Big Reputation [An Iron Man FanFiction | Pepperony] - COMPLETED

Jet Stream

By the time Pepper had called for Happy to take her back to the house so she could get Tony's confirmation on some events before heading home herself, he had already driven their boss back from the Avengers meeting. Though Happy didn't say anything to Pepper about said meeting yet, Tony had been almost too quiet on the way home; it wasn't like him.

"Is Tony at home?" she had asked when she entered the town car.

Happy confirmed. "Dropped him off about three hours ago."

"And you didn't stay?" she questioned, almost concerned.

"Boss said he didn't need me to hang around after his meeting earlier."

"Tony had a meeting?"

Suddenly, Pepper was the quiet one as she racked her brain trying to figure out if she had forgotten something on his schedule. Surely it wasn't something preplanned; they couldn't expect him to be keeping on track with things after saving a city a few days before.

As they neared the mansion, her heart sunk as a familiar bass beat rattled the pavement in front of the glass doors. Immediately, she recognized the colored lights flashing from the inside, and her heart dropped as a few obviously drunken people stumbled outside and into the driveway; he had thrown his party anyway.

Frustrated, Pepper let out a big sigh and relieved herself of the backseat of the car.

"Looks like it's gonna be another late night, Hap," she told the driver calmly. "Don't wait for me."

"I'll drop by in an hour or two?" he asked, predicting Pepper would be too upset to stay in the house overnight, regardless of what her current relationship with Tony was.

Giving him a thankful smile, Pepper straightened her skirt and made for the front door, frowning as a girl threw up in the corner of the patio.

"Tony?" she called when she opened the door.

Her voice was flooded out by both the sound of music coming from a DJ booth somewhere in the corner and the voices of upwards a few hundred people chatting; it would be no use to try to locate him by name. She looked around the room for him as she pushed through the dancing people, eventually setting her stuff on the kitchen counter

As she turned around, she jumped when she was greeted by a guy attempting to hand her a drink.

"No, thank you," she shook her head and shoved past him.

Pepper's eyes caught a couple near the staircase almost knock over a vase Tony had her bid on in France a few years back, making her cringe. Slowly, she adverted her gaze, scanning the back of the room. Jarvis wouldn't be able to hear her either, so there was no point in asking him for Tony's location. Instead, she gazed outside, realizing there was a good chance he could've pulled a ridiculous stunt like land himself in the pool with a drink in each hand.

Then, she sighed in relief as she found him, inside, planted on the living room sofa with a girl on each side, and, as she pictured, a drink in his hand. One of them, she noted, was the reporter from earlier. Furious, she stomped over to him, throwing her arms out with the universal symbol of what the hell?

"Are you kidding me?!" Pepper yelled over the music.

Stark grinned and removed his eyes from the girl to his right carefully to look at his assistant instead.

"Welcome home, honey," he celebrated.

Pepper watched with slight triumph as the two girls looked at each other and removed themselves from his side once he used the pet name.

"You said she's just your assistant," the reporter pouted, slurring her words.

They were obviously drunk; Stark included.