penistower | He made some bad investments.

"Spar." It spills from his lips before he can stop it. Is this because of that comment he made about Natasha? His eyebrows knit together, but he decides it's safer to take a sip of coffee rather than answer right away. "Is this about injuring my manly pride? Because I'm pretty sure you've crippled it enough for one day." He isn't upset at all, though it might sound as though he is. Mostly he's just... weary. It's hard for him to stay this social for this long as interesting as he finds the person he's with. Which is very, at the moment.

"No...?" It comes out a little uncertainly. She has to pause for a beat and rewind their conversation in light of his objection, momentarily worried she'd overstepped somewhere. She knows she can be too forceful, sometimes without ever seeing it herself -- and she's not yet learned to read this iteration of Tony Stark as well as she could.

"You don't have to. Like I said, it was just an offer," she recovers, a tiny smile making its way to her lips again. "And I'll try to be more mindful of your... manly pride from here on out."

No, she probably wouldn't, tbh.

And now he feels like he's overstepped. Why does he think there's going to be a lot of this over the oncoming days?

"I don't have a lot of it left," he admits, shrugging one shoulder. Working with women who could and would kick your ass tended to do that. Not to mention he's pretty sure she won't do anything of the sort anyway. "You didn't mean... tonight? Or did you." He's so bad at reading signals as it is, but with Pepper he's always a few paces behind and then some. There was nothing actually wrong with her offer. Maybe that would help them get over some awkwardness??

"That's not necessarily a bad thing. Though I know coming from a woman that probably doesn't mean much." A small, wry smile makes an appearance at that, but disappears when he goes on.

"Um. If you'd like? I meant whenever, but." Oh wow, this is a little painful. This is exactly the kind of stilted formality they should get rid of if they intend on fooling anybody. Maybe some contact (and she tries not to redden at the thought) might help. "But unless you don't have better things to do, we could... try?"

Edited 2015-11-29 22:29 (UTC)

"You're right, it doesn't." It's much lighter this time, clearly a joke. In his experience, Pepper Potts was usually to always right anyway, it doesn't seem worth challenging.

But then his face falls a little at her obvious struggle to get the words out. He chews on the inside of his lip and decides to just -- decide. One of them has to, right?

"Want to meet there in an hour? I had some... stuff to finish up." Not that he doesn't always, but he hates the idea of losing his place.

Pepper nods her head, giving a small smile when he takes that initiative. As used as she is to making decisions, it's still hard to shake off the feeling that she's a guest here, despite his assurances to the contrary -- and guests don't tell their hosts what to do and when to do it. She knows she needs to get over it and fast, but. One step at a time.

"Works for me. I'll see you there, then." That gives her time to gather her thoughts and change into work out gear. She thinks maybe Tony needs a bit of breathing room too from all this socializing. Finishing up their coffee, Pepper lets Tony go do his thing while retreating to her things; it's still startling to think of this as their room for now.

An hour later (it could be longer, she didn't check) finds Pepper in the gym clad in black yoga pants and a fitted grey t-shirt, barefooted. Her gym shoes are off to the side, waiting for her to be done with her asanas; yoga always calms and focuses her, which can't hurt now. Hearing the door, she carefully straightens up from balancing stick and brushes aside a wisp of hair from her face that's gotten loose from her braid. "Hi."

He nods, wasting no time disappearing into his workshop to finish his coffee and work on some code. Tony finds himself breaking focus to think about Pepper, though, and his broken concentration goes on no matter how hard he fights it. By the time he looks up at the clock he's already late. He scrambles back up the stairs, abandoning his coffee still half-full on the bench. He'd barely gotten anything done and now Pepper is going to think he's blowing her off already. He is so not cut out for this.

Tony races up to his room, hesitating outside the door. She's not the only one who has to reprogram. Except this room has been just his for a lot longer. Forty years longer. He raps on the door, only hesitating a second when he doesn't hear anything from inside and bursts in. He throws off his clothes in a huff and changes into underarmor, black sweatpants, and his custom Nikes. He stops briefly in the bathroom to splash some water on his face and run a wet hand back through his hair. Did he look like this much of a wreck when he ate dinner with her? Jesus.

A little out-of-breath, he skids to a halt outside the gym an hour and fifteen minutes later than their agreement. He plows his way in, tipping his head at her greeting. "...Hey." His eyes roam over her body before he can stop himself, throat going a little dry and skin buzzing with nerves he didn't allow himself to feel until now when they all come flooding in. "Sorry I'm late." Though by his normal standards, this is downright early, so he goes from feeling embarrassed for being late to being pretty mortified he even called attention to it.

Pepper smooths a hand over her plaited hair, a nervous gesture she can't quite curb in time. Tony's erratic energy is palpable and his nervousness slightly contagious, though the calm she'd achieved earlier going through her yoga exercises still reigns mostly supreme. Still, it seems Tony's presence can be equally as overpowering in both the arrogant confidence she's used to seeing him display as well as this twitchy agitation she getting more familiar with.

"I didn't even notice," she fibs mercifully with a smile. It's not completely true; she had a vague sense he was running late, just not by how much. At any rate, it hardly matters. Swinging her arms a little, she claps her palms together once, softly. "Well, then. Shall we?" She steps over to her shoes, pulling on socks and slipping her feet into the trainers.

"Um... yeah." He doesn't ever think about how jarring it must be to meet him outside of context. How polar his personality can be when compared directly. The last person who had to deal with it was Rhodey and he was fifteen at the time, so. Everyone was monsters. "As long as I don't have to do that." He gestures vaguely which is supposed to translate into THAT WEIRD YOGA THING YOU WERE DOING WHEN I WALKED IN.

Moving to stand at the top of the mat, he tries to clear his mind all the same. It's never an easy task for him, and when he closes his eyes it only gets worse so they end up popping open a second later anyway. Taking up a defensive pose he hopes doesn't look too awkward he shoots her a look that's supposed to signal that he's ready to start.

"It isn't too late to call this off," he reminds her, a little of that arrogance creeping back in even if it is 100% a joke, one side of his mouth tugging up as she gets into position.

Pepper chuckles a little, shaking her head. "I promise," she vows magnanimously, making sure she's all set before returning to the mat, taking her place opposite of him, rolling her shoulders a little to loosen them.

"I'll be gentle, if that's what you're worried about," she volleys back with a tiny smirk of her own, blue eyes gleaming with good humor even as she raises her hands into position and widens her stance, taking a deep breath in. With a nod to signal him it's now officially on, her smile twitches indicatively a second before she makes the first move, telegraphing the jab to his side some degree -- she does try to be as good as her word, after all.

"How'd you know?" he's asking a little gruffly, but he doesn't have time for anything smarter before she's coming for him. He manages to twist and block her move at the last minute, realizing too late he left his midsection open for attack. Trying to move quickly back the other way, though she's in his way now, he attempts to shove her off the mat so he can prepare a proper strike.

Any comeback she might have had for that dies on her lips at his retaliation, swifter than she had expected. A little ashamed to have underestimated him so, she grunts softly as she absorbs his counter-strike and digs in her heels, pushing back to steady herself in the face of the unexpected move. Regaining her balance, she sidesteps fleetly and evades further attempts, facing him anew.

"Maybe it's me who should be worried, after all," she huffs, but with a slightly breathless little laugh to indicate she doesn't mind.

He lifts his eyebrows, a little surprised himself that worked. Not that he should be, he's much better at this than he once was. Still, hand-to-hand isn't his strength. It's mostly an asset he's had to employ in the worst-case scenario. Which is enough of a reason for him to get good, but not as good as Clint and Natasha by far.

Planning out which way to go with his attack, he decides in a split second to try the flip move they were shown last time in training. She probably won't expect it from him so it seems like the right choice. He stoops down and moves towards her with some speed, face level with her stomach as he attempts to get her around the middle and use his weight to tip her over.

It's not hers, either. They both have the advantage of the suit which, let's be frank, did most of the hard work for them on missions. They've had basic training of course and she knows a few more tricks geared more towards shrugging off and escaping a mugger (or worse). But she isn't actually trying to hurt Tony the way said tricks would demand, so those options are all discarded.

She knows her only chance is to use his larger body mass and momentum against him in a situation like this, but she has no time to sidestep his charge before he grabs her by the middle. Her decision is instinctive; she buckles her knees as she curls an arm around his neck and lets herself fall back, twisting her body and bringing a knee up to dig into his side in effort to take him with her and tackle him to the ground.

She has no illusions that this is graceful or by-the-book; Natasha and Clint would probably shake their heads in despair.

He should have seen that coming, but even if he had he's really not sure he could have done anything to fend her off. Tony topples ungracefully after her, letting out a cough as she effectively knocks the wind out of him. He's thusly not as concerned about crushing her as he should be, landing mostly on top of her in the end, his legs bracketing one of her knees and one hand braced on the mat behind her. He hopes it's enough to prevent actual injury to her, but it also cuts off her escape route. This wasn't exactly what he had in mind... His eyes widen minutely, and he feels like he should say something now that their faces are -- yep, they're close alright. But try as he might, no words come to mind.

Pepper gasps as air escapes her lungs on impact with the mat and Tony's added weight on top, not having succeeded in twisting them into a more sideways topple like she'd tried; but then, she'd known the chance had been remote. Sucking in greedy gulps of air, she takes stock of the situation, the exercise suddenly not the only reason why she's out of breath; his eyes are truly gorgeous and she feels like she's sinking under, staring into them. Her similarly widened gaze dips down to his mouth before she can stop herself, their faces so close they're practically sharing breaths. A new awareness tingles along her skin, and it serves to snap her out of her little spell.

Clearing her throat delicately, she proposes perhaps a little too softly, "I think maybe that one was a tie."

Slowly, he manages a nod, starting when their noses brush with the motion. Okay, he has to get up. Maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all. "I'm... Yeah," Tony murmurs, still a little stunned as he does his best to get up the least awkwardly he can manage. It's still pretty awkward, still breathing harshly as he offers a hand down to her. He needs a second before round two for sure.

Pepper starts a little too, her shaky breath catching at the brief contact, mouth going dry. Swallowing, she strives to steady herself while Tony gets up, mostly back in control of her wits again by the time she pushes into sitting, taking his offered hand and pulling herself upright again with his help. "You okay?" she asks, pushing her bangs away from her eyes.

"What? I mean, yeah. I'm... fine. Are you?" He tacks on quickly, realizing he's still holding onto her hand and dropping it abruptly. "Ready to go again?" His eyes flash, but he's not about to back away from a challenge no matter how dangerous it is. Even if it might be a whole new kind of danger now.

"Yeah. Completely," she responds, a few seconds too late to be entirely convincing, still reeling a little for... whatever that was, just now. But same as he, a challenge is not something she shies away from, and that question definitely counts. Falling back into stance, she nods with a small grin. "Always."

Again, she doesn't wait for him to make the first move. If anything, she comes at him with less restraint now, fainting to right in hopes of exploiting any gaps in his defense on the left.

"I was hoping you'd say that."

He's back in it too, more intensely than before. Tony settles into his defences, knowing she'll go on the offense first. This is starting to become comfortable, familiar. Even without their suits they each had their own strategy. If he sees her as Rescue and not as Pepper he might just be able to win this thing.

Her hit gets in under his arm, grunting at the shot to his already bruised ribs. But he uses it to get a hold of her wrist so she won't be able to block him, his knee coming up into her solar plexus.

She sees it coming but can't free her wrist from his grip in time, tensing up and grunting loudly as she takes the knee to the chest. She staggers a little at the force but his grip on her wrist actually works to steady her some. She pushes stubbornly through the hit to spring into a countering maneuver. Grabbing his wrist with the hand he's gripping, she pulls it forward hard while twisting her body sideways so she can ram her shoulder into his torso, putting all of her weight behind it; her leg snaps out simultaneously to land a kick to his calf right under the knee in effort to knock him off his feet and into the mat.

Okay, ow. No matter how slight Pepper may be, her shoulder is bony and she's a lot stronger than she looks. He lets out a pathetic sound of suffering, but when she goes to knock him over again he takes a page out of her book. Turning so he can fall flat on his back and absorb most of the impact, he hooks his leg around hers to drag her down with him.

His leg hooks behind one knee successfully, pulling her off balance and literally sweeping her off her feet with a small yelp of surprise. She lands awkwardly, managing to twist so that she falls mostly next to him and not on top, one hip and buttock taking the brunt of the impact. Breathing hard, she tries to tugs her hand out of his grip, the side of her knee locking down one of his thighs as she struggles to recover from being downed and spring back into action.

If she thought this wasn't graceful before, it definitely isn't it now.

His vision swims as he blinks up at the ceiling, feeling her knee come down on his leg hard in an unforseen complication. The pain isn't acute, focusing more on catching his breath than assessing any injury. He's going to need an actual break if she wants to go again.

"Two to two?" he asks softly, turning his head to look at her. There's a strange urge that slides into his bones then, not to get away but to pull her closer. He doesn't move, but he feels the way it would feel anyway and is momentarily breathless all over again. Remembering himself, he stutters out the real question. "You okay?"

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