Headcanon - Heights/Falling
Ever since falling to her almost death in Iron Man 3, Pepper has developed a slight fear of heights and more so? A fear of falling. Or rather, the feel of it. Many of her nightmares after those events were falling from something. Another building, a plane, etc, and you know those moments where you’re asleep, lightly dreaming and you fall off of something, and the feeling jolts you awake? Pepper has a lot of those and it freaks her out. She wakes up in a panic, sweating, and that only makes it worse because she feels hot - feverish - just how the Extremis made her feel.
As time goes on, it starts happening less, but it doesn’t change how much it freaks her out when it does happen and as for heights, well, that’s a bit complicated. Being a business woman, Pepper does a lot of traveling, so naturally, she goes by plane more than car and there are moments where she grips the side of the chair during take off, turbulence or landing because she remembers how it felt to suddenly just drop. The sky above growing further and further and the ground below growing closer. It’s the feeling the scares her more than anything and even though she survived that fall, it doesn’t change how much it terrified her.
She didn’t know she was going to survive. At first she felt saved because Tony was there, ready to catch her, but the structure she was trapped on gave out, creating more distance between the two of them thus preventing her from grabbing hold and the only thing she expected after that was death. The sight of him grew smaller as Pepper descended, eventually engulfed in flames and blacking out for a few minutes before coming to, realizing that she had miraculously survived, no doubt due to the Extremis.
But it was probably one of the most terrifying moments of her life - the closest to death she’s ever been and it left her scarred.
Now when Tony starts training her with her suit, it takes a little bit for Pepper to get off the ground. Starting with staying close to it, starting small and light and gradually getting higher and staying close to Tony simply because of the fear that she’ll suddenly drop. She tends to hold onto him at first but with his help, words of reassurance and comfort, Pepper really starts taking flight and the feel of flying, of being able to control herself in the air, becomes exhilarating. It helps heal her - Tony does - and she flies more and more. Both to practice and just for the fun of it.
