"Stark Industries! I've got one recommendation! Ready? Ready? Sell, sell, sell! Abandon ship! Does the Hindenburg ring any bells? Let me show you the new Stark Industries business plan-"
Pepper Potts turned around once the sound on the TV cut out, coming face to face with her other boss, Audelia. She sent the woman a smile, walking into the room as her heels clicked on the floor.
"Was just keeping up to date on the nightmare," Pepper told her with a roll of her eyes as she looked back at the screen.
"Jarvis played this one for me on the ride over," Deli told her assistant with a shrug. "Wasn't that bad. Should've heard the things they were saying about Tony and I yesterday after the announcement."
"It wasn't even your choice, it's not your company you were only the interim CEO. I don't get why they're bashing you,"
"Because I'm a woman and they think it's easier to blame me for everything,"
The comment drew a laugh out of Pepper as she flashed a smile up at her best friend. Deli shot one back, taking a seat beside her on the white couch of Tony's living room as Pepper passed her a drink from the table.
"I didn't think you were stopping by today, Tony didn't say anything about it,"
"Well, I'm trying to avoid Nathan so I thought I'd come here," Deli shrugged her shoulders as she took a sip of her drink. "He took off the day off, cooked me breakfast. I walked right by him and got in the car."
"One of the top doctor's in the entire Malibu area can just take the day off without warning?"
"I don't know, didn't care enough to ask,"
Pepper frowned, seeing the look on her Audelia's face. The woman might have been one of her bosses, but she was her friend first. Seeing her so torn up over something she had quickly explained over text the night before was hard to see.
"He's your fiance, you don't want to at least talk it out?"
"He asked me to abandon my best friend, the one person who has always been there for me," Audelia looked up at Pepper with a sad smile. "He wants to talk he's going to have to admit his faults first. I have nothing to apologize for."
The pair sat in silence together before the screen that was propped up on the coffee table lit up with an incoming call from Tony in the workshop downstairs.
"Pepper, how big are your hands?"
"Excuse me?" Pepper recoiled slightly, eyes wide and startled at the question from her boss. Deli only let out a laugh.
"Wow, way to start a conversation there, Tony-"
"Dell! Good, I know you have small hands. Get to the lab, I need you,"
Placing her drink down on the table and waving goodbye to her friend quickly, Audelia made her way down the familiar stairs to Tony's workshop that sat in the basement of the house, knowing that Tony did not like to be kept waiting too long.
With a quick scan of her hand granting her access into the lab, Audelia walked inside, shutting the glass door behind her as her eyes fell on her best friend.
Tony Stark sat on top of a chair in the middle of the room, the arc reactor in his chest glowing bright as he looked over at his best friend with a smile.
"Hey...get your tiny hands over here, I need them,"
Slowly walking over and placing herself next to her best friend, Deli couldn't help but trail her hand up, letting it rest upon the glowing arc reactor in Tony's chest. He watched her with the smallest of smiles upon his lips.
"It's weird, seeing the thing they created sitting in your chest," she mumbled, memorized by the soft blue light that it emitted as she thought back on Tony's father and her mother. "I can't believe it's what's keeping you alive."
"Well, it was. It's an antique now," Tony lifted up the new arc reactor that sat in his hands. "I'm swapping it out for an upgrade, ran into a little snag."
"What kind of snag?"
"There's an exposed wire underneath the device," Tony reached up, moving Deli's hand away from his chest as he turned the reactor, lifting it out. He handed it to Deli, who calmly placed it on the table behind them. "It's contacting the socket wall and causing a few issues-"
"And you want me to lift it out?"
"Yes,"
"Tony, you want me to basically play operation with the gaping hole in your chest?" Deli scolded him, though a smile sat on her lips. Tony rolled his eyes, yet smiled back at her.
"Yes, don't let it touch the socket wall or we lose. I'd ask Pepper but she'd probably just freak out,"
"God, you're lucky I love you,"
Tony watched Audelia's face with a small smile. Her haze stayed trained on the mental cylinder in her best friend's chest as she reached in, her fingers moving to find the wire that sat inside.
"Heard you and Nathan are having issues,"
"Oh, so you were listening in on Pepper and I?' Deli shot back, biting her bottom lip to hold in a smile as her fingers wrapped around the wire.
"Only for about point two seconds," trailing her eyes up, Deli's met with Tony's as the smile slipped off his face. "You know I never liked him. Guy is too controlling. You deserve better."
If there was one thing that Audelia always understood, it was why the woman always fell at her best friend's feet all their lives. It wasn't just his brain, or his money, or that charming smile, but those dark brown eyes that were like an endless pool of chocolate. Even Deli could admit that she often got lost in them.
There was a loud bang, followed by a shout from Tony as Deli froze, looking down to realize that she had let the copper wire touch the socket wall. She looked back up frantically, only to find Tony laughing at her.
"Wow, after all these years and you're just now trying to kill me?"
"Stop being such a god damn distraction and I wouldn't," Deli shot back, yanking the wire out as a small, circular metal magnet came out attached to the end. She eyed it for a moment before looking back at Tony as the heart rate monitor began to go crazy. "I wasn't supposed to pull that out, was I?"
"Yep, you really are trying to kill me. Just sending me into mild cardiac arrest-"
"Tony!" as quickly as possible, Deli placed the object on the table beside them before reaching out for the new arc reactor in his hands. "This is supposed to be safe, give me that!"
"I mean, it was until you pulled it out like a god damn trout-"
"I'd be careful with how you speak to the woman literally holding your heart in her hands," Deli shot back at him with a glare as Tony mumbled something incoherent under his breath.
Reaching inside of him once more, Audelia quickly attached the new reactor to the base plate, Tony letting out a yell of satisfaction as she clicked the reactor into place.
"That wasn't so hard, was it?"
The pair stared at one another, laughing lightly as Deli wiped her hand on a towel next to them. She placed it on her best friend's chest, his own coming up to hold her's.
"How about you never ask me to do something like that again,"
"I don't have anyone else to ask,"
"You have Pepper,"
"But she's not you,"
Deli took a step back, watching her best friend with a grin as he jumped off of the chair, grabbing a towel to wipe himself off.
Turning back to the table before her, she took the old arc reactor into her hands as she examined it, the smile never leaving her face.
"Oh you can give that to Pepper," Tony told her as he slipped a shirt on. "She can incinerate it."
"You really don't want to keep it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and cutting him off as he went to speak. "And don't tell me you're not nostalgic, you still have the birthday card I made you for your ninth birthday."
"That's different, I don't need that," Tony watched as his best friend shook her head, walking away from him toward the door. "Don't want to stay for lunch? Can order your favorite!"
"I think I might go try and salvage my engagement," Deli shot back with a smile, waving to her best friend as she exited the lab, looking down at the arc reactor with a grin.
If she had looked back for one more second, she would've seen the frown appear on Tony's face at her words.
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They're so cute I love them. Also, I saw Far From Home twice in one day and let me tell you I was a mess. Holy crap those end credits are INSANE and Tom Holland is just so hot and phenomenal wow it was amazing. 11/10 will probably go a third time.