Phil had a problem, and he was pretty sure Pepper did too. He made his way over to Stark Industries to meet her for lunch to discuss their mutual problems.
"Phil!" She kissed his cheek, wary of those who might be watching, and smiled. "This is a nice surprise."
"I thought we could get something to eat. Talk."
"Ah. I think I can guess what this is about." She smiled and tilted her head. "Let's go to the diner."
The Diner was a small place across the road from Stark Tower. It had good food, discreet waitresses and endless coffee, so the various occupants of the Tower found themselves heading there more often than not. This time Pepper and Phil settled into a booth at the back of the room, and waited for their order to arrive (soup and a sandwich for her, chef's special for him) before they started to talk.
"You're here about Tony."
"No, I'm here about Clint." Phil frowned and sipped his coffee. "Should I be here about Tony?"
"Hmm. What's the problem with Clitn?"
"He's not acting like himself around you and Tony. I'm worried he's going to push himself into things he's not ready for just to make you happy. He's not..." He smiled but there was little joy in it. "He has his issues. And doing things beyond his comfort zone to get approval is a big one."
"Ah. He is rather..." she trailed off and took a spoonful of soup. "Tony is similar in a way. He's desperate for your attention, yours and Clint's."
"The extravagant dates? I thought that was just Tony being Tony."
"It is, to some extent. But this isn't the real him, this is the face he puts on to get people to like him."
"Great, two of them." Phil rolled his eyes and Pepper smiled. "How did two men from such different backgrounds end up with such similar issues?"
"I don't think that matters right now. What matters is what we're going to do about it."
They made a plan.
"Hey sweetie," Pepper said, swanning in to Clint's section of the Tower and absent-mindedly pressing a kiss to his forehead on the way past. He was frozen where he was standing, staring after her. "I thought we could have dinner, Chinese okay with you?"
"Uh," he jolted back into action and followed after her into the kitchen where she was fixing herself a glass of wine. She was wearing sweatpants, a green camisole and a well worn grey hoodie. She looked unlike herself, more casual and un-made up than Clint had ever seen her."Are the others coming?"
"Phil and Tony? No. I think they're having dinner together."
"Oh." Clint frowned. Was this allowed? He rolled his eyes at himself, of course it was allowed, it was happening and he was a grown goddamn man, he could make his own decisions. But... somehow it felt wrong, meeting without everyone there.
"If you want me to go," Pepper began and Clint shook his head quickly.
"No. No, it's fine. Chinese, yeah?"
"Yeah."
It's surprising, the way she is. He hasn't really seen much of this side of Pepper before. Or rather, he's seen it in her with Tony, but he's never really interacted with her like this. She's always so done up and professional. It's like the first time he heard Coulson crack one of his terrible jokes, or saw Fury without his leather coat. The part of his mind that's always working away, calculating trajectories and counting exits, says she's doing this for him. That she's making herself vulnerable for a reason.
Maybe it's to even the playing field. She'd come into his rooms like she owned them, and he was only wearing sweatpants of his own and no shirt at all. She must have planned this. But why?
"What's going on here?" He finally asked after they've demolished the rice and lemon chicken and sweet and sour pork. "I mean, I don't understand."
"Oh, sweetie." She smiled at him, kind and soft. "Phil and I have been talking," she said. And we've decided that we'll work better as a couple than you ever did, his brain finished and he took a slow even breath. Phil wouldn't do that to him. "And we're worried about you. You get that you don't have to do anything you don't want to, right? That you can say no. If you aren't happy with us as a foursome, you only have to say the word."
It wasn't enough. He'd been trying so hard to show them, because he's bad at words sometimes and he can put on a good show, but he was supposed to be himself, so he'd been trying so hard to let them see that he wanted this. He did everything they'd wanted, and asked for more (although they weren't having sex yet, Phil's rule, backed up by Pepper).
"I don't..."
"If Tony says 'Hey, I've booked out a fancy restaurant, we're going to dinner' you can say 'no thanks, not tonight, I want to go to the range', or 'I just want to stay in and watch TV', or 'Can't I just spend tonight with Phil'. I promise, we won't mind. We all want to spend time with you, but if you don't feel like it, say so."
He felt a strange sense of déjà vu. He's had this conversation before.
"You've stopped going out."
"What?" Clint looked up from where he was cooking, and glanced over at Phil.
"You don't have to change for me. I love you. The you who I met years ago, not whatever you think you should be."
"I don't..."
"You've stopped going out. You keep trying to set me up. You're making yourself miserable and I hate it. I don't want you making yourself miserable because you think it's what I want." Phil sighed and rubbed his forehead. "If you want to go have sex, have sex. You're miserable like this, and I hate it."
"I'm trying to be..." good for you, "part of this. It's new," he said. "And I need to try."
"Trying is good. Trying is fine," Pepper told him, and she ruffled a hand through his hair. "But if you're not happy, we're not happy. And Phil is definitely not happy."
"Sometimes..." he hesitated. Clint wasn't sure how much he should say. He didn't talk about this sort of thing. Except with Phil. And occasionally Nat, but that was different. When he talked to Nat, they were usually sparring and it felt more like a catharsis, an exorcism, than it did a discussion. "Sometimes I find it hard to know where the lines are. When I'm supposed to just go along and when it's okay to say no."
She turned to him and he had trouble figuring out her expression. Which was weird. He'd learned to read faces and body language back when he had to watch for his father's anger, refined those skills when he was a foster kid, perfected them as a spy. Phil was one of the only people he had trouble reading, and now apparently Pepper.
(People always talked about how hard Natasha was to read, but Clint had never had trouble figuring her out. They were too much the same to get confused).
Which meant it was probably a stupid idea to be in a relationship with both of them.
"You can always say no." Her tone was fierce and oddly protective and he chewed on the inside of his lip. "Always. Whether it's about what we're watching on TV, where we're going for dinner, or what we do in bed."
Clint honestly didn't know what to say to that. He knew it on one level, and he knew they won't do anything if he does say no. But... but... well, his life hadn't been the most wonderful or rainbows or flowers and unicorns. For a lot of his life, saying no was a very bad idea. Saying no meant no food or being hit or whatever. And it wasn't even that. It's... he likes them. He likes Pepper who is pretty and smells good and is kind and he likes Tony who is just as sarcastic as Clint and just as kind as Pepper in his abrasive assumptive way. It wasn't all about being scared or not knowing what to do, it was about being enough.
He didn't want to lose that.
"I know," he said.
Phil went down into the workshop and sat down. He had asked that JARVIS not to announce him and he didn't want to disturb Tony when he was working. So he sat down and he watched the whirlwind that was Tony Stark in action. He wasn't surprised at the chaotic way Tony worked, but he was a little surprised by the still concentration he saw as Tony focussed on the more delicate tasks.
It took a while for Tony to notice he was there, but that was Phil's life. People rarely noticed him.
When Tony did finally realise that Phil was sitting there, he jumped, swore, and dropped the soldering torch he was working with, burning his hand. Phil was up and across the room in seconds, cupping Tony's hand between his own.
"JARVIS, mute music," Tony said, and the silence was deafening. "Hey, how long have you been sitting there?"
"A while. Come on." He tugged Tony after him over to the sink and ran cold water over Tony's hand. It wasn't too bad a burn and Tony looked more bewildered that hurt.
"It's just a burn. I've had them before."
"I know that. But I'm here right now, and I want to make sure you aren't too badly." Tony just shrugged. Phil sighed and tried again. "Pepper and I had lunch today." He pulled Tony's hand back and Dummy chirped from behind him. He presented Phil with a first aid kit, and Phil opened it up.
"Yeah? She have anything interesting to say?" Tony smirked. He looked more amused at Phil's insistence on first aid than hurt or worried, so Phil smiled back, letting it reach his eyes. He carefully patted Tony's hand dry and then smoothed burn ointment into the skin.
"Yes, actually. We talked about this thing we've got going." He carefully avoided the R word, knowing it was one of Tony's triggers. "I've been worried about Clint."
"Yeah?" something in Tony's aura (for want of a better thing) changed. He'd been absent somehow before, but now his entire attention was on the conversation, he was suddenly tuned in.
"Yeah. He's been acting like somebody else since we all got together. I don't know what's going on with him, but I think he's scared."
"Scared?"
"Of losing this. Of being left behind."
"Oh," Tony looked down at where Phil was applying a dressing. "I guess I can understand that."
Tony had been sure he'd done enough, that he'd shown Phil and Clint how much he wanted them, but if Clint was still having doubts, he was going to have to step it up a notch.
"He's never really done relationships, apart from me. A couple of people lasted a few weeks, but he's much better at one night stands. He doesn't have to give up as much of himself for them." Tony winced and nodded, and Phil sighed. "Tony, from what Pepper's said, and from what I've seen, you're just as scared as Clint is. We want to be with you and Pepper. We aren't going to leave if you relax and stop taking us out on such extravagant dates."
Tony snorted and shook his head.
"I don't know how to relationship," he stated plainly. More plainly than Phil had been expecting. "Pepper is the longest I've ever been with anyone. And she's the only person who's ever wanted to be with me just for me." He sighed. "I know I've been overdoing it, but I thought..."
"What? What did you think?" Phil had finished doctoring Tony's hand, and now was just holding the injured limb gently between his own hands.
"I know for you guys, this is about the sex. You were already in a loving relationship, and you only really need people to have sex with. And we can help you out with that, even if that's all you want. But I like you guys. A lot. I trust you more than I trust most people. I thought if I showed you..."
"You thought if you gave us things and took us out, we'd stay," Phil finished. And then he sighed and shook his head. "What am I going to do with you? And Clint, the pair of you. You said you trust us, so trust us. Trust that we're here because we care about you. And Pepper too. We've known you both for a few years now. Do you think that if we just wanted to use you two for sex we'd have spent so much time and effort getting to know you both? Do you think the hours Clint spends down here talking about maths and arrow designs are because he was buttering you up so you'd fuck him?"
"Well," Tony said, and grinned, rubbing the back of his neck with his uninjured hand. "When you put it like that, it does sound kind of ridiculous." He rolled his eyes, more like he was annoyed with himself than anything. "I'm not good at this. I will make mistakes. I will mess this up. But I am trying."
"We can see that. But Clint and I, we want you. The Tony we know. We don't want 'Press Tony'."
"Press Tony? Really? You make me sound like a Barbie doll! Press Tony and Scientist Tony and Malibu Tony!"
"Does that make the California place your Malibu Dream House?" Coulson asked, deadpan, and Tony laughed out loud.
"I can't promise anything," he said, suddenly serious again. "But I'm going to try. And if I start acting like an idiot again, you and Pepper can set me straight." He hadn't realised what he was doing. He just... he had Phil and he had Clint and he just wanted to keep them.
"Hey. You weren't acting like an idiot. You were just trying to impress us. It was almost sweet."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Phil nodded decisively and slipped his hands slowly away from Tony's burned one. "Come on. Let's go to your floor and order pizza."
"Cheese in the crust?"
"God, I'm dating a child."
"Hey, cheese in the crust is awesome. Haven't you ever had it?"
"No. Because I'm not a child."
"It will blow your mind."
They bantered all the way up and when Pepper joined Tony in bed later that night (and Phil joined Clint) they all slept peacefully and awoke content.
And in the moments before they slipped off, Phil and Pepper both wrapped themselves around their respective lovers and felt the way Tony and Clint were much more relaxed and they both had the same thought: Mission accomplished.