DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN/HAVE CREATED THESE CHARACTERS OR ANY AFFILIATED CHARACTERS. But the storyline's mine so yea, NO STEALIE. x]

Pepper Makes Me Sneeze

It was an agreeable morning. The curtains were swished wide open, and the sun was bursting through the floor to ceiling windows. The sunlight touched every corner of the Malibu house. The dust in the air was revealed in the sudden outburst of light and seemed to reflect the laziness that still resided in the room. Pepper had walked in rather quickly, and failed to notice the bright disposition of the house. She had a laptop under her arm, mouth biting on a few papers, her other hand checking through her Blackberry, and under another arm was an all too familiar briefcase filled with more papers. She sprawled them out on a couch, sighed, pulled back her hair, and proceeded to try to multi-task with all of the work. Jarvis noted,

"Do you need help, Ms. Potts?" She waved a hand,

"Oh, no thank you, Jarvis…though…" She paused, listening. Pepper sighed,

"Could you wake up Tony?" Knowing him, he probably would've been blasting hard rock, but the morning was quiet.

"As you wish." Jarvis responded, before going to get Tony up. His electronic voice came through the speakers in Tony's darkened room,

"Mr. Stark, are you…?"

"ATCHOOOO!!" Pepper shot up from her seat on the couch, clearly taken by surprise. She stepped out into the hallway and called up the stairway,

"Mr. Stark?" She heard a muffled and congested voice reply,

"Mmm?" The frazzled assistant quickly climbed up the steps and into her boss's room. She yanked open the curtains to let light in. A bleary eyed Tony pulled the covers on his bed over his head and groaned,

"Close the curtains, Pepper…" She put her hands on her hips,

"Oh please, it's ten in the morning. You have a lot of meetings today. And…" Tony sneezed loudly once again. Pepper cocked her head, changing her mood instantly,

"Are-are you okay, Mr. Stark?" She went around to the other side of the bed, and lifted the top cover slightly. He sniffled a little bit. Her hand flew to her mouth,

"Oh my gosh, you look horrible!" Tony laughed hoarsely,

"Well, that's comforting." She bit her lip, before dashing to the medical cabinet. The bottles made clinking noises, as she pushed and shoved them, looking for pain relievers and coughing syrup. Tony groaned, as he struggled to prop himself up for the medicine that she was about to force him to take. She placed an array of different remedies on the night table. Tony raised an eyebrow.

"I have to take all of these?" She was breathing heavily,

"Yes." He coughed a bit,

"I'm not going to remember to take all of these." Pepper exhaled slowly,

"Don't worry, I'll remind you." He made a face,

"I still don't wanna take 'em. Plus, I hate grape." She shook her head, so he couldn't see her smiling a little. She took out a metal spoon and filled it with the first gooey liquid,

"Bottoms up." She consoled Tony. He opened his mouth reluctantly, and Pepper thrust the spoon into it. This was done for another three times with three other medicines. Tony made fake gagging noises,

"Don't complain. You've probably had it worse." She muttered while tightening the cap on some Tylenol; he could act like such a child. His personal assistant handed him a couple of cough drops, and he took them. Now finished, she took out some papers from her briefcase,

"Here, Mr. Stark, you just have to validate…" He sneezed all over the papers. Disgusted, she jumped back,

"Oh, Tony! I can't give infected papers to the board members!" Her boss sniffled,

"Ugh, sorry." She tried to give him a comforting look,

"Um, well, never mind then. If you're going to keep sneezing, I might as well take this away." She gingerly picked up the papers and stuffed them back in the briefcase. Quickly, she whipped out Purell and rubbed it generously all over her hands. Tony smirked,

"You're always such a neat freak and a hygienist." She gave Tony a look,

"Well, I don't want to get sick. I don't know what you'd do without me if I became sick." Tony looked at her,

"I guess you got a point there." She smiled a little triumphantly, remembering this little talk before. She began to head back down the stairs.

"Hey, you're not leaving your gravely-ill yet undeniably good-looking boss here to wither from his sickness, are you Ms. Potts?" Tony called out. She popped her head back in through the doorway, smiling deviously,

"Wouldn't even think of it." Before disappearing back downstairs. He grinned himself, feeling a little lighter. Her Blackberry had been ringing constantly, as she had expected. She picked it up and answered nearly six calls at once. Tony heard bits and pieces of conversations from his room,

"Oh yes…no I'm sorry, sir, he's ill right now…I'm afraid that's canceled…yes you too…no ma'am I wasn't talking to you…uh huh…" He felt a little pity towards his hard working assistant.

"Jarvis?" He called out once again.

"Yes, sir?" Jarvis replied. Tony asked,

"Can you shut off Pepper's phone and reply to all of those annoying old people for her?" He made a few noises,

"Already on it, sir." Pepper screeched. He braced himself. She stomped upstairs,

"Mr. Stark, why is my phone dead?" She fumed. He merely grinned,

"I'm giving you a little break, that's all. You needed it." The on edge woman crossed her arms in front of her,

"Well, thanks for asking me first." She sarcastically grumbled. Tony rubbed his temples,

"Pepper, sometimes I think if I weren't around, you'd kill yourself with all this work unknowingly." She didn't seem to care. A little ticked off; she stuck a thermometer in his mouth and placed a hand on his head. Her cold hand was a relief to his hot head. She pulled back and sighed.

"You really are sick." She commented a little unhappily. Tony still managed to speak with the thermometer in his mouth,

"Yea, well what's the matter with that?" Pepper frowned, closing his mouth with her slender fingertips,

"Everything. You know, you did have an important meeting today with your stock market team. And there were a whole bunch of meetings planned with the board, your technician group and marketing assistants. And…" Her boss cut her off, opening his mouth again,

"Pepper…don't sweat it. I am a superhero you know." Her lips tightened, as she drew back her hand,

"No you aren't." He grinned a little,

"Yes I am, and you know you love to worry over me." His dark eyebrows wiggled a little. She shifted the weight of her body onto another foot, as she began penciling in things in a small, black planning book, ignoring her childish boss for a second. Her teeth chewed on the end of her pen every once and a while as she thought. Tony shot from his bed suddenly and grabbed the book and pen from her. Pepper screamed, surprised, before looking quite upset once again.

"Mr. Stark, give me that back." She coldly snapped. He smiled largely once again. He always loved to get her angry like this. Her hair all in a mess, cheeks burning red. He coolly responded,

"No." Her unspeakable frustration shot at him through her hard, yet wonderfully beautiful grey-blue eyes that matched her swirling, different emotions. Her hands went on her hips once again,

"And give me a legitimate reason why not." He grinned almost annoyingly once again,

"'Cause I'm your boss, Ms. Potts." The color of her hair began to match the color of her cheeks.

"Well…" She started off huffily but didn't manage to finish her sentence. Pepper just blinked a few times, before leaving, turning on the heel of her foot, defeated. Tony kept grinning happily to himself.

"Sir, that seems to be the source of Ms. Potts' anger." He replied to Jarvis,

"Oh yes, I've noticed." He could've sworn he heard his AI sigh.

AN: Short little intro. *DRUMROLL* :D lol. Yep, I write a whole buncha stories for a whole buncha different topics. Total fluff and sweetness along the way, so try to hold your sweet tooth back. ;]