Archive of Our Own

Pepper Potts, on a good day, could be very safely categorized as overworked and under-appreciated; but on this particular day, this heinous day, the CEO felt her workload surpassed being vaguely annoying and evolved into something downright criminal.

She started her day off in the comfort of her own home with a phone call to some very important Japanese investors. Pepper was sure it was a very pleasant 3:41 PM call for said investors, but for her, it was 2:41 AM considering the time difference. Then, after the phone call stretched into lengthy negotiation, Pepper decided to forgo sleeping entirely and down a cup of coffee instead when she finally put down the phone at exactly 6:23 AM. Next, was a press conference to smooth over Tony's latest scandal, where Pepper then had to bite her tongue for hours as she spoke about Steve Rogers and his band of Rouges. It was a massive feat of self-restraint considering all still-healing bruises on she saw on Tony's body daily, but the CEO made it through the conference as un-biased as she possibly could. After that, Pepper moved onto a shareholders meeting in a stuffy room, with stuffy old men, and felt all of their competing testosterone physically poisoning her air. It was, needless to say, the longest 4 hours of her life.

Finally, at exactly 8:44 PM, Pepper was making her way down to Tony's lab with a half-eaten granola bar in hand. She arrives at the correct floor, and hears FRIDAY unlocking the lab's door for her. She walks in, all resolute purpose and bone-deep exhaustion.

"Tony? Whatever you're doing can it please wait until tomorrow because I've had the lon-"

She stops dead in her tracks at the sight of a rather lengthy looking teenage boy sitting on the lab's couch. He's staring back at her, eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights, before a nervous smile stretches across his face.

"U-um hi, Ms. Potts. At least that's who I'm pretty sure you are? Mr. Stark talks about you a lot." The boy brings a hand up to rub anxiously at the back of his neck. "A-anyways. Um, I'm Peter. Peter Parker."

"Peter Parker." She tests the name out, staring analytically at the young boy. Upon her deeper study of the teenager, Pepper only becomes even more confused. When Peter drops his gaze from her's, she scans the lab again. "Where's Tony, Peter?"

"Oh. He uh, stepped out for a moment. He had this tiny flip-phone and it just kept going off and I kept telling him to take it but he wouldn't but then it went off again when we were trying to fix the repulso-"

"The repulsors?" Pepper interrupts his rambling. "Tony let you touch the repulsors?"

"Yeah!" Peter's expression morphs into an earnest grin and he begins practically vibrating in his seat. "I don't know if you've ever seen them Miss Potts -well you probably have because you live here and Mr. Stark lives here and that's like a thing or whatever but anyway I saw them for the first time today and they're amazi-"

The balcony door across the room swings open suddenly, and Tony is still grimacing at the flip-phone as he enters the room.

"Underoos? Who the hell are you babbling to now, kid?"

A beat of silence as Peter glances over at Pepper and then slides his eyes over to Tony who is still pre-occupied with the phone. "Miss Potts." Peter says.

Tony finally breaks out of the hold the flip-phone has on him, and lifts his head up. He sees Pepper standing near the entrance of the lab, noticeably tensing up when he sees the tense look on her face.

"Tony. Can I speak to you outside for a moment?" Pepper bites out before quickly turning back on her heels and heading towards the lab's door.

She doesn't wait to see Tony agree to her request, but Pepper knows he'll show up if he wants to live. She hears the lab door open and close again, and tries to regain her composure in the second of time it gives her.

"Tony." Pepper starts, turning around to face the quickly paling engineer. "Who is that child? What's he doing in your lab? I've never seen him before, and, what then he tells me you let him play with your repulsors? Tony! Those are dangerous! He looks like he's 13!"

"15. Peter's 15."

"That doesn't make it any better! God, that's almost worse." Pepper's gesturing wildly now, her previous exhaustion smoldering over into her current state of fury. "Who's child is that? Where did you get him? You can't just bring any child you want into your la-"

"He's Spider-Man."

"Excuse me?"

"Pep, Spider-Man? The one I took to Germany?" Tony throws out a placating hand, sighing as Pepper predictably bats it away. "Peter is Spider-Man."

Pepper glances back at the nervous teenager. Peter is sitting on the couch, bouncing his leg up and down, and fiddling with his fingers in a poor attempt to soothe his own building anxiety. Pepper can feel his nervous energy seeping through the glass door.

"Now you're just insulting me."

"I'm not, I'm not, I promise." Tony runs a hand down his face, blinking tiredly. "Listen, I'll tell you everything when I get back but Happy is waiting outside to take him home and I have to walk him out or he'll get distracted and lost."

It's the frantic look on Tony's face and the way he keeps switching between looking at her and flicking his head back towards Peter that get's Pepper to relent. "Fine. But afterwards you are to come upstairs and stay there for the night. No lab, no tinkering, and no coffee. Do you understand me?"

"Loud and clear Pep," Tony is already swinging the lab door open, turning his head back to address her again. "See ya in a few."

Pepper watches as he closes the door behind him, all but sprinting back over to where Peter is currently stationed. She can see the boy smile as Tony addresses him, and watches in disbelief as Peter's face practically lights up when Tony throws an arm across his shoulders. It's a motion so practiced that it takes her by surprise, and it steals her breath even more as they approach the door. Pepper backs away from the door, stepping aside as they pass. They're half-way to the elevator when Peter pipes up.

"Mr. Stark," The boy is obviously trying to whisper, but his attempt at secrecy is pathetic. "She is so scary, she walked in and I thought I was going to die."

"She'll be even scarier when you realize she can totally hear you." Tony squeezes his shoulder, laughing at the look on Peter's face. "We really need to work on your whispering, Pete."

The elevator dings and Tony drags Peter into it. The boy's eyes flick over towards Pepper, and because she can't resist, the woman lifts her hand up in a little wave. Peter's panicked face nearly ellicits a snort from her as the elevator door slides closed.

Pepper has gathered almost zero answers to who this mysterious child could be, and Tony will certainly be getting chewed out for it. But the woman also took stock of the gentle look on Tony's face around Peter and the way he walked with the old Tony-Stark-Confidence that had been all but absent since his return from Siberia.

So yes, while she's very angry at Tony's irresponsibility and general disregard for the actual danger his repulsors possess, her fury doesn't render her altogether blind. Pepper Potts knows a good thing when she sees one, and Peter Parker, it seems, is a miracle.

——
It had been a long conversation, filled with lots of screaming on her end, lots of whining on Tony's, and many, many Spider-Man youtube videos. It had taken her a long while to grasp that Peter actually was the hero Tony said he was, and once she accepted that, it only led to another bout of yelling at Tony for placing a child in danger. The conversation had seemed significant at the time, and Pepper could definitely still remember the shock she felt at the pride plainly displayed on Tony's face while he talked about Peter; but it's now a month later, and Pepper has seen and heard absolutely nothing from Peter.

Tony and Pepper are sitting at breakfast, eating together in the spaces between her badgering him for signatures. She looks up from her breakfast at the sound of Tony's ringing phone, watching as he pushes his barely-touched breakfast back and stands up from the table to take the call.

"Woah. Happy, Happy, you know I love you. You're my forehead of security! He isn't a punishment, I promise!"

Tony's pacing gathers her attention even more, and Pepper smiles slightly at the sound of Happy's screaming through the phone's tinny speakers.

"I don't care if he sends 15 or even 20 voicemails, just keep listening to them. This is what I pay you for, Happy!" Tony sputters for a moment, pulling the phone away from his ear with a wince. "No, no- Absolutely not. I can't waste my time listening to all of the- Yes, yes, I'm sure they're very long and I am so interested in hearing about your endless suffering but I really am in the middle of a peaceful breakfast right now and your screaming is making my stomach turn."

Que more yelling from the phone, and Tony picking up the speed of his pacing.

"Ok, ok- yes, I'll give you a day off for every 5 voicemails you listen to, just tell me if there's anything important I should know about in the- Ok, ok, the call's cutting out, I can't hear you anymore! Bye Happy!"

Tony hits the end-call button to a symphony of Happy's strangled screaming. It's a typical Tuesday it seems; or it would be, if Tony wasn't walking back to the breakfast table with a stupid grin on his face.

"What'd you do to Happy now?" She quirks an eyebrow over the rim of her tipped-back coffee cup.

"Why do you always assume I did something?"

"Because there's never been a day where you're not doing something either incredibly stupid or incredibly frustrating. One might say it's part of your," A slight pause as she gathers her words. "Unique charm."

"That's slander and I won't tolerate it in my own home."

"Stop deflecting, Tony. What'd you do to Happy?"

It's silent for a moment as they both stare at each other, daring the other to back down. Pepper leans forward on her elbows, leveling Tony with her signature look. Needless to say, the man relents.

"God, you always do that." He groans, gaze suddenly fixating at his uneaten breakfast. "Fine. I'm making Happy listen to all of Pete's voicemails."

"Peter?"

"Yeah." He picks at the toast on his plate and tries to hide how his lips are pulling into a smile. "After Germany, I gave the kid Happy's number incase he got into any pint-sized emergencies; and I figured he'd probably never use it. Well, turns out Spider-boy is using it. Happy's now getting very vivid updates about how heroic the Savior of Queens is."

Pepper can see the glee plainly on his face despite how hard he keeps trying to hide behind his coffee cup.

"And why is that Happy's job?"

"Because I love the idea of Happy being Spider-Baby's handler."

"Ok," Pepper takes a breath, trying desperately to not let her building agitation ruin her breakfast. "Well, jokes aside, don't you think that maybe you should be the one listening to those voicemails? Or even, god forbid, taking his calls when he makes them?"

"No." Tony's petulance bleeds through his voice and onto his face. Pepper could scream.

"Tony. What if he's calling about something important? What if his suit is malfunc-"

"That suit is not malfunctioning. I designed it Pep, and frankly I'm offended that you even entertain the idea that I have faults."

"First, calm down; don't stress yourself out stroking your own ego." Pepper says dryly, pushing her plate back. She crosses her legs as she readjusts herself in her chair. "Second, be serious for once. Don't you think that should be your job? I thought you liked Peter?"

"I tolerate bug-boy."

"Tony. You've called him like 5 separate nicknames in just the span of this conversation; and considering your stunted emotional growth and your generally immature sense of humor, I'd say you've practically adopted him."

Tony, ever the fool he is when it comes to Pepper, only looks at her like a deer caught in headlights. It looks so much like Peter the night she first met him that it nearly sends Pepper into a fit of laughter.

"How is Peter anyway?" She asks, basking in the attacked look on her boyfriend's face. "Talked to him at all lately?"

"No." Tony takes a second to recover, grumbling as he takes a sip from his coffee cup. "I figured I'd be better suited for more of a distant mentor role."

Pepper rolls her eyes. "C'mon Tony. I met him once, and I could taste the idolization rolling off of him. Don't do this to him." She takes a breath. "Or yourself for that matter."

"I have no idea what your talking about."

"Sure you don't."

It's later that evening when Pepper makes her way down to Tony's lab. She cracks open the door, peeks in and sees Tony tinkering with some gauntlet-like piece of tech. Pepper doesn't hear the AC/DC she expected, and instead is greeted with the sound of Peter Parker's voice reverberating through the lab before cutting out quickly.

"FRI?" Tony says distractedly, barely looking up from the project in his hands.

"Yes, boss?"

"Next voicemail, please."

Tony has his back to Pepper so she can't see the smile on his face as Peter's voice begins filling the lab again; but, she can see the relaxation in his shoulders so she can imagine it just the same.

Pepper closes the door softly behind her, leaving Tony to his work.

——

The press conference was a rousing success; well, as successful as an unplanned engagement announcement could ever conceivably be.

Pepper looks down at the ring adorning her finger. It's glossy and sleek; caught in that perfect middle between disgustingly gaudy and unbelievably gorgeous."I know I just told everyone that I'd be marrying you, but I really feel like I could kill you right now."

"In my defense, not even my genius intellect could've predicted that Pete was going to say no." Tony says, sinking lower into the desk chair he's sat in. He's exhausted in the same way Pepper is, and the silence of the now empty conference room isn't helping either of them stay coherent. "I really thought he'd be jumping at the bit to join; or at least be begging to start training with the big boys."

"Maybe your lecture scared him."

"God, don't remind me. Not my best moment." Tony drags a tired hand down the side of his face. "I felt like Howard. I was Howard."

She blinks, surprised at his earnest admission.

"You could never be Howard, Tony." Maybe it's just a side-effect of the fatigue settling into his bones but Pepper takes his confession seriously anyway. "But I do agree that maybe leaving him to his own devices was not your best idea. Peter is way too much like you to be without guidance."

"Was that an insult?"

"Is your ego really that fragile?"

"Touché, boss lady." Tony shifts in his chair, both of them breathing in the silence for a moment. "Pep?"

She hums.

"The kid told me he got stuck under a building."

"What?"

"When I asked him to do a little recap on his fight with the Vulture, he was rambling and I think I definitely misunderstood some of what he was saying, but Pete said he had a building fall on top of him. He was in his pajamas Pepper. I took away the suit."

"You couldn't have known."

"I should've known." Tony bites out, his voice hardened with palpable regret. "Pepper, in this line of work- I just, I thought I was protecting him. After the ferry- I couldn't keep enabling him. But it didn't matter. He just kept going, Pep. He's a child."

She sighs, spinning her own desk chair slightly to face him. The disgust on Tony's face floors the woman; she's can physically feel how much he hates himself in that moment. It breaks her heart.

"He's never going to stop. I can't makestop." Tony's helplessness seeps into his words and his expression. "So then I thought that maybe he could join and then I could baby-proof his missions; send him out on some really entry-level stuff and see where it goes. But now? Pep, he doesn't want it. I can't help him."

"You can help him." Pepper reaches across the table, placing a comforting hand on Tony's arm. "Just be there for him. You know better than anyone how much there's more to being a hero then just guns and glory. Don't let him do it alone."

"I can't be what he needs. Nothing I can do for him will be enough."

Pepper stands, crossing the room with forgiving grace and determined poise. She stops in front of Tony, lifting his head up with a gentle hand, and staring back into his haunted eyes.

"Tony." She rubs her thumb along Tony's jaw softly. "Peter's not Steve. You'll be okay. It'll be okay."

It's two weeks later when she gazes out the window of her office and sees Peter walking towards the tower's doors. Tony follows slightly behind him, nodding along to whatever the boy is babbling about. She watches as Peter turns around quickly, accosting his mentor with a wide, beaming smile that could rival the sun. Tony grins back, taking his sunglasses off and slipping them in his pocket as they near the building.

Pepper is sitting inside the office building, completely incased by plaster and glass and air-conditioning; but the look on Tony's face, bright and alive and happy makes it seem like she can feel the sun the two of them are standing under.
——
Pepper is a busy woman, and thus is almost never in her actual home. Such has been the case for the last 5 weeks, as a business trip to Japan had stolen her away for a ridiculously long amount of time. It is currently 6:34 PM and the woman is practically breaking down into tears of the relief as the elevator takes her up to her floor. The elevator doors slide back and reveal Peter sitting at the kitchen table; she blinks, surprise coating her features. Suddenly Pepper is recalling her brief phone call with Tony earlier, and realizes that they must be doing 'internship' stuff.

Or whatever other code-word Tony likes to use instead of just saying that he's repairing Peter's suit.

"Oh!" Peter's head flicks up at the sound of the elevator door sliding open. He hurries to yank an earbud out, and begins quickly trying to gather up the homework spread out across the kitchen table. "Miss Potts! I'm so sorry. I didn't know you'd be back right now. I can totally clean this stuff up if you want, this is your house, I'll just go down to the lab and do it ther-"

"No, it's okay; you can stay. Tony told me you'd be here." Pepper says gently. She raises a manicured hand, gesturing to all the pencils and notebooks covering the table. "You look like you're pretty busy."

Peter blushes, nodding quickly and shyly casting his eyes toward the graph paper he's holding in his hand. It's meek and polite and adorable and Pepper can't decide what she wants to do more: swaddle him in a blanket or spoil him with an obscene amount of cookies and ice cream.

"Oh, n-no. It's nothing important; just calculus." He pauses, seemingly distracted for a moment as he looks at the sine curve on his paper. "But seriously, I can totally go if I'm disturbing you because this is your home and Mr. Stark said it's okay but you didn't and I'd feel pretty bad if you didn't want me sitting here at your tab-"

"Relax, honey." She drops a gentle hand on his shoulder as she passes, dropping her briefcase on the countertop just past the table. "Take a breath. It's okay, I promise. You can stay."

"Are you sure?" Peter's voice is small, muffled by the big textbook he's hiding behind.

Big brown eyes ask for her approval over the edge of a too-big calculus textbook, eyelashes fluttering slightly as he breathes. Pepper is hit suddenly with the realization of how young Peter is, and finds herself with a strange urge to mother the child before she can even contain the thought. A small smile blooms on her face and Pepper supposes that maybe that's another one of Peter's superpowers.

"I'm sure, Peter." Pepper's previous exhaustion is still lingering, but it's been interrupted by the overwhelming hunger settling in her stomach. She plucks a take-out menu from the rack on the island, and slides her phone out of her pocket. "Have you eaten yet?"

Peter looks up from his homework, tapping a pencil lightly against his cheek as he looks at her. "No- but it's fine, really. I'm not hungr-"

"He is hungry. He's probably starving actually." Tony walks out of the restroom across the hallway, and crosses the living room into the kitchen. He ruffles Peter's hair as he passes, and the embarrassed muttering from the boy as he tries desperately to fix the mess Tony created makes Pepper feel like cooing. "Hey, Pep. Long time no see."

"I know." Pepper places a light kiss to Tony's cheek as he comes closer. "It's almost like you neglected all your responsibilities and made me CEO or something."

"Best decision I ever made." Tony steals the menu from Pepper's hands. "Italian? Pete, you good with italian?"

"Oh." A slight pause as he tilts his head in a way that reminds Pepper of a newborn puppy. "Am I allowed to stay?"

"Of course. It's Friday, isn't it?"

Pepper is hit with the realization that maybe Peter has been coming over more often then she originally thought. Tony talks like it's routine and Pepper selfishly hopes that maybe it really is. At least then she'll know Tony is taking care of himself, if only so he can better prepare for when Peter comes to the tower.

"Yeah. Um, whatever you want is fine, I'll just eat whatever's left over." Peter says quietly, looking between the both of them.

"Or," Tony shoves the menu into the boy's hands, taking a seat next to him at the table. "Maybe you could use that big boy brain of yours to read the menu and order what you actually want."

"Um ok." Peter drops his head, scanning the menu quickly. "You know what, Mr. Stark, it's fine. I'm really not that hungry, don't worry about it."

Tony doesn't respond, and instead sits back in his chair, staring Peter down with one quirked eyebrow. Peter -in typical bumbling fashion- holds eye contact for all of about 2 seconds before lowering his eyes and flushing a red more intense than Pepper ever thought was humanly possible. Rolling his eyes at the boy's blush, Tony leans forward at the same moment Peter begins whispering. The exchange seems so practiced and natural that the woman finds herself feeling displaced.

Pepper has never been one for being left out before; but now she welcomes the fond smile on her fiancé's face, even though she doesn't quite understand what put it there.

"That's what this is about? Pete, are you kidding me?"

"Mr. Stark." The boy groans, discarding the menu and throwing his arms on the table. He hides his face, peeking one eye over the edge of his forearm.

"Just pick a damn dish, kid. It's just fast food, no need to get your underoos all in a twist."

"Mr. Star-

"If you tell me one more time that you're not hungry I'm just gonna start ordering something for you; I promise it'll be really gross and I know you'll force yourself to eat the entire thing because of your idiotic guilt complex." Tony once again shoves the menu towards Peter. "So either way it looks to me like you're gonna be eating, so please, for the love of every god I don't believe in, just pick something you'll enjoy."

Peter looks entirely annoyed and also sort of like he's having the time of his life; it's an odd mixture caught somewhere between a smile and a grimace as he studies the menu. The boy looks so serious as he decides what to order that it nearly illicits a chuckle from Pepper.

The laughter she'd been holding back finally does escape her when Tony looks back at her, sticking both of his thumbs up and shooting her a goofy smile. He's lighter than she's seen in months, and Pepper knows that now is the time for smiling but she feels like maybe she could cry.

"I'll just get the chicken tenders." Peter points at something on the menu, leaning in towards Tony and very obviously breaching the man's personal space.

Pepper watches with strange fascination and slight bewilderment as Tony sits in his seat, slightly uncomfortable but still allowing Peter to move in even closer.

"The kid's menu? I know I make fun of you a lot, but you know you're not actually 8, right?"

"I-It's the cheapest thing." Peter shrugs, averting his eyes to the floor.

"Kid." Tony slings an arm around Peter's shoulder, dramatically pulling him to his feet. The man thrusts his arm out towards the luxury that surrounds them with surprising confidence. "Look at where I live. I'm Tony Stark. I can afford one meal for a Spider-baby."

"Mr. Stark," Peter whines, and Pepper practically melts at how adorable one child could be. "We talked about this; I'm Spider-Man."

"Not if you try to order off the kid's menu you're not." Tony pats Peter's shoulder with the arm still around him. "Now, I'm gonna ask you one more time, -and please put on your obedient good-boy shoes before you answer- would you just fucking pick something to eat?"

"Fine. Um, I'll get the chicken alfredo I guess." Peter finally relents, shuffling out from under Tony's arm and sitting back in his chair.

A few seconds pass before Peter looks back at Pepper, a shit-eating grin stretching across his face in a way that very scarily reminds her of a younger Tony. He then shifts his gaze back to his mentor.

"Mr. Stark?"

The man hums distractedly as he begins typing in the number for take-out into his phone.

"Can I swear?"

"Um, no." Tony squints his eyes at the teenage boy. "Absolutely not. You're 13."

"I'm 15, and you just did, like two seconds ag-"

"No I didn't."

"You did, you said f-"

"Ah, ah, ah!" Tony flings a hand over Peter's mouth. "Not at my table. Or ever."

Peter has lost his grin by the time Tony's hand falls away from his mouth, and the boy drops his head back onto his forearms. Pepper watches as Tony puts the phone to his ear.

"But Mr. Stark you're like my favorite Avenger and I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to follow in your footsteps if I want to be a good superhero."

"You're not swearing." Tony says quickly, before throwing his voice an octave higher as he begins to order. "Hi, yes, can I get one large cheese pizza, three of your chicken alfredo bakes, an-"

"Mr. Stark." Peter pokes his arm and Pepper bites back a laugh. "I'm gonna say it."

Tony covers the phone's speaker with his hand, bringing it away from his mouth as he glares at the boy. "Say it and you're dead, Parker."

Tony orders the rest of the food without interruption, but that might only be because of the constant glare he keeps trained on Peter. The man is hanging up the phone, when the teenager pokes his arm again.

"Mr. Stark."

"What?" Tony asks.

"Fuck."

Pepper can't help her roar of embarrassingly un-poised laughter. She also can't help the way her laughter evolves into a cackle at the sight of her fiancé then dropping his arm on the table and using it to swipe every bit of Peter's school supplies directly onto the floor. The books and pencils hit the wood with a loud bang that almost couldn't be heard over Peter's own shrieking laughter.

Dinner goes much the way that ordering dinner had gone, and Pepper finds herself drowning in the mirth and merriment that she'd been missing for so long. Peter is juvenile and childish, and often sporting a smirk that she swears Tony must've helped him perfect; it sits on the edge of his mouth, coiled up with mischievous purpose, and it's like taking a time-machine back to a Tony before the Civil War.

Pepper watches as Tony tears off a little piece of napkin, rolling it into a tight ball and placing it on the end of his forefinger. He brings the other hand up, aims at an assuming Peter Parker, and flicks the ball towards it target. The boy is still headfirst in his food -easily making his way into the third container of chicken alfredo Tony ordered- but somehow manages to snatch the ball out mid-air without looking.

"Did you see that?" Tony taps Pepper's arm gleefully. "Spidey-senses, Pepper."

"Mr. Stark, I was joking! Can we please not actually call them that? It sounds lame."

"Stop complaining, kid." Tony shoves Peter's shoulder lightly with his. "Shut up and eat."

As they're cleaning up the take-out containers and Peter has started to pick up all his notebooks off the floor, Tony looks over at Pepper. She's knows the genius like the back of her hand so she is perfectly in-tune to the hope and happiness in his eyes.

He flicks his gaze over to the boy trying to shove all his textbooks in his backpack. Tony doesn't have to verbalize the question for her to understand.

Is this okay?

Pepper had not been back to her house in 5 long weeks; but with Peter sitting at her table and Tony looking back at her in a way that makes her heart stop, she realizes she hasn't been home in much longer then she can remember.

She smiles, squeezing his arm gently as he hands her one of the glasses from the table.

Yes. This is okay.

Tony smiles then; all blinding white teeth and crows feet crinkling up the corners of his eyes. It's bright and warm and so child-like that it takes her breath away for a moment.

She's missed him. She's missed home.
——
Ikea is a hectic place.

And it's only being made even more stressful by the fact that Tony has to have the entire place cleared out and reserved for the day just so he can shop there. Pepper told the man that they could just order the furniture online and get it shipped but apparently that isn't good enough for The Great Tony Stark; no, The Brain-Dead Tony Stark wants to disrupt the entire store just so Peter can 'have the whole experience'.

Whatever that means.

"Mr. Stark, I really appreciate this, I do, I promise; but I can't. This is too much."

"Ok," Tony grabs two different lighting options, holding up the boxes in each of his hands. "Well on that note Pete, do you think you'd like a ceiling light with a fan or without one?"

"No, Mr. Stark, this is too much, I can't accept this."

"Or maybe we can get you a light without a fan and then a stand-up one if that's what you prefer?"

"Mr. Stark," Peter is taking the boxes from his mentor's hands, and placing them back on the shelf. "You're not listening to m-"

"I can hear you just fine, kid. Except you're talking complete nonsense and I'm politely choosing to ignore your bullshit entirely."

"It's fine." Peter groans, thrusting his hands into his pockets and swaying slightly on his feet. "I don't need my own room, I can just keep staying in the guest one."

"You're getting your own room, Underoos."

Tony leaves no room for argument and starts tearing off towards the lamp displays. Peter seems like maybe he'll follow before instead turning around to greet Pepper with the most helpless look in his eyes.

"Miss Pott-"

"Pepper, honey." The woman corrects, before increasing her pace slightly to walk alongside the teenager. "Call me Pepper."

"S-sorry. Pepper." Peter tests the name out, sounding unsure in a way that Pepper hopes will eventually sound natural. "I totally appreciate this and it's so nice but Mr. Stark already gave me the suit and that was just crazy and now this is crazy and I know that you can probably afford it- god please don't think I'm calling you poor or anything because I'm not but this is jus-"

"Slow down, take a breath." Pepper flicks her eyes toward the sight of her fiancé currently accosting an employee with questions about their lamp shades. "We want to do this for you, Peter. We wouldn't be doing it if we didn't."

"I know but it's just so much money and I already feel bad because I stay over all the time and it probably gets annoying or whatever but Aunt May doesn't trust me to be by myself because of the whole superhero thin-"

"You're not annoying, I promise." Pepper raises a hand to pat Peter's shoulder gently. "Tony and I like when you stay over."

"Really?"

"Yep." Pepper nods, before lowering her voice conspiratorially. "And Tony'd kill me if I told you this, but sometimes he gets so excited for you to stay over that he'll start a new project just so you can help him finish it."

"H-he does?"

"Yep." Pepper turns to look at Peter, smiling at the sight of a slight blush coating the boy's cheeks. "And one time I even caught him practicing his panini skills just so he could feed you himself."

"You're lying to me."

"I'm not. How do you think he got so good at making those sandwiches? I certainly didn't teach him."

"Mr. Stark told me he was just a natural."

"Well he'll tell you he's a natural at anything; even while it's blowing up in his face." Pepper laughs, before grabbing Peter's gently and turning him to face her. "Look, Peter, you know just as well as I do how emotionally stupid Tony can be; he's pretty short on outright affection so just let him do this for you."

Peter looks over at Tony thinking for a moment before shifting his gaze back over to Pepper. He fiddles with his fingers for a second and then begins bouncing on his heels.

"You really don't mind?"

"No, I don't; I promise." Pepper pauses slightly, making sure Peter can see how serious she is before she continues." Peter, I want you to have your own room at the Tower. I even picked out the guest room that'll become yours."

"O-oh, okay." Peter brightens. "Which one?"

"It's a surprise. Now, go," Pepper says, before pushing Peter toward Tony as they neared. "Save that poor employee. I'm pretty sure they don't know what flame-retardant means and Tony screaming it in their face isn't helping them understand."

Peter nods, before looking back at Pepper with wide glassy eyes. She pretends not to see the tears brimming and smiles back brightly.

Pepper thinks Peter deserves everything; and knowing Tony the way she does, this trip to Ikea is just the first step. If Tony has anything to say about it, the boy will be given everything.

Even if Peter thinks he doesn't deserve it.

It's nearing dinner time when they finally leave Ikea, and after getting take-out they drop Peter back at his apartment in Queens. Tony is currently speeding back to the Tower and Pepper is so not looking forward to a night spent putting together furniture with her fiancé. She thinks it's ridiculous since they could just pay someone to do it, but Pepper also understands that since this is something that affects Peter, Tony isn't going to let anyone else besides her even think about helping.

Three hours later, surrounded by a sea of half-assembled furniture, Tony decides he wants to change the paint color of the room.

Pepper could scream. Pepper will scream if he opens his mouth again.

"Ok, but what if instead we pai-"

"Tony, we already painted it." Pepper sighs, running a hand through her disheveled hair. "It's just a bedroom. I'm sure he'll be happy with anything you give him."

"I-I know."

He continues assembling the desk he's working on, loudly banging together the wood slats in the process.

"But, for purely decorative purposes, what do you think about changing it to maybe dark blue with white trim, or how about beige with cream trim?"

"I think you could paint it bright red with gold trim and Peter would still cry and thank you for it." Pepper jokes, before immediately rolling her eyes at Tony's mischievous smile. "That was a joke, Tony. Do not let your ego design Peter's room."

"Why not? Peter likes Iron-Man."

"No, Peter likes Tony Stark." Pepper stands, walking over to Tony and gently taking the screwdriver out of his hand. "Now c'mon, it's late and I can't believe I'm still here having this conversation with you. We're going to bed."

"It's okay," Tony looks back at the dresser he's assembling, fiddling with one of the screws sitting on the floor. "I'll finish up here, you go."

Pepper wants to drag him herself, but she knows the look on her fiancé's face well; it's the one he carries when he's thinking too much and needs to just be left with his tools. It makes her heart ache but she knows that he won't sleep tonight even if she forces him to lay down.

She looks at the furniture, and decides that its not too dangerous. It'll be alright to just let it go, and let him stay where he is. Just this once.

The next morning Pepper wakes up alone, and, since this isn't the first time, the woman does what she normally does on mornings like this: she takes the elevator down to the lab where she expects to find Tony half-awake and tinkering with something extremely dangerous. But, upon entering the workshop, she finds all the lights off and everything untouched from yesterday.

It takes her an embarrassingly long time to make the connection but eventually she's back up in her floor of the Tower and padding down the hall to what will be Peter's room. The woman cracks open the door, and finds a beautiful room full of completed furniture and framed posters and bookshelves full of science books and lego sets. The mess of furniture boxes from last night have been pushed into one neat pile in the corner, and she finds Tony sprawled out on the opposite side of the room in Peter's bed.

She opens the door further, quietly slipping in and walking over to the side of the bed. She grabs the arm of Tony's that's dangling off, and places it back up onto the mattress.

"Hm?" Tony shifts, blinking his eyes slowly. He turns on his side, facing the woman with a sleepy smile on his face.

It's the kind of soft smile that curls up just barely on the edge of his mouth and steals the air from her chest. It's the kind of smile that she's makes her want to cry from the warmth he has sitting in his eyes.

It's the kind of smile she's never seen from him before.

"Pep," He slurs. "Did you see? I finished."

"I know." Pepper smiles, tucking the blanket tighter around her fiancé's shoulder. "You did good, Tony. Now go back to sleep."

"Do you think Petey'll like it?"

The question is asked so softly and gently that Pepper can't stop her eyes from watering. It takes her a moment to compose herself.

"I'm sure he will." Pepper says, before finally looking back at Tony just to see that he had already fallen back asleep.

Pepper leaves then, cracking the door slightly and moving back to their bedroom to start getting ready.

Life moves on for her. Even if it seemed to stop when Tony smiled at her like that.

——

It's currently 12:32 PM and Pepper wants nothing more then to finally turn in for the night and sleep; but Pepper doesn't normally get what she wants, and the unfinished spreadsheet sitting open on her tablet is proof of that. She figures she really could just leave the work until tomorrow, but it's not like she'll be able to sleep anyway. Not with the way Tony is currently wearing holes into the fabric of her nice imported rug.

"I'm going to kill him."

"You're not going to kill him." Pepper says, barely glancing up from the tablet in her lap.

"No, I will." Tony paces on the other side of the living room, wearing the carpet in with his heavy footfall. "Seriously. I really will do it this time."

"Tony," Pepper can feel the migraine settling behind her eyes, and she brings a hand up to try and soothe the ache. "Can you please stop pacing? Some of us are trying to do your job, here." She gestures to spreadsheet currently opened on the tablet.

"Sorry, is my walking too loud for you?" Tony snarks and then immediately evolves his movement from worried pacing to just outright stomping.

"Ok, now you're just being a child." Pepper finally throws the tablet aside, and stands up. She crosses the room, and drops a hand on her fiancé's shoulder. "Will you calm down? Peter is probably just running late."

"By 2 hours?"

"Yes, maybe. He's a teenager Tony, I'm sure he's fine." Pepper shoves Tony over to the couch and drags him down onto the spot next to her. "If not, you can check on him."

"No, actually, I can't." Waves of palpable frustration are rolling off of Tony, and Pepper has physically force him to stay sitting. "Bug boy got his stupid friend Ted to hack the suit again and then they used their collective two braincells to disable all my protocols. I can't track Pete or check his vitals or see what he's seeing. And now he's two hours late? What if something happe- God, May is going to murder me."

Pepper has heard a lot about Peter's Aunt May, but she herself has never actually met the woman. If Tony's quickly-paling and terrified expression is anything to go buy though, Pepper is sure they'd get along just fine.

"Give him another 15 minutes, Tony. I'm sure he's okay. Peter probably just got sidetracked." Pepper drops her head onto Tony's shoulder, bringing a hand around the man's back to rub soothing circles on his arm. "He's a good kid, there's probably an explanation."

There's a beat of tense silence and then-

"Can I kill him if he's not here in 15?"

"I'm not going to let you kill a child, Tony."

"It'll be quick." The man says, leaning back into the couch and rubbing tiredly at his eyes. "It'll be really quick."

"No it won't; I can feel how angry at him you are right now."

Another second of silence as Tony's stews. The man crosses and uncrosses his arms in agitation.

"Ok, maybe you're right."

"I'm always right, Tony."

Another 20 minutes pass and even Pepper can feel herself beginning to worry. Peter was not someone who blatantly disobeyed rules. The boy was only ever pushed into defiance by the urgent needs of others, which usually meant he was neglecting his own needs. Pepper could feel cold anxiety settling into the pit of her stomach at that thought.

"Boss, Mr. Parker is trying to enter through the main doors." FRIDAY's robotic voice permeated the room and jolted Tony into action.

Pepper watched as the man nearly face-planted in his haste to get up, stubbing his toe against the edge of the couch with a loud swear. She followed behind Tony to the elevator and together they made the short trip down to the lobby. Once elevator doors slid open, Tony was off again at break-neck speed, absolutely tearing through the main lobby to get to the Tower doors.

Pepper could see Peter on the other side of the glass door, still wearing the suit, and currently maneuvering one of his feet into the gap between the door's handle and the glass. She watched him hop around a little bit, and the huff in obvious frustration when he couldn't pull the door open with his foot.

Tony took that as his cue to bang loudly on the doors, nearly scaring Peter out of his own skin as the boy jumped backwards. Pepper stood next to Tony as he swung open the door, and saw Peter physically gulp at the sight of both of them.

"Oh, h-hey, Mr. Stark!" Peter's voice is wobbly at best, and has a certain tremor to it that Pepper can't place. He's holding his wrists under his arm pits in what she assumes to be a poor attempt at being casual.

"Peter. You're late." Tony says, glaring at the boy with critical eyes. "Alright, kid we've been here before and I know how this goes; so I'm giving you a choice: Do you want to tell me why you're well over two hours late or would you rather prefer to skirt around the issue and lie to me until I end up screaming at you?" The man scolds, immediately cutting to the chase as he waves Peter in.

Pepper can see Peter's slumped shoulders as she follows slightly behind them on their way to the elevator. The woman feels like maybe she's intruding but decides to stick around purely to reign Tony in if he starts becoming too much.

It's totally not because she was also beside herself with worry and the sight of Peter's unscathed form is soothing her stress headache.

Peter is silent as they ride the elevator up, looking absolutely guilty as he's faced with his mentor's hard stare. The atmosphere is uncomfortably tense and even Pepper finds herself fiddling with her fingers in an attempt to distract herself. When she hears a ding and the elevator doors proceed to slide open and reveal the living room, Peter mumbles something utterly unintelligible under his breath.

"What was that?" Tony asks, sounding dangerously close to loosing the entirety of his cool.

Pepper watches Peter blush bright red and shift his gaze to the floor as he sits on the couch across from them. He's still got his hands tucked up into his arm pits, and Pepper can decide exactly what emotion he's going for with the expression of guilt plainly on his face and the body-language that conflicts with it.

"Ibrokemywrists."

"You broke your wrist!" Tony is standing up now moving towards Peter with half fury and half concern. The look on the man's face is disorienting, even for Pepper, and she herself isn't even the victim of it.

"Wrists." Peter supplies, wincing as he finally brings his wrists down to rest on his legs. The boy bites back a hiss as the injured joints meet his thighs.

"Huh?"

"Wrists, Mr. Stark. Ibrokemywrists."

Tony stutters; Pepper can see his shaking fingers hovering over the boy's wrists. "Underoos, w-what? How in the hel- like both of them?"

"Well I only have two Mr. Stark."

"I could kill you right now, kid." Tony groans loudly, turning his head towards Pepper so the woman can see the dead look in his eyes. "Pep, I'm going to kill him."

"Tony. You're not going to kill him; we talked about this." Pepper is walking over to the both of them, kneeling now by Peter's injured hands. "Ok, Tony, call Helen and tell her to meet us in the med-wing, in the meantime, Peter, honey, can you take the gloves off so we can see?"

"U-um." Peter blushes again, fidgeting nervously in his seat. He looks at Tony, with quickly-shifting eyes. "They're not gloves."

"What?" She asks. "Do they not come off?"

"No, no, they come off. It's just that the whole s-suit comes off all in one g- it's the whole suit."

Tony walks back toward them from where he had stepped away to call Helen. He huffs impatiently at Peter's stuttering, taking it upon himself to fling his hand up to the spider-emblem on the boy's chest. Pepper watches as Peter suddenly kicks his foot up, bringing his leg back towards his chest and catching his mentor's hand with it. It's with a decisive push that Peter kicks the hand away from his body completely.

"Mr. Stark!" Peter yells, absolutely scandalized in a way confuses Pepper.

"What?"

"I-I can't," Peter's eyes flick towards Pepper.

Tony rolls his eyes so far back that his right eye twitches. "How old are you- It doesn't matter. She won't care. This is serious."

Peter only huffs, looking at the floor in defiance.

Tony, evidently done with waiting and doing nothing, tries once more to tap Peter's emblem; but the boy is faster with his feet and the man gets nowhere. There's a flurry of movement as Tony tries to slap his chest with both hands and Peter brings both his legs up, turbo-kicking the hands away while cradling his own injured ones to his chest.

Pepper wishes the situation wasn't so serious, because the fighting she's witnessing between the two makes her realize she's actually housing toddlers in her living room. It'd be more enough to make her laugh; if there wasn't so many broken bones involved.

"Fine." Tony sits back, breathing a sigh of defeat as he looks petulantly over at the teenager. "Would you rather go do this in your room then Princess Petey?"

"Yes."

"Fine, then, you're the boss, let's go kid."

"You're not coming with. It's fine, I can do it by myself." Peter said, standing up from the couch and walking down the hallway.

"Your wrists are broken, Pete. How are you going to get the suit off?"

"It's fine, Mr. Stark. I'll just use my feet or something."

"You'll kick yourself in the face."

"No. I won't. I can do it, I'm flexible."

"I don't care how bendy you think your bones are, kid. Some of them are broken right now, so if it's all the same to your petulant ass, I'm coming in and helping you."

Peter groans loudly, but opens the door further to let Tony follow him into his room. Pepper is proud of the way Peter has been picking his battles lately, and it seems that her conversation at Ikea finally tricked the boy into letting Tony take care of him.

There's shuffling heard, and something that sounds suspiciously like shattering; Pepper rolls her eyes. Leave it up to Peter and Tony to make a mess during a situation that's already a shit-show.

"Pete. What the fuck!" Tony shouts loudly enough that Pepper can easily hear it through the closed door. "Look at how blue this shit i- when the fuck did you break them?"

"Like two hours ago."

"Peter fucking Parker. What the fuc- how did you even get home, you idiot?"

"We-well I couldn't use my webs, so I-I walked."

"All the way home?" Tony screams, and Pepper smiles despite his anger at the use of the word 'home'. "Why didn't you call me?"

"I t-thought you'd be sleeping?"

"No. I don't sleep. You know this!" Tony splutters, and Pepper can imagine the panic currently flooding his face. "A-and what would you have done if I was? Just not tell me?"

"I mean, I would've told you, you know eventually, like in the morning or somethi-"

"Peter! In the morning?" Tony roars as he swings the door open. "I don't know if you know this because it really seems like you are actually brain-dead right now, but you broke your wrists, Peter! Both of them. That really isn't a 'wait till the morning' kind of thing!"

Pepper can see the panicked look on Peter's face, the tears in his eyes, and the mass of bruises and swelling that are his wrists. The teenager looks like a child in that moment, and she realizes that Tony needed to calm down.

Now.

"Tony." She grabs the man's arm tightly. "Go into the kitchen and get Peter a glass of water. I'm going to sit Peter on the couch and then I will meet you in there." She can see the defiance on Tony's face and she levels him with a glare. "Now, Tony. Go."

The man huffs, stomping off into the kitchen with panicked steps that probably shook the entire tower.

"Ok, Peter." Pepper says softly, quickly changing her tone. "I'm gonna walk you over to the couch, okay?"

Peter nods, wincing as he accidentally flexes one of his fingers. The boy's wrists look incredibly painful and Pepper suddenly wishes she got a handle on Tony's yelling earlier. She places an arm around Peter, and guides him to the couch, pushing him down with hands on his shoulders and rearranging the pillow behind him.

"Ok, honey. I'm just going to step into the kitchen and grab you a few painkillers. If you need anything just yell." Pepper ruffles Peter's hair lightly as he nods.

Pepper stalks into the kitchen, fully prepared to begin doing some of her own yelling; the scolding died on her tongue at the sight of Tony digging around in the liquor cabinet.

"Tony. What are you doing?"

"Well, it looks like it's going to be a pretty long night." Tony laughs dark and sardonic as he pulls out a bottle of scotch. "So I figure, why not start it off right?"

"Don't do this right now. Peter needs you."

"He doesn't need me, Pepper. I just screamed at him while he was nursing his broken wrists." Tony's moving to the other cabinet, and selecting a tall glass from the top shelf. "I think my dad would be real proud of me for that one- Actually, on the topic of Dear Daddy, why don't I just take one of out his book directly and switch this from scotch to whiskey?"

"You are better than Howard, Tony."

Tony places the glass on the counter, gripping the granite with both of his shaking hands. Pepper can see the trembling in his shoulders as he looks coldly at her.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because, we don't have time for this." Pepper pushes past him, grabbing the scotch and putting it on top of the refrigerator. "Peter needs us. He needs you, and you've only got one chance at this. So," She shoves the glass into his hand roughly. "Take this glass, fill it up with water, and go sit with him while we wait for Helen. And in the meantime, I'm going to look for painkillers."

Pepper hears the sound of ice hitting glass, water being poured, and Tony's footsteps back into the living room.

When she returns with a bottle of advil, she finds Peter tucked into Tony's side, the man holding an ice pack to one of the boy's wrists with one hand and holding the glass up to Peter's lips with the other. The boy's eyes are red, cheeks enflamed from crying and he's looks like he's trying to burrow into the man's chest as he sips from the glass. The sight does something funny to Pepper's heart, but she pushes it aside as she hands the medicine to Peter.

Three days later and Peter's wrists are entirely healed thanks to his spectacular healing factor and Dr. Cho's incredible magic. It's a monday night, and Pepper usually doesn't drink during the week, but given the occasion she decides that maybe she could go for a glass of celebratory wine. When she opens to cabinet, Pepper is not met with bottle after bottle of alcohol like she expected. Instead, she sees bottle after bottle of painkillers and fever reducers and cough syrup. There's gauze tucked into the back, and next to that are rolls of medical tape and several boxes of bandages. Pepper can feel the tears brimming behind her eyes, and blinks rapidly to get rid of them. She closes the cabinet softly, taking a breath and going to the fridge. She sees some of Peter's orange juice, and deciding to indulge herself, she's pours some into her glass. She takes a sip, looking at what used to be the liquor cabinet from behind the rim of her glass.

Juice is sweeter than alcohol and Tony is better than Howard.

Pepper smiles.

----

The elevator door closes behind Peter and Pepper is still reeling from the second-hand embarrassment. The boy had made it so painfully obvious in his theatrically drawn-out goodbye, and had given Tony an obscene amount of chances. But the man didn't get it or, if he did Tony refused to indulge.

Pepper could see herself how much it meant to Peter and watched him walk away dejectedly. This is the third time in the last two weeks that this had happened and Pepper couldn't let herself sit back and watch anymore.

"He wants you to give him a hug, Tony." Pepper says, eyes trained downward at her phone.

"What are you talking about?"

"Peter wants you to give him a hug before he leaves. Why else do you think your goodbyes are so awkward?"

"They're not awkward and no he doesn't."

"He does and you're an idiot." Pepper tone is bored and disinterested. She knows that it's the only way Tony will even consent to this conversation or even listen to what she's saying. "Just give him a hug next time."

"Don't pretend you know what my Spider-baby wants better than me." Tony retorts, sitting on the couch next to Pepper.

"It's not pretending if I actually know better than you, Tony. He wants a hug from you. It'd be obvious, even to you, if you weren't so emotionally constipated."

"Wow. Okay." Tony shifts, pulling Pepper into his side. "But you're still wrong. He doesn't want a hug."

"He does."

"He doesn't. You don't know everything." Tony insists.

"How long have we been together? I do know everything, Tony. We have been over this many times."

"Ha ha. Very funny."

They lapse back into silence and Pepper returns to the article she was reading on her phone. Tony keeps fidgeting next to her and if he thinks any harder Pepper is sure he's going to have a brain aneurism.

"You know what," Tony begins, huffing in annoyance. "Since you know everything, maybe I'll just do it."

Pepper snorts. "You won't do it."

"I will."

"You won't. You've got less emotional tenderness than the Hulk. You won't."

"Okay, first of all, ouch," Tony flings an overdramatic hand over his heart. "And, secondly? I'm definitely gonna do it now."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah; just to spite you. Tell me again that I can't do it."

"You can't." Pepper nearly laughs at how easily Tony is falling into her goading.

"You know what? Just for that disrespect, I'm gonna hug him when he gets here and when he leaves."

"I mean, you won't do it but okay, Tony."

It's three days later when Peter arrives back at the Tower for their regularly scheduled lab time and dinner. As Pepper predicts, Tony chickens out and shies away from the greeting hug he insisted he was going to give. But eventually it's the end of their visit and Pepper is spying on the two of them from the comfort of her own kitchen.

The familiar exchange begins, complete with Peter's awkward stuttering and ridiculously translucent forlorn looks. The only difference is that their usual drawn-out duration is cut short when Tony grabs Peter by the shoulder and crushes the teenager in a hug that frankly looks very uncomfortable and also incredibly forced; but Peter melts into the embrace and the smile stretching across his face is like the sun.

Pepper feels like celebrating her win before she sees the vulnerability in Tony's eyes. Now is not the time for gloating; now is the time for not addressing the irregular occurrence and pretending she hadn't seen anything at all.

Pepper takes one last look at the pair of them, and leaves the kitchen without a word.

----

"Tony. Just go answer it, already."

"Spangles can wait." Tony whispers, holding the flip-phone in his hands and declining the call once again. "I don't want to wake Peter up."

"I don't think getting up from a couch on the opposite side of the room is going to wake Peter up." Pepper looks at the boy currently drooling all over the other couch. She sighs, rearranging the blanket on her legs. "Look, he's totally out. Go answer that, it might be important."

"It won't be important."

"It might be. Now, go, I'll watch him."

Pepper lightly shoves him, laughing slightly as she sees the pout on his face as he steps out onto the balcony.

Pepper knows that Tony thinks she's been fooled. That Tony actually believes that he tricked her into thinking that he really just wanted a movie night. But Pepper's not an idiot; she knows that Peter was the one who asked and that Tony only agreed because, even if he won't admit it, the sound of Peter's snoring helps him get his own sleep.

She starts to feel guilty as she looks out the balcony doors and sees Tony grimacing behind the glass. The phone is clutched tightly near his ear in one hand, and the other is being dragged down Tony's face tiredly. The pacing starts and then Tony is yelling, his words being muffled behind the glass. Pepper wonders if maybe she should go out there and calm him down before she sees Tony hang up quickly, and walk back inside.

Pepper expects Tony to walk directly to the elevator and hide out in his lab; the look on his face is fiery and furious and the woman knows of only one cure for that. But it seems like maybe Tony has been busy discovering his own remedies and instead walks past her to the other couch, where he picks up Peter's head gently and places it back down onto his lap after he sits down. The man is running his fingers through the boy's hair before he even thinks about it, looking back at Pepper with anger hotter then she's ever seen burning in his eyes.

"Tony?" She questions quietly.

"I'll, uh- just give me a second." Tony isn't meeting her eyes, and instead is concerning himself with untangling the knots in Peter's hair. "We can talk about it later."

Pepper wants to push. She wants to pry and dig until she can figure out what Steve had said to shake her fiancé so much. But she knows Tony well enough to understand that he won't talk if he doesn't want to; that there's pretty much no way she can force the answer out of him if he's not ready yet.

She studies the way Tony is fiddling with the ends of Peter's hair and sees the way the man's shoulders are slumping against the couch. He looks exhausted and enraged and downright murderous, but all that fades when he encounters a snag and concentrates on working his fingers through it. Peter shifts then, nuzzling his head into Tony's stomach and the man only pats his cheek fondly and stares off into the space in front of him.

Pepper knows he's working through something; something big and bad and stressful. But Tony isn't in the lab, and there isn't a drop of alcohol to be found. It's just Tony and Peter and a movie neither of them are watching.

She resigns herself to finding the answers tomorrow and to the exhaustion sitting behind her eyelids.

It's only after Peter leaves the next day that Tony lets whatever was eating at him finally swallow him whole. He retreats to his lab and doesn't come up for well over two days before Pepper finally decides she's done waiting. Peter and May are due to arrive for their weekly dinner in the next few hours and Pepper won't put them through the sight of a Tony mid-breakdown.

"Tony." Pepper turns down the music as she walks into the workshop. "What happened? What did Steve want?"

Tony ignores her, choosing instead to keep working on the schematic he currently has projected.

"Tony. It's not going to go away. You can't just hide from him in here forever."

Her comment seems to hit an exposed nerve, and he whirls back around quickly to face Pepper.

"Well, if you must know, Cap really wants to get the band back together."

"And?" Pepper questions, taking a seat next to Tony. "Isn't that what you wanted? Remember our talk? After they all got pardoned?"

"Our talk didn't include his own little pet psychopath, Barnes."

Pepper blinks for a moment and falls silent; completely caught off guard that Steve would even suggest the idea that Tony house the person who murdered his parents.

"Lost for words? Me too, Pep." Tony spits, practically vibrating in his seat with all his anger. "And, because Spangles loves a good ole American Daily Double, he said that I should just 'forgive and forget' and then lectured me on the dangers of hydra programming like his little friend didn't use that programming to kill my parents."

Pepper stares back at him; at a complete loss on what to say. There isn't anything to say. She had no idea Steve Rogers could be that big of an idiot.

"I don't want him in our Tower, Pep."

"Neither do I."

"But Steve told me the rest of them won't come back without him and Cap won't come back without Barnes." Tony sighs in frustration. "So I guess it's adios to the family band, and hello to my big solo act."

"Not solo."

"What?"

"You've got me, Tony. You've always got me."

"Appreciated, I love you so much and you're more than I deserve," Tony runs a hand down his face tiredly, before placing a kiss on Pepper's cheek. "But I'm not exactly sure I'd want to throw you out on the field should copy-cats decide to pull a Loki on New York."

"Spider-man can help, can't he?"

"I wouldn't let him."

"Ok, but you get what I'm saying, right?" Pepper grabs his hand, running her thumb over his. "You'll be okay without them if you have to be. You've always had me and Rhodey but now you have Vision and Peter and May too; even that Wakandan Prince in the event of an alien apocalypse. You'll be okay. It'd be nice to have them all back, but you don't need them anymore."

Tony sinks down in his chair, holding onto Pepper's hand with both of his. She allows him a few minutes of contemplative silence before she pats his hands and takes back her own from his grip.

"Now, come on, Peter's gonna be here in a few hours and you still have to get some sleep and a shower." Tony groans as Pepper grabs his arm and pulls the man out of his seat. "No complaining, Tony! I think today is the day you finally give him that greeting hug, so don't waste time."

It's four hours later when Peter and May walk through the door. Peter has a test in his hands, and is practically jumping up and down in his boundless energy . He's holding the same calculus exam that Tony had helped him study for a few days prior, and apparently the boy aced it. Tony pulls him in for a hug when he nears, cheering with excitement and words brimming with pride. The hug lasts for a little longer then normal, and Tony is holding the teenager with a certain desperation, but Peter doesn't seem to mind and Pepper pretends not to notice.

"They're a little bit cute, aren't they?" May laughs, knocking her shoulder into Pepper's as she takes a seat at the counter next to her.

"Yeah, I guess they are."

Yes, Pepper thinks, watching Tony sling an unnecessary arm around Peter. Tony will be okay. He has Peter to take care of now and he'll be okay.

They'll all be okay.