Pepper looked at him, his somewhat hoarse voice echoed around the room:
"One day in the future, after experiencing many disasters, Stark Group went bankrupt."
"When I woke up from a chaotic dream, I found myself penniless."
"I was left homeless on the streets, starving and desperate, barely surviving on food from the soup kitchen."
"I felt exhausted and humiliated. I had to shuffle around like a beggar, slowly making my way through the streets, trying to find a sturdy cardboard box or an unextinguished barrel for warmth."
Pepper looked at Stark, noticing the flicker of fear in his eyes. She gently stroked his face, saying, "I can't imagine if this really happened."
Suddenly, she seemed to realise something and said, "But this can't happen. You have so many friends, how could they let you end up in this state?"
"What if they all died?"
Pepper shook her head, saying, "Regardless of the reason, if they all died, you wouldn't be alive. You would always want to protect them."
"No matter how terrible the disaster, you would always be the one to take the lead."
Pepper caressed Stark's face and looked into his eyes, "Sometimes I wish you wouldn't, but if you decided to play it safe, you wouldn't be Stark."
Stark turned his head and gave a helpless smile, saying, "You really don't make it easy for me to continue this story."
"Then don't go on. It's just a dream. There's no need to fret about it."
"A dream?" Stark murmured, "Perhaps."
"But there's an important ending to this story. Are you sure you don't want to hear it?" asked Stark expectantly. Pepper, who seemed unable to refuse, asked, "What ending?"
Stark opened his mouth, seemingly returning to a speechless state. After a long pause, he said, "To be blunt, when I thought I was dying, the first person I thought of was you."
Perhaps feeling that he was too abrupt, Stark explained, "I dreamed that I was going to die and before dying, I was wondering, where had you gone? Then I woke up and realised it was just a dream."
"Do you know how I knew it was a dream?"
Stark reached out one hand, paused in mid-air, then covered the hand Pepper had on his cheek, saying, "Because you would never leave me, right?"
Pepper stared directly at him, then suddenly laughed, saying, "You went all the way around just to say that?"
"I admit that's a bit shameless of me, asking you for such assurance without giving any in return, but you've known me for a long time now..." Stark himself began to laugh, "I'm just shameless."
"Then you would only have yourself to blame if you go bankrupt. If you can't continue paying me such a high salary, I would definitely walk away."
Stark pulled on Pepper's arm, stepped closer, and said, "Once, a person who claimed to be able to read minds suggested that he could tell me the answer at the right time."
"What answer?"
"... Do you truly love me?"
Just as Pepper was about to say that there was no such thing as mind-reading in the world, it suddenly hit her, and she looked at Stark in disbelief.
Those brown eyes were as deep as rich honey, and Pepper felt like a bewildered bee, slightly dizzy.
Outside the glass-curtained wall of the Stark Building, a grey mist hovered at the corner of the building. Spider-Man, attached to the eave by a spider web, hung upside down, watching the scene in the room. Turning towards the mist, Spider-Man said, "I don't know what you are, but it's not right to spy."
The grey mist suddenly formed an arrow, pointing towards Stark and Pepper. Spider-Man turned back to see the two of them embracing each other, their silhouettes flickering behind the twinkling glass curtain wall.
Ending the kiss, Stark let go of Pepper. Before he could say anything else, something caught his eye. A grey mist slowly formed a symbol -- a ticking sign.
Recalling the scene from last night, Stark, lying in bed, couldn't help but laugh.
Pepper was changing her clothes, and she looked back, annoyed, saying, "Are you happy to see me running late? What are you laughing at?"
"Nothing." Stark struggled to sit upright on the bed, running his hand through his unruly hair, saying, "I'm your boss. I can give you a day off, we..."
"Stop talking nonsense. If I took a day off, what would happen to all the paperwork, the meetings, the company?"
"It's okay, I can cover for you for a day, I can handle these things."
"Sure, then I can truly take a day off," Pepper said indifferently, "and then spend double the time over the next three months fixing the mess you made in one day."
Stark quickly changed his clothes. Pepper had never seen him move so swiftly before. Stark put on his coat and sunglasses, and out the door he went. On his way out, he said, "Then I must prove to you that there's nothing in the world Stark can't handle."
An hour later, The Sanctum received an unexpected call. Strange took the phone from the receptionist with one hand while the other was on his hip, begrudgingly saying, "This line is for cosmic issues, can't you call my personal phone for unrelated matters?"
"I need some help, man, damn, I think I messed up something. This contract seems to be from last year, but I've already signed it all..."
Strange heard the sound of Stark somewhat losing it, "Since you guys can provide services for all sorts of riff-raff, solving this shouldn't be too difficult. Hurry up and come over, or Pepper will kill me!"
"We are The Sanctum, we mainly deal with cosmic sorcerer related issues..."
"I AM A COSMIC SORCERER!!! Hurry up!!!"
"For issues regarding the Stark Group, you should seek a professional advisory team, we're all bunch of frauds... I mean, finance professionals."
"Exactly! I'm looking for finance professionals!"
"Then why don't you go to Wall Street?"
"Aren't you guys on Wall Street?!!!" Stark yelled.
Half an hour later, Strange and a dispirited Stark appeared outside the Arkham Sanatorium. Shiller, standing at the entrance, said, "Pay the fees before you get admitted."
"Also, pay for the answer from yesterday."
"But you told me that yourself." Stark glared at Shiller.
Shiller smiled and said, "What gave you the impression that I wouldn't take advantage of a situation?"
"You quack!"
"Let me repeat myself..."