Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
Notes: Originally, Pepper was going to be the one person who just let this all roll right off her back. Then I rewatched both Iron Man films with Apollymi and realized that there was someone even better suited for that role.
Pepper Potts
Pepper could quite honestly say that she'd seen many bizarre things while working for Tony Stark: women in and out at all hours of the day, minor explosions caused by her employer trying to tweak something in his work room, the unforgettable sight of Tony's first attempt to get out of the Iron Man suit - she still mentally giggled at that every now and then, mostly when Tony was being obtuse - so there wasn't a lot that gave her pause.
In spite of this fact, or maybe because of it, the strawberry blonde pulled up short when she walked into the kitchen to find Captain Rogers, Agent Barton, and what appeared to be a wolf-dog hybrid sitting at the table eating breakfast. The canine even had a seat of his own and was downing scrambled eggs like they were going out of style.
Pepper stared at the scene for a moment, trying to decide if this was some kind of joke or if maybe she'd quietly gone insane. Coming to no solid conclusion, she opted to go with Option Number Three and turned a stern look to the men.
"I expect Tony to pull stunts like this," she said evenly. "Although I suppose spending so much time with him would cause some idiosyncrasies to be picked up. Whose idea was it to feed a dog at the breakfast table?"
Agent Barton looked genuinely confused. "He always eats breakfast at this time," he replied.
Pepper felt like she was quite possibly having a quiet aneurysm. "He always eats breakfast at this time," she repeated back.
"Yeah. Usually it's pancakes though."
Apparently Captain Rogers noted Pepper's building outburst, because he chose that moment to speak up: "Also, Loki doesn't usually start shape-shifting until after he's eaten. I'm not sure why he's doing it early today, unless he wanted to get a rise out of you, Ms. Potts."
The woman had been waiting to break in and continue to scold the two like they were a couple of errant teenagers but found that she had no words to say. Instead, she closed her mouth and turned her attention to the wolf-dog, who had stopped eating and was watching her intently. He seemed to give her the equivalent of a grin and thumped his tail happily against the back of the chair, and it was only now that she noted the odd eye color: a very vivid and familiar shade of green.
Pepper sighed heavily and barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Wipe your muzzle when you're finished," she finally directed towards Loki, who barked once in reply before diving back into his eggs. For her part, Pepper nodded to the other two men in the room and turned on her heel, intent on tracking down Tony and demanding a raise.
She was prepared for Tony Stark's antics and compensated justly for her patience; she was going to need a bit more money to put up with Loki's shenanigans.