thevalueofstrength:

“Famous enough for me then,” he commented, breathing a sigh of relief that there would be no eggs in his drink. Some things should be cooked before eaten and the Captain just thought of eggs as one of those things. Pepper’s grin had Steve narrowing his eyes momentarily before reassessing who was teasing him. 

“Much better than what I thought you were going to say.” He trusted her and it was just juice. It wasn’t like it could kill him either. Any toxins in it wouldn’t effect him or effect him on a minimal level. Helpful for trying new foods, especially ones that he couldn’t identify. Needless to say, the grocery store was always an adventure for Steve. So many imports. 

Soy protein he could identify but not so much as how it worked into a shake. Soy beans would have to be crushed, surely, for it to work. Okay, so maybe that was a little odd but if Pepper drank it on a regular basis, then it couldn’t taste badly. 

Moving around to be more in the kitchen, the Captain began to prepare things for breakfast. He was getting out a pan when the words ‘19 hours’ hit his ears and he turned slowly. “Nineteen?” he double checked, rubbing at his forehead with his free hand. That was bordering on how long he would stay up before he even though about at least lying down. “Please tell me you’ve had more than a shake between now and then,” he pleaded, setting up his working space to make Pepper and himself breakfast. 

Momentarily taken aback, Pepper canted her head ever so slightly as she thought.

“I had lunch at the office — a salad — but I can’t remember anything since then…”

She thought a moment more, and when she didn’t come up with anything, she shrugged.

“Sometimes it’s like that. You just get so caught up in something and forget to eat.” She smiled serenely. “Or maybe that’s just me.”

Truthfully, it wasn’t because of Tony that she’d stuck with SI for all these years; she genuinely loved her job. And she knew they could have sought and hired a new CEO, or promoted from within the company, and that it would have saved them a lot of grief in the media. Professionally, it didn’t look good that she was sleeping with the boss.

But she knew the company would have taken a hit if she’d done that. Even the most experienced businessperson would have had a learning curve — but she knew the company from the inside out. More importantly, she knew Tony. Sometimes she didn’t think she knew him quite as well as she knew his company, but it counted for something.

So she didn’t mind the long hours, or the occasional budget headache or skipped meal. She loved what she did — and, on that matter, who she went home to — and she wasn’t likely to quit either.