[ He stops when she turns back around to look at him, one because he was following her, and two, because if he kept going at that point he'd just run into her. It was very logical. Normally, he feels like he can tell roughly what she's going to do, but every now and then, when things matter or just because she feels like it, he supposes, she identifies herself as the singularly independent variable that she is and does the unexpected. It might be small - right now would be classified as small, when she places her hand on his chest and he doesn't take it as a threat that someone else is that close to the reactor, because from Pepper it's a comfort, that someone else accepts it and by proxy himself, and everything that that happens to mean. It might be large, and he appreciates those times as well, even if occasionally in the moments they're happening, they make him angry. She is a beautiful independence, and he's quite happy at this point to dependently vary right along with her.
So he lets her hand stay where it is, move up to his face when she feels like it, and, okay when she starts to clean him off, he sort of makes a face, but he still lets her do it. (It feels like that's what she's doing, anyway. It wouldn't be the first time he'd felt the sensation.) It's fine, again, because it's Pepper, and Pepper is allowed to do these things because it's different when she does.
He's just not entirely sure what to do with the rest of it. The 'welcome home', because she's here too, and so it's welcome to them both, even if it's weird to welcome yourself somewhere. He's pretty sure that breaks some sort of etiquette. That, and, he's just not sure what to do with it. So, he doesn't think about it - just goes on instinct, reaching out to take her other hand - totally forgetting he has a little oil still on his own, because he doesn't think about that, like, ever - and looking back at her. ] Good to be back. Right? We like it here.
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So he lets her hand stay where it is, move up to his face when she feels like it, and, okay when she starts to clean him off, he sort of makes a face, but he still lets her do it. (It feels like that's what she's doing, anyway. It wouldn't be the first time he'd felt the sensation.) It's fine, again, because it's Pepper, and Pepper is allowed to do these things because it's different when she does.
He's just not entirely sure what to do with the rest of it. The 'welcome home', because she's here too, and so it's welcome to them both, even if it's weird to welcome yourself somewhere. He's pretty sure that breaks some sort of etiquette. That, and, he's just not sure what to do with it. So, he doesn't think about it - just goes on instinct, reaching out to take her other hand - totally forgetting he has a little oil still on his own, because he doesn't think about that, like, ever - and looking back at her. ] Good to be back. Right? We like it here.