Work Text:
‘Hey, looking forward to tonight, see you at 8 – Jason :) x’
Tony stared at the text, much in the same position he’d been in since its arrival nearly an hour ago. He was still confused. Some guy called Jason was texting Pepper’s phone – his girlfriend’s phone – saying he was looking forward to seeing her at eight, but that was ridiculous. Pepper didn’t know anyone called Jason, and she was going out with her girlfriends that night, not some dude who used smilies.
“Tony, have you seen my cell?” Pepper asked as she breezed into the room, looking for the device as she walked. Tony straightened up in his chair and shifted his gaze to her. She was dressed in a short cocktail dress, hair up, clutch bag in her hand.
“Who did you say you were going out with tonight again?” Tony asked, trying to sound casual.
“A couple of old college buddies.” Pepper said, shifting magazines around on the coffee table in search of her phone. “Why?”
Tony shrugged, despite the fact she wasn’t looking at him. “Just wondered.” He held out her phone to her. “You got a text from someone called Jason.”
Pepper turned to him and saw he was holding her phone. “There it is!” she grabbed it off him and opened the message. “Thank you.” She began typing frantically and started walking back out of the lounge.
“So who’s Jason?” Tony asked, standing up and shoving his hands into his pockets.
“An old college buddy.” Pepper said, not taking her eyes from the phone.
“Hmm.” Tony hummed. “You didn’t say there were going to be guys there.”
Pepper faltered slightly and flicked her eyes over him. “What?”
“When you said you were going out tonight.” He clarified. “You said it was a few girlfriends from college.”
“Well, they’re gonna be there too…” Pepper said, finishing her text and stowing her cell in her clutch.
“With this Jason guy.”
Pepper’s head snapped up at his tone and her brow furrowed. “Are you ok?”
“Me?” Tony asked, pointing to himself. “Oh, I’m peachy. I’m just wondering why you didn’t tell me you’re going out with another guy tonight.”
The furrowed brows shot northward at this. “Excuse me?”
“I said-”
“I heard exactly what you said, Tony,” Pepper snapped. “I’m just having a hard time believing that amount of stupid came out of your mouth.”
“Not even trying to deny it.” Tony said, smiling facetiously.
“Because there’s nothing to deny!” Pepper said, voice rising a few decibels. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me?” he repeated, pointing to himself again. “What’s wrong with me is the fact that my girlfriend lied to me about going out with her friends so she could spend the evening with some jackass called Jason.”
Pepper laughed. “There’s only one jackass around here, and let me tell you, it isn’t Jason.”
“Oh well, if I’m such a bad person then why are you even with me?” Tony said loudly.
Pepper just stared at him. “Seriously? What the hell is wrong with you?” she asked again.
“No, I mean it.” Tony said. “Why are you with me? You clearly don’t want to be if you’ve got a bit on the side.”
Pepper was flabbergasted. She couldn’t form a coherent sentence so she just stood there mouthing.
“But whatever, you just go have fun with your ‘friends’,” he actually air-quoted as he spoke. “I’ll just be here privately wondering how long you’ve been cheating on me.” And without waiting for a reply, he turned on his heel and retreated to his work shop, leaving a completely stunned Pepper standing in the lounge.
Ten minutes later, Tony was sat in front of his computers, trying to calm down and take his mind off the fight. He had so many emotions whooshing through his head he couldn’t think straight. He felt angry, betrayed, and most of all, like his heart had ripped in half. How could Pepper do this to him?
He was in the middle of trying to figure out just exactly what the hell he could have done to cause this, when he heard the familiar clicking of heels that alerted him to Pepper’s arrival in the workshop. He span his chair around and saw her walking up to him clutching what looked like photo albums to her chest. She didn’t speak to him at all when she reached him, instead opting for rather roughly plopping one of the albums in his lap. He looked at the page it was open at and saw a group of twenty-something’s, all smiles, and arms around each other.
“What’s this?” he asked petulantly.
“These are a few photos from sophomore year of high school.” She said. He could practically see the ice in her tone. She bent over the book and pointed to a red headed girl on the very right hand side. “That’s me.”
“No shit.” Tony snorted.
“That,” Pepper said, pointing to a boy on the opposite side of the group as if Tony had never spoken. “Is Jason.”
“Oh, well, aren’t I glad you brought this in here.”
“And that,” she pointed to the girl next to Jason who was hugging his middle. “Is Jennifer. You remember Jennifer right?”
Tony scrunched his eyebrows together in concentration. “The woman you brought to visit for Christmas last year?”
“That’s Jen.” Pepper said. “Do you remember why I brought her to visit for Christmas?”
“Yeah,” Tony said slowly. “Her husband was in Afghanistan.”
“Exactly.” Pepper agreed. She flipped open a second photo album and plopped it on top of the first one. It was a wedding photo. Tony instantly spotted Pepper, she appeared to be one of the bridesmaids standing next to the bride and groom, who looked very familiar. “This is Jason and Jennifer’s wedding photo, taken six years after the sophomore photo.” She flipped open the final album and plopped it down. A group of marines stared up at him.
“This is Jason at his passing out parade seven years ago.” Pepper said. She pointed at him on the page. “He’s done four tours since that photo was taken.”
Tony remained silent as Pepper whipped out her cell phone again, pressed a few buttons and handed it to him. As his eyes focused on the picture on the screen, Pepper spoke.
“That’s Jason, six months ago.” She said, tears threatening in her voice. The picture was on a man in a hospital gown, leaning on crutches as he struggled to walk. He had a prosthetic leg and the entire right side of his face was scarred, his eye sewn shut and swollen. “He got caught by a landmine a year ago and he’s learning to walk again in that picture.” Tony gulped and shifted uncomfortably. Pepper snatched the phone back off him. “The reason I didn’t tell you Jason was coming with us tonight was because until this morning I didn’t know he was coming. He only got discharged from hospital two days ago.”
Tony stared fixedly at Pepper’s hand clutching her BlackBerry. He couldn’t speak, he felt mortified.
“Now,” Pepper said eventually. “I’m going out to have a fantastic evening out with friends I haven’t seen in way too long.” She gave him a steely look as his eyes connected with hers. “I wouldn’t expect me home tonight.”
She turned on her heel and stormed out of the workshop, leaving a stunned Tony in her wake.
And that’s exactly where he sat two days later. He hadn’t moved from the workshop since she’d left. He hadn’t wanted to sleep in their bed without her in it, so he’d slept on the couch down there, and after months of having Pepper constantly around him, he didn’t feel like wandering around a Pepper-free house. He hadn’t seen, spoken to, or heard from her since she left and every single fibre of his being was screaming at him that this was it, he’d finally pushed her over the edge and she wasn’t coming back. How could she? He’d accused her of cheating on him for God’s sake. And with a war vet. Of all the things he’d ever thought she’d leave him for, this was a whole new category of douchebaggery.
To put it plainly, he was a prick.
He was surprised, therefore, when she arrived in his workshop an hour more into his pity party and handed him a stack of paperwork to sift through. He stared at her throughout her explanation of what exactly he was reading through, completely confused, and only snapping out of his daze when she started walking back towards the door.
“Pepper?” he called to her, standing up. She turned back to him, head tilting inquisitively. “Um…I want to apologise for the other day, for accusing you of…” he wafted his hand, not able to bring himself to say what he’d accused her of. “And…um…I don’t want things to be awkward between us at work or anything. Not that I expect you to stay here, cos you probably don’t want to be around me, which is understandable-”
“Wait,” Pepper interrupted, confused. “Tony, what are you talking about? I’m not going anywhere.”
Tony blinked. “But…we had a fight.” He said. “We broke up.”
Pepper’s eyebrows rose. “We broke up? When did we break up?”
Tony squinted at her. “We had a fight.” He repeated. “You…you walked out.”
Pepper’s face softened. “Tony…we had a fight, that doesn’t mean we broke up.” She walked up to him slowly. “Couples fight, its part of the deal.”
“But I accused you of cheating on me.” Tony said, backing up as Pepper stepped forwards. “You have every right to leave me.”
Pepper stopped. “Do you want me to leave you?”
“Of course not!”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I don’t deserve you.” He said bluntly. “There are a thousand reasons for you to walk away right now, after all the crap I’ve put you through over the years. I can be a horrible person sometimes and I’m possessive and jealous, and I jump to conclusions way to easily, but you don’t see those flaws, and I can’t understand why.” He leant back against his computer desk, defeated, and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Everyone I’ve ever loved has walked out on me, either voluntarily or otherwise, I just figured I’d made you do the same.”
Pepper sighed and walked up to him again. He stayed still and allowed her to bring her hands to his face and press a kiss to his lips.
“Do you remember how it felt the first time we did that? Our first kiss?” she asked him. He nodded mutely. “Tell me.”
Tony stared at her. “It felt…I felt like…” he sighed and closed his eyes. “It was like everything slotted into place.” He said finally. “Like I’d had this weight on my shoulders and it’d been lifted, and I knew.”
“Knew what?”
Tony smiled and opened his eyes. “That you’re it. You’re the one thing in my entire life that matters most to me. Everything else takes a back seat, and that it’s the bit of my personal jigsaw that was missing.”
Pepper smiled back at him and nudged his nose with hers. “I feel exactly the same way.” She said softly. “I see your flaws, but I see past them and I see you. I’m capable of making a lot of mistakes, but walking away from you is not one of them.”
Tony stared at her, blinked and then kissed her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She responded by weaving her fingers through his hair, humming happily.
“I love you.” Tony mumbled against her lips when he finally broke away.
“I love you too.” Pepper replied, kissing him again.
“Care to show me how much?” Tony asked, his hands sneaking down to grope Pepper’s ass. She laughed and rolled her eyes.
“You’re incorrigible.” She chuckled.
“Hmm, it’s a personal flaw.” He said, nudging her backwards towards the stairs.
“Well then,” Pepper said, reaching behind her to pull open the door. “It’s a good thing they don’t matter to me.”