The next few weeks fell into a sort of pattern. Loki would spend the day discovering things about Midgard and playing with the Avengers, (especially Bruce, of whom he had become a devout student) and Tony would wear progressively less clothing and more makeup, only to start an argument with Clint. Of course, it was obvious they were having fun; they always smiled as they called each other names or flipped each-other off, but it was still loud, and the others tended to avoid them in that mood. Until one day.

Natasha, Pepper and Bruce were cleaning up after breakfast together when they heard a shrill scream from some corner of the tower.

"What the..?" Natasha said. "Was that Tony?"

"P-Pepper!" He screamed again.

"Yup, definitely Tony." Pepper said before walking quickly off toward the source of the scream. Natasha and Bruce followed her, until they came up to the door of the bathroom. "Tony? You okay in there?" Pepper said through the door.

"I, I just need your help, okay?"

"In the bathroom?"

"Yes! Just… please?"

"Alright, I'm coming in." She silently waved the others away as she headed into the bathroom. Nobody noticed much of anything different about him until the next day.

At ten A.M the next morning, Tony came into the kitchen in sweat-pants and a t-shirt and proceeded to make coffee.

"Good morning, Tony!" Pepper said. Tony just groaned.

"Isn't it a little late in the day?" Bruce commented.

"I slept in, so what?" Tony said, a little defensively.

"Is he okay?" Bruce whispered to Pepper.

"Yes, he's fine. Just try to be nice to him, okay?" That plan was blown out of the water, however, when Clint entered the room.

"Hey, look who's finally up! And not dressed like a slut today, wow!" He said, way too cheerily for his own good. The corner of Tony's mouth twitched downward. "You know we had breakfast like four hours ago, right?" Clint said as he leaned onto the island counter. He wasn't expecting hot coffee to be flung into his face. "Agh! What the hell, man! That was-" he cut himself off when he saw Tony's face. His face was screwed up in anger, his cheeks red. And… were those tears at the corners of his eyes?

"You know what Clint? Shut up! Just shut your goddamn mouth! You have no idea what I'm going through! My chest hurts when I run, every bra I find pokes me in the chest all day long until I'm bleeding like a torture victim, no matter where I go guys won't stop fucking hitting on me, and now on top of it all I'm hungry, I'm cramping, and I can't stop eating chocolate!" On that last word, Tony banged the mug down and stormed out of the room down the hallway.

"What… what the hell was that?" Clint asked as he wiped his face free of coffee.

"Idiot." Pepper said as she smacked him in the back of his head; hard.

"What! What'd I do?" But Pepper was long gone, headed down the hallway in search of Tony. She found him on his bed, curled up and sobbing.

"Tony? Can I come in?" Tony slowly nodded, and Pepper walked cautiously into the room, closing the door behind her. She sat down carefully on the bed, and Tony immediately clung to her, his head in her lap. "Hey, it's okay." She said, stroking his head.

"What is wrong with me?" Tony choked out. "D-do you have to go through this every month? God, how do you do it?"

"It doesn't hit us all this hard. Unfortunately it looks like your hormones are really out of whack."

"Great. So not only am I now a woman, I ap-p-parently have to suffer more than any other woman on earth b-because of my stupid hormones."

"Now, I wouldn't say that…." Tony didn't say anything, so she continued. "You know, there is a way you might be able to get guys to stop hitting on you…"

Tony took a deep breath. "I… I know I'm asking for it with the way I dress. I just really need the self-esteem after what happened, you know?"

"I know, sweetheart, I know." Tony's heart jumped. That was the first time she'd called him anything other than just "Tony". "Just maybe lay off the miniskirts for a little while?" She suggested. Tony nodded. "And if you need chocolate, you can have access to my secret stash."

"Really?" Tony said, sitting up to face her.

"Really." Pepper wiped away his tears before leaning in to kiss him, soft and gentle. "Now. Let's get back out there. And you don't even have to apologize to Clint."

"I don't?"

"Of course not. He was being a dick; I would have done the same thing. Now come on!" She stood up and started out the door.

"Wait, Peps."

"Yeah?"

"About that chocolate stash?"