15653/An early morning visit

An early morning visit
Date of Scene:	29 September 2023
Location:	Pepper's Apartment, Space.
Synopsis:	Tony and Pepper.
Cast of Characters:	Iron Man, Pepper Potts

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Iron Man has posed:
It's early. Earlier than Tony would normally be up and about, but .. that would presume he'd actually slept - and in this case Jarvis would confirm that it's been at least thirty hours since 'Mr. Stark has indulged in some much needed rest.'.

Thirty hours that he's also been largely unreachable and apparently ignoring any attempts to contact him. Well, rather, having Jarvis intervene anyway and 'handle' the communication one way or the other - most of those end up sending the other party to Pepper.

But.. at 7:22 am there's a knock on the door to Pepper's appartment.

Thirty seconds later there's another knock.

Fifteen or so later: "Pepper! Pep.. open up, we've not got a lot of time..." Tony's voice. A hint of tiredness in it, a hint of .. manic excitement, but nothing out of the ordinary or 'end of the world' over tones. His 'usual' 'I have done this thing, and it's time to show it off' sort of tone.

Pepper Potts has posed:
The rhythmic knock rouses Pepper from a deep sleep. She pulls the covers closer, trying to escape into the warmth and coziness of her bed, but the knocking persists. Her foggy brain takes a moment to process the familiar voice at the door. Tony.

With a groan, she pushes herself up, running a hand through her tousled red hair. Throwing on a robe to cover her pajamas, she makes her way to the entrance, still blinking the sleep from her eyes.

Opening the door reveals a somewhat disheveled Tony, dark circles underlining his eyes, which, despite his evident exhaustion, glint with that unmistakable spark of inspiration.

"Tony?" she begins, her voice thick with sleep, a mixture of surprise and concern. "It's...early. And Sunday. What's going on?" She narrows her eyes, scanning him for any signs of injury or danger. The manic energy he exudes is both familiar and, at times, worrisome.

She steps aside, granting him entry, her fingers absently massaging her temples. The man always did have impeccable timing when it came to disrupting her sleep schedule. She's definitely not being 'cold' or stand-offish, but in her barely awake state, it's almost like she's forgotten that she can touch him.. reverting back into old habits as easily as breathing.

"Is everything okay?" She inquires, while mentally preparing herself for whatever 'show and tell' Tony has in store. With him, it's always a roll of the dice on whether it's an actual emergency or just another one of his groundbreaking innovations he can't wait to share.

Iron Man has posed:
From the look of Tony.. everything's business as usual. He's not in an IM suit, he's not in one of the bodysuits he wears when planning on being in an IM suit for a long time, and he's also not in a _suit_ suit.. He looks like he's been up for days, hasn't shaved, the jeans and t-shirt he's wearing have an odd mix of having some grease marks and creases in them that aren't usual and smelling ... _clean_ , like ozone type of clean.

He walks in when the door's open, flashes her a smile, but keeps on walking past her.. and says before he realizes where he is, "Jarvis, is the coffee ready ye.... Dammit. Pepper, we need to get Jarvis here..and some.. another time." He walks into the kitchen, starts to get coffee ready, "We've .. less than two hours to make the window, and that's from Canaveral's viewpoint."

A pause, he looks over at her, takes a longer look that threatens to get distracted due to her disheveled state.. "Pep.. well, c'mon.. I know it's not what I'm usually wanting, but.. you need to get dressed."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper watches Tony as he breezes past her, entering her kitchen with the familiarity only he would presume to have. The whirlwind of energy that is Tony Stark has fully descended upon her morning. As he speaks, her brain struggles to keep up with his rapid-fire pace. Canaveral? Window? It takes her a moment to piece it together, but she soon realizes that he's referring to a rocket launch window.

She leans against the doorway to the kitchen, arms crossed, and takes a steadying breath. "Tony, can you just slow down for a second?" Her voice is soft but firm, exuding the practiced calm she's perfected over the years. "Start from the beginning. What's happening in two hours?"

Her gaze drifts to the coffee pot, and she can't help but agree with at least one of Tony's immediate plans. Coffee is essential. But the mention of getting dressed, combined with the lingering look he'd given her, sends a warm blush creeping up her neck.

She raises an eyebrow, an amused glint in her eyes. "No, JARVIS doesn't need to live here. I get along just fine without on my own, and considering the hour and the sudden intrusion, I think I look fairly decent. But, I'll get dressed. What am I dressing for?"

Iron Man has posed:
It takes Tony a few long moments to figure out the coffee situation, but he's an engineer at heart and he gets the coffee started without any .. inordinate amount of cursing. That done he turns and finds Pepper _still_ there and not getting dressed - and starts towards her, fully intent on putting his hands on her hips and walking her backwards into her bedroom, presumably to start on that getting dressed bit, but...

He stops, just processing the ask from earlier, as the smell of coffee starts to make its way out of the kitchen, "The primary payload for the L1 station's habitat module is going to launch and I don't want to miss it's arrival at the station."

A pause, "Jeans, t-shirt, comfy close..no jewelry that might float and/or get lost. "

A pause.

"You don't get sick on roller coasters, right? I don't think so.. no inner ear issues?"

"You're getting dressed, right?"

"Jarvis - have you got the work order for getting Pepper's apartment up to something decent, automation wise, put together already?"

Jarvis: "Mr. Stark, Ms Potts has said she doesn't want that level of .. intrusion into her personal space."

"She.." Tony starts, pauses, looks at Pepper, "You did?"

Pepper Potts has posed:
/"Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly./

Pepper stays planted right there in the doorway until Tony is in front of her, hands on her hips, walking her backwards... and then her arms are going up, lacing around his neck, and she's looking up at him with a wicked smile.

It looks like she /might/ try to derail his Canaveral window, whatever that meant, though it was sure to be something space-related... she's sidling right up against him, faintly resisting that backwards momentum (or at least ensuring that once they make it to her bedroom, he can't get away).. right up until he says one word.

"Did you just say 'float'?"

Her eyebrows lift, then she blinks.

"Wait, you're being serious. Tony, I've followed you on Quinjets and Helicarriers.. I've never been to /space/ before..."

And then JARVIS is talking about intrusion, and Pepper laughs softly.

"Tony, your life is a fortress. Mine is considerably less so. That necklace you had made for me?.. Which, I tracked down the order, for, by the way. You never once said you had it designed specifically for me..." Which was no doubt his plan, to keep her from freaking out until she could process everything that was happening. "...and I still need to properly thank you for. I don't even keep /that/ here. It's in a vault. I'm not putting JARVIS..."

She lifts her hand slightly.

"...here." She was being modest. It wasn't like 'here' was a dump, but she hadn't moved since taking over her new position and she was right. She didn't have anything close to the security that Tony had anywhere else. Sure, there were door guards and she had private drivers, but re-outfitting this place to be secure enough to keep a JARVIS endpoint would be a monumental task.

She smiles faintly, leans up, places a tender kiss on his lips, and finally turns.

"But I /will/ give you one victory, this morning... I'm changing."

She doesn't bother closing any of the doors. She slips her robe off so it's just her pajamas underneath, tosses it onto the bed, and then starts getting her clothes laid out.

Iron Man has posed:
"Well then we'll just have to move you. I'm sure we can find a place, or buy one, that'll suit. Jarvis..." Tony replies before he's entirely distracted by the sight of Pepper starting to do just what he'd asked her to, get changed. Most specifically that whole getting _undressed_ portion of the process given her current state of dress.

With a show of willpower that's rarely seen from Tony in this particular regard, he actually turns his back on that open bedroom door and goes back to the kitchen where there's sounds of him rummaging around to find coffee cups, likely.

"Jarvis, start a property search, say .. two thousand square feet. Penthouse or on at least an acre, within easy commute of HQ..."

Jarvis: "Of course, Mr. Stark. Presumably you want to limit that to property ready or actively for sale?"

"For now, anyway. "

Pause.

"Yes, Pepper, float...and space. Where else would there be a Lagrange point? Next window will be the middle of the week and your assistant would probably give up and start trying to block all my calls if I upended your schedule again."

"Not to mention what Rhodey's going to say as it is."

Walking back towards the bedroom he's got two travel mugs, already full, one of them held out in clear offering to the extremely attractive woman he's clearly having trouble not being entirely distracted by.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"Tony, I'm not moving," Pepper's disembodied voice calls out of the bedroom. "I'm not going to uproot my life and live in some too-big-for-me penthouse with maids that clean the rooms I never use just because Forbes called my apartment 'quaint.'"

That's, at least, what she apparently assumes the point of this whole conversation had been -- the article that had been published outlining her qualifications (and heavy-handedly pointing out more than once that she'd been an Executive Assistant for nearly two decades before being spontaneously named co-CEO) and her subdued, non-CEO lifestyle that stood in stark (pun intended) contrast to Tony's lavish, multi-million dollar cars and homes.

There's always the chance Tony hadn't even seen the article, though.

It didn't take Pepper all that long to get ready. By the time Tony was walking back in, she had a nice blouse, a pair of dark-washed hip-hugging jeans, nice flats, and diamond studs in her ears instead of anything more dangly. She still wore her nice SI watch on her left wrist, but otherwise she left the jewelry off.

"You'd have an easier time convincing me to stay in /your/ penthouse," she points out, now face to face with him, as she accepts her coffee with a little smile and kiss on the cheek that she manages by leaning up onto her toes. "I already have clothes there -- no, not because we're dating. They've been there for years. It was easier than driving all the way home every time I went down to the lab and ruined another blouse. I didn't expect you'd even notice, much less mind. Thank you for the coffee. My purse is by the door. Now what am I going to have to do for Rhodey to make up for this?"