Another Day At the Office

Only a one-shot, because otherwise, fans of my other (neglected) stories might just kill me. Carried on with the wonderful, addicting, amazing Animal by Neon Trees. Listen to it while you're reading! And please, please, PLEASE review :) Somewhere between coming home from Afghan and going to the benefit. Or just fit in where appropriate (it could fit in between the first and second movie, or the first movie and before the kiss in the second movie).Rated M for the awful potty-mouth I've acquired (quite frankly, though, it fits).

Just a friend. Just a friend. Just a friend. Tony repeated his mantra, over and over again in his head. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to restrain himself. No, he wouldn't. And he was quite sure his lawyer didn't want yet another sexual harassment case. (At least not until he finished with the last one.) Really, he didn't even want her for a just roll in the hay (even though he certainly wouldn't object to one). The truth was, he wanted her. Forever.

To be perfectly honest, he didn't want any Monica Lewinski jokes and a press bonanza—not for her, not for him. But goddamn it! Did she have to have hair that shade of red? Or have that exact sprinkling of freckles? Or have those sexy, toned, anti-anorexic legs? (Rather refreshing, that.) Or wear those ridiculously professional, sexy suits? He couldn't even find a slut that looked like her to fuck and pretend it was her. It was really fucking fantastic, wasn't it? He had to find a blatantly off-limits woman who was original, lovely, kind, and sexy all at once and freaking fall for her. She even knows his every flaw and doesn't mind—she still works for him, is still his friend, still sees the good in him. And let's face it—no one else, excepting Hogan and Platypus, have done that.

Fuck. Her lip gloss is basically begging him to kiss her. And her perfume!

Shit. Pepper was briefing him over appointments and he wasn't listening...again. It's been 10 years, and she knows by now when he is and isn't paying attention. She launches into a lecture about responsibility...again. Maybe he should fire her, then ask her to date. No, no, that's ridiculous. Because then he wouldn't be with her 24/7 anymore...he wants to be more than friends, yet he's quite sure she'll never even consider it when she's still working for him. They're sitting across from each other on the couch, and it's unbearable, really, the space between them. He wants to scream, to yell, because he's rather sick of this playing pretend, this "Mr. Stark" and "Ms. Potts". Doesn't she know she has his heart? What the fuck is she waiting for?

Heh-heh. "Fuck." Funny word. A nice obscenity, but exactly what he wants to do with her. Well, hopefully a bit more.

Really, what ever possessed him to hire her? And how was he able to resist all these years? Dear God, this is going to kill him. He wants more of her, more of them, but it's not going to happen. He sighs, because the only way he's going to stop thinking about her and get any sleep tonight is getting shit-faced. Which means another lecture from her and a hangover. The hangover he could deal with, and then again, another lecture means he gets to spend time with her again...maybe this plan has a better outlook than he thinks.

Oh dear, now she's bothering him about those goddamn benefits and ceremonies five months from now. Quite frankly, the only thing he wants to do five months from now is buy a yacht and sail around the world with her and JARVIS. He's ridiculously dependent on both of them. Then again, he's selfish and petty enough to love that she has to deal with this stuff and lecture him about it, because that means he's the center of the world for her. Yes, that rather does comfort him. Too bad he can't tell her. Not just that he wants her, but that he hopes he's the center of her world. Because he doesn't want her to see all of his flaws...she might run away then, and he's not yet entirely prepared for that either. Hell, he just might die if she did.

Pepper wants to roll her eyes, scream at the world, shake Tony so hard his arc-reactor falls out of his chest. He's not listening again! Argh, argh, argh. It's not like she wants to go to all these events, talk to the board, deal with the press, have these endless meetings or deal with the endless list of tasks. If it was her choice, in five months she'd be on yacht, traveling the world, with JARVIS dealing with all this shit, instead of attending some MIT ceremony. Crap—now she has an image of Tony is his swimming trunks. Goddamn it. She glances up from her tablet displaying the to-do list, and she realizes he's not paying any attention—as usual. His eyes are glazed over, he has a ridiculous grin on his face, and his fingers are still—usually, with this kind of debriefing, he'd be impatient and his hands would be constantly moving (a side effect of being a genius that works with tools—his machines being his second favorite thing to work on). She lets out a harrumph, which makes Tony look up and grimace. She puts on her let's-get-to-work-and-stop-fucking-around-because-it's-your-company-and-if-I-have-to-deal-with-it,-so-do-you face, but when she suddenly sees a spark a of lust in his gorgeous brown eyes, she narrows his eyes. She understand not being interested in this list of boring things he has to deal with, but really? Thinking about some slut he wants to fuck now? Couldn't he at least wait until tonight, when he's (most likely) going to go clubbing, to think about that?

Then again, it shouldn't even bother her. She's not jealous of the girls (in five years, they'll most likely be prostitutes or have some such social status), but it perplexes her that she hates when he's wasting his time with someone other than...

No, she's not going to finish that sentence. This is work, this is work, this is work. The reason she hates that he wastes his time with them is because she hates wasting his money on dry cleaning their dirty clothes.

Why can't he just be mature enough to have a real relationship? Yes, she supposes that's the real problem with it. Why can't he just show he's mature enough, he's responsible enough to think without his dick playing a part of it? How could she expect to have a relationship with—wait? Where the hell was that from? She doesn't want any kind of relationship with him. Nope, not at all. Because, really, she would dread the Monica Lewinski jokes at work. She has a reputation to uphold, a professional outlook to maintain, and he needs responsibility in general, not just his personal life.

"Tony, really, you can't have a company and then just leave it for me to run. Honestly, can't you be a bit more responsible?" She continues with her lecture; hopefully it'll knock some sense into him. And honestly, if she gets another call from MIT or Disney or Ronald McDonald Foundation or whatever, she's going to cancel his funds to every damn place he sends his money to.

Halfway through her diatribe, though, of course his phone rings, and of course he takes it—it's Rhodey, how could he not? His pleading expression makes her want to laugh out loud—he's really rather childish sometimes—and so, she finds herself fighting a smile, rolling her eyes, and conceding. Of course, because it's Tony, he suddenly has an idea for his suit from something Rhodey says and so Pepper fakes a huff and a pout and goes back to calling board directors and MIT and whatever foundation else. Of course, she doesn't forget to check out his ass when he leaves. She never does.

And you know, sometimes she does wonder. What it would be like, that is. To sleep with him. She's not a prude. Naturally it'd have to be pretty amazing, the way girls (and guys) line up for him. What it would be like to wake up in his bed, breathing in his scent...except, she'd rather not prefer a version of her throwing her out. No, because no matter what Tony said or did, she couldn't stay away—he always seemed to pull her back with those sexy brown eyes of his. You could drown in those. And after sleeping with him, they might not work out...and she wasn't prepared for that. She just might die if she had to go.