Iron Heart

Dances and Burning Flames

For this chapter I recommend listening to:

Audiomachine-Akkadian Empire

Or

Hollow-Tori Kelly

Pepper's hand shook violently. She tried to control her moving limb but the action was useless. She heard a laugh behind her. She turned to see Mira standing in a robe, smiling at her.

"Here." Her best friend began, "Let me help you with this." Mira gently took the black mascara out of Pepper's hand. Pepper chuckled as well leaning closer towards the short brunette.

"I could've done it you know." Pepper whispered as Mira slowly wiped the mascara brush over her blonde lashes.

"No I got it." Mira smirked. "trying to keep your lunch down is already hard enough for you." At this Pepper playfully glared Mira's way. Well as much as she could glare with a brush holding up her eyelid. Mira noticing her intentions laughed loudly.

"I don't understand why you're so nervous?" Mira smiled. "I mean I could honestly care less about it." She explained.

Pepper blushed, "well that's because you don't actually like Brian."

Mira laughed before raising her hands in surrender. "True."

Brian was the boy who was accompanying Mira to homecoming. He was close friends with both girls and in all honesty that's all they ever thought of each other. In fact, Brian wasn't even planning on asking Mira. He originally wanted to ask Shayenne, the blonde cheerleader who sat by him in biology. She was one of the only girls, besides Pepper and Mira to communicate with him outside of school. He made a big plan to ask her during Fridays bio period. Before he could, star running back Lee James stood out of his desk and popped the question. Brian was trapped. There was literally nowhere he could hide his sign. So Mira, The ever giving person she is, thought quick and took the poster from Brian's hands. She smiled before saying "Of course I'll go to formal with you Brain." And now they had to follow through on that.

Pepper smiled as her and Mira stared in the mirror at the makeup and hair. "Dresses?" Mira asked

"Dresses."

Tony checked his watch yet again. Still the girls had yet to come down. He stared across the room to find Brian looking up the stairs. He shifted slightly, puffing out his chest. Tony didn't like Brian.

Tony definitely didn't like how close him and Pepper were.

Pepper laughed when he told her. She told him they were just really good friends. He was a nice guy. But tony saw the way he looked at Pepper. So he stood taller and puffed out his chest to show him. He was Tony Stark; he should be feared.

However, his chest fell back in when he caught sight of red hair at the top of the stairs.

Mira came down in a strapless pink dress that fell to her knees. She'd ditched the glasses and put her hair over her shoulder in a loose braid.

Behind her was Pepper. She wore a black and white dress that came to mid-thigh. She'd done light makeup and curled her hair into a loose bun. She was breathtaking. Literally, He couldn't breathe. Then she met his eyes and smiled.

Tony was a goner.

He smiled back walking to the edge of the stairs. He held out his arm which Pepper gladly took. Then they posed for thousands of photos before walking towards Tony's black Jeep.

"You look beautiful Pep." Tony whispered reaching across the seat to grab her hand. A blush stained the red-head's cheeks. She smiled softly responding to his comment with a gentle squeeze of his hand.

From the backseat Mira smiled. Maybe she was wrong, maybe Pepper really had changed the notorious playboy.

Pepper stood to the side of the dance floor waiting for Tony to return with their drinks. They were having the best time tonight. They'd constantly danced laughing loudly with the upbeat songs. For the slower ones they'd talked random favorites. She now knew Tony's favorite food was his mom's homemade mac N' cheese and his favorite color was hot rod red. She was watching the drink tables when she smelled something strange. Turning her head towards the stage she sniffed again.

Was that......Smoke?

And just. Like. That.

Flames roared to life starting from the far right and burst in columns around the rest of the stage area. Pepper stumbled in shock when she realized the flames were contained. Whoever set them off hadn't wanted to hurt anyone.

They'd wanted a distraction.

"Tony." The words left her mouth in a whisper. She whipped towards the drink table and began pushing her way through the crowd.

"TONY!" she screamed in terror.

Suddenly a hand grabbed her mouth puling her next to a set of balloons. She bite and kicked at her attacker. The hand left her mouth and for a second she believed she had won. Then a white cloth replaced it and Pepper felt herself getting drowsy. Her Kicks lost force and she began to close her eyes. She was dropped to the ground, hitting her head......hard.

She was too tired to even groan. Her attacker bent down to her eyelevel and smiled at her. He then took off running with the crowd. There was something familiar about his face, Pepper couldn't quite remember where she'd seen him before but she had seen him.

The drowsiness became too much and suddenly everything was black.

Hey guys! I'm so sorry. I know I promised I would post this sooner but I actually Broke my collarbone pretty badly! I had to have surgery and all that fun stuff. So I got back to writing as fast as I could. Again I'm sorry I didn't post this earlier but it's here know so enjoy it! As for next week pepper will wake up in the hospital. Obviously the person didn't kidnap her or actually hurt her. He used it as a warning so when she wakes up Tony will ask her what happened and she's gonna respond with an I tripped. So tony will either

Believe Pepper

Or

Know she's lying and the get into an argument.

Leave your vote in the comments below.