"Thanks for coming."
You let out a sigh of relief, laying back next to him, and you side glanced him with a soft smile, reaching over to squeeze his hand reassuringly.
"Of course."
He let out a deep breath, always embarrassed after it was done for how he acted just minutes before, but you never judged him, and you always took the time to assure him that it was completely normal. That's why you'd usually stay the day or night – depending on when he would call, because you knew he needed someone who understood this with him, and Pepper wasn't as sympathetic when it came to this. You didn't know much about the reasoning behind that, and you've never even met his wife before – dealing strictly with Happy Hogan and Stark himself, but you didn't ask. You were always taken through the private entrance when you got here, and you wanted it to stay that way if you were honest.
"Pizza?" He offered, like he usually did, and you gave him a nod before he sat up to call it in while you followed suit, a bit slower, until you were sitting up on the bed.
He paced the room in front of you while he called the front desk to have a pizza brought up from a local place with your guys' usual toppings and you took the throw blanket from the bottom of the bed into your lap, unfolding it before wrapping it around your shoulders.
"Cold?" He asked after hanging up and you nodded, "Want me to up the temperature?"
"No, it's okay," You shivered, smiling up at him shakily, and you knew your eyes were bloodshot, "It'll pass in a few minutes like it always does."
He sighed, sitting next to you before he put an arm around your shoulders, rubbing his hand up and down your arm, and then he kissed the top of your head affectionately.
"I don't pay you enough for this."
"You pay me plenty," You argued with a small huff, leaning into his warm side as your eyes fell closed, "And keeping all this shit between us is a solid bonus."
"Back at you." He smirked, his normally cocky demeanor completely gone in these moments of vulnerability, and if saw him for the first time on television before doing this with him, you wouldn't recognize the man in front of you.
So, the rest of the night was spent eating junk food, drinking some of the best liquor you've ever tasted, and catching up with the billionaire who you haven't seen in almost two months. Neither of you mentioned what you came here for, just talking about relationships, work, school, and his next project or event he was going to attend. He told you had gotten a new tailor and you told him about the most recent paper you wrote for class. Neither of you lived in the same world, so it was nice for each of you to hear about the other side.
Happy brought you home around four in the morning when the billionaire had finally dozed off and the ride was silent before he decided to break it about halfway there.
"He likes you – he trusts you."
"Hm? Oh," You smiled, being pulled out of your own thoughts in time to know what he meant, and you smirked before adding, "Yeah, I like him too, he's nicer in person."
You met Tony about three years ago when you had gone on a 'straight date' as you called them, with one of your mother's friend's sons and it was fancy schmancy, but it ended quickly. Your parents didn't know everything about your lifestyle, and you weren't keeping it from them, it just never really came up until something like this happened. But anyway, so you went to some gala with your rich date who was donating some massive amount to this place or whatever – he was a dull boy, and that night you had met some pretty powerful people.
The one that had your eye for most of the night though, was Anthony Edward Stark.
The atmosphere changed the moment he walked in fashionably late with a gorgeous Miss Potts on his arm, both dripping in expensive attire, and you kept an eye on him the entire night because for you, the change in the atmosphere wasn't because the richest man on the planet had finally made his entrance.
