For Pepper, the past week had felt very much like she was back to square one.
Well, maybe that wasn't completely true, because it wasn't like she was avoiding Tony or Bruce on purpose. It just so happened that she'd been in the office and they'd been cooped up somewhere else (the lab, probably) and she just hadn't run into them. She also hadn't made any effort to go find them voluntarily, but all of that just seemed to work out in what was a rather convenient coincidence.
If anything, 'square one' meant that she was back to be just as confused and conflicted as she had been a few months ago. The only things that were different now were that her back was killing her a hell of a lot more than it had been previously, and that she really didn't even have a damn reason to be so at odds with close to everything in her life at the moment.
The signs were all there. Tony and Bruce had basically laid their hearts out on the line for her, and there wasn't any reason for her not to walk into their apartment and say yes to the whole threesome ordeal—or at least none of the reasons she'd come up with were any good.
Natasha was right. Anything could be a mistake. When she really looked at it, Pepper supposed that maybe the bigger mistake would be not giving those two a chance at all. She had a child on the way, after all, so she wasn't really allowed to do things for her own selfish reasons anymore.
It was a mixture of all those things that had her walking down to Tony and Bruce's apartment that Friday night after work. It had been weighing on her mind all day (and all week), and even if she'd almost talked herself out of it when she'd made a quick pit stop at her place to change, Pepper knew that it would only get worse if she didn't deal with it. So she'd go down to their place, talk to them, and let come what may. She couldn't keep guessing and surmising forever.
When the elevator let her off on Tony's floor, Pepper was a little surprised to see that the apartment door was left ajar. Maybe it wasn't so odd, because Jarvis usually announced visitors anyway, but it just seemed so unlike Tony to be so careless about safety after New York, or after the Mandarin, or after anything involving his superheroing or avenging in general.
Pepper nudged the door open a little more after she knocked, and walked quietly into the apartment to see if anyone was there. It was likely that they may have just left the door open on their way to the lab or something, but that theory was crushed when she heard two familiar voices coming from the den off to the side.
"I've done this literally a million times before. I don't know why the hell it's not working if I only want to increase the palladium by one—"
"Because it's not balanced."
"What do you mean it's not balanced? I balanced it. I definitely balanced it."
"No, you didn't balance—ugh. Hold on." There was a pause, then some rustling of papers followed by a quiet humph. "Oh, well… there. That works better. More power, less palladium."
"Oh." Another pause and another crinkle of paper. "You're a fucking genius, Banner."
"I know."
Pepper smiled to herself at how she could almost hear the smug little smirk in Bruce's voice, and when the room fell silent again after that remark she figured it might be a good time to stop eavesdropping and reveal herself.
She rounded the corner into the den, but had to look around for a second before she spotted Tony and Bruce kneeling on the floor in front of a mess of papers, kissing deeply. They were so involved in each other that Pepper definitely felt like an intruder, but she also couldn't seem to look away. They just looked so perfect together, and rather than driving her away it lit a small fire somewhere inside of her.
Eventually, though, it got to the point where it just seemed too weird to be standing there watching without their knowledge, so Pepper cleared her throat as she leaned a shoulder against the doorframe. "Hi," she said, and she had to suppress a smile at the way Bruce flinched out of the kiss while Tony took his time pulling away.
"Hi," Bruce stammered out after a moment of recomposing himself, visibly trying to suppress the soft pink that colored his cheeks. "How long have you, uh, been there?"
"Not long. Maybe a minute or so," Pepper replied, looking between the two of them and doing her best to hide her amusement at the stark differences in their expressions. Bruce at least seemed to be cooling down a little bit from his embarrassment at being caught, but Tony was smirking, and that gave her the idea that he knew exactly what this was about.
"You know, Pep, it's customary to knock," Tony said, leaning against the ottoman he was sitting next to. "Who knows what you could have just walked in on... unless that was your plan." The stupid grin on his face widened, but a quick jab to the side from Bruce's elbow easily stopped him from continuing.
"I knocked," Pepper said with a little shrug, folding her arms over her chest. "You didn't answer and your door was open, I was just satisfying my curiosity," she added with a dry smile before dropping her eyes to the papers scattered on the floor. "If you two are busy, I can come back later."
"No," Bruce said almost immediately, and both Tony and Pepper were surprised at how quickly the word came out. At least he didn't seem hesitant, Pepper thought. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. "No, stay. We probably need a break anyway. Have a seat." He gestured towards the sofa that was nearest to Pepper, but it took him a moment to realize that it was covered with more papers and folders than were on the floor. He scrambled to his feet quickly to clean it off and make space, and Tony didn't make an effort to hide his amusement at that either. It reminded him too much of the days before they got together when it was all stolen glances and mutual pining, and Bruce was all too flustered trying to hide his obvious attraction. The only difference now was that there was a new person in the picture, and she was just as hopeless as the other two.
"I need a drink," Tony announced, lazily pulling himself to his feet. "Any requests?" The other two shook their heads, and Tony disappeared into the kitchen for a minute. While he was gone Pepper stepped forward and sank into the couch, sighing at the lessened strain on her back once she was sitting. Bruce took a seat beside her, and after a moment of what seemed like an internal argument with himself, he relaxed and scooted just a tiny bit closer to her.
After another few seconds of silence, Bruce lifted a hand and gently touched Pepper's shoulder to get her attention. "How have you been feeling?" he asked quietly. He'd been concerned about her ever since he'd accompanied her to the doctor's that day, but couldn't seem to find her alone to ask.
Pepper gave another little shrug in response, her shoulder tingling where Bruce's hand had touched it. "As well as can be expected, I suppose," she replied. Normally that answer would have been fine, but they both knew what exactly was expected of her condition, and Pepper didn't need anything more than the gentle yet sad smile on Bruce's lips to know that he understood.
They didn't get a chance to continue the conversation before Tony walked back in with a soda in hand, and for that Pepper was grateful. She knew that Tony would find out about her complicated pregnancy eventually, but that was a topic she'd rather leave for another day. Tony took a sip of his drink before he set it on the end table beside the sofa and pulled the ottoman over, setting it in front of the other two so he could face them as he sat down. "So what's on your mind, Pep?" he asked, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. His eyes were bright and curious as they always were, and Pepper suddenly felt an overwhelming amount of pressure for something that really shouldn't be hard at all.
A lot, Pepper thought, a hell of a lot was on her mind right now. Too much for her to keep track of, but she just kept telling herself that as soon as this situation resolved itself, everything else would be easier. "I've been thinking about your offer," she started, but paused when she noticed the smirk back on Tony's face again.
"You make it sound like a drug deal," he joked, but shut up quickly after Pepper lightly kicked him in the shin. "Okay, ow, that was unnecessary. What about it?"
"I think we should try it." Like basically every other conversation she'd had with these two, it made more sense to just get to the point rather than beating around the bush. "You know, I… I was thinking about it for a while there, but then I realized that we'll never know if it's going to work unless we actually give it a shot. We can keep guessing and analyzing all the possible outcomes as much as we want, but there are some things that even one of your equations can't solve," she added teasingly, "so I think we should give it a go. If you two still want to." As soon as she finished, she could see the two men visibly perk up, and the atmosphere in the room changed. Pepper couldn't quite pinpoint what it was, but it was definitely less uncomfortable than it had been before.
"We definitely still want to," Bruce said, shifting just the tiniest bit closer. Tony nodded eagerly in agreement.
"Definitely," Tony repeated for emphasis, and he leaned in considerably closer than Bruce had. "So does this mean I can…?" He made an obvious point to lower his gaze to her lips before looking up into her eyes again, and as much as Pepper wanted to lean in, match his distance and give him an entirely non-verbal 'yes', she told herself to wait at least a minute.
"Hold on," she said, holding up a hand to stop either of them from advancing any further just for that moment. "Before we get too far ahead of ourselves here… I think we should take it slow."
There was only a second of pause before the silence was broken by Tony's laugh. "Uh, honey? I think we were done with the 'taking it slow' thing a long time ago," he chuckled, stretching his arm forward to place his hand on her swollen stomach. Pepper dropped her gaze to Tony's hand and couldn't help but huff out a quiet laugh of her own as she gently wrapped her fingers around his. She glanced over at Bruce a moment later, and he was wearing the same kind of amused smile as his boyfriend was.
"Don't look at me, there wasn't anything slow about that time we made out," Bruce said lightly with a goofy grin, holding up a palm in defense. He lowered it a second later, resting his arm on the back of the couch just close enough that his fingertips brushed Pepper's shoulder. "But I won't do anything that makes you uncomfortable."
"Okay, let me rephrase that," Pepper said with a quiet sigh. "I'm not talking about 'taking it slow' like we're in junior high, okay? We're all adults here. We're gonna fool around, we're gonna do stuff." She actually had to pause for a second just to appreciate the stupid grin on Tony's face at the prospect of doing stuff, and she couldn't keep herself from smiling a little bit too. "All I'm saying is… we've all been making such a point to say that this isn't just a sex thing. I don't want us to get to that point too fast and have that define what this… we… are before we give anything else a chance. Does that make sense?" She raised her eyebrows expectantly and looked between the other two.
"It makes perfect sense." Bruce was the first to reply, and the way he gently tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear coupled with the affectionate little smile on his lips made a comfortable warmth curl through Pepper's chest as she looked at him.
"So I guess that means we're not having sex tonight?" Then Tony said that, and Pepper made a point to pinch his hand in retaliation.
"Very funny," she deadpanned. Fortunately, though, she'd known Tony long enough to read him like a book, and enough to know that the sarcastic remark and glimmer in his eye was just his way of saying he understood. "Not sure how fun sex would be with this to deal with anyway," she added wryly, brushing a hand over her middle.
"Please." The offhand word fell off Tony's tongue with ease, and he made a point to lift himself off the ottoman and wedge himself between Pepper and the arm of the sofa, consequently (and probably intentionally) pushing her closer to Bruce in the process. "Not gonna be a problem, Pep." Finally, Tony seemed to decide that it was a good idea to quit asking questions and just move in to kiss her instead. He was tentative at first, which was definitely a side of him that Pepper wasn't used to at all, but she supposed that with the warmth of Bruce pressed in close on her other side it made sense for them to be hesitant at first—but once they'd scouted the new territory and actually realized that this was a real thing, the kiss softened into something more normal and comfortable, and for Pepper, it just felt right.
She did eventually have to breathe, however, but the way Tony had essentially draped himself over her made up for the loss of contact when she pulled away from the kiss. Pepper could feel him grinning close to her cheek, and for a second she questioned again if this was actually happening.
"So does that make it official?" Tony asked after he'd caught his breath, peeling his eyes open to look at Pepper. "I'm pretty sure that makes it official."
"Mmm… almost." Pepper didn't even think about saying yes. As much as she had been wrapped up and thoroughly distracted by Tony's lips against hers, she was still acutely aware of the warm body pressed against her other side. She attempted to wriggle partially out of the blanket Tony had created with his body to look at Bruce, who looked as if he had just snapped out of some kind of wonderment. "We just need the seal of approval from one more person."
Bruce made a show of looking around the room with an eyebrow quirked skeptically, and Pepper had to stifle a laugh at just how much Tony had rubbed off on him. "Who, me?" Bruce asked, looking back at the woman beside him with mock disbelief. "Oh. Can't imagine why you'd need that, you had my approval a while ago," he added with a lopsided smile.
"Yes, but only figuratively." Pepper nearly mirrored the arch of his eyebrow, and with a sly little smile, she moved as close as she could get to close the distance between their lips. Even though this wasn't exactly new territory for her, Pepper was still struck by the heat that jolted through her when their lips met, and she easily relaxed under the pressure of Bruce's mouth against hers.
It wasn't long until Bruce seemed to find comfort as well, and the way the back of her neck tingled under his hand and the feeling of the pleasant sparks running down her spine assured Pepper that what she felt the first time they'd kissed wasn't just adrenaline. That was something real, and this was something real, and it didn't take long for the contact to move past the innocent, chaste brush of lips it had started as. Bruce had taken it upon himself to tilt his head and deepen the kiss, and by the way Pepper could feel Tony squirming on her other side, the other man could definitely tell that there was tongue involved.
Bruce was the one to break the contact when it seemed that they were both thoroughly satisfied, even if the two of them barely moved an inch from each other. "Approval enough for you?" Despite the slight tremor in his voice the smug undertones still came across, and Pepper pinched his shoulder where her hand had ended up.
"I suppose it'll do." Pepper dealt back the banter effortlessly, and the little twist of Bruce's lips made her wonder exactly what she'd just gotten herself into with these two.