Impossibly Perfect
Title: Impossibly Perfect
Author: jaune_chat
Fandoms: The Avengers (film)
Characters/Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Happy Hogun, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanov
Rating: NC-17
Word count: 4,753
Spoilers: Films
Content Advisory: Temporary genderswap, romance, body worship
Disclaimer: Not mine, just playing.
A/N: Written for a prompt from avengerkink.
Summary: Pepper is accidentally hit with something that could cause a huge change in her relationship with Tony. He goes to show her she's perfect, any way she is.
On Ao3 or below the cut
For once, what happened wasn't a result of a city-wide battle by a megalomaniac with plans for world domination. It was just someone who didn't like Tony for the “Merchant of Death” part of his past.
It wasn't the first time someone had put a hit out on Tony. It hadn't been the first time someone had tried to take a shot at him in public. It hadn't even been the first time someone had done that post-Iron Man, post-Avengers, and post-Extremis. However, it was definitely the first time someone had tried a hit while wearing a friend's face.
“I didn't know Rhodey was going to be here,” Pepper said, waving at someone behind Tony. Then her smile faltered, and Tony turned around. It was Rhodey, standing there at the door to the restaurant, talking with the maitre'd. “He's on the short list,” she said, in a much quieter voice. Happy, standing a few paces back from their lunch table, took a few forward at her tone.
Which meant Rhodey should have walked right in. He knew that, and the staff knew that. Alarm thrilled along Tony's nerves, and he felt for the mini repulsors on bracelets around his wrist even as Happy's hand moved closer to his gun. It would just take a single twitch to bring the repulsors into play, and then Happy could concentrate on covering Pepper. Paranoid? Yes, but Tony had damn good reason. If Rhodey was just asking Carlos a question, then they could just all laugh this off and continue on with lunch...
Pepper's phone rang. “It's Rhodey,” she said tightly, clutching the phone in her hand. Tony turned back to the false Rhodey, who looked up in time to see the set of Tony's face. With a dead-eyed expression, fake-Rhodey charged unbelievably fast, actually going up walls and bouncing off of furniture before thrusting his hand forward, a glint of something metallic in it.
“Boss!” Happy yelled. He got a shot off, and made fake-Rhodey have to make an abrupt change in course. Tony twisted, adjusted his aim as fast as he'd been drilling with Clint and nailed the assassin with a powerful repulsor blast. Fake-Rhodey dropped like a ton of bricks on the floor, but the small satchel he'd been carrying snapped off with the force, flew over Tony's shoulder, right by Happy before he could react, and hit Pepper square in the chest. There was a tinkling sound of glass breaking, and Pepper gasped, but immediately said, “I'm okay!”
Tony took her word for it and went to check out fake-Rhodey as he heard Pepper saying into the phone, “We know, we know, Tony just took him out. We're okay, ah-!” There was another gasp, more pained this time, and he heard Happy say, “Boss...” in the tone that meant, we're in trouble. Fake-Rhodey seemed satisfactorily unconscious, Tony disarmed him just be sure, and went back to Pepper. She was shaking, but still managed to get out, “We're okay. I'll call you back,” before hanging up and moaning very quietly. There was a wet stain on the lapels of Pepper's power suit, and fake-Rhodey's satchel and its contents were at her feet.
“Tony,” Pepper said, her voice low and sounding raspy. “Get me out of here!”
Tony looked up for Pepper's PA, Mindy, then at the door where New York's finest were just arriving. Mindy just straightened her shoulders, pulled out her phone, and put herself squarely between Tony and the men and women in blue. It hadn't been the first time one of Pepper's PAs had been left holding the bag, and likely it wouldn't be the last. Tony made a note to tell JARVIS to make a note to give her a bonus next paycheck, because she was going to have to do some fancy dancing to explain all of this.
-
Tony, Pepper, and Happy slipped out the back, the satchel and its contents with them so Tony could analyze what the hell was going on as soon as they got back to the Tower.
Pepper remained curled up in a ball, under Happy's coat, shaking and shivering and moaning, her head ducked down. Tony's frantic questions only elicited a response of, “It hurts.” And since Pepper had enough modified Extremis still in her to take care of pesky things like bullet wounds, that should not be happening. Tony's mind was racing, and by the time Happy had gotten them to the Tower, Tony was frantic enough to drop all protocols, called Iron Man to him, cradled the still curled-up Pepper to his chest, and flew right to the lab floor.
He lost her shoes in the flight, and she was undoubtedly going to be pissed about that later, but Tony really didn't care. He gently put her down on one of the beds, and shed Iron Man before starting to call out commands to JARVIS.
“Get Banner on the horn and tell him to come down here. Start analysis on this,” Tony dumped the satchel, each of the little glass containers inside, and Pepper's stained coat onto a smart table, and then slid across to the monitors he used on himself when experimenting with things he probably shouldn't. “And get a diagnostic on Pepper, we have to figure out what he did to her-.”
“Tony, um... I think I know.”
Pepper's voice sounded oddly deep, and Tony turned away from his monitors as Pepper uncurled and rose up from the table, looking frightened, disconcerted, and a little... sheepish? Tony blinked and looked again, checking her from toe to head. Pepper's usually dainty feet looked oddly enlarged, her legs even longer than ever, her slim curves had disappeared into a much more angular, flat frame, her suit-skirt was hanging oddly off her hips, her throat had the bump of an Adam's apple, and her jaw had a decidedly squarer shape with a hint of... stubble?
Her long red hair still reached to the middle of her back, and her face was almost the same shade as Pepper found her (deeper) voice again.
“I'm a man.”
Tony's jaw just about hit the floor.
--
“So, fake-Rhodey was a chameleon?” Bruce was saying, looking at a sample of the chameleon's bag of tricks.
“Yeah, probably more your girlfriend's area then mine, but look at this stuff. She was some kind of ex-spy for who the hell even knows. Probably Natasha, she knows,” Tony said, looking over at her expectantly. He wasn't in the mood for their usual banter and beating-around-the-bush, and luckily, neither was she.
“Yeah, I do know. I knew her as Alicia Simmons, but I know she had a dozen different cover identities at any given time. She was loaned to the Red Room a few times. She'd been working closely with a geneticist to become the ultimate assassin and spy, using some kind of accelerated genetic resculpting virus to alter herself to literally be a person the target trusted. But she was expensive to retain, even for the Red Room. I'd guess she fell on hard times if she was going after you, Stark,” Natasha said. “The upshot was, she had to keep dosing herself to stay as someone else, so whatever landed on Pepper can't be permanent.”
Tony heaved a sigh of relief. He'd figured the same, but it was good to hear it from someone else...
“I'd second that, until I saw this,” Bruce said, looking up from the microscope. “I can't even tell you how many transformative substances I've looked at since... the Big Guy showed up, but this is along the lines of a temporary genetic re-write. The problem is, Pepper has Extremis. And,” he pointed at another slide, one with Pepper's blood, “Pepper's Extremis thinks she's male now.”
Tony's heart sank again before he squared his jaw and shook his head. “Whatever can be written can be re-written.”
Bruce nodded, smiled, and held up his tablet. “I've got my pen.”
“And I've got JARVIS.”
Natasha leaned back, and held up a stopwatch she'd procured from Bruce's desk. “And I'm timing you. Go!”
---
“...so with Natasha flogging us with razor-edged Russian wit for the better part of twelve hours, we figured out a counter-agent,” Tony was saying, running a hand through his hair which was already standing straight up from yanking on it in frustration until they'd hit on their solution. Pepper was sitting on the edge of the bed, facing slightly away from him, but he could see her broader shoulders relaxing in relief. “The only bad part is it has to percolate in a sequencer for two weeks before it's ready,” he said, and sighed.
“Oh.” Pepper's deeper voice sounded oddly small. “But... you found it. I... thank you, Tony. And thank Bruce and Natasha for me too, okay?”
Tony was almost seeing double with how tired he was, but he reached out and touched her hair, took her hand (bigger than before) trying to get her to look at him. She tried to pull her hand away, but Tony took a slightly firmer grip.
“No. Pepper, no, look at me,” he whispered. He heard her swallow, and she turned to face him. Despite only have been male for a day, she'd already mastered the art of shaving, so with the lack of stubble and her long hair, she still looked quite a lot like herself. “You're beautiful.”
“I just... I can't,” she said. He hadn't seen her so upset before, not even when Killian had had her strapped to a table and glowing with unquenchable fires from within.
“Yeah, you can. I love you,” Tony said. “And I'm about to fall over.” He squirmed up the bed, still holding her hand, and Pepper had to come with him. Tentatively, she lay down beside him, uncertainty still all over her face. But Tony just kissed her softly right before he passed out.
---
Tony woke up to the faint taps of a keyboard near his head, and pried open his eyes to see Pepper tapping away, occasionally taking a break for a sip of her morning power smoothie. He shifted just enough to see she was answering a backlog of CEO e-mails at lightning speed, sublimating herself in her work. The little worry-line on her brow was more prominent on her male face, but it was still the same expression he'd seen on her hundreds of times before. Usually directed at him.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he said. Pepper didn't even start, just looked down at him (and it seemed to be a longer distance, because, unfairness of unfairness, Pepper was even taller as a man, and didn't need heels to top him easily) and smiled. She reached out to brush the hair away from his head like she usually did, and hesitated as her own hand came into view. Tony took it and directed it to his messy locks, and she tentatively resumed tidying him up. Tony just lay there for a few minutes, marveling. Just yesterday she'd had her sex swapped. Today she was right back at work. He took her hand and kissed it. Her nails were still as perfectly even, filed, and neatly polished as they always were, and he idly wondered if nail polish carried over during a transformation like that, and concluded that it did.
“I'm all right, Tony,” Pepper said, turning off her tablet and setting it aside. She was dressed in an oversized t-shirt and a pair of yoga pants out of her own wardrobe, though Tony wondered (less idly, and bit more practically... and salaciously) if she had gotten some boxer-briefs delivered. Because Pepper's lingerie collection was extensive, but would definitely be a little pinchy with the new equipment.
“I can't go in to work or anything, but I'm all right. I was just giving myself a two-week vacation. Between Mindy and Jonathan, they can handle anything that might come up,” she said.
“Good,” Tony said, and sat up to kiss her. Pepper responded for a minute, then pulled back and looked at him with uncertainty.
“Are you okay with-?” she waved her hand over her face and body.
“You're perfect. Any way you are, is perfect,” he told her. Because that was true. It was true when she had worked her way up to became the CEO of Stark Industries, when she hadn't given up on him for all the crazy things he had done, when she had gone after Obi only armed with a key card and her courage, when she'd held them both together through her job and his Avenging, when she'd endured unimaginable pain at the hands of his enemies only to take them down herself, and when she was male for a time.
She pressed her lips together, and then leaned forward to kiss him again. There was a faint hint of roughness to the skin of her face, and her lips were a little thinner, but everything else was the same, and Tony just kissed her, enjoyed kissing her, running his fingers through her hair, listening to the little sounds she made. He let one hand drift casually down her neck, and then across the flat plane of her pectoral muscle to brush the thin cloth over her nipple, and she gasped and pulled back a little, spearing him with her glance.
“Are you serious?” she demanded.
“What? You don't want to take everything for a test drive? When else are you going to get the opportunity?” He grinned at her, and her lips twisted a bit as she tried to hide a smile.
“Hedonist,” she admonished.
“Uh, yeah. Hi, I'm Tony Stark, professional superhero, billionaire philanthropist, and dedicated hedonist. That's going to be engraved on my tombstone.”
Pepper chuckled, and the register of that did a few interesting things to Tony's libido.
“I didn't know you-”
“Played both sides? Hey, I worked my way through the Playgirl calendar of switch-hitters too, I'll have you know. Just to make things equal.” He waggled his eyebrows at her, and she laughed out loud.
“So,” she said, letting her voice go low and a little sultry, “you can make it good for me, Mr. Stark?”
“So very, very good, Ms. Potts.” He reached in to meet her in a harder kiss, and started to reach for her shirt hem when suddenly she slithered off the bed and left him grasping air. Tony pouted a little when he saw Pepper standing at the foot of the bed, but she just smile enigmatically at him.
“I'll think about it and get back to you. Right now, I have two weeks of vacation, and I haven't had that in years.”
Tony couldn't argue with that; he'd been arguing that she needed to take a vacation just last week. Hell of a way to get one.
“Movie marathon?” he asked.
“Multiple ones,” she confirmed. Tony sighed heroically, and Pepper wagged a finger at him. “And after I'm done thinking, you better be ready.”
-
When you had two people like Pepper and Tony, both independent adults with their own interests, no matter how much they loved each other, every now and then they liked their free time on their own. Pepper had several months' worth of backlog of movies she'd been meaning to see, and Tony figured he could use the time to do a little inventing that didn't have anything to do with Iron Man, the Avengers, or the arc reactor.
It didn't mean that Tony wasn't stopping by to watch a movie or three, or that Pepper didn't pop down to the workshop, but it was nice to be able to casually drift together and apart without having to put their dates down on a calendar around Pepper's work schedule and Tony's Avenging.
It was also pleasure deferred, with Tony having plenty of time to think up several dozen things he wanted to show Pepper when she was ready. And despite evidence to the contrary, Tony had learned a thing or three about waiting.
It was totally worth it.
Four days into Pepper's “man-cation” (as Tony was very privately calling it, because sometime down the road this would probably be hilariously funny), Tony had drifted back into the bedroom, thinking of joining Pepper for another film. And froze. Because Pepper was standing at the three-way mirror in front of their walk-in closet (which was maybe a quarter of the penthouse). In a suit. An exquisitely tailored navy pinstriped suit with a white shirt underneath and a neat, solid charcoal tie, all of it looking exceptionally sharp on Pepper's new frame.
“Damn,” Tony said, low and heartfelt. Pepper looked at him in the mirror, her hair caught back in a small, neat ponytail at the nape of her neck, and turned around fully, giving him a look at every angle.
And every angle was very, very good.
“Yes. Yes to all of that,” Tony said, mouth moving without the permission of his brain. She smiled at him, and Tony was very glad he'd had a shower in the shop before he'd come upstairs.
“I think you promised me something.”
Tony's legs were moving without thinking, meeting her and tilting his head up to kiss her. And then he slowly sank to his knees. Pepper was blushing, and there was an interruption to the clean lines of her pants. He nuzzled there, feeling her hardness, and she gasped slightly, putting her hand on his head.
“You've just got to tell me first,” he said, palming her briefly before rising up again, starting on the buttons of her suit jacket and shirt, discarding the tie immediately. “Where'd you get the suit?”
“You know where Steve gets his uniform repaired and Natasha gets armored dresses and Clint gets quick-change tuxedos?” she asked. Tony nodded; the SHIELD uniform department, he'd asked them for a flight suit or two before. “It turns out they're more than happy to make a non-bulletproof suit and have high enough security clearance to know how to keep their mouths shut.”
“You look good in it,” Tony said, slowly easing the fabric off her broader shoulders.
“If you say 'you'll look even better out of it-'”
Tony forestalled her by tugging away the last of the fabric and tossed it away, leaving her torso bare. Her hands twitched, like she wasn't sure if she should cover herself or not. Tony stroked his hands down her sides, seeing how every freckle and beauty mark was still right about where he remembered it, her skin still pale and soft. He bent to take a smaller nipple in his mouth, harder muscle under his touch without the softness of a breast, and then there, that little gasp/cry she made, that was exactly how he remembered.
“So beautiful, Pep,” he said, switching sides to suck at the other, running his hands down her back to grip her ass and pull her closer. Something poked him in the belly, so he pulled back enough to look up at her. “Are you hard, Pepper? How's it feel?”
Pepper reached down to pull him into a hard, frantic kiss for an answer, and Tony's head was spinning. He reached down to undo her belt, flick open the button to her pants, and then let himself slide down until he was on his knees and right at eye-level where Pepper's erection was tenting the black silk boxer-briefs she was wearing. Tony recognized the brand, it was the same ones he wore, and he smiled as he pressed his mouth to her hot, hard flesh though the soft, smooth material.
“Tony, God...” Pepper said, her hand going back to his head to tangle in his hair. Tony rather liked the direction this was going, and shoved her pants all the way down quickly. He took her underwear down more slowly, savoring the moment, as Pepper's pretty pink cock came into view. Flushed from her face all the way down to her stomach, Tony hummed in appreciation as he pressed his lips to the tip of her cock, tongue darting out to taste her. Her hips jerked as she gasped in pleasure, and Tony took a longer taste before holding her in his hand, feeling her pulse along her length.
“You've got a gorgeous cock, Pepper,” he said sincerely, and Pepper looked like she was going to get sunburned from blushing. Tony rose to his feet and pulled her over to the bed, sitting her down so she didn't get a sudden case of jelly knees from what he was going to do. He remembered the first time a girl went down on him, and he'd nearly lost his equipment then and there because he hadn't grabbed something to stay upright.
“All right?” he asked, settling himself down between her legs again. Pepper was smooth all over, not a hair on her, and that wasn't any different than their usual. Tony on his knees between her legs wasn't new at all either, and Pepper lost some of her blush to nudge her hips forward again.
“Very all right,” Pepper said. Her hand settled into his hair again, and Tony gave her little nod.
“Go on, you know what I like.”
Pepper's confidence came trickling back, and she firmed her grip to direct Tony's mouth back where she wanted it. This time he didn't tease, just sucked her in deep and slow, tracing his tongue on the underside. Then he pulled off and did it again, and again at Pepper's urging, slowly going faster as Pepper's need built for a whole different kind of release. Tiny little noises were passing her lips, breathless little spasms that always spurred Tony on to give her the best her could. He hollowed his cheeks and sucked deep when he felt her cock swell between his lips, and felt her salty flood spurt to hit the back of his throat. Tony swallowed fast as he could, sliding her out as he crawled on the bed next to her. She just had to breathe for several long minutes, absently reaching out to pet him before she could speak.
“That felt amazing,” she said, looking at him. “No wonder you always get so incoherent when I do that to you.”
“I learned from the best,” he said, and she swatted at him in mock-anger. “No, seriously, I had to make sure I could at least match you, or I'd never hear the end of it. I've been practicing on toys for days...”
Pepper laughed out loud, and tugged at his clothing. “Naked, Tony. Right now. Let me take care of you.”
Nothing loathe, Tony set a new record for swift nakedness before pulling Pepper close so he could feel the whole length of her body against his. She was harder now, more angular, but warmer. And somehow she still smelled exactly the same. He murmured that into her hair, and then suddenly felt a little more warmth, and hardness, between them.
“Again?!” he asked with a little incredulity.
Pepper managed to look embarrassed and smug at the same time as her erection pressed against Tony's stomach. Tony had to kiss the daylight out of her before rolling over to grab something out of the bedside drawer.
“Okay, this calls for sexily desperate measures.” Tony held up a bottle of lube and waggled it.
“And who's going to use that?” she asked, genuinely curious.
Tony dropped his voice to a purr. “I thought I'd use it on me. And then use you, on me.”
Pepper sat up abruptly, one hand on her cock, and nodded very quickly. “Show me.”
Tony often thought that if he hadn't been born a Stark, he would have still made a fortune as a stripper. He made a slow, sensuous show of slicking up his fingers, silently blessing yoga lessons for letting him slowly insert one finger after another inside his ass without cramping his wrist. He teased open his pucker and carefully opened himself up, fingers pumping and dick twitching as he grazed his own prostate a few times. Pepper seemed very encouraged by the show, slowly stroking herself in a way that was almost too hot to stand watching.
“Can I have you, Pepper? Please?” Tony wasn't above begging for a good cause, and there wasn't one better than Pepper Potts.
She shivered, the really good full-body shiver, and laid herself down, her cock standing straight up.
“Please,” she said, beckoning. Tony reached out to coat her with lube, loving the noise she made, and scooted forward, carefully holding her steady as he sank back onto her. Pepper made a noise like she was dying as her dick breached Tony's body, and she went rigid, her hands on his hips, desperately trying not to slam her entire length into his warmth at once. Tony had fucked her the same way a couple times before, and she knew it took a little more effort to get things into place.
But once they did... Tony hadn't had a real cock in his ass in a while, just the occasional toy when Pepper pegged him, and he was groaning with the pleasure of her living warmth, not wanting to overwhelm her and end this too soon for both of them.
“More,” Pepper said, her hands tugging slightly on his hips, and Tony gave them both another inch. And then another, slowly, slowly sinking back until his ass made contact with her hips.
“So good,” she said, caressing his side. “Move, Tony, now!”
Tony knelt up, and then sank back again, shuddering with the intensity. Again. Again. Deep and slow, letting both of them feel every inch, occasionally rocking so she'd graze his prostate.
“Go on, Tony,” Pepper said, her hands trying to shift him a little faster, a little harder, her eyes blown dark and glistening bright. He kept up the same pace, swiveling his hips to get a little extra friction, wanting suddenly to see what Pepper would do.
“What do you want, Pepper?” he asked. She recognized the challenge in his eyes, and suddenly bucked and twisted. With an oof, Tony slid off of her and landed on his back on the bed. Pepper suddenly loomed over him, pushing his legs apart and back, her dick back against his hole. She paused, on hand on his calf, and took a single deep breath.
“Color?”
“So incredibly beautifully brilliantly emerald green,” Tony said, and keened as Pepper sank her cock into him. She loomed over his body as he grabbed his own legs to hold them apart, welcoming her as she thrust into him almost frantically, pounding into his body as if she'd been born to do it. Tony couldn't put a hand on his long-neglected erection, and Pepper was too busy holding herself up, but they ended up not needing it as Tony spurted untouched, spattering his scarred chest with his come as Pepper drove into him another dozen strokes and froze, moaning as she came inside him, liquid heat shot deep and satisfying inside his body. They held the tableau for another minute before Pepper almost collapsed on him, managing to pull out before she had to just lay there, staring at Tony and panting for breath.
“You're amazing,” Tony said finally, kissing her again and thoroughly, working the kinks out of his hands.
“I love you,” Pepper said, stroking her hand down the side of her face.
“Same here. I told you, you're perfect.”
Pepper's smile now held some belief in it, right before she broke in a rueful grin. “Pegging won't be the same after this,” she said a bit wistfully.
“We'll have to make the most of it,” Tony said with a melodramatic sigh. Then he considered something. “You know, once we give Extremis that new blueprint for your usual female you, you'll still technically have this one on standby.”
Pepper gaped at him, and then broke out laughing. “Cock on demand?”
“Oh man,” Tony said, a whole new world of dazzling possibilities opening up in front of him. “That is just... You said it first!”
It took both of them a while to be able to look at each other without laughing, Pepper finally getting calm first. “Maybe later, once I've gotten used to being original me again for a while. Then... we'll see.”
“Dealer's choice for date night!”
Pepper pulled Tony close to her, hard planes of muscle against each other, and kissed him into loving silence. They were impossible. And that was just perfect.
Author: jaune_chat
Fandoms: The Avengers (film)
Characters/Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Happy Hogun, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanov
Rating: NC-17
Word count: 4,753
Spoilers: Films
Content Advisory: Temporary genderswap, romance, body worship
Disclaimer: Not mine, just playing.
A/N: Written for a prompt from avengerkink.
Summary: Pepper is accidentally hit with something that could cause a huge change in her relationship with Tony. He goes to show her she's perfect, any way she is.
On Ao3 or below the cut
For once, what happened wasn't a result of a city-wide battle by a megalomaniac with plans for world domination. It was just someone who didn't like Tony for the “Merchant of Death” part of his past.
It wasn't the first time someone had put a hit out on Tony. It hadn't been the first time someone had tried to take a shot at him in public. It hadn't even been the first time someone had done that post-Iron Man, post-Avengers, and post-Extremis. However, it was definitely the first time someone had tried a hit while wearing a friend's face.
“I didn't know Rhodey was going to be here,” Pepper said, waving at someone behind Tony. Then her smile faltered, and Tony turned around. It was Rhodey, standing there at the door to the restaurant, talking with the maitre'd. “He's on the short list,” she said, in a much quieter voice. Happy, standing a few paces back from their lunch table, took a few forward at her tone.
Which meant Rhodey should have walked right in. He knew that, and the staff knew that. Alarm thrilled along Tony's nerves, and he felt for the mini repulsors on bracelets around his wrist even as Happy's hand moved closer to his gun. It would just take a single twitch to bring the repulsors into play, and then Happy could concentrate on covering Pepper. Paranoid? Yes, but Tony had damn good reason. If Rhodey was just asking Carlos a question, then they could just all laugh this off and continue on with lunch...
Pepper's phone rang. “It's Rhodey,” she said tightly, clutching the phone in her hand. Tony turned back to the false Rhodey, who looked up in time to see the set of Tony's face. With a dead-eyed expression, fake-Rhodey charged unbelievably fast, actually going up walls and bouncing off of furniture before thrusting his hand forward, a glint of something metallic in it.
“Boss!” Happy yelled. He got a shot off, and made fake-Rhodey have to make an abrupt change in course. Tony twisted, adjusted his aim as fast as he'd been drilling with Clint and nailed the assassin with a powerful repulsor blast. Fake-Rhodey dropped like a ton of bricks on the floor, but the small satchel he'd been carrying snapped off with the force, flew over Tony's shoulder, right by Happy before he could react, and hit Pepper square in the chest. There was a tinkling sound of glass breaking, and Pepper gasped, but immediately said, “I'm okay!”
Tony took her word for it and went to check out fake-Rhodey as he heard Pepper saying into the phone, “We know, we know, Tony just took him out. We're okay, ah-!” There was another gasp, more pained this time, and he heard Happy say, “Boss...” in the tone that meant, we're in trouble. Fake-Rhodey seemed satisfactorily unconscious, Tony disarmed him just be sure, and went back to Pepper. She was shaking, but still managed to get out, “We're okay. I'll call you back,” before hanging up and moaning very quietly. There was a wet stain on the lapels of Pepper's power suit, and fake-Rhodey's satchel and its contents were at her feet.
“Tony,” Pepper said, her voice low and sounding raspy. “Get me out of here!”
Tony looked up for Pepper's PA, Mindy, then at the door where New York's finest were just arriving. Mindy just straightened her shoulders, pulled out her phone, and put herself squarely between Tony and the men and women in blue. It hadn't been the first time one of Pepper's PAs had been left holding the bag, and likely it wouldn't be the last. Tony made a note to tell JARVIS to make a note to give her a bonus next paycheck, because she was going to have to do some fancy dancing to explain all of this.
-
Tony, Pepper, and Happy slipped out the back, the satchel and its contents with them so Tony could analyze what the hell was going on as soon as they got back to the Tower.
Pepper remained curled up in a ball, under Happy's coat, shaking and shivering and moaning, her head ducked down. Tony's frantic questions only elicited a response of, “It hurts.” And since Pepper had enough modified Extremis still in her to take care of pesky things like bullet wounds, that should not be happening. Tony's mind was racing, and by the time Happy had gotten them to the Tower, Tony was frantic enough to drop all protocols, called Iron Man to him, cradled the still curled-up Pepper to his chest, and flew right to the lab floor.
He lost her shoes in the flight, and she was undoubtedly going to be pissed about that later, but Tony really didn't care. He gently put her down on one of the beds, and shed Iron Man before starting to call out commands to JARVIS.
“Get Banner on the horn and tell him to come down here. Start analysis on this,” Tony dumped the satchel, each of the little glass containers inside, and Pepper's stained coat onto a smart table, and then slid across to the monitors he used on himself when experimenting with things he probably shouldn't. “And get a diagnostic on Pepper, we have to figure out what he did to her-.”
“Tony, um... I think I know.”
Pepper's voice sounded oddly deep, and Tony turned away from his monitors as Pepper uncurled and rose up from the table, looking frightened, disconcerted, and a little... sheepish? Tony blinked and looked again, checking her from toe to head. Pepper's usually dainty feet looked oddly enlarged, her legs even longer than ever, her slim curves had disappeared into a much more angular, flat frame, her suit-skirt was hanging oddly off her hips, her throat had the bump of an Adam's apple, and her jaw had a decidedly squarer shape with a hint of... stubble?
Her long red hair still reached to the middle of her back, and her face was almost the same shade as Pepper found her (deeper) voice again.
“I'm a man.”
Tony's jaw just about hit the floor.
--
“So, fake-Rhodey was a chameleon?” Bruce was saying, looking at a sample of the chameleon's bag of tricks.
“Yeah, probably more your girlfriend's area then mine, but look at this stuff. She was some kind of ex-spy for who the hell even knows. Probably Natasha, she knows,” Tony said, looking over at her expectantly. He wasn't in the mood for their usual banter and beating-around-the-bush, and luckily, neither was she.
“Yeah, I do know. I knew her as Alicia Simmons, but I know she had a dozen different cover identities at any given time. She was loaned to the Red Room a few times. She'd been working closely with a geneticist to become the ultimate assassin and spy, using some kind of accelerated genetic resculpting virus to alter herself to literally be a person the target trusted. But she was expensive to retain, even for the Red Room. I'd guess she fell on hard times if she was going after you, Stark,” Natasha said. “The upshot was, she had to keep dosing herself to stay as someone else, so whatever landed on Pepper can't be permanent.”
Tony heaved a sigh of relief. He'd figured the same, but it was good to hear it from someone else...
“I'd second that, until I saw this,” Bruce said, looking up from the microscope. “I can't even tell you how many transformative substances I've looked at since... the Big Guy showed up, but this is along the lines of a temporary genetic re-write. The problem is, Pepper has Extremis. And,” he pointed at another slide, one with Pepper's blood, “Pepper's Extremis thinks she's male now.”
Tony's heart sank again before he squared his jaw and shook his head. “Whatever can be written can be re-written.”
Bruce nodded, smiled, and held up his tablet. “I've got my pen.”
“And I've got JARVIS.”
Natasha leaned back, and held up a stopwatch she'd procured from Bruce's desk. “And I'm timing you. Go!”
---
“...so with Natasha flogging us with razor-edged Russian wit for the better part of twelve hours, we figured out a counter-agent,” Tony was saying, running a hand through his hair which was already standing straight up from yanking on it in frustration until they'd hit on their solution. Pepper was sitting on the edge of the bed, facing slightly away from him, but he could see her broader shoulders relaxing in relief. “The only bad part is it has to percolate in a sequencer for two weeks before it's ready,” he said, and sighed.
“Oh.” Pepper's deeper voice sounded oddly small. “But... you found it. I... thank you, Tony. And thank Bruce and Natasha for me too, okay?”
Tony was almost seeing double with how tired he was, but he reached out and touched her hair, took her hand (bigger than before) trying to get her to look at him. She tried to pull her hand away, but Tony took a slightly firmer grip.
“No. Pepper, no, look at me,” he whispered. He heard her swallow, and she turned to face him. Despite only have been male for a day, she'd already mastered the art of shaving, so with the lack of stubble and her long hair, she still looked quite a lot like herself. “You're beautiful.”
“I just... I can't,” she said. He hadn't seen her so upset before, not even when Killian had had her strapped to a table and glowing with unquenchable fires from within.
“Yeah, you can. I love you,” Tony said. “And I'm about to fall over.” He squirmed up the bed, still holding her hand, and Pepper had to come with him. Tentatively, she lay down beside him, uncertainty still all over her face. But Tony just kissed her softly right before he passed out.
---
Tony woke up to the faint taps of a keyboard near his head, and pried open his eyes to see Pepper tapping away, occasionally taking a break for a sip of her morning power smoothie. He shifted just enough to see she was answering a backlog of CEO e-mails at lightning speed, sublimating herself in her work. The little worry-line on her brow was more prominent on her male face, but it was still the same expression he'd seen on her hundreds of times before. Usually directed at him.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he said. Pepper didn't even start, just looked down at him (and it seemed to be a longer distance, because, unfairness of unfairness, Pepper was even taller as a man, and didn't need heels to top him easily) and smiled. She reached out to brush the hair away from his head like she usually did, and hesitated as her own hand came into view. Tony took it and directed it to his messy locks, and she tentatively resumed tidying him up. Tony just lay there for a few minutes, marveling. Just yesterday she'd had her sex swapped. Today she was right back at work. He took her hand and kissed it. Her nails were still as perfectly even, filed, and neatly polished as they always were, and he idly wondered if nail polish carried over during a transformation like that, and concluded that it did.
“I'm all right, Tony,” Pepper said, turning off her tablet and setting it aside. She was dressed in an oversized t-shirt and a pair of yoga pants out of her own wardrobe, though Tony wondered (less idly, and bit more practically... and salaciously) if she had gotten some boxer-briefs delivered. Because Pepper's lingerie collection was extensive, but would definitely be a little pinchy with the new equipment.
“I can't go in to work or anything, but I'm all right. I was just giving myself a two-week vacation. Between Mindy and Jonathan, they can handle anything that might come up,” she said.
“Good,” Tony said, and sat up to kiss her. Pepper responded for a minute, then pulled back and looked at him with uncertainty.
“Are you okay with-?” she waved her hand over her face and body.
“You're perfect. Any way you are, is perfect,” he told her. Because that was true. It was true when she had worked her way up to became the CEO of Stark Industries, when she hadn't given up on him for all the crazy things he had done, when she had gone after Obi only armed with a key card and her courage, when she'd held them both together through her job and his Avenging, when she'd endured unimaginable pain at the hands of his enemies only to take them down herself, and when she was male for a time.
She pressed her lips together, and then leaned forward to kiss him again. There was a faint hint of roughness to the skin of her face, and her lips were a little thinner, but everything else was the same, and Tony just kissed her, enjoyed kissing her, running his fingers through her hair, listening to the little sounds she made. He let one hand drift casually down her neck, and then across the flat plane of her pectoral muscle to brush the thin cloth over her nipple, and she gasped and pulled back a little, spearing him with her glance.
“Are you serious?” she demanded.
“What? You don't want to take everything for a test drive? When else are you going to get the opportunity?” He grinned at her, and her lips twisted a bit as she tried to hide a smile.
“Hedonist,” she admonished.
“Uh, yeah. Hi, I'm Tony Stark, professional superhero, billionaire philanthropist, and dedicated hedonist. That's going to be engraved on my tombstone.”
Pepper chuckled, and the register of that did a few interesting things to Tony's libido.
“I didn't know you-”
“Played both sides? Hey, I worked my way through the Playgirl calendar of switch-hitters too, I'll have you know. Just to make things equal.” He waggled his eyebrows at her, and she laughed out loud.
“So,” she said, letting her voice go low and a little sultry, “you can make it good for me, Mr. Stark?”
“So very, very good, Ms. Potts.” He reached in to meet her in a harder kiss, and started to reach for her shirt hem when suddenly she slithered off the bed and left him grasping air. Tony pouted a little when he saw Pepper standing at the foot of the bed, but she just smile enigmatically at him.
“I'll think about it and get back to you. Right now, I have two weeks of vacation, and I haven't had that in years.”
Tony couldn't argue with that; he'd been arguing that she needed to take a vacation just last week. Hell of a way to get one.
“Movie marathon?” he asked.
“Multiple ones,” she confirmed. Tony sighed heroically, and Pepper wagged a finger at him. “And after I'm done thinking, you better be ready.”
-
When you had two people like Pepper and Tony, both independent adults with their own interests, no matter how much they loved each other, every now and then they liked their free time on their own. Pepper had several months' worth of backlog of movies she'd been meaning to see, and Tony figured he could use the time to do a little inventing that didn't have anything to do with Iron Man, the Avengers, or the arc reactor.
It didn't mean that Tony wasn't stopping by to watch a movie or three, or that Pepper didn't pop down to the workshop, but it was nice to be able to casually drift together and apart without having to put their dates down on a calendar around Pepper's work schedule and Tony's Avenging.
It was also pleasure deferred, with Tony having plenty of time to think up several dozen things he wanted to show Pepper when she was ready. And despite evidence to the contrary, Tony had learned a thing or three about waiting.
It was totally worth it.
Four days into Pepper's “man-cation” (as Tony was very privately calling it, because sometime down the road this would probably be hilariously funny), Tony had drifted back into the bedroom, thinking of joining Pepper for another film. And froze. Because Pepper was standing at the three-way mirror in front of their walk-in closet (which was maybe a quarter of the penthouse). In a suit. An exquisitely tailored navy pinstriped suit with a white shirt underneath and a neat, solid charcoal tie, all of it looking exceptionally sharp on Pepper's new frame.
“Damn,” Tony said, low and heartfelt. Pepper looked at him in the mirror, her hair caught back in a small, neat ponytail at the nape of her neck, and turned around fully, giving him a look at every angle.
And every angle was very, very good.
“Yes. Yes to all of that,” Tony said, mouth moving without the permission of his brain. She smiled at him, and Tony was very glad he'd had a shower in the shop before he'd come upstairs.
“I think you promised me something.”
Tony's legs were moving without thinking, meeting her and tilting his head up to kiss her. And then he slowly sank to his knees. Pepper was blushing, and there was an interruption to the clean lines of her pants. He nuzzled there, feeling her hardness, and she gasped slightly, putting her hand on his head.
“You've just got to tell me first,” he said, palming her briefly before rising up again, starting on the buttons of her suit jacket and shirt, discarding the tie immediately. “Where'd you get the suit?”
“You know where Steve gets his uniform repaired and Natasha gets armored dresses and Clint gets quick-change tuxedos?” she asked. Tony nodded; the SHIELD uniform department, he'd asked them for a flight suit or two before. “It turns out they're more than happy to make a non-bulletproof suit and have high enough security clearance to know how to keep their mouths shut.”
“You look good in it,” Tony said, slowly easing the fabric off her broader shoulders.
“If you say 'you'll look even better out of it-'”
Tony forestalled her by tugging away the last of the fabric and tossed it away, leaving her torso bare. Her hands twitched, like she wasn't sure if she should cover herself or not. Tony stroked his hands down her sides, seeing how every freckle and beauty mark was still right about where he remembered it, her skin still pale and soft. He bent to take a smaller nipple in his mouth, harder muscle under his touch without the softness of a breast, and then there, that little gasp/cry she made, that was exactly how he remembered.
“So beautiful, Pep,” he said, switching sides to suck at the other, running his hands down her back to grip her ass and pull her closer. Something poked him in the belly, so he pulled back enough to look up at her. “Are you hard, Pepper? How's it feel?”
Pepper reached down to pull him into a hard, frantic kiss for an answer, and Tony's head was spinning. He reached down to undo her belt, flick open the button to her pants, and then let himself slide down until he was on his knees and right at eye-level where Pepper's erection was tenting the black silk boxer-briefs she was wearing. Tony recognized the brand, it was the same ones he wore, and he smiled as he pressed his mouth to her hot, hard flesh though the soft, smooth material.
“Tony, God...” Pepper said, her hand going back to his head to tangle in his hair. Tony rather liked the direction this was going, and shoved her pants all the way down quickly. He took her underwear down more slowly, savoring the moment, as Pepper's pretty pink cock came into view. Flushed from her face all the way down to her stomach, Tony hummed in appreciation as he pressed his lips to the tip of her cock, tongue darting out to taste her. Her hips jerked as she gasped in pleasure, and Tony took a longer taste before holding her in his hand, feeling her pulse along her length.
“You've got a gorgeous cock, Pepper,” he said sincerely, and Pepper looked like she was going to get sunburned from blushing. Tony rose to his feet and pulled her over to the bed, sitting her down so she didn't get a sudden case of jelly knees from what he was going to do. He remembered the first time a girl went down on him, and he'd nearly lost his equipment then and there because he hadn't grabbed something to stay upright.
“All right?” he asked, settling himself down between her legs again. Pepper was smooth all over, not a hair on her, and that wasn't any different than their usual. Tony on his knees between her legs wasn't new at all either, and Pepper lost some of her blush to nudge her hips forward again.
“Very all right,” Pepper said. Her hand settled into his hair again, and Tony gave her little nod.
“Go on, you know what I like.”
Pepper's confidence came trickling back, and she firmed her grip to direct Tony's mouth back where she wanted it. This time he didn't tease, just sucked her in deep and slow, tracing his tongue on the underside. Then he pulled off and did it again, and again at Pepper's urging, slowly going faster as Pepper's need built for a whole different kind of release. Tiny little noises were passing her lips, breathless little spasms that always spurred Tony on to give her the best her could. He hollowed his cheeks and sucked deep when he felt her cock swell between his lips, and felt her salty flood spurt to hit the back of his throat. Tony swallowed fast as he could, sliding her out as he crawled on the bed next to her. She just had to breathe for several long minutes, absently reaching out to pet him before she could speak.
“That felt amazing,” she said, looking at him. “No wonder you always get so incoherent when I do that to you.”
“I learned from the best,” he said, and she swatted at him in mock-anger. “No, seriously, I had to make sure I could at least match you, or I'd never hear the end of it. I've been practicing on toys for days...”
Pepper laughed out loud, and tugged at his clothing. “Naked, Tony. Right now. Let me take care of you.”
Nothing loathe, Tony set a new record for swift nakedness before pulling Pepper close so he could feel the whole length of her body against his. She was harder now, more angular, but warmer. And somehow she still smelled exactly the same. He murmured that into her hair, and then suddenly felt a little more warmth, and hardness, between them.
“Again?!” he asked with a little incredulity.
Pepper managed to look embarrassed and smug at the same time as her erection pressed against Tony's stomach. Tony had to kiss the daylight out of her before rolling over to grab something out of the bedside drawer.
“Okay, this calls for sexily desperate measures.” Tony held up a bottle of lube and waggled it.
“And who's going to use that?” she asked, genuinely curious.
Tony dropped his voice to a purr. “I thought I'd use it on me. And then use you, on me.”
Pepper sat up abruptly, one hand on her cock, and nodded very quickly. “Show me.”
Tony often thought that if he hadn't been born a Stark, he would have still made a fortune as a stripper. He made a slow, sensuous show of slicking up his fingers, silently blessing yoga lessons for letting him slowly insert one finger after another inside his ass without cramping his wrist. He teased open his pucker and carefully opened himself up, fingers pumping and dick twitching as he grazed his own prostate a few times. Pepper seemed very encouraged by the show, slowly stroking herself in a way that was almost too hot to stand watching.
“Can I have you, Pepper? Please?” Tony wasn't above begging for a good cause, and there wasn't one better than Pepper Potts.
She shivered, the really good full-body shiver, and laid herself down, her cock standing straight up.
“Please,” she said, beckoning. Tony reached out to coat her with lube, loving the noise she made, and scooted forward, carefully holding her steady as he sank back onto her. Pepper made a noise like she was dying as her dick breached Tony's body, and she went rigid, her hands on his hips, desperately trying not to slam her entire length into his warmth at once. Tony had fucked her the same way a couple times before, and she knew it took a little more effort to get things into place.
But once they did... Tony hadn't had a real cock in his ass in a while, just the occasional toy when Pepper pegged him, and he was groaning with the pleasure of her living warmth, not wanting to overwhelm her and end this too soon for both of them.
“More,” Pepper said, her hands tugging slightly on his hips, and Tony gave them both another inch. And then another, slowly, slowly sinking back until his ass made contact with her hips.
“So good,” she said, caressing his side. “Move, Tony, now!”
Tony knelt up, and then sank back again, shuddering with the intensity. Again. Again. Deep and slow, letting both of them feel every inch, occasionally rocking so she'd graze his prostate.
“Go on, Tony,” Pepper said, her hands trying to shift him a little faster, a little harder, her eyes blown dark and glistening bright. He kept up the same pace, swiveling his hips to get a little extra friction, wanting suddenly to see what Pepper would do.
“What do you want, Pepper?” he asked. She recognized the challenge in his eyes, and suddenly bucked and twisted. With an oof, Tony slid off of her and landed on his back on the bed. Pepper suddenly loomed over him, pushing his legs apart and back, her dick back against his hole. She paused, on hand on his calf, and took a single deep breath.
“Color?”
“So incredibly beautifully brilliantly emerald green,” Tony said, and keened as Pepper sank her cock into him. She loomed over his body as he grabbed his own legs to hold them apart, welcoming her as she thrust into him almost frantically, pounding into his body as if she'd been born to do it. Tony couldn't put a hand on his long-neglected erection, and Pepper was too busy holding herself up, but they ended up not needing it as Tony spurted untouched, spattering his scarred chest with his come as Pepper drove into him another dozen strokes and froze, moaning as she came inside him, liquid heat shot deep and satisfying inside his body. They held the tableau for another minute before Pepper almost collapsed on him, managing to pull out before she had to just lay there, staring at Tony and panting for breath.
“You're amazing,” Tony said finally, kissing her again and thoroughly, working the kinks out of his hands.
“I love you,” Pepper said, stroking her hand down the side of her face.
“Same here. I told you, you're perfect.”
Pepper's smile now held some belief in it, right before she broke in a rueful grin. “Pegging won't be the same after this,” she said a bit wistfully.
“We'll have to make the most of it,” Tony said with a melodramatic sigh. Then he considered something. “You know, once we give Extremis that new blueprint for your usual female you, you'll still technically have this one on standby.”
Pepper gaped at him, and then broke out laughing. “Cock on demand?”
“Oh man,” Tony said, a whole new world of dazzling possibilities opening up in front of him. “That is just... You said it first!”
It took both of them a while to be able to look at each other without laughing, Pepper finally getting calm first. “Maybe later, once I've gotten used to being original me again for a while. Then... we'll see.”
“Dealer's choice for date night!”
Pepper pulled Tony close to her, hard planes of muscle against each other, and kissed him into loving silence. They were impossible. And that was just perfect.