A/N: So I saw The Avengers at midnight and then of course was bombarded with a whole onslaught of ideas when I was sitting there in awe, howling, or just being immersed in pure awesome. Of course, me being me and having just seen a movie that had thus far made 2012/MARVEL for me, I've got me an idea for another story as well. Ah, we'll consider this it's prequel, of sorts.

As you can probably tell, this one-shot here originally started as something else and then became this. Consider it two-in-one, if you will. They're almost not even tied together! D:
And Tony hardly even acts like himself at one point. Same goes for Pepper. The hell.

And if you haven't seen The Avengers already [I wouldn't blame you, seeing as it's only been out in the US for a DAY], not to worry. This really isn't going to spoil anything for you here. In fact, the closest thing to a spoiler in this is the title, and even that serves as a comedic quip between Pepper and Tony [who had some nice scenes together, might I add].

Post-IM2|Pre-Avengers.

As for this...oh god what have I done. :|

Twelve Percent of Everything.

The click of the arrows on the keyboard of Pepper's laptop was becoming monotonous, and she quickly found herself zoning in and out as her mind wandered elsewhere on the steady darkening Friday night. The press's constant desire for immediate responses and reactions in regards to her thoughts on Tony Stark's latest antics and whatever the hell was going on with the Expo's remnants could wait. At the moment the debate over whether the walls of her apartment were white or mauve was much more important.

In fact, she was so zoned out at the time that it took her a few minutes to realize that there were already a few new messages on her phone from the same person. Leave it to Tony Stark to call consecutively until he finally got a response.

She had to say that her favorite of the six so far was: "Peppeerrr…The Pep-ster. Potts. Pott-errific. Answer the phone? Answerrrrrrrr meeeee. Please? ...Fine. Don't then. See if I care ...Alright look, this is important. Will you call me back? Pepper. Oh, by the way. It's Tony. As if you didn't know that. If you didn't, I am quite wounded. Like just banged my shin on the coffee table pretty damn hard wounded. And then bleeding all over the floor I've-fallen-and-can't-get-up. Are you trying to kill me?"

After dialing back she hardly got out the words "Hello, Tony" before he deemed it necessary to cut her off.

"Do me a favor, would you?" He continued on without giving her a chance to either accept or decline. "Wear that birthday present you got from me and some nice shoes."

He could almost sense her staring blankly at the wall before her with a fairly confused expression.

"Excuse me? What for?" Pepper heard him give an exaggerated sigh –a surefire guarantee that his next comment was going to be made with sarcasm.

"So you can parade around with me all up and down the red carpet like we own the place. You and I are getting ourselves a Grammy. Give me a B flat real quick, okay?" There was a smirk in Tony's tone, and Pepper found herself fighting a grin of her own as he suddenly changed tactics. "No really, you get yourself all nice and dressed up. I'll be there in twenty minutes."

The dial tone kept the woman company for a moment until the man's words sank in.

"Tony, what are you up to now?" She muttered, closing her laptop and gathering her things. A quick call to JARVIS offered little aid—had he been human, Pepper was sure he would have been shrugging.

It was by sheer luck that Pepper found that dress in her bedroom closet ten minutes later.

Without much thought she situated herself back into it, frowning slightly at the reminder that the last time she had worn it she'd ended up alone on a rooftop waiting for a man that had promised her and drink and a kiss. The dance was just extra.

Amazingly, when it came to board meetings and work related activities, Tony Stark could take his sweet time. When it came to personal matters that he'd set up himself however, apparently time was of the essence, revealing that he actually could be early or on time if he wanted to. This was something new though, so it was surprise for the woman when he showed up at her apartment five minutes early with his face pressed against her door trying to peer in through the peek-hole.

"It's one-way, Tony." Pepper murmured when she opened her door, meeting his borderline goofy grin with a small one of her own. "Would you mind telling me what's going on?"

He extended his arm out to her, waiting for her to take it. "Shall we?"

She said nothing, taking the limb and securely shutting and locking the door behind her.

"You look great," He stated with that smirk still plastered to his face as they strode on down the hallway toward the elevator. The doors slid open quickly before he guided her inside, smoothing out the front of his suit as he did so and she did find herself rather appreciative of the way he himself was dressed.

"Thanks?" Pepper murmured back, slightly amused by his look. "But I think the sunglasses might be a bit much for eight at night, Tony. Speaking of which, why so late?"

"Ah, but the night is still young." He replied, slipping off the overpriced accessory and sliding it into his breast pocket. Pepper shook her head in response before they stepped out into the lobby. "This way, if you would."

It wasn't that Tony Stark was a horrible driver, it was just the fact that it was completely terrifying to sit in the passenger side seat that worried Pepper. It didn't help that he'd chosen to take the flashiest car he had. With hardly a hum of protest she let him guide her over to the vehicle and actually help her get herself situated and then proceeded to stroll over to the other side of the car with a grin.

She tried to ignore the obvious stares they were getting from random passerby out on a weekend night.

He waited until they had pulled out and made decent headway toward their unknown destination before he finally spoke. "Just because I know you're brimming with both curiosity and burning desire for yours truly and to answer the question I know you're going to ask, I'm making up for the fact that I have so far failed to take you out on our first date."

Turning a fairly nice shade of pink, Pepper bit the corner of her lip to stay silent at his not so subtle narcissism. She found it strange how she'd been attracted to such an ass of a man in the first place, really. As she contemplated she risked glancing over at his as he pulled up to a red light, and the redhead then failed to work up the nerve to look away hide her smile, something he clearly noticed. It then faltered slightly when he made a sudden turn that almost sent her head sailing into his shoulder.

"Woops," He muttered under his breath, and then continued. "And because you seem to have some strange aversion to me taking you to Venice, I figured here wouldn't be a bad place to start. Drive-thru or dine-in?"

She could only stare at him blankly for a moment. "I...What?"

"Never really been a big fan of this drive-thru myself. In we go." He nodded as if that solved everything and calmed Pepper's constantly growing confusion. The door popped open and she found herself looking up into the grin Tony was trying to fend off for the moment with his hand extended to her.

"Let me get this straight," She began as he held open the door for her with an almost smug air. "You told me to dress all nicely and what not for our first date."

"Bingo." Tony said, flashing her his pearly whites and getting an almost amused raised eyebrow in response.

"And our first date is at Burger King?" He let a quick breath out through his nose.

"You sound unimpressed. There's a Wendy's up the street if you'd rather go there. Or if you really wanted to splurge we could always find a Bruegger's. Or go to Randy's Donuts. I hear they're having a great sale on buying a dozen."

She gave him a blank look.

"Alright," He sighed, his shoulders sagging in defeat. "But this isn't even the best part!"

"Really."

"Of course! This is just the beginning!" He waved an arm through the air as if to emphasis his point, sweeping over the sudden lull in activity in the otherwise busy establishment. One of the servers had frozen at the counter, his hand still holding on to the bag of food that he'd been handing to a customer that was now staring at the couple as if his dead grandmother had suddenly made an appearance while one woman had dropped her tray on her way back to her table where her three kids sat in silence, in awe of seeing Iron Man in the flesh. Somewhere in the back, a few burgers were burning.

"That...Could have gone better." He muttered when he noticed this, leading Pepper over to the counter. "What do you want to eat?"

"I don't..." She stared almost uncomprehendingly at the placards of numbers and pictures of what one could only hope to be freshly prepared foods. "What sounds good?"

"Um." He hummed, tapping his fingers to his chin. "That depends on what you like." He looked over at her, as if the curl of her bangs could give him some sort of answer. "Pick one, any one."

She turned her head, allowing her slight curls to bounce as she gave him a smirk. "Surprise me. I'm going to get a table."

"Should I just get one of everything then?" He called after her, turning his attention back to the series of options trying to figure out which one Pepper was mostly likely to eat. He made a face while he debated this, Burger King's occupants getting back to what they'd be doing before the couple had strode in, trying to hide the sideways glances they kept giving the multi-millionaire."I like everything."

A few minutes later Pepper glanced away from the window and up at Tony who was offering her a small tray of food. His childish grin just made her love him that much more.

"I...Couldn't narrow it down, so I got two of the same thing." He shrugged almost sheepishly, sliding into the chair across from her. He gave her a lopsided grin. "Hope you like Dr. Pepper."

"Hmm." She breathed with a sarcastic roll of her eyes, tapping her paper cup against his when he raised it in a toast.

"To Pepperony." He declared, glancing somewhere above her head as if some profound revelation had just struck him.

"To what?" She blinked, sitting holding her drink out to him. He set down his drink with a sigh, as if having to explain himself was physically exhausting.

"Look, the press is bound to start talking about us sooner or later, so we might as well give them something to work with, throw them a bone. So," He shifted, situating his tie in a looser fashion and starting to pull apart the paper wrappings around his burger with a shrug of his shoulders. "I figured we might as well give them a nickname to toy with."

A moment of silence passed before the woman started laughing.

"And you came up with that when?" She let out in between chuckles. Tony swiped a fry out of the carton and pointed it at Pepper.

"Will you take 'not a friggin' clue' as a decent response?" This only got her to snicker a bit harder and she desperately tried not to snort.

"I'll take what I can get."

He smirked, content with her reply, promptly pulling the tomato slice out of his sandwich. This earned a raised eyebrow from Pepper, who paused in unwrapping her own burger took her time in commenting.

"Since when don't you like tomatoes?"

Tony glanced up from the pinked hued circle he was dangling in the air, a smirk in his eyes. It was a rather nasty looking slice to be honest, so it really came as no surprise that he'd chosen not to eat it. Pepper's nose crinkled just so and he continued to wave it around, completely disregarding the stares he was getting as Tony Stark/Iron Man sat at Burger King and played with his food.

"It's not that I don't like tomatoes..." he began, his gaze flickering to the window they were seated next to and then back to the woman in a fraction of a second, though that gave her enough time to figure out his intent and then promptly frown and reprimand him.

"Tony don't you even," she almost commanded, setting aside the Whopper he'd bought for her and choose to instead focus her attention on the man across from her with tie partly undone and looking for the world like a puppy afraid of being bopped on the nose.

As much as Tony liked attention—and Tony liked attention, that was for damn sure (especially when it came to Pepper)—, this was not the kind of attention he liked. Especially when it was negative and he was on the receiving end.

With an exasperated sigh the overgrown child plopped his tomato slice back onto the paper beside his burger, slumping back in his seat and giving his meal a rather dismal look.

"You never let me have any fun," he muttered childishly. "I was going make art. Now the world will never be able to appreciate it."

"Sticking tomatoes to windows isn't art, Tony." Pepper stated, smirking to herself at his antics. When he this, he returned it ten-fold, leaning forward again and snatching his drink from where it sat with herself, gesturing to her with it.

"Ah, see, that's where you're wrong. Tomato-window art is going to be all the rage. No one can stop what would have been this awesome trend that I was going to start." He scoffed. "Well, not until you just did, at least. Ow."

She rolled her eyes at him and began poking through her fries.

"Fine, I see how it's gonna be," he spoke with mock hurt, following her example and dunking one of his own fries in a small cup of ketchup and then extracting what looked to be a bloody massacre on his end.

Tony shot her another look and grinned, ignoring the stares and whispers from the people around, focusing his complete attention on the woman before him. In response Pepper laughed, and although she wouldn't admit it, she was clearly enjoying their rather unconventional first date.

And as they were leaving he waited until she wasn't looking to smack his tomato slice against the window.

The door closed behind them, and then a little boy turned to his mother and asked if the pretty lady was Iron Man's girlfriend.

"It's only a little corny," Tony said as he busied himself with adjusting his cuffs, shifting his shoes to his other hand and making it a point to ignore the look he was receiving from woman quirking her eyebrow at him. It hadn't even been half an hour since their otherwise uneventful dinner and there was that lingering part of the old Tony Stark that was utterly baffled by the fact that he as of yet hadn't put on any of the 'moves.'

"Your definition of little and my definition of little are two completely different things, Tony," Pepper supplied from where she was seated upon a not-so-comfortable bench, undoing her own shoes and simply shaking her head at him.

He watched in bemusement as she wriggled her freed toes, him flexing his own in the sand as he rolled up his sleeves and waited for her to stand.

"Okay, so it's corny. A lot. There's probably nothing cornier except for maybe corn, and even then this is a close second." Without giving her the chance to scoff at him, the inventor took a step back, inclining his head in her general direction and holding out his hand for her to take, his suit jacket slung over his shoulder.

It didn't take much for her to reach for it, honestly.

Quite frankly, they were both just glad that it was getting late and dark enough that they couldn't very well make out the blushes that threatened their features and therefore didn't make them too much like a couple of awkward teenagers out wandering about after curfew. Then again, the moonlight was enough to highlight his features and it wasn't too terribly difficult for Pepper to make out how uncomfortable he was. Not because he was with her, but because he had no idea what to do with himself.

So yeah, maybe taking Pepper for a stroll on the beach at night was a bit corny, but he was hoping she'd cut him some slack. He did have to make up for Burger King, after all.

As much as he didn't want to, Tony Stark did have to admit that walking through the sand in the moonlight holding onto Pepper's hand was much more preferable than sitting down in his workshop alone with only JARVIS to keep him company and telling him the latest schematics he'd screwed up on.

It was funny, really, because Tony Stark didn't do small talk. You said what you wanted to, he made a smartass remark, you both parted ways and then everyone was happy. End of story. With Pepper Potts, however, it wasn't so much small talk as it was idle conversation, him actually (gasp!) not being an ass and simply...talking. Perhaps Pepper would have found it odd if it weren't for the fact that she was so at ease.

In all honesty, Tony just really liked talking to Pepper. Aside from JARVIS, Pepper was one of the few other beings—one of the only living ones—that he could have an actual conversation with, albeit slipping in a few sly comments here-and-there and engaging in a couple other means of banter, and maybe there was something about that fact that made him love her just a little bit more.

Interlacing her fingers with his, his date carried on about whatever topic they'd brought up (thankfully it involved neither work nor S.H.I.E.L.D., the latter of which he still had to address) and he caught himself staring.

He'd never told her that he loved her before. Hell, he'd never told anyone that. There had been plenty of people, men and women, that had screamed those three words at him especially after the whole Iron Man reveal, but he'd never said it to anyone else.

Hell, he just assumed Pepper knew. He just assumed that there was some sort of mutual understanding between them that they both loved one another, but neither had dared to say so just yet. In fact, neither was sure who wanted to be first. Or maybe he couldn't rightfully say that he loved her just yet, rather he'd admired her from afar for years, at times acting rather oblivious as to either of their 'feelings' but not acting upon any of them.

They hadn't been 'official' until just recently, but in Tony's mind they'd pretty much been together for much longer than that. She'd worked for him for years and knew just about everything about him, and damn if she couldn't be cheeky and witty when she wanted to be.

And so, after a great deal of mental deliberation and other miscellaneous calculations that were in all honesty him just stalling, did Anthony Stark finally come to a conclusion. He did, in every sense of the term he knew, love Virginia 'Pepper' Potts.

Now he just had to tell her.

"Tony?"

Her soft voice broke him out of his internal debate with himself crunching numbers as he tried to determine his feelings and Tony found that he was still staring at her, though they'd both stopped walking in order to make eye contact. He found himself flinching only slightly.

"You okay?" she asked, expression flickering between concern and humor. Her brow furrowed as he attempted to figure out how he wanted to respond.

So instead he just grinned. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm not actually a redhead."

"Damn, I was always wondering that," he snickered as a means of veering off into another topic, but she failed to let that deter her.

"No, there's something bothering you and I'd rather you not keep secrets from me anymore, Tony. Having to hear that you were near-death in middle of battle or whatever you want to call it was bad enough." She turned, digging her heels into the sand and for a very brief, fleeting moment, there was a short pang right beside the arc reactor that was afraid of her letting go.

His fingers twitched, grip intensifying on her hand only slightly.

She squeezed back, and his organic heart stopped screaming at the shrapnel.

Without much else to do Tony sighed, inclining his head and conceding; Pepper offered a small smile in response, if only to convince him to speak for once rather than keep something bottled up.

There was the thought that ran through his head that said he really liked it when Pepper smiled, but he quickly squashed it and stored it away to keep himself from getting too sentimental.

In order to counter that, however, the man with the mechanical heart shifted his bare feet in the sand until he stood facing his date, forcibly bottling the cynical side of him that threatened to crop up and mock the fact that they were both dressed up and standing on the beach barefoot with the Pacific Ocean crashing into itself beside them.

For her part, Pepper didn't back down, but rather slid closer to the man, damp sand ignored and collecting at the hem of the dress he'd once promised her a drink in. There came a sour taste in her mouth at the thought, but she held her tongue as something flashed through Tony's eyes before he closed them.

"Pepper," he said her name softly, let it brush against her lips in a whisper as he ducked his head just slightly.

"I know going to Burger King probably wasn't what you were looking for when it came to our first date, and walking on the beach is probably one of the cheesiest things you can think of, but what the hell."

Inwardly, he groaned at the next words he had to say, almost as embarrassed as he was annoyed that he had to say them.

"Look, Pepper, I'm not good when it comes to this dating stuff. The last time I took a woman out on a date was probably back in college and after that...well, we both know how I was." He twitched, and her bangs brushed his forehead. "As much as it pains me to admit it, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm supposed to do or how the hell I...whatever you want to call it."

He opened his eyes.

"I care about you, Virginia." There was some shock that came with him using her full name, and as a result there was a sharp intake of breath on her end. "And I would gladly lay down my life for you."

Tony stopped speaking, and Pepper remained immobile as he moved just enough to rest his forehead against hers. She closed her eyes as he did so, moving a little bit closer until the hand that wasn't entwined with his had reached up to grasp his bicep.

"Tony..." she couldn't help but murmur his name, really, unsure of how else to respond to the situation. This wasn't Tony. The Tony she knew through-and-through was a narcissistic cynic that at times enjoyed mocking moments such as the one he'd created here. All the same, she had to admit that she was flattered that he'd gone to such great lengths in order to express his feelings, as painful and uncomfortable for him as it may have been.

"So I've been thinking..."

Pepper couldn't help it. She held her breath and waited for him to continue, his lips just a hair's width away from hers and his stubble brushing against her cheek.

"...come to New York with me?"

Her eyes popped open.

He had to be kidding. All of that talk about how he felt and for what? To ask her to go on another business trip with him?

Hurt in her own right Pepper began to pull away, a frown tugging at the corner of her lips and generally not knowing what to think about the situation. Her grasp on his arm had loosened, and something passed through his features as he felt her pulling away, threatening to tug her back to him.

"Pepper—?"

"Seriously, Tony? All of that build up and you're just going to ask me to go travel with you? Really?" She mumbled, partly feeling guilty at the look on his face.

"I didn't mean it like that, Pepper." Tony said, not overly pleased with this sudden turn of events. There was supposed to be something big happening here, damn it.

Her brow quirked. "Then how did you...?"

The inventor's jaw clenched, and then it all clicked together. He just needed to fill in some of the missing pieces with her assistance.

"There's a new Stark Tower going up in Manhattan, and my insatiable curiosity wanted to know if there was a certain someone who wanted to go with me since private jet flights can be a pretty boring without some decent company. Even with Rhodey sitting there. Then that's like sitting in a library. Or hell. Or a library in hell."

His jests were forced. It was almost endearing.

Embarrassed, Pepper felt her cheeks reddened, highlighting her freckles and making her annoyed with herself for blushing. His mouth pulled up in one corner to form a lop-sided grin.

"Besides, there are some blueprints that I need a little bit of assistance going over. And you and I both know that JARVIS isn't much help there."

Tony's thumb was absently rubbing circles into the back of her hand and she found herself unconsciously moving closer to him, tilting her head to the side just so and leaving his breath to catch. She grinned in spite of herself.

"You owe me, Mr. Stark."

He returned the grin and worked on meeting her halfway.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Miss Potts."

Pepper couldn't help but muster a small laugh that met its end as soon as Tony Stark took it upon himself to kiss her.

It was almost a strange sensation, really, having Tony hold her hand for the better duration of their flight from Malibu to New York City, though their relationship was still working on growing from somewhat platonic to something else entirely. It was during the last leg of the flight that he began to doze, her tucked under his arm and her ear pressed against the gentle hum of his blue-toned heart.

As it now stood, asking to one another to accompany them to New York together was as close to an 'I love you' as either of them were going to get.

But for now, she could live with that.

The moment they touch down in LaGuardia Tony Stark's phone buzzes with a call from Agent Phil Coulson.

He ignores it.

After all, he has more important things to focus on. Such as the redhead handing him the glass of champagne as they look over the expanse of Manhattan.

Tony just loops an arm around her and smiles.

He'll just tell her about the Avengers Initiative later.