2013-01-16 A Journey of a Thousand Steps...

November 12.

Pepper looks around the finally looking close to clean again Mansion, her hair half falling out of the sloppy ponytail she put it in hours ago. Every evidence of empty liquor bottles, pizza boxes, cheese doodles, everything... gone. It's taken her a couple of days since Tony sent the cleaning staff running at the start of his most recent bender. At the same time she's been locking up the liquor as fast as she could find it. JARVIS has been helping her as much as he can, as have the 'bots, but it's been an uphill battle.

Sooner or later, the body must shut itself down. Repair the damage that has been done to it. So have the past few days been with Tony. He's been awake, but the periods have been brief. He hasn't left the Tower. Iron Man has been conspicuously absent. His involvement with anything has ground to a stand still. The media has mildly let up on his failure with the Wakandans though he's still fodder for talk show monologues. He manages to step out from his room. He's more or less dressed, but is currently sporting a robe. He..he looks like he's been feeling the past few weeks: Like hell. His eyes are bloodshot. His face is puffy and bloated. His hair is all over the place like Einstein stuck his hair in a light socket. He groans softly, makes his way to the kitchen area and returns with an ice pack on his head. He is epically hungover and it shows. He sits down on one of the couches and sighs. "Anyone get the license number of the truck that blindsided me?" he asks rhetorically, eyes closed.

Pepper Potts looks over as Tony emerges and can't help but smile. She starts toward the nearest wet bar, where she stashed sandwich fixings for herself and hopefully Tony. "I did, actually. JARVIS is tracking it through the DMV now." She hopes her attempt at a joke doesn't fall flat.

Tony Stark actually chuckles at that. Then he groans. "Oh Jesus don't make me laugh. It hurts even more when I laugh." he sighs deeply. Sniffing slightly, he opens his eyes and looks at Pepper near the wet bar. He shakes his head, "No..nothing right now, bad idea. Bad. Idea." he says, the last two words emphasized. "JARVIS - coffee, quadruple espresso. Extra black." he mutters. JARVIS responds with a clipped, "Right away, sir." and Tony gets up to pad his way to the kitchen where the coffee will be ready by the time he gets there.

Pepper Potts washes her hands then starts fixing a sandwich for herself. Simple ham and cheese, and hopefully seeing her with food will entice Tony to eat something as well. She prepares the sandwich the way she knows Tony would prefer and takes the time to slice it in half before carrying her plate over to sit at the bar island that separates the kitchen from the living room area. Settling at the bar and taking a small bite from her sandwich, she asks in complete innocence, "Could you pour a glass of milk for me while you're there?"

Tony Stark calls out (but not too loud, though!) "Sure thing," and in comes out carrying a glass of milk for Pepper. His own beverage right now is a huge, 32 ounce coffee tumbler nearly full to the brim. He plops down on the couch, "JARVIS, video wall. YouTube, clip.." he sighs and shakes his head. "Cancel that." he says flatly. "I need to stop rewatching my mistakes." he takes a sip of coffee and places the ice pack gingerly on his head.

Pepper Potts accepts the glass of milk, then waits for a few moments before following Tony back over to the couch and sitting down. And of course, her plate and sandwich are ever so conveniently held in one hand where a half could be so easily nicked.

Tony Stark takes a long, deep breath. He looks over at Pepper, "Why are you here?" he asks. His voice thin, a bit of a croak in it. A little rasp due to the sheer amounts of alcohol he's consumed as of late.

Pepper Potts considers any of a dozen entirely honest answers, though it only takes her a second or two as she finishes a second small bite of sandwich. Finally, she makes a decision and shrugs slightly. "Where else would I be?"

Tony Stark takes a long sip of the scalding coffee, continuing to let his brain reboot. "That's not what I mean. I mean, why are you here with me now? Still. After all these years."

Pepper Potts smiles at that She's actually given that exact same question a good amount of thought over the past few days. Amusingly enough, it was something she'd been listening to the day before as background noise that helped her come to a realization. "What is it that Rex Harrison said in 'My Fair Lady'? I've grown accustomed to your face."

Tony Stark looks over, one eye still squinting, "That's it? Just that you've grown accustomed to my face?" his tone is a little skeptical, a little incredulous.

Pepper Potts can't help but chuckle softly at that. "You haven't ever actually seen that movie, have you? It's the character's way of saying he'd grown fond of Eliza Dolittle, and didn't realize it until after she left."

Tony Stark takes another drink of his coffee and looks up at the ceiling rather than her when he replies, "Yeah, but of all the people in my life - not my parents, not anyone - you've never left me. Never abandoned me. Why don't you? I know people say you're crazy for staying on, and yet here you are. I /know/ you can get better offers and conditions elsewhere."

Pepper Potts actually fidgets with the edge of her plate briefly at that. "Well, I could try to sound all pragmatic and say something about Stark Industries, or that I don't like to leave things unfinished." She pauses for a moment. "But I think instead I'll leave it at this. I don't abandon my friends. Not for any reason."

Tony Stark turns his head back up towards the ceiling, his face haunted and a frown slightly tugging at the corners of his mouth, "You're a far better friend than I deserve, Virginia." he takes another drink of coffee but continues to stare at the ceiling. He hopes that the use of her given name will impress upon her the gravity of what he just said.

Pepper Potts is fully aware of exactly what his use of her proper name means. "That's a damn lie, Anthony. You deserve, hell, you've /earned/ far more." She sets the plate aside, the sandwich barely a quarter eaten. "Do you remember how many different people came to check on you the past week or so?"

Tony Stark shrugs, "Some..not all." he closes his eyes again, takes a deep breath. "There was a stream of people in here it seemed like, trying to get me up and moving like I was Pink Floyd in The Wall." he pauses a moment before speaking again, "I guess a did a fairly good job pushing everyone away and burning up bridges."

Pepper Potts shakes her head no. "Not everyone. Selina might be kind of angry at you, but I got the feeling that it had more to do with her than with you. And Steve... well, he doesn't impress me as the sort to be easily pushed away."

Tony Stark shakes his head, "That walking slab of meat doesn't know when to give up so that doesn't surprise me either." he says with a bit of an (hard-to-come-by-for-Tony) affectionate tone. "As for Selina," he say, "I imagine I'll have to come up with an apology. Probably involving something shiny."

Pepper Potts smiles a bit. "No, he doesn't." And that's part of what she finds oddly endearing about the man. It kind of offsets the goody-two-shoes-ness. "Yeah, you owe Selina a pretty big apology. But honestly, I think picking yourself up out of this rut and getting better would mean more to her than anything shiny."

Tony Stark takes a long sip of coffee, "But how? Where? For what? The world doesn't /need/ Iron Man. It already has a multitude of true heroes protecting it. They don't need some thrill seeking CEO putting on a couple of hundred million dollars worth of tech and getting in their way."

Pepper Potts shakes her head no again. "That's where you're wrong. The world /does/ need Iron Man. You're right, there /are/ super powered people all over the place. But that's what makes you, a regular joe human, with only your brains and your drive to do what's right, so much more important. You're not perfect, you're not infallible, and people need to see that to remember that no matter who they are, they can still make a difference in this world."

Tony Stark waves a hand dismissively and takes another drink of his coffee, "I'm not a role model. I'm a guy who drinks too much and goes through too many many women to be a role model of any kind. That's what they have Superman for."

"Too late. You're already a role model. Besides, who can even come close to living up to Superman's ... obnoxious perfectness?" Pepper offers a bit of a smile.

Tony Stark shrugs and leans forward, now. He pinches between his eyes and is silent a few moments. "I don't know. Superman, maybe? Maybe one of his buddies in that Justice League thing he's running." he shakes his hea, "I just don't know..but I know I have to be better than what I've been."

Pepper Potts says, "Now that's something we agree on." She picks up the half of the sandwich she's already started and takes a small bite. "If for no other reason than to get Dummy to stop following me around like a homesick puppydog."

Tony Stark ughs softly, "Dummy's gonna be the death of me. I swear I'm gonna melt him down and make a helmet out of him."

Pepper Potts says, "But he means well... I think."

Tony Stark takes another sip of his coffee, draining the huge tumbler. "They dumb ones always do." he says flatly. He gets up slowly and heads for the window to take a look at the day going on out there. He winces as a stream of light hits him square the face. "Agh," he mutters, closing the blinds again, "It's way too bright or me out there." he says, and walks back to the couch and sits down.

Pepper Potts says, "There's no hurry to get back out there. Relax for a while. Do you want something for that headache?"

Tony Stark grunts non-commitally at the offer, "Either a drink or a sledgehammer so I can knok my head clean off my shoulders." he says as he runs a hand through his hair.

Pepper Potts moves to stand. "Ibuprofen it is. And no arguing with me." She walks back to the kitchen to get the painkillers and a glass of water.

Tony Stark just shakes his head in agreement and keeps his eyes closed.

Pepper Potts returns with two caplets and a full glass of water. "Here. And drink the entire glass."

Tony Stark accepts the water and the ibuprofin. He swallows them and chases it with a drink of water. "What's on my agenda today?" he asks, almost automatically, because he's used to ask that of Pepper.

Pepper Potts answers almost automatically. "First, shower and shave. Then a nap if you want. If not, go appease Dummy. He made me a milkshake the other day, and it was the most unnatural shade of orange I'd ever seen. Then, I think a movie, and maybe some take out. And you have to decide, or I get to pick the movie."

Tony Stark ughs again, "I told him to not make anything. I swear I'm going to turn him into art deco." he shakes his head, "Okay." he says thinking a little bit. He calls out, "JARVIS, current time?" - less than a second passes before the AI's voice fills the room, "The current time is 10:37 AM. The wind is coming out of the northeast, and 8 miles per hour, and the current temperatre is 18 degrees farenheit." - Tony hmms. "Okay, change of plans." he says, looking to Pepper. "You get to pick dinner and at least one of the movies. Eight PM, back here. In the meantime I'm going to shower, then work." he nods again, liking the idea. "Yeah..definitely need to work."

Pepper Potts looks at Tony for a moment, then taps the plate with the half-sandwich still on it. "Eat this and you have a deal."

Tony Stark is already up and heads to the shower. "I'm not hungry right now. I'll be hungry later. Eat your sandwich." he says, disappearing down the hallway to the bathroom in his master bedroom.

Pepper Potts watches Tony head off to shower, then after a moment's contemplation finishes off the sandwich and glass of milk before getting up and finding her tablet computer to start working on the rest of her day's required tasks. She's going to have to make a trip into the office at least...