She seemed shocked at my words and then seemed to relax as her shoulder slumped ever so slightly, and I felt her back soften a little, losing some of its tension. We danced out the rest of the song, and when it finished to move onto the next one, I noticed her cheeks had taken on a rosy hue since, and she had that look of staring off at nothing again, probably trapped in her own thoughts. “What kind of air...?” I asked, and she responded immediately with, "Yes, I want some air.” She quickly rushed to the balcony, and when I reached it, I saw pepper leaning on the railing, looking out at the LA cityscape. I couldn’t help but take in the sight of her. Framed by the stunning backdrop, she looked exactly like one of the namesakes the city had taken.

I was broken from my revelry when a server handed me two martini’s. I then stepped forward and handed her one. "Thanks, that's exactly what I needed." Pepper said as she took a sip and then placed it on the wall of the balcony. As she turned her gaze back out to the city, I asked in a concerned tone, "What's wrong, the dance?"

"No, tony. It’s not just the dance. It's this dress. The people outside. People are already gossiping, and this is making it even worse." She responded while keeping her gaze outward. I just chuckled slightly, causing her to look at me. "Then let’s just dance out here," I said as I took her hand again.

She took a sip and then placed her drink down and followed me to the middle of the balcony, where we began to dance to the faint music from inside. After a few seconds, she placed her head on my shoulder and drew closer to me. I felt her entire body shaking slightly, though I could only guess the reason. As we swayed slightly from side to side, just revelling in the feeling, I softly began to talk. "Pepper, I’ve taken some time and thought about what I actually wanted in life for myself and those I care about. So…”

“I want you to take over as CEO.” I said I was just deciding to be completely honest with her, and after a few seconds, she pulled away and looked at me with a puzzled expression and asked, “Sorry?

“I’m a little underqualified, don’t you think?” she said, still trying to process what I had said to her. I just continued, “You are the most amazing and strongest business manager I know. You practically already manage the company anyway, in all but name. And let’s face it, you deserve more credit than just the one who takes out my trash every day.”

“Tony, what’s brought this on?” she said, staring into my eyes with a mix of concern and fear.

I sighed and looked back out at the city before saying, “Pepper.” I said, but then paused as I decided to look her in the eyes and turned back to face her.

"Have you ever heard of the story of the monster in the jungle? It’s about a man who is hunted by a monster that could kill him at any moment, and he knows that when he decides he is dead, he will die. Now that the man runs away into the jungle that surrounds his village, trying to vainly escape the monsters grasp, he becomes so focused on escaping by hiding alone in the jungle that when the monster finally comes, he is all alone...and he only wishes that he could have stayed with the people he loved, instead of dying alone, unloved as an old man." I took a few seconds to choose my words wisely.

"Everyone needs human connection. It's like company in that jungle; it grounds us, and as we laugh, play, and argue, it makes us realise that we and the things around us are real. I can't remember who said this, but life is something like music; whatever song is playing will make us feel either all alone or full of hope. But they said, like a song, let it play. Because it won't always be. But that'll be then. For now, let yourself dance.

...Pepper, I'm still confused about how I feel about most things, but I know this. You are the one who keeps me grounded; you are the one person I can never go without. Ever since I’ve come back, I know things. Things that I shouldn't, I don't know if what happened to me is just my mind having broken or if it's real, but I know this. I want to dance with you, Pepper. I don't want to regret it whenever that monster finds us. It doesn't matter what other people think; I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with only you." After I finished, she lent back in and put her head back on my shoulder. A few seconds later, I felt a tear peel from her face and onto my neck as we just slowly continued to dance for several songs.

She then raised her head from my shoulder and said, "Okay. Let's give this a try." in a partly scared, partly relieved voice. She then placed both of her hands on the back of my head and pressed her lips against mine. Her breath smelled of a mix of spearmint and martini as our embrace continued, her delicate hands gripping my head, her subtly smooth lips on mine, the smooth peach skin on her back, the feeling of our bodies pressed together. Every one of my senses was enhanced as I revelled in the mix of sensory information and turbulent emotions being exchanged between us.

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That night was one of the best of both my lives. It wasn't just the immense pleasure, but also the feeling of lowering all those guards that you put up unconsciously, feeling confident enough to trust someone and be alone with them in your most vulnerable state. The bond of trust that forms is knowing and feeling that both you and they have and want to be in no other place in the world than right here with each other, right now. Riding on the emotions we both had bottled up for a long time and pouring them onto each other as we embraced the blazing lust and budding love. We engaged in a tug of war over control, each relinquishing control for a time before taking control over the other, enjoying the subconscious sport immensely.

The next morning, I woke up and looked to my left to see Pepper lying on her front with nothing on. I just gently pulled the duvet over her and got up. After taking a shower, I went to cook breakfast. Flour, milk, salt, eggs, sugar, and vanilla were added to a bowl and mixed, then the batter was added to a pan with practiced ease as I made one of my parents’ favourite breakfasts. Crepes.

Pepper's had cream and berries while excluding the strawberries, while mine simply had the proper German way my grandma had shown me: lemon and sugar. As I walked into the bedroom with that freshly squeezed orange juice, I saw Pepper had gotten out of the shower. As I walked in at the same time, she had just started drying herself. "Tony!" I just turned around and headed out of the room while saying, "Breakfast is in the kitchen." I shook my head as her figure, coated in beads of water, seemed to be imprinted on my mind.

I sat at the bar in the kitchen and took a sip of my tea as Pepper walked into the room and said, "Since when do you drink tea?"

"As I said, we have things to talk about." I responded as she sat down, and in return, she said, "I thought you'd left." After a few seconds, sensing the fact she was feeling vulnerable right now, I said, "I will never do that to you, Pepper; I refuse to just ignore and abandon someone whenever my feelings get complicated." as I took her hand and grasped it firmly while looking her in the eyes with a smile. She then looked down at her food and said, "You can cook?" to which I just shrugged.

"Mm, that's delicious." She let out a moan after taking a bite, at which my smile just grew, since this was a much more innocent moan than the ones that had echoed around the house last night as I took a bite of mine.

“You said there was something you wanted to tell me?” She asked before taking another bite.

We had a lot to work through, and I planned on being completely honest about everything in time; I just had to ease her into it, though the thought of what I had to do and how it would make her worry ate at me slightly. So I said, “I’ll tell you tonight.”

After breakfast, Pepper got up and placed a long kiss on my lips, and as we parted, she said, "I’ll see you at the board meeting, okay?" before heading to get work done.

I headed to a room in my house that I had turned into a gym and began my workout routine. While I hadn’t been as unfit as Tony, the months in the cave followed by weeks in the hospital had taken their toll on my body, and even at its peak, it was nothing compared to when I was at my prime in the SAS before I got severely injured for the first time.

Right now, my exercises consist of light cardio, weights, and the beginning of ballet stretches. I had laughed when I found out that the SAS all secretly did ballet, but when I saw one of them take on like five black belts in Jiu-Jitsu, Simply by being flexible enough that none of the tap-out positions did anything, I was all for it.

My body was incredibly stiff, though, so I took it lightly. I ain’t getting a hamstring replacement again. My body was also pretty messed up nutritionally as well. The starvation combined with the short time with the palladium in my chest had basically tanked my immune system, and it was only due to my current introverted lifestyle that would make Hōtarō Oreki proud that I hadn’t caught the early winter cold.

After doing all my exercises, I decided to do my cardio by jogging on the beach. I mean, I own a Malibu villa. Why in the world has this never occurred to me before? While Malibu Beach was private land, I owned about half a mile of the land along the beach and about a mile in as well.

My father had purchased Point Dume with intentions to develop it in the 80s but never got around to it. I guess in this world, it was never a nature preserve. Due to that, there were only a few dozen people on the beach, with the majority at this time of day being surfers.

The smell of the air and the feeling of bare sand on my feet really made this moment feel spectacular. After about half an hour, I was almost done and headed back up to the villa. I immediately got into the jacuzzi and relaxed for a bit before getting out and taking a shower before the board meeting.