"Her heart did whisper, that he had done it for her." - Pride and Prejudice, ch. 52

Michelle Jones.

Peter hears himself say her name aloud, unconsciously repeating after his brother, and Harley shushes him. It's a secret, he insists. He looks embarrassed, out of his own tenuous control. He smooths the placket of his dress shirt. Peter knows Harley's not used to dressing like that and can only assume that he's now started to because he thinks business attire will somehow fool the rest of them into forgetting that only by a miracle is he currently a fledgling businessman rather than a chump who signed a massive cheque away to a woman he hardly knows. And now he expects Peter to keep a secret for him? But Harley explains that it's not for him. Liz wants it kept secret and―he adds, as Peter begins to roll his eyes at the idea of doing anything just because it's what Liz wants―so does Michelle.

Vision walks in then, having overheard mention of a secret, and makes some very morally-upright statement on how of course no one's going to try to extract the secret from Harley. It would be inconsiderate. It would be wrong. It would be fucking awesome, Peter thinks, if Vision could forget everything he heard and leave the room immediately so that Peter can grill Harley on details of Michelle and her involvement in their family's recent fiasco. Too bad Vision doesn't pick up on his hints. Peter has to tell Harley, "Nah, obviously you don't have to say anything else about it, man," with an easy smile that really isn't too easy at all to hold up on his face when he wants to open his mouth and ask a million questions.

He and Vision are so different, and maybe a lot of that can be accounted for by the fact that they share ancestry in their dad's mind, but it doesn't explain how Peter's also so different from Harley, his brother in the more traditional sense of the word. And yet, for all their dissimilarities, Peter walks away from this conversation knowing he's about to do something incredibly Harley-ish: go behind his brother's back and get the answers he needs elsewhere. What's his other option? Not knowing how and why Michelle came to be present at Harley and Liz's contract signing? No way. He's way too curious for that and, lately, too dogged as well; all of his old instincts have been returning―the same ones that he used to employ to hunt down and root out crime. Kinda makes him sound like one of those truffle-finding pigs, but whatever. He can't just set something this intriguing aside. He needs to know why Michelle was there and, since he's not willing to go so far as to break a promise to not weasel the truth out of Harley, this is the right course of action. It's gotta be.

As Peter struggles not to sprint through the compound, he begins raising and rejecting possibilities inside his head. He just saw Michelle and she didn't say anything along the lines of being about to leave Vermont for Rhode Island. Sure, something could've come up. Maybe she had friends in Providence. He's never thought she had too many friends, but then there was Betty Brant, her neighbour, who he hadn't known anything about, and they seemed close. Or Michelle could've gone for her painting, in search of a change of scenery. But then why Providence, right in the city? Why not something entirely rural, coastal, peaceful? And in the city, happening to be in the exact neighbourhood in which Happy was hunting for Harley, allowing her to run into him. Ok, say that happened, Peter theorized, but even if she approached his uncle to say hello, it didn't make sense that she would follow him to Harley, or that Happy would just invite her along for the hell of it. It was a mess―a private, family mess―and Happy's too prudent to drag an outside party into it. Once Michelle got there and saw Liz, well, that should've been the end of it, Peter's certain. She would not want to hang out anyplace her former practically-a-sister was. He can't see her bowing to social niceties and acting like everything was fine. Michelle's the kind of person who would turn around immediately and walk right the fuck away again, guaranteed. It's settled. Peter can't work this one out on his own. With a huffed exhalation, he collects himself, then knocks on his aunt and uncle's bedroom door. Happy the dog gives a sharp, excited bark from within.

It's his aunt who answers and while Peter's always been most comfortable opening up to May, he's pretty sure he needs his uncle on this one. But May stops him in his tracks.

"You heard," she says.

"What? What did I hear?" Now Peter's just confusing himself.

"Come on in, honey. Happy's up in Pepper's office, but he told me all about it."

"About what?"

His aunt takes a second to appraise him, leaning against the doorframe with an understanding smile.

"Only finding out Michelle was in Providence could've put that look on your face," she informs him.

"What look? I have a look?" He thought he was ready for this and now he feels scattered and transparent. Can't he just casually ask about Michelle Jones?

"Yeah, Pete. It's sorta between hopeful and terrified. Why don't you come in and we can talk about it?"

Peter sighs heavily and nods.

"That might be a good idea."

When they're seated opposite each other in the sitting-area portion of the space and the dog's calmed enough to sit on Peter's lap instead of presenting him with its toys one by one and waiting for a game of fetch to begin, he starts over, the way he meant to the first time.

"Michelle was there," he recaps. "Harley said that's supposed to be a secret, but I can't see why it'd be a secret, or why she was there!"

Already, he's agitated, restless for answers. Peter pets the dog, scratching the top of Happy's head, then long strokes down his back. He's not sure who's soothing who.

"If somebody doesn't explain this to me, I'm gonna go nuts. Or get Harley drunk and make him tell me. And I'd probably feel bad about that at some point, so I really need your intervention here, May," he pleads. "For the sake of Harley's liver."

"Ok," his aunt assures him with a smile, scooting forward to pat his knee.

"Ok," Peter agrees.

He takes a deep breath, trusting that May will tell him everything he wants to know. Probably more than he can think to ask. He's so fortunate in their closeness. Happy turns his black and white head to look at Peter like he's checking on him. Peter raises his eyebrows at the dog in response and gets a swift lick to the nose that he could've dodged if his defenses weren't down, ready to let news of Michelle in.

"I think Happy wondered if you knew," May begins. When Peter frowns, she waves away her own thought and carries on. "He didn't know how long Michelle had been in town, but when they ran into each other the morning that Happy finally hunted Harley down, it wasn't her first time visiting our pair of fugitives. Michelle told him that she'd spoken to both Harley and Liz. Now, this is just me guessing, but Michelle must have left her cottage the day after we did, maybe the day after that."

"Why didn't she... why wouldn't she have told us she was doing that?"

"Well," his aunt says thoughtfully, "if I'd been in her place, knowing what a serious situation it was, I might've not wanted to say anything until I was sure I could help. Just being another rogue piece in the game could have been a distraction to everyone trying to find Harley, rather than a help."

"Yeah, I guess that's true. I bet that's why Michelle didn't text me back," Peter realizes, recalling the desperate messages he sent her after Harley's DMs hinted that he was in Rhode Island. "She was either driving or she was already there, talking to Harley. I thought I was bothering her," he mumbles to himself in conclusion.

May nods along, presumably not with that last part, then continues.

"Michelle saw Happy searching College Hill and took him straight to the residence apartment Harley and Liz were hiding out in."

"But how did she find them? Why did she come?"

"She told Happy that she wanted to go to art school since she was a kid and that it was something Liz encouraged her to do, before her parents accepted that it was anything bigger than a hobby. Apparently, they'd had a plan to visit a bunch of colleges together. You know, take road trips to these places. Michelle said it was how they'd planned to spend time together while she was still in high school and Liz had gone on to college. But Liz moved across the country after her dad's arrest and the girls had only managed to scope out Michelle's options within NYC. One of the schools Liz had always pushed Michelle towards was the Rhode Island School of Design. According to Michelle, it was the place Liz was most excited to visit, the trip she'd done the most planning for."

"RISD is in College Hill, isn't it?" Peter guessed.

"Yes. Happy said Michelle was a little wired. Though she'd beaten him there, the drive from her place would've been... almost five hours, and she said she made it without stops. As for why..." May gives him one of her smiles, the ones that say he already knows the answer if he'd just be honest with himself. "What she told Happy was that she felt responsible."

"Responsible? How? She didn't have anything to do with it."

"Honey, Michelle thought it should've been her job to tell us that Liz was into some shady stuff and that she'd been manipulative in the past to keep her business going. She told Happy that she'd never been open about it before because she was doing her best to live her life without Liz and the bad memories that she attached to her. The death of her parents. Of course, I doubt that was the only reason Michelle raced down to Providence..."

Peter doesn't bite.

"Anyway," May says with a sigh, "the first thing Michelle did when she found Harley and Liz, before Happy had ever arrived, was talk to Harley alone. She tried to convince him to leave, to get in her car and be driven back to the compound. He wasn't interested."

"'Course not," he groans, pressing his cheek to the top of Happy's head.

"Harley told her that he figured a contract was something he and Liz would get around to at some point, but he wasn't in any hurry. After Michelle cornered Liz and spoke to her, she found out that she didn't have any intention of getting around to a contract at all. There was some convincing there."

"But how did Michelle convince her?" Peter wants to know. It seems like there's an important part of the story missing here. "No matter how much she wanted to help, I know she wouldn't have bribed Liz with money. Besides, Harley'd already covered that."

"I don't know," his aunt says with a shrug. "I just know that when Michelle brought your uncle to them, he found two people ready to sign a contract. I'm sure they haggled a little over the details, but he didn't have to talk Liz into the idea in general."

"Huh." He thinks of something and sits up straight, jostling Happy a little until he clutches the dog against him. "Is Michelle still there? In Providence?"

"No, Pete, she went back to Vermont. Monica and the Maximoffs were still guests at the cottage."

"Oh. Ok." He sags.

"You're disappointed."

"Yeah."

"Me too," May admits. Peter meets her eye. "That Michelle is one in a million. I'm sure she thought about seeing you."

"Oh, well, I... I don't think she... I wouldn't have..." he stammers.

"Sure you would've," she counters with a smile. "I don't think you've seen the last of each other."

Peter sorta smiles, sorta nods, and helps the dog hop down from his lap before heading to the door with his eyebrows drawn together in thought. He hopes his aunt isn't planning to come out right away; after closing the door behind him, he leans back against the wall right next to it and runs a hand through his hair. He's not even sure whether he's happy or upset, relieved or heartsick. All? None? He's something. A big something that's pushing at his insides like it's trying to make room between his organs, searching for space to fill with this feeling he has when he thinks of Michelle helping Harley, helping Happy, helping Liz, helping him―Peter. She went to Providence on purpose and stayed long enough to make sure neither Harley nor Liz behaved any worse than they already had.

Liz! Michelle sought Liz, talked to her, somehow brought her around to the idea of the contract, setting aside her feelings of betrayal and deception to do so. Michelle faced the woman who took advantage of her parents' generosity while they were Snapped and requested more from their daughter after their deaths, like it was due to her, when, meanwhile, that money had become Michelle's inheritance, the only way her parents would ever be able to take care of her again. Liz, who had also attempted to use Michelle's cousin Monica's job to her advantage to gain access to confidential military technology. God, that must've been right at the front of Michelle's mind when she saw Liz's face too, since Monica's been staying with her at the cottage. Michelle went to Liz. If they were ever meant to meet again, Peter thinks, it should've been Liz coming to Michelle to apologize and ask for forgiveness. What did it take for Michelle to knock on every door in that neighbour, in that residence building, along that hallway, knowing that each one might be the one Liz would open? It wasn't as simple as resolving to stop Liz and just stopping her; Michelle had to devote time and effort to the search. Peter's amazed, actually feels a little lightheaded as he stands there, clutching his hair away from his face.

For you, a small voice tells him. She did it for you. It's the sound of the space inside him, the space his body and mind are making for Michelle. He wraps his free arm around himself to keep that fragile, hopeful thought contained as other parts of him begin to counter it. He's being the self-centered Stark her past criticisms have warned him away from becoming. Peter rejected her! Then, when they seemed like they could maybe be friends (even if he did want more than that), he fled Vermont essentially because of Liz. Was that like choosing Liz over Michelle? Again? Yeah, there was no way that Michelle helped Harley for his sake. It must be what she told Happy and Happy told May and May told him: that she felt responsible for Liz's misdeed. Who cares about what May was trying to insinuate? The reason Michelle gave Happy makes sense. After working to fix this problem, after putting herself in a possibly awkward and definitely painful situation, she'll want to stay far away from Liz for the rest of her life. Being around Peter (let alone dating him) could bring the two women back into proximity. Michelle wouldn't. The risk would never be worth it.

Still. She must think about him. From what she said once, she considers Harley the second-worst offender in his family, after Tony. It's not like helping Harley would've been all the incentive she needed. That was just another negative on top of how she feels about Liz―a spoiled bonehead and an irreverent schemer. The only positive Michelle might find in the scenario could be the thought of making life easier for Peter. Which would be kind, would be selfless, would be a way of finally pulling someone close instead of pushing them away. Michelle's so choosy with her friends, she's so astoundingly careful. If Peter still means anything at all to her… he's moved. This means she forgave him. She liked him and hated him and liked him again, which she once said was impossible. She could never learn to like someone. Huh. Michelle's changed on him, when he wasn't looking.

Pushing off the wall, Peter doesn't reach the end of the hallway before Liz turns down it. Stupidly, he glances backwards, like he's afraid of being near her. She can't do anything to him now.

"Sorry," she says in that same soft voice. "Harley asked me to meet him in his workshop and I can't remember how to get there. I thought… this way?" Now she's the one glancing around and he can tell she's just as panicked to find herself accidentally alone with him.

"It's actually back… Well," he decides, "I'll just show you. Come on."

He's leading her back across the compound, darting glances at her from the corner of his eye every so often as he nervously swings his arms, when she speaks again.

"We're friends, Peter, right?"

"Friends?" A few months ago, he would've been sufficiently uncoordinated and out of sync with his surroundings to trip hearing Liz say that. He carefully responds, "Yeah, sure, Liz. We're friends."

As if he's going to say or do anything to make waves. This is the time to let everything settle. Soon, she and Harley will be heading back to Boston. He can get through this.

"And maybe we can be even better friends now?" she suggests.

"Now that you're part of my family's business, you mean? I guess so. Is anybody else walking down to the workshop with you? Morgan maybe?"

Peter doesn't want to talk about the business or the way she became a part of it. Maybe they can walk faster. He should've just given her directions. Drawn her a map.

"I don't think so. Anyway, I heard from your uncle Happy that you guys were up in Vermont. Is that true?" He barely nods, wary. Liz asks, "And you saw the Joneses' cottage?"

"Mhmm."

Peter holds the door to the stairwell open for her so they won't have to wait for the elevator.

"I'm jealous," Liz says with a smile as she passes him in the doorway. "It's been a long time since I spent my summer holidays up there. I was only there in the spring a couple of times, but I remember it being really pretty."

"Yeah," he agrees. "It's really pretty there."

"Does Betty still live next door?"

"Yep."

"She probably doesn't remember me."

"No, she does."

"Oh yeah?" Liz looks genuinely curious. "What did she say about me?"

"Just that you used to go up there a lot. That you moved away. That you and Michelle didn't stay close."

He almost adds that Michelle still has her painting of Liz hung in her gallery, but he's not sure that's his information to share. Yes, the cottage is open to the public for tours. That doesn't mean that most people who walk through it would understand the significance of that portrait in particular, see the happiness in the subject's face and know how short a time remained for the painter and subject to make each other happy. Peter doubts Michelle imagines Liz will ever be in that place again to see it for herself.

Maybe she'll stop asking questions now and they'll spend the last part of their trip to Harley's workshop in peace.

"And when you were there," Liz begins again, holding her hands clasped together in front of her, "at the cottage… did you run into her? MJ? I think your uncle mentioned meeting her."

"We saw her," he confirms. After a few seconds, while it looks like Liz is still turning that over, he adds, "She introduced us to her cousin Monica too."

"Oh."

"She's really great," Peter says enthusiastically. "Super smart and accomplished and just… straightforward, you know? Honest. No bullshit."

"Right. That's… I'm happy for her."

"It sounded like she's been through a lot in her job," he says, unable to stop himself from pressing a little further. "She always had to overperform at everything to keep her spot."

Liz nods cautiously.

"Any black female pilot with two moms would have to be pretty determined to deal with all the obstacles I'm sure Monica's faced."

"I know!" he says eagerly. "I mean, I don't know, but I listened to Monica talk about it. Didn't sound like anybody would've given her a second chance. It's good she never took any risks with her career."

That last remark has Liz struggling to reply. Peter feels some satisfaction on Michelle's behalf that he prompted Liz to recognize the difficult position Monica was already in, the environment she dealt with where more people wanted to watch her fail than help her succeed. He wonders if Liz considered the precariousness of Monica's career six years ago when she tried to use Michelle's cousin's position for her own advantage.

"Here we are," he says outside Harley's workshop, voice chipper with self-satisfaction. But Liz's expression is dejected.

Peter thinks of her new contract with Harley, the ink barely dry. He thinks of his own fight to overcome his past. Always measuring himself against the person he was, the raw, skittish boy who returned in the Second Snap with all the memories of fighting Thanos before the First. Maybe Liz's latest offense isn't too far behind her (just days ago), but he shouldn't rub her nose in her impulsive choices. She's part of Stark Industries now. They mitigated the outcome. Hopefully, with the stability that joining SI provides, Liz won't feel the need to pull anything like that again.

"Friends," Peter offers, along with his hand.

Liz studies him, looking thrown and uncertain, but ultimately presses her palm to his.

It doesn't last forever. Neither of them makes things awkward for the other by bringing up the cottage or Monica or Michelle, Peter begins to feel comfortable at home again, and Liz and Harley finally leave. They're following May, Happy, and smaller, furrier Happy, who departed for their home in Queens a couple days earlier. With Tony's help, Harley's narrowed his living and workspace choices down to two apiece and has agreed to let his dad keep being a part of his decision by consulting him through videocalls. Peter knows their dad's a little bummed, but this is the compromise―between him and Harley and him and his wife. (Pepper's still encouraging Tony to force Harley to stand on his own two feet and take some responsibility for himself.) Liz's smile when Harley informs his family that he'll be living at her apartment until he signs a lease of his own is strained. Well, Peter thinks, she wanted to be with Harley badly enough that she made that getaway from Boston with him. Now she really gets to be with Harley. See how that works out.

"Gosh," Tony says, "I feel like we're never gonna see each other."

He's teary-eyed and sitting in his wheelchair for the send-off. Peter knows his game and he's certain his brother does too. Sure enough, Harley smirks at his dad's tactics.

"Tomorrow, Dad. You'll see me literally tomorrow when you call me. I promise I won't block it."

"That's just because you know I could have FRIDAY override it," their dad replies petulantly.

"No way," Harley argues. They're playing each other. "I need you. You're the biggest real estate geek I know."

"Did you just call me a geek?"

"Maybe."

"Excuse me. That's genius, billionaire, play―"

"Yeah, yeah. And you assholes better call me too," he says, turning to his siblings.

"Harley," Tony chastises as his shoulders slump in exasperation. "For fuck's sake, don't call your little sister an asshole."

"For fuck's sake," Morgan says for emphasis, pointing a stern finger at her departing brother.

Pepper's face disappears into her hand and she groans quietly. Peter grabs his sister by the shoulders and tugs her back against him. She's tough now, but she's gonna be sad when Harley goes. She was little when he went off to college and though she grew sad whenever he came home during holidays and headed back again, she always got over it pretty fast. This time, she's spent the majority of every day of the past year with Harley. As Peter looks down at the top of her head (which has become alarmingly close―she's definitely inheriting their mom's height where he got their dad's), he notices Nebula reach out to take her hand. She might be the one to get Morgan through this separation, more than any of them. She understands the strength of the bond between sisters.

"Well," Tony says heavily as Liz and Harley drive off again. They're in a less flashy (but no less expensive) car for their return trip.

"They'll be ok, Tony," Pepper says, crouching at his side and tucking her arm up under hers. Her husband clutches her hand and scrunches his face as he nods, like he does when he's holding back tears. "It didn't start out great, but Liz is young. She's willing to change. She's shrewd and inventive and I think Harley's going to be so busy trying to impress her that he won't even realize that he's turning into the man we've hoped he'd be."

"I just don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do around here without that goober."

Peter thinks his dad probably agrees with everything Mom says, but Tony still mopes around for the rest of the day. Reminds Peter of Harley before his invitation to Boston. It must remind Morgan of her brother too, because she goes into intense Daddy's Girl mode, always at Tony's side, ready to be his right-hand man. Even in the workshop, where she's normally forbidden unless a real grownup (their mom's words) is there to supervise. That includes making sure Morgan's wearing protective equipment and standing as far away from whatever Tony's doing as possible.

Nebula helps Morgan through her sulky pining, exactly as Peter anticipated, and distraction helps their dad. The restaurant at the Park announces on social media that their owner and celebrated chef, Wanda Maximoff, will be returning. It's promoted as a limited engagement and Peter wonders if that's true, if she's really coming back, if it's just for a little while, if it's for a longer while and they're only saying it's a little while to create a scramble for reservations. Is his family going to eat there while she's back? Will they go over to say hello? Shit, this is confusing. It's Wanda! But, it's Wanda. She's both Peter's friend and the core of the aura of heartbreak that's never completely abandoned Vision. On her own account, she confirms her return to the Park and declares that she'll be heading Upstate in advance of her first night as head chef to review the menu and refamiliarize herself with the kitchen she herself installed last fall. That means she's coming soon. Of course, Tony won't leave Vision alone about it. His distraction is in danger of becoming Vision's torture, as much as Peter tries to intervene.

"I mean, it doesn't matter," their dad says, right after mentioning Wanda again. Does he think Peter can't see him scrutinizing Vision as he speaks, checking for a reaction? "If the restaurant can run without her, let it run without her! They obviously don't need her here. We don't need her here. Sure, it'd be nice to see her, have her over for dinner, catch up, hero-to-hero... Definitely not necessary. If she decides to stay, then she stays. Who cares? We sure don't. She might not even come."

"She is though," Morgan informs him. She bounces onto the couch next to him. "I saw on Twitter―"

"Are you still logged in to Harley's account?" Peter asks. His sister sticks her tongue out at him.

"Wanda's coming tomorrow," she finishes. "I wonder if she'll bring me something from the city."

In the very short time since Harley's been gone, Morgan has become obsessed with 'the city.' Any city, really. New York, Boston, the kid is itching for city life. Pepper told Peter that his sister has rearranged her clothes based on which ones are 'for the city.' Thank god she's not older, he thinks. She's such a little Harley sometimes.

"Why would she bring you something?"

Morgan flashes an extremely grumpy face at Peter, like how dare he question the natural human instinct people who have met her feel to present her with gifts. She hunkers into their dad's side.

"Peter's being mean to me," she tells Tony.

"Oh, for..." Peter rolls his eyes and leaves the room.

He can't be alone though because that's when his thoughts find him. He tried working out, but only people seem to have the power of keeping his mind off certain residents of Vermont and their deeply confusing actions. Automatically, he goes looking for Vision. Peter finds his brother just leaving their mom's office after consulting with her on some profit and loss data for Liz Allan Technology Evolution.

"I know what you're about to say," Vision begins before Peter can get a single word out.

"Yeah, you probably do."

"You're concerned about me, because of what Tony informed us of. Miss Maximoff's return," he says. It looks like he forced himself to spit that out. "It's possible that I appeared... conflicted, perhaps troubled, at the mention of her name, but I must assure you that I am not."

"You're not what? Conflicted or troubled?" Peter smiles gently. He doesn't actually want to stress his brother out over this.

"A little of the former, I'll admit, though likely no more than any of the rest of you were. Any of us might have seen that same expression on the face of any other because this is unexpected. Regardless, I have since grown accustomed to the fact of Miss Maximoff's imminent arrival. It no longer strikes me as peculiar or surprising. It no longer strikes me at all."

Peter raises his eyebrows in disbelief. His brother's clearly in denial, pretending not to care and probably forcing himself to believe that Wanda doesn't care either. If the last any of them heard of Wanda was when she left the Park, then yeah, ok, he'd believe she was simply back to check up on her business. But Peter just saw her in Vermont. He talked to her, spent time with her, and gathered enough to be pretty damn certain that she's still into Vision. With that attachment as an established fact (and Peter will establish it, even if his brother wants to ignore it), there's no way Vision isn't at the very front of Wanda's thoughts right now. The only thing in question, in Peter's opinion, is whether Wanda's returning with Michelle's blessing or without it. Did the two women ever discuss what he said to Michelle on the roof in Tribeca the way he discussed (most of) Michelle's letter with Vision? Without that information, this is too complex for Peter to figure out.

The more Vision claims to be unaffected, the more on edge he becomes. He's been closing himself off since he and Wanda parted, Peter's witnessed it, and suddenly, he's more profoundly human than ever. Even before she arrives, she influences Vision. Peter doesn't know if that's some superhuman matching-energy-signatures thing or nerves. The robotic coolness his brother worked to shelter himself within is gone and he's a rambling, bumbling, self-conscious mess as he pretends he's not spending every moment awaiting Wanda's arrival. Peter can't imagine a world where these two exist and don't care about each other. Vision can lie to himself all he wants; he's obviously still in love.

"You gonna go over there, Pep?" Tony asks slyly over his coffee the next morning.

"Take your meds, Tony," she replies calmly, pushing a glass of orange juice towards him.

He pops a capsule into his mouth and washes it down, trading the rich bitterness on his tongue for acidic tang. It's awful, and just enough to cover the medicinal taste of the coating on his pills. After swallowing, he shivers and grimaces.

"Are you though?" he presses.

He snatches one of his wife's hands away from the tablet she's cradling, always working, always examining their numbers. There's a big meeting on the horizon, he knows. They've decided to proceed with one of Pepper's early suggestions and attempt to buy back shares from some of their investors. If LATE performs well, and they can acquire a few more promising start-ups for not too much money, they'll regain the pull to take back the majority stake in Stark Industries. This time, they'll be keeping things diverse, not putting all of their eggs in the technology basket. They're adapting. His dad's dream of a flying car in every driveway in America? They can get around to it. Tony rubs his thumb across Pepper's palm and knows they have time.

"Mmm," she says, and at first he thinks she's just enjoying his touch on her hand. "Isn't that what you wanted me to do last November? For the good of the kids, I think you said? Something like that? And then your real reason was to try to buy control of her restaurant. How did that work out? Remind me."

"So sarcastic today! I like it."

Pepper smiles like she's sick of him and Tony grins.

"Stop it," she says.

"You have to at least say hello. Be neighbourly."

"You might recall that I'm in the middle of something here," she says, tilting the screen of her tablet towards him briefly. "Wanda can stop by the compound in her own time."

"Of course," Tony gushes. "Of course she can, but it doesn't change the fact that we're, you know, the big fish in the neighbourhood and it'll be weird if we don't make a gesture."

"A gesture?"

"Invite her over! Make dinner reservations at the Park!"

"You told me those booked up pretty much immediately," Pepper reminds him, still smiling, but with suspicion in her eyes.

"Pep, who do you think you're married to? I'm Tony Stark. I'll make it happen."

"You're an arrogant pain in the ass," she says as she leans over to kiss him.

That's not a yes to Tony's request, but it's not a no either. It is enough to pacify him between their absurdly early breakfast (he has to get up with her or he'll never see her―she's spending too much time in her office these days) and the time he rolls into his workshop. Morgan appears, awake by then, and rushes in at his side. Nebula shadows her and Tony's considering a quick paper football tournament when he gets a security alert. The cameras are picking something up. He and his daughters stare at the live footage. Well, shit, he thinks. Not only is Wanda Maximoff back in the neighbourhood, she's here, driving up to the compound.

Author's Note:

I only have one chapter left to write, so I can tell you with confidence that this story will conclude with chapter 30 (though, because of my character page, the final update will appear as chapter 31). That's still four chapters and over 20,000 words to go! It ain't over yet!

The theme for the next chapter is Dinner & Denial or, if you prefer, Pie and Pining.

To be continued...