Dry Eyes.
I don't even know. It started out with watching the Hunger Games on Friday, then trying to figure out how to get to write Obadiah procuring Katniss for Tony for a night and degenerated from there. Alas, that doesn't actually happen in this, but there is bad touching. Blame 
destronomics.
"Get yourself something nice for me."
"I already did."
"Yeah, and?"
"Oh, I did. Very nice. Very tasteful."
They're in the bottom floor of Tony's house; Tony is two hours late for his transport. The walls are white, and the floors are white. Tony enjoys chaos in his emotional life, but requires pristine, absolute cleanliness in his personal space, and now, he is smiling, and so is Pepper, though she is somewhat distracted. She is clearly thinking about the very nice, very tasteful, very expensive thing that she bought as Tony's birthday present to her, and Tony takes the moment to admire the way that there are little lines around her eyes when she smiles like that, then finishes his espresso and lets himself be packed onto the transport.
Eighteen hours later, news comes back that Tony has disappeared on a trip to the edge of former District 13.
...
Pepper --
...
"My father helped defeat the rebel districts during Panem's darkest days. Some people, including your professors, would call that being a hero -- "
...
What does Tony say when he comes back from the fringe of District 13? Sitting on the floor of the media conference, he says that he saw the weapons that he made being used against the very men and women they were meant to protect. Until he was sure that all of his weapons were ending up in Capitol hands, he was was suspending all production by Stark Industries immediately. The media roar swallows the room, and afterwards, Obadiah tracks him down in front of the arc reactor. They spend a while fighting about how Obadiah can possibly keep him safe from President Snow. A target on Tony's head? How about a target on Obadiah's head? The head of Pepper and every single person working for Tony in a Stark factory? Did the radiation in District 13 do something to his brain?
"I think we should take another look into arc reactor technology," Tony says.
"The arc reactor? That's a publicity stunt."
Eventually, Tony shows Obadiah the arc reactor, glowing behind a plate in his chest, and Obadiah goes laughs.
"It works," Tony says.
Obadiah buttons Tony's shirt back up for him.
"You have to let me handle this with Snow."
...
"They say that the best weapon is the one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That's how Dad did it, that's how we do it, and it's worked out pretty well so far. I present to you the newest in Stark Industries' Freedom line. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee, a rebel district won't even wanna come out of their caves. Ladies and gentlemen, for your consideration, the Jericho."
...
Pepper won the 64th Hunger Games. She spent the first twenty-four hours hiding in a cave, crying herself sick, and then she dried her tears and came out of the cave with dry eyes, an empty canteen, and a spool of weapons-grade monofilament in her hands.
...
"Just gently lift the wire."
"You know -- you know, I don't think I'm qualified to do this."
Pepper and Tony are in the workshop again. Tony lies on the bench, propped up at an angle, and there is a hole in his chest roughly four inches across. Pepper has an expression of extreme uncertainty on her face. She wants to back away; on the other side of Tony, Butterfingers seems equally distressed, and Pepper actually does take a step backwards.
"You are the most qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met," Tony says. "You're going to do great."
A beat.
"Is it too much to ask? Because I'm going to need your help here."
Pepper looks at him for a long moment.
Tony continues looking at her with that expression, and after another moment, she sighs, and she and her small hands step forward.
Pepper almost immediately, immediately regrets it when Tony goes into cardiac arrest.
...
The first person that Pepper kills is a thirteen year old boy from District 12; she catches him in a monofilament noose draped over a tree branch and hanging just at throat level when he comes through a clearing. He starts when it touches around his throat the first time and thrashes while Pepper comes close and loops it twice around his neck to make sure, and then she ties the ends to a tree. She is half a mile away with his knife and canteen and pack when the cannon sounds.
...
"You doing better? You doing OK?" Tony says, and seeing the expression on her face, starts giggling like a kid. Her hands are smeared with -- organic plasma discharge or whatever it is, and she holds her right hand out in front of her, each finger sticking straight out. She is entirely grossed out.
"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again," Pepper says, but she is still looking at Tony, and somehow, she is smiling. Tony is smiling, too, but the smile slides off.
"I don't have anyone else," he says.
And they both know it's true, especially since Snow --
Tony and Pepper look at each other for a long, long moment, before Tony breaks contact by making a face.
"Anyways."
He slides himself off the bench, and Pepper shakes the slime off her hands and starts wiping her hands dry.
Then, Pepper picks up the old arc reactor. For something so small, it's surprisingly heavy; for something so bright, it's surprisingly cool to the touch. She holds it out at Tony, and he turns around from fiddling with his new chest plate.
"What do you want me to do with this?" Pepper asks.
...
What has Pepper's life been like since winning the games? Wonderful. What did she have before winning the games? Very little. She lived in a group home for children without parents; she went to school in the morning. She worked in a factory in the afternoon.
...
After Tony visits in him in the weaponsjet hangar, Jim calls Pepper at home. Pepper is sitting on the couch, work spread on the table in front of her, but sees that it is Jim, so she keys the call onto the viewscreen.
Jim is angry. Frustrated. Has Tony gone s Tony decided to go all humanitarian? Does Tony think appeasement is the best strategy? Jim is a third-generation, Capitol-bred Peacekeeper; his family lived in the Capitol even before the rebellion, and Ppper sighs, tells him that she didn't know Tony was coming out to see him. She is as frustrated as he is, and they talk a little about past things that Tony has done.
Then, Pepper changes the subject: she asks about his sister, who is expecting a baby with her partner, and Jim visibly cheers. He tells her a story about his sister's temper now that she is roughly twice the size she was before; it involves misplaced lunches, mistaken identity, and his sister mortified because she accused her favorite person at work of stealing her lunch. It breaks the tension, and after that, they can talk pleasantly, including about Jim finally getting to be an uncle.
"You'll be a great uncle," Pepper says.
On the screen, Jim laughs and rubs the back of his head, embarrassed but pleased.
"Absolutely wonderful," Pepper repeats. "You'll be their favorite uncle."
"I'll be their only uncle. My sister's partner was an only child."
They both laugh; they had been friendly before, but in the three months Tony was gone, they became friends, and Jim signs off with real fondness. Before he does, though, Jim could see Pepper's apartment over her shoulder, decorated in cream and light colors, with a view of a green park and the waterfront. Pepper owns the apartment in her own name; Tony had the legal department apply to give her permanent status in the Capitol and the ability to own, for herself, prop --
...
At a Stark Industries-sponsored function, after he gets the suit working for the first time, Tony leads Pepper onto the floor.
"Does this make you uncomfortable?"
"No. No. I always forget to wear deodorant when I'm dancing with my boss in front of everybody I know, in a dress that has no back," she says, and Tony watches her mouth and eyes in equal proportion. They end up stepping onto the roof for some air; they can hear the crowds shouting and cheering at footage, and Tony is still watching her mouth and eyes in equal proportion Pepper leans forward, tucks her hand around the back of his elbow, and after a moment, Tony leans -- Pepper knows he is always watching her mouth and eyes,. She can feel, on her back, still tingling, the place where he put his hand where they were dancing.
...
What has Pepper's life been like since winning the games? The best case scenario. What does she remember about her life before the Reaping? Cold. Long hours. Hunger, the fear of working with munitions and explosives. Bone-deep envy of the well-dressed, happy children with families in her academic classes; thick, spark-resistant overalls for the factory, her wrists sticking out of her jacket and cold on the walk from school to the factory. Sitting on the benches with other orphans, doing the minute, dangerous final assembly work reserved for those without anyone to press their work-unit leader, bringing little gifts of food or alcohol in the hopes of having their son or daughter out of it.
Her narrow bunk bed, closest to drafts from the door and drafts and surprise inspections.
What had been her future?
...
On the rooftop, Pepper opens her eyes and pulls back. Tony opens his eyes and goes to get them both drinks.
In all the years since the Games, Tony has never touched Pepper without invitation. In all the years since he hired her, Pepper has never had to --
His breath smelled a little sweet, a little bitter, a little smoky; he wore a suit that she had hung in his closet for him. He cleaned himself with products she selected and put in his bathroom for him.
...
"His mother was a victor in the Games," Obadiah says, one night, when they're sitting on the main floor of Tony's residence. Pepper has work set out in front of her, and Obadiah is nursing an old-fashioned drink. The whole of the Capitol is spread beneath them. "The sixteenth, when they had the maze with the monsters. It took her fifteen years, but Maria finally said yes."
"He never talks about her," Pepper said, quietly.
...
It has been years since the Games, and everyone knows how Tony is with girls, but in all those years, Tony never asked Pepper for sex. He never kissed her, never suggested that she should come to his bedroom or pulled her into his lap. The Starks have power. The Starks have money. Howard built the weapons that let the Capitol triumph over the rebellious districts; the Starks pioneered half of the muttations keeping the borders of Panem safe. The Starks have political influence.
In all the years since Tony hired her, no one has had the nerve to --
When they were torturing him, Tony heard Pepper's voice in the underground bunker where the rebels kept him. He never tells her about it, but she can see it in his eyes when he talks to her, when it is just the two of them.
...
After the party, after the rooftop, Tony disappears again. He leaves a message on the household system, saying that he is taking care of a little business. Pepper doesn't think too much of it, because everyone knows how Tony is with girls, but then she comes down to his workshop and finds the machines disassembling something that looks like Peacekeeper armor made out of metal and Dummy by his head and Butterfingers crouched at his feet.
Tony says, "Let's face it -- "
...
What would have been her future without the Reaping?
The second to last person that Pepper kills in the Games is the boy tribute from her district, the Stark district. On her fourth night after winning the Games, Pepper's handler delivered her to a dinner, and when the avoxes brought out the last course of the night, the woman who Pepper was seated next to, who had been talking about her summer home and the new carpeting and her new interior decoration -- Pepper smiled and nodded, and while the sorbets were brought out, she put her hand on Pepper's knee. Ran fingers up the bare inside of Pepper's leg. The nails were neatly filed and had a diamond planted at the end of each; the woman smelled like hothouse flowers and had modified eyes that were slit vertically, like a cat's.
An inch above the knee. Two inches above the knee. Three. A small, neat circle.
Pepper was seventeen, but looked older, felt older. What would Pepper have without Tony's personal influence?
The woman had been able to see almost perfectly in the dark.
...
Small hands, too. Steady hands.
Obadiah had her delivered to Tony. Tony never touched her.
...
"You know I would help you with anything," Pepper says.
"They've been dealing under the table, and I'm going to stop them. I'm going to find my weapons -- "
"But I can't help you start this again. I quit."
...
Who would Obadiah be selling weapons to, if not District 13? They made weapons for the Capitol. Their rebellion and departure from Panem took the Starks from merely being rich and influential to being the richest, the most influential. They enabled the Stark near-monopoly on weapons manufacture; they withdrew their technology, figuring the Capitol would collapse. They had not counted on Howard Stark being genuinely being a genius and his son being even smarter.
"My father helped defeat the rebel districts during Panem's darkest days. Some people, including your professors, would call that being a hero -- "
...
When Pepper quits, Tony does not remind her about everything that he has done for her, all the things that he has given her. All the things that he has protected her from, purely by virtue of being Tony Stark and having hired her, let alone being in love with her, visibly, clearly, unmistakably in love with her: Pepper can see it doesn't even pass over his face. He doesn't even consider it. Does he even think of it that way anymore?
Instead, he looks at her, like one human being to another.
"I shouldn't be alive, unless it was for a reason," he says. "I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do, and I know in my heart, it's right."
Pepper can see it in eyes.
She remembers the gray skies and factories. She remembers the woman with pointed nails.
"You're all I have too," she says and takes the lockchip.
...
Who would Obadiah be selling weapons to, if not District 13?
...
Who would Obadiah be selling weapons to, if not District 13?
What would the purpose of District 13 buying weapons be, if not to destroy the Capitol?
Pepper sits in Tony's office and watches the proof transfer to the lockchip.
...
Who is waiting for Pepper at the bottom of the stairs?
A Peacekeeper affiliated with a different branch than Rhodey; he is short and has even shorter hair. He wears a suit that only fits him partially, and he reminds her of an appointment that he had to talk to Tony. Does she remember making it? She remembers talking to him about it a little at the press conference, and as Pepper strides past him, she tells him that Tony is tied up, really busy, just in no shape to talk to anyone today, least of all a representative of the Peacekeepers. She'll contact his office with details and what Tony can do when he has more time.
She leaves him behind in the foyer.
...
Does Obadiah come into the office while the files are transferring? Yes.
Does Obadiah tell her that Tony doesn't know what a lucky man he is, to have a woman like Pepper? Yes.
Does every nerve and fiber in Pepper scream and stretch to the snapping point when he leans on the desk and reaches over, as if to touch her hand? She recognizes the cadence in his voice, the way he helps himself to the liquor and says Tony always gets the best stuff, doesn't he while looking directly at her. The way he positions himself close to her. A hundred tiny things slot into place. Her pulse begins to rise; her cheeks flush. He smiles, and she fights down the fear.
Does Obadiah harm her? After all, he is four, five inches taller than her, and a good fifty or sixty pounds heavier. He is a man, and Pepper is a woman, slim, wearing a skirt and heels. There is a moment when he could lean over and put his thumbs on her collarbone and choke her; his fingers would wrap all the way around her throat and then a bit. There are a few moments when he stands between her and the door. He asks for the plastic sheets with the day's puzzle between her and the door; there is a moment when his hand brushes hers and she is almost offbalance.
No. He does not make the attempt. Pepper won the 65th Games by stabbing a Career tribute from District 4 in the stomach with the broken-off beak of a pinkbird muttation, then using monofilament fiber to garotte him until dead. She wrapped her legs around his shoulders, wrapped the monofilament around his throat and held onto the monofilament until blood ran down her forearms and the other tribute's chest. Medical staff anesthetized Pepper before cutting it out of her fingers and arms, and from his sources, Obadiah knows that Pepper has continued training since them, two hours each morning with the best weapons instructors in the Capitol.
Pepper meets his eyes when he looks at her.
Pepper leaves with the files written onto the lockchip; Obadiah sags into one of the couches in Tony's office, looking desperate.
...
Why is District 13 buying smuggled weapons from Obadiah? Because the things that Tony invents are better than anything their scientists can come up; a technology gap is opening. Pepper sees the facts in the reports on the ghost drive. With two generations of Starks, Panem achieved weapons parity with District 13 two years before Pepper won the games. In five years, Panem will have superiority; in fifteen years, Panem should have dominance. The day may have already arrived with respect to missiles, and with development of weapons like the Jericho, each generation a leap forward from the last, how long with the underground bunkers stay safe?
Pepper steps into her apartment with the lockchip in hand and stands in front of the window; the lights in her apartment are off, and she looks at the waterfront strength to either side, spangled with the lights of pleasure boats.
Far beyond, she can see the mountains.
...
Doctors can be bribed. Avoxes, even if rendered in a District, are usually sent to the Capitol for final processing and can have deep-seated triggers activated remotely. Tony was born in the Capitol, son of a victor of the Hunger Games and a man who was instrumental in installing President Snow. He is keenly, sharply aware of the deep, bloody channels of Panem politics; he built his first mutattion at the age of four. On the other hand: he knows Pepper. He trusts her. He loves her. She won the Hunger Games at the age of seventeen as a non-Career, without any training but the three or four days before the games; she is the most qualified, trustworthy person that he knows.
She can remember the way his breath had smelled on the roof, sweet and bitter and smoky all at once; she remembers his hesitance in leaning forward. She remembers the worry on his face that she had interpreted the dancing as a demand that she sleep with him. She knows all the things that he has protected her from, purely by virtue of being Tony Stark and having hired her, let alone being in love with her, visibly, clearly, unmistakably in love, never asking her to touch him until she feels that she can do it out of genuine desire.
Let alone having made it clear that he intended to marry her, if she ever wanted it.
From the transport, she calls Tony to warn him about Obadiah: he picked up. She sees him sitting on the couch.
A shadow fell across the screen, and visual disappeared. Audio followed a moment afterward.
...
Audio followed a moment afterward, but not before she heard Obadiah's voice, telling Tony to relax.
...
Pepper gets home and plugs the lockchip into a secure reader unit. Not just a unit disconnected from the network, but one she built herself out of circuits and boards and solder. It has limited ability to render holographic information, but plenty of capacity for reading.
...
What has Pepper's life been like since winning the games? The best case scenario, by and large. What does she remember about her life before the Reaping? Cold, hunger. Loneliness. Three hours of half-decent schooling, followed by working in one of the Stark factories for her keep. What had been her future?
Obadiah found her at a party, and her delivered to Tony. Tony never touched her.
...
What has Tony given Pepper? Trust. A home. Security, both personal and in terms of social standing. Stock options, enough to make her a wealthy woman and an important force in the company if she ever chooses to exercise it.
This apartment, with the light-colored walls and windows on the waterfront. She has art hanging on the walls, a modern transport sitting in the garage, closets full of the expensive, designer clothes made by the most famous designers in the Capitol. As a matter of stubborness, she wears the old-fashioned clothes of rich people from her District, in old fashioned colors. She does not color her hair or tint her skin. Tony was surprised by the sight of her at the function in bright, startling color.
...
Pepper looks at the material at the lockchip, skims it for ten minutes, then goes to stand at the window and look at the water. The night is fine and clear, and there are pleasure boats out on it. The moon is two days past full.
Obadiah is selling weapons to District 13.
Tony is preserving, increasing the ability of the Capitol to dominate Panem. He claims to have stopped all weapons production, has refused to develop further weapons for the use of the Capitol, but how long will that last when Snow starts applying genuine pressure? When he takes away the contracts? When he starts sending Peacekeepers among families that have worked for the Starks for generations? When he threatens to take Tony's household away, and has his two favorite avoxes, Dummy and Butterfingers, dragged out and shot? Tony will make a comment to Pepper about making sure that the carpet is cleaned, but he will bend. The threat itself will be enough.
Obadiah not a good person. Tony, underneath it all --
Pepper does not call Jim Rhodes. Instead, a few minutes later, after the call cuts out, she sends Dummy and Butterfingers a message on the automated home system about remaining in the upper floor, keeping to their roster duties, and after that, she sends Obadiah an innocuous-looking message, asking him to confirm seating arrangements for a conference next week. A few minutes later, Obadiah tries to call her residence, directly from the transport, but she refuses the call. She instructs security at the downstairs desk not to let him in; she is going to bed with a headache and not to be disturbed for anything. If Obadiah Stane comes by, they should tell him that she will see him tomorrow.
...
What has Tony given Pepper?
Does it matter if Obadiah is doing it entirely out of mercenary motives?
Pepper remembers a morning when Tony came out of his workshop early and found her standing on the patio, looking out at the Capitol.
"Security tells me that you take combat training most mornings."
She turned to look at him. He was in a white shirt and jeans and had a mug in hand; she wore a black suit and a white shirt, sharply pressed, and she -- it was not entirely unexpected was it, that Security was following her? Her handler had indicated that his office was signalling a long-term interest in her. She should expect to be followed; she should expect to have her casual conversations recorded, for anyone who knew her back in her old District to be interviewed.
It was early into their relationship, so Pepper decided not to risk it. "It's a good workout," she said, smiling in a way meant to read as foolish, young. Eager to please. "It helps keep the weight from all those banquets off."
"Really?" Tony had said, considered her face for a moment, and took a sip from his mug. His eyes were still on her face.
Pepper said something, anything silly to distract him from the fact that she was learning from professionals how to snap necks: even her own handler didn't know, having relaxed now that Tony Stark seemed genuinely hooked. Perhaps Pepper said something about how exciting it was? Much more exciting than climbing onto a machine and pretending to walk up a mountain for the same amount of time! The trainers were much better looking.
"There are some very good security people who work for me. If you want them to, they can train you -- they're almost certainly better than anyone you have now. Tell me, and I can make sure it happens," he said, quietly, and went back inside without another word.
Pepper remembers: the smell of ozone from the City, the bright green of the trees, just starting to leaf out with spring, the way his hair had stood up on the back of his head, where he had been lying on the dolley underneath an engine, working on it in the morning. The solder burn on the second finger. The kindness in his eyes and knowledge that she had been through something terrible.
The startling feeling that Tony Stark might trust her, might be falling in love with her. The equally startling knowledge that he was willing to wait for her.
...
"Tell me, and I can make sure it happens."
...
Pepper remembers --
...
Pepper remembers the second to last person that she killed in the Games. It was the boy tribute from her district. They knew each other; he was three years younger than her, and she recognized him from her electronics class. Short. Sturdily built, green eyes. Surprising sense of humor, she realized, in the days they spent training before the games. In the games, she tracked him to his cache, poured out most of the water from his canteen, slipped ground trackerjackets into it, and waited in the scrub until he came back. It was a warm day.
He took a sip. Even before the canteen his lips had left the canteen, his airways swelled; his face bloated. He fell to the ground. She came out of the bushes and stood over him.
He had enough air left to gasp her name once, and then, she strangled him.
...
Pepper won the 64th Hunger Games. She spent the first twenty-four hours hiding in a cave, crying herself sick, and then she dried her tears and came out of the cave with dry eyes, an empty canteen, and a spool of weapons-grade monofilament in her hands.
Pepper lies on her back, alone in her bed, the night she lets Obadiah Stane kills Tony Stark. She spends the next twenty four hours hiding in her apartment, crying herself sick, and then she dried her tears, put on her best suit, and climbed into a Stark Industries car with double cordons of Stark Industry security keeping the news media at bay, and rides to the press conference of the year. In between, she makes contact with the District 13 underground.
Afterwards, she takes press questions about the depth of her heartbreak about Tony's sudden death.
Afterwards, she sits next to a nervous Obadiah in the Stark Industries box seats at the tribute parade for the 74th Games.
...
What does Pepper remember?
What does Pepper regre --
destronomics came up with all the ideas. Like. All of them.
This entry was originally posted at http://quigonejinn.dreamwidth.org/189800.html, and has
comments.
destronomics.
"Get yourself something nice for me."
"I already did."
"Yeah, and?"
"Oh, I did. Very nice. Very tasteful."
They're in the bottom floor of Tony's house; Tony is two hours late for his transport. The walls are white, and the floors are white. Tony enjoys chaos in his emotional life, but requires pristine, absolute cleanliness in his personal space, and now, he is smiling, and so is Pepper, though she is somewhat distracted. She is clearly thinking about the very nice, very tasteful, very expensive thing that she bought as Tony's birthday present to her, and Tony takes the moment to admire the way that there are little lines around her eyes when she smiles like that, then finishes his espresso and lets himself be packed onto the transport.
Eighteen hours later, news comes back that Tony has disappeared on a trip to the edge of former District 13.
...
Pepper --
...
"My father helped defeat the rebel districts during Panem's darkest days. Some people, including your professors, would call that being a hero -- "
...
What does Tony say when he comes back from the fringe of District 13? Sitting on the floor of the media conference, he says that he saw the weapons that he made being used against the very men and women they were meant to protect. Until he was sure that all of his weapons were ending up in Capitol hands, he was was suspending all production by Stark Industries immediately. The media roar swallows the room, and afterwards, Obadiah tracks him down in front of the arc reactor. They spend a while fighting about how Obadiah can possibly keep him safe from President Snow. A target on Tony's head? How about a target on Obadiah's head? The head of Pepper and every single person working for Tony in a Stark factory? Did the radiation in District 13 do something to his brain?
"I think we should take another look into arc reactor technology," Tony says.
"The arc reactor? That's a publicity stunt."
Eventually, Tony shows Obadiah the arc reactor, glowing behind a plate in his chest, and Obadiah goes laughs.
"It works," Tony says.
Obadiah buttons Tony's shirt back up for him.
"You have to let me handle this with Snow."
...
"They say that the best weapon is the one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That's how Dad did it, that's how we do it, and it's worked out pretty well so far. I present to you the newest in Stark Industries' Freedom line. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee, a rebel district won't even wanna come out of their caves. Ladies and gentlemen, for your consideration, the Jericho."
...
Pepper won the 64th Hunger Games. She spent the first twenty-four hours hiding in a cave, crying herself sick, and then she dried her tears and came out of the cave with dry eyes, an empty canteen, and a spool of weapons-grade monofilament in her hands.
...
"Just gently lift the wire."
"You know -- you know, I don't think I'm qualified to do this."
Pepper and Tony are in the workshop again. Tony lies on the bench, propped up at an angle, and there is a hole in his chest roughly four inches across. Pepper has an expression of extreme uncertainty on her face. She wants to back away; on the other side of Tony, Butterfingers seems equally distressed, and Pepper actually does take a step backwards.
"You are the most qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met," Tony says. "You're going to do great."
A beat.
"Is it too much to ask? Because I'm going to need your help here."
Pepper looks at him for a long moment.
Tony continues looking at her with that expression, and after another moment, she sighs, and she and her small hands step forward.
Pepper almost immediately, immediately regrets it when Tony goes into cardiac arrest.
...
The first person that Pepper kills is a thirteen year old boy from District 12; she catches him in a monofilament noose draped over a tree branch and hanging just at throat level when he comes through a clearing. He starts when it touches around his throat the first time and thrashes while Pepper comes close and loops it twice around his neck to make sure, and then she ties the ends to a tree. She is half a mile away with his knife and canteen and pack when the cannon sounds.
...
"You doing better? You doing OK?" Tony says, and seeing the expression on her face, starts giggling like a kid. Her hands are smeared with -- organic plasma discharge or whatever it is, and she holds her right hand out in front of her, each finger sticking straight out. She is entirely grossed out.
"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again," Pepper says, but she is still looking at Tony, and somehow, she is smiling. Tony is smiling, too, but the smile slides off.
"I don't have anyone else," he says.
And they both know it's true, especially since Snow --
Tony and Pepper look at each other for a long, long moment, before Tony breaks contact by making a face.
"Anyways."
He slides himself off the bench, and Pepper shakes the slime off her hands and starts wiping her hands dry.
Then, Pepper picks up the old arc reactor. For something so small, it's surprisingly heavy; for something so bright, it's surprisingly cool to the touch. She holds it out at Tony, and he turns around from fiddling with his new chest plate.
"What do you want me to do with this?" Pepper asks.
...
What has Pepper's life been like since winning the games? Wonderful. What did she have before winning the games? Very little. She lived in a group home for children without parents; she went to school in the morning. She worked in a factory in the afternoon.
...
After Tony visits in him in the weaponsjet hangar, Jim calls Pepper at home. Pepper is sitting on the couch, work spread on the table in front of her, but sees that it is Jim, so she keys the call onto the viewscreen.
Jim is angry. Frustrated. Has Tony gone s Tony decided to go all humanitarian? Does Tony think appeasement is the best strategy? Jim is a third-generation, Capitol-bred Peacekeeper; his family lived in the Capitol even before the rebellion, and Ppper sighs, tells him that she didn't know Tony was coming out to see him. She is as frustrated as he is, and they talk a little about past things that Tony has done.
Then, Pepper changes the subject: she asks about his sister, who is expecting a baby with her partner, and Jim visibly cheers. He tells her a story about his sister's temper now that she is roughly twice the size she was before; it involves misplaced lunches, mistaken identity, and his sister mortified because she accused her favorite person at work of stealing her lunch. It breaks the tension, and after that, they can talk pleasantly, including about Jim finally getting to be an uncle.
"You'll be a great uncle," Pepper says.
On the screen, Jim laughs and rubs the back of his head, embarrassed but pleased.
"Absolutely wonderful," Pepper repeats. "You'll be their favorite uncle."
"I'll be their only uncle. My sister's partner was an only child."
They both laugh; they had been friendly before, but in the three months Tony was gone, they became friends, and Jim signs off with real fondness. Before he does, though, Jim could see Pepper's apartment over her shoulder, decorated in cream and light colors, with a view of a green park and the waterfront. Pepper owns the apartment in her own name; Tony had the legal department apply to give her permanent status in the Capitol and the ability to own, for herself, prop --
...
At a Stark Industries-sponsored function, after he gets the suit working for the first time, Tony leads Pepper onto the floor.
"Does this make you uncomfortable?"
"No. No. I always forget to wear deodorant when I'm dancing with my boss in front of everybody I know, in a dress that has no back," she says, and Tony watches her mouth and eyes in equal proportion. They end up stepping onto the roof for some air; they can hear the crowds shouting and cheering at footage, and Tony is still watching her mouth and eyes in equal proportion Pepper leans forward, tucks her hand around the back of his elbow, and after a moment, Tony leans -- Pepper knows he is always watching her mouth and eyes,. She can feel, on her back, still tingling, the place where he put his hand where they were dancing.
...
What has Pepper's life been like since winning the games? The best case scenario. What does she remember about her life before the Reaping? Cold. Long hours. Hunger, the fear of working with munitions and explosives. Bone-deep envy of the well-dressed, happy children with families in her academic classes; thick, spark-resistant overalls for the factory, her wrists sticking out of her jacket and cold on the walk from school to the factory. Sitting on the benches with other orphans, doing the minute, dangerous final assembly work reserved for those without anyone to press their work-unit leader, bringing little gifts of food or alcohol in the hopes of having their son or daughter out of it.
Her narrow bunk bed, closest to drafts from the door and drafts and surprise inspections.
What had been her future?
...
On the rooftop, Pepper opens her eyes and pulls back. Tony opens his eyes and goes to get them both drinks.
In all the years since the Games, Tony has never touched Pepper without invitation. In all the years since he hired her, Pepper has never had to --
His breath smelled a little sweet, a little bitter, a little smoky; he wore a suit that she had hung in his closet for him. He cleaned himself with products she selected and put in his bathroom for him.
...
"His mother was a victor in the Games," Obadiah says, one night, when they're sitting on the main floor of Tony's residence. Pepper has work set out in front of her, and Obadiah is nursing an old-fashioned drink. The whole of the Capitol is spread beneath them. "The sixteenth, when they had the maze with the monsters. It took her fifteen years, but Maria finally said yes."
"He never talks about her," Pepper said, quietly.
...
It has been years since the Games, and everyone knows how Tony is with girls, but in all those years, Tony never asked Pepper for sex. He never kissed her, never suggested that she should come to his bedroom or pulled her into his lap. The Starks have power. The Starks have money. Howard built the weapons that let the Capitol triumph over the rebellious districts; the Starks pioneered half of the muttations keeping the borders of Panem safe. The Starks have political influence.
In all the years since Tony hired her, no one has had the nerve to --
When they were torturing him, Tony heard Pepper's voice in the underground bunker where the rebels kept him. He never tells her about it, but she can see it in his eyes when he talks to her, when it is just the two of them.
...
After the party, after the rooftop, Tony disappears again. He leaves a message on the household system, saying that he is taking care of a little business. Pepper doesn't think too much of it, because everyone knows how Tony is with girls, but then she comes down to his workshop and finds the machines disassembling something that looks like Peacekeeper armor made out of metal and Dummy by his head and Butterfingers crouched at his feet.
Tony says, "Let's face it -- "
...
What would have been her future without the Reaping?
The second to last person that Pepper kills in the Games is the boy tribute from her district, the Stark district. On her fourth night after winning the Games, Pepper's handler delivered her to a dinner, and when the avoxes brought out the last course of the night, the woman who Pepper was seated next to, who had been talking about her summer home and the new carpeting and her new interior decoration -- Pepper smiled and nodded, and while the sorbets were brought out, she put her hand on Pepper's knee. Ran fingers up the bare inside of Pepper's leg. The nails were neatly filed and had a diamond planted at the end of each; the woman smelled like hothouse flowers and had modified eyes that were slit vertically, like a cat's.
An inch above the knee. Two inches above the knee. Three. A small, neat circle.
Pepper was seventeen, but looked older, felt older. What would Pepper have without Tony's personal influence?
The woman had been able to see almost perfectly in the dark.
...
Small hands, too. Steady hands.
Obadiah had her delivered to Tony. Tony never touched her.
...
"You know I would help you with anything," Pepper says.
"They've been dealing under the table, and I'm going to stop them. I'm going to find my weapons -- "
"But I can't help you start this again. I quit."
...
Who would Obadiah be selling weapons to, if not District 13? They made weapons for the Capitol. Their rebellion and departure from Panem took the Starks from merely being rich and influential to being the richest, the most influential. They enabled the Stark near-monopoly on weapons manufacture; they withdrew their technology, figuring the Capitol would collapse. They had not counted on Howard Stark being genuinely being a genius and his son being even smarter.
"My father helped defeat the rebel districts during Panem's darkest days. Some people, including your professors, would call that being a hero -- "
...
When Pepper quits, Tony does not remind her about everything that he has done for her, all the things that he has given her. All the things that he has protected her from, purely by virtue of being Tony Stark and having hired her, let alone being in love with her, visibly, clearly, unmistakably in love with her: Pepper can see it doesn't even pass over his face. He doesn't even consider it. Does he even think of it that way anymore?
Instead, he looks at her, like one human being to another.
"I shouldn't be alive, unless it was for a reason," he says. "I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do, and I know in my heart, it's right."
Pepper can see it in eyes.
She remembers the gray skies and factories. She remembers the woman with pointed nails.
"You're all I have too," she says and takes the lockchip.
...
Who would Obadiah be selling weapons to, if not District 13?
...
Who would Obadiah be selling weapons to, if not District 13?
What would the purpose of District 13 buying weapons be, if not to destroy the Capitol?
Pepper sits in Tony's office and watches the proof transfer to the lockchip.
...
Who is waiting for Pepper at the bottom of the stairs?
A Peacekeeper affiliated with a different branch than Rhodey; he is short and has even shorter hair. He wears a suit that only fits him partially, and he reminds her of an appointment that he had to talk to Tony. Does she remember making it? She remembers talking to him about it a little at the press conference, and as Pepper strides past him, she tells him that Tony is tied up, really busy, just in no shape to talk to anyone today, least of all a representative of the Peacekeepers. She'll contact his office with details and what Tony can do when he has more time.
She leaves him behind in the foyer.
...
Does Obadiah come into the office while the files are transferring? Yes.
Does Obadiah tell her that Tony doesn't know what a lucky man he is, to have a woman like Pepper? Yes.
Does every nerve and fiber in Pepper scream and stretch to the snapping point when he leans on the desk and reaches over, as if to touch her hand? She recognizes the cadence in his voice, the way he helps himself to the liquor and says Tony always gets the best stuff, doesn't he while looking directly at her. The way he positions himself close to her. A hundred tiny things slot into place. Her pulse begins to rise; her cheeks flush. He smiles, and she fights down the fear.
Does Obadiah harm her? After all, he is four, five inches taller than her, and a good fifty or sixty pounds heavier. He is a man, and Pepper is a woman, slim, wearing a skirt and heels. There is a moment when he could lean over and put his thumbs on her collarbone and choke her; his fingers would wrap all the way around her throat and then a bit. There are a few moments when he stands between her and the door. He asks for the plastic sheets with the day's puzzle between her and the door; there is a moment when his hand brushes hers and she is almost offbalance.
No. He does not make the attempt. Pepper won the 65th Games by stabbing a Career tribute from District 4 in the stomach with the broken-off beak of a pinkbird muttation, then using monofilament fiber to garotte him until dead. She wrapped her legs around his shoulders, wrapped the monofilament around his throat and held onto the monofilament until blood ran down her forearms and the other tribute's chest. Medical staff anesthetized Pepper before cutting it out of her fingers and arms, and from his sources, Obadiah knows that Pepper has continued training since them, two hours each morning with the best weapons instructors in the Capitol.
Pepper meets his eyes when he looks at her.
Pepper leaves with the files written onto the lockchip; Obadiah sags into one of the couches in Tony's office, looking desperate.
...
Why is District 13 buying smuggled weapons from Obadiah? Because the things that Tony invents are better than anything their scientists can come up; a technology gap is opening. Pepper sees the facts in the reports on the ghost drive. With two generations of Starks, Panem achieved weapons parity with District 13 two years before Pepper won the games. In five years, Panem will have superiority; in fifteen years, Panem should have dominance. The day may have already arrived with respect to missiles, and with development of weapons like the Jericho, each generation a leap forward from the last, how long with the underground bunkers stay safe?
Pepper steps into her apartment with the lockchip in hand and stands in front of the window; the lights in her apartment are off, and she looks at the waterfront strength to either side, spangled with the lights of pleasure boats.
Far beyond, she can see the mountains.
...
Doctors can be bribed. Avoxes, even if rendered in a District, are usually sent to the Capitol for final processing and can have deep-seated triggers activated remotely. Tony was born in the Capitol, son of a victor of the Hunger Games and a man who was instrumental in installing President Snow. He is keenly, sharply aware of the deep, bloody channels of Panem politics; he built his first mutattion at the age of four. On the other hand: he knows Pepper. He trusts her. He loves her. She won the Hunger Games at the age of seventeen as a non-Career, without any training but the three or four days before the games; she is the most qualified, trustworthy person that he knows.
She can remember the way his breath had smelled on the roof, sweet and bitter and smoky all at once; she remembers his hesitance in leaning forward. She remembers the worry on his face that she had interpreted the dancing as a demand that she sleep with him. She knows all the things that he has protected her from, purely by virtue of being Tony Stark and having hired her, let alone being in love with her, visibly, clearly, unmistakably in love, never asking her to touch him until she feels that she can do it out of genuine desire.
Let alone having made it clear that he intended to marry her, if she ever wanted it.
From the transport, she calls Tony to warn him about Obadiah: he picked up. She sees him sitting on the couch.
A shadow fell across the screen, and visual disappeared. Audio followed a moment afterward.
...
Audio followed a moment afterward, but not before she heard Obadiah's voice, telling Tony to relax.
...
Pepper gets home and plugs the lockchip into a secure reader unit. Not just a unit disconnected from the network, but one she built herself out of circuits and boards and solder. It has limited ability to render holographic information, but plenty of capacity for reading.
...
What has Pepper's life been like since winning the games? The best case scenario, by and large. What does she remember about her life before the Reaping? Cold, hunger. Loneliness. Three hours of half-decent schooling, followed by working in one of the Stark factories for her keep. What had been her future?
Obadiah found her at a party, and her delivered to Tony. Tony never touched her.
...
What has Tony given Pepper? Trust. A home. Security, both personal and in terms of social standing. Stock options, enough to make her a wealthy woman and an important force in the company if she ever chooses to exercise it.
This apartment, with the light-colored walls and windows on the waterfront. She has art hanging on the walls, a modern transport sitting in the garage, closets full of the expensive, designer clothes made by the most famous designers in the Capitol. As a matter of stubborness, she wears the old-fashioned clothes of rich people from her District, in old fashioned colors. She does not color her hair or tint her skin. Tony was surprised by the sight of her at the function in bright, startling color.
...
Pepper looks at the material at the lockchip, skims it for ten minutes, then goes to stand at the window and look at the water. The night is fine and clear, and there are pleasure boats out on it. The moon is two days past full.
Obadiah is selling weapons to District 13.
Tony is preserving, increasing the ability of the Capitol to dominate Panem. He claims to have stopped all weapons production, has refused to develop further weapons for the use of the Capitol, but how long will that last when Snow starts applying genuine pressure? When he takes away the contracts? When he starts sending Peacekeepers among families that have worked for the Starks for generations? When he threatens to take Tony's household away, and has his two favorite avoxes, Dummy and Butterfingers, dragged out and shot? Tony will make a comment to Pepper about making sure that the carpet is cleaned, but he will bend. The threat itself will be enough.
Obadiah not a good person. Tony, underneath it all --
Pepper does not call Jim Rhodes. Instead, a few minutes later, after the call cuts out, she sends Dummy and Butterfingers a message on the automated home system about remaining in the upper floor, keeping to their roster duties, and after that, she sends Obadiah an innocuous-looking message, asking him to confirm seating arrangements for a conference next week. A few minutes later, Obadiah tries to call her residence, directly from the transport, but she refuses the call. She instructs security at the downstairs desk not to let him in; she is going to bed with a headache and not to be disturbed for anything. If Obadiah Stane comes by, they should tell him that she will see him tomorrow.
...
What has Tony given Pepper?
Does it matter if Obadiah is doing it entirely out of mercenary motives?
Pepper remembers a morning when Tony came out of his workshop early and found her standing on the patio, looking out at the Capitol.
"Security tells me that you take combat training most mornings."
She turned to look at him. He was in a white shirt and jeans and had a mug in hand; she wore a black suit and a white shirt, sharply pressed, and she -- it was not entirely unexpected was it, that Security was following her? Her handler had indicated that his office was signalling a long-term interest in her. She should expect to be followed; she should expect to have her casual conversations recorded, for anyone who knew her back in her old District to be interviewed.
It was early into their relationship, so Pepper decided not to risk it. "It's a good workout," she said, smiling in a way meant to read as foolish, young. Eager to please. "It helps keep the weight from all those banquets off."
"Really?" Tony had said, considered her face for a moment, and took a sip from his mug. His eyes were still on her face.
Pepper said something, anything silly to distract him from the fact that she was learning from professionals how to snap necks: even her own handler didn't know, having relaxed now that Tony Stark seemed genuinely hooked. Perhaps Pepper said something about how exciting it was? Much more exciting than climbing onto a machine and pretending to walk up a mountain for the same amount of time! The trainers were much better looking.
"There are some very good security people who work for me. If you want them to, they can train you -- they're almost certainly better than anyone you have now. Tell me, and I can make sure it happens," he said, quietly, and went back inside without another word.
Pepper remembers: the smell of ozone from the City, the bright green of the trees, just starting to leaf out with spring, the way his hair had stood up on the back of his head, where he had been lying on the dolley underneath an engine, working on it in the morning. The solder burn on the second finger. The kindness in his eyes and knowledge that she had been through something terrible.
The startling feeling that Tony Stark might trust her, might be falling in love with her. The equally startling knowledge that he was willing to wait for her.
...
"Tell me, and I can make sure it happens."
...
Pepper remembers --
...
Pepper remembers the second to last person that she killed in the Games. It was the boy tribute from her district. They knew each other; he was three years younger than her, and she recognized him from her electronics class. Short. Sturdily built, green eyes. Surprising sense of humor, she realized, in the days they spent training before the games. In the games, she tracked him to his cache, poured out most of the water from his canteen, slipped ground trackerjackets into it, and waited in the scrub until he came back. It was a warm day.
He took a sip. Even before the canteen his lips had left the canteen, his airways swelled; his face bloated. He fell to the ground. She came out of the bushes and stood over him.
He had enough air left to gasp her name once, and then, she strangled him.
...
Pepper won the 64th Hunger Games. She spent the first twenty-four hours hiding in a cave, crying herself sick, and then she dried her tears and came out of the cave with dry eyes, an empty canteen, and a spool of weapons-grade monofilament in her hands.
Pepper lies on her back, alone in her bed, the night she lets Obadiah Stane kills Tony Stark. She spends the next twenty four hours hiding in her apartment, crying herself sick, and then she dried her tears, put on her best suit, and climbed into a Stark Industries car with double cordons of Stark Industry security keeping the news media at bay, and rides to the press conference of the year. In between, she makes contact with the District 13 underground.
Afterwards, she takes press questions about the depth of her heartbreak about Tony's sudden death.
Afterwards, she sits next to a nervous Obadiah in the Stark Industries box seats at the tribute parade for the 74th Games.
...
What does Pepper remember?
What does Pepper regre --
destronomics came up with all the ideas. Like. All of them.
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