Work Text:
The first time he sees his counter, at age eighteen like the rest of the world and fresh out of MIT, he’s a little alarmed. He knows, he knows, that it’s impossible to not have one, but he was hoping that it would be a little sooner and not the time allotment he has currently. Years, it’s telling him, years. And that’s the part that freaks him out the most. He doesn’t want to meet his soulmate, no, not in a million years. He doesn’t let Obadiah see his counter, either, even though he can’t because he’s not his soulmate and the man had his disappear a long time ago, and they both assumed that it would be done with shortly after he got it. He would have met his soulmate in a wild romp between the sheets and promptly forgotten her. Which was fine with him--it wasn’t unheard of for soulmates to meet and never actually recognize it. The timers were nice, but they were a bit flawed. All systems were.
So he covers it with bandages. He shouldn’t have to--only the other soulmate can see the timer (if that even happens), but he knows himself, and already, ten days after getting it, he’s spent way too much time watching the timer go down. So he wraps it in bandages to hide it from sight and makes sure to wear suits everywhere to hide the bandages. Unless he’s in the workshop, and then his arm is usually so covered with so much grease he can’t tell what color his skin is, let alone the timer steadily ticking down.
And so the years pass, and he slowly comes to grips with it. His parents die (he finds out that Captain America was his father’s soulmate, and that explains so, so much about why his father acted the way he did after Steve went down). He eventually gains control of the company, and the timer still goes down. Rhodey joins the armed forces, and he still lays in bed watching the numbers count down on his bad nights. Rhodey seems to think it’s completely normal for the timer to still be there.
And when he finally gets the 00 on the years, his guts twist, and he becomes even more twitchy to the point that Rhodey threatens to sit on him--does sit on him.
And then he gets the 00 on the months, and he spends the next week in his workshop and doesn’t come out until he passes out, and Rhodey has to come fish him out, put him to bed, and fix him a meal.
And then the 00 on the weeks runs out--and he’s banned from Stark Industries’ labs because he’s so anxious. Obadiah has him do simple accounting paperwork to keep him busy.
Finally, the 00 on the days runs out, and he’s so twitchy that Obadiah threatens to call in a doctor for some sedatives.
And when the hours run out to 00, he goes from vibrating with anxiousness to stock still.
The minutes hit 00, and he’s in the office and watching the timer go down, his head in his hand as he stares at his arm.
Seconds to go, and he looks up when he hears the door open. Obadiah is with him, working in the same office because he and Rhodey have been keeping a close eye on him in shifts, determined to figure out what was going wrong. His breath is stolen by the red-head walking in with the papers in her hand, the frown on her lips.
“Mr. Stark?”
He catches the glimpse of her timer on her arm just before the countdown hits zero, and he looks at her face to see her staring at him. He blinks owlishly at her.
“How did you get in here?” he hears Obadiah say, not recognizing her.
Pepper turns to look at Obadiah, looking anything but pleased and perhaps a little sassy. He can’t help the grin that splits his lips when she says, “I was told that Mister Stark was being even more insufferable than normal, and if I was going to tell him that he made an error, I had to do it myself.”
Tony blinks. “Error?”
“And here I thought you were a genius,” she huffs, and he notices that she looks at her arm as she walks over and plops the papers down in front of him, an entertained smirk pulling at her lips. Her timer flashes once and disappears, and Tony can see the faint blue through his sleeve to let him know the same happened to him. “Take a look at those numbers.”
He does so, a little astonished, and eventually notices that he added wrong.
“Here I thought that Anthony Stark was the genius that kept this company afloat. But I suppose even geniuses have their kryptonite. You’ve spent too much time doing complex whatever it is you do to remember that 45 plus 8 equals 53--not 57.”
Tony stares at where she points, then lets his eyes travel up her arm to stare at her face, and he can’t help the wick grin that splits his lips. He can’t help the utter relief that seems to spread through him as he realizes that this woman is his soulmate. Easy on the eyes and sassy--how much better could he get? And he can’t help the laughter that bubbles through his lips, filling the room with the sound and startling both the woman and Obadiah--though Obadiah is looking at him more as if he’s lost his mind.
And he laughs.
And he laughs.
And he laughs.
And he looks at her, tears welling in the corners of his eyes as he scratches his chin.
“Congratulations, you get a promotion starting tomorrow.”
Without missing a heartbeat: “I don’t even work here.”
“Well then, you’re working here starting tomorrow as my secretary since I don’t currently have one, and it’s still a promotion. I know that I offer better pay and benefits then wherever it was you were working.”
She looks offended, placing her hands on her hips. “Mm-hm. What if I don’t want to work here?”
“That’s ridiculous. Of course you do. How else would you stay near your soulmate?”
He uses the word so casually it surprises him, surprises her, surprises Obadiah, but the quirk of her lips tells him that she’s still fighting.
“Well, maybe I’ve decided I’d really rather not be around my soulmate. I’ve heard horror stories about him, you know.”
He tisks. “They’re absolutely false, whatever they say.”
“Not from what I’ve seen so far.”
“Oh, that hurts--”
“Pepper Potts, Mr. Stark.”
“Fine, Flowerpot. You still wounded my precious ego.”
“I don’t buy that for a minute. Something that fat couldn’t have felt it!”
“Touché,” Tony says with a nonchalant shrug, grinning devilishly at her as he places a hand on the paperwork she brought. “I’ll have it for you to send out when you come back tomorrow.”
She hums, almost absentmindedly if he couldn’t see the gears in her mind working, gathering herself as she walks to the door. “There might be another lackey here then.”
“I prefer to call you ‘minions.’”
“That could be considered harassment.”
“Only for you, belle.”
She leaves with a shake of her head, and Obadiah, for once, looks totally and completely confused with no sign of any smugness at all.
Nevertheless, when he sees her walk into the office the next day with a cup of coffee in each hand, one for her and one for him, he decides right then and there that it will be start of a glorious partnership. He drops the tools in his hands to the chagrin of the workers in the labs and workshop, grabs her by the arms, and kisses her right there, despite her surprise and the fact that her lips taste like--
Well, never mind, he thinks as he pulls back, grinning as he swipes the offered coffee cup and takes a sip. She takes her coffee the same way he takes his. He steals another kiss. Yes, this will be the start of a long and glorious bond.