Wildly Conflicted

To suggest it's been a trying few weeks would certainly be an understatement. Fighting with Aaron was nothing like fighting with Tony by any stretch of the imagination, partially because even when being maddeningly stubborn, Aaron still manages to be sensible. It's very difficult to feel self-righteous when you're up against someone so reasonable, even if you're certain you're in the right.

Aaron may be over-compensating a little now, insisting on dress-up dates with flowers and wine, but Pepper is letting him do it. That she's enjoying the benefit of it is undeniable, but there's a degree of catharsis in recompense, she thinks. If he needs to take her out and make her feel special to feel better about everything that happened, the least she can do is accept the attention.

The night is just a little warm, but there's a breeze blowing in off the lagoon that more than makes up for it, skimming over the bare skin of Pepper's back as the two of them make their way to Aaron's hut. Her shoes are off, dangling from easy fingertips, and she feels sincerely good and unworried for the first time in quite awhile.

Pepper Potts was not a woman unaccustomed to asking men out on dates. Which wasn't to say she did it often or that she did it on principle alone, because while she certainly strove to be as independent and capable a woman as possible, she wasn't anything close to a militant feminist. Her job wouldn't have allowed it, even had it appealed to her.

What Pepper was, however, was a bit beyond most men. She was attractive and intelligent and very, very successful, and when Tony didn't deter other men, all of those other factors almost invariably did. More often than not, if she wanted to date anyone, ever, she had to be the one to broach the subject. It was simple practicality, and very rarely did she think twice about it.

(In being a bit beyond most men, she was, consequently, something of a catch.)

It was fairly rare that she liked someone this much from the outset, however, and although there should have been little reason for it, Pepper was nervous in a way she'd not been since college, or possibly more telling, since Tony had reached out and drawn her so utterly into his orbit.

She liked Aaron. A lot. The vaguely dizzy, breathless feeling she got around him hearkened back to the crush she'd had on Jeff Carson in the sixth grade. Thankfully, she was a bit beyond drawing hearts around his name in the margins of her notebook, but apparently the adult equivalent was showing up for their date at the Winchester in the sexiest dress she owned and a pair of strappy heels.

If you're going to do something, you need to do it right or not at all.