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"You know," he says, three months into their relationship, "Tony Potts has a good ring to it."
Pepper doesn't look up from her phone. "You can't change your name. The patents will be a nightmare."
"Alright, how about you change yours?"
"Potts suits me just fine."
Tony sighs, flopping down next to her on the couch. She's still in her work outfit and her hair's pulled into an updo; her foundation's hiding the freckles on her cheeks. Sometimes it's hard to chip away into the girlfriend-Pepper he knows is beneath all the CEO-Pepper.
"I'm trying to propose to you."
"And failing," she replies. She finally looks up. "Not right now, okay?"
"But I love you."
She smiles. "You love your suits."
Her brother and his wife are in town a few weeks later. Pepper sets up lunch with them when, really, he'd rather spend the afternoon fielding voicemails from SHIELD about extending his consulting hours.
Mathias Potts is skinny and short with long blonde hair and a braided beard that reaches his sternum. His wife, Bambi, resembles the name. Tony gawks at them both across the table as Pepper makes easy conversation.
"You know, Tony," Mathias says at one point, voice slow, like he's still learning words, "our Mom's always on Virginia's back about you. The whole family wants to meet you. Apparently, you're both busy."
"Iron Man? Busy?" Tony replies rudely. Pepper stomps on his foot beneath the table. "My calendar's free in February. No big terrorist-foiling plans then."
After lunch, he and Pepper spend the rest of the afternoon shopping. Or, rather, he follows her around as she adds to her already-massive shoe collection.
"You didn't have to say that, you know," Pepper says, trying on a pair of Louboutin's he's already vividly fantasising about.
"I say a lot of things. What did I do this time?"
"You don't have to meet my mom. Or the rest of my family, for that matter."
"Are you ashamed of me?"
Pepper seems satisfied with the shoes. She hands the young woman waiting on them her card and flashes her a smile.
"I know you. You don't meet the families of your girlfriends."
"Marry me."
"I have enough paperwork to do," she retorts.
Pepper's childhood home is small, cramped, but neat. Tony doesn't really think he's a snob, but they did just spend two weeks at a five-star hotel in Bora Bora where Pepper spent most days in a bikini, so it's drab in comparison.
Pepper's mother - Jeanette - greets them at the door. She's tall and willowy like her daughter but has fair hair like her son. Pepper's father - Benjamin - is short and stout and completely bald. Tony studies the photos on the walls and tries to find another redhead among the sea of the extended Potts family, but Pepper's the only one.
He mentions it after her parents go to bed that night, stomachs full and round from a good homecooked meal. He's starting to see the benefits of meeting the family.
"That's because I'm adopted," Pepper answers.
"Oh."
Pepper snickers at the look on his face.
"You don't have to be weird about it, Tony. It isn't a problem. I honestly thought you knew," she adds. He arches an eyebrow. "Okay, well, it's not like we have a lot of time to talk about family, do we? It's normally stocks and Iron Man."
"These are the kinds of conversations we should probably be having, right? We're in an normal adult relationship."
"No," she replies archly, "we're not."
Jeanette's out in the garden, hanging the laundry as the sun rises. Pepper's still asleep upstairs and Tony makes himself at home in the kitchen, never one for social norms, before he joins Jeanette with a mug of coffee in hand.
"You make one for me?" She asks.
"I can go back."
"Don't bother. I'm just messing with you. Making coffee for other people isn't the sort of thing you people do, is it?"
"What kind of person am I?"
Jeanette finishes hanging the last of the laundry. She lifts the empty basket and groans, clutching her lower back. She doesn't answer.
"I'm probably not the person you had in mind for your daughter, and you probably don't like me, but I thought you should know I plan on marrying Pepper someday. If she'll let me."
"You're right, you're not," Jeanette sighs. "She'll say yes. She's always done what she wanted, anyway."
At the end of their visit, Pepper takes him on a tour of hometown. They go for breakfast at the diner she worked during the summer of her freshman year and break in to the abandoned building of her high school. They sit on the bleachers and she tells him she'd had her first kiss under these very seats, fourteen years old with a boy who'd put on aftershave just for the occasion.
"Don't worry, I remember to put it on every day."
"I know. I'm there when you do."
They laugh together under the sun. He sobers.
"Your mom doesn't like me."
"I know that, too. But I like you."
"Just like?"
Pepper shoots him a look. She purses her lips. "You know, we have time."
"Time?"
She flickers her gaze between him and the spots beneath the bleachers. He doesn't need telling twice.
"Do you think I make Pepper happy?"
"Is saying hello going out of style these days?"
Tony curses under his breath when his grip on the wrench slips. He bashes his elbow on Dum-E. He rubs at it, frowning. It'll bruise. That's alright; it's just another to add to the collection he's still wearing since his last Iron Man mission.
"Her family hate me. She said no when I asked her to marry me."
"Tony," Rhodey sighs over the phone, "I don't have time to fix your hurt pride. I'm about to fly into an active combat zone."
"Want some help?"
"How about instead of wearing your suit, you talk to your girlfriend about your problems?"
"We're not having problems," he protests.
"Then you don't need my opinion, do you?"
There are plenty of moments where he could broach the subject. He doesn't. Instead, he mulls over what he can do to win her over. Which is strange because he thought he already had. They're together, she stays at his place more often than she stays at hers; they even made their relationship public knowledge.
"What's this?" Pepper asks when he turns up at her office with a bouquet of roses. She thumbs the petals and smiles. "Have I forgotten a special date?"
"There's a dozen more bouquets in the lobby. Your assistant wouldn't let me bring them all up."
"You did not bring me thirteen bouquets of roses. Tony. Tell me you didn't do that."
"Alright," he lies. "I didn't."
Pepper gets back late from work. He tries to tell himself that it isn't because he bought her flowers. It probably is. She immediately walks down to the workshop where he's fiddling with the coolant systems of the suit, surrounded by the reject bouquets.
"Tony," she says wearily. She scrubs a hand over her face. He doesn't think he's ever not annoying her. "What's going on with you?"
"Nothing. I told you, I'm not dying anymore, and I promise to alert you to any potential death hazards in the future."
"I didn't mean it like that."
"I know."
"Then what's going on?"
Tony pushes away the projection of the suit. JARVIS mutes the rock music he'd had playing. He scratches at his beard - it's growing out, he needs to remember to shower and shave between worrying about his relationship and trying to maintain world peace. Pepper approaches him and rests a hand on his shoulder. He loves her.
"Your parents don't like me."
"My parents have never liked anyone I date. It's the curse of being the only daughter."
"I didn't know you were adopted."
"It's not a big deal," she says. He glares. "It really isn't. They're my parents regardless, what does where I came from matter?"
"But I should know these things. You know everything about me!"
She frowns. "Are we arguing?"
"I don't know. Why won't you marry me?"
Pepper laughs. Full and loud. He crosses his arms over his chest, trying not to be insulted. Except he is.
"We've been together for, what, four months? Nobody gets engaged after four months, Tony. We don't even live together. Not to mention how complicated it'd make my job; our relationship makes the board question me often enough. It'd be nice to find my own footing without living in your shadow for a minute."
"Oh."
"Oh?"
"I thought you wanted out."
Pepper rolls her eyes. She slides her arms around his shoulders. He pulls her toward him, hands on her waist. It feels strange to remember that they'd had so many years when he hadn't been allowed to touch her like this.
"I love you," she says simply. "We'll have time to figure everything out. Stop trying to rush everything."
He chest twists. It's uncomfortable when it amalgamates with the humming of the RT in his chest. He feels his face pinch and she smiles, leaning down to kiss him.
"Don't get me wrong, you do drive me up the wall sometimes, Tony. And it shouldn't be a stretch for you to remember my birthday. But I know what I've gotten myself into. Actually, I don't think this is something I'll ever want out of."
The implication makes him breathless. "So marriage someday?"
"Someday. For now, I want you to leave the suits and join me in bed. Sound like a plan?"
"Yup," he agrees, already jumping up from the workbench. "Sounds good to me."