Chapter One

Five More Years

New York city was crowded except for when you needed it to be. At first the Japanese restaurant had seemed pleasantly quiet. There were only a few couples already dining so Tony and Pepper could pick a table next to the window without much fear of being disturbed.

"So how does it feel?" Tony asked, without looking up from his menu. "How does it feel being five years into a relationship with the world's most metallic billionaire?"

Pepper took a sip from her cocktail. "I'd do another five," she said.

And then Tony did look up from his menu and looked at her. Really looked at her. He was wearing one of those smiles - the kind that normally hid behind his sculpted goatee - that actually meant something. He reached across the table and held her hand. And then, because earnest words would make the air heavy and uncomfortable, he changed the subject.

"What are you going to get to eat?"

She glanced down at her menu. "I'll get the yakitori duck," she said.

"The thing with the pancakes?"

"Yeah."

"I like those pancakes."

"You're not stealing mine. Order your own pancakes."

"I don't want my pancakes. I want your pancakes."

"You're so weird," she said, rolling her eyes, but she was smiling when she did it. Tony was here, the food would be good and the restaurant was just the right degree of deserted. Everything was perfect. Until it wasn't.

"Pottsy?" The voice that shattered Pepper's bubble of calm was high pitched and tinged with mania. "Oh my god – Pottsy?! Is that you?!"

Slowly, and with a feeling of impending doom, Pepper turned her head towards where the noise was coming from. Standing a few feet away, her arms outstretched, was a woman Pepper that thought – and hoped – she would never see again.

"Veronica!" she said, managing to smile around her horror. "It's so good to see you! It's been so long!"

"Twelve years," Veronica said, nodding. Her hair, once bouncy with curles, had now been chemically straightened and it hung limply, bleached blonde and dry, around her face. "So much has happened. I'm married, for one," she said, gesturing to her right.

Pepper turned to the man standing next to her. At first, she hadn't even thought they were together, as he was staring absent-mindedly at a picture mounted on the wall of a giant wok.

"This is Trevor," Veronica said, looping her arm through the man's without looking at him. Trevor turned smiled vacantly at a point somewhere beyond Pepper's left shoulder.

"This is Tony," Pepper said, turning to Tony, who had been quiet for an uncharacteristically long time.

Tony blinked. "Iron Man," he said.

Veronica either didn't hear this or chose to ignore it, releasing Trevor and flapping her arms around crazily. "We have to let them push two tables together," she said. "We have so much to catch up on."

"Oh I don't know if they'll let us do that," Pepper said, hurriedly.

"The place is practically empty!" Veronica exclaimed. "They have to!"

As Veronica turned to Trevor, indicating that he should drag a table over, Pepper kicked Tony under the table.

"Make them go away!" she hissed.

"What am I supposed to do?" Tony asked.

"You're Iron Man!" she said. "Do something!"

But it was too late. Trevor has dragged over a chair and was sitting his meaty behind in the space next to Tony.

"So where have you been? What have you been up to?" asked Veronica. Then, before, Pepper could reply, she went on to say: "I've been working on my robotics company for seven years so I haven't really had much time for anything fun, but you! You must have been doing everything!"

This is what it was like talking to Veronica. Pepper remembered it from college – where they had first met. It took a while for the barbs to stick in but, when they did, they stuck in deep.

"This is actually our fifth anniversary," Pepper said, reaching out for Tony's hand over the table. Perhaps Veronica would take the hint. Tony, obviously catching on, took her fingers in his own and brought them to his lips, staring adoringly into her eyes in a way that could never be sincere.

"Oh congratulations!" Veronica clapped her hands together. "Did you get married here in New York?"

"We're actually not married," Pepper explained. "We've just been together for five years."

"Oh," Veronica nodded slowly. "Ok."

"It's just a piece of paper," Tony said, smiling.

"Well Trevor and I have been married nine years," Veronica said, grinning. "And we're wondering what to do for our tenth anniversary."

"How about a joint suicide pact?" Tony asked. Veronica was already talking, however, and didn't hear him.

"We were thinking maybe Paris," she said. "It's so beautiful this time of year, but Trevor has trouble sometimes with the food. Don't you honey?" Trevor was staring at his menu, obviously aware that verbal confirmation from him was unnecessary.

"Can I help?" a waiter had materialised, smile in place, notebook in hand.

"Yes," Pepper thought. "Shoot me in the face."

"I'll have the yakitori duck," she said. Everyone else placed their orders and the waiter reached over to take their menus.

"The yakitori duck, Pepper?" Veronica asked, eyebrow raised. "That's brave. Over a thousand calories per serving, you know."

"We'll have four bottles of wine to go with that!" yelled Tony. The waiter, slightly deafened, smiled nervously and made a note in his notepad.

That evening, the topics covered at dinner included: the summer house Veronica and Trevor had bought in Spain last year, the yacht Veronica and Trevor had decided to sell because they just didn't have the time to use it, the children Veronica and Trevor had decided not to have, the deal Veronica had managed to strike with Humphrey Global and Pepper's hair, which Veronica thought ought to be dyed a shade lighter.

"Honestly, honey," she said, around a forkful of donburi. "I think it'll do a world of good for your complexion."

"Her complexion is just fine," Tony said. He was now on his fourth glass of wine and his eyes had adopted that slightly glazed-over look that she had become used to seeing in the days she'd first started working for him. "Pepper's complexion is absolutely amazing." And then he leaned over the table and kissed her deeply, right in front of them. Pepper, slightly shocked at first, kissed him back. For the best part of an hour, she had forgotten that it was actually her anniversary.

Veronica cleared her throat. As Pepper pulled away from Tony, she was smiling. For the first time that evening, Trevor appeared to be tuned in to the conversation; he was staring at Pepper and Tony with his mouth slightly open, the end of a beansprout just sticking out.

"I assume you already know about Estelle," Veronica said suddenly.

Pepper blinked. "What about her?" she asked.

Veronica stared back at her, a look of glee slowly dawning on her face. "I assumed you'd know, considering how close the two of you were…"

"Know what?" Now, the kiss seemed miles away.

"She's CEO of Humphrey Global," Veronica said, relishing the taste of the words in her mouth. "She's the one that helped me secure the deal. She's made it big." She went to take a sip of wine. "I wonder why she didn't tell you."

Pepper stared at the remains of her yakitori duck, suddenly no longer very hungry. "It must have slipped her mind," she said.

They were finally able to extract themselves from Veronica and Trevor when the car came to pick them up. Veronica wanted them to go on to a bar but Pepper said she had a headache, which was actually true, and that she'd better go home. They waved goodbye on the sidewalk. Veronica waved back. Trevor just stared.

In the back of the car, Tony held her hand to his chest. "Honey," he said. "Your friends are terrible people. From now on, I have to vet them for you."

"Veronica isn't my friend," Pepper replied, staring out of the window. Her mood had been crushed and, even with Tony by her side, she felt as though the only thing she was good for this evening was sulking.

"So who's Estelle?" It was easy to forget, sometimes, that Tony was a genius. She turned from the window to look at him. He was already staring at her. She could tell by the way he was slumped against the seat that he was still slightly drunk but, even in this state, he was smart enough to know what the problem was. Smiling slightly, she let him put his arm around her.

"She was my best friend in college," she said. "We were roommates. We lost touch. She suddenly stopped talking to me a few years ago." It had crept up on her, the time. What with everything going on with Tony and the Avengers, she'd forgotten. Maybe she was a bad friend.

"Only a crazy person would want to stop talking to you." Tony said. "You're my favourite person to talk to. And, as you know, I have impeccable taste." He leaned in to kiss her.

By the time they got home, Pepper was in a better mood. Stark Tower, while not exactly cosy, had been home for a year now and, as she kicked off her stiletto heels, sinking her feet into the plush rug near the fire, she felt content.

"Madame." Tony handed her a slender glass of champagne. "To another five years," he said.

"At least," she added. The glasses chinked and they leaned in for a kiss.

"I feel as though I should interrupt now before things get really awkward."

Pepper and Tony leapt apart. Steve Rogers was leaning in the doorway, looking as though he wanted to die.

"Holy shit!" exclaimed Tony. "How can a man your size be that stealthy?"

"I'm sorry," Steve said, looking, to his credit, very uncomfortable. "I didn't mean to surprise you, I just-"

"How did you even get in?" Pepper asked.

"I let him in." Pepper and Tony spun around again. The Vision was reclining casually on a chaise-long in the corner, reading the newspaper. He looked up. "He has something to tell you," he said, glancing down at the glasses in their hands. "And when he does, you might want to save that champagne for later."