Work Text:
'I love you.'
The text flashed across the top of Pepper's phone screen, disappearing a couple seconds later, and Pepper thought she'd imagined it. Frowning, she shifted from her emails to open the message. It was still there, right below Tony's request for a certain type of coffee that morning before he left for Afghanistan.
She rolled her eyes, not bothering to respond. He was either tipsy on the plane or about to ask her for some stupid favor.
Although, a glance at the time proved that he should have landed and likely done with his speech by now. He wouldn't be drunk. Not yet.
She waited for the favor text, the 'can you arrange for me to buy this' or 'can you go do this.' It never came, and she decided not to answer. She'd learned not to take anything Tony said with a lot of meaning. He said whatever first came to his mind, rambled more than anyone she'd met in her life, and was rarely sentimental.
The text didn't come.
Confused but not surprised, she decided not to answer. Whatever Tony wanted, he'd tell her later. Right now, she was finishing up work before heading home and getting ready to go out with her friends for her birthday because, as she told Tony, she was allowed to have plans on her birthday.
An hour later, she was packing her bag when her phone rung. Expecting Tony, she didn't bother to check the caller ID, hitting the button to answer. "What do you-"
"Pepper," her brain was thrown for a loop because that was not Tony's voice, it was Rhodey, sounding so distraught that she stopped breathing.
"Rhodey, what happened?"
He drew a shaky breath that had her heart dropping. "The convoy was attacked. They took Tony. He's missing, Pepper. I don't..."
Her hearing stopped working. She dropped back onto the couch, her legs unable to hold her up as she pressed a hand to her mouth. Suddenly, the mansion felt cramped, too small to hold her struggling lungs.
"When?" She managed to ask, phone so tightly held in her hand that she might break it.
He paused. "It happened at approximately 8:37 your time. I-" There was the sound of someone speaking to him, too far away for Pepper to make out. "I have to go. We're going to search for him. I'm going to find him. I promise."
"Call me if anything happens. Stay safe."
"I will."
The call ended and Pepper found herself going back to Tony's message earlier, numb fingers fumbling to press the buttons.
He'd messaged her at 8:39.
She dropped the phone, unable to breathe once more. JARVIS spoke to her, his voice sad. She didn't hear him. All she could think about was her last memory of Tony, of his grin, of his last "That will be all, Miss Potts."
She pressed her hands over her face and sobbed.
____
Rhodey found him three months later.
Honestly, Pepper wasn't sure how it had been three months. She went through the motions, didn't think too hard about anything because thinking led to Tony, then the text, and then crying-
And now her eyes were stinging as he stepped off the plane, hurt and exhausted but alive.
"A few tears for your long lost boss?"
She'd almost laughed. He was here. He was home. "Tears of joy. I hate job hunting."
Then she'd done something neither of them truly expected.
She hugged him.
Even with one arm, his returning embrace was tight, holding her against him like he never wanted to let go again. Pepper didn't want to either, but they had to, and then they were in the car and Tony was asking for a cheeseburger and a press conference.
A twist in her stomach said everything was about to change.
Neither of them said anything about the text.
_____
It was after the press conference, after the chaos of a million cameras and reporters asking questions, after Tony had been home for a few hours when Pepper descended the steps to find him in his dimly lit lab, holograms floating around him and reflecting in his eyes.
She wasn't supposed to be here. She knew that. She was supposed to have gone home. She had, for a while, but she couldn't sleep, words rolling on her tongue and keeping her awake no matter how many sheep she counted. She hadn't even bothered to change from a t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants she'd owned since college. Her heels were left at her empty apartment, replaced by a pair of old sneakers that had never before touched the lab floor. Her hair hung around her shoulders, loose from where she couldn't stop running her hands through it.
Tony was in a similar situation. He'd discarded his sling, against doctor's orders. His hair was a mess and he wore his favorite AC/DC t-shirt and sweatpants she bought him after he stained all the others.
She could see his eyes from where she stood. Tired - no, exhausted - but a deep determination in them that she'd never seen before.
Afghanistan had changed him.
But this - she could see her Tony. The Tony he was when no one else was looking. Not Tony Stark. Tony. Her friend.
Or maybe something else.
"Tony?" His name fell off her lips in a whisper and he turned, spinning in his chair to face her with clear surprise. The pale blue of his arc reactor, the thing keeping him alive, showed through his shirt.
"Pepper? What are you doing here?"
"I..." She hesitated, and it was enough for him to stand, concern and confusion in his eyes.
"Pep?" He walked closer and Pepper was caught somewhere between bolting and running to him. He reached her before she could make that choice, taking her fidgeting hands in his. "What's wrong?" He asked quietly, as if he hadn't been the one gone in a cave for the last three months, and shouldn't be out of his sling in the first place and the chance he was alive had fallen below a percent but here he was-
"I love you, too."
The words left her mouth, quiet and yet they expanded to fill the entire space. Neither of them breathed, blue eyes locked with brown, and the longer the silence lasted, the more Pepper regretted that she'd said them. Not because they weren't true, but because she may have just messed up their entire dynamic. She'd have to resign, she couldn't, they couldn't-
"What?" He finally breathed. He hadn't let go of her hands. Maybe that was a good sign.
"Your text. It... I got it, but- I didn't answer, and your phone wasn't recovered, I..." She shook her head and stepped away, trying to flee from the situation that she hadn't wanted to happen. "I shouldn't have-"
"Wait." He pulled her back to him, gentle and careful. "You should. I mean, not-" He blinked hard, taking a breath before speaking again, slower and calmer. "You kept me going in that cave, Pepper."
"I did?"
"Remembering your voice. Your face. Everything. I had dreams, about you, and all I wanted to do was go home." He moved a hand and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear before returning it to her grasp. "I didn't think my text made it to you."
"Did you mean it?"
"Every single word." He gave her a soft smile that faded into something like regret. "I didn't show it, I know, I haven't acted like it, but y'know me and feelings are terrifying, so I just, I don't know, ignored them as best I could because Pep, you know me, I burn everything I touch and I didn't want you to get hurt."
She squeezed his hands. "I'm not hurting now. Are you?"
"No, it's... it's the exact opposite." He ran his thumb over her knuckles. "But I can't... I'm not a good guy, Pep. I'm trying to be."
"That's more than you can say for some men."
"I want to fix everything. I want you by my side for it. I wouldn't be alive without you as it is - I can't keep going without you. I listen to you more than anyone else and you keep me out of the fire."
"Really?" She joked, cracking a smile that he reflected.
"Really. I need you as not my PA. You've never really been my PA. A partnership, a..." He paused, eyes lighting up with an idea. "You can be my CEO."
"You're the CEO." She pointed out, head spinning. If not for Tony's hands grounding her, she might have fell.
"There's no rule about two CEOs. I'd break it anyway if there was one. Pepper Potts, you are now my Co-CEO."
"There'll be paperwork-"
"I'll do it."
"And Obadiah-"
"I'll handle him."
She took a steady breath. "You really want me to be this?"
"I want you to be you. I love you." He pressed his forehead against hers, nervousness and adoration fighting for control in his eyes.
"I love you, too." She tilted her head and pressed her lips onto his in a kiss. She pressed all the love, the relief that he was home, the built up emotions - she put it all into one kiss that she hoped he understood.
When they broke apart, she had her arms around his neck and his arms were holding her, their foreheads together again in a moment she didn't want to let go of and yet fear crept in anyway.
"I know everything about the business." She spoke softly. "But I don't know how we're going to do this part. A relationship."
"We'll figure it out. We've got each other, don't we?"
"We do."
This time, he kissed her, and she allowed herself to let go of the worries, to just focus on what was happening now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next year.
Because Tony was right here with her, and that was all she really needed.
"We should go on a date. Now." Tony suggested as soon as he could.
"I don't have any clothes to change into."
"No, no, we don't need to go out. Funny movie on the couch. I've got popcorn. Dum-E, go make popcorn." An excited beep and a crash followed his words, and he sighed, exasperated while she laughed. "I'll make the popcorn. You pick the movie."
"I can do that." She linked her hand into his. "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?"
"No, Miss Potts. I will never have enough of you."