(fic) Something Different 2/3
Something Different 2/3
Missing Scene
By tsukinofaerii
Beta: caer_swan
Rating: SNAP
Warnings: Sex, Crack.
Spoilers: Movie: Iron Man 2
Series: Iron Man (movieverse)
Pairings: Pepper/Natalie; Tony/Pepper; suggested Tony/Steve
Summary: Roughly a year after the events at the Stark Expo, Pepper's "stable-ish" relationship with Tony has deteriorated into more -ish than stable. Tony has been keeping secrets, and he's brought home a mystery blond who occupies all his time-including the time he should have been using for work. While holding things together, Pepper finds herself getting much, much closer to Natalie. But Natalie may be hiding a few secrets of her own. (~23,000 words)
This story is a work of transformative fiction, such being defined as a work which incorporates characters and situations which have been created by other authors/artists. No infringement of copyright is intended and no profit is being made from the creation or dissemination of this work.
***
After dinner, the menfolk were safely shuffled off to watch movies in the den, which Steve had expressed an uncommon interest in. Pepper didn't care why he'd been so fascinated with Tony's sixty inch flat screen, so long as he kept Tony occupied for a few hours. Hopefully, it would be the sort of occupied that kept their clothes on, but Pepper was too drained emotionally to give much thought to it. If Tony was going to sleep with Steve, then that was the end of it. Trying to stop it would only make her feel like a jealous harpy.
Having watched Tony hang all over Steve all day, Pepper was more than ready to punch things again. Her aches from the night before had settled down, and there was nothing to keep her from thinking about how, if she weren't such a coward, it could be her down there snuggled up against Tony's side, while Elijah Wood looked adorably Hobbit-y and Viggo Mortensen tried and failed to make the movie even a little heterosexual. Steve probably wasn't snuggled in, but she would bet money Tony would be before they'd gotten through the first part of the trilogy. Even the presence of Happy in the armchair off to the side wouldn't shame Tony into behaving.
Shame only worked on people who had it.
Pepper made sure that Dummy was stowed safely out of the way before going down to the gym. She shivered when the cold air hit her skin. Someone must have turned the thermostat down. "Natalie! Are you in here?" she called, stepping in and looking around. The gymnasium didn't look at all different from the night before. She felt a little betrayed by that. Her whole life felt like it was slipping out of control. The least the room could have done was look unkempt or have magically appearing bloodstains. It should have had melodrama. Instead, all it had was...
"Natalie!" The woman herself looked up from a set of splits that made Pepper's legs ache in sympathy. She'd taken time to dress in the same black exercise gear from the night before, and had braided her hair into a club. She smiled and stretched, rolling herself to her feet in a move that Pepper thought defied the laws of physics and the flexibility of the human spine.
"Ready?" Natalie bounced in the middle of the blue padding. None of the protective gear from the day before was visible, and she definitely wasn't wearing any of it. As if aware of Pepper's eyes on her, Natalie casually bent her left leg up and stretched it overhead. "I'm going to teach you how to stretch first. It'll help with the soreness, and you'll be less likely to pull a muscle."
Pepper nodded distractedly. Her cheeks burned from blushing, but it was hard to know what Natalie might have thought of it. She had the best professionally blank expression Pepper had ever seen. "Just let me change clothes. I can't do this in a skirt."
Natalie's nose wrinkled, but she just nodded and switched legs. Pepper fled for the lockers.
There were only a dozen plain lockers, but the shower facilities were the best money could buy, and Pepper had never heard of a gym locker with a walk-in closet. Like everything Tony owned, they were stocked with everything anyone could ever need, including clothes. The least garish color was simple black pants and matching top, which was probably why Natalie was in it. One day, Pepper was going to explain to Tony that not everyone looked good in red and gold, especially not redheads. The least he could do is see about providing some more neutral shades.
Or maybe she'd just buy what she wanted, and tell Jarvis to sound an alarm if Tony tried to get rid of them. That plan had worked with the espresso machine. She'd purchased it out of spite, and now Tony had a cup every morning.
While getting dressed, she was uncomfortably aware that some of her underwear was less revealing than the skin-tight spandex and, probably, the skin-tight spandex would end up revealing the lines of her underwear, making modesty moot. After a moment of thought, Pepper decided to risk the panty lines. Natalie was-well, she was nice, and gorgeous, and a very good female friend in a world that was regularly hosed down with testosterone. When no one else listened to her complaints about Tony, Natalie did. The last thing Pepper wanted to do was scare her off. Especially when everything with Tony was going so badly; what if Natalie thought she was just a rebound?
No, Pepper told herself firmly. She was with Tony, and even if they weren't exclusive, it would feel too much like cheating. If she broke up with Tony first, and Natalie somehow actually wanted her, that would be something else entirely. But she and Tony weren't going to break up. They were just going though a rough patch. Rough year. Rough decade...
Pepper closed her eyes and thumped her head forward against a locker. The bottom edge of her panties had already rolled underneath the spandex pants, making a very visible line under them. Thong underwear had never been her preference, and now she was regretting it. I am in so much trouble.
Gritting her teeth, Pepper stripped her bottom half again and stuffed her underwear into the locker with her clothes. Hopefully, Natalie wouldn't notice the lack. Or hopefully she would, Pepper wasn't sure which. Either way, what she wouldn't be noticing was Pepper's social awkwardness, and that was all for the best.
At least when Pepper returned to the main room, Natalie wasn't bending in impossible ways any more. Standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips wasn't much better, but she could hardly be blamed for being stunning.
"Are you ready?"
There still wasn't any personal padding nearby. Pepper looked around for it as she stepped onto the mat. "Where is everything?" Stretching, she could understand not needing much protection, but she was pretty sure she might land at least one solid hit the night before. Even if she didn't, luck had to favor her at least once, on accident, didn't it?
"Not going to need it. Feet apart. Like this." Natalie stood with her feet at shoulder width. Pepper tried to mimic her, but must not have done a good enough job because Natalie leaned forward and moved her feet a little wider. "You need to learn to run away before you learn to fight."
Running away sounded like an excellent idea. "That's probably for the best. You saw me."
A warm hand pressed between her shoulder blades, pushing forward and down. Natalie's hip pressed against hers. "Bend. And breathe. Hold that pose. I did, and that's why we're taking it slow." Natalie had bent with her, and Pepper could feel her bare stomach against Pepper's bare back. One of her hands was flat against Pepper's stomach, and she was almost positive that this much contact was not needed, but trying to say so just caught the words in her throat. "Now come back up. Baby steps."
Pepper nodded jerkily as she came back upright, and Natalie didn't move. "Yeah. Baby steps."
So. Much. Trouble.
***
The next two weeks passed quietly, with Steve taking up most of Tony's time, and Natalie handling most of the running for Stark Industries. As far as the board was concerned, Tony was taking time to handle Iron Man business, which was close enough to the truth that Pepper didn't even feel bad about it. She had spent most of her time getting her muscles to work without hurting too badly, practicing the moves Natalie taught her, and covering for Tony. The peace suited her, even if it did come with a constant reminder that Tony's attention was elsewhere in the way of Steve. Paperwork didn't forget her birthday, at least.
"Ms. Potts, your presence is requested in the laboratory."
Pepper paused in signing Tony's name to company memos, lifting her pen at the end of the T in Stark. "What is it, Jarvis?"
"I believe Mr. Fury has reached Mr. Stark via videophone. He has indicated that your interruption would be most welcome."
She frowned, but immediately picked up her work and headed for the stairs. Natalie had been managing the calls on the SI lines, and Jarvis monitored the house. How had Fury managed to get a call through? Tony's lines were tighter than the DOD's, or so he said. And Tony would know, since he'd designed the DOD's security.
Her shoes clicked against the concrete floor as she reached the end of the carpet and dodged the wreckage of Tony's last accident, this one a two-foot spread of gravel that used to be ceramic tile. Every step downward sent needles of pain up through her back especially when she wobbled on a chunk of debris. Pepper clenched her teeth and ignored it, promising herself an aspirin after she'd pulled Tony's fat out of the fire. It wasn't nearly as bad as it had been the day before, which Natalie would tell her was a good sign.
Through the glass door, Tony appeared to be in very earnest conversation with Nick Fury, whose one-eyed face loomed large on the flat paneled screen. Keeping her expression as professional as she could, Pepper tapped in her passcode and opened the door. Silence immediately blasted into noise.
"-telling you that if you don't give it up right the hell now I'll-"
"-and I'm telling you that I wouldn't give it up if you had the last dick on earth-"
Pepper cleared her throat loudly and kept her eyes on her nominal significant other. "Tony, I have the papers for the Melbourne deal for you sign. You've been putting it off for a month, and they're getting impatient."
"You see?" Tony demanded. "You're making me neglect my work." His fists were planted on his desk, and his white tank was rumpled as if he'd thrown it on hastily. "I have nothing to give you, and if you don't stop harassing me and my staff, I'm going to complain to your superior. How would you like that?"
Crouched low behind the desk in a brand new shirt and jeans, Steve kept out of sight of the screen. With the placement of the desk and the stationary camera, there was no way for him to move without stepping into the blue lines that marked the viewing area. He put up a finger for silence, staring at Pepper pleadingly. She flicked her fingers at him in acknowledgement, but didn't dare let her eyes wander. It couldn't have been more obvious that what Fury wanted was Steve, and Tony was hiding him out for some reason. She hoped he wasn't a criminal.
"You know damned well that I ain't got a superior. And that's another thing!" A big, leather-clad finger pointed at her. "You know what the penalty is for lying to a federal agent when he's asking official questions, Potts?"
Technically, she hadn't lied to Fury; she'd only said that she had been told to say Tony was in Malaysia.
That was probably worth a laugh in court, and not much else.
Deliberately, Pepper stepped directly in front of the wall-fitted camera, crowding close. Behind her back, she waved a hand, hoping Steve would take the chance to scoot out of the room. "Presumably less than misusing government property to illicitly access the communication service of a private citizen?" she asked, raising her chin. "Is there anything else, sir?"
"Yeah, I got one more thing." Fury had to be as close to the camera as she was. The pores on his nose were visible on the screen, grotesquely enlarged. "You watch his back, girl."
Out of the corner of her eye, Pepper saw the glass door ease open. "Excuse me?" she demanded, raising her voice to cover any sound. "What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, there's a whole hell of a lot of people who'd like to get their hands on that new element your boyfriend's got sitting around in his chest, and he's got just enough sense to run straight off a cliff and into their arms. You watch out for him, got me?"
"I'm sure that Tony can take care of himself."
Fury's one eye opened wide in comical surprise. "I thought you were smarter than that. 'Course, you are dating him..."
"Hey!" Tony bumped Pepper aside, taking over half the screen space. "I'm right here you know!"
The giant index finger appeared again. Pepper's eyes crossed before she managed to focus them elsewhere. Video conferencing always left her with a headache. "And I ain't talking to you until you give back You Know What," Fury growled. "Fury out." The screen went dark.
Pepper rubbed her forehead and stepped out of the blue box. "Did you just have a couple's spat with Nick Fury?" she asked tiredly. It was too much to process quickly-people wanted Tony's arc reactor? Again? Fury wouldn't have said anything if there wasn't trouble brewing somewhere...
"I'll send him some flowers, he'll be fine," Tony promised, leaning back against the desk. He picked up something that could have been a screw driver mated with a Swiss army knife. "Thanks for rescuing me from the big bad wolf, Little Red Riding Hood. I owe you one."
"You owe me a dozen," Pepper snapped, still rubbing her forehead. The past two weeks had been brutal in more ways than one, and she'd been thinking so much and everything was still falling apart. "We need to talk."
"Sure, sure, just as soon-"
"No." She slapped the paperwork down on the cluttered desktop. Tony's blinked at her, expression completely innocent. "We're going to do this right now, when you don't have any gadgets or criminals or pretty blonds to distract you."
"Steve isn't really pretty, more rugged-"
"Tony!"
"Okay, okay." The screw-driver-slash-knife-thing dropped to the desk, and Tony held up his hands in the universal sign for surrender. "You've got me cornered. Let's talk."
Having him there, with his brown eyes and all of his attention on her for what felt like the first time in a month, every topic Pepper had been saving up scattered. There'd been so many, and she'd gone over them again and again, twisting them to every angle, trying to find some way to make them work but they wouldn't because Tony just didn't want to help at all. He was content just to skate by with things the way they were, never changing anything until it was broken beyond repair. Everything was just the way he wanted it-he had his toys and his suit and his lifestyle and her, and she didn't want to be just another toy.
"I can't do this any more."
Pepper froze at the sound of her own voice. She hadn't meant to say that, but it had come bubbling out anyway. It was the condensed form of everything that had been bothering her. The secrets, and the danger, and never knowing if this time Tony's attention would never come back to her, and not even knowing if he still wanted something more and being too scared to ask... "I can't. This is- I just can't. I quit."
Tony looked just as shocked as she did. He hopped off the desk, hands still up and empty. "No, no no no, come on Pep. You can't quit on me now. Who else is going to remember my social security number? I need you."
Quickly, she took another step back, before he could touch her. If he touched her-if he kissed her, that would be it. She'd never been able to resist Tony's kisses. No one could, really. "That's the problem, isn't it?" Pepper asked, throat tight. "You need me. You need me to pick up the pieces after you've broken them and to take care of you and to sit around waiting for you to remember I'm here and I can't do that any more. You don't care how hard you make it for me, because you know I'll be here when it's over."
"Pepper-"
"No, Tony." For once, she wasn't crying. Later, maybe, but for now she was dry-eyed. That worried her. She'd cried enough over him that she knew the signs of when there should be tears. "This is-I'm breaking up with you. That's it."
"But I love you."
She closed her eyes and took a breath that tried to lodge in her throat. "I know." More white lies, but it would make him feel better. "And I love you, too. This isn't your fault. It's just not working. I can't wait for you any more."
Tony moved into her space enough that she could feel his body heat. "If this about being exclusive? Because I don't mind-I want-"
"It's not just that. I thought you would change-that it could be different." Pepper opened her eyes. Up close, she could see where Tony's were damp with tears, and her stomach gave a painful lurch. "That was wrong of me. I'm sorry. You need someone who can keep up with the whole super hero thing, and that's not me."
"I can build you a suit-it would be no problem, I already have a design-"
She almost laughed. It came out as a choked giggle that nearly turned to a sob. He let herself lean forward, to rest her forehead against his shoulder. "Maybe later. But that's not going to help, I think."
"I'm sorry." When his arms came up around her, it felt good. She still wanted to sink into him and let him convince her, but she could resist it. "Are you really quitting? You don't have to-Natalie can't handle everything on her own, and the board trusts you to fill in for me and there's the social security thing... and you're-we're friends, aren't we? We agreed that we would stay friends. We're still friends."
Pepper nodded against Tony's shoulder. His skin was warm against her cheek, with the faintly static buzz of the arc reactor humming in her ear. She was going to miss it, which was why she pushed away. The mention of Natalie had her mind twisting over the future, playing out scenes where Natalie and Happy tried to keep Tony under control without her. Every possible scenario ended in disaster.
But those thoughts mixed with the memory of Natalie's hands on her as they worked every night, and her smile and her friendship. It hadn't been easy, but she'd managed to keep things on a level of just friends. That hadn't worked well with Tony. It didn't feel very safe with Natalie.
She would just have to be careful. "I don't know if-okay. Okay. No quitting. But you have to listen to me more often. And no more running off and leaving me to worry."
"Deal." He nodded earnestly, a little boy promising that he'd behave. Pepper would have liked to believe him. "And Pep? I'm sorry. With the Steve thing. I didn't mean it. I just wanted-I was stupid and I didn't mean it."
He was trying to make me jealous, she realized. Some tension she hadn't know she'd been carrying around eased. It didn't change anything, but it was better to realize that they were just that poor at communication than to think that she couldn't keep his interest.
"I'm sorry too," she said, meaning it with all her heart. "And if you wanted to do it with... I mean, I won't feel hurt if you do. He's good looking." Tony was looking more and more like she was breaking his heart, so Pepper broke off that line of thought. "Steve's probably waiting for the all clear. Do you want to come up or..."
Tony shook his head, letting her go easily when she pushed free. He wouldn't look at her eyes. That was probably for the best. "No, I think I'll stay down here. Just send him down. Or keep him up there. Whatever works. I just..."
"I know." Pepper turned for the door, before she could convince herself to stay.
***
Steve was waiting half-way up the stairs when Pepper came up. His long legs stretched out on the steps below, toes pointed. Bright and shiny and new and so incredibly young, that was what he looked like to her. His sneakers weren't even scuffed yet, Pepper noticed distractedly, even though he'd been in Tony's company for two weeks straight.
Remembering that he was a stranger, and couldn't have any idea what he'd been dropped into the middle of, Pepper forced a weak smile. "You might want to give him a moment," she said, stepping past him.
"I started to go back, but it looked like you needed privacy," Steve admitted.
Pepper paused, turning to look at him. Or, more accurately, to look at his back, since Steve hadn't turned to watch her climb. It wasn't his fault that things had gone so horribly. If she'd been brave enough to risk being exclusive... but she hadn't, and Tony hadn't told her he wanted it. By comparison, all Steve had was bad timing.
"We did." She reached down to touch the top of his head, ruffling the unfashionably short cut. "I'm sorry we didn't wait for another time, but Tony and I needed to talk about some things. But it's over now."
Steve's shoulders rounded, tugging at the seams of a dusky grey band shirt that was just slightly too small across his well-muscled shoulders. "If my being here is causing any trouble..."
"It's not." And strangely, that was the truth. It wasn't Steve's fault that Tony had decided to use him. "Just tell Tony... Tell him that I'm taking the rest of the day off. He knows how to order pizza. Probably. No, never mind that, just let Jarvis order the pizza. I'll be back tomorrow." She patted Steve's head again, and then left him on the stairs.
Purse, keys and cellphone were held up helpfully by one of the many unnamed robots as she left through the main entrance. Jarvis must have been listening in. That irked her, even though she couldn't blame the AI. He was the house, and Tony had programmed him with all the respect for personal space that Tony himself had.
No one had called for Happy to bring her car around, which Pepper was grateful for. She didn't want to explain to him what had happened between her and Tony. He'd get that hopeful light in his eyes, and she just wasn't ready to deal with it.
While she crossed the lawn to the garage complex, she popped in her earpiece and dialed Natalie.
It was picked up on the third ring. "What's wrong?" she demanded as soon as the line clicked into clarity. "You never call me on this line."
"Nick Fury got through on Tony's private line." Bright springtime sunshine faded into the cool gloom of the garage. Pepper's heels snapped against the concrete, the sound bouncing off the ceiling. Her gold Lexus waited exactly where she left it, apparently spared of Happy's urge for joyrides.
"What happened? Is there trouble?" Natalie asked, sounding worried. There was a steady, low murmur of voices behind her that was distracting. A television? "I've been monitoring the lines all day."
"I know, and I'm not blaming you. Fury has his ways." Pepper juggled her purse and keys to get the driver's side door unlocked. "Everything's fine. Really. Fury's angry, but he always is. I just wanted to let you know that he'd gotten through, and that I won't be available for our thing tonight." Leather seats creaked and squished comfortably under her as Pepper slid inside the car. Having Happy drive her everywhere was a luxury, but just then she was glad she'd maintained her own car.
"What happened?" Natalie demanded again, voice dropping a note. She sounded so serious that Pepper fumbled her keys, and ended up doing an odd dance where one hand dropped them just in time for the other hand to make a grab. She finally had them in a firm grip in both hands before she answered.
"It's... Tony. We talked. It's over." Saying it to Natalie suddenly made everything more real. Pepper couldn't just turn around and tell Tony that she'd changed her mind. Natalie was too good of a friend to let her do that. The tears Pepper had been missing finally started pricking the back of her eyes. She leaned forward, resting her forehead against the steering wheel. "I told him we're done."
"Oh, Pepper." Natalie's voice in her ear dropped low, and the sounds of the television conversation vanished in the click of a closing door. "What are you going to do? Did you quit? You know that Tony can't live without you-he'll blow himself up trying to make a better waffle iron."
"No-no waffle irons. I'm still working for him. I just... I need a night off. To get my head together." A noise in the garage caught Pepper's attention, and she lifted her head to see Happy staring worriedly at her from the other side of the building. Waving him off, she finally started the car and shifted into gear. "I'll be back tomorrow."
"What are you going to do tonight?"
Biting her lip, Pepper navigated the curves of Tony's driveway with ease. "I don't know. Therapy shoe shopping. Ice cream. Maybe an old movie." She hadn't thought that far ahead when she'd decided to take the afternoon off. Sitting home alone would just leave her feeling like she should be babysitting Tony, but she didn't know what else to do. There was no way she could deal with him just then.
"You're going to mope," Natalie corrected. "Go out somewhere. You deserve it, and it'll take your mind off Tony."
The gates opened for her car, and Pepper pulled out onto the interstate. There was no sign of the lunchtime traffic she normally would have expected, but it was a little early for it. Or maybe it was just a slow day. "I don't know, Natalie. I'm really not the type... I never go out, and I'm ridiculously lightweight-it's really not a good idea..."
"Just a few drinks. And maybe a few songs on the dance floor," Natalie wheedled, and in spite of her gloom, Pepper caught herself smiling. "I know a place. We'll make the rounds, and then you can go sulk with your ice cream and movies."
"I don't sulk!"
"Then prove it."
"Fine." Rolling her eyes, Pepper changed lanes. Talking to Natalie always made her feel better, even if it was only for the moment. "Just a few."
***
Pain.
Pepper groaned and buried her face deeper in the pillow as her alarm clock beeped cheerily. Her skull felt like the results of Tony's last experiment with the food processor-unpleasantly green and more than a little exploded. She pushed herself up a few inches, but her head spun and she ended up collapsing face-first to the bed again. Butterflies filled her stomach, but not the good, fluttery sort she got when Natasha or Tony or even Steve smiled. No, they were the sort that wouldn’t settle down and kept trying to crawl up her throat.
Breathing shallowly, Pepper turned her face out of the pillow. The clock said 8:07, which was far too late. Time to get up. Swallowing, she tried to say, "Jarvis, turn off the alarm," but it came out mumbled and broken. Certainly, there was no pleasant voice acknowledging the request and offering her coffee.
At the thought of coffee, the butterflies collectively went on a rampage. No coffee, then.
Before she could make another attempt, the alarm cut off mid-beep. Pepper blinked at it in confusion. There was a hand on it. A big hand, with blunt fingertips and a few scars across the knuckles. Her eyes followed the hand up to the arm it was connected to, and then the shoulder. They didn't quite want to make the leap from shoulder to face, but when they finally did she found herself staring at Steve. Even through the goop-filled headache, he was terribly pretty.
"Mmrnnph?" she mumbled gracefully, brows furrowing. He was kneeling by her bed, wearing an old-fashioned button up pajama top and, presumably, matching bottoms. She remembered buying them, but hadn't actually thought he would wear them. They seemed significant for some reason, but trying to put her finger on it made her head pound.
"Jarvis thought you might need some human help," he whispered. After the bleating of the alarm, hearing a soft voice was a blessing to the ears. "I brought aspirin."
Aspirin. Aspirin sounded wonderful. Pepper mumbled something that sounded almost like gratitude, and tried to push herself upright again. This time, with Steve's help, she managed to work herself into a sitting position. The bed felt like it would drift out from under her, and the butterflies all flapped together, but after a moment it steadied. Helpfully, Steve pressed a glass of water and two little white pills into her hands, which Pepper downed gratefully, along with the entire contents of the water glass. She passed it back to Steve and started to take stock of the situation.
A quick examination showed she was still in her clothes from the night before, though they were much more rumpled than she remembered, and her new pumps were missing. Everything else seemed in place-she even still had her buttons done up properly. Still out a pair of shoes, but maybe she'd taken them off at home.
After plopping inelegantly back into the booth, Pepper stared accusingly down at her feet and pouted. She couldn't stand. It wasn't fair. Natalie could stand! In a fit of disgust, she kicked her shoes off and tried again. This time she was able to get vertical, with a lot of help from Natalie that also involved a lot of hands where they really shouldn't have been in public. She squeaked and dodged, almost falling over again until she was able to steady herself on the table.
Or not.
Steve's face was set with worry. "Are you feeling okay?" he asked, still speaking softly. Clearly, he was a man who was familiar with hangovers.
Pepper cleared her throat before she tried speaking again. "I'll survive," she croaked. At least her throat felt a little better than her stomach. "How did I... did I drive? Please say I didn't drive." She knew better than to drive after drinking. If she'd done it anyway, put all those other people at risk, she would never forgive herself. Just because it turned out well once didn't mean it was okay.
Worry about her potential stupidity eased when Steve shook his head. "You called for a ride," he explained. "Mr. Hogan and I picked you up. You were very... um..." His cheeks turned red as he visibly fumbled for words.
"Drunk?" Pepper smiled wanly, and pressed her fingertips to her forehead. The aspirin was taking affect, easing some of the throb. She remembered hugging Happy through the window, and something about ninjas, and the backseat...
"Not fair," Natalie muttered, scraping her nails up Pepper's thigh to just under the hem of her skirt. "You said not while drunk." Her lipstick had all worn off except for a little bit around the edge of her lips. Everything else that was left was Pepper's.
"Oh, God." Oh God, oh God, oh God." Blood drained out of her face, making her headache even worse. "I kissed Natalie!" In the car, while the men were right there. Embarrassed beyond repair, Pepper buried her face in her hands. "I am so, so sorry-you shouldn't have had to see that. Two grown women acting like hormonal teenagers, you must have been-I am so sorry."
Maybe they would put it down to the alcohol. People did crazy things under the influence, and Pepper almost never drank that much. Happy knew about her, but she was pretty sure no one had told him about Natalie, and Steve couldn't have known about either of them.
If they were in a contest to see who would blush redder, Steve won because Pepper's horror had made her pale, while Steve just kept darkening.
"I- ah, it's okay," he mumbled. "You fell asleep pretty quick, and... um, ammonia takes out lipstick stains?"
"Lipstick stains?" Pepper risked peeking through her fingers. Steve was staring down at the empty glass, so it was reasonably safe to drop her hands. Just like she'd feared, there was a creamy, pinkish smear on her collar. That was really very incredibly Not Good.
Okay, time to get a grip, Pepper told herself firmly. She'd woken up with no unexplained mess, no phone numbers, and most of her clothing. Even if she'd been all over a co-worker, who'd been all over her in turn, she was still ahead for the night. There'd been much more embarrassing morning-afters in college.
Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to straighten up. She had a job to do, and a hangover wasn't going to stop her. "Thank you for making sure we got home safe. And for the aspirin. And for putting up with us."
"It was my pleasure. You've been very kind to me since I came here." Steve was still the human shade of a ripe strawberry, but he smiled and stood. "I'll go see if Dummy knows how to make any hangover remedies."
Pepper wrinkled her nose. Hangover remedies, as far as she remembered, tended to be as disgusting as they were ineffective. But she owed Steve for the night before, and if swallowing down tomato juice and a raw egg would make him happy... "Thank you."
Once she was alone, Pepper set about dressing. Skirt. Flats, since her other shoes were missing. Blouse. Out of hose, but her last leg wax was still fresh; as long as she didn't have to go to the office, it would do. Other than that, the closet was empty of suitable business clothes. One lab accident and she'd be down to wearing her comfy pants again, unless one of the house 'bots had taken care of it.
She'd have to check Tony's closet. Dummy never remembered to bring her clothing to her room.
Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to visit the office. Just straightening up from putting on her shoes made her stomach twist-trying to drive would be a Bad Idea. Happy might help, but that would mean looking Happy in the eye, which was best saved for when her head was attached more firmly.
Pepper gritted her teeth and forced herself through her usual routine. Hair-brushed and pulled back. Remove her old make-up, and then reapply. She hesitated, but put her lipstick in her pocket. She'd put it on after she ate something and brushed her teeth. Old liquor tasted disgusting, but she'd have to brush her teeth after eating anyway. It didn't take long to make herself presentable enough to appear in the kitchen. Just in case, she double-checked before leaving the room.
The house was quiet, with the tense sort of feeling that she got sometimes when Tony was working on something dangerous. She ignored the feeling of her spine creeping with long practice and made her way down the hall to the stairs.
Half-way there, one of the doors popped open. A hand wrapped around her upper arm and yanked her back into one of the bedroom. After a moment of stunned shock, Pepper punched her elbow behind her, trying to land a blow. The elbow missed, and when she tried to twist free her attacker moved too, shoving Pepper against a wall by her shoulders.
Natalie smiled down at her. There was no sign that she'd suffered the way Pepper was, but that was the sort of unfair that Pepper was starting to become used to. Natalie probably hadn't even needed any aspirin. Her hair was still a mass of abused curls, and she was dressed in the same clothes from last night, but her eyes were clear and her breath was minty fresh. Pepper swallowed and pressed her lips together, squishing herself back against the wall.
She knew she should have brushed her teeth.
"Good morning," Natalie smiled, leaning far too close into Pepper's space. In her heels, while Pepper was in flats, they were nearly the same height.
Pepper's lips pressed together in something like a smile as she tried to aim her morning breath away. It wasn't easy. Looking down gave her a wonderful look almost directly into Natalie's cleavage, and looking to either side would be almost as awkward as her breath. "Good morning."
"About that seduction thing. May I?" The inch of space between them vanished as Natalie pressed up against her. There were still pillow creases in her cheek, Pepper noticed, and her makeup was smeared from sleep. She must have woken up and laid an ambush immediately.
Natalie blinked up at Pepper placidly from her lap, getting a strange look as the waitress set down their shots. "Do you want to be seduced, Pepper? I want to seduce you. Even if I weren't a ninja."
Something had been strange about the whole conversation. Natalie had been so serious about being a ninja, of all things. That could have been the alcohol, but there'd been more than a few strange incidents since she'd signed on, incidents that Natalie hadn't seemed to have any trouble with. She'd always known that Natalie knew too many things for just a PA, but...
"That- that depends." Leaning back against the wall for support, Pepper damned her breath and looked Natalie in the eye. "Are you really a ninja?"
Natalie's expression changed subtly, turning harder and more serious under her smile. "Not exactly."
So many people wanted a piece of Tony. Names lined up in Pepper's mind: Hammer, Senator Stein, Moscow, the UK, Nick Fury... Two years as a hero, and Tony had pissed off a lot of powerful people. "Are you going to hurt Tony?"
"Tony knows who I am."
Great. That was just what she needed. Another secret Tony had kept from her. Pepper pushed down her anger-secrets were just another reason they hadn't worked. It was just like Tony. She was so used to being angry at him, it was ridiculously easy to ignore. Like the aches from the week before, she'd just gotten used to working through it.
What she wasn't used to was hurt from the other side. That was harder. She'd trusted Natalie, and for all she knew, everything she said had gone into a file somewhere to be read by complete strangers. Every talk about sex, or her problems with Tony, or her worries about the superhero thing.
She'd thought they were friends.
Pepper closed her eyes when they started to burn. "Did you mean it?" she asked, blaming her ragged voice on the hangover. "Did you-were we just friends so that you could... I don't know, spy on us, or bodyguard, or whatever it is you're here for? How much was a lie?"
"My name-my name is a lie." Natalie's voice was almost firm, but it hiccupped over the last word. Warm, slightly damp lips pressed against Pepper's cheek, leaving a faint tingle from the fresh toothpaste. "I didn't report anything private. Being your friend wasn't in the job description-I didn't betray any confidences. I swear."
"I like you." Pepper opened her eyes, and Natalie-or whoever she was-was right there, so close that she could pick out the places where her mascara had clumped. It was a bad idea to keep talking. Pepper's head still hurt, and her butterflies had gone into frenzy, but the words popped out of her mouth anyway, and she just didn't have the energy to stop them. "I really like you. I love Tony, but everyone loves Tony, and that's different. But I'm not sure I know who you are now."
"I'm sorry."
"So am I." One of Natalie's curls had fallen forward enough to tickle Pepper's nose. She pushed it out of the way, so that she could see the expression behind it. "I shouldn’t trust you now. I don't even know your real name."
"It's Natasha." There wasn't any space between them, so when Natalie-Natasha-took a deep breath, their breasts brushed. "I work for Fury." Her cheeks twitched as if she were holding back a smile. "He's going to be angry when he finds out that you know."
That explained how Fury gotten through the phone lines. It would be easy enough to check with Tony to make sure Natasha was telling the truth. There wasn't any reason for her to lie, though, and Pepper was tired of going through Tony for everything.
More than that, she trusted her. It didn't make any sense, but Natalie had been her friend, and Pepper's gut said that Natasha was, too. It was completely irrational, but Pepper had passed the point of caring. "Okay."
Natasha frowned. "Okay? What do you mean, okay?"
"You asked if you can seduce me," Pepper explained. "Okay. Yes. You can."
For a moment, Natasha stared at her in confusion. Then her nose wrinkled, and she giggled, leaning forward to drop a kiss to Pepper's lips.
Her mouth was soft, distracting Pepper from her headache, but not from her other problem. She leaned into the kiss, but pulled away before it could be more than just a touch. "I have morning breath," she explained. "And a hangover."
"I noticed." Natasha smiled, and kissed her again, crowding her back against the wall. "I'll just have to catch you later."
Pepper swallowed back her butterflies and nodded. "Yeah."
***
Pepper succeeded in getting through a hair of the dog, three glasses of water and the smell of Steve's bacon and eggs without being ill. Natalie-Natasha, she reminded herself-took the opportunity to slip out and go find fresh clothes; unlike Pepper, she didn't keep extras. Steve hovered around being concerned until she'd promised him that she was okay. Then he'd vanished, probably to spend time with Tony. Happy was still hiding somewhere, probably too embarrassed to face her, and she didn't really care where Tony was.
Newspaper articles sorted, e-mail and voicemails checked, twitter forged and in/out boxed balanced, Pepper took stock of her work for the day. At a glance, nothing was very pressing. Tony keeping his head down had cut down her workload to nil. There was a board meeting coming up that she would have to whip him into, but that wasn't for a week.
Later she'd have to approach Tony about the whole Keeping Secrets That Really Shouldn't Be Kept, Like That the New Hire Happens to Be a Government Agent thing, but first, she had someone else to speak to.
Taking a seat on the sofa in the den, Pepper rested her aching head on the back cushions. "Jarvis, I need you to secure a phone line. Authorization code Virginia Potts, Beta Gamma Hulk Nine Nine Two. Block all lower-level access to information about the call. No one but Tony." If she could have, Pepper would have even blocked him, but she knew better than to think that Tony would have given even her that much control. She would just have to hope he didn't think to ask.
As usual, the house's smooth voice came from overhead. "There appears to be a tapped line on the main house connection. Should I route around it?"
Frowning, Pepper pressed her palm against her forehead. That was probably one of Fury's tricks. Natasha had a year to work in whatever bugs she might have wanted to, and Tony was clearly complicit. Or one of his competitors might have gotten a bright idea to snoop. Better safe than sorry. "Route around it, and tell Tony that you found it in an hour or so."
"Mr. Stark has requested that I remain silent." Jarvis' voice dripped with annoyance and, she imagined, a bit of hurt. But that was probably just a product of good programming. "Apparently, my advice is unwanted."
Tony couldn't ignore the Jarvis for long. He used him for too much. "Then tell him when he takes the restriction off. Route around it from now on, unless Tony tells you otherwise. For now, dial Nick Fury on the most private connection you can manage."
"Yes, Ms. Potts. Dialing Mr. Fury now. The call is available on the handset to your left."
The phone only rang once before someone answered. "Stark! This had better be about my soldier!"
Pepper didn't need a video screen to picture Fury's face. It would be in close-up, maybe with a visible vein, and very, very angry. The mental image lightened her mood. He was the reason Natasha had lied to her for a year, after all. "This isn't Tony. It's not even about him."
"Potts? What the hell-how did you get this number?"
"Tony had it." Since she shouldn't be seen, Pepper studied one of her nails, using her shoulder to hold the phone to her ear. It was getting rough at the edge, and a little long for typing. Time to file them down again. "You know that I control Tony's correspondence, right? That includes his phone book."
"And I know damned well that I didn't give it to Stark."
"You might want to ask him about that, then."
Nick paused. Unlike almost every phone call she'd ever made, the silence was absolute, without even a shuffle of papers to give her a clue. "Did you and your boytoy get in a fight? You ain't usually so quick to let him defend himself."
"That's not any of SHIELD's business." Pepper gave up on her nails and folded her fingers against her palm before she got the urge to chew them smooth. That never worked out. They'd just end up as nubs, and she'd have to go to a salon to get them fixed. Then the acrylic nails would be too long and pop off after a week, and she would look completely ridiculous. "I'm calling about an employee."
"What employee?" Nothing in Fury's voice changed. "Stark Industries personnel issues aren't my problem."
"It is when one of those issues is a spy in our system."
"What's that supposed to mean?" To Fury's credit, he didn't miss a beat. "SHIELD isn't covering SI's corporate ass without a damned good reason."
"Then it's fine that I turn Natalie in for corporate espionage?" When her neck started to ache, she rotated it until it popped. "I have proof that she's involved in some sort of spying on Tony, and probably Stark Industries in general. If it's not SHIELD, then it's someone else, and that means prosecution."
Pepper reveled in the long silence while Fury probably glared at the phone. She didn't get to jerk around high ranked people as often as Tony did, but she was starting to see why he liked doing it. While she waited, she helped herself to one of the mints in the candy jar on the coffee table. They were usually for show, but since the Morning Breath incident, she'd been paying more attention to things.
When Fury finally responded, it was with a mutter of curse words. "Okay, Potts. You got me. What do you know?"
"Just enough. So she's a SHIELD agent?"
"Let’s just say that I have her name on a few of my files, and I don't disapprove of what she's doing."
Including seducing Tony, hm? Pepper thought viciously, recalling snatches of drunken conversation of the night before. Not that any officer would actually give that sort of order, but everyone knew how Tony was with girls. Fury had deliberately sent in a beautiful woman, instead of a man or someone with an engineering degree. It would have been nice to think that it was a coincidence, but she didn't have that much credulity anymore. "Alright, then I suppose that's it."
"Man, between you and Stark, I ought to just pull her out," Fury growled, and something snapped sharply over the line. "What good's an agent who's been found out?"
Sudden worry made Pepper sit up sharply. He couldn't pull Natasha out yet-they'd just started getting things sorted out! "More useful than not having one at all," she blurted. "And you're not getting someone else this close again. I personally guarantee it."
"I'll keep that in mind. Fury out." The call clicked to a close, leaving Pepper staring at the wall.
Oops.
"Did you just rat me out to my superior officer?" Natasha was back in a sleek summer dress, all pale green and matching heels. She leaned her hip against the doorjam, arms loaded down with files and paperwork. "I stopped by the office on my way back to pick up Tony's work for the day. Did you know they're remodeling the lunchroom again?"
"No one mentioned it. I'll ask Bambi the next time we speak." Any building that housed Tony for long eventually ended up being remodeled, and that had only gotten worse since Iron Man came on the scene, so Pepper wasn't very concerned. She waved Natasha over to the sofa, and tried to keep from watching her too obviously when she crossed the den floor. "You look recovered."
The file folders made a manila rainbow as Natasha spread them over the table. "You do, too." She sat just a little too close, making the cushions settle and causing Pepper to start sliding slowly towards her. "How are you feeling?"
A flush touched Pepper's cheeks as she battled the gravity of the sofa by bracing her heels. "Better. Much, much better." It wasn't working. The cushions were too soft and thick. She gave up, and let the seat suck her sideways, until their thighs were pressed together.
"And your head?" Natasha pressed two fingertips to Pepper's temple. "Still hurting?"
Breathing had become impossible. Pepper shook her head slowly. This time, Natasha's makeup was perfect, without an extra smudge or line. "Better."
We shouldn't, Pepper thought. And then, further, Why not? One kiss couldn't hurt. There were only five people in the house. Natasha was a government agent. Everything was already so complicated that there really wasn't much else she could do.
Swallowing nervously, Pepper twisted and pressed her lips to Natasha's.
Kissing Natasha when they weren't hung over or drunk was different. Pepper could track the surprised little inhale of breath, and the weight as Natasha shifted into her. Every detail was sharper, from the slide of her lipstick to the slight creak of the sofa under them.
In a moment of bravery, she slipped a leg over Natasha's and perched with her knees on the edge of the sofa. Natasha obligingly sank back into the cushions. One kiss slipped into two, just like the drinks of the night before. The muzzy feeling from too much alcohol made a return, filling Pepper's head with cotton and making her stomach twist.
A slip of her knees slid her down into Natasha's lap properly, pressing them together from chest to hips. Natasha grinned against her mouth, plucking at the hem of her blouse. "It's later," she murmured, rolling her eyes upward. Pepper laughed quietly and kissed her again.
Before they had a chance to follow through on that, a door slammed at the front of the house.
"Tony! You've got a damned lot of nerve-whoa!" Pepper and Natasha pulled away from each other as James Rhodes came to a sudden stop a few feet inside the den. The drunk feeling from Natasha's kisses flipped around and turned instantly to nauseous-hangover.
"Rhodey!" Pepper blurted. As gracefully as she could, Pepper yanked away from Natasha. She plastered on her best smile, acutely aware that her lipstick was a mess. "We weren't-you... What are you doing here?" Realizing that she was still sitting in Natasha's lap, Pepper scrambled to her feet, smoothing down her skirt and hoping she didn't look too rumbled. Natasha, who was probably much more accustomed to being caught out, just coughed and pushed back her hair, smiling innocently.
There was no fixing the damage. Rhodey lowered his face into his into his hand, rubbing his eyes. "Tony's contagious, isn't he?" he asked, sounding tired.
She'd just been caught making out with a coworker-slash-spy on her boss-slash-ex-mostly-boyfriend's couch. There was only so much twisting reality could take before it snapped. Pepper closed her eyes and reached for a modicum of inner honesty. "Yes," she answered. "Yes, he is."
"I'll start wearing a Hazmat." Rhodey still didn't look up at them. "Where is he?"
"Downstairs."
Without ever removing his hand from his eyes, Rhodey turned and headed for the steps. Pepper kept her smile locked on her face until he'd vanished. Then she collapsed back to the couch with a groan. With her head pillowed on the armrest and her feet firmly on the floor, she stretched out, covering her eyes with her forearm.
"That was so bad," she muttered. "Bad, bad, bad." Rhodey was going to tell Tony, she just knew it. And she'd only broken up with Tony yesterday, and they'd been on Tony's couch of all places. "We shouldn't have done that."
Natasha seemed to be following her thoughts, because she leaned over and rested her head on Pepper's hip. "Stop worrying. Tony's a big boy, and it's not like he hasn't been eyeing Steve like a steak dinner after a week-long fast."
"He's a big baby," Pepper corrected, but even though they were true, the words tasted sour. "You're right. I know you're right. It's just... my job to worry. Someone has to take care of him."
Rhodey's voice rose up from the stairwell. "You kidnapped Ca-"
"Borrowed," Tony said over him. "I borrowed him. Steve, back me up here."
Pepper heaved a sigh and looked down to meet Natasha's eyes. Three sets of footsteps were coming up the stairs, which meant they were out of time. "That's our cue." Together they rose off the sofa and went back to the job of keeping Tony's life together.
Onward to Part 3
Missing Scene
By tsukinofaerii
Beta: caer_swan
Rating: SNAP
Warnings: Sex, Crack.
Spoilers: Movie: Iron Man 2
Series: Iron Man (movieverse)
Pairings: Pepper/Natalie; Tony/Pepper; suggested Tony/Steve
Summary: Roughly a year after the events at the Stark Expo, Pepper's "stable-ish" relationship with Tony has deteriorated into more -ish than stable. Tony has been keeping secrets, and he's brought home a mystery blond who occupies all his time-including the time he should have been using for work. While holding things together, Pepper finds herself getting much, much closer to Natalie. But Natalie may be hiding a few secrets of her own. (~23,000 words)
This story is a work of transformative fiction, such being defined as a work which incorporates characters and situations which have been created by other authors/artists. No infringement of copyright is intended and no profit is being made from the creation or dissemination of this work.
***
After dinner, the menfolk were safely shuffled off to watch movies in the den, which Steve had expressed an uncommon interest in. Pepper didn't care why he'd been so fascinated with Tony's sixty inch flat screen, so long as he kept Tony occupied for a few hours. Hopefully, it would be the sort of occupied that kept their clothes on, but Pepper was too drained emotionally to give much thought to it. If Tony was going to sleep with Steve, then that was the end of it. Trying to stop it would only make her feel like a jealous harpy.
Having watched Tony hang all over Steve all day, Pepper was more than ready to punch things again. Her aches from the night before had settled down, and there was nothing to keep her from thinking about how, if she weren't such a coward, it could be her down there snuggled up against Tony's side, while Elijah Wood looked adorably Hobbit-y and Viggo Mortensen tried and failed to make the movie even a little heterosexual. Steve probably wasn't snuggled in, but she would bet money Tony would be before they'd gotten through the first part of the trilogy. Even the presence of Happy in the armchair off to the side wouldn't shame Tony into behaving.
Shame only worked on people who had it.
Pepper made sure that Dummy was stowed safely out of the way before going down to the gym. She shivered when the cold air hit her skin. Someone must have turned the thermostat down. "Natalie! Are you in here?" she called, stepping in and looking around. The gymnasium didn't look at all different from the night before. She felt a little betrayed by that. Her whole life felt like it was slipping out of control. The least the room could have done was look unkempt or have magically appearing bloodstains. It should have had melodrama. Instead, all it had was...
"Natalie!" The woman herself looked up from a set of splits that made Pepper's legs ache in sympathy. She'd taken time to dress in the same black exercise gear from the night before, and had braided her hair into a club. She smiled and stretched, rolling herself to her feet in a move that Pepper thought defied the laws of physics and the flexibility of the human spine.
"Ready?" Natalie bounced in the middle of the blue padding. None of the protective gear from the day before was visible, and she definitely wasn't wearing any of it. As if aware of Pepper's eyes on her, Natalie casually bent her left leg up and stretched it overhead. "I'm going to teach you how to stretch first. It'll help with the soreness, and you'll be less likely to pull a muscle."
Pepper nodded distractedly. Her cheeks burned from blushing, but it was hard to know what Natalie might have thought of it. She had the best professionally blank expression Pepper had ever seen. "Just let me change clothes. I can't do this in a skirt."
Natalie's nose wrinkled, but she just nodded and switched legs. Pepper fled for the lockers.
There were only a dozen plain lockers, but the shower facilities were the best money could buy, and Pepper had never heard of a gym locker with a walk-in closet. Like everything Tony owned, they were stocked with everything anyone could ever need, including clothes. The least garish color was simple black pants and matching top, which was probably why Natalie was in it. One day, Pepper was going to explain to Tony that not everyone looked good in red and gold, especially not redheads. The least he could do is see about providing some more neutral shades.
Or maybe she'd just buy what she wanted, and tell Jarvis to sound an alarm if Tony tried to get rid of them. That plan had worked with the espresso machine. She'd purchased it out of spite, and now Tony had a cup every morning.
While getting dressed, she was uncomfortably aware that some of her underwear was less revealing than the skin-tight spandex and, probably, the skin-tight spandex would end up revealing the lines of her underwear, making modesty moot. After a moment of thought, Pepper decided to risk the panty lines. Natalie was-well, she was nice, and gorgeous, and a very good female friend in a world that was regularly hosed down with testosterone. When no one else listened to her complaints about Tony, Natalie did. The last thing Pepper wanted to do was scare her off. Especially when everything with Tony was going so badly; what if Natalie thought she was just a rebound?
No, Pepper told herself firmly. She was with Tony, and even if they weren't exclusive, it would feel too much like cheating. If she broke up with Tony first, and Natalie somehow actually wanted her, that would be something else entirely. But she and Tony weren't going to break up. They were just going though a rough patch. Rough year. Rough decade...
Pepper closed her eyes and thumped her head forward against a locker. The bottom edge of her panties had already rolled underneath the spandex pants, making a very visible line under them. Thong underwear had never been her preference, and now she was regretting it. I am in so much trouble.
Gritting her teeth, Pepper stripped her bottom half again and stuffed her underwear into the locker with her clothes. Hopefully, Natalie wouldn't notice the lack. Or hopefully she would, Pepper wasn't sure which. Either way, what she wouldn't be noticing was Pepper's social awkwardness, and that was all for the best.
At least when Pepper returned to the main room, Natalie wasn't bending in impossible ways any more. Standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips wasn't much better, but she could hardly be blamed for being stunning.
"Are you ready?"
There still wasn't any personal padding nearby. Pepper looked around for it as she stepped onto the mat. "Where is everything?" Stretching, she could understand not needing much protection, but she was pretty sure she might land at least one solid hit the night before. Even if she didn't, luck had to favor her at least once, on accident, didn't it?
"Not going to need it. Feet apart. Like this." Natalie stood with her feet at shoulder width. Pepper tried to mimic her, but must not have done a good enough job because Natalie leaned forward and moved her feet a little wider. "You need to learn to run away before you learn to fight."
Running away sounded like an excellent idea. "That's probably for the best. You saw me."
A warm hand pressed between her shoulder blades, pushing forward and down. Natalie's hip pressed against hers. "Bend. And breathe. Hold that pose. I did, and that's why we're taking it slow." Natalie had bent with her, and Pepper could feel her bare stomach against Pepper's bare back. One of her hands was flat against Pepper's stomach, and she was almost positive that this much contact was not needed, but trying to say so just caught the words in her throat. "Now come back up. Baby steps."
Pepper nodded jerkily as she came back upright, and Natalie didn't move. "Yeah. Baby steps."
So. Much. Trouble.
***
The next two weeks passed quietly, with Steve taking up most of Tony's time, and Natalie handling most of the running for Stark Industries. As far as the board was concerned, Tony was taking time to handle Iron Man business, which was close enough to the truth that Pepper didn't even feel bad about it. She had spent most of her time getting her muscles to work without hurting too badly, practicing the moves Natalie taught her, and covering for Tony. The peace suited her, even if it did come with a constant reminder that Tony's attention was elsewhere in the way of Steve. Paperwork didn't forget her birthday, at least.
"Ms. Potts, your presence is requested in the laboratory."
Pepper paused in signing Tony's name to company memos, lifting her pen at the end of the T in Stark. "What is it, Jarvis?"
"I believe Mr. Fury has reached Mr. Stark via videophone. He has indicated that your interruption would be most welcome."
She frowned, but immediately picked up her work and headed for the stairs. Natalie had been managing the calls on the SI lines, and Jarvis monitored the house. How had Fury managed to get a call through? Tony's lines were tighter than the DOD's, or so he said. And Tony would know, since he'd designed the DOD's security.
Her shoes clicked against the concrete floor as she reached the end of the carpet and dodged the wreckage of Tony's last accident, this one a two-foot spread of gravel that used to be ceramic tile. Every step downward sent needles of pain up through her back especially when she wobbled on a chunk of debris. Pepper clenched her teeth and ignored it, promising herself an aspirin after she'd pulled Tony's fat out of the fire. It wasn't nearly as bad as it had been the day before, which Natalie would tell her was a good sign.
Through the glass door, Tony appeared to be in very earnest conversation with Nick Fury, whose one-eyed face loomed large on the flat paneled screen. Keeping her expression as professional as she could, Pepper tapped in her passcode and opened the door. Silence immediately blasted into noise.
"-telling you that if you don't give it up right the hell now I'll-"
"-and I'm telling you that I wouldn't give it up if you had the last dick on earth-"
Pepper cleared her throat loudly and kept her eyes on her nominal significant other. "Tony, I have the papers for the Melbourne deal for you sign. You've been putting it off for a month, and they're getting impatient."
"You see?" Tony demanded. "You're making me neglect my work." His fists were planted on his desk, and his white tank was rumpled as if he'd thrown it on hastily. "I have nothing to give you, and if you don't stop harassing me and my staff, I'm going to complain to your superior. How would you like that?"
Crouched low behind the desk in a brand new shirt and jeans, Steve kept out of sight of the screen. With the placement of the desk and the stationary camera, there was no way for him to move without stepping into the blue lines that marked the viewing area. He put up a finger for silence, staring at Pepper pleadingly. She flicked her fingers at him in acknowledgement, but didn't dare let her eyes wander. It couldn't have been more obvious that what Fury wanted was Steve, and Tony was hiding him out for some reason. She hoped he wasn't a criminal.
"You know damned well that I ain't got a superior. And that's another thing!" A big, leather-clad finger pointed at her. "You know what the penalty is for lying to a federal agent when he's asking official questions, Potts?"
Technically, she hadn't lied to Fury; she'd only said that she had been told to say Tony was in Malaysia.
That was probably worth a laugh in court, and not much else.
Deliberately, Pepper stepped directly in front of the wall-fitted camera, crowding close. Behind her back, she waved a hand, hoping Steve would take the chance to scoot out of the room. "Presumably less than misusing government property to illicitly access the communication service of a private citizen?" she asked, raising her chin. "Is there anything else, sir?"
"Yeah, I got one more thing." Fury had to be as close to the camera as she was. The pores on his nose were visible on the screen, grotesquely enlarged. "You watch his back, girl."
Out of the corner of her eye, Pepper saw the glass door ease open. "Excuse me?" she demanded, raising her voice to cover any sound. "What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, there's a whole hell of a lot of people who'd like to get their hands on that new element your boyfriend's got sitting around in his chest, and he's got just enough sense to run straight off a cliff and into their arms. You watch out for him, got me?"
"I'm sure that Tony can take care of himself."
Fury's one eye opened wide in comical surprise. "I thought you were smarter than that. 'Course, you are dating him..."
"Hey!" Tony bumped Pepper aside, taking over half the screen space. "I'm right here you know!"
The giant index finger appeared again. Pepper's eyes crossed before she managed to focus them elsewhere. Video conferencing always left her with a headache. "And I ain't talking to you until you give back You Know What," Fury growled. "Fury out." The screen went dark.
Pepper rubbed her forehead and stepped out of the blue box. "Did you just have a couple's spat with Nick Fury?" she asked tiredly. It was too much to process quickly-people wanted Tony's arc reactor? Again? Fury wouldn't have said anything if there wasn't trouble brewing somewhere...
"I'll send him some flowers, he'll be fine," Tony promised, leaning back against the desk. He picked up something that could have been a screw driver mated with a Swiss army knife. "Thanks for rescuing me from the big bad wolf, Little Red Riding Hood. I owe you one."
"You owe me a dozen," Pepper snapped, still rubbing her forehead. The past two weeks had been brutal in more ways than one, and she'd been thinking so much and everything was still falling apart. "We need to talk."
"Sure, sure, just as soon-"
"No." She slapped the paperwork down on the cluttered desktop. Tony's blinked at her, expression completely innocent. "We're going to do this right now, when you don't have any gadgets or criminals or pretty blonds to distract you."
"Steve isn't really pretty, more rugged-"
"Tony!"
"Okay, okay." The screw-driver-slash-knife-thing dropped to the desk, and Tony held up his hands in the universal sign for surrender. "You've got me cornered. Let's talk."
Having him there, with his brown eyes and all of his attention on her for what felt like the first time in a month, every topic Pepper had been saving up scattered. There'd been so many, and she'd gone over them again and again, twisting them to every angle, trying to find some way to make them work but they wouldn't because Tony just didn't want to help at all. He was content just to skate by with things the way they were, never changing anything until it was broken beyond repair. Everything was just the way he wanted it-he had his toys and his suit and his lifestyle and her, and she didn't want to be just another toy.
"I can't do this any more."
Pepper froze at the sound of her own voice. She hadn't meant to say that, but it had come bubbling out anyway. It was the condensed form of everything that had been bothering her. The secrets, and the danger, and never knowing if this time Tony's attention would never come back to her, and not even knowing if he still wanted something more and being too scared to ask... "I can't. This is- I just can't. I quit."
Tony looked just as shocked as she did. He hopped off the desk, hands still up and empty. "No, no no no, come on Pep. You can't quit on me now. Who else is going to remember my social security number? I need you."
Quickly, she took another step back, before he could touch her. If he touched her-if he kissed her, that would be it. She'd never been able to resist Tony's kisses. No one could, really. "That's the problem, isn't it?" Pepper asked, throat tight. "You need me. You need me to pick up the pieces after you've broken them and to take care of you and to sit around waiting for you to remember I'm here and I can't do that any more. You don't care how hard you make it for me, because you know I'll be here when it's over."
"Pepper-"
"No, Tony." For once, she wasn't crying. Later, maybe, but for now she was dry-eyed. That worried her. She'd cried enough over him that she knew the signs of when there should be tears. "This is-I'm breaking up with you. That's it."
"But I love you."
She closed her eyes and took a breath that tried to lodge in her throat. "I know." More white lies, but it would make him feel better. "And I love you, too. This isn't your fault. It's just not working. I can't wait for you any more."
Tony moved into her space enough that she could feel his body heat. "If this about being exclusive? Because I don't mind-I want-"
"It's not just that. I thought you would change-that it could be different." Pepper opened her eyes. Up close, she could see where Tony's were damp with tears, and her stomach gave a painful lurch. "That was wrong of me. I'm sorry. You need someone who can keep up with the whole super hero thing, and that's not me."
"I can build you a suit-it would be no problem, I already have a design-"
She almost laughed. It came out as a choked giggle that nearly turned to a sob. He let herself lean forward, to rest her forehead against his shoulder. "Maybe later. But that's not going to help, I think."
"I'm sorry." When his arms came up around her, it felt good. She still wanted to sink into him and let him convince her, but she could resist it. "Are you really quitting? You don't have to-Natalie can't handle everything on her own, and the board trusts you to fill in for me and there's the social security thing... and you're-we're friends, aren't we? We agreed that we would stay friends. We're still friends."
Pepper nodded against Tony's shoulder. His skin was warm against her cheek, with the faintly static buzz of the arc reactor humming in her ear. She was going to miss it, which was why she pushed away. The mention of Natalie had her mind twisting over the future, playing out scenes where Natalie and Happy tried to keep Tony under control without her. Every possible scenario ended in disaster.
But those thoughts mixed with the memory of Natalie's hands on her as they worked every night, and her smile and her friendship. It hadn't been easy, but she'd managed to keep things on a level of just friends. That hadn't worked well with Tony. It didn't feel very safe with Natalie.
She would just have to be careful. "I don't know if-okay. Okay. No quitting. But you have to listen to me more often. And no more running off and leaving me to worry."
"Deal." He nodded earnestly, a little boy promising that he'd behave. Pepper would have liked to believe him. "And Pep? I'm sorry. With the Steve thing. I didn't mean it. I just wanted-I was stupid and I didn't mean it."
He was trying to make me jealous, she realized. Some tension she hadn't know she'd been carrying around eased. It didn't change anything, but it was better to realize that they were just that poor at communication than to think that she couldn't keep his interest.
"I'm sorry too," she said, meaning it with all her heart. "And if you wanted to do it with... I mean, I won't feel hurt if you do. He's good looking." Tony was looking more and more like she was breaking his heart, so Pepper broke off that line of thought. "Steve's probably waiting for the all clear. Do you want to come up or..."
Tony shook his head, letting her go easily when she pushed free. He wouldn't look at her eyes. That was probably for the best. "No, I think I'll stay down here. Just send him down. Or keep him up there. Whatever works. I just..."
"I know." Pepper turned for the door, before she could convince herself to stay.
***
Steve was waiting half-way up the stairs when Pepper came up. His long legs stretched out on the steps below, toes pointed. Bright and shiny and new and so incredibly young, that was what he looked like to her. His sneakers weren't even scuffed yet, Pepper noticed distractedly, even though he'd been in Tony's company for two weeks straight.
Remembering that he was a stranger, and couldn't have any idea what he'd been dropped into the middle of, Pepper forced a weak smile. "You might want to give him a moment," she said, stepping past him.
"I started to go back, but it looked like you needed privacy," Steve admitted.
Pepper paused, turning to look at him. Or, more accurately, to look at his back, since Steve hadn't turned to watch her climb. It wasn't his fault that things had gone so horribly. If she'd been brave enough to risk being exclusive... but she hadn't, and Tony hadn't told her he wanted it. By comparison, all Steve had was bad timing.
"We did." She reached down to touch the top of his head, ruffling the unfashionably short cut. "I'm sorry we didn't wait for another time, but Tony and I needed to talk about some things. But it's over now."
Steve's shoulders rounded, tugging at the seams of a dusky grey band shirt that was just slightly too small across his well-muscled shoulders. "If my being here is causing any trouble..."
"It's not." And strangely, that was the truth. It wasn't Steve's fault that Tony had decided to use him. "Just tell Tony... Tell him that I'm taking the rest of the day off. He knows how to order pizza. Probably. No, never mind that, just let Jarvis order the pizza. I'll be back tomorrow." She patted Steve's head again, and then left him on the stairs.
Purse, keys and cellphone were held up helpfully by one of the many unnamed robots as she left through the main entrance. Jarvis must have been listening in. That irked her, even though she couldn't blame the AI. He was the house, and Tony had programmed him with all the respect for personal space that Tony himself had.
No one had called for Happy to bring her car around, which Pepper was grateful for. She didn't want to explain to him what had happened between her and Tony. He'd get that hopeful light in his eyes, and she just wasn't ready to deal with it.
While she crossed the lawn to the garage complex, she popped in her earpiece and dialed Natalie.
It was picked up on the third ring. "What's wrong?" she demanded as soon as the line clicked into clarity. "You never call me on this line."
"Nick Fury got through on Tony's private line." Bright springtime sunshine faded into the cool gloom of the garage. Pepper's heels snapped against the concrete, the sound bouncing off the ceiling. Her gold Lexus waited exactly where she left it, apparently spared of Happy's urge for joyrides.
"What happened? Is there trouble?" Natalie asked, sounding worried. There was a steady, low murmur of voices behind her that was distracting. A television? "I've been monitoring the lines all day."
"I know, and I'm not blaming you. Fury has his ways." Pepper juggled her purse and keys to get the driver's side door unlocked. "Everything's fine. Really. Fury's angry, but he always is. I just wanted to let you know that he'd gotten through, and that I won't be available for our thing tonight." Leather seats creaked and squished comfortably under her as Pepper slid inside the car. Having Happy drive her everywhere was a luxury, but just then she was glad she'd maintained her own car.
"What happened?" Natalie demanded again, voice dropping a note. She sounded so serious that Pepper fumbled her keys, and ended up doing an odd dance where one hand dropped them just in time for the other hand to make a grab. She finally had them in a firm grip in both hands before she answered.
"It's... Tony. We talked. It's over." Saying it to Natalie suddenly made everything more real. Pepper couldn't just turn around and tell Tony that she'd changed her mind. Natalie was too good of a friend to let her do that. The tears Pepper had been missing finally started pricking the back of her eyes. She leaned forward, resting her forehead against the steering wheel. "I told him we're done."
"Oh, Pepper." Natalie's voice in her ear dropped low, and the sounds of the television conversation vanished in the click of a closing door. "What are you going to do? Did you quit? You know that Tony can't live without you-he'll blow himself up trying to make a better waffle iron."
"No-no waffle irons. I'm still working for him. I just... I need a night off. To get my head together." A noise in the garage caught Pepper's attention, and she lifted her head to see Happy staring worriedly at her from the other side of the building. Waving him off, she finally started the car and shifted into gear. "I'll be back tomorrow."
"What are you going to do tonight?"
Biting her lip, Pepper navigated the curves of Tony's driveway with ease. "I don't know. Therapy shoe shopping. Ice cream. Maybe an old movie." She hadn't thought that far ahead when she'd decided to take the afternoon off. Sitting home alone would just leave her feeling like she should be babysitting Tony, but she didn't know what else to do. There was no way she could deal with him just then.
"You're going to mope," Natalie corrected. "Go out somewhere. You deserve it, and it'll take your mind off Tony."
The gates opened for her car, and Pepper pulled out onto the interstate. There was no sign of the lunchtime traffic she normally would have expected, but it was a little early for it. Or maybe it was just a slow day. "I don't know, Natalie. I'm really not the type... I never go out, and I'm ridiculously lightweight-it's really not a good idea..."
"Just a few drinks. And maybe a few songs on the dance floor," Natalie wheedled, and in spite of her gloom, Pepper caught herself smiling. "I know a place. We'll make the rounds, and then you can go sulk with your ice cream and movies."
"I don't sulk!"
"Then prove it."
"Fine." Rolling her eyes, Pepper changed lanes. Talking to Natalie always made her feel better, even if it was only for the moment. "Just a few."
***
Pain.
Pepper groaned and buried her face deeper in the pillow as her alarm clock beeped cheerily. Her skull felt like the results of Tony's last experiment with the food processor-unpleasantly green and more than a little exploded. She pushed herself up a few inches, but her head spun and she ended up collapsing face-first to the bed again. Butterflies filled her stomach, but not the good, fluttery sort she got when Natasha or Tony or even Steve smiled. No, they were the sort that wouldn’t settle down and kept trying to crawl up her throat.
Breathing shallowly, Pepper turned her face out of the pillow. The clock said 8:07, which was far too late. Time to get up. Swallowing, she tried to say, "Jarvis, turn off the alarm," but it came out mumbled and broken. Certainly, there was no pleasant voice acknowledging the request and offering her coffee.
At the thought of coffee, the butterflies collectively went on a rampage. No coffee, then.
Before she could make another attempt, the alarm cut off mid-beep. Pepper blinked at it in confusion. There was a hand on it. A big hand, with blunt fingertips and a few scars across the knuckles. Her eyes followed the hand up to the arm it was connected to, and then the shoulder. They didn't quite want to make the leap from shoulder to face, but when they finally did she found herself staring at Steve. Even through the goop-filled headache, he was terribly pretty.
"Mmrnnph?" she mumbled gracefully, brows furrowing. He was kneeling by her bed, wearing an old-fashioned button up pajama top and, presumably, matching bottoms. She remembered buying them, but hadn't actually thought he would wear them. They seemed significant for some reason, but trying to put her finger on it made her head pound.
"Jarvis thought you might need some human help," he whispered. After the bleating of the alarm, hearing a soft voice was a blessing to the ears. "I brought aspirin."
Aspirin. Aspirin sounded wonderful. Pepper mumbled something that sounded almost like gratitude, and tried to push herself upright again. This time, with Steve's help, she managed to work herself into a sitting position. The bed felt like it would drift out from under her, and the butterflies all flapped together, but after a moment it steadied. Helpfully, Steve pressed a glass of water and two little white pills into her hands, which Pepper downed gratefully, along with the entire contents of the water glass. She passed it back to Steve and started to take stock of the situation.
A quick examination showed she was still in her clothes from the night before, though they were much more rumpled than she remembered, and her new pumps were missing. Everything else seemed in place-she even still had her buttons done up properly. Still out a pair of shoes, but maybe she'd taken them off at home.
After plopping inelegantly back into the booth, Pepper stared accusingly down at her feet and pouted. She couldn't stand. It wasn't fair. Natalie could stand! In a fit of disgust, she kicked her shoes off and tried again. This time she was able to get vertical, with a lot of help from Natalie that also involved a lot of hands where they really shouldn't have been in public. She squeaked and dodged, almost falling over again until she was able to steady herself on the table.
Or not.
Steve's face was set with worry. "Are you feeling okay?" he asked, still speaking softly. Clearly, he was a man who was familiar with hangovers.
Pepper cleared her throat before she tried speaking again. "I'll survive," she croaked. At least her throat felt a little better than her stomach. "How did I... did I drive? Please say I didn't drive." She knew better than to drive after drinking. If she'd done it anyway, put all those other people at risk, she would never forgive herself. Just because it turned out well once didn't mean it was okay.
Worry about her potential stupidity eased when Steve shook his head. "You called for a ride," he explained. "Mr. Hogan and I picked you up. You were very... um..." His cheeks turned red as he visibly fumbled for words.
"Drunk?" Pepper smiled wanly, and pressed her fingertips to her forehead. The aspirin was taking affect, easing some of the throb. She remembered hugging Happy through the window, and something about ninjas, and the backseat...
"Not fair," Natalie muttered, scraping her nails up Pepper's thigh to just under the hem of her skirt. "You said not while drunk." Her lipstick had all worn off except for a little bit around the edge of her lips. Everything else that was left was Pepper's.
"Oh, God." Oh God, oh God, oh God." Blood drained out of her face, making her headache even worse. "I kissed Natalie!" In the car, while the men were right there. Embarrassed beyond repair, Pepper buried her face in her hands. "I am so, so sorry-you shouldn't have had to see that. Two grown women acting like hormonal teenagers, you must have been-I am so sorry."
Maybe they would put it down to the alcohol. People did crazy things under the influence, and Pepper almost never drank that much. Happy knew about her, but she was pretty sure no one had told him about Natalie, and Steve couldn't have known about either of them.
If they were in a contest to see who would blush redder, Steve won because Pepper's horror had made her pale, while Steve just kept darkening.
"I- ah, it's okay," he mumbled. "You fell asleep pretty quick, and... um, ammonia takes out lipstick stains?"
"Lipstick stains?" Pepper risked peeking through her fingers. Steve was staring down at the empty glass, so it was reasonably safe to drop her hands. Just like she'd feared, there was a creamy, pinkish smear on her collar. That was really very incredibly Not Good.
Okay, time to get a grip, Pepper told herself firmly. She'd woken up with no unexplained mess, no phone numbers, and most of her clothing. Even if she'd been all over a co-worker, who'd been all over her in turn, she was still ahead for the night. There'd been much more embarrassing morning-afters in college.
Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to straighten up. She had a job to do, and a hangover wasn't going to stop her. "Thank you for making sure we got home safe. And for the aspirin. And for putting up with us."
"It was my pleasure. You've been very kind to me since I came here." Steve was still the human shade of a ripe strawberry, but he smiled and stood. "I'll go see if Dummy knows how to make any hangover remedies."
Pepper wrinkled her nose. Hangover remedies, as far as she remembered, tended to be as disgusting as they were ineffective. But she owed Steve for the night before, and if swallowing down tomato juice and a raw egg would make him happy... "Thank you."
Once she was alone, Pepper set about dressing. Skirt. Flats, since her other shoes were missing. Blouse. Out of hose, but her last leg wax was still fresh; as long as she didn't have to go to the office, it would do. Other than that, the closet was empty of suitable business clothes. One lab accident and she'd be down to wearing her comfy pants again, unless one of the house 'bots had taken care of it.
She'd have to check Tony's closet. Dummy never remembered to bring her clothing to her room.
Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to visit the office. Just straightening up from putting on her shoes made her stomach twist-trying to drive would be a Bad Idea. Happy might help, but that would mean looking Happy in the eye, which was best saved for when her head was attached more firmly.
Pepper gritted her teeth and forced herself through her usual routine. Hair-brushed and pulled back. Remove her old make-up, and then reapply. She hesitated, but put her lipstick in her pocket. She'd put it on after she ate something and brushed her teeth. Old liquor tasted disgusting, but she'd have to brush her teeth after eating anyway. It didn't take long to make herself presentable enough to appear in the kitchen. Just in case, she double-checked before leaving the room.
The house was quiet, with the tense sort of feeling that she got sometimes when Tony was working on something dangerous. She ignored the feeling of her spine creeping with long practice and made her way down the hall to the stairs.
Half-way there, one of the doors popped open. A hand wrapped around her upper arm and yanked her back into one of the bedroom. After a moment of stunned shock, Pepper punched her elbow behind her, trying to land a blow. The elbow missed, and when she tried to twist free her attacker moved too, shoving Pepper against a wall by her shoulders.
Natalie smiled down at her. There was no sign that she'd suffered the way Pepper was, but that was the sort of unfair that Pepper was starting to become used to. Natalie probably hadn't even needed any aspirin. Her hair was still a mass of abused curls, and she was dressed in the same clothes from last night, but her eyes were clear and her breath was minty fresh. Pepper swallowed and pressed her lips together, squishing herself back against the wall.
She knew she should have brushed her teeth.
"Good morning," Natalie smiled, leaning far too close into Pepper's space. In her heels, while Pepper was in flats, they were nearly the same height.
Pepper's lips pressed together in something like a smile as she tried to aim her morning breath away. It wasn't easy. Looking down gave her a wonderful look almost directly into Natalie's cleavage, and looking to either side would be almost as awkward as her breath. "Good morning."
"About that seduction thing. May I?" The inch of space between them vanished as Natalie pressed up against her. There were still pillow creases in her cheek, Pepper noticed, and her makeup was smeared from sleep. She must have woken up and laid an ambush immediately.
Natalie blinked up at Pepper placidly from her lap, getting a strange look as the waitress set down their shots. "Do you want to be seduced, Pepper? I want to seduce you. Even if I weren't a ninja."
Something had been strange about the whole conversation. Natalie had been so serious about being a ninja, of all things. That could have been the alcohol, but there'd been more than a few strange incidents since she'd signed on, incidents that Natalie hadn't seemed to have any trouble with. She'd always known that Natalie knew too many things for just a PA, but...
"That- that depends." Leaning back against the wall for support, Pepper damned her breath and looked Natalie in the eye. "Are you really a ninja?"
Natalie's expression changed subtly, turning harder and more serious under her smile. "Not exactly."
So many people wanted a piece of Tony. Names lined up in Pepper's mind: Hammer, Senator Stein, Moscow, the UK, Nick Fury... Two years as a hero, and Tony had pissed off a lot of powerful people. "Are you going to hurt Tony?"
"Tony knows who I am."
Great. That was just what she needed. Another secret Tony had kept from her. Pepper pushed down her anger-secrets were just another reason they hadn't worked. It was just like Tony. She was so used to being angry at him, it was ridiculously easy to ignore. Like the aches from the week before, she'd just gotten used to working through it.
What she wasn't used to was hurt from the other side. That was harder. She'd trusted Natalie, and for all she knew, everything she said had gone into a file somewhere to be read by complete strangers. Every talk about sex, or her problems with Tony, or her worries about the superhero thing.
She'd thought they were friends.
Pepper closed her eyes when they started to burn. "Did you mean it?" she asked, blaming her ragged voice on the hangover. "Did you-were we just friends so that you could... I don't know, spy on us, or bodyguard, or whatever it is you're here for? How much was a lie?"
"My name-my name is a lie." Natalie's voice was almost firm, but it hiccupped over the last word. Warm, slightly damp lips pressed against Pepper's cheek, leaving a faint tingle from the fresh toothpaste. "I didn't report anything private. Being your friend wasn't in the job description-I didn't betray any confidences. I swear."
"I like you." Pepper opened her eyes, and Natalie-or whoever she was-was right there, so close that she could pick out the places where her mascara had clumped. It was a bad idea to keep talking. Pepper's head still hurt, and her butterflies had gone into frenzy, but the words popped out of her mouth anyway, and she just didn't have the energy to stop them. "I really like you. I love Tony, but everyone loves Tony, and that's different. But I'm not sure I know who you are now."
"I'm sorry."
"So am I." One of Natalie's curls had fallen forward enough to tickle Pepper's nose. She pushed it out of the way, so that she could see the expression behind it. "I shouldn’t trust you now. I don't even know your real name."
"It's Natasha." There wasn't any space between them, so when Natalie-Natasha-took a deep breath, their breasts brushed. "I work for Fury." Her cheeks twitched as if she were holding back a smile. "He's going to be angry when he finds out that you know."
That explained how Fury gotten through the phone lines. It would be easy enough to check with Tony to make sure Natasha was telling the truth. There wasn't any reason for her to lie, though, and Pepper was tired of going through Tony for everything.
More than that, she trusted her. It didn't make any sense, but Natalie had been her friend, and Pepper's gut said that Natasha was, too. It was completely irrational, but Pepper had passed the point of caring. "Okay."
Natasha frowned. "Okay? What do you mean, okay?"
"You asked if you can seduce me," Pepper explained. "Okay. Yes. You can."
For a moment, Natasha stared at her in confusion. Then her nose wrinkled, and she giggled, leaning forward to drop a kiss to Pepper's lips.
Her mouth was soft, distracting Pepper from her headache, but not from her other problem. She leaned into the kiss, but pulled away before it could be more than just a touch. "I have morning breath," she explained. "And a hangover."
"I noticed." Natasha smiled, and kissed her again, crowding her back against the wall. "I'll just have to catch you later."
Pepper swallowed back her butterflies and nodded. "Yeah."
***
Pepper succeeded in getting through a hair of the dog, three glasses of water and the smell of Steve's bacon and eggs without being ill. Natalie-Natasha, she reminded herself-took the opportunity to slip out and go find fresh clothes; unlike Pepper, she didn't keep extras. Steve hovered around being concerned until she'd promised him that she was okay. Then he'd vanished, probably to spend time with Tony. Happy was still hiding somewhere, probably too embarrassed to face her, and she didn't really care where Tony was.
Newspaper articles sorted, e-mail and voicemails checked, twitter forged and in/out boxed balanced, Pepper took stock of her work for the day. At a glance, nothing was very pressing. Tony keeping his head down had cut down her workload to nil. There was a board meeting coming up that she would have to whip him into, but that wasn't for a week.
Later she'd have to approach Tony about the whole Keeping Secrets That Really Shouldn't Be Kept, Like That the New Hire Happens to Be a Government Agent thing, but first, she had someone else to speak to.
Taking a seat on the sofa in the den, Pepper rested her aching head on the back cushions. "Jarvis, I need you to secure a phone line. Authorization code Virginia Potts, Beta Gamma Hulk Nine Nine Two. Block all lower-level access to information about the call. No one but Tony." If she could have, Pepper would have even blocked him, but she knew better than to think that Tony would have given even her that much control. She would just have to hope he didn't think to ask.
As usual, the house's smooth voice came from overhead. "There appears to be a tapped line on the main house connection. Should I route around it?"
Frowning, Pepper pressed her palm against her forehead. That was probably one of Fury's tricks. Natasha had a year to work in whatever bugs she might have wanted to, and Tony was clearly complicit. Or one of his competitors might have gotten a bright idea to snoop. Better safe than sorry. "Route around it, and tell Tony that you found it in an hour or so."
"Mr. Stark has requested that I remain silent." Jarvis' voice dripped with annoyance and, she imagined, a bit of hurt. But that was probably just a product of good programming. "Apparently, my advice is unwanted."
Tony couldn't ignore the Jarvis for long. He used him for too much. "Then tell him when he takes the restriction off. Route around it from now on, unless Tony tells you otherwise. For now, dial Nick Fury on the most private connection you can manage."
"Yes, Ms. Potts. Dialing Mr. Fury now. The call is available on the handset to your left."
The phone only rang once before someone answered. "Stark! This had better be about my soldier!"
Pepper didn't need a video screen to picture Fury's face. It would be in close-up, maybe with a visible vein, and very, very angry. The mental image lightened her mood. He was the reason Natasha had lied to her for a year, after all. "This isn't Tony. It's not even about him."
"Potts? What the hell-how did you get this number?"
"Tony had it." Since she shouldn't be seen, Pepper studied one of her nails, using her shoulder to hold the phone to her ear. It was getting rough at the edge, and a little long for typing. Time to file them down again. "You know that I control Tony's correspondence, right? That includes his phone book."
"And I know damned well that I didn't give it to Stark."
"You might want to ask him about that, then."
Nick paused. Unlike almost every phone call she'd ever made, the silence was absolute, without even a shuffle of papers to give her a clue. "Did you and your boytoy get in a fight? You ain't usually so quick to let him defend himself."
"That's not any of SHIELD's business." Pepper gave up on her nails and folded her fingers against her palm before she got the urge to chew them smooth. That never worked out. They'd just end up as nubs, and she'd have to go to a salon to get them fixed. Then the acrylic nails would be too long and pop off after a week, and she would look completely ridiculous. "I'm calling about an employee."
"What employee?" Nothing in Fury's voice changed. "Stark Industries personnel issues aren't my problem."
"It is when one of those issues is a spy in our system."
"What's that supposed to mean?" To Fury's credit, he didn't miss a beat. "SHIELD isn't covering SI's corporate ass without a damned good reason."
"Then it's fine that I turn Natalie in for corporate espionage?" When her neck started to ache, she rotated it until it popped. "I have proof that she's involved in some sort of spying on Tony, and probably Stark Industries in general. If it's not SHIELD, then it's someone else, and that means prosecution."
Pepper reveled in the long silence while Fury probably glared at the phone. She didn't get to jerk around high ranked people as often as Tony did, but she was starting to see why he liked doing it. While she waited, she helped herself to one of the mints in the candy jar on the coffee table. They were usually for show, but since the Morning Breath incident, she'd been paying more attention to things.
When Fury finally responded, it was with a mutter of curse words. "Okay, Potts. You got me. What do you know?"
"Just enough. So she's a SHIELD agent?"
"Let’s just say that I have her name on a few of my files, and I don't disapprove of what she's doing."
Including seducing Tony, hm? Pepper thought viciously, recalling snatches of drunken conversation of the night before. Not that any officer would actually give that sort of order, but everyone knew how Tony was with girls. Fury had deliberately sent in a beautiful woman, instead of a man or someone with an engineering degree. It would have been nice to think that it was a coincidence, but she didn't have that much credulity anymore. "Alright, then I suppose that's it."
"Man, between you and Stark, I ought to just pull her out," Fury growled, and something snapped sharply over the line. "What good's an agent who's been found out?"
Sudden worry made Pepper sit up sharply. He couldn't pull Natasha out yet-they'd just started getting things sorted out! "More useful than not having one at all," she blurted. "And you're not getting someone else this close again. I personally guarantee it."
"I'll keep that in mind. Fury out." The call clicked to a close, leaving Pepper staring at the wall.
Oops.
"Did you just rat me out to my superior officer?" Natasha was back in a sleek summer dress, all pale green and matching heels. She leaned her hip against the doorjam, arms loaded down with files and paperwork. "I stopped by the office on my way back to pick up Tony's work for the day. Did you know they're remodeling the lunchroom again?"
"No one mentioned it. I'll ask Bambi the next time we speak." Any building that housed Tony for long eventually ended up being remodeled, and that had only gotten worse since Iron Man came on the scene, so Pepper wasn't very concerned. She waved Natasha over to the sofa, and tried to keep from watching her too obviously when she crossed the den floor. "You look recovered."
The file folders made a manila rainbow as Natasha spread them over the table. "You do, too." She sat just a little too close, making the cushions settle and causing Pepper to start sliding slowly towards her. "How are you feeling?"
A flush touched Pepper's cheeks as she battled the gravity of the sofa by bracing her heels. "Better. Much, much better." It wasn't working. The cushions were too soft and thick. She gave up, and let the seat suck her sideways, until their thighs were pressed together.
"And your head?" Natasha pressed two fingertips to Pepper's temple. "Still hurting?"
Breathing had become impossible. Pepper shook her head slowly. This time, Natasha's makeup was perfect, without an extra smudge or line. "Better."
We shouldn't, Pepper thought. And then, further, Why not? One kiss couldn't hurt. There were only five people in the house. Natasha was a government agent. Everything was already so complicated that there really wasn't much else she could do.
Swallowing nervously, Pepper twisted and pressed her lips to Natasha's.
Kissing Natasha when they weren't hung over or drunk was different. Pepper could track the surprised little inhale of breath, and the weight as Natasha shifted into her. Every detail was sharper, from the slide of her lipstick to the slight creak of the sofa under them.
In a moment of bravery, she slipped a leg over Natasha's and perched with her knees on the edge of the sofa. Natasha obligingly sank back into the cushions. One kiss slipped into two, just like the drinks of the night before. The muzzy feeling from too much alcohol made a return, filling Pepper's head with cotton and making her stomach twist.
A slip of her knees slid her down into Natasha's lap properly, pressing them together from chest to hips. Natasha grinned against her mouth, plucking at the hem of her blouse. "It's later," she murmured, rolling her eyes upward. Pepper laughed quietly and kissed her again.
Before they had a chance to follow through on that, a door slammed at the front of the house.
"Tony! You've got a damned lot of nerve-whoa!" Pepper and Natasha pulled away from each other as James Rhodes came to a sudden stop a few feet inside the den. The drunk feeling from Natasha's kisses flipped around and turned instantly to nauseous-hangover.
"Rhodey!" Pepper blurted. As gracefully as she could, Pepper yanked away from Natasha. She plastered on her best smile, acutely aware that her lipstick was a mess. "We weren't-you... What are you doing here?" Realizing that she was still sitting in Natasha's lap, Pepper scrambled to her feet, smoothing down her skirt and hoping she didn't look too rumbled. Natasha, who was probably much more accustomed to being caught out, just coughed and pushed back her hair, smiling innocently.
There was no fixing the damage. Rhodey lowered his face into his into his hand, rubbing his eyes. "Tony's contagious, isn't he?" he asked, sounding tired.
She'd just been caught making out with a coworker-slash-spy on her boss-slash-ex-mostly-boyfriend's couch. There was only so much twisting reality could take before it snapped. Pepper closed her eyes and reached for a modicum of inner honesty. "Yes," she answered. "Yes, he is."
"I'll start wearing a Hazmat." Rhodey still didn't look up at them. "Where is he?"
"Downstairs."
Without ever removing his hand from his eyes, Rhodey turned and headed for the steps. Pepper kept her smile locked on her face until he'd vanished. Then she collapsed back to the couch with a groan. With her head pillowed on the armrest and her feet firmly on the floor, she stretched out, covering her eyes with her forearm.
"That was so bad," she muttered. "Bad, bad, bad." Rhodey was going to tell Tony, she just knew it. And she'd only broken up with Tony yesterday, and they'd been on Tony's couch of all places. "We shouldn't have done that."
Natasha seemed to be following her thoughts, because she leaned over and rested her head on Pepper's hip. "Stop worrying. Tony's a big boy, and it's not like he hasn't been eyeing Steve like a steak dinner after a week-long fast."
"He's a big baby," Pepper corrected, but even though they were true, the words tasted sour. "You're right. I know you're right. It's just... my job to worry. Someone has to take care of him."
Rhodey's voice rose up from the stairwell. "You kidnapped Ca-"
"Borrowed," Tony said over him. "I borrowed him. Steve, back me up here."
Pepper heaved a sigh and looked down to meet Natasha's eyes. Three sets of footsteps were coming up the stairs, which meant they were out of time. "That's our cue." Together they rose off the sofa and went back to the job of keeping Tony's life together.
Onward to Part 3