( APOGEE AWARDS AND LOUBOUTINS )

JIM HAD INVITED HER TO THE APOGEE AWARDS AS INCENTIVE TO GET TONY TO ACTUALLY SHOW UP. It was Obadiah that showed up at her door when it was time to go. She was in the dress Pepper had sent over, some beautiful creation with a plunging neckline, spaghetti straps, a small flare to the skirt at the bottom, and a gorgeous design of a rose stitched to the black and white polka dotted fabric. The heels she was wearing, the pair of Follies Strass that had a sticky note saying "love, tony" in engineer handwriting, were gorgeous. Cherry had been scared to look at the price on the website, which made Cherry almost gag when she saw the whopping $1445 dollar price tag.

Tony had been taught to buy people expensive things to make them love him from an early age. Cherry still felt terrible about the fight they had had, had tried to call Tony on multiple occasions to only talk to Pepper, telling Cherry that Tony was busy with a sympathetic voice. On a night where they had grabbed take out and went to Pepper's apartment, Pepper had told her that Tony was scared he was gonna do something wrong again, say the wrong thing, and start another fight with Cherry. Which, that could happen, but Cherry was gonna stiffen her upper lip no matter what he said to her this time. She had to show him she cared about him, no matter what nasty thing he tried to use to push her away. And if she had to accept the 1500 dollar shoes, even though she didn't want to, this could be the first step in proving it.

But seeing Obadiah's looming for in the doorway of her hotel room sent her stomach to her feet. She had hoped that it would be Tony, or even Jim, but to see the older men made her wish she had declined Jim's invitation. Of course, Obadiah was going to be there. Of course.

"Mr. Stane," Cherry put on a fake smile, making sure to check in her clutch for her hotel room key and everything she would need so that she didn't have to see the shark-like smile on the man's face, "I wasn't expecting you."

"Rhodes had to run ahead and sort some things out with the Awards ceremony, so he asked if I could swing by and grab you," was the reply Obadiah said, which made Cherry's smile seem to tighten on her face. It was a lie. Jim knew how uncomfortable Obadiah made her feel, had seen it in the way she stood and acted around him. He would have called or texted, asked if there was somewhere Obadiah could have met her to pick her up. 

"Well," she said, trying to hide behind the mask of professionalism she put on whenever Obadiah asked her something a little too personal. "That's really nice of you, Mr. Stane."

"Please, call me Obadiah," Obadiah said as Cherry took a step out of her door and made sure to lock it. She took the time facing her door to compose herself, before she was turning around and getting led by Obadiah with a hand on the small of her back. It was nothing like when Tony did it. The warmth of Tony's hand always felt reassuring, an anchor in the crazy world of celebrity was, grounding her from the camera flashes and shouted questions. Obadiah's hand made it feel like bugs were creeping all over her skin and she wanted to swat him away from her.

He took her to the car waiting at the curb outside of the building, helping her inside, before telling the driver to take them to the awards. It was silent. Cherry didn't try to offer any way of communicating, not really comfortable in Obadiah's presence in any other way than a professional sense. And this was no way professional. 

Obadiah also didn't offer anything, but he did poor himself a drink from the tiny bar the car had. He held the crystal looking glass in his hand and the ice clanged against the side every time the car rocked on the road. There was a weird tension building, one that made Cherry subtly try to shift closer to the door without causing too much disruption and have it noticed by Obadiah. He always made something uneasy creep into her mind, but it was never this prominent to her. How Pepper and Tony could put up with him was beyond her. 

Cherry was relieved when they got to the building the awards were being held in. Something in her chest loosened, she was able to draw in a full breath since entering the car. She was glad no one paid her much mind as she made her way into the building, clutch gripped tightly in one hand. The people that were hanging around outside did care about Obadiah, however, so Cherry was able to get away from him in her speed walk. (If she hadn't been wearing the $1500 Louboutins, she would have done more of a jog. 

When she got into the actual venue, she was glad to almost immediately see Jim. She made her way over, dress flaring out behind her from her speed, and pushed herself into his arms. "Jim, it's so good to see you." He seemed startled to begin with, before he was wrapping his own arms around her. 

"Cherry!" The two of them pulled back. Cherry looked at the military dress Jim was in, quickly smoothing down one of his lapels, before smiling up at him. "Is Tony with you?"

"Tony?" Cherry furrowed her eyebrows, shaking her head. "Obadiah was the one who picked me up." 

Jim swore under his breath, but didn't have much time to elaborate because someone mentioned that they were starting soon and then there was someone ushering Jim off to the stage. Cherry made her way to her table, which she identified thanks to Obadiah's bald head, and took a seat next to him, gazing out at the stage. It was like most awards that Cherry had been to, some speeches were made. Cherry really didn't comprehend a lot of it, didn't get some of the inside jokes that made the crowd chuckle and sure as hell didn't get any of the engineering jokes. 

But, when it was time for Tony's award to be announce, Cherry guessed, the lights dimmed and a two minute video on how brilliant Tony was played on the screens on either side of the stage. Cherry watched, awed by Tony, even though she had known most of the things said in the video. She had learned them through talking with Pepper or from a magazine or from Tony himself, which was her favourite way of finding things out about him. Still, to know he had such a brilliant mind, and to have her reminded because she had seen him spill coffee over himself during one of the times they had take out movie night, was humbling. Tony was a genius to all these people, but to Cherry, he was just Tony. This maddening, beautiful mess of a man that Cherry was in love with. 

After the video played, Jim took to the podium to announce the award to Tony. Cherry made sure to perk up and listen to the speech. She also may have looked around for Tony, but couldn't see him. 

"As liaison to Stark Industries, I've had the unique privilege of serving with a real patriot." Cherry blinked and felt herself smile a tiny, private smile. She doubted Tony knew it, but he would save the whole world if he could. "He is my friend and he is my great mentor. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present this year's Apogee Award to Mr. Tony Stark!"

Everyone started clapping, waiting for the aforementioned man to make his appearance on stage to accept the award. Music played, there was a pause, Jim holding up the award for Tony, who wasn't coming out on stage. People started to look around for him. 

"Tony?" Rhodes called, before he was looking in Cherry and Obadiah's direction, question on his face. Both her and Obadiah shook their heads, Jim made a face, and Cherry felt Obadiah get up from his chair to go an accept the award. 

"Thank you, Colonel," Obadiah said as he took to the stage, taking the award from Jim's hand and stepping up to the podium as everyone applauded. "This is beautiful. Thank you. Thank you all very much. This is wonderful. Well, I'm not Tony Stark." Members of the crowd laughed. "But if I were Tony, I would tell you how honored I feel and what a joy it is to receive this very prestigious award. Tony, you know... The best thing about Tony is also the worst thing. He's always working."

The crowd laughed again, Obadiah said a few more thank you's before making his way off stage and back to the seat beside Cherry. The rest of the Awards went quickly and Cherry found herself walking through Caesar's Palace behind Jim to go and find Tony. Who was probably gambling.

They found him. Well, they found the crowd that had gathered around him. Cherry stood off to the side, holding her clutch in front of her hands as she tried not to focus to hard on all the beautiful woman that were surrounded around Tony. It was none of her business if he took any of them home. In fact, she was kinda hoping to get back to her hotel room soon so she could pack and take her flight back to Malibu from Las Vegas. She really just wanted to curl and watch re-runs with Scottie purring on her chest and too much coffee in her system. 

When the crowd started booing and moaning about someone's role is when Cherry zoned back into the world around her and Jim was making his way back over to her, a smile on his face. She smiled back at him, watched as the crowd split to let Tony, with Happy trailing behind, out from the table. He seemed to freeze for a nano-second at the sight of her. She probably wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't been watching him. 

"What brings you to Las Vegas looking like that, Miss Armstrong?" Tony asked as he stopped in front of her. He blue eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, his hair slicked back, his suit immaculate. Cherry wanted to run her hands through his hair to mess it up and get some of the curls she knew were there to peak through. 

"Well, I was supposed to be a certain Apogee Award winner's date, but he bailed on me, so I'm just here to look good," Cherry said, then watched Tony's mouth turn down and look at Jim. 

"Seriously?" Jim shrugged in a way that was clearly an affirmative. "God, now I feel terrible. Why didn't you tell me you invited Cherry?" 

"It was gonna be a surprise. But, because you didn't show up to get this very prestigious award that your best friend was presenting, you really don't deserve it." 

They started walking, Tony and Jim bantering while Cherry smiled at Happy and tucked her arm through his. He smiled down at her and put his free and over top of her's in a way that reminded her of being escorted towards a ball. They walked for a little while, before Cherry knew she had to split off with Jim so that she could make her flight in time. It was a little disappointing that she didn't get to reconcile with Tony like she had planned to. 

She hugged Happy goodbye, pinching his cheek to make him blush, before turning to look at Tony. He was wearing a slightly sheepish look. "You know, just because I'm angry with you, Tony, doesn't mean I don't still care about you. I just need a few days." 

"How much have you ranted to Scottie?" Tony asked as he stepped forward to wrap his arms around her. She found herself burrowing her face into his chest. "I won't be able to take it if that cat hates me."

"Oh, because he's your cat?" 

"Definitely. After I found him under my car, we've had a strong connection. I can't have you ruining that." 

Cherry felt herself laughing, shaking her head before pressing a kiss to his cheek. She gave him another just to be sure, saw the way Tony was beaming a private little smile at her. She gave him one right back as she waved goodbye at him. And, to make sure that he knew he was totally forgiven, she made sure to pick up her dress skirt so that he could see the Louboutin's he had bought her. 

She heard the startled laugh and the "son of a bitch", turning around to smile over her shoulder and drop her right eye into a wink. Tony shook his head at her, trying to stop the smile that was obviously trying to overtake his face and cut through the cool exterior he was trying to convey. 

Yeah. They were okay.

____________

okay well we are into the movie and this is the last chapter featuring pre!afghanistan tony! there will be a chapter focusing on how cherry took the three months that tony is held captive before we get tony back, arc reactor in chest. 

well, i hope y'all enjoyed my very anti-climatic end to their spat last chapter.

also, this was the dress I was trying to explain in the beginning:

and the louboutin's that tony bought her:

we love a highkey mess of a man who thinks that giving people expensive gifts amounts to love.