Fic: Decorum 10/10 – Pepper/Coulson (R)

[anxiousgeek.livejournal.com]

Title: Decorum (10/10)
Fandom: Iron Man
Rating: R
Character/Pairing: Pepper Potts/Phil Coulson
Spoilers: Iron Man
Warnings: References to sex.
Summary: Declarations.
Notes: And finally the end. I like the idea of writing more in this universe between them but we’ll see. I love Pepper/Coulson. I hope you enjoyed it, sorry it took so long to come to a conclusion.

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine

Pepper woke up wrapped around Phil Coulson.

He smelt of morning and sweat and something awfully masculine that made her bury herself further into him, eyes closed and nose pressed against the skin of her neck. She pressed her hand to the centre of his chest holding him, feeling his ribcage move up and down as he breathed slowly.

This was perfect.

It was pretty much all she ever wanted in a relationship. A man she could trust, who she had fun with, who could put up with Tony.

Who was good in bed.

She grinned to herself hand slipping down to his abdomen, stroking the hard muscles there. He was a surprise, under those suits he was fit and muscled and she wondered how much paper pushing he actually did for Shield.

She’d probably never find out.

It didn’t matter

Not right now when she was so very happy and so utterly in love.

She really needed to tell him.

She felt his muscles tense under her hand and then he was turning over to face her, smiling, looking wide awake.

“You are beautiful,” he said softly.

Pepper doubted it. No make up and sleep in her eyes, morning breath and bed hair but she accepted the compliment with a light kiss and a smile.

“Good morning.”

“Morning.”

For a brief second Pepper panicked feeling awkward despite her wonderful after glow or perhaps because of it. She didn’t know what to say for a second, what to do, until Phil pulled her in for another kiss, pressing his entire body against hers.

“You’re so hard,” she said in a breath and Phil cocked an eyebrow at her, grinning as he pressed his hips into hers. “Oh you are hard,” she said with a surprised gasp and he furrowed his brow at her. “I didn’t mean – before – I mean – well, you’re so fit and I hadn’t expected it that’s all and -”

He cut her off with a kiss, laughing a little into it and she shifted on top of him, straddling his hips.

“I got it,” he said, voice a little rough as she shifted against him, smiling at him.

“We can talk about it later.”

x

Later they made breakfast together in her kitchen, moving around each other easily enough – Pepper listening to Phil tell her about his time in the Army and the Shield training regimes explaining just how he’d gotten so fit. The entire time she was watching him move, gracefully, thinking about how much she loved him and still hasn’t told him and then – as he’s pouring himself another cup of coffee and offering her one she blurts it out.

Pepper’s pretty sure she’s more put together than this, but then, she’s never been in love before.

So she’s telling him she loves him. No preamble, no romance, no segue just -

“I love you.”

He barely reacted and she felt sick; holding onto her stomach and a hand clasped over her mouth as she watched him place the coffee pit back carefully and look up at her.

Smiling.

Pepper didn’t move. She just waited, hands on her stomach and mouth until Phil walked over to her, and pried them away from her body.

“I love you too pepper,” he said, each word quiet but clear and then kissing her soundly on the lips still smiling. She kissed back opening up to him as easily as she had last night, wrapping her arms around him carefully still mindful of his bad shoulder. She held him close for a long moment until she felt tears coming warm and wet.

“Pepper?”

“I’m okay” she said smiling despite the few tears that fell. She felt okay, she felt wonderful.

“Didn’t you think I’d feel the same,” he asked.

“No one loves me,” she said feeling the words instead of thinking them, letting them free with every worry she had about this. About them. “I mean Tony is dependent on me, Rhodey and Happy care about me but no one loves me. Really loves me.”

“Except me,” he said, voice stern even though his face wasn’t.

“Except you.”

She smiled kissing him again just forgetting everything for a long moment and feeling instead. When they broke apart he cupped her cheek, wiping the tears away.

“I love you Pepper, have done for a while now. Whatever else, whoever else, is in your life, it doesn’t matter because you have me now okay?”

He was so passionate about it and Pepper wanted to cry in his arms and kiss him senseless. She managed to nod in reply to his question.

“I love you.”

He beamed at her, like it was everything he’d ever wanted to hear from her and she held him close, feeling all the better for having him, holding him.

“Do you have to go to work?” she asked, tugging on his tie with a grin.

“I might be able to swing a day off. I do have a bad arm.” She kissed him quickly and grabbed her phone from the counter. “Question is,” he continued, watching her dial Tony’s number, “will Stark let you have a day off?”

Pepper smiled.

“He’s not getting a choice Phil.”

x

They spent the day in Pepper’s apartment, wrapped up together watching movies or making love. Phil was exhausted by time the afternoon rolled around, between the mission a couple of days before and Pepper’s enthusiasm, he needed to nap but couldn’t bear to be apart from her, even if he was asleep next to her.

She was smiling at him and curled up next to him, ignoring the film that was playing on the laptop in front of them.

He was happy.

He hadn’t expected to ever really be happy, even when he was falling in love with Pepper – it had been a long time since he could even remember being content but right now, he was happy. Pepper loved him, kept telling him from time to time during the day and he realised he would do anything for this woman. He hadn’t expected to feel like that either.

He hadn’t expected to hear her tell him how she felt so soon, or first. Even with himself she had been holding herself back a little until today. Now she was the warm and wonderful Pepper Potts he’d fallen in love but multiplied. Open and honest and loving and he would put up with anything for this woman.

Even several calls from Stark Industries, a few emails and a couple of texts.

Even three calls from Tony and seven texts.

She hadn’t responded to the texts from Tony, had only answered one of the calls. He found he didn’t mind much, especially considering she’d stepped out of the room when he’d been on the phone to Shield to give a quick briefing on an old mission to Agent Romanoff. They were starting to understand each other’s work, understand each other’s world. He had agents, she had Tony.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked, “you look so lost somewhere.”

He turned to her, kissing her on the cheek gently.

“I was just thinking about you. About us.”

“Yeah?”

He smiled relaxing into the bed.

“This is going to work,” he told her.

“You weren’t sure if would?”

A flash of hurt passed over her pretty face and he kissed it away, chasing it away. She relaxed again, but didn’t smile, just waited until he answered her.

“I wasn’t sure, my work isn’t always conducive to relationships.”

“Mine either.”

“Exactly,” he said yawning.

She nodded, smiling briefly before stretching out and resting her head on his shoulder. She closed her eyes.

“Go to sleep for a little while,” she told him. “You’ll need your energy later.”

“Oh really?” he said, cocking his eyebrow.

She chuckled against him.

“Oh yeah,” she muttered, already half asleep.

He laughed and reached over to close her laptop before snuggling down into the bed with her. They’d wake up later and eat dinner and go back to bed. They wouldn’t get to spend another day like this for a while, he was pretty sure of that and he wanted to enjoy as much of it as possible.

As much of Pepper as possible.

But then, he was never going to leave her, so he supposed he would have his entire life to enjoy time with Pepper if she would have him.

He was pretty sure she would.