8 Things That Could Happen After Pepper and Tony Have Sex With Each Other.

[quigonejinn]

1.

Pepper dies.

Though, no, it's not because sex with Tony Stark was so unimaginably exciting that she expired, but instead, because she didn't quite make it out of the building when the arc reactor started to blow. Tony is above, on the roof, too badly hurt to move inside that ridiculous suit without the assistance of the in-line system, which is flickering on and off, on and off, like photonic Morse code. It's how the SHIELD cleanup team finds him ahead of the LAFD and the LAPD, and when they use a crane to bring him down from the roof, he's asking every agent in sight where Pepper is, and then, he sees her leaning against a concrete block, with about a ton of i-beam steel where her torso should be.

You can imagine how it haunts him for the rest of his life: at the press conference, he sticks to the cards and keeps his identity firmly hidden. He never says a single word, ever, about being a superhero.


2.

Pepper dies.

This time, it's not in the line of duty to Tony Stark. A traffic accident, routine, and at her funeral, which is attended by a lot of people, including her father and mother and an aunt from Monterey, who Pepper was really close to and took care of her for a while, apparently, when her parents had a rough patch -- Tony feels numb through the whole thing. He tries to do the decent thing and talk to her family, but he feels like an abject failure, so he puts on his red sunglasses and gets back to the car.

He takes the pocket square out to clean his glasses, and on unfolding the square, he finds a strand of red hair caught in it. It gleams in the sun.

For a sudden, ludicrous moment, all Tony can think about is cloning.

3.

Pepper lives, and they have sex a couple more times, have a couple of real dates that go wonderfully well and where they have fantastic chemistry.

And then, Tony has sex with somebody else. A lot of somebody elses.

Since he's not a complete asshole, he tells her about it. She cries, he realizes that there's a state of feeling shitty approximately eighty-nine times worse than "most terrible human being since we came out of the goddamn trees," which he'd been feeling since about ten seconds after the dirty deed, and then, they move past it. Pepper points out that it would never work out long-term anyways because it's really hard to fall asleep next to somebody who has the world's most powerful night light in his chest.

4.

Tony proposes to her.

They've had enough sex, in fact, for it to sound serious, and Pepper just stares at him. He didn't get down on one knee or anything, but as far as Pepper can tell, he meant it when he said it. It means more, in fact, that she woke up with his hand around her shoulder and her head on his chest. He was looking at her with this unreadable expression -- he must have been looking at her while she was sleeping, and Tony just says it. Pepper is, in fact, more inclined to believe it's sincere because there isn't a ring or a violin player or Tony down on one knee. Just Tony, looking at her like she's the most important person in the world to him.

Which, in cool consideration of things, she probably is.

Later, Tony admits that he just blurted it out without thinking it through, but no harm, no foul: she's saved from blurting out her own first response by CNN reporting something about pirates hijacking a cruise ship off the coast of South Africa.

5.

Tony dies. Pepper goes to the site of the battle and stands to the side in a borrowed SHIELD jacket and hard hat while they cut through the wreckage, looking for his body.

The suit should have protected him. It ought to have protected him.

6.

Pepper gets pregnant.

This is not entirely unsurprising, birth control and condoms aside. While they're having sex, they have a lot of it, particularly since Tony has been discovering all the various and myriad delights of not only sex with Pepper, but sex while in possession of a light source that could, in a pinch, power most of Orange County. For one thing, it means that you pretty much always get to see her face when she comes, and Tony really likes seeing Pepper's face as she does, so yes, Pepper gets pregnant, but no, Pepper never actually tells Tony that it's his kid.

Since he's Tony Stark, it doesn't take him that long to figure it out, but he respects the boundaries, and they basically pretend that it's not actually his kid. She goes into labor on a Wednesday, and he goes sliding across the floors and yelling and trying to find some towels and the phone and oh God, where is the phone, right as paramedics show up at the door. Jarvis, the sneaky bastard, had been secretly monitoring the progress of Pepper's pregnancy and knew that her water was going to break before she did.

Pepper doesn't even take any maternity leave, but starts taking three afternoons off a week when the kid gets older.

When Tony dies saving the Earth from an alien invasion brood/mothership/flotilla, the kid is still about a decade or so from figuring out there's a reason why Uncle Tony left him about fifteen billion dollars. Wondering why he looks so much like Uncle Tony is scheduled for about the same time.

7.

The suit should have protected him, but didn't.


8.

They're at the Tony Stark thirty-eighth firefighter's benefit gala, and Pepper is too old to wear ridiculous heels or dresses cut low in the back. Tony pretty much still wears a tux, though, and he teases Pepper: this is where it all started. This is where they danced together, and she tried to kiss him, then she wrote him off forever as boyfriend material because he went to save the world. He brings her a vodka martini with lots of vodka and so many olives that it's pretty much undrinkable, and she laughs, and neither mentions that it really probably started the day he came out onto the driveway and found her standing very still and proud and trying not to cry while being simultaneously torn a new one and fired by her boss, who was then his personal assistant.

Tony barely knew her face: she was the girl who brought in the dry cleaning for the girls on the morning after, wasn't she? But Tony fired the guy on the spot and re-hired Pepper, and since the driveway was on a hill and she was new to wearing ridiculously high heels, she barely made it back to the house. They didn't have sex that afternoon, but at some point after it: with that kind of friendship, does the timing matter?

After a while, Pepper goes inside to dance with her husband, and Tony stays out on the balcony, alone, looking at the skyline. He drinks Pepper's martini, counts the stars on the horizon and the stars on the avenues, and congratulates himself: he's had as much love and happiness as a man like him, much less a superhero, can expect from life. He has no right to ask more.

Comments

[karabou.livejournal.com]

Nice! Despite all the death, it's the last on that makes me the saddest. And I love the part in 6 where Jarvis is monitoring her pregnancy.

[eponis.livejournal.com]

Love this. First Iron Man fic I've read, and I think you've spoiled me for it. I love the sparseness and eloquence of your writing, and I adore how each one had me envisioning an entire new story about what could happen next. The first one may be my favorite, though.

[mekosuchinae.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is gorgeous. Thank you.

(Came here by way of swingchick!)

[plasticity.livejournal.com]

sitting down to leave official thoughts, and, oh. OH.
just. there is at least one bit of each of these that really grabbed me, made me pause. The "photonic Morse code;" Tony actually contemplating cloning (you're so right, that's exactly where a technological industry titan with only recently-discovered morals would go first); Tony sleeping with others and, yes, telling her about it, because he's still a bit of an asshole but only a bit; proposing nontraditionally and her not actually responding; Jarvis secretly calling the paramedics while Tony loudly panics; etc etc etc.

and of course the entirety of the last paragraph. This part:
he's had as much love and happiness as a man like him, much less a superhero, can expect from life. He has no right to ask more.
is making me cry again with reread. You got it, right there, that complexity and richness and grown-up-ness of who they are for each other.

I always get so excited when you get fired up about a fandom I like, cause I know there's just going to be, like, stellar gems of ideas flying out of you.

[dafnap.livejournal.com]

Oh, that last line broke me.

There are so many bits of this that I loved, but that, Tony for once settling, even with something he didn't know he could be comfortable with.

And man, those "death" ones broke my heart. I loved/hated (because it BROKE me) this image:

he sees her leaning against a concrete block, with about a ton of i-beam steel where her torso should be.

Because it's beautifully tragic that the only time he listens to her is when she's dead. And oh, my heart.

I loved how you played with the sort of world they live in, where something like:

For a sudden, ludicrous moment, all Tony can think about is cloning.

can be so temptingly within reach. Because Tony would think that.

Loved all of this, wow.

[poisonapple73.livejournal.com]

I find this so, so depressing, but in a really awesome way? I would like to think that at some point in the future, Tony and Pepper get their shit together, but realistically...near misses are a lot more likely. Especially given their shared history of repression. I really like how you tried so many what-ifs, and not only because they're interesting possibilities, but because you used them to point out facets of Tony or Pepper that I wasn't even aware of. Really well done.

[mariagoner.livejournal.com]

I'm a stranger but I followed a link here for great Iron Man fics and I've very glad I did so! I love the fact that you bucked the ol' cliche of a relationship essentially climaxing at sex and traced the various ways that Tony and Pepper's lives could follow from doing so. This was an excellent fic and I'd love recommendations towards any others!

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

Oh I love this a lot. You're totally selling me on Pepper/Tony (which I loved how it played in the movie). I love all 8 of these a lot.

[gabby-silang.livejournal.com]

For a sudden, ludicrous moment, all Tony can think about is cloning.

Okay without having even read beyond this point, I have to just say HOLY SHIT that kicked in the gut.

And then, having read the rest of it, I insist you write a book or something, so that I can buy it and you can sign it and I can buy another copy so I can keep the copy you signed under glass where everyone will be jealous.

But for real, this is so gorgeous, and painful, and sweet, and everything at once. Why the heck didn't I find it until now? I am sorely sorry.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love this. So happy that eponis pointed me towards this.

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

*snifs* This is lovely and sad.

[icybright.livejournal.com]

This is really creative and also so, so sad. But also funny! But mostly sad (and lovely). The last one makes my heart hurt. :(

[th-esaurus.livejournal.com]

I really love this. I love X Number of Things fic, and this is a gorgeous one. I like how none of these have overtly happy endings, either. Because I'm weird.

[cruelest-month.livejournal.com]

Wow, that gave me a lot to think about in a good way. And this was very believable and great and depressing for all the right reasons.

[goddesspharo.livejournal.com]

Pepper points out that it would never work out long-term anyways because it's really hard to fall asleep next to somebody who has the world's most powerful night light in his chest.
I couldn't stop laughing for a good five minutes after reading that. I really loved this. Great job!

[gottalovev.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this a whole lot. there are consequence to having sex with Tony Stark, and I got to say that I could see some of those scenarios happen

[ghostrunner7.livejournal.com]

Oh amazing! I'm gonna go shotgun all your Ironman fic now, just a heads up.

[(Anonymous)]

Wow... so good! To much death but realistic, especially the last one where Pepper is married to someone else, which is actually canon I think... Anyways, lovely read, thanks muchly!

~EL

[(Anonymous)]

Wow... so good! Too much death but realistic, especially the last one where Pepper is married to someone else, which is actually canon I think... Anyways, lovely read, thanks muchly!

~EL

[xela-fic.livejournal.com]

The cloning one really got me; I can totally see Tony seriously considering that and bouncing between yes-no. I enjoyed these, in part because I honestly think Tony/Pepper (actually, I think Tony/anyone) would never be a happy ending. They'd be great while they were together, but I think somewhere along the line everything would fall apart.

Really enjoyed it, thanks!

The sadness and the POSSIBILITIES

[(Anonymous)]

Oooh boy I came here via your AO3 fic 12% and boy am I happy to be here.
Your brain works on a whole different level istg. Gonna be crying and sobbing at the last part where Tony thinks he can't ask for any more, thanks.
The part where Tony's brain immediately goes to cloning is scary but also...it's Tony dammit it makes sense. All one can hope is that Pepper becomes a new AI and not an actual clone because the HURT there holy heckk.