Tony mad a disgusted face at one of the cabins on the helicarrier. It was small and cramped and Tony felt claustrophobic. There was a reason all of his houses were overly spacious. Tony still needed a place to be in private though. It was about four hours in and he already missed his Pepper like crazy.

Collapsing on the small bed plastered to the metal wall, Tony realized he was practically sitting in a prison cell... maybe that's what SHIELD was going for. He already felt like their dancing monkey.

Tony pulled out his phone and called Pepper. He hoped she wouldn't be too busy.

"Hey, Tony. You okay?" she said immediately. Tony smiled... she was already worrying.

"Yes, I'm fine babe. I just miss you."

Pepper chuckled. "I miss you too, Tony. You know it's barely been four hours right?"

"Yeah, yeah. I know."

"How are things... wherever you are?" Pepper asked. Tony crossed his legs and lied back on the mattress.

"I met the rest of the circus."

"Tony, I hope you're behaving." Pepper warned, making Tony sigh.

"Calm down, Potts! I'm trying! Oh yeah, I met the Bruce Banner! He does spectacular work on gamma radiation."

Pepper was quiet, obviously not knowing who the hell he was talking about.

"He turns into a giant green monster too."

"Oh, him!"

"Yeah," Tony laughed.

"So... how are the others?" Pepper asked. Tony counted people, starting with Fury.

"Well Fury's here, eyepatch and all. Capsicle, I really don't know why my dad liked him so much. He used to tell me stories the two minutes that he actually paid attention to me." Tony muttered a bit bitterly at the end.

"Did you just call Captain America a capsicle?" Pepper asked. Tony bit his lip.

"Yes..."

"You already have nicknames! Tony, play nice with the other kids." Pepper joked making Tony roll his eyes.

"I'll be fine, I'm not five Pep."

"You sure?"

"Ha-ha."

"So what else?"

"Point-break... sorry, Thor... same old demigod stuff. We may have uh... tussled a bit. I flew through a tree, Pep!" Tony exclaimed like it was the coolest thing ever.

"So have you been fighting any bad guys, or just each other?" Pepper questioned. Man, she was sassy. Tony noticed she wasn't completely wrong though.

"Actually, that's the weird thing. Rogers was fighting Reindeer games..."

"Geez, Tony. Use you names, honey." Pepper laughed. Tony grinned.

"Right, sorry. It's not my fault they make it so easy! Anyway, I fly in and of course, Loki is the bad guy's name, gives in right away because I'm just that good." Tony could almost sense Pepper rolling her eyes on the other end of the line.

"That's weird... Sounds too easy."

"Don't rain on my parade, Potts."

"Who is this Loki, anyway?"

"Oh, he's point... Thor's sorry... evil half-demigod half frost giant brother from some planet in space." Tony answered casually as if he was just telling her the weather.

"Oh, the norms I see." Pepper grinned and Tony grinned with her.

"Yeah, we just have to find the magical cube now."

"Right..." Pepper said. "You're lucky I haven't locked you up in a nut house yet."

"You'd miss me too much, Peps."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." Tony snorted at her attempt to be subtle and ran his hand through his hair.

"That just leaves Tasha..."

"Ugh..." Tony heard from the phone. He rolled his eyes. Pepper still wasn't over what went down when Natasha/Natalie was assigned to protect him but had been wayyyy to "close" about it, and Tony had gone along with it. It was before him and Pepper were a thing, but he still felt awful that he'd hurt her.

"So how's she.." Pepper asked sourly. Tony sighed.

"Still no where near as amazing as you are." was is answer. Pepper at least seemed a bit satisfied by this for now. There was an air pressure sound as the door of Tony's capsule slid open.

"Stark, Banner may need help in the lab." Coulson said from the doorway. Tony groaned.

"Ok, ok. Peps, I've gotta go track down the cube I told you about..." Tony paused as he saw Coulson narrow his eyes. "I mean the cube that I totally told you nothing about... Hopefully I'll be home soon." He reluctantly started saying, not wanting to leave her.

"Ok, honey. I love you. Please be careful."

"Love you too, Pep. No promises."

"Tony..."

"Ok, ok. I'll be careful, I promise."

They said goodbye and Tony sat up. Let's get this over so I can go home to my Pepper.