Next chapter! I hope you like it. And maybe you'll already know who we get to see in this chapter? Let me know after reading, this shouldn't be too difficult. And the important point isn't about Pepper, I won't say more. We'll get there in time. Please let me know what you think, it makes me happy to read your reviews!
I don't own the characters or places!
Later that evening, Tony and Pepper were lying in bed together. After the conversation with Maria Hill, she had refused to tell him what was wrong, so they just changed the subject and talked about their plans for the next days. And soon, Steve had called them for dinner. The rest of the evening with the other Avengers had passed rather quickly.
"You just left." Pepper whispered now, ripping him out of his thoughts.
"What do you mean?" He asked, touching her cheek lightly. She closed her eyes and covered his hand with hers.
"On the jet. When you got the news from Sam. I understand why you didn't want to talk about it. But…" She didn't continue and Tony didn't like the sad tone in her voice. And there was something else, which was new. He couldn't quite place it. It had been there ever since Maria showed up. But why on earth did she bother Pepper so much? Tony didn't even like her very much himself. This whole assistant business was just annoying. And dealing with her was exhausting. Couldn't Pepper see that he wanted to get rid off her?
"I'm sorry." He whispered now. "I know I've been stupid, I should have told you what was going on. I just didn't want to mention this in front of everyone, that's right. It was Steve's business to inform the others."
"And he did." Pepper muttered now.
Tony nodded. "He said they took it very well."
"I just wish you would have told me about it. That you were heading to Canada. I've been worried."
He kissed her. "It wasn't dangerous, just a little help for Sam. So that he can go on with his search."
"I know that." Pepper muttered. "But when you don't trust me with things like that…"
Suddenly, Tony began to feel cold. "What do you mean?"
"You just left and I didn't even know where you were heading to… Yes, Steve told me that I didn't have to worry. But I'd rather heard it from you." She was whispering now and Tony sighed.
"I trust you, Pep. In fact, there's no one I trust more than you." He said truthfully.
"What about Steve?" Alright, she had a point there. But they were a team and leading the Avengers together, it was different.
"Not even Steve." He said simply.
Slowly, she opened her eyes to look at him thoughtfully. "You're serious."
He chuckled. "Does that still surprise you?" He wrapped his arms around her. "I love you, Pepper. And I swear that I trust you." He kissed her cheek.
Now she had to sigh. "I have to apologize. I know it's unfair to say things like that to you. After all, you've got to save the world and so on… I just feel like something like that keeps us apart from another. It's stupid."
"No, it's not." He interrupted her immediately. "You can tell me when something's bothering you, remember?" Tony reminded her softly.
"The last time I did that, it ended in disaster."
"And we both made mistakes there, we've talked about it enough." He stroked her back slowly. "Next time, I'll tell you what's going on, I promise."
She smiled slightly. "Thank you."
Her words were followed by silence and Tony closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of Pepper in his arms. "Tony?" She asked suddenly.
"Yes, Pepper?"
"About earlier…" She began hesitantly, but then he felt her shaking her head. "It's nothing."
"You can tell me everything." He whispered.
"Let's just sleep." She muttered and he would have liked to sigh. What the hell was wrong?
"JARVIS, are we recording?" He asked and checked one last time if the reactor on his chest was placed correctly.
"Yes, Sir. And the emergency program is active as well." JARVIS informed him.
Tony grinned and turned to Steve, who was sitting on a chair in his lab, watching him silently. "It's showtime." He grinned and at his excitement, Steve had to smile as well.
"And what if it doesn't work?" He asked and Tony rolled his eyes.
"It will work." Tony emphasized every work. "But just in case it won't, JARVIS has the emergency program running." He repeated JARVIS' words. "Which means that my other suit is active and waiting for it's call." He pointed at the suit that was waiting close to the window of his lab.
"Good to know that you're prepared if something goes wrong." Steve relaxed a little bit.
"I'm always prepared. And you" he pointed at dum-e "will not extinguish me unless I say so!"
He ignored Steve's questioning look and walked to the window. It was the morning after their arrival in New York and Tony wanted to try his new suit. The conversation with Pepper last night was still weighing heavily on him. What the hell was wrong? This morning, she'd been absent-minded and headed to work very early. She wanted to inspect the tower. Tony had walked to his lab after breakfast, not surprised that Steve followed him. Before they left, it had been their routine. Mornings in the lab and in the afternoon, Steve had shown Tony how to fight without a suit.
Tony clapped his hands. "Let's start, J." He exclaimed and then, the suit began to form itself around him. It was a new feeling, the nano technology he'd invented for this in the past months was one of his best inventions so far.
"How does it even fit in there?" Steve asked, curiosity in his voice.
Tony turned around and grinned, though Steve couldn't see it anymore since the suit was complete now. "Are you sure that you want the long explanation? It could be complicated." When Steve grimaced, Tony chuckled. "I'm awesome, that's the secret." Tony said and then he turned around to jump out of the open window.
Flying with this suit was great, it was much lighter than the previous ones and he was able to move faster. He could get used to this. When he rounded a corner, it shook slightly. He would have to correct the flight stabilizers.
"JARVIS, how does it look?" He asked and just rounded the tower again. Behind one of the windows, he could see Pepper talking to Happy. They both looked out of the window and Happy even waved at him.
"The values are all within their limit, you have enough energy to use this suit for a long time and fight in it. However, you might have to correct the flight stabilizers. Changing your direction too fast might have a bad impact on your movements, it would be possible that you crash."
"Yeah, I've noticed that. Shakes slightly." Tony muttered and already thought about the best way to correct them.
"Otherwise, everything seems to be in order. Though you still need to do the weapon tests."
Tony frowned. That could be done easily, deep down under the tower, he had a special room for that. It had been Pepper's idea when they built the tower, she didn't like him setting the furniture on fire.
Suddenly, a movement to his right caught his attention. Was there a person falling down from a building? He wanted to change the direction, but the movement was too fast and the stabilizers couldn't take it. The suit shook and he had to stop mid-air. "JARVIS?" He asked, but he stopped when he noticed that the person wasn't really falling. It was more like jumping. "What the hell am I seeing there?" The person wasn't really falling. It was more like he (it looked like a man) was holding onto something… He flew into that direction, but when he got closer he noticed that the person was gone. "What was that?!"
"I analysed the movements, Sir. And I have recorded them so you can look at them again later." JARVIS informed him. "Unfortunately, there is no trace of the person anymore close by."
Tony sighed. "Let's return to the tower. I have to fix those stabilizers." He muttered and changed his direction again, this time more slowly. What on earth had that been? A person jumping from skyscrapers without falling down? He would have to look at those records later.
A few hours later, Tony let JARVIS inform Maria Hill that he had time for her. She arrived in his office about ten minutes later, carrying many papers in her hands.
"Took you some time to come here." Tony said without greeting her.
She smiled, but it looked forced. "Not everyone has as much time as you do, Mr. Stark."
He raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't we stop with those formalities, Agent Hill? We both know that I'm not really your boss."
She sighed and sat down, the smile on her lips disappeared. "Alright, Tony." She emphasized his name. She handed him the papers. "The first three are about deliveries on your name, no one wanted to tell us what's in those boxes. They're really heavy and still standing in the garage."
Tony looked at the papers shortly. "That's good, I've been waiting for those." He muttered. "For the Avengers." He explained when he saw the questioning look on her face. "JARVIS, can we get them to the lab?"
"I will take care of it, Sir." JARVIS informed him and Tony nodded.
When he looked at the next paper, he frowned. "What's this?"
"Records of what your new employees have been doing those past weeks." Maria told him and he raised his eyebrows.
"I didn't get records for the weeks before that. Why do I need to see this now?"
"As you might know, Pepper's just inspecting the building and talking to a few people. Also SHIELD members. She might want to know the whole story."
"She already knows that those are not our own people." Tony replied shortly.
Maria Hill rolled her eyes. "Unlike you, she has to take care of the business. And then things like that are important."
Tony sighed. "I'll give it to her later." He put the paper aside. The next one was in invitation for a charity gala next week. It was folded in the middle and Tony frowned. "What's this?"
"You've been invited to many events like that. I thought that this one might be interesting." Maria said slowly, this time without the sharp tone in her voice.
"And why –" Tony began, but then he saw the title. This event was for all those people who lost their homes in a war. And those, who were still suffering from it. Slowly, he looked up at Maria. However, his thoughts wandered back to the gala he'd attended with Pepper only three days ago. He couldn't think of this right now, not in front of a SHIELD agent. He put the paper down on the table and shoved it back to her. "Not interested." He replied shortly and took the next paper, hoping that it would distract him.
It did. There were far too many numbers on this one. The costs of the SHIELD agents working for SI. "I thought you needed more money." He muttered to distract himself. To be honest, he didn't care about that at all.
"I calculated too high, we don't need that much. You should be happy about this." When he looked up, he saw that she was smiling.
"Yeah, great. Whatever." He shoved the paper aside as well. Now there was only one left. A report about the missions SHIELD was currently working on. He raised his eyebrows. "Isn't that like, top secret?" He asked without looking up.
"It is." She agreed. "But I thought you might want to know what's going on."
"JARVIS could have gotten those reports easily. It's not difficult to hack into SHIELD files." Tony muttered, even if he was reading it now. To his surprise, they were still doing many things in many different countries. How was this possible now that they've lost most of the people to Hydra?
When he asked that question, she laughed. "We've got more loyal people than that."
Tony nodded slowly. "Seems so." One group of agents seemed to be doing most of the work, though. How was that even possible? In the files, they were just called Group C. Somehow, he knew that Maria wouldn't answer any questions about them.
When he finally looked up from the report, he saw that she was smiling at him. He raised his eyebrows. "Everything alright?"
"Yes, fine. I bet there'll be even more reports soon." The offer was clear. If he wanted to see them, he just had to ask. However, he didn't plan to do that.
"Maybe you should get back to work, Agent Hill." He suggested.
"For you? Or the other things I'm doing next to that?" She asked curiously.
He shrugged. "What you like most."
To his surprise, she grinned. It was strange, seeing her like this. Normally, she was so controlled. "Working for you is easier." She told him when they both stood up and headed for the door.
He raised his eyebrows. "Why is that?"
"There's not much I have to do for you. The other tasks are a little more challenging."
Tony chuckled. "I bet they are. But if you want it, I can organize more work for you."
At his offer, she shook her head. "No, thank you very much. I bet those things would be quite boring."
"Working for Iron Man would be boring?"
She shook her head. "Working for Tony Stark."
"So you're telling me that I'm boring?" He tried to sound offended.
"You're a very interesting person, Tony." She said now and he couldn't interpret the look on her face. For a second, he thought that it was admiration. But this was Maria Hill, feelings like that were nothing for her. The only man she ever admired was Fury.
"You must be joking." He said lightly. "I'm a difficult person you wanted to say." They were walking towards the elevator slowly.
"Maybe you are. But I didn't think that working with you would be so easy."
He laughed. "It's not easy. I didn't look forward to see those papers."
"What about me?"
He shrugged. "Better than the papers, but –"
Before he could finish his sentence, the sound of footsteps echoed through the hallway. High heels. Tony would recognize those footsteps everywhere. Pepper smiled when she saw them, but the look in her eyes was cold.
"Ah Tony, there you are. I've been looking for you. I need your signature on a few files for the company." She said, trying to sound lightly. Tony knew her well enough to know that it was fake. He could see the tension in her shoulders.
"Alright, want to go to my office? Than we can look at it together. See you, Hill." He muttered without looking at Maria and followed Pepper to his office. Seems like he found the cause of the problem. But what now?
