Erosion of the Heart

Good-Bye Mr.Stark

"Tony." Pepper's voice came softly to his ear as he stayed hunched over his work sketching out new blueprint designs for the tower he'd been planning to construct in New York. The soft breath from her whisper sent a shiver down his spine and jolted him out of his concentration, his head rose with a smile growing on his face.
"Hey!" He happily greeted her letting his pencil fall on the desk with a 'snap' and stood to snake his arm around her waist. Only to have her gentle hands push his arm away and she took three steps back from him to put distance between herself and his toned chest with that bright light in the middle. She didn't look at his face her gaze fixed on the arc reactor in his chest. Tony's smile quickly dropped and he looked down at himself feeling a little self conscious about her stare. Was there something wrong?
"Hey, Pep? Something wrong?" He asked concern raising his brows and softening his voice.
She shook her head quickly refusing to bring her eyes to him,"I'm.. we're done Tony."
Silence.
Stillness.
"What?" He finally recovered from the shock of the words he'd just heard.
"We, this, us: it's over." She said again gaze still diverted.
"Wait" Tony tried catching her gaze leaning into her eyes sight line to try and look her in the eyes. "Is this, you're joking. Right?"
"No." She finally gave in her eyes were dead set on him. No tears, not even traces. What emotion was that in her eyes? No frown, or smile. No hysteria. There was something very off about this. She was so calm, and even though he'd been instantly panicked and worried, some how her sense of composure made him feel he had to do the same thing.
"I don't understand" He tried to keep his voice and breath steady though the shake was there after every exhale, "Did I do something?"
"No. It isn't you Tony." She shook her head blond hair waving over her shoulders, "It's-"
He interrupted her, "It's not you it's me? Really, that's what you're going with?" Though he was holding back the urge to break down it was clear he was upset.
"Yes. It is Tony! You're a wonderful guy, despite the usual frustrations we go through you're dare I say 'perfect'. You're kind and romantic and always so willing to give."
"Yeah, I know!" He snapped, "But I'm not the problem here is what you're saying. You're saying it's you. What is this Pepper, some kind of self pity party? You don't 'deserve' a guy as good as me? Is that what you decided?"
She let out a sigh and backed away further from him.
"Pep. Pepper! Wait- we can talk about this." He held up his hands as if trying to convince a frightened person he was unarmed and meant no harm to them.
"Good bye Mr. Stark." She shook her head once more giving him one last glance and a smile as she slipped out of his sight from the door.
Silence again.
Stillness again.
Confusion. What just happened? Why? Why? Whywhywhy?! What did he do? What should he do?!
Now panic set in. What should he do?! Run after her? What does she want?! Why? What did he do?!

"Sir." Jarvis spoke from above sensing his tension. In a soft almost sympathetic tone replied, "Miss Potts has left the premises." As if to tell him, if he was going to run after her, he was too late now. Suddenly all his emotion disappeared. Something that usually happened with the help of a lot of alcohol, perhaps his mind finally trained itself to give him the affect without the actual drinking. But fuck it. He was going to drink anyway. He left the unfinished blueprints on his desk and found the mini bar of his mansion, taking a glass down and setting four ice cubes in the cup but decided he'd drink it straight from the bottle.
'Maybe there was someone else.' He thought. 'Someone she'd been seeing behind my back.' 'Maybe she was lying. Maybe it is me.' He tipped the bottle back trying to configure all the variables, outcomes, percentages. But nothing added up. Nothing made sense here! Just 'good bye'?! No warning signs, precursors to an affair, or losing interest before hand. Nothing.
Fuck.
"FUCK!" He yelled over the bottle and shoved it away. The half empty bottle crashed to the floor. Four long years of building their relationship, just done. Everything they built and worked on with each other, didn't matter anymore. Four years, over in four seconds.
"Fffff—" he leaned over the counter squeezing his eyes shut when the sting of tears became unbearable the lump in his throat throbbed holding back a heavy sob.
Pepper was gone, without a reason or explanation. It was the worst she could ever do to him. His curiosity began to eat at him, self doubt grew like a thicket of thorny weeds and the only comfort he had now was the fancy liquor bottles lining the mini bar's shelves. Trying to convince himself he'd done the right thing; just letting her go. Before eventually at some point in the early morning hours of dawn he passed out on the floor among broken glass and spilled alcohol.