is different, all of it - his tone, his expression, his body language and behavior. All of this, under the circumstances, seems almost… possessive. Which, if she’s right (and that’s a big ‘if,’ she reminds herself a bit sadly), is strange and unusual and maybe even a bit scary, but almost thrilling, in a way.
But there’s still a little voice, nagging at the back of her mind that he still has a job to do, ties to mend. And she knows that the best way to get him to do that isn’t to force a smile onto his face, but to genuinely cheer him up as much as possible.
She steps just a bit closer, squeezes his hand a little tighter, and dances just a little quicker as she pulls him toward the center of the floor. She smiles genuinely as they move together, and slowly, whatever was bothering him falls away and he begins to just enjoy the dance.
The next song to play isn’t nearly as dance-friendly as the last, and she reluctantly steps away from him. Luckily, though, his mood had improved considerably. “I think I’m going to go get a drink,” she says, spying the bar. “Do you want to come with me?”
“Sure.”
She orders a glass of red wine, and he takes what she hopes is only his second scotch. Together, they stand at the bar, sipping their drinks for a few moments.
“I thought it was a martini - vodka, wasn’t it?”
She stares at him, trying to hide her surprise that he remembered, and her curiosity about why he’s asking. “Oh, yeah… but I’m not in the mood for something so strong tonight.”
He doesn’t ask why, and they sip quietly for a few moments, watching everyone else. Soon, she catches him giving her a once-over out of the corner of his eye before turning back, nonchalantly, to the crowd. “That’s a really nice dress.”
She feels her heart flutter just slightly, and glances down at the flowy, forest green, knee-length dress with the beaded details she’s wearing. “Thank you.” She nearly lets the words ‘I hoped you would like it,’ slip from her lips, but she catches them before they can fall.
“Knew this girl once… duchess or something in Europe.” He takes another sip before he continues his musing. “Had a dress almost exactly like that, ‘cept it had actual emeralds and diamonds on it. Probably cost more than my Lamborghini.”
“Could she spell ‘Lamborghini’?”
His lip quirks up. “Good point.”
“The women you go after are morons. All that bleach in their hair kills a few too many brain cells,” she adds, feeling just a bit petty for tearing down the competition like this. But a bit good, too.
“Yeah,” he sighs. “Know any smart, hot girls on the market? Preferably who sport their natural hair color?”
Her heart jumps again, and she stares at him. But he’s swirling the liquid in his glass, looking completely relaxed, no eyebrow raised suggestively, no lip turned up in a smirk. Pepper fights down a blush, and turns away. “I’ll keep my eyes peeled,” she says softly.
A small group of agents makes their way over to the bar then, smiling at Pepper and greeting her warmly. Their greeting to Tony is stiff and cold by comparison, but he still sticks out his hand and smiles and does what he’s supposed to do. Pepper lets herself fade into the background of the conversation, nursing her glass of wine slowly. She isn’t sure whether she’s grateful or disappointed that Tony’s attention has been drawn away from her.
A little while later, after Phil has come by to say hello again, she begins to feel a little tired, and decides it’s time to call it a night. She says her goodbyes to nearest guests, smiling and promising to stay in touch. Tony insists on walking her out to the elevator.
“You going home too?” she asks as she hits the call button.
“No. I think I’ll stick around for a while longer.”
She blinks, staring just a little. “Really?”
He laughs at her expression and nods. “Yeah. Still a lot of people I haven’t talked to. And I’ve still seen a few people giving me dirty looks. Figure I should at least see what I can do before the party’s over.”
She’s surprised - very surprised, in fact - that he’s staying of his own free will, but also proud, and glad that he’s finally starting to take some responsibility. She gives him a full, genuine smile, and he returns it.
It’s a very intimate moment between them, standing so close in the empty hallway with faint music drifting out from the closed ballroom doors. He seems almost flustered, and she knows she feels a bit nervous, too. The moment makes her want to kiss him, to lean in and give just a gentle peck on the cheek to say goodbye. She thinks back to last week, how she had wanted to do just that but let fear get the better of her in the end. The thought of doing that or anything else scares her even more now. But deep in the back of her mind, she knows that if she ever wants to have anything with Tony, if she ever wants to know if he has feelings for her, she’s going to have to face that fear, and risk humiliation and heartbreak. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The risk that he feels nothing for her is still very real and ever-present in her mind, but… maybe. Maybe she’s wrong. And she’ll likely never know if she can’t find the courage to do more than spend her life waiting for him to make the first move.
The elevator arrives at their floor with a chipper ping, and she steps inside.
“Goodnight, Pepper,” he smiles when she turns around again.
She swallows, and acts before she can think or worry. “Tony? L-A-M-B-O-R-G-H-I-N-I.” The doors slide shut slowly, and she smiles one last time. “Goodnight.”
On the way down, she’s sure her heart will explode in her chest, but she’s so glad that she did it.
Author: ZionAngel
Theme: 6 - Green
Rating: PG-13
Length: 1817 words
Summary: Pepper takes a risk at Agent Coulson’s promotion party
Recap: Tony and Pepper have been invited to a party to celebrate Agent Coulson’s promotion. Recently, at a special lunch to celebrate Pepper’s employment anniversary, she failed to follow through on a plan to kiss Tony on the cheek, but later decided it was the safest (if rather disappointing) move.
Pepper is talking with Agent Coulson. Well, Phil, actually, though she’s having a hard time getting used to calling him that. She hasn’t been able to get it right on the first try since he gave her permission to call him that twenty minutes ago. They both laugh a little each time she fails.
It’s odd to talk to him this way, too, not about business or security or what trouble Tony’s been getting into, but about little things, their likes and dislikes, their histories. But it’s nice. It’s been too long since she’s had an easy-going, casual conversation with a friend, instead of some colleague or businessman or the man she secretly loves. The little bit of perpetual tension has fallen from her body just from talking to Agent - to Phil.
A few of his colleagues wander over after a while, offering up more congratulations for his promotion, laughing and smiling, and they pull his attention away from her for a few moments. While he’s occupied thanking them, telling them how excited he is, Pepper looks around the small but crowded hotel ballroom, searching the smiling faces at the bar, sitting around the scattered tables, and a few twirling around the dance floor. Soon she finds Tony, talking with a few people at the far end of the room. The conversation doesn’t seem to have his full attention, and he seems far more interested in the contents of his glass.
She frowns, feeling a slight flare of tension run through her shoulders. Tony doesn’t seem to be doing what he had promised - smoothing things over with the SHIELD agents, laying on his charm and doing everything he can possibly think of to make the people he meets here like him, and hopefully forgive the trouble he caused them by announcing his identity. But before she can decide on a course of action, choose whether to go and tell him to put on a smile or ignore it and hope he shapes up on his own, he turns her way, eyes finding her instantly, as though he already knew where to find her. He looks… something. Upset, disdainful, mad maybe… it isn’t good, it isn’t happy. But he looks away too quickly, and he’s too far away for her to get a good enough look.
Her brow furrows slightly as she stares at him. The obvious answer is that he’s bored. But there are a lot of fun, interesting people here; she happens to have met two of the people Tony is talking to, and he should like them. And there had been something else in his eyes, or at least she thought there was, something like… jealousy, or longing maybe? Or is she just imagining it… she must be imagining it.
She tries to put it out of her mind, hope that seeing her reminded him of what he’s supposed to be doing, and gives him a chance to plaster on a smile without being told. She tries to fall back into the rhythm of the conversation, to just enjoy the company of Phil and the others. Until, not two minutes later, he appears at her side and, announcing that he needs to “borrow her” pulls her away and toward the dance floor.
This seems to have become their custom at parties, Tony pulling her into a half-willing dance. She’s afraid to let herself enjoy it too much.
“So, how are things going?” She asks, trying to diffuse some of the tension that emerges when his hand finds her waist and they start a little sway.
He avoids her eyes, and the question. “You seem to be having fun with Agent Coulson over there.”
She wonders if that faint undercurrent in his voice is spite - but she doesn’t quite trust her judgment of his emotions tonight. “Well, Phil is a very entertaining person when he’s not on duty.”
“‘Phil’?” He raises an eyebrow, and finally looks at her. “That’s awfully unprofessional for you.”
She eyes him carefully, wondering what she’ll have to do to get him out of this childishly angry mood. But she keeps her tone light. “There’s nothing the least bit inappropriate about being on a first name basis with an associate, especially an unofficial one.”
Tony huffs a little and drops the subject, though he’s clearly still unhappy. Studying him closely, she can’t help but wonder if maybe she was right earlier, if what she saw in his features really was jealousy. She becomes even more suspicious of this when she remembers that, even when he’s bored and wants to leave a meeting or party or some other obligation, he usually behaves a bit better than this. No, this is different, all of it - his tone, his expression, his body language and behavior. All of this, under the circumstances, seems almost… possessive. Which, if she’s right (and that’s a big ‘if,’ she reminds herself a bit sadly), is strange and unusual and maybe even a bit scary, but almost thrilling, in a way.
But there’s still a little voice, nagging at the back of her mind that he still has a job to do, ties to mend. And she knows that the best way to get him to do that isn’t to force a smile onto his face, but to genuinely cheer him up as much as possible.
She steps just a bit closer, squeezes his hand a little tighter, and dances just a little quicker as she pulls him toward the center of the floor. She smiles genuinely as they move together, and slowly, whatever was bothering him falls away and he begins to just enjoy the dance.
The next song to play isn’t nearly as dance-friendly as the last, and she reluctantly steps away from him. Luckily, though, his mood had improved considerably. “I think I’m going to go get a drink,” she says, spying the bar. “Do you want to come with me?”
“Sure.”
She orders a glass of red wine, and he takes what she hopes is only his second scotch. Together, they stand at the bar, sipping their drinks for a few moments.
“I thought it was a martini - vodka, wasn’t it?”
She stares at him, trying to hide her surprise that he remembered, and her curiosity about why he’s asking. “Oh, yeah… but I’m not in the mood for something so strong tonight.”
He doesn’t ask why, and they sip quietly for a few moments, watching everyone else. Soon, she catches him giving her a once-over out of the corner of his eye before turning back, nonchalantly, to the crowd. “That’s a really nice dress.”
She feels her heart flutter just slightly, and glances down at the flowy, forest green, knee-length dress with the beaded details she’s wearing. “Thank you.” She nearly lets the words ‘I hoped you would like it,’ slip from her lips, but she catches them before they can fall.
“Knew this girl once… duchess or something in Europe.” He takes another sip before he continues his musing. “Had a dress almost exactly like that, ‘cept it had actual emeralds and diamonds on it. Probably cost more than my Lamborghini.”
“Could she spell ‘Lamborghini’?”
His lip quirks up. “Good point.”
“The women you go after are morons. All that bleach in their hair kills a few too many brain cells,” she adds, feeling just a bit petty for tearing down the competition like this. But a bit good, too.
“Yeah,” he sighs. “Know any smart, hot girls on the market? Preferably who sport their natural hair color?”
Her heart jumps again, and she stares at him. But he’s swirling the liquid in his glass, looking completely relaxed, no eyebrow raised suggestively, no lip turned up in a smirk. Pepper fights down a blush, and turns away. “I’ll keep my eyes peeled,” she says softly.
A small group of agents makes their way over to the bar then, smiling at Pepper and greeting her warmly. Their greeting to Tony is stiff and cold by comparison, but he still sticks out his hand and smiles and does what he’s supposed to do. Pepper lets herself fade into the background of the conversation, nursing her glass of wine slowly. She isn’t sure whether she’s grateful or disappointed that Tony’s attention has been drawn away from her.
A little while later, after Phil has come by to say hello again, she begins to feel a little tired, and decides it’s time to call it a night. She says her goodbyes to nearest guests, smiling and promising to stay in touch. Tony insists on walking her out to the elevator.
“You going home too?” she asks as she hits the call button.
“No. I think I’ll stick around for a while longer.”
She blinks, staring just a little. “Really?”
He laughs at her expression and nods. “Yeah. Still a lot of people I haven’t talked to. And I’ve still seen a few people giving me dirty looks. Figure I should at least see what I can do before the party’s over.”
She’s surprised - very surprised, in fact - that he’s staying of his own free will, but also proud, and glad that he’s finally starting to take some responsibility. She gives him a full, genuine smile, and he returns it.
It’s a very intimate moment between them, standing so close in the empty hallway with faint music drifting out from the closed ballroom doors. He seems almost flustered, and she knows she feels a bit nervous, too. The moment makes her want to kiss him, to lean in and give just a gentle peck on the cheek to say goodbye. She thinks back to last week, how she had wanted to do just that but let fear get the better of her in the end. The thought of doing that or anything else scares her even more now. But deep in the back of her mind, she knows that if she ever wants to have anything with Tony, if she ever wants to know if he has feelings for her, she’s going to have to face that fear, and risk humiliation and heartbreak. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The risk that he feels nothing for her is still very real and ever-present in her mind, but… maybe. Maybe she’s wrong. And she’ll likely never know if she can’t find the courage to do more than spend her life waiting for him to make the first move.
The elevator arrives at their floor with a chipper ping, and she steps inside.
“Goodnight, Pepper,” he smiles when she turns around again.
She swallows, and acts before she can think or worry. “Tony? L-A-M-B-O-R-G-H-I-N-I.” The doors slide shut slowly, and she smiles one last time. “Goodnight.”
On the way down, she’s sure her heart will explode in her chest, but she’s so glad that she did it.