It was the first hint of a smile he'd given all evening, and it came after Pepper speaking his name, albeit with a hint of a warning. Tony threw up his hands prematurely as a defensive measure, as if to assure Pepper that he had only been thinking about it. He had a past record of surprising her and if tonight had been any indicator, he had never been particularly successful in getting her to appreciate said surprises. "I wasn't gonna," he assured her and lowered his hands. "It was just a thought."
Tony felt her hand in his, smaller but in a sense stronger. It tightened, but not around his own hand. "What?" He felt perplexed and anxious all at the same time, her double-edged words strung together seemingly hap-hazardously. It could be anything, absolutely anything. Every time he thought he knew what she was thinking, she always proved that he had no clue. It was what he loved about her, about being with her. Pepper kept him on his toes and challenged him to be more Tony than Iron Man. It was also in some ways the hardest part.
"Okay." Tony placed a hand on her shoulders, warm and reassuring. "No, no--I get it, you don't have to--" His hand traveled from her shoulder to the back of her neck, gently sifted through her hair before he pulled her close. She smelled like lavender and a little bit of the chow mein they hadn't gotten a chance to eat.
"... I wish you wouldn't drink so much."
Iron Man gently eased back from the hug and studied his wife's face. Me too. Tony nodded, because at first there wasn't anything else he could do. He lead Pepper by the hand towards the water. A bench stood there, seemingly waiting for them, framed by a tree and its branches checkered pattern, the moonlight in the background giving the area an eerily lighting.
Everything. He told her everything. About his fears, about what he saw for the future and the impending feeling of dread and doom he couldn't let go, how it had him in his clutches and how it spurred him onward, forward. His mission. "Everything I've done, everything I'll ever do... I do to protect this world. Our world. Maybe putting on this suit, I took on more power than anyone should ever have and more responsibility that someone like me could ever hope to handle, but I have to do it, Pep. I have to protect you and everything else, even if I'm the only one doing it. It's my job. I'll do whatever it takes."
(Pulled from its context, understandably hard to follow, but just a Tony Stark post I particularly enjoyed writing, as a blend of mcu and comic legacy. Of course, credit to Invincible Iron Man vol 1, #19)
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