Part One; Hey guys, I've never written fan fiction before, this is my first go.. I hope you like it, please rate comment and become a fan if you like it. <3
I also make a warning here.. THERE WILL BE SEX SCENES. So if you are not comfortable with that, don't read it.
Karina xx
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Tony Stark was not a man to show his feelings or emotions, to anybody. Not even his best friend and personal assistant; Virginia Pepper Potts.
Except Pepper, as she preferred to go by, knew Tony too well. She knew when he was upset or angry, she just never pushed it. Except for the occasion where Tony would lock himself away in his lab and wouldn't leave for anything. This was one of those times.
Tony had been locked away in his lab for the past six days, having not showered or eaten, living off coffee and scotch, it was making Pepper worried. Pepper had tried to protest many times but nothing would work and Tony would ignore her every time and continue with his work.
She arrived at Tony’s place at 8am on Monday morning and walked straight to the kitchen, like she did every day and sighed. It’s now Tony's 7th day in the lab with no food, other than coffee and scotch. A frown set on her face as she spoke.
"Jarvis, any sign of him leaving?" She asked the artificial intelligence robot that ran Tony's Malibu beach house and Stark towers. She never understood how, all she knew was that Jarvis was brilliant at it.
"I'm afraid not, Miss Potts... He simply refuses to leave." Replied the British accent, which came out of no where. Pepper had got used to Jarvis years ago, Tony built him before they met, she still found it odd how Tony’s best friends were robots. It was just something else she was used to by now. But Tony being locked away in the lab for this long was something she wasn’t used to. This was bad, she'd never seen Tony lock himself away this long. It worried her. What's he doing? It can't be that important? Why's he hiding away? What's happened to make him so upset?
Pepper knew when Tony hid away like this, it wasn't just because he found himself a project that he needed to finish. Or that he had to work on something because the world depended on a new Stark invention. She knew, it was because something had made Tony upset and Tony knew no way of expressing his feelings or emotions, he’d never had to before. He always bottled them up. Instead he would simply concentrate on his work. Pepper had no doubt of the fact that some of his best work had been made when Tony locked himself away and worked, but this was unhealthy. She needed to stop him before he made himself sick.
I'll try again.. I'll go and talk to him, maybe this time he'll give in, just eat something and shower... Or just come out and talk. She knew it wouldn't happen but she had to make herself believe. Give herself some hope that Tony would feel better soon and he would go back to the annoying, ignorant ass of a boss he was.
Pepper made a coffee for Tony before heading down to the lab. She never went downstairs without one, since it was all he was living off, she preferred he had something instead of nothing. Once she made the coffee she began to make her way down the flight of stairs slowly and stared through the glass, her eyes searching for Tony and there he was. In the exact position she'd left him in the day before; perched on a step in front of his hot rod. Had he even moved since then? She frowned and watched him for a moment.
Tony, who was sitting working on his latest hot rod rebuild, didn't seem like the usual Tony Stark she knew. The cool, suave, sarcastic, jerk of a genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist that she knew and loved so well. Even if sometimes she secretly hated him. This wasn't that Tony. The Tony she was staring at was... Vulnerable scared and naive.
He looked terrible; he was wearing the same clothes he'd worn for the last week. The Black Sabbath t-shirt he loved so much and an old pair of jeans. The faint glow of the arc shining through his shirt. His hair was greasy and a mess, with different bits flying everywhere and not in his usual perfected way. His jeans were torn and had grease marks all over them. When Pepper got closer, she saw how dirty Tony really was, he had grease and soot covering any visible skin and his beard had grown. It was messy and long... Nothing like the normal Tony Stark. She then saw his eyes, the bags underneath them from no sleep. They were bloodshot and puffy, clearly he'd been crying. Tony looked broken.
Pepper was scared, terrified in fact. She'd never seen Tony like this in the 10 years she'd known him and worked for him, he'd never broken down like this. Pepper tentatively punched the code into the pad beside the door to the lab, the door hissed and slid open and Tony glanced round like a scared boy before quickly turning away and concentrating on his work.
Pepper stepped in and placed the coffee down on Tony's desk, her eyes sad and her voice soft. "Tony? I made coffee..." She frowned, her eyes turned sad as she didn't receive a reply. "Tony?" she said as she walked closer to him. "I'm begging you Tony; will you please just eat something?" She begged and moved next to him placing a hand on his shoulder, making Tony flinch away from her and move quickly to his tools.
Pepper watched sadly, she hadn't even heard him speak for the last three days. No sarcastic retorts, no egotistical comments. Nothing. Nothing to say that Tony was even remotely trying to hide the fact that he was upset, she just wished she knew why. But this was Pepper Potts, she didn’t give up that easily. She couldn't stand to watch it anymore. It was killing her to see him like this. Her thoughts took over as her jaw clenched. Right, that's it... I have no other option. She turned to leave, allowing Tony to slowly, cautiously move back to his work as she stormed up the stairs and moved into the front room, she sat down with a huff and crossed her slim legs elegantly in her black knee length skirt and black heels and picked up the phone and dialled.
Time for the super soldier to step in... If anyone can get Tony out of the lab its him.
