AN: Thanks everyone for the reviews and the support! I still don't own the Avengers.

Special thanks to: Maverick14th, Mariah, Whitelion69, Oceanbreeze7, BrokenToy and Psyche102!


Pepper and Happy were the first ones to find out. This doesn't surprise Tony in the least. He's never been able to hide secrets from Pepper, so why should this be any different? He figures Happy found out because he was in the right place as the right time.

Pepper found the tapes a week after Tony's "I am Iron Man." speech on live TV. He'd been doing almost nothing besides the occasional interview on the radio or on a blog, under Pepper's orders of course, and his weapons-destruction runs in the desert.

It was when he was away on one such run that Pepper and Happy stumbled upon the CD, sitting ever so innocuously on the corner of the main desk in the workshop's center. It wasn't labeled and, for the briefest moment, both wondered it was a blank disk.

Curiosity overriding their better judgement and, knowing Tony wouldn't be home for many hours, Happy grabbed the disk, Pepper stowed the mail in a drawer and both went upstairs to the media room. Pepper turned on the TV and Happy slipped the disk into the DVD player before pushing the tray in gently and stepping back.

There was static on the screen and both settled onto the couch while they waited for it to it did, both looked extremely unhappy. The Tony on the screen was nothing like the one they were used to seeing. He looked tired and sad, with dark circles under his eyes and a weariness about him that set off alarms for the two people who were watching.

The on-screen Tony heaved a breath, seeming to steel himself before he spoke.

"My name is Anthony Edward Stark, and I am a Were. If you're watching this video then I'm dead, dying, or missing and presumed dead. If you're a villain who picked this up while ransacking my lab: You're an ass and I'm going to beat you half to death and then sue you the rest of the way into the grave."

A small smirk pulled at the very edges of Tony's mouth before falling flat again.

"My Were-Animal orientation is Panthera pardus orientalis, or for those of you who don't understand Trinomial designations, I'm an Amur Leopard. The reason I'm making this video is because I want to clear a few things up, both about Weres in general and about myself, so shut up and listen."

"Today's date is September 13th, 2009 and it has been less than three weeks since I was rescued from wandering the desert after I spent three months in captivity. To this day, no one knows the extent of what I experienced while I was a prisoner, and I plan to keep it like that. I will say this, if I wasn't a Were, I'd have never survived."

"In May of 2008, Weres were forced into the open when one of us was darted by accident. Anyone watching this should know the story by now, so I'm not going to waste my breath with a retelling. Most of what the public knows about Weres today is nothing but propaganda, and not even the good shit, so I'm going to set something straight. Weres are, in fact, more intelligent than their animal counterparts. Just because I turn fuzzy and spotted does not make me a volatile maneater. However, Weres in human form carry over instinct from their animal form. We, because of a genetic anomaly, or defect if you must call it that, are the perfect amalgamation between human and animal. Humans with the strength, speed and other abilities of all kinds of animals and animals with thought processes of an extremely intelligent three year-old."

"The Amur Leopard is an emotionally stunted, solitary apex predator. I got two out of three. Three guesses as to which ones they are and the first two don't count. Now, I'm not gonna blame everything on Instinct. I have to say, Howard Stark, for someone who knew what he was getting into when he married my mother, was not at all ready or accepting to find a leopard cub sitting in his workshop a week after my fifth birthday."

"After my first shift, I was told to never do it again, and I spent the better part of fifteen years only shifting when my mom and I could sneak away when Howard was away on business." On screen Tony sighed darkly and rubbed a hand across his forehead and looked up, eyes glassy and the lines of his body screaming unresolved grief.

"When the car-crash took my parents...Howard I cared little for and it didn't really matter to me. But my mom...my mom was also a leopard, and she taught me everything I know today about being a Were, in both forms. I forgot one of my most important lessons after she died. Very few things will make a Were get stuck in their animal forms. Injury, or pain of any kind, sheer stubbornness and our emotions can cause us to get stuck."

Here he cracked a small smile, something like fond reminiscence behind it and he chuckled.

"I went to Asia and Russia after the funeral, the original plan was to spend a few weeks trying to come to terms with the loss of my mother. After awhile, I realized I wouldn't be ready anytime soon and gave the company over to Obadiah. I shifted after I'd sent the papers off with a courier. And couldn't change back the next day."

"That's one of the few days I can actually say I faced up to my emotions. You'd a been proud of me, Pep, talking about my emotions, even though it was in my head and to myself, but the principal is the same."

"But I guess there's not much more to tell. Pepper, I'm sorry I'll probably tell you to your face how incredible you actually are and that, for putting up with my shit, you should be made a patron saint of something suitably awesome. Take care of yourself and try to be happy, even if it means you have to go job hunting." Here Tony laughed lightly at the inside joke and, when he next spoke, his face was less drawn then before.

"Happy, when you helped me all those years ago by defending me from those muggers, I never expected to get not only a talented driver, bodyguard and trainer out of the deal, but also an amazing friend. You, too, deserve to be, well, happy, and I hope you will be."

"Now, in the event that I am actually de-" Pepper hit the power button the DVD player and slumped back into her seat, the enormity of what was just revealed to her settling in slowly but surely. Happy didn't appear to be much better off as, after a moment, he loosed a particularly sharp and colorful curse.

"Happy!" Pepper scolded, more out of routine than anything. Happy blushed lightly a moment before he was up and pacing. "I knew something was up! I should have been able to pin it together, especially after the announcement came out." Pepper looked up at him in confusion, her raised eyebrow an unspoken demand for him to elaborate.

"When someone holds back when they're fighting, there are always tells. I figured he was just tensing up incase I hit him too hard. Weres are usually as strong their affiliated animals. Leopards are incredibly powerful animals, able to carry and lift dead animals up trees and rocks nearly three times their weight. If Tony had even used a fraction of that strength, then I would have been lucky to get away with nothing more than bruises."

Pepper was looking at Happy with a thoughtful expression, thinking back to the hundreds of interactions she'd had with Tony over the years since becoming his PA. Little things became more clear to her than before, now that she was looking for them.

When he wanted to get away from something, whether playfully or not, he often shifted from a fast walk to a strange, loping stride that covered ground rapidly, making perfect for getaways and also for getting close to what he wanted, when he wanted it. His laser beam stare and slate-rock face when he was sizing someone up, whether they were an opponent of some kind or an annoyance.

There was reigning silence for a moment before Pepper spoke. "We have to catch him while he's shifted. Its the only he'll come clean by himself. If we tell him about the video, he may just lock himself off from us and we'll never get anywhere with him. And I think I know just when to do it."


A week after his desert weapons run, Tony decided that one of his walks was in order and used the cloudy Malibu night as a cover for his more than noticeable coat. After making sure the house was empty, as was the water that came away from his private stretch of beach, Tony stripped out of his clothes, leaving them haphazardly strewn all over the floor.

Without really thinking, he was much lower to the ground and his world became nothing more than "den-home-safe" and "rain-sand-like". He pushed his way out of the open sliding glass door, talons clicking softly on the wood of his porch before he launched down the stairs onto the beach, paws making a thud as he landed in the soft sand.

He loosed a rasping roar, echoed by softer chuffing sounds as he started a trot out onto the sand, unaware of what would await him when he arrived back home.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Pepper led Happy into the house not ten minutes after Tony had left on his walk, carrying with her a small bag of what appeared to be jerky in her hands. "Are you sure that's going to work? I mean, he's a leopard, not a house cat. I doubt finger treats are going to hold his attention very well, if at all."

Pepper cast Happy a sidelong look before she spoke. "Happy, as I'm sure you know, I come from a large family. A very large family. Of all of my family, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings, parents, about sixteen of them are Weres. All of them some form of large, carnivorous predator. Jerky is something we buy in bulk."

Happy had no response and simply nodded as he followed her into the living room. Just as Pepper had predicted, Tony had left his clothes scattered all over the floor and the sliding door was left ajar, the sound of rain a background noise, the cooler air comfortably chilling the entire first floor.

Pepper waved Happy into the kitchen and started pulling things out of the refrigerator and telling Happy what to pull out of the cupboards and where. They worked on dinner while talking liveley to each other. Happy had just slipped the lasagna into the oven when their conversation was interrupted by a roar and growl and the quiet tap-click of claws on the hard floor.

Pepper grabbed the bag of jerky and pulled out a few strips before walking purposefully into the living room. There, standing in the middle of the room, was an angry looking leopard, teeth bared, fur on end and silver-blue eyes flashing. Pepper stood up straight and stared at the big cat, not even flinching when he roared at her again.

Behind her, Happy was watching the proceedings, but he remembered what she told him about dealing with Weres and remembered to keep his back straight and his face smooth. There was a tense moment before the leopard, Tony, he reminded himself, stepped backwards and hissed, raising a paw as if he were getting ready to lash out.

"Enough!" Pepper ordered, her tone sharp and leaving no room for argument. Happy watched in awe as Tony lowered his massive foreleg and turned to Pepper, snarling again. Pepper just looked unimpressed and he clicked her tongue once.

"Anthony Edward Stark, you stop it this instant! It's Pepper and Happy. You're safe. Your den is safe. We're not going to hurt you." He voice was growing more quiet and gentle with each statement and Happy watch as Tony's body loosened up, his fur fell flat and the rage left his eyes. He left a gap between them but settled into a sitting position,starting to groom the rain-damp out of his fur.

Pepper handed Happy a slice of jerky and waved him backward and smiled. "Just go slow. He'll recognize you." She reminded him, gently. Happy nodded and stood back while Pepper held the strip of jerky out in front of her, creeping forward slowly. Tony lifted his head from where he was grooming around the Arc Reactor in his chest and stared at her, this time eyes alight with curiosity and what looked like recognition.

When Pepper was within arms reach Tony leaned forward slightly and, with his rough textured tongue, lapped up the strip of dried meat. Pepper kept his hand still as Tony nosed around her palm and wrist, great gusts of warm air floating up her arm. After a moment, Tony made a soft chirping sound high in his throat and grabbed Pepper's wrist in between his teeth. There was no pain and no blood, simply a soft pressure on her skin, the question unmistakable.

"Can you trust me?"

Pepper didn't speak, simply left her arm where it was and reached forward with her free hand. Tony flinched briefly and made another soft sawing sound in his chest, the briefest tremor shaking his frame. And it became clear to them. Tony though he was going to be hit.

Pepper made a wordless crooning sound and gently ran her fingers through the thick, damp ruff around his ears. There was silence for a few minutes before Tony relaxed again and leaned into her gentle touch.

"You silly, overgrown housecat. We'll never hurt you. You can trust us." She crooned and Tony chirped again, content for the moment to allow the petting.