Chapter 518

"Tony, watch my lips carefully."

Evenson’s smile vanished.

"Go to hell."

Tony had some nerve.

He wanted the best of both worlds. He wanted to look cool and stay completely safe.

Evenson had never been that shameless.

"That’ll be enough for today."

After venting his frustration, Evenson headed for the door. He’d said what needed to be said. You couldn’t dismantle someone’s pride in a single conversation, especially someone like Tony.

Besides, Evenson was being paid by the day. There was no reason to cure Tony’s problems ahead of schedule.

Still, just before leaving, he glanced back.

"If you’re still having trouble, talk to someone. I’m obviously not the best person to vent to."

He paused.

"Fortunately, the right person should be back soon."

Painful memories were wounds. Hide one beneath layer after layer of bandages and eventually the wound festered beneath them. Covering it didn’t make it disappear. It only gave the infection time to spread.

Sometimes the only way to heal was to expose the wound, let someone you trusted see it, and finally talk about what hurt.

Evenson knew he wasn’t that person.

He had little patience for a grown man sitting in front of him and pouring out his feelings, and Tony certainly wasn’t going to bare his soul to Evenson anyway.

That left Pepper.

She was the one woman Tony couldn’t bluff his way past. More importantly, she was one of the few people who genuinely understood him.

With her, Tony could finally let his guard down.

"Okay..."

Tony returned to his workbench.

The conversation had actually made him feel somewhat better. He considered saying thank you.

But in the end, he couldn’t do it.

For a man as proud as Tony Stark, saying thank you out loud could apparently be harder than building a supersonic aircraft.

"I’ll go grab some dinner," Evenson called from somewhere near the exit. "I’ll send you the bill."

Tony watched him leave.

Thank God I didn’t say thank you.

By the time the sky had begun to darken, Pepper had finished work and driven over.

She hadn’t even fully stopped the car before the enormous rabbit plush standing outside the house caught her attention.

She stared at it.

Then stared some more.

Apparently, she wasn’t the only woman in Tony Stark’s life who thought his idea of a romantic gift was deeply questionable.

Maybe the rumors were right. Tony was very good at making women happy when he was their lover.

As a boyfriend?

He still had plenty to learn.

As a husband?

He had an entire curriculum ahead of him.

But Pepper’s surprises were only beginning.

The moment she entered the house, she found an Iron Man suit sitting on the sofa with one leg crossed over the other in an outrageously smug pose.

Pepper couldn’t help herself.

"What are you doing wearing that around the house? What generation is this? Fifteen?"

The armor’s arm was stamped with MARK XLII.

Apparently, Tony had been very productive during his sleepless nights.

"Close enough," Tony replied.

The suit shifted casually.

"Everyone has hobbies."

Pepper set her briefcase aside and sank into a chair. She slipped off her heels with a relieved sigh.

Beautiful shoes were all well and good, but after wearing them all day, her feet had officially filed for divorce.

"So your hobby is wearing that in the living room?"

"I’m just getting used to it."

Tony hurried around behind her and began massaging her shoulders.

Pepper relaxed almost immediately.

The massage was good.

Very good.

So good, in fact, that she was soon considering taking things a little further.

Unfortunately, Tony refused.

Apparently, there was a problem with the armor’s faceplate and it couldn’t be opened.

Pepper didn’t show much on her face.

Internally, however, the alarm bells were ringing.

She stood and headed straight for the laboratory.

"Pepper, wait."

The Iron Man suit hurried after her.

"You really shouldn’t go in there."

She kept walking.

"There could be radiation."

Still walking.

"Pepper, I’m serious."

She ignored him.

The laboratory doors opened.

And there was the real Tony.

He was doing pull-ups while wearing a strange device over his head, its surface covered in holographic displays. At the same time, he was remotely controlling the Iron Man armor she’d just been talking to.

Pepper stared.

Tony stared back.

His mouth said no.

His actions had apparently filed an appeal.

Because while he’d agreed with Evenson in principle, Tony had ultimately decided that there was no reason to choose between survival and looking impressive when he could simply find a way to have both.

Human life was finite.

The opportunities to show off were practically infinite.

Therefore, preserving his finite lifespan so he could continue showing off later was obviously the rational choice.

Tony had developed a remote-control system.

And, in a decision that was extremely Tony Stark, he’d chosen Pepper as his first test subject.

His reasoning was simple: if he could fool the woman who knew him better than almost anyone for several minutes, fooling everyone else afterward should be easy.

Then he could send an empty suit into battle whenever he wanted.

Nobody would know he wasn’t inside.

And the system hadn’t even taken him that long to build.

The Iron Man armor already had extremely sophisticated support systems and a rudimentary artificial intelligence. All Tony really needed was a compatible visual communication system capable of transmitting his movements and commands.

For Tony Stark, that was hardly an impossible engineering problem.

Twenty minutes?

Half an hour?

Whatever the exact time, it hadn’t been enough.

Pepper had seen through him almost immediately.

"You’ve really reached a whole new level of ridiculous."

"Sorry."

Tony immediately dropped the act.

Pepper folded her arms.

She was angry now.

"You invited me home for dinner, then ate without me, and sent this thing out here to trick me?"

Honestly, this wasn’t yet a serious problem.

Pepper was annoyed, but it was still the kind of irritation that could be solved with a sincere apology and a little humility.

Tony, unfortunately, possessed neither.

Instead, he launched into a long list of excuses.

The armor was him.

He and the armor were one.

Sending the armor was basically the same thing as him going himself.

And then, somehow, he brought up Killian.

Pepper’s expression changed.

"You were spying on me?"

That was no longer a little argument over dinner.

This wasn’t about an empty suit pretending to be Tony.

This was about trust.

Pepper turned and walked toward the door.

"Pepper!"

Tony shouted after her.

She stopped.

Tony hesitated.

Then, finally, he stopped trying to joke his way out of it.

"Sweetheart..."

His voice was quiet.

"I can’t sleep."

Pepper slowly turned around.

"Every time you go to bed, I come out here and work."

Tony looked around the laboratory, at the armor surrounding him.

"I tinker with things. I build armor. I stay here with all of this."

His voice tightened.

"This is the only place where I feel safe."

He swallowed.

"The only reason I haven’t completely fallen apart..."

Tony looked directly at her.

"...is you."

Pepper’s expression softened.

"Because you moved in with me, I’ve been able to feel at least a little safer."

For once, Tony wasn’t hiding behind a joke.

He wasn’t trying to impress anyone.

He was simply showing her the wound he’d been carrying since New York.

Pepper crossed the room and pulled him into her arms.

She loved this ridiculous man.

Whatever anger she’d felt over dinner disappeared instantly.

And perhaps, in hindsight, all those ridiculous experiments had been deliberate.

Perhaps Tony had created the entire situation because he needed an excuse to finally say what he’d been unable to admit.

Maybe he’d needed the right moment.

Maybe he’d simply needed someone to ask.

Either way, Pepper had finally heard him.

And that was what mattered.