Iron Man fanfic! Yay! I'm so psyched from this movie right now. And I also now have an embarassingly huge crush on Robert Downey Jr. Anyways, this is what the muse made me do.

Title: The Dress
Pairing: Tony/Pepper
Word count: ~500
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: They belong to Marvel, not me!



*****

Pepper stood before the full-length mirror in her bedroom for one final check before she left her apartment.

The dress was sleek and elegant, cut low in the front and even lower in the back, in a rich periwinkle blue that set off her eyes and hair perfectly. It accentuated her height, flowed gracefully over her curves, and spoke of good taste and self-confidence.

She had waited a long time for a special occasion to justify buying it, and her birthday had seemed the perfect excuse.

She hadn’t been wearing it when she received the phone call, of course. She had been in jeans and a tank top, out clubbing with her friends. The dress, ostensibly a present for the occasion, she had been saving for the charity ball which had originally been planned for the following week.

The events had all been cancelled afterwards, of course. It had been her job to make the calls. They had only been postponed, at first, but as weeks passed without news, it had become increasingly apparent that the postponements were indefinite. It had been too long, as Rhodey had told her with weary guilt in his eyes during one particular video call. Yet he had stayed in Afghanistan and continued searching, and Pepper had stayed at home and continued hoping.

She had briefly entertained the thought of returning the dress, tainted as it was now with the memory of that day, no longer her birthday but the Day That Tony Stark Went Missing. Rhodey’s call had changed the significance of the date forever in her calendar. I’m sorry… He insisted… A lot of explosives… Soldiers all killed… We didn’t find his body… Haven’t received any ransom demands… Probably dead… In her nightmares, those first few days, she had seen the blue silk becoming stained with Tony’s blood as he reached out to her, dying.

But when she woke up she was sensible again, and she could not bring herself to part with it. It was as much a gift from him as if he had chosen it himself. It had been he who’d made her think of buying it, with his teasing comments about her wardrobe. Miss Potts, I see you’re wearing black suit number fourteen today. Are you going to wear black gown number three to the gala tonight? You really should try wearing some other colours, you know.

Ironically, it was during the time that Tony had been missing that all her other work clothes had surfaced. Her grey, brown and blue suits, previously dormant, had been on a regular rotation throughout those three months, because she refused to be seen wearing black.

The blue dress had hung in the closet, never worn.

She was wearing her birthday present tonight for the first time, because he was back, he was mostly okay, he was still Tony, and she knew he wasn’t going to be at this party. Because he was still Tony, and she didn’t want her boss to be flirting with her while she wore a dress with no back and the whole world watched.


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Concrit feeds me! :)