Changing My Life [Book 1]

Chapter 25

Tony's POV

"Shit," I mumbled taking a large step away from Steve.

"Wh-why? What? I-"

"Pepper, just let me explain," I sighed looking at the distressed woman in front of me.

"Where you kissing Steve?" She asked baffled.

"And if I was?" I retorted. I couldn't tell whether she was disgusted or confused, but either way I had enough of her attitude for one day.

She scoffed and marched off down the hall. I wasn't going to do anything about it until Steve gave me that look.

I groaned and jogged after her. She took a sharp turn into my room and began pulling her stuff out of the dressers.

"Pepper," I sighed, "please. It's not-"

"Don't, Tony," she snapped. "Don't even try to say that it's not what it looked like because it was. I thought our little break up was nothing more than you protecting me and it'd be fine when you got back but-"

"I get it, okay? I screwed up but what can I do now?"

"Tony Stark falling for Steve Rogers," she scoffed, "never thought I'd see the day."

She shoved some more clothes in a bag and zipped it up.

"What are you saying?" I defended. "You hate me because I'm gay now? 'Gonna quit Stark Industries?"

Pepper, who was headed for the room door, whipped back around with her eyes close to tears.

"No, Tony. I don't hate you or Steve and I'm certainly not going to quit. I just wish you would've told me. I care about you but obviously that wasn't enough," she sniffed.

"Pepper, I'm sorry. You're a great secretary and friend, but we can't date anymore. Yeah, I do like Steve and I didn't believe it either at first. But he makes me happy and I can't deny that that's all I ever wanted," I explained, feeling exhausted now.

"Well, I hope you two are happy," she said with a sad smile.

I didn't know what else to do but it seemed like she did. She left and all I could do was watch.

After she left, I stayed staring at the door. I don't know how long it was until Steve entered the door.

"Tony, are you-"

"I'm fine," I responded quickly.

His lips pressed into a thin line and I knew he didn't believe me. I sighed and sat down on my bed.

We sat there for a while in silence. It was nice being next to him but I couldn't stand the silence right now. It left me to drown in my thoughts. My dark, evil thoughts that drive me straight to a bottle.

"Tony?"

A large hand intertwined around mine and I looked up at Steve's bright blue eyes as he spoke again.

"I'm here for you, okay?"

I couldn't bring myself to smile so I just squeezed his hand in response. Steve really is amazing. He's so optimistic and he chases the darkness away.

"How do you feel?" Steve asked, breaking the silence.

"Let's go out," I replied jumping up.

"Tony-"

"No, you want to know how I feel? Truth is: I feel like shit. I feel like complete shit and maybe you make it better. Maybe you make me not want to crawl into a bottle and die because you remind me I'm doing something right."