Don't Leave Me Here - Starker

23

"You're spiraling."

"Oh my God-"

"You're not listening."

"What if he says no?"

"He's not going to say no."

"And if this doesn't go perfectly-"

"Do I need to call Rhodey?"

Pepper's words stopped him in his tracks. Tony had been pacing through the room, lost in his thoughts, and ignoring any logical thing she'd said so far that morning. But this was finally enough to catch his attention.

"Don't you dare." He said, giving her a pointed look.

"He could help! Obviously I'm not!"

"No way- Do you honestly think he would help here? Or make it worse?" Tony grumbled, rolling his eyes.

"He wouldn't do that. Besides do you honestly think Peter is going to say no?" Pepper asked, trying to reason with the panicked man before her.

"No, I don't think he would say no, but that doesn't mean I can't be nervous." He sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. "It's not every day I propose to someone Pep!"

She bit back her laughter. "Honestly, I would've guessed you had proposed before."

He silenced her with a glare, extremely unamaused.

"Okay- jokes are not going to work today." She said, shrinking away from his gaze. "I'm calling Rhodey."

"Pepper-"

"I don't want to hear it, Tony. I still have to get things ready for this evening, and I cannot babysit you right now."

"I think I'm going to be sick-"

"Friday, get Rhodes here, please." Pepper told the AI as she fawned over Tony.

"Right away, Ms. Potts."

"Okay, let's go sit down, yes?"

She ushered him into a chair, fanning him slightly with the stack of papers she held. "You have to take a deep breath, honey. You've gotten yourself so worked up."

Tony nodded. "I just- didn't think I would be this nervous."

"We can always postpone? If you need to." Pepper offered.

Tony refused immediately, though. "No- absolutely not. I don't want to waste another day, I am asking him tonight."

She nodded, smiling lightly. "Okay well-"

"What the hell happened to you?"

Rhodey wore a confused look on his face as he looked at his best friend, who was currently a light shade of green.

Tony glanced at Pepper as if to say 'I told you so,' who offered a sympathetic smile in return.

"I need to work on getting things set up for the evening. But he's having a difficult time moving himself along this morning." She explained. "Could you please-"

"Yeah, I got it." Rhodey replied waving her concern away.

Pepper's phone rang, pulling her attention. They could hear her arguing with someone over the phone as she left the room, grateful they hadn't been the people on the other end of that call.

"I don't think I've ever seen you like this."

"Yeah, well-" Tony sighed. "I'm excited, really. I want everything to go perfectly, but I can't help but think I'm going to screw this up somehow."