Heart •IronMan 1+2

Chapter Three

A/N:

So this is something similar to what I picture for Bella's dress.

Enjoy!

*****

Bella chuckled as Pepper continued to talk business with a group of entrepreneurs. The woman was always working.

"I'm going to go get a drink. You want something?" She asked, tapping Peppers shoulder. The strawberry blonde turned away from her conversation for a moment.

"Water, please."

Bella nodded and headed towards the bar. Her dress swished around her ankles, thankfully, not sticking to her heels. Quickly ordering, she turned back to look out across the crowd.

There was so many people. She hadn't been to an event this big since her parents made her go to a Stark charity ball when she was sixteen.

Pepper weaved through the people seconds later. Sidling up beside her and accepting the cup the bar tender slid down the countertop.

"So, hows the health helper doing?" Pepper asked sipping her water.

"Your boss is difficult," Bella sighed. She carded a hand through her loose blonde locks and squeezed her eyes shut. "He makes it difficult to b-"

"You two look fantastic! I didn't recognize you!" Tony grinned brightly coming to a stop in front of the two. He trailed his eyes over Bella's form drinking in the wonders the dress did for her already amazing figure.

Pepper shot a bewildered look at Bella who just shrugged and made a motion with her hand. Saying 'he's impossible to control and you know it' with a mere gesture.

"What are you doing here?" Pepper frowned a smile breaking across her face. Bella watched the interaction from behind her glass of whiskey

Tony smirked at the sight. That was all she used to drink; whiskey. Even when they were teens. Save the few events the two had been forced to attend by their parents when she drank champagne to be polite. It was another think he liked about her. She knew how to drink.

"Just avoiding government agents," Tony stated clearing his throat. He held up two fingers to the bartender and they sent a glass his way.

"Are you by yourself?" Pepper glanced behind him, looking for Happy, and Bella choked suddenly.

She coughed harshly slamming her glass against the bar on accident. Tony immediately pressed a hand to the middle of her upper-back, holding the other up to stop Pepper from running off to get the paramedics.

Bella sucked in a sharp breath and clutched at her throat. Tony carefully leaned her back against the bar, his hand still firmly against her skin.

"Are you alright?" He asked softly amber eyes staring into cerulean ones. Bella nodded.

"I'm fine," she answered blinking up at the lights to stop tears from welling in her eyes anymore than they already did. "Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?"

Tony chuckled, waving Pepper off as she worried over Bella. "C'mon lets go outside, yeah?"

Pepper smiled brightly as the two brushed past people to get out the door. She knew there was still something there. Laughing to herself she made her way back towards the center.

******

Tony pushed a glass door open ushering Arabella through it and onto the patio. There was music echoing even outside.

The blonde shook her head rolling her eyes. "You're impossible to get a read on you know."

"What makes you say that?" He laughed and leaned forward against the railing.

Bella glanced over at him. He was staring upward at the few stars visible in the sky. The dim lighting gave his features a softer shape, made him look younger. Or maybe it was the stress that seemed to have rolled off his shoulder whenever she was around.

"You look at me like you know something I don't and then other times you just push me away. You did it before too."

Tony grabbed her hand, pulling her to the middle of the patio. "Dance with me?"

"You're dodging the subject," Bella sighed arching a brow. "Besides you know I can't dance."

"Does it matter?"

"Why are you still like this?"

"Because you're here," Tony stated, spinning Bella out and back towards his chest. "How come you never called? Thought we agreed on friends."

"Right. We were going to be friends. Tony, after a breakup you don't usually stay friends." Bella leaned into him as their dance slowly turned into a hug. She enjoyed how warm he was even now.

"What? You don't wanna be my friend?"

She sent him a look. "At the time, no I didn't. 'Cause it still hurt to see you. Now- now, I don't care."

"What about more than that?" Tony leaned his head on hers.

"How well did that work out last time?"

Tony scoffed and drew back to look at her. "Last time we were basically a business gain between our parents. Of course it didn't end well."

"Exactly my point!" Bella exclaimed. "It wasn't real, Tony. Everything we thought we had was fabricated."

"Not from my point of view. We were forced together and we made the best of it. Damnit-I loved you!" Tony placed his hands on her shoulder curving his fingers over her collar bones.

Bella swayed into his touch her lips parting. "You did?"

"Of course I did," he spoke softly, just to her, "I loved the way you crinkled your nose up when our parents would tear apart the bots they made 'cause they had feelings too.' I loved the way you'd roll your eyes at my jokes but laugh anyways. There are so many things I could tell you I loved about you but they would all be a lie."

"Tony-" Bella swallowed hard cutting herself off. "You remember all of that?"

"How could I not? It's everything that I still love about you."

"You never told me.. any of this."

"Can you blame me? You cut yourself off from any emotion. You shut me out. I get that you were going through some stuff but I was your best friend, or I thought I was!" Tony scowled and carded a hand through his hair. His eyes trained against Bella, watching the micro-expressions that hurried across her face.

"You shouldn't take that personally. I shut everybody out. It was just easier." She turned away from him to the city skyline. She wasn't kidding either, at the time it had been easier to push everybody away and run away to the other side of the country. Away from her family, away from him.

"Coming from someone whose been on the receiving end of that; it hurt like a bitch. You didn't talk for a month and then you were just gone. You never thought to talk to me?"

"No, Tony, I didn't, because I knew from the beginning the relationship we had was going to ruin whatever friendship we had before. It was basically an arranged marriage. We convinced ourselves it was something more but in reality we just wanted to make our parents proud. So, yeah, I ran away. Away from the toxic family that I lived in and I met some amazing people who taught me more than my parents did in the eighteen years that I lived with them. I ran away to a place where I had the freedom to realize what the hell was going on in my life. I'm sorry that I ended things the way I did but I will never apologize for getting myself out of a abusive home."

With that she spun on her heel and walked away from him once more.