![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mind_the_muse: June topics (Application)
Jun. 26th, 2008 05:25 pmtakingouttrashRandom thoughts for Valentine's day, 2004. Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.
ooc: The first Valentine's day may or may not have been in 2004, I know!
The first Valentine's Day after she started working as Tony Stark's personal assistant was the last time Pepper wrote a valentine.
The cards had started arriving a few days before that; still a little new to the routines, she consulted JARVIS and Happy, and in the end, when her boss got up in the morning, he was greeted by what she hoped was close enough to the usual arrangement. He didn't seem surprised anyway, and somewhat later ended up going through them, muttering a low-voiced commentary on the messages. She was in and out of the room (considering that the collection was quite impressive and it took him a while) and only caught snatches here and there. He seemed to be enjoying this; however, by now she was aware of his high opinion of himself and how well he would absorb anything that encouraged it.
Which was why he also enjoyed her abrasive comments at times.
And which had nothing to do with the fact that one of those cards was from her. Or, perhaps, it had a lot to do.
She'd not given much thought to it before, but each day working directly under him led her to believe more and more that Tony Stark was an absolutely extraordinary human being, and even more so - unique, exasperating, amazing man. It had only been months since she'd come into close contact with him; already, she could really not imagine working for anybody else. That only made her work all the harder for him, of course; it wasn't the paycheck, it wasn't the luxury around her, it wasn't how interesting the work was. She wanted to please him, more than she'd ever wanted to anyone else she'd been employed by, and he did seem satisfied. Of course, in a way that you're satisfied with a good tool - use it when it's needed, then forget about it till it's needed again. But that was good enough for her.
She's already had enough of an opportunity to observe how he was with women too. There'd be passionate nights, even weekends, or vacations - and then they would be discarded and most likely forgotten. No, she didn't want that, although the idea of such proximity certainly was attractive. But she did much prefer to see those dark eyes warm up in approval, or the moments where the cockiness faded, so very briefly, and he answered her honesty with tidbits of his own.
As a result, she was ready to do anything and everything for him. And, she thought, a valentine would be nice. One more wouldn't hurt.
In and out she was as snatches of his commentary - to JARVIS? to her? she had no idea - reached her. "Mel D. Pretty girl, not very talkative; probably somebody else wrote this." Or, "Samantha... who was Samantha? Oh, the L'Oréal advertisement girl. What a body, but what a dead-ass..." Or, "Marianna. Never seen her, but the picture looks pretty enough. At least she doesn't pretend we've met in person." A few of the cards returned to the table; others were dropped to the floor to be later discarded.
It was probably vague chance that ensured that his words caught her as she was going out the room. "Virginia. Who the hell is Virginia? This looks like she's met me. No, there hasn't been a Virginia. I think." She heard the plop of the card on the pile of the rest on the floor, and hid around the corner to lean against the wall, suddenly very muchupset angry with herself for doing something like that. He was her boss. Valentine's Day was a day for more cards to be sold anyway, wasn't it.
She didn't hear JARVIS's discreet coughing noise in the room behind her, nor saw her boss's frown and confused, "what?"
She did, however, never write him a valentine again.
Nor did she feel really tempted to write one to anyone else.
Muse: Pepper Potts
Fandom: Iron Man (movie)
Word count: 661
ooc: The first Valentine's day may or may not have been in 2004, I know!
The first Valentine's Day after she started working as Tony Stark's personal assistant was the last time Pepper wrote a valentine.
The cards had started arriving a few days before that; still a little new to the routines, she consulted JARVIS and Happy, and in the end, when her boss got up in the morning, he was greeted by what she hoped was close enough to the usual arrangement. He didn't seem surprised anyway, and somewhat later ended up going through them, muttering a low-voiced commentary on the messages. She was in and out of the room (considering that the collection was quite impressive and it took him a while) and only caught snatches here and there. He seemed to be enjoying this; however, by now she was aware of his high opinion of himself and how well he would absorb anything that encouraged it.
Which was why he also enjoyed her abrasive comments at times.
And which had nothing to do with the fact that one of those cards was from her. Or, perhaps, it had a lot to do.
She'd not given much thought to it before, but each day working directly under him led her to believe more and more that Tony Stark was an absolutely extraordinary human being, and even more so - unique, exasperating, amazing man. It had only been months since she'd come into close contact with him; already, she could really not imagine working for anybody else. That only made her work all the harder for him, of course; it wasn't the paycheck, it wasn't the luxury around her, it wasn't how interesting the work was. She wanted to please him, more than she'd ever wanted to anyone else she'd been employed by, and he did seem satisfied. Of course, in a way that you're satisfied with a good tool - use it when it's needed, then forget about it till it's needed again. But that was good enough for her.
She's already had enough of an opportunity to observe how he was with women too. There'd be passionate nights, even weekends, or vacations - and then they would be discarded and most likely forgotten. No, she didn't want that, although the idea of such proximity certainly was attractive. But she did much prefer to see those dark eyes warm up in approval, or the moments where the cockiness faded, so very briefly, and he answered her honesty with tidbits of his own.
As a result, she was ready to do anything and everything for him. And, she thought, a valentine would be nice. One more wouldn't hurt.
In and out she was as snatches of his commentary - to JARVIS? to her? she had no idea - reached her. "Mel D. Pretty girl, not very talkative; probably somebody else wrote this." Or, "Samantha... who was Samantha? Oh, the L'Oréal advertisement girl. What a body, but what a dead-ass..." Or, "Marianna. Never seen her, but the picture looks pretty enough. At least she doesn't pretend we've met in person." A few of the cards returned to the table; others were dropped to the floor to be later discarded.
It was probably vague chance that ensured that his words caught her as she was going out the room. "Virginia. Who the hell is Virginia? This looks like she's met me. No, there hasn't been a Virginia. I think." She heard the plop of the card on the pile of the rest on the floor, and hid around the corner to lean against the wall, suddenly very much
She didn't hear JARVIS's discreet coughing noise in the room behind her, nor saw her boss's frown and confused, "what?"
She did, however, never write him a valentine again.
Nor did she feel really tempted to write one to anyone else.
Muse: Pepper Potts
Fandom: Iron Man (movie)
Word count: 661
