fic: "Assembly, Care, & Feeding of a Queen's Court" by Tielan - Chapter 8
TITLE: Assembly, Care, & Feeding of a Queen's Court - Part 8: Pushing Back
SUMMARY: Knowing when to hold ground and when to give it was always crucial when dealing with Warlord Princes.
CHARACTERS: Pepper, Tony, Maria, Nick, Phil, Clint, Natasha, Logan
DETAILS: Master Post
Chapter 8: Pushing Back
art by neptune47
Pepper was halfway down the staircase in the entryway when Tony's voice was heard on the step. Jarvis opened the door just in time for Tony to stride through, his scarlet coat flapping out behind him, his hair dishevelled, cradling a curled-up woman in his arms. "Where's Pepp-? Oh, there you are."
There was a moment when Pepper was so relieved to see him alive and home she nearly smiled. Then his prosaic statement of greeting registered.
There you are.
"You'd better take her straight upstairs," she said briskly, holding onto the temper and tears that suddenly threatened. "The Healer's on her way, but there's been a little trouble with the roads and we're trying to clear them..."
Tony seemed to shake himself before he started up the stairs. "I think she just needs rest, but I want the Healer to be sure. How's the household?"
"We survived. No injuries. A couple of the grooms will need days off, though," Pepper said, falling into step with him down the hall and trying to get a look at the woman he carried. "I haven't heard from Rhodey-"
"He's got his hands full right now, thank the Darkness. We're going to have people coming in and out all day. Some of them will want to stay-"
Something was teasing at her, the sense that she was missing something. "Tony, we're not in any state to entertain right now-"
"You invited Rhodey for Winsol. And I know that was before we were attacked, but I can't stop them-"
"You can't stop people from coming for a social visit?"
"They're not going to be social."
Tony shouldered open the door to the Dawn room, Pepper trailing behind him and gesturing the maids out, giving the most senior instructions to bring food and drink for Tony and the guest, while Tony settled the girl in the bed, vanishing her shoes and jacket as he laid her down on the sheets.
She was just a girl, Pepper saw - young and pretty, but still soft with youth. Not Tony's type at all.
Except that the expression on his face as pulled up the covers with Craft was one Pepper hadn't ever seen on Tony in all the years working at Stark Manor. The sensuous mouth twisted faintly in on itself as he looked down at the girl. Then one fingertip pulled open the collar of her jacket just enough for him to bend and brush his lips over the side of her neck.
Ugliness clawed at Pepper's insides as she watched, disbelieving.
Maybe Tony had forgotten he wasn't alone. Maybe he just didn't care.
Either way, it was as though Pepper - and their history - didn't exist. Had never existed. Maybe it hadn't to him.
Standing at the foot of the bed, Pepper looked at Tony and the girl and drew on her Summer-sky Jewel to give her the strength to deal with both Tony and the girl who was clearly important enough to him to put in the suite usually reserved for Queens and visiting digni-
A Queen.
The thing that had been teasing at her bubbled gently to the surface. A Queen's psychic scent - rich and crisp.
"I can explain." Tony was watching her now.
"You don't have to," Pepper said, interrupting him before he could say anything more. "You don't owe me anything."
He winced. "Pepper-"
Voices rose up from downstairs, the collective sound of angry males. Mother Night, this was going from bad to worse.
"You brought a Queen here without her males?"
"I'm hers, too!"
Was it a declaration or a confession? Pepper couldn't tell.
She thought about the chaos that was probably presently reigning down stairs. She thought about Jarvis and Happy and the other males trying to deal with Princes, and Warlords, and Warlord Princes furious at the taking of their Queen. She thought about what she knew of Prince Fury and his men, and the jagged-edged history between him and Tony.
"I'll stay," she said. "You go and explain this."
"Pepper-"
"Just go, Tony."
Thank the Darkness, he went. Without argument, which seemed odd - until Pepper looked at the girl and met a steady blue gaze.
Tony hadn't gone; he'd been sent.
"They're going to want to come up here."
"Tony will keep them away." Pepper spoke with more confidence than she felt.
The girl smiled, but it took effort. "He'll try. But I don't think he's quite up to facing off against Nick and Phil and Clint all at once."
"He might surprise you."
"Maybe. I'm sorry. I didn't want him either."
"You didn't want-? Oh, no, you don't." The girl was trying to sit up. "You should be resting."
"They need to see me," the girl said, crawling to the edge of the bed. "It'll be easier if I'm in a chair than lying down. Please?"
As she helped the girl out to the sitting room, Pepper reflected it was no surprise that Tony would find himself a Queen who also pushed herself beyond her limits.
Pepper helped settle the girl into one of the high-backed old armchairs and dug an old quilt out of the linen press. A quick cleaning spell removed the worst of the heavy cedar scent, and a warming one would save the young woman some energy. "It's a little musty, but it will keep you warm."
A knock on the door heralded the maid with the tray, and Pepper took it and sent her back down for more coffee, tea, and cups.
"You think food will distract them?"
"No." Pepper handed her a small bowl of soup. "But you can eat something before they arrive. And seeing you look after yourself might curb the worst of their temper." It occurred to her that she was bossing a Queen around, but the girl was clearly exhausted and in need of care, and wasn't telling Pepper to stop.
"You don't know Nick."
Still, the girl accepted the soup and the slice of bread with a meekness that Pepper, accustomed to Tony's swift changes of mood, instantly distrusted. As it turned out, she was wrong. The girl ate quietly, her head leaned against the wide wing of the chair as Pepper turned over the two mugs and began filling them with coffee.
Doubtless they made a very domestic picture to the four males and one witch who strode in the door less than a minute later. Two Warlord Princes, a Prince, and a Warlord, all full of temper, and a Black Widow whose dark psychic scent was filled with concern.
Pepper had met Prince Coulson before, and there was no mistaking Prince Fury - a Warlord Prince who filled the room with his presence and his temper. No wonder he and Tony had never gotten on.
"You," Prince Fury intoned as he planted his feet at the edge of the sitting room carpet, "have a lot to answer for, young lady! Just what were you doing outside those shields? Do you or do you not remember me telling you-"
"I remember everything you tell me, Prince. But in the war camp, I made my own judgement."
In the space of a moment, the young woman had shifted into a Queen - a Queen sitting in the chair with a quilt over her lap and a bowl of soup in her hands, but a Queen nevertheless.
Pepper nearly forgot she was filling the coffee cup.
"And did your own judgement include the right to ditch your escorts and put your life in danger?"
"When balanced against defeating the Hydra, yes," she said. "It did."
"The Hydra?"
Prince Coulson did a double-take. "That was you?"
"No," she said softly. "That was Jamie."
"'Jamie'?!"
The young Queen winced at the combined exclamation from her males. "I'll tell you, but you have to sit down. All of you. I don't want you looming over me while I talk."
"After Natasha checks you over," said the Warlord firmly.
"I'm fine."
"Maria."
She rolled her eyes. "Natasha, tell them!"
"She just needs rest," the Black Widow said after a moment during which the two women communicated by a distaff thread that Pepper could sense but not overhear. "Which she'll be doing after you've heard the story."
The males grumbled but sat - except for Tony, who caught Pepper's arm when she tried to leave and tugged her up against his side. *You're staying, too.*
*Tony-*
*Sir,* Jarvis' psychic thread was directed at Tony but included Pepper, *I'm afraid there's a Prince Howlett demanding entry on the doorstep.*
*Howlett's here?* Tony frowned. *Why am I suddenly not surprised? Send him up.*
A minute later a tall, dark-haired Warlord Prince with a brawler's heavy build and rough sideburns stalked into the room. "You left one helluva mess to clean up, brat."
All the males stiffened, but the girl tilted her head. "And you'd be neater?"
"I'd leave them in smaller pieces at least." The teeth bared in a fierce grin at the girl before he finally turned to acknowledge the bristling males. "Fury. Stark."
"Maria," Fury said with the kind of quiet that presaged a storm, "how, exactly, do you know Howlett?"
Maria took a deep breath. "I guess that'll have to be part of the story?"
"Please."
It took a minute to settle everyone, to offer everyone tea, but Pepper used it to put some distance between her and Tony, and the Queen used it to finish her soup and bread.
*Please give the kitchen my compliments,* she said as Prince Howlett and Prince Fury exchanged careful barbs, and Tony and Prince Fury exchanged not-so-careful barbs. *And stay. I'd like you to hear this, too.*
Pepper was only the housekeeper here at Stark Manor, but she knew enough court Protocol that when a Queen said 'I'd like you to do something,' it wasn't a request.
So she took a seat outside the circle of couches and lounges, ignoring Tony's invitation to sit beside him. He might ignore the proprieties, but she wouldn't. She was what she was - a light-Jewelled hearth witch of no breeding - and she didn't belong here, in the First Circle of a young Queen.
"Well, Maria?" Prince Coulson's query was gentle, but there was a quiet inflexibility in it. "I think you owe us an explanation. You would never tell us where you came from, or what you were doing in that cabin. Or even why you couldn't tell us."
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"My mother and father were a witch and Warlord in Lady Grey's court. Not first or second circles - much further down. Seventh or eighth perhaps. Most of what I know of them I was told; my mother died when I was born and my father..."
"Her father had his cock stuck so deep in his wife that when she died he was left without his balls," said Prince Howlett crudely when she hesitated. "There's no nicer way to put it."
"I don't think I saw him more than a half-dozen times when I was a child. When it became clear that I was a Queen, Lady Grey and Prince Summers adopted me. I grew up in the Phoenix Court."
Among some of the most powerful Blood in the Territory. It certainly explained the girl's poise - and her handling of Tony. Dark-Jewelled males were often thought to be difficult to handle by lighter-Jewelled witches. Mostly, Pepper had found, it was experience, and working with their nature, rather than against them.
She'd had to learn that the hard way.
"You said you were adopted by a local Queen."
"She was local. Lady Grey grew up in the same village as my mother."
Prince Fury scowled. "And your father just let you go?"
"Her father didn't have a choice," growled Prince Howlett. "He gave her up for adoption before he realised what she was, and we blocked him every time he came crawling back to try to claim parental rights."
"And leaving her in the forest? That was looking after her?"
"Teaching her survival was looking after her," said the older Warlord Prince soft and grim. "Teaching her how to hide herself when the Hydra were killing the Queens was looking after her. Not drawing attention to her was looking after her."
"It was only a couple of years out in the forest," Maria murmured. "And I liked that life."
For a moment, the yearning on the young face was like a knife - a wistfulness for something simpler, something long gone.
Pepper knew the feeling. She'd felt it the first time she looked into Tony Stark's eyes and realised she was in love with a dark-Jewelled Warlord Prince from one of the wealthiest aristo families in the Territory. She'd felt it the day he returned from captivity - a fighting spirit in fragile flesh - and she glimpsed the darkness that now dwelled within him. And she'd felt it the afternoon she'd realised Tony had nothing he wanted her to share - the afternoon she realised that she'd been a brief entertainment for a Warlord Prince and nothing more.
She looked away from the Queen, and found Tony watching her with shuttered eyes.
"All right," Fury said, "so, what's this about the Hydra and...Jamie? Who exactly is this Jamie?"
Maria cupped her hands around her mug and stared into it. "His name was Jamie Madrox. He was an Opal-Jewelled male, and he was captured by the Red Skull. He was the Hydra."
"He was the Hydra?"
"The Red Skull did something to him that made...more of him. Some kind of a tangled web that trapped him in it, and forced him to split himself over and over again. They weren't him, but they weren't themselves either. Like...blank slates that could be imprinted by the Red Skull. Thousands of them. Jamie didn't know how many - he'd lost count long before he started walking in the Twisted Kingdom."
Pepper drew a sharp breath. She wasn't the only one.
"You went into the Twisted Kingdom? Alone?"
"Prince Stark was there!"
Heads turned towards Tony. "I made her tell me what she planned first!"
Prince Fury looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel; it was Prince Coulson who found his voice first. "And that makes it all better?"
"No, but it made it a calculated risk instead of a suicide mission."
"Risking our Queen-"
"She's not only your Queen-"
"If you think I'm going to allow-"
"Who said anything about allowing-"
"-unstable, risk-taking-"
"And you, of course, were a paragon of obedience back in Lady Peggy's court-"
"That court isn't in discuss-"
They were on their feet now, tempers focused on each other, barely noticing the Warlord and the Prince trying to break their attention. Prince Howlett, on the other hand, had taken a step back, and the Black Widow was watching the Queen who looked more weary by the moment.
Pepper stood. "Gentlemen!"
They turned on her, their tempers sharp as blades against her psychic skin. She flinched instinctively but held her ground with her anger. Knowing when to hold ground and when to give it was always crucial when dealing with Warlord Princes.
"I suggest you take a look at your Queen before you continue arguing."
The Black Widow was kneeling beside the chair, taking the mug from the girl's shaking hands. "She needs rest, as I said before." She stepped back to let Prince Howlett scoop the girl up. *If you would show him the way, Lady.*
It took Pepper a moment to realise she was being addressed; 'Lady' was not a term people usually applied to her. "This way, Prince."
She led the way into the bedroom, while the Widow intercepted Tony and Prince Fury. "A word with you both."
It gave the girl a moment with Prince Howlett as he settled her down in the bed. "You should have said something, brat."
The girl sighed. "He died, Logan. I didn't want him to die."
"Did you do it, or did Stark?"
"Stark did." Her eyes fluttered shut as Prince Howlett settled her in the bed. Pepper pulled up the covers over Maria, then paused as the girl's eyes opened and she caught at Pepper's wrist. "He's been pulling back because he was afraid to hurt you. I don't think he will now."
Pepper blinked, heat rushing across her cheeks as the questions piled up behind her tongue. Prince Howlett made a noise like a choke, caught between amusement and ruefulness.
Then the door to the room pushed open and Prince Fury entered, heading for the bed like a bolt of power to its target.
"If you need anything at all, you can let me know and I'll see what I can do," she told the girl, then walked out, past the others waiting to go in.
Tony was in the hallway, staring out the window into the garden. "Is she okay?"
"Just tired." As tired he looked - although perhaps not as ready to fall over as the young witch.
"And you?" He turned to look at her, studying her. "You're okay?"
"Of course."
He nodded, oddly subdued. "I invited them to stay over Winsol. They're going to, anyway, as long as she's here."
"You can't keep her here, Tony."
"I wouldn't want to; she's a little bitch when she wants her way." The words were said without heat, though. "I didn't consult you before inviting guests over for Winsol."
"It's your house; you can invite whomever you like-"
"Pepper." He took her wrists in his hands, slid his palms up to her elbow, warm thumbs running along the insides of her arms. "I've been a prick."
Coming from Tony, that was practically an apology in and of itself. He's been pulling back because he was afraid to hurt you, she heard the girl say in her head, I don't think he will now.
Something like hope rose, and she yanked it back down and stuffed it out of sight. But he was looking at her so chastened, and his touch was doing things to her insides... She managed to get out, "Yes. You have."
"I'd like not to be a prick any more."
"You're a Warlord Prince."
"Meaning being a prick comes naturally?"
"I didn't say it."
"You didn't have to. You shouldn't have to. Can we..." His thumbs rubbed at her. "Can I make things better?"
Could he? That was the question. Days ago - hours ago - she would have said no. Absolutely no. Because he'd hurt her too much and she had the right to reject a Warlord Prince's interest - especially one who was unstable.
The man who was standing before her felt...grounded. Solid again, the way he hadn't felt since before he was captured and abused. Maybe it was what happened when a Warlord Prince found his Queen. Maybe it was just that it looked like the war against the Hydra was ended.
Maybe it was just that Pepper wanted to believe him.
"You can try," she said, with all honesty.
"You'll let me try?"
"Yes."
"I can work with that." And he leaned in to kiss her.
Pepper put her hand up over his mouth. "Starting with sitting down, having something to eat, and resting."
Tony's eyes gleamed with laughter - and a Warlord Prince's hunger. But he kissed her fingertips and only said, "Yes, Pepper."
--
Chapter 9: The Price Of Protection
SUMMARY: Knowing when to hold ground and when to give it was always crucial when dealing with Warlord Princes.
CHARACTERS: Pepper, Tony, Maria, Nick, Phil, Clint, Natasha, Logan
DETAILS: Master Post
Chapter 8: Pushing Back
art by neptune47
Pepper was halfway down the staircase in the entryway when Tony's voice was heard on the step. Jarvis opened the door just in time for Tony to stride through, his scarlet coat flapping out behind him, his hair dishevelled, cradling a curled-up woman in his arms. "Where's Pepp-? Oh, there you are."
There was a moment when Pepper was so relieved to see him alive and home she nearly smiled. Then his prosaic statement of greeting registered.
There you are.
"You'd better take her straight upstairs," she said briskly, holding onto the temper and tears that suddenly threatened. "The Healer's on her way, but there's been a little trouble with the roads and we're trying to clear them..."
Tony seemed to shake himself before he started up the stairs. "I think she just needs rest, but I want the Healer to be sure. How's the household?"
"We survived. No injuries. A couple of the grooms will need days off, though," Pepper said, falling into step with him down the hall and trying to get a look at the woman he carried. "I haven't heard from Rhodey-"
"He's got his hands full right now, thank the Darkness. We're going to have people coming in and out all day. Some of them will want to stay-"
Something was teasing at her, the sense that she was missing something. "Tony, we're not in any state to entertain right now-"
"You invited Rhodey for Winsol. And I know that was before we were attacked, but I can't stop them-"
"You can't stop people from coming for a social visit?"
"They're not going to be social."
Tony shouldered open the door to the Dawn room, Pepper trailing behind him and gesturing the maids out, giving the most senior instructions to bring food and drink for Tony and the guest, while Tony settled the girl in the bed, vanishing her shoes and jacket as he laid her down on the sheets.
She was just a girl, Pepper saw - young and pretty, but still soft with youth. Not Tony's type at all.
Except that the expression on his face as pulled up the covers with Craft was one Pepper hadn't ever seen on Tony in all the years working at Stark Manor. The sensuous mouth twisted faintly in on itself as he looked down at the girl. Then one fingertip pulled open the collar of her jacket just enough for him to bend and brush his lips over the side of her neck.
Ugliness clawed at Pepper's insides as she watched, disbelieving.
Maybe Tony had forgotten he wasn't alone. Maybe he just didn't care.
Either way, it was as though Pepper - and their history - didn't exist. Had never existed. Maybe it hadn't to him.
Standing at the foot of the bed, Pepper looked at Tony and the girl and drew on her Summer-sky Jewel to give her the strength to deal with both Tony and the girl who was clearly important enough to him to put in the suite usually reserved for Queens and visiting digni-
A Queen.
The thing that had been teasing at her bubbled gently to the surface. A Queen's psychic scent - rich and crisp.
"I can explain." Tony was watching her now.
"You don't have to," Pepper said, interrupting him before he could say anything more. "You don't owe me anything."
He winced. "Pepper-"
Voices rose up from downstairs, the collective sound of angry males. Mother Night, this was going from bad to worse.
"You brought a Queen here without her males?"
"I'm hers, too!"
Was it a declaration or a confession? Pepper couldn't tell.
She thought about the chaos that was probably presently reigning down stairs. She thought about Jarvis and Happy and the other males trying to deal with Princes, and Warlords, and Warlord Princes furious at the taking of their Queen. She thought about what she knew of Prince Fury and his men, and the jagged-edged history between him and Tony.
"I'll stay," she said. "You go and explain this."
"Pepper-"
"Just go, Tony."
Thank the Darkness, he went. Without argument, which seemed odd - until Pepper looked at the girl and met a steady blue gaze.
Tony hadn't gone; he'd been sent.
"They're going to want to come up here."
"Tony will keep them away." Pepper spoke with more confidence than she felt.
The girl smiled, but it took effort. "He'll try. But I don't think he's quite up to facing off against Nick and Phil and Clint all at once."
"He might surprise you."
"Maybe. I'm sorry. I didn't want him either."
"You didn't want-? Oh, no, you don't." The girl was trying to sit up. "You should be resting."
"They need to see me," the girl said, crawling to the edge of the bed. "It'll be easier if I'm in a chair than lying down. Please?"
As she helped the girl out to the sitting room, Pepper reflected it was no surprise that Tony would find himself a Queen who also pushed herself beyond her limits.
Pepper helped settle the girl into one of the high-backed old armchairs and dug an old quilt out of the linen press. A quick cleaning spell removed the worst of the heavy cedar scent, and a warming one would save the young woman some energy. "It's a little musty, but it will keep you warm."
A knock on the door heralded the maid with the tray, and Pepper took it and sent her back down for more coffee, tea, and cups.
"You think food will distract them?"
"No." Pepper handed her a small bowl of soup. "But you can eat something before they arrive. And seeing you look after yourself might curb the worst of their temper." It occurred to her that she was bossing a Queen around, but the girl was clearly exhausted and in need of care, and wasn't telling Pepper to stop.
"You don't know Nick."
Still, the girl accepted the soup and the slice of bread with a meekness that Pepper, accustomed to Tony's swift changes of mood, instantly distrusted. As it turned out, she was wrong. The girl ate quietly, her head leaned against the wide wing of the chair as Pepper turned over the two mugs and began filling them with coffee.
Doubtless they made a very domestic picture to the four males and one witch who strode in the door less than a minute later. Two Warlord Princes, a Prince, and a Warlord, all full of temper, and a Black Widow whose dark psychic scent was filled with concern.
Pepper had met Prince Coulson before, and there was no mistaking Prince Fury - a Warlord Prince who filled the room with his presence and his temper. No wonder he and Tony had never gotten on.
"You," Prince Fury intoned as he planted his feet at the edge of the sitting room carpet, "have a lot to answer for, young lady! Just what were you doing outside those shields? Do you or do you not remember me telling you-"
"I remember everything you tell me, Prince. But in the war camp, I made my own judgement."
In the space of a moment, the young woman had shifted into a Queen - a Queen sitting in the chair with a quilt over her lap and a bowl of soup in her hands, but a Queen nevertheless.
Pepper nearly forgot she was filling the coffee cup.
"And did your own judgement include the right to ditch your escorts and put your life in danger?"
"When balanced against defeating the Hydra, yes," she said. "It did."
"The Hydra?"
Prince Coulson did a double-take. "That was you?"
"No," she said softly. "That was Jamie."
"'Jamie'?!"
The young Queen winced at the combined exclamation from her males. "I'll tell you, but you have to sit down. All of you. I don't want you looming over me while I talk."
"After Natasha checks you over," said the Warlord firmly.
"I'm fine."
"Maria."
She rolled her eyes. "Natasha, tell them!"
"She just needs rest," the Black Widow said after a moment during which the two women communicated by a distaff thread that Pepper could sense but not overhear. "Which she'll be doing after you've heard the story."
The males grumbled but sat - except for Tony, who caught Pepper's arm when she tried to leave and tugged her up against his side. *You're staying, too.*
*Tony-*
*Sir,* Jarvis' psychic thread was directed at Tony but included Pepper, *I'm afraid there's a Prince Howlett demanding entry on the doorstep.*
*Howlett's here?* Tony frowned. *Why am I suddenly not surprised? Send him up.*
A minute later a tall, dark-haired Warlord Prince with a brawler's heavy build and rough sideburns stalked into the room. "You left one helluva mess to clean up, brat."
All the males stiffened, but the girl tilted her head. "And you'd be neater?"
"I'd leave them in smaller pieces at least." The teeth bared in a fierce grin at the girl before he finally turned to acknowledge the bristling males. "Fury. Stark."
"Maria," Fury said with the kind of quiet that presaged a storm, "how, exactly, do you know Howlett?"
Maria took a deep breath. "I guess that'll have to be part of the story?"
"Please."
It took a minute to settle everyone, to offer everyone tea, but Pepper used it to put some distance between her and Tony, and the Queen used it to finish her soup and bread.
*Please give the kitchen my compliments,* she said as Prince Howlett and Prince Fury exchanged careful barbs, and Tony and Prince Fury exchanged not-so-careful barbs. *And stay. I'd like you to hear this, too.*
Pepper was only the housekeeper here at Stark Manor, but she knew enough court Protocol that when a Queen said 'I'd like you to do something,' it wasn't a request.
So she took a seat outside the circle of couches and lounges, ignoring Tony's invitation to sit beside him. He might ignore the proprieties, but she wouldn't. She was what she was - a light-Jewelled hearth witch of no breeding - and she didn't belong here, in the First Circle of a young Queen.
"Well, Maria?" Prince Coulson's query was gentle, but there was a quiet inflexibility in it. "I think you owe us an explanation. You would never tell us where you came from, or what you were doing in that cabin. Or even why you couldn't tell us."
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"My mother and father were a witch and Warlord in Lady Grey's court. Not first or second circles - much further down. Seventh or eighth perhaps. Most of what I know of them I was told; my mother died when I was born and my father..."
"Her father had his cock stuck so deep in his wife that when she died he was left without his balls," said Prince Howlett crudely when she hesitated. "There's no nicer way to put it."
"I don't think I saw him more than a half-dozen times when I was a child. When it became clear that I was a Queen, Lady Grey and Prince Summers adopted me. I grew up in the Phoenix Court."
Among some of the most powerful Blood in the Territory. It certainly explained the girl's poise - and her handling of Tony. Dark-Jewelled males were often thought to be difficult to handle by lighter-Jewelled witches. Mostly, Pepper had found, it was experience, and working with their nature, rather than against them.
She'd had to learn that the hard way.
"You said you were adopted by a local Queen."
"She was local. Lady Grey grew up in the same village as my mother."
Prince Fury scowled. "And your father just let you go?"
"Her father didn't have a choice," growled Prince Howlett. "He gave her up for adoption before he realised what she was, and we blocked him every time he came crawling back to try to claim parental rights."
"And leaving her in the forest? That was looking after her?"
"Teaching her survival was looking after her," said the older Warlord Prince soft and grim. "Teaching her how to hide herself when the Hydra were killing the Queens was looking after her. Not drawing attention to her was looking after her."
"It was only a couple of years out in the forest," Maria murmured. "And I liked that life."
For a moment, the yearning on the young face was like a knife - a wistfulness for something simpler, something long gone.
Pepper knew the feeling. She'd felt it the first time she looked into Tony Stark's eyes and realised she was in love with a dark-Jewelled Warlord Prince from one of the wealthiest aristo families in the Territory. She'd felt it the day he returned from captivity - a fighting spirit in fragile flesh - and she glimpsed the darkness that now dwelled within him. And she'd felt it the afternoon she'd realised Tony had nothing he wanted her to share - the afternoon she realised that she'd been a brief entertainment for a Warlord Prince and nothing more.
She looked away from the Queen, and found Tony watching her with shuttered eyes.
"All right," Fury said, "so, what's this about the Hydra and...Jamie? Who exactly is this Jamie?"
Maria cupped her hands around her mug and stared into it. "His name was Jamie Madrox. He was an Opal-Jewelled male, and he was captured by the Red Skull. He was the Hydra."
"He was the Hydra?"
"The Red Skull did something to him that made...more of him. Some kind of a tangled web that trapped him in it, and forced him to split himself over and over again. They weren't him, but they weren't themselves either. Like...blank slates that could be imprinted by the Red Skull. Thousands of them. Jamie didn't know how many - he'd lost count long before he started walking in the Twisted Kingdom."
Pepper drew a sharp breath. She wasn't the only one.
"You went into the Twisted Kingdom? Alone?"
"Prince Stark was there!"
Heads turned towards Tony. "I made her tell me what she planned first!"
Prince Fury looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel; it was Prince Coulson who found his voice first. "And that makes it all better?"
"No, but it made it a calculated risk instead of a suicide mission."
"Risking our Queen-"
"She's not only your Queen-"
"If you think I'm going to allow-"
"Who said anything about allowing-"
"-unstable, risk-taking-"
"And you, of course, were a paragon of obedience back in Lady Peggy's court-"
"That court isn't in discuss-"
They were on their feet now, tempers focused on each other, barely noticing the Warlord and the Prince trying to break their attention. Prince Howlett, on the other hand, had taken a step back, and the Black Widow was watching the Queen who looked more weary by the moment.
Pepper stood. "Gentlemen!"
They turned on her, their tempers sharp as blades against her psychic skin. She flinched instinctively but held her ground with her anger. Knowing when to hold ground and when to give it was always crucial when dealing with Warlord Princes.
"I suggest you take a look at your Queen before you continue arguing."
The Black Widow was kneeling beside the chair, taking the mug from the girl's shaking hands. "She needs rest, as I said before." She stepped back to let Prince Howlett scoop the girl up. *If you would show him the way, Lady.*
It took Pepper a moment to realise she was being addressed; 'Lady' was not a term people usually applied to her. "This way, Prince."
She led the way into the bedroom, while the Widow intercepted Tony and Prince Fury. "A word with you both."
It gave the girl a moment with Prince Howlett as he settled her down in the bed. "You should have said something, brat."
The girl sighed. "He died, Logan. I didn't want him to die."
"Did you do it, or did Stark?"
"Stark did." Her eyes fluttered shut as Prince Howlett settled her in the bed. Pepper pulled up the covers over Maria, then paused as the girl's eyes opened and she caught at Pepper's wrist. "He's been pulling back because he was afraid to hurt you. I don't think he will now."
Pepper blinked, heat rushing across her cheeks as the questions piled up behind her tongue. Prince Howlett made a noise like a choke, caught between amusement and ruefulness.
Then the door to the room pushed open and Prince Fury entered, heading for the bed like a bolt of power to its target.
"If you need anything at all, you can let me know and I'll see what I can do," she told the girl, then walked out, past the others waiting to go in.
Tony was in the hallway, staring out the window into the garden. "Is she okay?"
"Just tired." As tired he looked - although perhaps not as ready to fall over as the young witch.
"And you?" He turned to look at her, studying her. "You're okay?"
"Of course."
He nodded, oddly subdued. "I invited them to stay over Winsol. They're going to, anyway, as long as she's here."
"You can't keep her here, Tony."
"I wouldn't want to; she's a little bitch when she wants her way." The words were said without heat, though. "I didn't consult you before inviting guests over for Winsol."
"It's your house; you can invite whomever you like-"
"Pepper." He took her wrists in his hands, slid his palms up to her elbow, warm thumbs running along the insides of her arms. "I've been a prick."
Coming from Tony, that was practically an apology in and of itself. He's been pulling back because he was afraid to hurt you, she heard the girl say in her head, I don't think he will now.
Something like hope rose, and she yanked it back down and stuffed it out of sight. But he was looking at her so chastened, and his touch was doing things to her insides... She managed to get out, "Yes. You have."
"I'd like not to be a prick any more."
"You're a Warlord Prince."
"Meaning being a prick comes naturally?"
"I didn't say it."
"You didn't have to. You shouldn't have to. Can we..." His thumbs rubbed at her. "Can I make things better?"
Could he? That was the question. Days ago - hours ago - she would have said no. Absolutely no. Because he'd hurt her too much and she had the right to reject a Warlord Prince's interest - especially one who was unstable.
The man who was standing before her felt...grounded. Solid again, the way he hadn't felt since before he was captured and abused. Maybe it was what happened when a Warlord Prince found his Queen. Maybe it was just that it looked like the war against the Hydra was ended.
Maybe it was just that Pepper wanted to believe him.
"You can try," she said, with all honesty.
"You'll let me try?"
"Yes."
"I can work with that." And he leaned in to kiss her.
Pepper put her hand up over his mouth. "Starting with sitting down, having something to eat, and resting."
Tony's eyes gleamed with laughter - and a Warlord Prince's hunger. But he kissed her fingertips and only said, "Yes, Pepper."
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Chapter 9: The Price Of Protection