After their talk last night, Pepper tried to forget her concerns about where things would go with the visiting Japanese CEO, figuring her husband was right. Mizushima would either accept what he saw yesterday or he wouldn't, and if he didn't accept it then they'd move on, seek out other partners.

Suddenly the door to her office burst open and more than one paper flew off of her desk, "Gina, what-"

"I think we might have a big problem!"

She gave her secretary a puzzled look.

The other woman went on, "Mr. Mizushima is here."

Pepper's eyes widened, "Is he early again?" A glance to her clock answered that question, "No, he's not! I'm the one who's running late!" She stood up, grabbed her StarkPad, and came around her desk, "Where is he?"

"I left him in the conference room but… but…"

Stopping, she put a hand on the other's arm. "Breath, Gina. Take a deep breath!" After the young women had heaved in a few deep breaths, Pepper said, "Now, tell me what's wrong, Gina."

With a nod and a hand resting on her chest, Gina said, "It's Mr. Mizushima, Mrs. Stark."

Pepper decided not to interrupt her to point out that they had already established the source of the secretary's stress was, in fact, the Japanese business man. Instead, she kept her silence and waited for Gina to continue.

"More specifically, ma'am, it's the way he's dressed today. He's wearing pajamas!"

"What did you just say?"

"I said, he's wearing pajamas!"

"Wait, are you sure that he's not actually wearing a kimono?"

"Umm, I am ninety-nine percent sure that what he's dressed in, is not a kimono but PJs."

The entire time she was speaking, Pepper was gathering up her papers and her notes about what she wanted to talk to about with the businessman. She really hoped that when she appeared dressed in normal business attire, Mr. Mizushima wasn't going to think they'd set him up for public humiliation.

With everything in hand, Pepper gathered up her nerve, forced her nervousness back, and headed out her office door. Gina followed her, still talking a mile a minute about the situation. When they reached the conference room door, she paused to calm her secretary down before she opened the door. She didn't want Mr. Mizushima to hear what the young woman was saying.

"Gina, relax! I've got this! One isn't Tony Stark's personal assistant for ten plus years without learning how to deal with unexpected problems or situations. Now take a deep breath, put on your best game face, and follow me."

Following her own advice, Pepper settled her face into something she hoped resembled calm and collected, then opened the door to the conference room, "Mr. Mizushima, good morning…"

"So after seeing you, and everyone at the office dressed in their PJs yesterday, did Mizushima really show up for your meeting with him today dressed in his?"

Pepper nodded, "He really did."

"How did you handle it?"

"Well I considered acting like everything was normal after he didn't point out the difference but after twenty minutes of trying to act like everything was perfectly normal I couldn't take it any longer."

"What did you do?"

"All I did was to explain to him about how the kids' school has a **Wear Your PJs To School Day** once a year, and how we decided we'd do the same once a month when we started up our new company."

"And how did he respond to that?"

The biggest grin broke out onto her face, "By taking out his phone, and pulling up the cutest picture of a little girl I've ever seen outside our kids or their brood of cousins!"

"He's a father?"

"Apparently so. Her name is Itsumi."

"Huh. JARVIS, why don't we know about his daughter?"

"Because apparently he's worked very hard to keep her out of public knowledge," Pepper answered before the AI could. "Anyway, he showed me a picture of his daughter going to school one day, dressed in her jammies!"

"Has he signed on with us?"

She nodded, "Yes, he signed on."

"So that means you were worried over nothing?"

"Yeah, it looks like I was worried over nothing… and don't you dare say I told you so!"

"Would I do that?"

"In a word, yes!"

"I don't do that kind of thing, do I, J?"

"Well, Sir…"

"Well, thanks for that rousing statement of support!"

"You are most welcome, Sir."

Pepper giggled as Tony huffed and shook his head.