In the early morning, as the first glimmer of sunlight seeped in through the curtain gap in New York, Stark stirred, covering his eyes with his arm as though rejecting the light. Pepper, somewhat groggy, opened her eyes and casually glanced at the clock on the wall before jolting awake.
"It's already 9 o'clock, damn it! I have a meeting to attend!"
Pepper sat up in bed, clutching her hair. Her movement woke Stark up, but he just turned over, still looking bewildered, softly saying as he held her by the waist, "Don't rush...darling, we can...'erm...sleep a bit more."
Pepper threw his arm off of her and sat on the edge of the bed, gathering her hair with one hand and turning to Stark, "You lazy bag of mud! I'm not one of those models who fools around with you on yachts. More than half of the orders signed at the exhibition haven't been finalized..."
As Pepper sat on the edge of the bed clutching her forehead, Stark finally woke up a tad. He lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, blinking. Then he mumbled, "...What meeting?...What orders?"
Pepper threw him a glance, "How could I have fallen for your nonsense last night? My God..."
"Don't be like that," Stark still sounded groggy; he rolled over, attempting to hold Pepper by the waist once more.
"I remember how touched you were last night—we had our first conversation like that—it was so wonderful..."
Seeing Stark's quivering eyelashes, Pepper sighed, turned back, and glanced at the sunlight coming through the window. The fatigue that had been rudely interrupted was not yet fully dispersed; in her hazy field of vision, the light of the morning sun and the sunset was scarcely distinguishable. The conversation from the previous night echoed in her mind.
After the negotiations had ended, Stark's emotions were complex. The military had capitulated, Hammer Industries had paid the price, and Ivan's vengeance had utterly failed. Ideally, he should have been thrilled, but that was not the case.
He constantly felt a void in his chest, an indescribable sense of loss enveloping him. It was only when he saw Pepper that he understood where these emotions surfaced from.
Stark was not one to habitually express his longing. However, he had to admit that he was missing her when that sense of loss disappeared upon seeing Pepper.
When Pepper entered the room, she saw Stark standing by the floor-to-ceiling window. It was late at night, and the stars in New York were not as bright as she had imagined. After the sunset, the haze obscured the moonlight and starlight, making the entire night sky look like a falling curtain.
There was a faint light in the room, not enough to clearly illuminate everything. Stark stood in front of the dimly-lit glass, turning his head to look at Pepper.
Pepper thought it was miraculous that Stark's eyes were always somewhat moist—like they were holding a faint light—even in the absence of any light source. She could clearly read his emotions.
She was unsure whether he had emotions called longing that illuminated his eyes or if the sun in his eye sockets was shining, but whenever Pepper was under his gaze, it was always difficult to refuse.
Pepper reached his side and looked into his eyes. Usually, at times like these, Stark felt as if he was a babbling child, with a belly full of words that he could not utter.
But today, his language system seemed to have just come online, as he said to Pepper, "Do you know when I was the happiest today?"
Pepper was accustomed to dealing with Stark's whimsical questions. She knew that most of the time, Stark didn't need an answer. He just needed a listener. So, she briefly thought and replied, "I think it should be when you activated the defense facilities and saw Hammer's shocked expression."
"I didn't agree to the building's transformation because it was somewhat risky, but it seems the decision was right. If we can't show enough power, the trouble would be endless."
"I don't want to discuss this."
Pepper looked up at Stark, always feeling his expression to be very focused. Stark said, "My happiest moment was seeing Peter and his girlfriend touring the exhibition."
"They were carrying their backpacks, showing a surprised expression in front of every device, attentively listening to the narrator and whispering to avoid the crowd..."
"I saw them too. It's great to be young, right?" said Pepper with a smile.
"I was happy because..." Stark looked at Pepper and said, "I was thinking how great it would be if we could do the same."
"I go to a predetermined place to wait for you, and then we go on to the exhibition hall together, expressing surprise and joy at every novelty we see..."
Pepper shook her head and sighed, "I fear you would be very disappointed then. Gwen, the girl who was there, was very interested in that machinery. She even knew more about it than Peter. "
"But I don't understand these things at all, and I am not really interested in them. If you want to find someone who can accompany you to tour an industrial exhibition for a whole day and be excited from beginning to end, that definitely would not be me."
"Do you know?" Stark suddenly changed the topic, "A few days ago, I had a dream, a very realistic dream. You can listen to it as if it were a story that really happened..."