Light of my Life (STONY)

The Funeral

Tony's POV

"When I had nobody I had Pepper," I sighed. It was a private funeral, close friends only. "I remember, the first time I met her, she was sat in a coffee shop for her interview to be my assistant. The first thing she said, was 'It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr Stark,' and my first impression was 'oh my god she's gonna be all proper and use perfect grammar and just be annoying'. But I stuck with it.

"Out of everyone I interviewed, she was the only one interested in the company over how much she was gonna get paid for all of this, so I asked her how long she'd been in the secretary/assistant field and she said it was her first interview, and I remember I just swore at her." I laughed a little, remembering her reaction. "Not in a bad way, but in a 'she's so professional how is this her first job' sort of way, and she looked at me and went 'Mr Stark, I don't think that's very appropriate,' and that's when I knew that's when I wanted to hire Pepper Potts.

"That's kind of how she acted for the first like... 6 months, maybe, tops. Then she got more comfortable and let herself be more like herself, and she seemed to enjoy everything so much more. That's kind of how she was with everyone. Kind, quiet, reserved, kept herself to herself for a very long time. You could always tell there was something underneath, that couldn't be her in a nutshell, no way.

"I remember when I first really got to know her, my opinion, my thoughts of her changed entirely. She used to be 'Pepper the assistant, quiet, chilled out, shared her thoughts in a calm, respectful manner', you know? And then we started dating and she turned to 'Pepper the maniac that I now live with'." A few people laughed at this, I did too. "But she was also 'Pepper my girlfriend, slightly crazy, always taking care of me, respectful, shares everything, generous' sort of thing and I don't know why she decided that I would be the one she wanted to fall asleep next to every night.

"Pepper, I didn't deserve you, we always knew that. Doesn't mean I love you any less." I stepped down from the podium and went and sat back down as Rhodey got up so say something.

The funeral was beautiful. The church Rhodey found and I agreed with was quite small, made of stone and had flowers in vases at the end of every row. There was only about 3 rows of people plus 2 reporters that I didn't want there but since Pepper was my girlfriend and I'm relatively well-known, they forced me to let them in.

After she was cremated, we drove up to 'our spot', we used to call it. We changed our mind about scattering her ashes at the old house - it was far away and I wanted her somewhere close to our new home. I'd come with Rhodey and Steve, so I dropped Rhodey home and began to drive back to the Stark Industries tower.

"Your speech was great." I sighed, my eyes focused on the road.

"I'd prepared an actual speech but I didn't wanna use it. I honestly had no idea what I was gonna say, I just said it." We sat in silence for a moment until JARVIS interrupted us.

"Mr Rogers, call from Natasha Romanoff is incoming."

"Pick up, JARVIS," Steve sighed.

"Steve, we've located Bruce."

"What? Where?"

"It was more he located us. He's at the tower, be quick."

"We're almost back, we'll just be a couple minutes, right?" I nodded and put on a small burst of speed to get us home faster. Once back, I locked the car and Steve bolted to the elevator.

"I wonder how he got back," I murmured.

"I dunno," replied Steve. "Hope he's okay, though." I nodded and we finally reached the 'living quarters' floor. Together, we walked in to see Bruce sat on the couch with Nat in front of the fire.