Tony, after getting home, has been focusing on Grace every free moment he gets. He makes her breakfast in the mornings — usually chocolate chip pancakes — and they eat together.

He's bought her tons of new toys, and he watches movies with her and plays any games she wants him to play. He even lets her sit in the lab while he works on another suit — like the one he built with Yinsen. He put her school work on hold so they could have more time together.

And yet, he doesn't tell her everything that's going on with the company. Why would he? She would never understand. He could tell her he was having some problems — and he had been ever since the press conference when he announced Stark Industries would no longer be making weapons. But she's just got him back after being away from him for three months, and he's hardly left her side. He's not going to take that happiness away from her.

However, one night, for the first time in a long time, he leaves her with Happy. She made him promise he would come back, but she didn't cry. It would only be for a few hours, if nothing went wrong.

Now, here he is, at a charity event he's apparently hosting that he wasn't even invited to.

He walks up to Obadiah Stane, his business partner, who's talking to reporters. "What's the world comin' to when a guy's gotta crash his own party?"

Obadiah laughs. "Look at you. I'm surprised you left Grace."

"Yeah, I'll see you inside," Tony says, internally reminding himself that Grace is with Happy, and she's perfectly fine.

He moves past Obadiah, but he stops him. "Hey, listen, take it slow, okay? I got the board right where we want them."

"You got it," Tony replies, heading inside.

The room is large, filled with nicely dressed people and fancy, gold decorations. Tony heads to the bar as jazz music plays and orders a scotch. The man beside him, who's leaning on the bar, looks over. "Mr. Stark."

"Yeah?" Tony asks, thinking the man looks familiar, but he can't quite place him.

"Agent Coulson," the man says, and it clicks.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, the guy from the, uh..." He struggles with the name.

"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division," Coulson finishes for him.

Tony whistles as the bartender hands him his scotch. He turns around, looking out into the crowd of people. "You guys gotta get a new name for that."

"Yeah, I hear that a lot." Coulson pauses. "Look, I know this is a trying time for you, but we need to debrief you. There's still a lot of unanswered questions, and time can be a factor with these things. Let's just put something on the books."

But at that moment, Tony spots Pepper in the middle of the crowd, wearing a deep blue dress with her hair curled. Everything else in his vision blurs, going out of focus.

He always thought she was pretty — attractive, even — but right now... Right now, she's the most gorgeous woman he's ever seen.

Coulson keeps talking. "How about the fourth, seven pm, at Stark Industries?"

Tony is barely listening. "Tell you what: You got it. You're absolutely right. We'll, uh..." Somehow, he tears his eyes away from Pepper and looks at Coulson. "I'm gonna, uh, go to my assistant, and we'll make a... date."

He walks away, setting his scotch on the bar behind him.

As he approaches Pepper, he says, "You look fantastic, I didn't even recognize you."

She turns, surprised but secretly happy to see him. "What are you doing here?"

"Avoiding government agents."

"Are you by yourself? Where's Grace?"

He ignores the first question. "At home with Happy, probably making him play Candy Land. Where did you get that dress?"

"Oh," she says. "It was a birthday present. From you, actually." She'd bought it herself with his money for her birthday.

"Oh. I have great taste."

"Yes, you do." She's smiling now.

After a short pause, Tony asks, "Do you wanna, uh, dance?"

Pepper starts shaking her head. Truth be told, she wants to, but he's her boss, and she knows it's inappropriate. "Oh, no, thank you-"

"Alright, come on." He grabs her hand, gently pulling her to the dance floor. She lightly protests, but realizes there's no arguing with him unless she wants to cause a scene.

They start to dance, and, though she's smiling, she's looking around at everyone else, wondering what they're thinking. Tony notices, and, doing whatever he can in the moment to be respectful, asks, "Am I making you uncomfortable?"

"Oh — oh, no. No," she says, because, really, he isn't. "I-I always forget to wear deodorant and dance with my boss in front of everyone I work with in a dress with no back."

"You look great — you smell great," Tony says, half-joking. Pepper laughs a little, and he continues. "But I could fire you if that'd take the edge off."

She snorts lightly. "No, I actually don't think that you could tie your shoes without me."

"I'd make it a week."

"Really?"

"Sure."

She raises a brow. "What's your social security number?"

Tony has to think for far too long. Finally, he says, "You know, on second thought, Grace would kill me if I fired you."

"So you don't know your social security number," Pepper replies, half-laughing.

"Five," Tony says.

"You're forgetting the other eight digits-"

"I've got you for the other eight."

They go quiet after that, still dancing. All Tony can think about is her, and her in this moment, and how beautiful her smile is. He thinks about the present she left for him on his desk: the arc reactor he had her help him remove, and it said, "Proof That Tony Stark Has A Heart," on it.

He could dance with her forever like this if she'd let him. But he can see she's still on edge. "How about a little air?"

She nods. "Yes, I need some air."

They walk onto the balcony, and Pepper is relieved to find very few people out there. The city is lit up below them as they stand together, far enough away that no one would be paying attention to their conversation — she hopes. "That was totally weird."

"Totally harmless," Tony says.

"It was totally not harmless — by the way, everyone I work with-"

He starts talking over her. "The whole time, no one was even watching-"

"-No, you know why?"

"I think you lost objectivity," Tony says. "I think they just — people, they just-"

"I don't-"

"We just danced." But he didn't really think so — he's downplaying it, but it was more than just a dance to him.

Pepper is almost incredulous. "No, it was not just a dance." The way it felt, the way he looked at her — it was not just a dance, certainly not to her. "You don't understand because you're you. And... And everybody knows exactly who you are, and how you are with girls-"

"I'm not anymore," Tony says.

Pepper sighs. "I know... I know that. But people still think that. Especially since they know you have a kid, and they know her mother isn't in the picture, and they don't really know anything else. And that is completely fine. But, now, you know, there's me, and you're my boss-"

"And I'm dancing with you." Tony knows where she's going, but he doesn't care. He doesn't care what people think, what they say — he's had to learn not to. But he knows that she cares.

"I don't think it was taken that way," she says. "Because it makes me look like the one who's trying to-"

"I just think you're overstating it-"

"- you know, and we're here, and I'm wearing this ridiculous dress, and then we're dancing like that, and..." Tony, for once, goes quiet, actually listening to her. And as she speaks, she's thinking about it.

His hand in hers, his other on her back, the way he looked at her, how worried she was about him when he was gone, how much she realized she missed him when he came back. She trails off and leans forward.

Tony, by her words, the way she says them, knows that it wasn't just a dance to her, and it wasn't to him, either. He knows that he likes her — not just because she's beautiful, but because she's Pepper, and she's wonderful and smart and just Pepper, and she's absolutely breathtaking in every way. And as she leans in, and he starts to lean in, too, he knows how she took care of Grace while he was gone, and how much Grace likes her.

And he knows that he can't do this without asking Grace first.

He stops.

She stops at the same time, realizing how crazy this is, and why did she ever think it would be okay to just kiss her boss, and not only what would everyone else think, but what would Grace think? She looks at Tony. "I would like a drink, please."

"Got it." He starts going back inside.

"I-I would like a vodka martini, please."

"Okay."

"Very dry — with olives, a lot of olives. Like, at least three olives..." She wonders how many times she can say olives in one sentence, and, once he's gone, how many times she'll think about what would've happened if she had kissed him just then.