First story for Iron Man. First story in YEARS! It hasn't been BETAd and it's been only very lightly edited, I just wanted it up here cause impatience. Hope you enjoy!

It had been several months since the infamous press conference, where Tony had announced to the world on a whim that he was, essentially, a superhero. The party invites had quadrupled, he had been interviewed by every major news channel, and interviews had been requested by pretty much every other channel as well. But… well. A man only has so much time.

Tony was tinkering in his workshop, as he had been doing more and more when he wasn't out partying or feeding his own fame. He glanced up at the stylised Iron Man print which had replaced a painting worth almost as much as his condo in New York City and smirked to himself, remembering Pepper's face when he had taken down the painting and thrust it into her hands. His smirk widened when he remembered the young, blonde news anchor he had brought back to his workshop after one particular interview for an "exclusive", and how he had admired the print past the back of her head while he was giving her that "exclusive". Talk about an ego boost.

He looked back at what he was doing and noticed a tremor in his fingers. He blinked tired eyes, tossed aside the piece of wiring he had been working on and stretched. Vaguely he wondered what time it was.

"Dummy. Hey, you. Yes, you, genius. Where are those beers I told you to keep cool?"

The robot turned to him, a bottle already clutched in its claw.

"What, are you kidding me? You've just been holding it this entire time? It's gonna be totally- yeah. Lukewarm. Gross, buddy. Hey, where's that fire extinguisher you get so trigger happy with? I've finally got a use for it."

Tony set down the bottle on his desk and took a big step to the side. Dummy raised his sad head and swung his spare arm into action, holding the fire extinguisher that never seemed to be too far away from him. Tony ducked away a little as a cloud of CO2 engulfed the bottle, scattering papers from the desk.

"Ok, ok, whoa there! That'll do it!" Tony spluttered, waving his arms. He tentatively reached out towards the bottle and, finding it not too cold to touch, he levered the cap off against a drawer handle and took a long swig. He hadn't realised till the beer touched his tongue just how thirsty he was. He gulped and gulped, half on automatic, and when he finally lowered the bottle he had downed almost three quarters already. He belched.

"Ah, that's the stuff. Cool the rest of the case down, would ya? Not too much," he added hastily as Dummy turned, wielding his extinguisher with the purpose of a hitherto terminally benched player who has just been informed that the fate of the season rests upon their shoulders.

Tony walked over to his couch and collapsed.

"Hey JARVIS, where have my tunes gone?"

"You finished them, sir."

"So play the next playlist!"

"You have finished all of the playlists, sir."

"Are you kidding me? How long have I been down here? What time is it? Wait, don't tell me. Ok, find me a mix I'll like."

"What keywords would you like me to search with, sir?"

Tony grinned. "Try 'Iron Man.' And limit results to mixes made by chicks. Preferably adoring chicks."

"There is no way to narrow search results by romantic inclination, sir."

"Alright, just chicks in general then."

"There are several hundred results, sir."

Tony's grin widened. "Cross reference with my library for artists I like."

The dulcet tones of Cage The Elephant burst forth from the extra heavy-bass speakers situated all round Tony's workshop, and he closed his eyes as the boom vibrated through his bones. His head rolled back and he raised the bottle to his lips again, savouring the cool hops on his tongue and the buzz of the alcohol already reaching his blood from his first long pull.

"Hey Dummy, how are those beers coming along?"

The robot approached with the case of freshly chilled beers, and Tony kicked his feet up and settled into the couch.

"Tony…"

There was a girl saying his name. Tony smiled. He liked it when they said his name.

"Tony?"

"Hang on honey, just a little longer…"

"Mr Stark." The voice was suddenly hard.

Tony opened his eyes. Pepper Potts was standing over him.

"Pepper… Hey, I thought you went home?"

"I did go home."

"What?"

"Did you sleep here again?" Her exasperation didn't entirely hide the worry in her voice.

"What? No, I only just closed my eyes. What time is it?"

"It's ten am. There's breakfast upstairs."

She left, glancing back over her shoulder, concern written on her face.

Tony sat up amid the clinking of empty beer bottles. It appeared he had finished the case.

"JARVIS… What time did I go to sleep last night?"

"It's hard to say, sir. You didn't seem particularly conscious from around 4am onwards, but you kept drinking until you ran out of alcohol, which was at approximately half past six."

"Crap…" He stood up and immediately regretted it. He winced and walked across his workshop, staggering slightly, leaning heavily on the glass door to the stairs. The smell of bacon hit him as the door swung open under his weight.

Thank god for Pepper, he thought.

It took all of his self-control to divert his course to the kitchen via the shower, but he forced himself to spend a cursory five minutes under the blistering jet of water. Stepping out of the shower he tousled his hair dry and wrapped the white towel around his hips, glaring at his red-rimmed eyes in the mirror. He opened the cabinet and fumbled for eye-drops and aspirin before making his way into the kitchen.

"You know there are clean clothes in your room, right?"

Tony scowled at Pepper, who was leaning on the kitchen bar with a mug of coffee, laughing at his towel.

"Can't a man have breakfast free from judgement in his own home?"

Pepper forced a straight face and gave a "by all means" gesture as Tony sat at the table and served himself sloppily from the delicious spread of bacon, eggs, sausages and blueberry pancakes. He covered everything on his plate with a generous glug of maple syrup and tucked in.

"Whaddya shtanding ova thurr foh'?" Tony asked, his mouth full of syrupy sunny-side ups. "Come siddown."

Pepper hesitated, glancing over her shoulder towards the office.

"Cmawwwn," Tony swallowed. "If you've got time for coffee you can drink it sitting at the table with me. Have you eaten?"

Pepper chuckled. "Yes, actually." But she helped herself to an apple from the fruit bowl as she sat down across from Tony. For a little while they ate together in silence, Tony slurping his food and gulping his coffee while Pepper maintained a poker-face in the face of this spectacle, belying just some of the skill with which she had held her position with Stark Industries for all these years. After a few minutes, however, her calm façade began to show cracks.

"What?" demanded Tony.

"What?" Pepper seemed surprised.

"You were doing the thing. Biting your lips. You do it when something's bugging you. It's usually me." Tony tried for a dash of charm to get himself out of whatever trouble he might be in, but Pepper's smile was fleeting and didn't touch her eyes.

"You… You haven't been getting enough sleep lately."

"I've been working."

"I know, but you're becoming nocturnal. And when you do sleep, more often than not it's in your workshop. It's not healthy."

Tony chewed slowly and swallowed. "Look, Pepper, I know you're just being nice, but you don't have to look after me THAT much. I'm totally fine."

She looked as if she wanted to say something, but just then JARVIS interrupted their conversation.

"Excuse me, Mr Stark, but you asked me to remind you in advance about the casino opening tonight."

"Oh man… Ok, right. Red carpet, etc, etc, right?"

"It would appear that there will indeed be a red carpet at the event, sir, yes."

"Right. Hey, Pepper, do you know if my royal blue suit is clean?"

Pepper nodded.

"Perfect. You comin' tonight?"

"Uh, no. Not tonight, unless you need me there? I was planning on a night in."

"Go ahead, stay in. Have a bath, get a pedicure, watch something romantic. Girls do that stuff, right? I'm sure I can get through one night without a major scandal I need you to spin for me."

Pepper chuckled half-heartedly, "I wouldn't speak too soon…"

"Right," Tony stood up, stretching, "I'm gonna go hit the pool for a couple hours, then probably take a nap. Do whatcha gotta do."

Pepper remained silent but Tony noticed just before he left the room that she had begun to chew her lips again.

TBC