The Avengers, Iron Man, and Thor, and all situations and characters thereof, belong strictly and solely to Marvel Comics. This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.

Okay, so here's how he knows it's over: It's when he comes upstairs for a break while he's working on the Mark 1.0. It has …maybe been a little while since he came upstairs, like 12 or 14 hours or so, but the new design doesn't exactly fit together the same way the old ones did, and some things you can only find out by putting them together and giving them a try.

…So he comes upstairs: Order a pizza. Check, is there… Yeah, there's one more six-pack left in the fridge. Samuel Adams. Pepper's beer. Left over from before she moved out in August. Head into the bathroom, unzip and get a little relief. Then he comes out, and it occurs to him to check his cell phone.

Thumb it on, and there's this message waiting for him: "I've been wanting to ask Pepper out ever since you broke up. Is that okay with you, Tony?"

And he's like, "Huh?" "Broke up" is not the same thing as "moved out". Pepper couldn't take his noise. She couldn't take the mess everyplace. And he got tired of always having to worry about her, whenever there was a new super-villain in town. They aren't broken up, she's just living in her apartment in Brentwood again, and he's still right here, just a few short miles west, on Sunset Boulevard.

So he looks, and it's Happy, who sent the message. Good old Hap, who never was too good with technology. "You sent an old message, dude," he texts back. "When's this from, 2010? 2011?"

And then he's on into the bathroom for a shower, and he doesn't think any more about the message until he's toweled off and dressed, and he's got one of Pep's beers open on the coffee table in front of him. And that's when it occurs to him that Happy carries a new model Stark-phone, one of the ones from 2012. And he's like, "Did I have trouble with Pep in 2012? Well, there was the thing about the rabbit… But she forgave me for that one, after we escaped from Killian. Since then maybe?" But he can't think of anything.

So that's when the doorbell rings and the pizza is there. And he's not really all that surprised that it's Loki carrying it. He'd heard Thor's wicked half-brother was on the loose again, and he usually shows up here sooner or later, when he's in between evil missions. "You left the pizza guy alive this time, right?" he says.

Little snerk from the Asgardian with the pizza. "I even paid him."

"Lucky mortal." Tony takes the Meat-Lover's Supreme over to the coffee table. He cracks open a Sam Adams for Loki, and hands him some napkins. "Listen, if your bodyguard thinks you and your girlfriend have broken up, do you think that means you have?"

And Loki looks at him over a slice of pizza. "You want me to kill her for you?"

"No, just…" It's only now that it starts to sink in, and Tony takes a big bite and chews until the feelings go away. "Why would she do that? What did I ever do to her?"

Loki finishes his pizza. He drinks a Sam Adams in one or two big gulps. "I could kill the bodyguard."

"No, man, that's okay." Although it feels good to have someone offer to do things for him, for a change. "But …you know… I'm single now, I guess. What should I do?"

Sneaky smile, from the Asgardian with the pizza grease above his upper lip. "I can think of some things." He says that, and about two seconds later, Tony's tasting pizza and beer on his tongue, and feeling how soft his hair is, even with all the product he uses. And a while after that, he's seeing how pale his skin is under his clothes, and touching the scars on his arms (from combat-practice with Thor), and kissing the big one on his side (from when he was with Thanos). …And after that, other stuff happens.