didknowthat | appt. 1: video

[He notices the expression switch just a split second before she keeps talking, before she says words he doesn't hear, refuses to hear. Words his mind are muffling out, like they're trying to push their way through cotton.

Because he can practically see them on her lips before she even says it.

He died.

Coulson. Died.

The man who'd saved Pepper's life with Obadiah, who'd worked with him even in passing through the Palladium. He wouldn't call him a friend, not like he would Pepper and Rhodey, but if he'd had more time, another meeting with him, then maybe- he would have liked it. Coulson was... he didn't take Tony's shit. And people like that were few and far between. Even rarer were the people Tony trusted, the people who had put their lives on the line to help keep something he cared about safe. Someone safe.

It's like liquid nitrogen dripping down his spine, freezing him solid and making him brittle all at once. The deathly cold realization that Steve- Captain America. The big, ol' American Ideal. Truth, liberty, justice, and all that bullshit.

He must have known.

Coulson died. Dead. Another one- God. Another person he's known. Dead. And there has to be a story behind it. There has to be some reason Steve decided it would be better if Tony was lied to. Was he friends with Coulson, with Phil? Was it his fault?

He can see it being his fault. He pulled another asshole move. Self-centered, got himself into shit. And Coulson died getting him out of it. He could see it. That was the sad part. He could see it so easily.

But he has to speak, doesn't he? He has to look something other than carved out of stone, has to close his eyes in a slow blink, take a breath, and pull himself together. To just look sad and not- ... reasons. There's always reasons.]

Must've... been something. Big. I mean, Obie- [His voice catches on something bitter, but he pushes on, grinning just a little hollowly] -couldn't even scratch him. Bet he took half of them with him.

[She knows the kind of reaction it puts in Tony. Knows it all too well. So she lets him feel it, because there's no getting around it, really. Even if she does step back into his personal space again- if it were possible to get much closer, to squeeze his arm.]

I don't... know. Something to do with Thor and.. [What was the other one's name?] He took out the bad guy for a while, though.

[Phil's funeral had been the only thing she'd gone to or dealt with outside of looking for Tony. For finding a way of getting him back. She'd cried. Of course she'd cried.]

I don't know much of what happened. Just what was on the news... I was stuck watching from the jet. [And missing his last call.]

[He still thinks, somehow, that he can hide things like this from Pepper. That she can still look at his mask and see just that, the mask. The careful sadness people would normally have, the smile pulling at his lips that should have betrayed a fond sort of sadness.

He should know, by now, just how deep she can see into him. How she just knows how badly he actually takes the deaths of people he knows. Let alone the few people he lets himself feel friendship for.

Which is why he's letting her into his space, why he's just reaching out to place a hand on her hip, fingers wrapping warmly around her, holding her.]

Right, the lightning guy. Rogers told me about him. [He's looking at Pepper intently, now. Seriously. The same way he's looked at her in the middle of danger, of battles. Like he's wrapped up inside the suit, ready to lash out.] You avoided the alien invasion or whatever, then?

[He really doesn't know or understand just how nice it is to feel his hand on her- as innocent as it is, just because it's contact, him, something. Because he's alive and she knows she's crazy but she likes to imagine she can feel his heartbeat wherever he touches her. Maybe she is crazy, who knows. She'd have to be, to be in love with this idiot, after all.

So she nods, both for his statement, and his question.]

I took the jet out to DC the day before it happened. Everything was contained to Manhattan.

[He still thinks you're touched in the head for even being friends with him. Tony literally has no idea how he's managed to get Pepper to want to date him even once, let alone still be with him two years later.]

At least we managed something. [He's on a mission, now. Because if Steve hadn't told him about Coulson...

What else had Captain America left out?] Rogers said I saved the day, in the end. [Somehow, he manages a Tony Stark™ grin] Scale of one to ten, how kick-ass was it?

[You know, sometimes she doesn't know either. In the eleven years they'd known each other, it had somehow snuck up and bit her right on the ass.

And wow, has her expression ever flopped from annoyed to sad and somewhere in between faster? Probably, but she might be setting records, here.]

Eleven. [And now she just .. looks sad again. And maybe a little scared.]

[That... was the right answer. The answer she needed to get Tony leaning in again for another kiss, one hand against the small of her back, the other cupping gently against the side of her face, fingers stroking gently against her cheek. A reassuring gesture, one she'd no doubt seen him do on countless shy women he was coaxing into his bed. But this... this was the first time he'd done it without the intention of sex. That he'd done it simply for the sake of calming her down.

Because while it was what he wanted to hear, something was still wrong. He might not be the best when it comes to relationships, to emotions, hell even to friendships, but he did know Pepper. And he could practically feel something dark and unsaid wrapping around her.]

You never give me above a B-. And definitely not without notes. [Translation: something's wrong, Pepper. I just don't know how to ask what.]

[That was the right response, Anthony Stark. Letting her calm down again, reassuring her that he was there, intentionally or not. So she lets her eyes linger shut a few moments longer, lips tightening as he weaseled his way into asking without actually using a question. At least she can speak Stark.]

There was a nuke coming towards the city. You grabbed it and flew it into the portal. And then it closed. [And you were gone.]

[A language only three people fully understand. And out of those three, only Pepper could write the dictionary for it. She speaks Stark even better than Tony does, sometimes.

But Tony's still, now, both of his hands on Pepper's hips by the time she finishes the short, pained explanation. And he's just... standing there. Thinking. Staring at her face, her expression, letting the words sink in, lining them up with what Steve had said.

He'd done something stupid, that much they'd been over. But he'd saved the whole damn world, and while Captain America had said they'd gone for shawarma after... maybe that was because Pepper had come here, worked for Tony's life. And that result was what Steve had gotten.

Or maybe the lies had gone past omission.]

They were nuking Manhattan?

[There's a sense of ironic fucking justice in that, he'll give them that much.]

[She just nods, stiff and tight, still leaning into his hold that, gratefully, doesn't seem to be moving away.]

Whoever 'they' is. The government, I'd assume. ..The place was in ruins, and it didn't look like anything was going to stop it.

[No offense to the Avengers. Not that anyone knew they were called the Avengers at the time.]

I can think of a few assholes who'd have something to do with that.

[He pauses for a long moment, just breathing, concentrating on that first, the feel of Pepper in his arms second, and actually forcing himself to calm down third.

It's the only order that seems to be doing anything.]

So I, what. Died? [And there it is, the laugh. The roll of his eyes, the way he's stepping back and rubbing his hand against the arc reactor, reaching for his communicator, just to have something in his hands, something to distract himself, even a little.] That... sucks. I mean... fuck. On the one hand, awesome death. Saved the lives of everyone in New York. Iron Man, national hero.

But... come on. Nuke through a portal? You probably couldn't even see the explosion. And my armor's just floating through space, now. Not mounted in some museum dedica- [He's turning back to Pepper again, trying to look distracted, nonchalant.] Yeah, uh, you better make that happen. Dad can have his video and the expo. I want a whole goddamn museum.

Edited 2012-07-10 13:03 (UTC)

[Trust Tony to be able to joke about his own goddamn death. Pepper might have killed him if it didn't completely defeat the purpose of her being here. Maybe that was why he was from the past. He couldn't have been from her time because she hadn't saved him yet. Did that make sense? Sure, let's go with that.

So despite the rather irritated look she's giving him, she's pulling away again. ... Just to sit on the edge of his probably fairly unused bed. ... Or at least unused in the sense of it's actual purpose. Yes, she means sleep.]

I'm not making you a museum. You're not going to stay dead. That's why I'm here. We don't even know if you are dead- you're just .. Somewhere else in the universe. [Or dead.] So I'm here. The deal is if I work, you get to come back, alive and well.

[He barely sleeps, here. There's not much to do, and lab time is mostly monitored, but most of the time he either drinks until he passes out, or sketches, makes notes, does long-hand calculations, writes out lines of code, tweaks them until he finds himself waking up, streaked in ink, paper stuck to his cheek.

And Pepper... if he didn't joke, didn't make light of it... Well.]

The suit can only withstand a vacuum for a minute, at most. Less, if it's been damaged. [He's picking up a notebook, bending down and feeling behind his desk, coming up with one of his pens and starting in on sketching out the outline of his suit] C'mon, Pepper, think about it. Tony Stark: The Experience.

Actually, scrap the museum. Make it a theme park.

[Oh she knows. But that doesn't make it hurt any less. He's only hearing about it. Pepper wants to be selfish and say that's not the same, or nearly as bad, as having to live through losing him.]

Then it's a good thing I'm here, isn't it?

[Because he's all she has. And of course she'd do anything to get him back. Even if she'd never thought it possible before ... There just was no other option. And now, she even had him here with her. Regardless of whether he was from the wrong time. It was still Tony.]

I'm not making you anything. You're getting out of this alive.

[It's hard. Hearing it. Hearing that you die, even if you go out in a bang. Saving everyone. A real hero. It's never easy to hear that everything ends. On a certain date, at a certain time, no matter what... everything ends. That he's leaving everyone he cares about behind. Pepper, on a plane somewhere, watching him die on TV. That he'll be doing that to her. And he'll know it.]

It's been boring. [That's all he's saying. But the way he's moving over, sitting down so his shoulder is bumping against hers, hands tilting the sketchbook, flipping through some pages of suit designs, schematics. The breakdown of gauntlets, boots, chest-piece. There's even a new arc reactor design in there, key parts left out, of course.]

Yeah, no. Tony Stark theme park is happening. Let's put it in Kansas or something. Make it the new Las Vegas. They could sell those little bobble heads you said no on. We still have like two hundred thousand prototypes in storage.

[Shoulder to shoulder is nice. Nice enough that she's actually leaning against him, temple propped just lightly against his shoulder bone, eyes drawn down to watch him sketch or review old sketches or show her or whatever it is he's doing.

She's only half paying attention as it is.]

No bobbleheads. [Or maybe more than that.] How long have you been here?

Two months on the seventeenth. [He pauses, shifting just slightly to try and give her a bit comfier of a resting place.

Normally, he'd tease her. He'd feel uncomfortable. Try to lie down and sleep with her instead of just.. letting her prop herself up against him. But after what she'd said, with everything rolling around in his head...]

It's July ninth, now. And okay, fine. Bobbleheads are out. [He pauses, tapping his pen against the paper for a moment] Stark brand thongs?

[Such a gentleman. Letting her stay comfortable while he goes about his business. Even if ... the next suggestion is making her smile creep back onto her face. Briefly.

Should she?]

I have one of those. [Yes she should.]

[He manages to laugh at that, even if its a bit more subdued than it would have been otherwise.]

Seriously? I'm still paying for that one, aren't I? [He means favor-wise. He must have had to do a lot to get her to willingly put those on.]

Definitely still paying it off. [She's just as tiredly amused as he's coming across. Which isn't a lot, but it's something.]

You've met quite a few people while you've been here.

[Most people that had met him had even seemed .. alright with him. He hadn't caused any fusses, made any huge messes... It was almost odd.]

What can I say, I'm a people person.

[Can't you just feel the sarcasm hanging thick in the air? Can't you practically taste it? No?

... Yeah, he thought that was just him.]

It gets boring, I only have a set number of lab hours. Entertainment has to be found. [And thus he bugs people. And is forever weirded out that they seem more amused by it than anything]

[She hums a thoughtful noise.]

A lot of restrictions on the inmates, I guess. [Which sounds normal, ngl.] But I'm glad it's with people. You have a bad habit of secluding yourself, remember?

I'm working on getting JARVIS back, actually. And my sold folding bot is pretty much finished.

[AKA god he'd rather deal with AIs and bots. They're so much easier to deal with than people, Pepper. You have no idea.

No. Idea.]

Folding bot?

[That's curious. But hey, she's not a bot. Would you prefer she was? ... She kind of works like one, anyway. Except for the occasional cold.]

[Why would he want her to be a bot? She's soft and Peppery and... and Pepper.]

I needed something to do that can't be turned into some sort of psychotic weapon. It'll be like the chihuahua of helper bots.

appt. 1: video

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[spam] Fuck I meant sock.

[spam] sold sock SHES STILL WONDERING MANG

[spam] Mange is bad, Pepper

[spam] She got it from you.

[spam] stfu he gets tested every year you ass

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