A/N: contains spoilers for Iron Man 3 & ignores the events of Capt America 2 completely.
"Pepper, I can't do this."
"Why?"
"I just can't."
Who could possibly be having this conversation at 7:30am in the morning? Okay, in reality, anybody. But, who would have it in the living room, and being loud enough to wake up the whole building, whilst knowing that they are being recorded by their AI? Pretty much, only Tony Stark and his girlfriend, Pepper Potts.
"Well, last time I checked, it's still your name on the company logo." Pepper reminds him.
"It could be yours too, you know." Tony tells her softly.
"Not without a ring." She replies, not skipping a beat.
"Hey, I just gave you control over my company." He tries to counter.
She shakes her head. "Not the same thing."
"Pepper Stark just kind of fits, don't you think?" Tony muses, holding Pepper's hands and staring at them.
"Why are you avoiding it?" Pepper asks, exasperated.
"I'm not." Tony shakes his head. "You're the one who's avoiding it."
"Avoiding what?" Steve Rogers asks as he enters the room and sits down on one of the couches.
The kitchen was way too small to fit all the Avengers so they usually spent their mornings in the living room. Still doesn't explain why the two of them were having this argument in public though.
"The press." Pepper explains before turning back to Tony. "Again."
"I hate press." Tony mumbles.
"I thought he'd love the attention." Steve murmurs.
"I'd also love not to have to answer stupid questions." Tony replies.
"Like why do you have a robot that's always crashing into the wall?" Says Steve, eyeing Dummy, who has just repeated said action behind them.
"No, like what really happened when he went into the wormhole." Bruce Banner explains as he also takes a couch.
"Bruce, I just had heart surgery, you really want me to flip out here?" Tony asks in mock shock.
"I didn't think that was possible, Stark." Natasha Romanoff laughs as she opens the fridge beside the door.
"You guys are worse than Rhodey." Stark says, glancing at Pepper who is trying not to laugh, before turning to the others. "We're trying to have some alone time here."
"Why? What's the big secret?" Clint Barton asks as he leans over to kiss Natasha, who turns and whispers something in his ears. "Really?" He looks astounded.
"No." Pepper, who can guess what Natasha has just told Clint, answers before Tony can. "He's trying to avoid the press. And probably S.H.I.E.L.D."
"May I have you're attention please."
The television has just turned itself on without anyone pressing a button and the face of the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D is looking right at them.
"J.A.R.V.I.S I thought I told you to take us off the grid." Tony says to the ceiling.
"Stark, your tower is the most obvious structure in a hundred miles." Fury replies. "I wouldn't be surprised if they can spot it from the moon."
"Don't mind him. He's kind of been dreading this week for the past several months." Says Pepper, before turning to Tony. "Haven't you, darling?"
"I wouldn't say dreading. That's too strong a word." Tony looks away.
"Okay, I'm not sure why you've suddenly developed press phobia but this is also the anniversary of Coulson's death so you should still take part in the commemoration, even if you don't particularly feel like it yourself." Says Fury, before eyeing the room at large with his good eye. "That goes for all of you."
"At least we don't have to travel very far." Says Bruce after the transmission ends.
Of course, because it happened right here at the tower, the commemorative events were coming to them.
"Why do people do this?" Tony asks no one in particular.
"Because they want to annoy you." Pepper teases him.
"No, I mean it." He replies, suddenly serious. "Why do they have to make a big deal out of an event that killed almost a fifty people (most of them civilians by the way)?"
"Those fifty people deserve to be remembered." Steve counters. "The fact that this number isn't any higher is a victory in itself."
"Where I come from, people just disappear." Natasha observes. "Quite regularly actually. And then you never hear from them again. You don't know if they're dead or if they're incarcerated. And people never talk about it."
"Do you know what some people call Columbus Day?" Bruce asks them, thoughtfully.
"What?" Says Steve.
"Invasion Day." Bruce points out. "And they're not wrong. I agree with Tony's." He looks at Stark before continuing. "What they're calling Avengers Day is also the same day that our own government ordered a nuclear strike on its own people. We have to be careful here. There's a lot of politics involved."
"Whoever decided to name this "public holiday" after us, should be shot." Stark mumbles.
"As long as there's free food, I'm not complaining." Clint says in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"He's kind of been trying to avoid this week as well." Natasha reminds them.
It seems that both Stark and Barton had very personal (though perhaps very different) reasons to not want to think about what happened in New York.
"I think it's a good thing." Steve says quietly but with a voice full of authority. "It will remind people what's at stake. Because we weren't just fighting for New York or America. We were fighting for planet Earth."
"What's at stake here is that people will become complacent." Bruce shakes his head sadly. "They will see us and think that they're protected. The truth is that they're not protected. No one can protect them. They need to learn how to protect themselves.
"Just out of curiosity, what did you see up there, Stark?" Clint says and looks straight at Tony.
"I'd rather not talk about it." Tony replies.
"He didn't even call me Legolas." Clint says into Natasha's ear as he rubs her shoulder.
"We all have our baggage." Steve reminds them. "But the thing is, this isn't for us. It's for them."
"Bullshit." Tony bursts out in classic Stark style. "They'd rather watch the Super Bowl. This is for the bastards who think they know what the little guys want."
"Hey, I was one of them." Steve points out. "I can tell you if I were still that guy, I'd want to know that there's a Captain America out there somewhere. Or that there's an Iron Man. Or that there's a Hulk."
"So we don't count here?" Clint laughs pointing to himself and Natasha.
"Sir, Director Fury has given me the itinerary for today. You may want to change out of your pyjamas before the world media gets a glimpse of them." Says an electronic voice with a British accent.
"It's the digital age JARVIS." Tony waves his hand. "I'm pretty sure people have seen me in worse outfits on Youtube."
"You're also part of a group." Steve glares at him.
"That's a great idea." Tony smiles with a hint of mischief coming back. "How about we all address the media in pyjamas."
"Kids will get confused." Clint replies. "They'll think that Iron Man wears Pyjamas under his suit while he's flying around."
"That's not fair." Tony protests. "Out of all of us, how come I'm the only one that doesn't show my face in battle?"
"At least you're not green." Bruce mutters.
"When's he going to get you that ring?" Natasha takes this opportunity to speak with Pepper since the boys were now busy comparing costumes (among other things).
"Probably never." Pepper shakes her head.
"Don't you want one?" Natasha asks.
"Of course I do." Pepper concedes. "But he's really bad at it."
"Bad at what?" Natasha asks, trying not to laugh.
"Commitment." Pepper sighs. "He's… he might be a genius but he takes a long time to learn these things."
"Why don't you give him a chance?" Natasha asks kindly.
"Because I want to make sure he's ready." Pepper replies.
Natasha looks at Pepper for a moment before asking. "Do you know what would have happened to me if I kept waiting to be ready?"
"What?" Pepper asks with intrigue.
"I never would have left the KGB." Natasha replies. "Sometimes you won't know if you're ready for something until after you've done it."
"What about you and Barton?" Pepper asks, changing the focus. "Are you two er…?"
"Pepper, we're trained killers." Natasha says as though stating the obvious. "How long do you think we'll last before we both try to kill each other?"
"But you care about each other. I can see it." Pepper observes.
"I guess. For now, that's enough." Natasha shrugs.
A/N 2: Apologies to Thor fans. It is assumed that during the events of this fic, he is in Asgard. That's why he's completely absent from said fic :) (and also I haven't seen any of the Thor films so couldn't make many jokes & references, so was more convenient writing wise, not to include him)