penistower | He made some bad investments.

"Oh," she issues quietly. It's not until then that she stops to consider this. No, he's probably never had to split rent with a roommate. And his old habits were widely known and publicized; Pepper hazards a guess there's never been an actual girlfriend.

"If it's any consolation, I'm not very used to it, either," she finally ventures. "Not very recently, anyway." Which is true, but she's not sure if that's any help here. Probably not. Plus she can't shake the feeling that she's just a guest -- which is exactly what she is, in reality. Her manners are telling her to disrupt his life and living arrangements as little as possible, which goes contradictory to the assignment.

"Look, you don't have to... worry about all that. It's okay. I mean, you're not obligated to do anything you don't feel like while I'm here, or anything." She smothers a noise of frustration at herself, knowing she's not making any sense. She's also not entirely catching onto the underlying issue Tony has, here.

"Twenty years recently?" he can't help but counter, unbelievably self-deprecating. But then she goes on and he looks down at his lap, feeling like a jerk.

"Worry. I'm not... worried." He frowns, that last bit causing his gaze to bounce back up. "Okay, I'm... a little. But I just don't want you to feel -- obligated to do anything either." He somehow made that sound more suggestive than she did. Someone shoot him pls.

"Well. Maybe more like ten... ish." She didn't date overly often and rarely had she gotten to the point of co-habitation lately.

"I'm not. Feeling that way," she clarifies, biting her lip and tapping her fingers against her bottle a little nervously. "It's just. I'm basically a guest, here, a visitor. And I can't shake that feeling off quite yet."

Sighing, she gives a wan smile. "So, I guess we both have some work ahead of us if we're going to pull this thing off."

"Oh," he says dumbly, feeling even more insensitive for his outburst. God, what's wrong with him. Other than everything.

"Well, you're not. You live here now so..." So, what? He's fidgeting now, not quite knowing how to sit anymore. Not that he was ever good at it to begin with. "All relationships are work, right?" He flashes her an unsure little smile before taking a long swig from his longneck.

Pepper smiles slightly at Tony's insistence, a bit touched by it even though she knows it isn't exactly the truth. She might live here, yes, but only for now. Only temporarily. Eventually, this charade would be over and she'd go back home, back to her regular life. She tries not to think about that right now.

"That they are," she agrees a bit solemnly, silent for a beat before a tiny, wry smile tugs at her lips. "Some more so than others."

And Tony, for his part, isn't thinking about when the mission ends at all. Though he always tried to see several moves ahead, right now he's having trouble seeing to the end of his nose. Before trying to retort, he drains the rest of his beer and sets it aside, poking at the label now hanging half off.

"Ha... yeah." Good one!! No he isn't even hurt (maybe a little), it's just again something he's not adept at talking about. Mostly because he'd never had to before. Except to tell groupies they were delusional and stuff like that, which doesn't exactly apply here. "I--" He's interrupted by the doorbell, and it goes right through him, face draining of color instantly. It had startled him, he doesn't do so well with loud, sudden noises these days.

"That must be our food." He takes off like a cartoon character, leaving her in his proverbial dust.

She bites her lip at his reaction, getting the distinct feeling that didn't really go down as planned. "I didn't mean--" The doorbell startles her a little too, jumping a bit on her seat at the unexpected noise. She barely has time to process what happened before Tony is already zooming out of the room, leaving her alone with her chagrin.

"...This relationship," she finishes in a murmur to the empty room, sighing. They sure are off to a good start.

He doesn't hear her, naturally, already chatting animatedly with the delivery guy and not letting his extremely broken English impede it in any way. He agrees to sign the man's hat, but still tips him handsomely, making it back into the kitchen less than two minutes later. Tony deposits the food onto the counter and moves to grab them utensils. He hates the plastic ones they give you in the bag.

"Another beer?" he asks, getting one for himself before she can answer.

Pepper uses the time he's at the door to pull herself together, taking a long pull from her bottle. Nothing like a little liquid courage, right? (No.)

Thankfully the food provides a welcome distraction; her belly growls at the wonderful scent wafting into the air, and she starts unpacking it from the bag while Tony rifles for utensils. She still has some beer left in the previous bottle, so she probably shouldn't... "Sure," she says instead to his offer. Oh, well.

Too late, he's already opening her a new one and bringing it over with the forks and paper towels. He moves to sit next to her this time, his cheeks pinking subtly as he grabs the leftover container and brushes his hand against hers in the process. "Here." He slides the bottle over to her, though he can see she's still working on the first. He wouldn't mind being a little tipsy right now himself. Somehow it seems like it might be easier that way. "If this isn't spicy enough for you then you're even more badass than I thought," he says after a swig from his fresh beer and a mouthful of noodles. Honestly he usually orders the two-star but again he'd wanted to impress her!! His eyes are already watering.

She glances sideways at him with a little smile, startling a bit at the brush of their hands and swallowing dryly. Food, right. She murmurs her thanks and digs in, giving a hum of approval at the warm spiciness on her tongue.

"I don't know, it could stand to be just a bit hotter," she teases with a crooked smile, though she actually think it's just perfect, a hint of color on her own cheeks from the kick. If she notices his struggle, she isn't mentioning it; at least yet, finishing off her first bottle of beer. "It's good, though. Nicely recommended."

He huffs, busying himself with his own food. No matter the mission, it's still hard to be upstaged by her, even if he can admit he often is. He wouldn't call her his partner if she wasn't every bit as impressive as her file made her out to be.

"Glad you like," he settles on magnanimously, drinking his beer quickly now perhaps more to dull his tastebuds than for any other reason.

Hiding a knowing little smile, Pepper ducks her head and focuses on her food. It's unexpectedly pleasant, this simple act of just dining with someone, side by side. Maybe she's been by herself for longer than she'd realized; a startling thought.

"So, what do you really think of this whole... mission?" she asks to distract herself. "You think this idea has any merit to it?"

That gives him pause. Pepper generally didn't ask his opinion like this. "...Sure. Otherwise I wouldn't have said yes." He still has serious misgivings, but that's mostly about whether or not he thinks they can pull this off. He sets down his fork and sighs. "If you don't want to... I mean, we can go back to Fury. Tell him we changed our minds. Blame it on me, even. I know I'm not great company."

"It's... not that," she says a little stiltedly, poking at her food. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be." What is it then? She realizes she can't entirely answer her own question. "I doubt Fury would bend, anyway. You know what a stubborn hardass he is when he wants to be."

Convenient, right? It's not like she didn't try to get the man to change his mind over the phone, but...

"And you're not so bad. Much to my surprise," she adds with a teasing little smile, glancing at him sideways. But the innocent remark spawns genuine curiosity, and she turns her whole body a little toward him on the stool. "Why aren't you like this all the time? You can be so infuriating out there, and now you're... well. Nice."

"Yeah, but so are you." He smiles, a little lopsidedly. "Not even he can make Pepper Potts do something she doesn't want to."

Unconsciously, he turns towards her too, squinting a little as she poses the question. It's not every day you get asked why you're 'nice.'

"I wasn't aware I was nice," he admits, and it's not off-kilter enough to be totally a joke. "I didn't join up to make friends." That's a neat solution, right?

She gives a slightly awkward breath of laughter at that, not sure it's a complimentary trait to be unyielding like that, suddenly remembering all the times she's been called a bossy bitch -- in jest and not. "Yeah."

Unfortunately that's weakening her convenient excuse for being here in the first place, but she doesn't have time to worry about that now. She has the good grace to look ashamed when he turns her words around, realizing in hindsight just how she'd sounded. "I didn't mean... that was a poor choice of words. It's just that sometimes..." Sighing in defeat, she glances back to her food and pokes at her noodles. "Never mind, forget it. So, why did you join?"

"To meet the Hulk, duh." He's pushing his food around at this point to, she's more interesting anyway. "Sometimes I'm a dick, I know. It's my way of... deflecting, I guess." Surely she must know that already by now. Whatever.

"I joined to save the world. Isn't it obvious?" It's juvenile, maybe. But it's the truth. He knows he has a particular skill set to offer the world. She pilots one of his suits, doesn't she feel the same?

The corner of her mouth quirks up briefly at his first response. It's not that she doesn't know he's a jerk sometimes to deflect, she's quite familiar with that. But it's more than that, though. She figures it's a front of some sort, one that's probably needed. The whole world had eyes on them, and superheroes who didn't look like they knew exactly what they were doing at all times didn't inspire confidence.

"I wouldn't know. I joined for the fame and glory, obviously." She turns her head a little to catch his eyes, lips curving slowly into a crooked smirk.

"Obviously." God, how did he never notice how blue her eyes were before? And there goes his train of thought. "I... I was skeptical at first. But it seems to be working out. Right?" The Avengers, SHIELD, their whole partnership. Pick one. He's still trying to come up with a specific name for that color.

Pepper isn't entirely sure what it he's referring to, but it's a fairly universal statement, her expression softening along with her smile.

"Yeah. So far, so good," she agrees quietly and mellifluously, getting a little lost herself in his eyes. She realizes it after a moment, but tamps down on an urge to look away and clear her throat. She changes the subject instead. "...Do you have any ice cream? For dessert."

"Ice cream," he repeats, licking his lips thoughtfully. Almost like it's taking him a long time to remember what that is. Really he's just lost wondering when the last time a woman was even in his apartment... "Do I have ice cream." He rises to his feet, and waves for her to follow. When she does she'll be treated to his very special ~ice cream freezer~ at the back of the pantry. What did you think that was for, meat? Stupid.

"Pick your poison, Potts." His hand braces on her arm for a second while they share the limited closet space. Since he doesn't cook a lot, there's mostly canned and boxed goods like you might find in a military bunker. End of the world emergency ready meals and the whole thing. "I have all the fixings, too. You're a gummy bears and hot fudge kind of girl, aren't you?

Pepper gapes a little as she takes in the pantry, thinking he's all set to hunker down with his provisions in case of a zombie apocalypse or something. The ice cream freezer takes the cake though, her lips twitching a little in some odd mix of emotion she'd describe as a blend of amusement and... being charmed.

"Wow." She turns her head when he guesses her favorite fixings with eerie accuracy, staring in surprise. "How did you... is my file more extensive than I've been told or what-- how could you know that?"

"I'm the ice cream whisperer." He puts his finger to his lips and drags out the cookie dough and the premade fudge, the real kind you have to heat up. "Do you want to get the chocolate brownie and meet me out there?" He brushes by her without waiting for an answer, already setting up the sundae bar by the time she makes it out. He's all about this and then some.

Pepper presses her lips tightly together to ward off the silly smile that wants to break free at his antics, dipping her chin down. She hums an affirmative a little belatedly, grabbing the requested flavor and following after him. Depositing the container on the counter, Pepper takes her earlier seat with a slightly teasing smile. "I would have done this sooner if I'd known you were hiding a freezer full of cookie dough."

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