A subtle click tells him it's 4am and he's still not asleep. Better off that way. The darkness of the room is safer than the murk behind his eyelids, better than his mind when the nightshift begins.

He leans on one elbow, watching Pepper as she sleeps. It isn't exciting in any way and he's really always questioned the romance of it, but tonight he's too tired to go downstairs just as he's too tired to fall asleep. Plus, it's one of the few times he can just look at her without interruption. With the utmost of delicacy, he carefully moves a stray blonde hair out of her face. Sometimes he forgets she's a natural redhead because blonde suits her so well. She's gorgeous either way.

She furrows her brow in her sleep, but after a narrow moment relaxes again. He can't remember being so pleased to see a woman beside him in bed, especially one wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants no less. 'Less' was the general fashion when it came to a woman in his bedroom, and then there was the awkward morning after where he'd have to get rid of her and be plagued by phone calls for another month. But this girl, this is the one worth waking up to in the morning.

Gently, he leans in and leaves a kiss in her hair, trying not to wake her. Let one of them at least get all the sleep…and probably let it be the one actually running the show. Quietly, Tony climbs out of bed, pulling the covers back again so the cold air can't touch her. Even in this state-of-the-art home the chill of a coastal winter finds ways to sneak in.

Quietly plodding downstairs with his bathrobe draped loosely around his shoulders, Tony sighs heavily and fumbles in the dark for the bottle of brandy left open on the kitchen counter.

"Brandy, darling," he murmurs with warm sarcasm, the cool glass safely in hand. "Let's get to work."

...

The floor vault shuts with a secure clung as he finishes off the bottle. With a satisfied sigh he jiggles it around, confirming the emptiness of its empty, and with a glassy-eyed glance looks around at the array of wine bottles in his presence.

You are a raging alcoholic, he tells himself. Then he chuckles mirthfully and runs his fingers over the rows of colorful wax seals before stopping abruptly and pressing his finger against one. Slowly, seductively, he wipes his finger through the dust. Practically giggling, he plucks it off the rack. "Why hello, wait, let me guess your name, is it…Amanda?" More giggling. "Desiree? Kimberly? Micaela? Caitlyn! I was going to guess that next."

The keen observer would see as he reached the top step that there was a slight stumble and a stagger in Tony's movement. But for a man as practiced as Tony Stark it was entirely indiscernible to the average eye. An eye not shared by Pepper Potts.

"What are you doing?"

Startled Tony steps back quickly, a dizzying movement. "Just, having a nightcap, dearest, loveliest, Virginia."

She sighs, and closes her eyes, the furrowed brow she had in her sleep returning. "Tony, it's late come back to bed."

"I tried not to wake you," he defends.

"I noticed you were gone. Come on, back to bed, you need to at least try to sleep."

He salutes her with the wine bottle. "Whatever you say, general."

"Give me the bottle," she holds out her hand, "give."

With a reluctant sigh like he's only doing this to please her, Tony holds out the bottle and looks somewhere to his left. Pepper grits her teeth.

"Tony," her voice is harder, "bring me the bottle."

"What's that?"

"Now."

Unsteadily, he shuffles forward with jerky steps, the laughter in his eyes doing him no favors as the danger grows in Pepper's.

"Here you are, schmexy," he says, putting the bottleneck in her hand. "All safe and unviolated."

That'll do for right now. She lets out a slow breath. "Get to bed."

Aggravatingly, he salutes again and shuffles toward the stairs at an annoying pace. Pepper controls herself, knowing when she comes back up he'll be stalling in some other way. Down in the cellar, she doesn't care which rack the bottle came from, even though she tries in vain to keep things organized down here, and just shoves it into any old space.

There's a crash and a clatter in the garage and she groans quietly, rubbing her hands over her face as she heads for the room. I am so damn sick of this.

"Tony," she stands in the doorway, no longer the picture of patience, "get to bed now, I am not going to say it again."

"I just got to clean this up, nanny." He bends down to pick up the scattered tools.

"Excuse me?" She crosses her arms. "Get your butt upstairs and in bed before I remove myself from it."

There's a tired sigh and a tool clangs back onto the floor. Tony stands up and starts heading for the door. "You're right. I'm unreliable and hard to live with."

"No, no dramatics, Tony, just get to bed. I'm tired of this."

"Pepper, I can't sleep." He stands before her.

"Well, abandoning me in the middle of the night to come down here and drink like a- a sorry old man is not an alternative." She sighs through her nose. "Just, stop doing this or tell me why, but either way…either way I want this to stop. Okay?"

"Okay, okay yeah," he agrees lucidly. "No, you are right. I'll…behave."

"Will you?" she asks disbelieving.

"Of course I will." He holds her by the elbows. "I promise."

"Tony," she sighs tiredly, "I'm not some little girlfriend who will just walk away accepting that, okay, I know you, and it's upsetting when you…Don't ever make promises to me that you don't intend on keeping. Because I really can't handle it, it drives me up a wall thinking about all the 'promises' I've learned to ignore. Enough."

"Alright," he nods solemnly, "no more promises."

"No more empty promises."

"Got it." He smiles thinly.

Again, that'll have to do. "C'mon." Pepper takes him by the hand and leads him upstairs. And even with darkness waiting behind his eyelids, he willingly follows.

Cover art by hallpen on deviantART