Sweat trickled down her back, cooling her heated skin in a sticky kind of way. Breaths coming in short gasps, Pepper gritted her jaw and clambered back into a guarded pose. Her cobalt blue eyes absorbing her surroundings sharply, she couldn't help but notice the impressed look on Maria Hill's face as they stared each other down. It sent a rush of pride through her veins, adding to the adrenaline roaring through her bruised body. They had been training for three hours in a private studio, the room utterly bare except for the naked light bulbs swaying on the ceiling and the pile of broken dummies in the corner. S.H.I.E.L.D had a range of incredibly high-tech gyms stuffed with the most complex equipment their vast fortune could afford, but Pepper had chosen to train in the simplest room they had to offer. After all, she wasn't planning to combat evil villains in her day-to-day life. Stark had been pestering her to lean self-defence for weeks after the New York battle and for once he was making sense. Agent Hill was more than obliging, although half the time Pepper had a substitute since Fury's right hand woman was often preoccupied with private business. Pepper had been arriving at the headquarters every Thursday and Sunday without fail, come rain or shine, for four months now and her skill was improving rapidly.
"You just keep coming back up, don't you?" Hill mused, folding her arms as she surveyed the secretary with unconcealed praise. Pepper grinned back, too breathless to speak and attempting to ignore the ache in her muscles, after having been floored for the sixth time. She was clad in a plain vest and leggings since she needed as much mobility as possible, a welcome change from the silk suits she usually wore. "Do you want to take a break?"
"No thank you, Miss Hill." Ever courteous, Pepper shook her head and was forced to scrape her blonde curls back into a ponytail. "I have to get Tony to a meeting in an hour, so we can wrap up soon anyway." The Agent grinned to herself, deciding not to question her. She admired Stark's secretary greatly for not only managing to deal with the arrogant genius but standing her ground no matter who she faced. Hill had learnt not to challenge Pepper verbally, particularly when it came to Tony Stark. It baffled her why Pepper remained his assistant when they had been dating for almost a year already, but Hill knew how to keep her thoughts to herself. It was commonly accepted that Pepper was unfailingly loyal to Tony. People would gossip and act incredulous, but only the couple knew the facts. Tony was all Pepper had and vice versa, it had been that way for years. After being accepted in the Avengers Initiative, Stark had begun to consider the others as friends but had never quite stopped relying on Pepper.
"Alright, we can just refine your upper body strike." Changing into a defensive stance, Hill gestured for Pepper to strike. The secretary leapt forward in a swift and elegant bound, arm outstretched. The Agent grabbed her wrist with an iron grip. Pain shot like needles up her arm as Hill began to twist her arm. Of course, the Agent expected her to spin around. Obeying, Pepper whirled around with her other arm extended. The edge of her palm met Hill's neck with a stunning force. Stunned, Hill let her grip loosen on Pepper's wrist long enough for her to swap handholds. Rapidly, Pepper hurled the Agent over her back. The impact was jarring for both of them, the crash rebounding off the walls. In one fluid motion, Hill had rolled forward and twisted in a ready, crouched pose before attacking. Both women never uttered a sound as they fought. Pepper kicked. Hill parried. They danced.
Half an hour later, Pepper was just fastening the last buttons on her suit in the locker rooms when Natasha Romanov strode inside. The Black Widow was shiny with sweat and carried the scent of gunpowder on her uniform. As usual, she remained totally silent as she unpacked her gym bag and the atmosphere around her remained slightly foreboding.
"Aren't you going to say hello, Miss Romanov?" Pepper asked, a friendly smile playing on her lips as Natasha jerked up. The assassin regarded her warily but soon flashed her own, smaller smile back. They weren't best friends and rarely even met, but both women admired each other greatly. What truly connected them was the pain of Phil Coulson's death. The grief of the Agents in S.H.I.E.L.D had caused a dark mood to settle like a storm cloud over the headquarters for many weeks, only lightening once the initial sharpness of his dead had faded away. Now it was just a dull ache, but everyone had fond memories of one of S.H.I.E.L.D's top agents. Pepper herself had met up with him almost every Friday after he had approached Stark with the Initiative, both plotting ways to persuade Tony to accept his missions and generally enjoying themselves. The Agent in him meant more often than not he took Pepper's joke methods a little too seriously and she had to backtrack quickly to avoid her boss being kidnapped in the dead of night. In the aftermath of the battle, Pepper had forgotten that Phil couldn't visit her anymore and had waited at their favourite café for two hours before remembering.
"Good morning, Miss Potts." She answered, her Russian accent giving her voice a lilting tune. Nodding gratefully, Pepper slung her bag over her shoulder and winced. Her body was still sore; the areas most bruised throbbing painfully. Just as she was waving good-bye to Hill, Pepper remembered something.
"Oh, Miss Romanov?" The assassin glanced up, eyebrows raised. "You and Agent Hill are invited to a house-warming party at Stark Tower tomorrow evening. It's a little late because everyone's been so busy, but I think that no-one has anything on tomorrow."
"How exactly would you know that?" Agent Hill asked curiously, whilst Romanov frowned, clearly wondering the same thing. Unable to keep a sly smirk off her face, Pepper shrugged. The secretary was famous for having a vast expanse of knowledge on practically everyone she had ever met, never missing a beat. It worried the higher ranked officials of S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters at times, especially since a lot of her information was stored on their inner database and the only way to access the files without a password was to hack through the firewalls, which usually took hours. Pepper had never made her skill with machines known and with JARVIS at her beck and call, there really were no barriers when it came to computers.
"I work for Mr Stark." Was her simple reply, slipping through the doors and out of the headquarters looking smug. Flashing her ID badge at the frequent barriers that led to the car park, she slipped into the waiting Audi and sighed in relief as she sank into the supple leather. Engine roaring to life, Pepper joined the traffic jammed roads of New York heading back to Stark Tower.