Pepper's breath caught in her throat. It felt like she'd been struck. "What?"
"I said, you should resign. Quit your job," Paul repeated, his expression far too serious for a fourteen-year-old. "Come to my company. I'll make you CEO. I'll give you shares, top-level clearance. How about it?"
Pepper stood frozen, her mind a complete blank.
She stared into Paul's eyes, clear yet bottomlessly deep, and for a moment, she couldn't tell if the boy was joking or being deadly serious.
"Are you insane, Paul? Stark Industries… Tony, he…"
"He can't live without you, right?" Paul cut her off, his words hitting their mark. "Isn't that the point?"
He leaned in closer, his voice holding a persuasive power that defied his age. "Pepper, you know better than anyone that my dad is a jerk. A spoiled genius jerk. You clean up all his messes, you shield him from every problem, you even… pull the arc reactor out of his chest for him. And what does he do?"
Paul's words were a sharp knife, precisely dissecting the wound Pepper had so carefully wrapped in professionalism and logic.
"He runs away."
The scene from the previous night on the rooftop—that determined back turning away from her—flashed vividly in her mind. She clenched her fists, her nails digging deep into her palms.
"Some things, he'll never learn unless he's pushed to the edge of a cliff," Paul continued. "He needs to learn that the world doesn't revolve around him. And he needs to learn that some people, once you let them go, you might never get them back."
"Let him taste what it's like to lose something. Let him scramble, let him get overwhelmed, let him want a cup of coffee at three in the morning only to realize he's all alone in the entire tower. By then, maybe he'll finally understand what it is he truly needs."
Every word Paul spoke hammered on the softest, most vulnerable part of Pepper's heart.
She was tired. So tired.
She wasn't just Tony Stark's CEO; she was Pepper Potts. She had her own pride, her own limits.
Looking at the boy with his burning gaze, Pepper suddenly felt that maybe… maybe this plan wasn't so crazy after all.
Let's see. Let's just see what the invincible Tony Stark becomes after he loses her.
A faint, almost imperceptible blush, mixed with an unprecedented sense of anticipation, crept onto her cheeks.
She took a deep breath, looked at Paul, and finally gave a slow, yet incredibly firm, nod.
"Alright."
A brilliant, triumphant smile instantly bloomed on Paul's face. He pulled a small, metallic USB drive from his pocket and pressed it into her hand.
"This is the preliminary framework and a list of tech patents for my new company. Take a look. I'll even write the resignation letter for you. I guarantee it'll make him jump up and down in anger but leave him with no way to argue."
Meanwhile, the very subject of their conspiracy, Tony Stark, was reveling in his moment of glory.
He had just shooed away a chattering Rhodey and a 'I-knew-this-would-happen' looking Coulson, finally escaping the media siege. Adrenaline was still pumping through his veins; he felt like he could punch through a wall.
"I am Iron Man."
He savored the words, the grin on his face growing wider. This felt even better than closing a ten-billion-dollar weapons deal.
He scanned the room triumphantly, subconsciously searching for that familiar figure. He had a million things he wanted to say, to share this glory with her, to see her look proud of him, and also… to explain about last night.
Then he saw her.
She was at the end of the hallway with Paul, their heads close together as they talked about something. Pepper wore a strange expression he'd never seen before, a mixture of shyness and resolve. And Paul was smiling right at him, a smile that looked a little too mischievous for comfort.
An inexplicable lurch tightened in Tony's gut, a faint flicker of unease that vanished as quickly as it came.
But he quickly tossed the feeling aside.
What was he worried about? He was Tony Stark. He was Iron Man. What in the world could possibly trip him up?
He had no idea that an emotional storm, brewed especially for him, was already waiting just around the corner.