Sorry this is so late, I'll try to be more consistent. I hope you guys are enjoying this. Things will get more interesting soon.

Disclaimer: I don't own Iron Man or any related characters. Marvel does, and unfortunately, Disney owns Marvel.

Chapter Two

Giant Bunnies

Diana arrived back at the house just in time to hear Tony hanging up on a call with Happy. "Thanks for leaving me at the bar," she called sarcastically to her brother as she kicked off her shoes at the bottom of the stairs.

"Sorry, I had a thing that I... had to... do." He didn't sound very apologetic, but Diana decided to let it slide this time.

"Was that Happy?" she asked, perching herself on her usual pile of boxes.

"Yep. Some guy called Aldridge Killian came by to see Pepper today." Tony didn't do emotion well, but Diana could still tell that he was upset about it.

"And?"

"And I don't like it." He started fiddling with his controller for the new armor.

Diana sighed. There wasn't much she could do about it. Instead, she started telling her diary what had happened that day, pouring out her worries about Tony and the Mandarin onto it's well-worn pages.

A little while later, Diana heard an alert that Pepper had returned home. Tony had long since turned on some music, and even gotten himself some food. Unfortunately, he seemed to think it was a good idea to send his new armor upstairs to greet Pepper.

About half-way through their remote conversation, after Tony had asked Pepper how she'd liked the giant bunny that had greeted her when she pulled up, Diana snuck part-way up the stairs and called out, "We're down here, Pepper!"

"Diana!" Tony shouted, his voice clearly audible from both the suit and the garage downstairs.

Pepper descended the stairs, sending a grateful smile to Diana before turning on her frustrated face for Tony. "This is a new level of Lame," she informed her boyfriend, shoving aside Dummy's offer of a plate of food.

"Sorry," Tony replied, not sounding really very sorry.

"You ate without me?" she asked, sounding hurt. "Already? On Date Night?"

Tony started to fumble through an explanation, but Diana cut him off, stepping around the Mark 42 armor to swipe something from one of the plates. "He heard about Aldridge Killian and got mad," she stated simply.

"Diana!" Tony protested. "Stop telling her everything. It's really annoying."

"No," she replied flatly. "She deserves to know the truth."

"You were spying on me?" Pepper asked angrily.

"Happy was concerned," Tony tried to reason with her, but she wasn't listening.

"I'm going to bed." Pepper turned and started toward the stairs.

"Pep! Alright, I admit it, my fault." This got her to stop and turn back to him. "I'm a piping hot mess. It's been going on for a while, I hadn't said anything." Pepper came back down the stairs, and Diana sat down. She knew this moment was mainly for Tony and Pepper, but she needed to hear this too.

"Nothing's been the same since New York."

"Oh, really?" Pepper asked sarcastically. "Well, I didn't notice that... at all."

"You experience things," Tony continued. "Then they're over and you still can't explain them? Gods, Aliens, other dimensions, I'm just a man in a can." Diana wanted to protest, but she managed to keep her mouth shut.

Tony moved toward Pepper, probably hoping to add more weight to his words. "The only reason I haven't cracked up, is probably because you moved in. Which is great! I love you, I'm lucky. But Honey, I can't sleep. You go to bed I come down here, I do what I know. I tinker." He sat down on a cart behind him. "Threat is imminent, and I have to protect the one thing that I can't live without," he gestured to Pepper, and then Diana. "That's you. And my suits, they're, uh..."

"They're things," Pepper finished.

"They're a part of me."

"They're a distraction."

"Maybe," Tony admitted.

Pepper approached, smiling sadly and pulled his head close, resting her chin on top of it, comforting him and letting him hold her as his hands slid up her back. Diana smiled and slipped away to her own room.

Please review!