1. The Starks

Friday mornings were always the hardest in the Stark household with the weekend looming so near. Pepper was usually the only one who could get up with the alarm, which meant having to go around the house to get the rest of them up and going. But, this time, when her alarm went off at six-thirty sharp, the other side of her bed was ice cold. She immediately thought it was odd, since the night before Tony had gone to bed with her. The covers where thrown off, and Pepper was somehow cocooned in the sheet.

After untangling herself, she went out in search of Tony. The entire house was almost silent. She could hear Eddie's snores from his bedroom, even with the door closed, and Sydney's was still wide open since their two cats preferred to sleep with her. She walked down the stairs and walked into the kitchen. The coffee pot was half full of coffee on the burner, and two mugs of coffee completely cold and abandoned on the kitchenette.

Frowning, Pepper doubled back and headed down to the lab. Through the glass, she could see Tony and Bruce, looking tired and working with some holograms. She gave up trying to completely understand them a long time ago. She was honestly surprised when Sydney showed an interest in science, immediately being able to pick up wherever Tony stopped.

She input the code and walked inside. Immediately, Bruce looked up and smiled in greeting. "Good morning, Pepper," he said. Upon hearing what his science partner said, Tony looked up as well. He smiled at Pepper, but for a more intimate reason.

"What are you doing up?" he asked, minimizing whatever he was doing to get a better look at Pepper. "I thought I was quiet."

Pepper shook her head. "It's quarter-to-seven, Tony," she said simply. She glanced over at Bruce, confusion on her face. "Although you are always welcome here, Bruce, I'm just wondering why you dragged my husband out of bed last night."

Bruce shrugged sheepishly. "Something has come to my attention, and I wanted Tony's opinion on. I don't normally drop everything to come visit, but this couldn't wait until morning—or now, I guess. It's odd how time works."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Okay, what Doctor Who is trying to say is that something major has come up, and I'm not equipped here in Malibu to deal with it. In fact, I have a jet waiting for us that should be ready by now."

"What's going on?" she asked, crossing her arms. She could tolerate it when Tony left expectantly. That was just part of being the wife of the man in the Iron Man armor. But, she didn't like it when Tony didn't fully disclose exactly what he needed to do.

He sighed. "Look, I don't want to frighten you but…there're certain signs that…Loki might be back in town and is deciding to voodoo up the place again."

"We'll need to talk with Director Fury. Gather the others. Get more information—"

"Tony." Pepper didn't mean to cut Bruce off, but she realized something that she couldn't forget to mention. "It's the last day before Sydney's and Eddie's spring break. We promised them we would actually go on vacation without any work."

"Well, I think the god that caused so much shit to happen last time kind of makes that promise moot. We can make it up to them in the summer." Pepper opened her mouth to argue, but Tony retaliated. "They're teenagers, Pep. They understand I need to save the world so they'll actually have a future."

Pepper sighed. He did have a point there. "Where are you going?"

"New York."

"And you have no clue when you'll be back."

"Nope."

Pepper sighed again, probably getting close to hitting the exasperated quota. "Just be careful. And come home when you can. I'll think of something the three of us can do until then."

Tony smiled sadly at Pepper as he crossed over to her. "Tell them I'm sorry," he said, kissing her gently and giving her a hug.

Pepper wrapped her arms around Tony. "Yeah, I'll do that."

Pepper stepped into Eddie's room, marveling at how pristine he kept his quarters. For someone who didn't know Edward Ryan Stark, they would not have guessed that this was a teenage boy's room. With bright green walls, organized bookshelf and desk, all of the dirty clothes in the hamper, and framed pictures of friends and family along the walls, it looked like a grandmother had been through here. But, that was Eddie. To him, everything had a place and everything was in its place. He cried the first time he went into his father's lab.

He snored, loudly. Very loudly. No amount of nasal strips or mouth rinses could fix it. Tony has tried everything he could think of. He was lying on his side, curled up into a tiny ball. Even his comforter fell into a nice pile at the foot of his bed. Pepper sat down on the edge of his bed, placing a hand on his shoulder. He immediately stopped snoring, but he didn't open his eyes. "Eddie," she coaxed, and he groaned loudly. "You gotta get up, it's time for school."

Eddie poked an eye open, almost glaring at his mother. "Do I have to?" he asked, his voice laced with sleepiness. He stifled back a yawn as he stretched, knocking the comforter the rest of the way down the bed.

"Yes, you do. Now, get going. We're running late as it is."

That made Eddie shoot up in worry. "Mo-om!" he cried. "It's after seven. How do you expect me to be ready when you don't get me up in time to do everything?"

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Maybe you should use your alarm clock and get up when you need to get up."

Eddie was already up out of bed, motioning for his mother to get off so he could make it. "Fine. Fine. It I have to, I'll do my hair in the school bathroom. Now, get out. I don't care if you did change my diaper for the first three years of my life. I'd prefer to get dressed alone, thank you."

"Hey, be nice," said Pepper, starting to head out of the room. "And make sure you sister has a chance to use the bathroom. Don't hog it."

Eddie groaned. "Yes, ma'am."

Compared to Eddie's immaculate room, Sydney's looked like a tornado, a hurricane, and a bomb went through all at once. Dirty clothes were thrown everywhere, books were lying haphazardly on every surface, and no one could ever tell that the walls were dark blue with all the pictures and posters and diagrams that covered it. Sydney was sprawled out, taking up most of the queen size bed nestled into the corner of the room. At her side was OJ, an orange tabby, and between her legs was Inko, a tuxedo colored cat.

Pepper dodged the debris, hardly finding carpet to step on. Her feet got tangled up in a pair of jeans, and she grabbed the bookshelf in order to keep herself from falling forward. The two cats looked up at her, their heads tilted in curiosity. Sydney didn't even move a muscle.

"Sydney!" Pepper shouted, annoyed at her daughter. She straightened herself up, kicking the jeans out of her way. The cats jumped down and ran out of the room. Even they know to avoid the wrath of Pepper Stark.

Sydney twitched in her sleep, lifting herself up to turn over from her back to her stomach. She cuddled the pillow in her arms, burying her face into cover. Pepper huffed in annoyance as she called her eldest child's name again, this time shaking her shoulder. "Five more minutes!" Sydney groaned, her voice muffled by the oversized pillow.

"No. You don't get five more minutes. You need to get up so you can go to school. As it is, I'm waking you up late." Pepper looked back at the room. "And I thought I told you to clean this a couple days ago."

"I did," Sydney grumbled, unwillingly lifting her head up.

"It doesn't look that way."

"That's because it was a few days ago."

"This looks like it hasn't been cleaned in months."

"Just ask JARVIS."

*Miss Sydney did indeed clean her room, and kept it that way for…all of five minutes according to the security tapes.*

"See!"

"Sydney, you are seventeen years old—almost eighteen. You should be able to keep a room clean longer than five minutes. You'll be going off to college next year and your roommate won't be very happy with you if you can't even clean up after yourself."

Sydney bit her tongue. The college subject was always sketchy with her. She convinced her parents that she did indeed send out college apps, even though she hadn't. So far, she has them convinced that she is still waiting to hear back from them, although everyone else has already heard back from their colleges by this point.

"Fine. Fine. I'll Eddie clean it when we get back from vacation."

Pepper paused briefly when Sydney mentioned that. "We'll have to discuss that later. There's been a few change of plans."

"What changes?" Sydney asked, her brows furrowing. It took her groggy mind a few seconds to figure out what Pepper was getting at, which was a few seconds longer than when she was fully awake. "Dad has to go again, doesn't he?"

Pepper nodded. "I can't get anything past you, can I?"

"Nope," she said simply. She sat up, her head rushing slightly. "Am I going to have to clean my room sooner now?" He blindly grasped for her glasses, since she never puts them in the same spot.

"I don't know yet. Just get dressed for school…if you can find anything, that is."

"Ha, ha. Very funny." Sydney slid her glasses on and went into her closet, holding her foot out so the avalanche of stuff didn't fall out.

Pepper pursed her lips when she saw this. "I still don't understand how you and your father can live like this."

"It's actually quite simple," said Sydney, matter-of-factly. "Our brains are hardwired to be able to work in any condition, but it is simpler if we work where we are most comfortable. And, obviously, we find solace in messier environments, whereas you and Eddie tend to let your OCD tendencies get in the way before you can even think about getting to work."

Pepper blinked at her daughter. "Just get dressed, smart one."

Tony always hated leaving his family. Even when it was just him and Pepper in their first year or two of dating, it was hard. But, once they found out that Pepper was pregnant with Sydney and they decided to settle down, it was especially hard to leave.

He stood in the kitchen, a travel mug in his hand as he waited to say goodbye to Pepper, Sydney, and Eddie. He promised Bruce that he was meet him at the private terminal since he wasn't sure how long this was going to take. Sydney was the first one down in the kitchen, and he smiled at her as she went for the cupboard and pulled out a travel mug for herself. She was bit by the coffee bug, just like her parents were at a young age, and so far they had persuaded Eddie that he didn't need it.

"So…what is it? Another cache of weapons found?" she asked, turning to face her father and cradled the cup in her hands.

Tony shook his head. "Remember the Battle of Manhattan? The one that sort of started The Avengers?"

Sydney slowly nodded. "Do you think there's going to be a repeat of that?"

"We don't know yet. That's what we intend to find out."

"You know, I've been—"

"No," Tony said, cutting Sydney off. He immediately knew where this conversation was going. They have had it numerous times before.

"But, I have—"

"I know what you have done. What you have designed. But that's all you have right now is a design. Yes, it could be fully functional, but not in a few days' time. You need months of planning and preparation even before you think about building it. And I'll be damned if I let my teenage daughter fight in a suit well before she's even ready to."

"I am ready," Sydney cried, slamming her mug down in annoyance. "You even said it yourself. You said I did really well with the suit when you let me fly it around last summer."

"But that's all you did. You just flew around, and it wasn't very far since you weren't allowed out of the Malibu city limits. Look," Tony tried to look his daughter in the eye, but she was purposefully avoiding his gaze. "When I get back, we can start working on your own suit with your own design. We'll work on it through the summer until you go to college next fall."

Sydney didn't get a chance to add anything else to that. Pepper walked in with Eddie right behind her, still trying to perfect his hair, checking it in every reflective surface available.

"Hey, buddy," said Tony, wrapping an arm around Eddie when the younger man offered him a hug.

"Careful of the hair, Dad," he whined, pulling back and making sure it still looked okay in the window. "It took me ten minutes to get this right."

"It hardly looks like you've done anything with it."

"That's the point!"

Tony shook his head, and he purposefully ruffled Eddie's hair. He immediately regret it, since his hand was now coated in a thick layer of hair gel. "I will never understand that."

"Says the man who takes ten years to get ready for anything," Pepper reprimanded, smiling sadly at Tony. She had looked forward to going on their vacation, but duty called and she wasn't about to stand in the middle of it.

"Hey, my hair is naturally like this," he retorted, pointing at his hair that was standing straight up.

"You've got some product in there, Dad," Eddie said, rolling his eyes.

"Not enough to gel and entire small army like you do."

"Oh, look at the time," said Sydney, looking at the clock on the wall. "We'll be late to first hour if we don't get going now."

"Bye, Dad," Eddie said, giving Tony one last hug. "Be careful, okay?"

"Don't I always?" He asked. He immediately turned to Pepper. "Don't answer that."

"Sydney, don't you want to say goodbye to your father?" Pepper asked when she was halfway out the door, the keys to her sixteenth birthday present in her hand. The teenager turned towards the scene, ignoring the slight glare from Pepper and the slight confusion from Eddie. She focused on Tony's blank expression.

"Bye, Dad," she said, immediately turning away and heading down the cobblestone path towards her Audi.

Next Chapter: The Rogers/Romanoffs