♡The Stark Family Oneshots♡

Dress; Part 1 (Pepperony, later ft Morgan and Peter)

 Part one of many of me *gifting* you amazing readers with some happy fluff for allowing my little book to rank a whopping #1 on the Pepperony charts - I CAN'T THANK YOU GUYS ENOUGH

So anyways, this'll be the first little surprise, which is actually a plot/thing i've seen particularly on AO3 that i absolutely love reading, and now, writing too. So, you might see this structure in future pieces as well. The only reason I'm breaking it up into parts (it's not usually done this way) is because the first one is wayy too long for this writing style and I wanted you guys to have something to read lmao :)

lyyyyyyy~

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Five Times She Wore His Favorite Dress

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i

It hadn't happened completely at random. If truth be told, Pepper hadn't known that her infamous boss – who she presumed, like most others, was rattled with some type of PTSD after his traumatic endeavors – would make the unlikely, untimely appearance that would only intensify the underlying tension that had built between the PA and her less-than-serendipitous boss.

The dress had (perhaps?) been a thoughtful gift – if the playboy was capable of tasteful attitude and professionalism, or had the mental capacity to distinguish what was appropriate to give to your assistant and what wasn't. Granted, the article of clothing was far more revealing than anything the ginger would normally wear, but tonight, for whatever reason, she'd been feeling rebellious.

Besides, she couldn't imagine that the billionaire had even so much as seen the showy outfit before JARVIS ordered it on some ridiculously expensive site; to which this violet, backless dress was most likely the most PG-rated strip of fabric available – she knew this because she paid his credit card bills, which in hindsight was both a blessing and a curse.

She shoved the troublesome thoughts from her head. Pepper had spent well over twenty minutes overthinking her decision – between taking the strikingly beautiful dress on and off and staring at herself in her body-length mirror, she had the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other.

The dress was nothing if not elegant in a modern, sort of mildly-skanky way – she knew she shouldn't have been as comfortable with it as she was, and knowing the prying eyes of the paparazzi, this dress with all its purple, backless, cleavage-showing glory would be the first thing to make it on tomorrow's People magazine cover – and that wasn't the publicity she needed.

Pepper couldn't figure out why she had been contemplating this for so damn long – the logical, professional part of her brain was easily telling her, don't worry, Tony won't even be there to see you in this stupidly baring dress. What have you to fear?

Then the other part of her brain would refute, even if he did show up, how and why should that impact your decision? He doesn't have that much control over you to influence what you choose to wear and what you don't. You're spending too much time thinking about this!

And then of course, there was this tiny little whisper tucked away beneath the lock and key that was Virginia Potts' heart, that only stirred butterflies in her gut and made her feel light-headed and queasy. It was the same obnoxious nausea that she . . . feared? Despised? Loved? All three?

Every once in a while, this annoying little hum would surface in its tiny little nook from within her brain, acting as the total opposite of everything the businesswoman stood for. Now was just one of those occasions that it decided to gingerly tug at her heart strings, daring to produce the question, but what if you want him to see you in this dress?