Avengers Stories //Oneshots//

My World, My Better Half

This is a Pepperony story, with a special guest. Hint, she's a red headed assassin. I should probably make a Pepperony book lol- hope you enjoy!

It didn't usually take Tony more than a few minutes to figure out what to do for a project or a special event, especially when he was sitting on his lab bench like he was doing now. That was how his brain worked: he could run everything down to each scenario and figure out which thing would be best to do. That was how he figured out what to do for each Maria Stark Gala or fundraiser that he was in charge of. Although, once Pepper became his PA, she was the one to shoot ideas since his tended to.... how did she put it? Become a potential fire hazard? Yeah, that's what she told him and she wouldn't list to his argument that the fire thing was just a one time incident and.... he was rambling to himself again, darn it. This was the worst time for him to lose focus.

He figured that the reason he couldn't come up with anything this time was because it wasn't Pepper pitching the ideas. In fact, she knew nothing about his thought process right now, which was very unusual. He usually rambled about every idea he had to his CEO, from the good ideas to the bad. She had no qualms in telling him when he was being stupid and that was something he loved about her - what was he saying, he loved everything about her. Which was why he was trying to make their first Valentine's Day special and he was running out of time, considering it was tomorrow and it was currently 11:15 in the evening.

The billionaire never had much interest in Valentine's before. He would buy thousands of chocolate boxes for his employees and a funny card for each of his three friends - wow that sounded sad now that he thought about it - in the past, but that was it. He never actually tried to woo any woman on Valentine's Day, something that would undoubtedly surprise many people due to his past escapades. But Pepper wasn't just any woman. No, she was brave, intelligent, kind, quick-witted, beautiful, and she had put up with his crap for so long that she deserved so much more than what he could give. She deserved the world, no, the universe, and as much as he wanted to give her that, it had no price tag for him to buy it. He could seize the world with his Ironman suits, but running Earth would just be more stress on her.

  He was rambling again, wasn't he? The point was that he wanted to give Pepper the best first Valentine's Day ever, even if he had to top it next year. With everything that happened with him almost dying last year and giving her about a million heart attacks, she deserved something amazing and yet he couldn't think of anything.

Tony fiddled with a stray wrench, tapping the metal against an area of his table that was scorched to oblivion. His other hand was supporting his chin, elbow on the table as he thought. His brown eyes moved from the table to the large banquet of red roses, heart shaped box of chocolates bigger than the Ironman suit's chest plate, and card he got her. A little white teddy bear sat in front of the pile of gifts. They were his Plan B if he couldn't come up with a Plan A, although he would give it all to her anyway. He just wanted to do more than just buy her things. His mother said that the best things could not be bought with money, they were experienced. But he couldn't think of anything good. Movies? They wouldn't be able to talk like they did on movie nights. Fancy restaurant? Too overrated.

He sighed, letting the wrench drop with a clatter before banging his head against the table. Repeatedly. He only stopped when Jarvis asked drily, "sir, you'll leave an imprint on your head if you keep doing that and I do not want to hear you whining about it later." Tony sighed heavily, dropping his head with one final 'thunk.' "What do I do, J?" He asked, voice slightly muffled by the metal slab in front of him. "I've never had this much trouble thinking of something to do, but that's because Pepper helps."

"Perhaps you should ask someone with the proper experience or knowledge of what to do?" The AI asked, familiar British tone becoming more gentle. "Although you clearly don't like to ask for help." There was that sarcastic sass he loved.