penistower | I feel your heartbeat ♥ All the time

It's been a year since... everything. Since their house blew up, since Extremis. Since Toni had officially lost her mind. She likes to think she's doing better, but there's no true litmus for something like that. She goes to her therapist once a week, as promised. It's still a struggle, but it's getting easier. Sometimes Pepper sits in with her and sometimes she's alone. Depending on the week, one or the other could be harder. Sometimes she doesn't talk the whole hour. Sometimes she doesn't let the doctor have a word in edgewise. Sometimes she cries -- that's the hardest for her, showing weakness in front of an authority figure; allowing herself to be helped. Maybe it's not making any difference, but she knows Pepper appreciates the effort.

There are two shiny suits in the lab, as promised, too. One that she's repairing now as the other stands idly by. She's working with the Avengers again, sort of. It's kind of on-again-off-again. And her remodeling efforts had been for naught, of course none of them wanted to stay here, what was she thinking? Except Bruce, when he bothers to come back from whatever third-world shithole he's in at any given time. Sometimes she gets along with Steve, but usually not. Things are tumultuous, but it's her version of normal and she feels like her head is at least above water again.

Pepper is back to work, solving world hunger and light fare like that. He does so much better at the helm than Toni ever did. It makes her proud, but with the tiniest bit of niggling jealousy she can't ever seem to shake. He seems happy -- fulfilled. She hears his oh-so familiar footfalls predictably right on time. Or really, five minutes early. It's their scheduled "reconnection" time, and she feels her heart speed up from his proximity alone, finding a stopping point as soon as she can so she can give him a look over. Handsome as ever, of course. And her in a threadbare Pinkfloyd tanktop and holey jeans, grease smeared across her cheek and safety goggles pinning her hair back that had fallen out of her bun. What a pair they make, as ever. Yin and yang.

Threaded | Flat

It would be a lie to say it's been easy, this past year (and over), but Pepper would like to think it's been worth it. Slowly but surely, things are patching up -- as much as they can be. Everything still isn't perfect, but mostly those are things they cannot directly influence as much. But they're finally on the same page with Toni, which is all he ever wanted. He's happy, and he thinks Toni is, too. At least most of the time. In fact, he's been so happy that those not-conversations from a year back about proposals and weddings have come back to haunt him recently; he finds himself thinking about them more and more, his thoughts drifting over whenever he's not preoccupied with business. But he hasn't brought any of it up to Toni... not yet.

He has a bottle of wine under one arm as he appears in the lab, fingers curled about the neck. His free hand is casually shoved into the pocket of his slacks, still dressed in his office wear of the day. He smiles fondly and shakes his head a little at the sight of Toni, who is a mess as always. "I seem to remember I have one more appointment today. Also, this bottle of very fancy, very expensive wine-- but these two things are actually coincidental. Happily, though."

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