I know that I've got other stories on the go but this came into my head and I couldn't get it to leave so here we go...

Prologue

Neither of them was sure how it happened but somewhere in the whirlwind of their own personal challenges they were thrown together.

In the aftermanth it looked like a one-way thing but it wasn't. It was just that Pepper Potts did not want to become another statistic on Tony Stark's ever growing list of conquests.

It had happened once. Only once. She had made it very clear to him that it had started and ended in one instance and it would stay that way. At first he'd protested and tried everything to charm her back onside but when the rebukes kept coming he retreated. Their rapport retained its colour but there was an added bite every time Tony made a questionable remark and she had flashbacks to their one, she had to admit, blissful night together.

Every now and then, on nights when she was alone and feeling very much that way, she contemplated calling him. She thought about going over and surprising him, admitting that maybe she'd been hasty, that actually she'd been lying to him and herself. But she stopped herself. It had been nearly two years - the ship, she thought to herself more often than not, had sailed.

Anyway, knowing Tony he was probably being well looked after by someone else.