Thaw

Fourteen

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"Can I ask you something?"

Tony looked up sheepishly, her mouth overstuffed with Moo Goo Gai Pan. There was a green bean attempting to escape her as she clamped her lips firmly and tried to wrestle it back with her tongue. She nodded at the question, but that only aided the runaway's endeavours and she scrambled with hands full of takeout containers and chopsticks. "Mmphf!," she cried, and Steve couldn't help but grin. 

"Watch your mouth, young lady," he said sternly. She attempted to shoot him a glare but dissolved quickly into choking laughter. "Ahh," she sighed out when she finally had swallowed her rebellious morsels and could breathe again. "You nearly did me in, Rogers."

"Sorry," he smiled brightly, clearly not sorry at all. Tony took a long draught of her soda and fixed him with an amused look. "What was the question?"

He suddenly blushed and she felt a surge of endearment spring up in her chest. I'll never get tired of that, she thought with certainty. For someone so straight up awe-inspiring, he was such a dork, and she absolutely loved it.

"Are you, well... I don't mean to pry, but, I just - well I'd hate to cause any, um..."

"Honey, you gotta ask before you get an answer," she intimated gently. His blush reached his ears.

"Are you, seeing anyone?"

It was Tony's turn to blush.

____

"What do you mean, am I seeing anyone, Happy?"

Down a few levels, Pepper stared roundly at her friend and colleague. This was the last question she would have expected from his mouth. 

"I'm just, I just want to know if I need to start vetting anyone, you know, like my job."

"God, Happy," she laughed out with a strange sense of relief settling on her. "When would I even have the time to meet someone?"

"Thank God for small miracles," he murmured to himself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

____

"I'm sorry, that's not really for me to, I just mean - I wouldn't want to cause any problems for you by staying here. If there's anyone who -"

"There's no one," Tony interrupted quickly, almost breathlessly. "No one. Don't worry." 

"Oh." Steve's features relaxed slightly, but his shoulders stayed squared tightly. "Because, I know you're going to that thing tonight, and.... well if you had a date, or - I mean.... I could leave."

The petite woman stiffened suddenly, and Steve caught a glimpse of Peggy in the steel of her eye. With her words following, it felt like a one-two punch in an alley in Brooklyn.

"You don't know a damn thing about me."

"Wh-what?"

"Have you been reading Us Weekly all day or something? What the hell, Rogers."

His surname sounded so different now than it had a minute previous. Dread settled over him like a veil over his eyes. "I didn't mean to -"

"Shut up," she snapped. "Listen to me. People want to believe what's easiest, what makes them least culpable. People want to see me as a whore so they don't feel guilty about stealing any sense of privacy I have. They want to call me a thief and a liar and a homewrecker so anything and everything I say is discredited, and they can undermine me without remorse. People want to see me branded a slut so they can feel superior to me, so they won't feel intimidated. Well, screw people. They want to paint my portrait as a harlot? Let them. But don't you dare stand in their gallery and say it's a true likeness."

Tony rose a left the room with the swift grace of a warrior queen. A door slammed down the hall and Steve winced. "That's not what I meant," he mumbled to the Chinese food she'd discarded. 

____

"You're being too hard on him," Pepper said quietly as she handed Tony her garment tape. Dressing in designer gowns took a little more preparation with an arc reactor to hide. The other woman shrugged and looked away, avoiding her eye. "Like, way too hard. Tony, you have more reason than most to be guarded, but don't assume everyone thinks the worst."

"Drop it," Tony ordered, in a tone she rarely used with the redhead. She stared straight into the mirror, putting on her earrings and adjusting the neckline of her dress, before getting up to leave. Pepper put a hand on her arm and she flinched, hard.

"I will," her assistant said in a soothing voice. "I promise. But you have to promise not to treat him like the enemy. You know he's not."

"I don't know anything," Tony replied in a voice that held almost as much ice as Rogers' impromptu coffin. Pepper held her gaze, though, and the petite woman thawed ever so slightly. "But I'll try."

This gala was gonna suck.

A/N: Hi everyone! It's short, I know, but I figured better something than nothing. I've had several lovely people ask me if I was planning to continue this story - the answer is yes (kind of obvious now), but I have a very busy schedule and a brain with limited capacity. So please, read if you like, I'm happy when people enjoy it! And I will write when I have the time/inspiration. I'm sorry it's not very often, but I just do this because I love it :)

Thanks! XO, FF