Richard Castle's Loft- May 29th, 2012

"How the hell did you eat so much?"

Lanie rolled her eyes. "My eating habits are none of your concern."

Castle gestured madly at the tower of pizza boxes stacked in one corner of the kitchen. "Dear God, it looks like you were trying to feed the New York Jets!" He let out a shriek when he saw just how many beer bottles were hidden by said pizza boxes.

Lanie tapped her foot, not in the mood for his antics. "We are not here to discuss pizza. We are to discuss the two lovebirds that came bouncing in here without a call or a 'we're boinking' telegram."

"…do they even make tele-"

"Castle…" Kate said coolly, motioning for him to sit down and be quiet before he had Lanie leaping up to throttle him. "It's a long story, Lanie."

"I have plenty of time." She sat down on Castle's favorite chair, her ankles crossed and hands folded in her lap. "So why don't you tell me what you two have been up to since everything went insane."

Castle rubbed the back of his neck. "Would you believe that I am really one of the superheroes that saved New York and Beckett and I have been being debriefed by a secret government agency while she recovered from being caught in an alien explosion?"

Lanie glanced over at Beckett. "I am gonna smack him. You know that, right?"

~MC~MC~MC~

Tony Stark's Penthouse- May 29th, 2012

Tony Stark entered his penthouse apartment, zeroing in on Pepper. She had changed out of her semi-casual wear and gone with her 'only when you are around' wear, which consisted of a flannel shirt tied just under her breasts that showed off her flat tummy, a pair of short-shorts that left almost nothing to the imagination and nothing else. Her bare feet were curled up underneath her as she sat out the loveseat and the sight normally would have had Tony's mouth watering.

The reason it wasn't this time was because Pepper had clearly been crying, staring at a framed photo. It was one he knew all too well: after the incident Vanko, Coulson had returned one last time to check in before heading to the arctic to retreave the Capsicle. Tony had managed to trick him into stand beside himself and Pepper and he'd given the SHIELD agent bunny ears as Dummy snapped a shot of them.

Tony walked over, taking the glass from Pepper's hand and giving her a glass of scotch instead.

"Tony..." she said softly, reaching for the photo.

"Nope, don't think so. You have been crying enough. It isn't good for you, you know? Dries you out and leaves you without your vital liquids. Now drink." Pepper just stared at him as he went to the mini fridge and pulled out one of the green smoothies he'd been taking last year to try and save his life; while they had tasted horrible when he started he'd found that he'd developed a desire for them, from time to time. "Don't give me that look...these are pretty good, now that I have that new core in my chest. Makes them taste like a banana smoothie...or what a banana smoothie use to taste like...bananas now taste like bacon fried in peanut butter."

Pepper couldn't even manage a smile. "I can't believe he is gone."

"I know it's sad, but don't you think he would have wanted you to move on?"

The look of disgust that crossed Pepper's face showed that his answer had not been the right one. "How can you be so dismissive? He was a friend, Tony."

"Wow, we have really change the definition of friend here...kidding...listen..." he reached over, touching her bare knee. "I'm sorry, but I don't mourn the way you do."

"Yeah...you drown yourself in vodka and hookers."

Tony leveled her with a dark look. "Cute. No...I don't see people's deaths as a reason to mourn. You know what they are, Pepper? They are reasons to go on, to be better." He began to tick off his explains. "When my mom and dad died I went and built my first robotic helper. Big achievement...yeah, it was Dummy, but still...you know why I became Iron Man?"

Pepper was surprised by the change of conversation. "To escape that terrorist group..."

"No, that is why I made the armor. I became Iron Man because this guy, Yinsen, believed that I could be more. He died so that I could live. He died so Iron Man could live." Tony leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. "Death should be the pole upon which you hoist your flag, or some poetic garbage like that."

Pepper had rarely seen Tony like this and knew that, except for a handful of people, a couple of which were dead, this was side of himself he never showed. All the glib remarks and comebacks had been pealed away to reveal a weary soul, burdened by knowledge and duty to the point of breaking. She wanted to hold him close, to comfort him, but she knew he would never allow her to do that and any attempt to do so would result in him closing himself off with a joke and a wink.

Instead, she merely asked, "So what will you do in Phil's name?"

Tony looked at her while keeping his head lulled, which served to give him a comical appearance. "Besides save the world and beat back an insane Norse god? Haven't given it any thought yet. Give me a few days, though, and I should be able to come up with something."

~MC~MC~MC~

Richard Castle's Loft- May 29th, 2012

"Can we never do that again?" Castle asked as he slipped under the thin sheet. The attack on New York had left many section without power and Castle's building was running without AC to try and help ease the burden on the power grid. He'd promised Beckett that he would try using some of his genius know-how to get their AC running purely on solar energy. The gleam in her eye as he had informed her that he was sure he could do it warned of many Honey-Do projects in his future.

"Well, other than Lanie, we really don't know anyone else we need to tell." They'd spent 5 hours being grilled by Lanie, first getting her to believe that Castle was the giant that had helped the Avengers, then having their new love-life dissected by the ME. Lanie Parish had been as vicious as Jack the Ripper and had cut through the crap and bullshit with ease.

"What about your dad?" Castle asked.

Beckett groaned. "I don't know what will be worse: telling him I'm unemployed or telling him my boyfriend can become a giant." She looked over at him, focusing on his shadow-covered face. "Am I the only one that thinks 'boyfriend' sounds so lame?"

"You'd prefer something else? Lovers?" Beckett crinkled her nose in disgust. "Yeah, Liz Lemon was right, Lovers should only be used between Meat and Pizza. Hmmm…" Castle stretched out, one arm under his head the other lazily tracing random patterns upon Beckett's back. "Do we even need labels? We've kinda broken every one there is."

"Good point."

"Maybe we'll make up new ones and people will use them to describe themselves!"

Beckett snuggled against him, not caring how hot it was. She just wanted to feel his skin against herself, his warmth joining with the heat that radiated off her body.

As the two of them drifted to sleep, neither noticed that behind Beckett's eyelids a blue light began to glow…