Hello all! Just a little one-shot from the P.O.V. of Tony. Thought about it, wrote it down, and this is what we got. I plan to write a lot tonight so I will try and have another chapter of The Bucket List of PP posted by the end of the week. KK hope you enjoy!

Finding the will to live

His eyes were open but his heart stopped beating, his brain stopped thinking, and the arc reactor that was nuzzled into his chest stopped humming. All he could see was her. Her falling into the flames that he had helped create. Her, screaming, struggling to grasp anything that might pull her from mid-air and stop her from falling to her death. But she fell and death met her halfway. He saw this same picture over and over again.

In those five seconds of bitter emotions burying itself into his heart, Tony Stark died. The only reason for him to live just fell into the fire; the only reason for him to even exist had just been burned alive, right in front of his eyes. He watched her fall and he couldn't do anything about it. When she died, he died with her.

She had carried the essence of authority wherever she went and people knew it. She was everything any woman wished they could be and any man wished they could have. And Tony had her. But what did he do? He contentedly put her in harms way and he knew he would never forgive himself for that. She was beautiful and powerful. She was perfect.

At least that's what he heard himself telling the wicked man who stood before him. He told him that she was already perfect. But maybe not. She had allowed herself to trust him and that certainly wasn't perfect. She had constantly risked everything, put everything out on the line, for a man who obviously couldn't care less about her safety. Or that's how it had seemed. But he really did care about her. He loved her.

Yes, he decided, the only thing imperfect about her, was him.

He thought her sure to be dead. She fell into flames. Thousands of burning, malevolent flames. But somehow she was walking towards him, the fire burning bright behind her. She was walking away from what seemed to be hell, with her life.

He thought certainly he was imagining it. Like when people in the desert go for days without water and food. They start seeing things. Mirages, he supposed. They had lost the will to live. Illusions of lagoons and waterfalls would plague their vision, taking advantage of their unstable mental state. When the people would touch the water, it would disappear.

That's what he was afraid would happen to her. He had just lost his only reason to live and he was certainly mentally unstable. So with all things considered, he just knew that when he touched her she would be whisked away, like a column of smoke.

He expected to see his life flash before his eyes when the Mandarin came walking out of the flames, all devil like. Instead, all he could see was Pepper. The bad times and the good times, but mostly he could still here her voice in his head. 'I don't have anyone but you' she had said.

When he saw her kick the ass of Killian and then one of his own suits, he knew she was real and he could feel himself coming back to life. He could see himself living again, transforming into a new man who took every second for granted; a man who lived every day to it's fullest. And at that one moment, he knew could do it with her right by his side.

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