pure, pure dialogue. i'm not even sure where it came from. just one day where the room was particularly warm. and...yeah. honestly: the dialogue bothers me. for various reasons. but. whatev. WHATEV TONY AND PEPPER.

for the lulz: when i don't like to do titles and summaries, i make joke/parody titles and summaries. one of them was to title this fic: "In Heat" - but that would be false advertising.

IN THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT
/pseudonymosity
Conversation follows as Tony thinks it is too hot in the conference room and naturally, thinks Pepper's hot.

"It's hot in here."

"Is it?" Pepper replies noncommittally, shifting her attention both to shuffling through papers and her laptop screen.

Tony leans back in his chair, watching a woman chat up a colleague across the room, while tugging her thin scarf off.

"Tony... Did you tell JARVIS to lie to me? You didn't even glance through these notes - I can tell."

"Not lie. Just...convince you I already did. Look, Potts, most people in here have already taken off layers. Scarves. And you," he says accusatorily, "you still have your blazer on. How are you not burning in that?"

"Don't be obscene. Jackets and blazers constitute as individual layers."

"Just take it off."

"Just skim them," she counters, "I'd like you to have a mild understanding when certain issues come up during the meeting."

"Have faith, Potts. I know what to do," he grins at her.

Unfortunately, she does have faith in him because Tony can work most situations to his advantage. It's just how he will work today's meeting to that advantage that worries her.

She resumes her typing while he drums his fingers against the table, particularly attentive to the lapel and buttons of her blazer.

"Hey, how about if I tackled you down and helped you out with that blazer," he notes her sideglare and continues, "I'm only concerned about you getting heatstroke, Pepper."

"It would be sexual harrassment," she says without looking away from the screen, "not to mention definitively traumatic."

"It would be a good sort of trauma, Potts."

"Of course it would. And do you need help with that? Did I make it too tight?"

Tony blinks, pausing his fingers at his tie for a moment before resuming his loosening of it, "Nope. You did it just right. It's this room. Can't breathe. I hate the winter. The heater's on. And all these people are making it worse. How is it possible that this is our largest conference room?"

"I'll be sure to look at the blueprints and see if we can't arrange for a new conference room. Which you will not be using, most likely. But anything for you, Mr. Stark."

"Yes. Thank you, Ms. Potts, for accommodating me. But no, really - aren't you hot, even a little?"

"Well, you seem rather insistent on reminding me daily, hourly even, of how attractive I am that-"

"What if I make one of those important CEO-y decisions, to turn up the heater? That's my name on the building, you know. And it has to be warm enough by then, for you."

"Your most recent decisions as CEO are enough for this fiscal year, Tony, and then some."

He beams proudly at that.

Pepper taps a few papers against the surface of the conference, aligning them to staple them together. She then slides the paperwork in front of Tony, "Read. No JARVIS to cover for you now."

He frowns, but complies, and with a slight shift forward in his chair, nudges the paperwork closer to him so he can grasp it. He leans back again and starts reading. Pepper notes that along with turning each crisp page loudly, he's folding back the pages so as to make a deep crease in the corner, with particular deliberate purpose and almost petulantly so. She's amused.

An intern catches her attention from the corner of her eyes.

"Ms. Sterling," she greets warmly, "good morning. How is your internship going so far?"

"A-ah, it's...it's an...an amazing opportunity. Thank you. For asking, that is," the young intern is parts shy and other parts confidence, as she figures out how she fits in the real world. She's also got this hunched shoulder thing that tall people do. Pepper recognizes it all too easily.

Sterling gives a wayward, nervous look at Tony, as she gingerly places down a glass of water, "G-good morning, Mr. Stark."

"Not really," Tony replies absently as he turns another page, "Could be better if you brought me coffee. Ms. Potts is mean and won't let me have any."

"Coffee makes 'headaches' worse," Pepper says pointedly. She smiles at the intern encouragingly, as she steps away to deliver other cups.

"I have read and internalized," Tony announces dramatically and wearily, leaning back in his chair as he tosses the papers back onto the table. And Pepper trusts that he has indeed read it all, because Tony is a speed reader and it drives her nuts why he doesn't just read the things she gives him, if it doesn't take that long to read them.

"Now, just take your blazer off and I won't have to get out of this chair to go get that heater fixed," as always, he bounces back to their previous topic with ease, "also, you know about my ankle. S'posed to stay off that ankle as much as possible."

Pepper snorts, "And yet you went out drinking last night with Rhodey."

He shrugs.

"I understand how bored you are," she looks over other papers, "But, your meeting - the one you called for - will begin soon-"

"Then I'm going to be even more bored," he whines. Then he gives her an accusatory look: "And it's only 'my' meeting because you told me we needed to have one. I said no, and you defied me, Pepper. That's disobeying your employer. Your superior-"

"You're not my superior anything," Pepper retorts.

He's pulling out the "Mr. Stark, Employer" card. Which indicates how bored he really is. It's a given he doesn't see himself as her boss.

"-but I'm willing to let that alone and tolerate such insolent behavior. Because. You're my PA - whatever and anything I require, right? I, then, require to see the skin of your arms. Get to it, Ms. Potts."

"Enough of that. Mr. Lee's motioning at you."

Tony blinks and looks away from Pepper to see Andrew Lee entering the room with his team.

"Andy," he waves to said acquaintance, and then gives a nod when Andy makes a silent motion with his arms, "yeah, golf. This Saturday. Wait, Saturday? Pepper."

"Friday," Pepper corrects smoothly, "10 AM. And tennis, Tony. You really need to keep the drinking to a minimum the night before a meeting. It disorients you. His hand was clearly moving as if a racquet. Not a golf club."

"And?"

"And he's a candidate for CFO. A very good one, at that. That's why you're playing tennis with him. As well as with another candidate, Karen Pike."

"I don't like him. He does that...thing with his face too much."

"It's called a smile. He was smiling at us. Incidentally, I also smiled back at him. It's polite and courteous. You could have done the same and said good morning to Ms. Sterling, you know. You were a bit snippy."

"Last time I did that to an intern, well - I don't want to repeat that fiasco. Hell, Potts. Smile at Andy, the cute intern, and I can't even get a glimpse of your delicious arms?"

"Arms," she deadpans, "you have always been a strange voyeur... But arms? Really?"

"I resent the term 'voyeur' - I appreciate," Tony sniffs but then grins at her, "but, just look at your arms."

"I live with them, Tony. I eat, type, arrange meetings for you such as today's," she will remind him of his surroundings as much as possible before he actually has to talk to the entirety of the room, lest he forget where he is, why he's here, and up and leave out of whim, "sleep, and do other things with them."

"Other. Things?"

"No."

"What if I took this water here and...it spilled toward your direction? Accidentally, of course."

"Accidentally, of course," she nods indulgently, "However, even you wouldn't do that. Embarrass me, in front of so many people, and so near to the start of the meeting. But," she hastily adds in before he interrupts with another inane scheme, "in any case, I find no need and will not be removing the blazer."

"...'Remove?' 'Remove' is very, very close to the word, 'strip.'"

She sighs, "Of course it is."

"How very unprofessional of you," he mockingly says as he pulls on his tie even more, as a personal preparation for the meeting, "But leaves much to the imagination."

"Tony-"

"You're a very attractive woman, Ms. Potts. I don't know if you know that, but I do. So, you should be more careful with your feminine wiles. It's a good thing I have restraint as your employer, your superior, and that I'm not a lesser man."

Pepper would sigh, but really - it was her fault for leaving such an opening.

because Pepper is a saint. and Tony is terrible and easily prone to boredom.