Pepper's heart fell upon hearing the familiar sound of the doorbell being rung.

Tony is so going to pay for this!, a rather infuriated Pepper thought.

As she stood there, imagining the most painful way to torture a certain celebrity, she heard her father's footsteps approaching the front door. Pepper panicked once again, knowing that her farther wouldn't be pleased to find Tony Stark in front of their apartment.

"I'll get it!", Pepper called, doing her best to save the situation.

"That's alright, honey.", Mr. Potts replied in a slightly less annoyed voice than during their previous conversation. "You continue talking to Louise."

Well, at least I'm a decent liar., Pepper concluded while hurrying over to the front door, desperately trying to keep her farther from seeing who was stood behind it.

"Dad, don't!", she cried out to her farther, merely footsteps away from her destination.

When Pepper finally arrived at the front door, Mr. Potts had already opened it and was now incomprehensively staring at an obnoxiously grinning Tony Stark.

Tony returned Mr. Potts' gaze at first, until he eventually got bored and decided to mess with Pepper. And the most effective way of doing so was to intimidate her father.

"Tony Stark.", Tony extended his hand, the grin never leaving his face.

Mr. Potts wasn't quit prepared for encountering the youngest Stark. So rather than shaking the genius' hand, he stood there dumbly, giving him a disbelieving look.

Embarrassed by her father's reaction, Pepper gently nudged him in the ribcage, hoping he'd eventually catch on. At first it didn't help much, but after several moments had passed, Mr. Potts' eyes widened and he hastily excepted Tony's hand and shook it.

This is going to be fun., Tony thought, a rather evil expression plastered onto his face.

"Uh…", Mr. Potts elongated.

He had always hated Tony Stark. Sure, the boy was undeniably a genius. But he was as arrogant as he was intelligent. He liked showing off his money, not to mention his girls.

Girls. That was the main reason Mr. Potts' disliked Tony Stark. He had seen far too many reports of broken hearted girls, all of which had been replaced by the next pretty face. Being a father, Mr. Potts instinctively felt protective of said girls. And now his own daughter was about to become one of them.

Still, Tony had a rather intimidating personality and in that moment, Mr. Potts couldn't have felt smaller.

Her father's behaviour was seriously becoming humiliating for Pepper. He had been the last person she would have expected to crumble at the sight of the great Tony Stark.

Tony noticed Pepper's uneasiness and winked at her.

"Hey, Pep.", Tony greeted cheerfully while making his way over to her.

That caught Mr. Potts' attention. He immediately snapped out of his intimidated trance and caught Tony by his wrist.

"Listen to me, Stark.", he spat out angrily. "If you break my daughter's heart, I swear to God, I'll make you pay for it."

"Wasn't planning on it.", Tony responded coolly.

Mr. Potts glared furiously at Tony's dismissive response.

"Dad, we're just friends!", Pepper chimed in.

"Well, actually, that's only our current status.", Tony disagreed. "In a few weeks however…"

"Tony!", Pepper scolded her not quit well behaved friend.

Tony, amused by her frantic reaction, smirked at her.

"You arrogant bastard…", Mr. Potts started, only to be interrupted by the arrogant bastard himself.

"In all honesty, I have no intention of breaking your daughter's heart. As Pepper already said, we're just friends.", Tony explained sincerely, though he couldn't help quietly adding:

"For now."

Mr. Potts was far from liking Tony. But despite his last comment, the honesty in his voice convinced Mr. Potts to at least give him a chance. He hesitantly let go of Tony's hand and by doing so, gave him permission to interact with his daughter.

Unexpectedly, Tony felt some what relieved.

Like I need his permission to hang out with Pepper., Tony told him self off. Seeking the acceptance of another person was a sign of weakness. But upon seeing Pepper's genuinely relieved smile, he thought that maybe gaining the acceptance of this particular person wasn't entirely useless.

Mr. Potts gave Tony one last warning look and then wandered back off into the kitchen.

"Well that was… interesting.", Tony concluded once Pepper and him were alone.

"More like disastrous and humiliating.", Pepper stated dryly.

"Aw, come on. It wasn't that bad.", he tried to reason with her. "I think your father's warming up to me."

"Yes, him calling you an arrogant bastard is definitely a good sign.", Pepper commented sarcastically.

"I've been called worse.", Tony shrugged.

"So, aren't you going to show me your room?", he requested after a momentary pause.

Pepper was slightly worried about the impression her room would make. She knew of the ridiculously large Stark mansion and doubted that her tiny room was going to cut it.

Still, she didn't want to make up some silly excuse.

"Alright.", Pepper walked over to the door which led to her room.

"Here it is.", she then announced, feeling rather insecure.

Tony immediately liked Pepper's room. Sure, it was merely half the size of his, but he enjoyed the comfortable atmosphere.

He wasn't saying anything and Pepper grew increasingly nervous.

I knew he'd hate it.

"It's probably nothing compared to your room, but it's the best my father could manage.", she attempted justifying her disgraceful room.

All of a sudden, Tony flashed her a warm smile and sincerely told her:

"I love it."

Pepper smiled at him for the longest time, a smile that Tony gladly returned. Their gaze was first broken when Tony spotted Pepper's Blackberry and an idea sprung to his mind. He swiftly grabbed the phone she had left in her room after their previous conversation and flopped himself onto the bed.

"What are you doing with my cell?", Pepper asked cautiously, not entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.

He grinned up at her from the bed and explained:

"I'm going to modify your blackberry so that it'll have the same efficiency as the iStark."

"You will do no such thing!", Pepper told him off. "I have some important stuff on that phone. What if you'll destroy it?"

"I'm not called a genius for nothing.", Tony responded confidently. "Trust me, I designed the iStark. I know what I'm doing. Anyway, what kind of important documents could you possibly have on there?"

"Music. Lot's of music.", she made it clear that this was a serious matter.

"Wow, that sounds really important.", Tony commented in a dismissive voice while taking a closer look at the blackberry.

"Tony!", Pepper shrieked.

"Did you know that people pay millions of dollars every day for one of my iStarks?", Tony pointed out.

She didn't even bother to react. Instead, she snatched her blackberry out of his hands and attempted to walk away. She didn't make it far, though, as Tony's hand reached out to grab her wrist and pulled her down onto the bed next to him. He easily stole back the blackberry and yelled in triumph.

Pepper lightly slapped Tony's arm, then reached over him in an attempt at getting her cell back. He wouldn't have it, though. She hadn't even gotten near the object in question as Tony rolled over rather forcefully, thus pushing her off of the bed. She landed on the carpet with a soft thump, determined to give Tony a taste of his own medicine.

Pepper mimicked Tony by grabbing his hand and pulling him down to the floor.

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