It hadn't taken long for the three of them to move up to the penthouse, mostly because the definition of 'moving' in this case really only meant walking up to a fully-furnished apartment with a few bags of clothes and necessities. Actually, it could have also meant having some of the bots bring up those few bags if Tony had his way, but Bruce insisted that some things just needed to be done by human effort. Apparently, moving was one of them.
Things hadn't really changed all that much, except that they were now all sleeping in the same bed in an apartment that belonged to all of them instead of just one. Despite Pepper's initial hesitance to the idea of spending the night with them, it was actually working out quite smoothly. Tony was finally happy with their living arrangements (well, all of them were), and she and Bruce had managed to work out a system to deal with those nights when she woke up in pain that ensured Tony would stay asleep while Bruce was always close enough to help her. They both still hated lying (or withholding information) about it, but Pepper supposed she could be okay with it for the time being.
The third day after they'd moved in together found the three of them lounging in the spacious living room that overlooked the city skyline. It was a typical early Sunday afternoon, that is if "lazy" meant looking over company budget reports or generating some kind of new formula or tech design—but they were all enveloped in the silent company of having each other there, so it counted.
Tony was curled up at Pepper's side, legs stretched out across the sofa with his upper half resting on the side of her arm. His body didn't leave much room for Bruce to fit on the couch with them, so the other man was slumped in a chair off to the side with his face shoved into a notebook. Between the quiet rustling of cushions when one of them moved and the soft, steady sound of Tony's breaths beside her, it was just the right amount of comfort and quiet for Pepper to not mind looking over the month's latest dull budget report.
The task was just about mind-numbing enough for her to not notice the subtle sparks of pain in her back and belly, but even the seemingly endless amount of tiny charts and even tinier numbers couldn't distract her from the little jolts that came here and there. She'd told Bruce that it was always the worst at night, which was true, but as the weeks went on the days seemed to be catching up with the nights. Pepper carefully pulled her arm out from under Tony and placed a hand on her stomach, hoping that the subtle movement might help the pain without disturbing Tony.
Clearly the maneuver wasn't perfect, though, because Tony shifted and grumbled anyway. "I was comfortable there," he whined, pulling himself up to lean on the back of the sofa instead of his girlfriend's side. He had just about gotten over it and gone back to his tablet before he spotted what Pepper had done with her arm, and he gave her hand a little nudge with a smile on his face. "Is she kicking?"
Pepper dropped her gaze from the papers to her hand. "Little bit," she lied, and the untruthful statement came out so easily that it was actually quite unsettling. "She really doesn't know how to let me work," she joked, her tone hopefully light enough to be believable.
Tony smiled wider, and scooted closer to side his palm over Pepper's stomach beside her own. "Good, that means you can blame someone besides me for once," he said, and Pepper would have made an effort to laugh if she wasn't so focused on hoping Tony didn't notice that there definitely wasn't any kicking going on under his hand.
"I'm sure she'll still blame you most of the time," Bruce piped in. A soft smile graced his lips at the way Tony was curled around Pepper, but when Pepper turned her eyes onto him she was met with the same look he always gave her in the middle of those pain-stricken nights. Just tell him, Bruce's eyes seemed to say, he deserves to know by now.
Pepper knew she had to. Tony wasn't dumb, and he was bound to find out soon anyway—it was just the prospect of finally getting those words out into the open that terrified her almost as much as Tony's inevitably heartbroken reaction did. However, as much as she wanted to believe otherwise, now was probably a good time to tell him, or at least as good as it could be.
"Tony," Pepper started, moving to set the papers aside and put her full attention on the man pressed up against her. "I think we need to talk about something." She turned to face him properly, reaching over to gently push her fingers through his messy hair. (Tony had a habit of not actually combing or even taming his hair if the day's events didn't call for it. Today was obviously one of those days.)
Tony looked back up at Pepper, prepared to answer her request with an upbeat, chipper reply until he caught sight of the expression on her face. It wasn't exactly somber, but definitely serious, and Tony had definitely learned his lesson several times over the years that an expression like that on Pepper Potts wasn't meant to be joked about. "Okay," he said curiously and a little cautiously, "what's up, Pep?"
Well, here it was. The moment of truth. Pepper had been imagining how exactly to have this conversation ever since Bruce had brought it up a few days prior, but none of the options she'd come up with seemed like any good. The fact of the matter was that there really wasn't any good way to bring this up. It was much like the way she had to tell him she was pregnant in the first place—she just had to say it, get the words out, and let him do with it what he may.
"I, um…" Pepper paused to clear her throat, doing her best to not look at either of the other people in the room. "I haven't been completely honest with you about this pregnancy." Great, she thought, that just sounds even more horrible.
Tony wasn't really sure what to do with that information, and his face would have showed it if Pepper had been looking at him. "What, are you gonna tell me that the kid isn't mine?" he joked, because that was always his default coping mechanism. "Cause if that's the case… well, you better get Banner to finish up that nursery."
"No, no, she's definitely yours," Pepper confirmed hastily, ignoring Tony's attempt at humor. She slid her hand along his arm in a way that she hoped was familiar and comforting, her gaze flicking towards Bruce who gave her a subtle, encouraging nod. "There's just been some… complications."
"Complications?" Tony's expression shifted between curious, confused, shocked, and even a little taken aback. "What do you mean, complications?"
Pepper drew in a breath, held it for a moment, and then let it go in a small sigh. Here we go. "Just… complications with the pregnancy," she said, dumbly, because clearly that was obvious. "Not with the baby—she's fine, as far as I know. It's just… it's me, I really haven't been doing well with it—you know, physically, it hasn't been easy, and there's some risks…" The sentence trailed off. She was rambling by now, and she really wasn't sure what to say after that; "sorry" didn't really make sense, except to apologize for not telling him, but she wanted to hear his reaction before she implicated herself any further.
If Tony hadn't known what to do with her statement about being dishonest, then he certainly didn't know what to do with this. A small voice in the back of his mind wondered if it was some kind of sick prank, but one quick glance between Pepper and Bruce squashed that idea. They both looked too serious to possibly be kidding, and Tony knew better than that, anyway.
He looked back at Pepper, who seemed to look as if she was waiting rather impatiently for his response. If he hadn't been so taken by surprise, he might have tried to soothe the nervousness and tension that was clearly drawn into her features, but Tony could barely get his own thoughts together let alone read someone else's.
"That's, uh… wow," he finally uttered, scratching at the back of his neck. "That's a lot of information all at once. Risks and complications and… you think she's okay?" It wasn't really a question he wanted an answer to quite yet, but one would have been nice.
"She was okay the last time I was at the doctor's," Pepper replied, actually surprised at how steady her voice sounded.
"That was over a month ago." Tony quickly did the math in his head, and dropped his hands back into his lap. There was a moment of silence between them, and Bruce had been planning on being the one to break it until Tony beat him to the punch. "How long has this been going on?"
Pepper very much considered lying. Hell, she'd been lying about basically the whole thing up until now, so it wasn't like it was the first time she'd be breaking some unspoken code of ethics. But Tony was smarter than that, and he would definitely catch on—it was just that his reaction to the truth worried her much more than his reaction to her dishonesty. "Since the beginning," she finally answered, and the words came with a little sigh and a glance away.
The statement took a minute to sink in, and once it did, Tony really didn't know what to think or feel. The closest emotion he could vaguely pinpoint was betrayal, and it hurt to think about how far that was from the easy comfort they'd had with each other just minutes ago.
"And you never told me?" Tony asked, his voice tight through his clenched jaw. "That baby has been at risk this whole time and you waited until now to tell me?"
"I told you that the problem was more with me than the baby," Pepper said, because the only thing she could think to say was something to correct Tony's assumption. Typical. She could feel her hands trembling, and she cursed herself for bringing this topic to light without any kind of mental preparation. Usually she was excellent at dealing with confrontation and thinking on her feet, especially when dealing with Tony, but her damn hormones were just so out of control lately, and there wasn't much she could do about her involuntary emotional reactions.
One glance towards Bruce told her that he was well aware of how much Pepper was regretting this conversation, and in a moment of uncharacteristic bitterness, she damn well hoped he felt guilty for pushing her to tell Tony the truth.
Tony, for his part, was still trying to make sense of what Pepper was telling him until he realized that he hadn't heard a peep out of Bruce. Surely the man would have said something by now, but Tony looked up just in time to catch the glance the scientist shared with Pepper, and it didn't take much analysis of Bruce's resigned expression to figure out what was going on here.
"Did you know about this?" Tony shot the question towards Bruce, and after a brief flinch in response to Tony's unexpectedly biting tone, Bruce nodded. Tony huffed in exasperation. "What the fuck, Pepper?"
In the time it had taken Tony to process the whole ordeal, Pepper had set her elbow on the armrest of the couch and leaned her face in her hand. Her fingers were bunched into the side of her hair, tugging lightly in an attempt to keep her grounded. "He didn't find out because I told him," she murmured, knowing it was a weak defense, but she didn't have much else for an excuse.
"Still, how could you allow him to know before me?"
"Because he was there for me when you weren't!" Pepper's head snapped up from where it had been leaning into her palm, and whatever timid apprehension that was present in her eyes before was now replaced with fiery anger and a twinge of hurt. "Maybe you should have thought of that before you got pissed off at me for not telling you about complications with this pregnancy that you didn't even care about until a month ago."
She didn't give Tony any time to respond before she pulled herself to her feet and stalked off back to the bedroom. Her emotions were in too many places right now, and she needed to get away before she said anything more that she'd really regret.
"Pep," Tony said, calling her name to her back as she walked away. Her last words felt like a knife in his chest, but she was already out of the room before he could begin to apologize for being such a stupid ass. "Fuck."
"Just let her go for now," Bruce said quietly, carefully, because he really wasn't sure if Tony wanted to hear anything out of him right now. He reached over and gently set a hand on Tony's arm, hoping the touch might help. "She's hormonal, and it's really not helping her emotions. Give her some time to settle down."
Tony grumbled irritably, his arm flexing underneath Bruce's hand before he made an attempt to dispel some of the tension. Damn right she's hormonal, he thought bitterly, but the better part of him shook off the thought quickly—that wasn't Pepper's fault, and he couldn't blame her for it. "I can't believe you knew about this," he muttered, his voice still prickly despite his attempts to calm himself.
Bruce knew that remark was coming, but that didn't stop the small amount of guilt he had from coming out in a sigh. "What she said is true," he started to explain, rubbing his thumb over Tony's skin. "I didn't find out because she told me. I went with her to that appointment and I overheard what the doctor said."
Upon hearing Bruce's explanation, Tony couldn't help but think that it should have been him with Pepper at the doctor's that day, but they already had that particular discussion and dwelling on it wasn't going to change what was happening now. "Well, you could have told me about whatever these complications are," he retorted, really just trying to save face at that point.
"I wasn't going to betray her trust like that, Tony."
"But somehow it's okay for both of you to betray mine?"
That comment knocked Bruce down for a minute, and in the time it took him to get back up he realized just how right Tony was. He'd spent so much time scolding Pepper for withholding the truth that he hadn't even taken a step back to see that he was disrespecting Tony in the same way. Clearly, Bruce had underestimated just how much it would take to make a relationship work with two other people rather than one, and he'd never been too skilled at managing a traditional relationship in the first place.
"No," Bruce surrendered, the word surprisingly easy to say just because there wasn't any way for him to deny it. "No, it's not okay."
Tony just hummed in what sounded like self-righteous agreement, sinking back against the couch. As annoyed as he was with both of them at the moment, he gentle pressure of Bruce's hand on his made it a little bit easier to breathe. "Were either of you ever planning on telling me?" he asked, hoping he would get a straight answer. "Or was I just never supposed to know?"
He felt so stupid. So, so fucking stupid. All that time had passed and he'd never noticed anything wrong, or even thought to ask—maybe he'd been right all along. If he wasn't responsible enough to help his girlfriend while she was pregnant, then he definitely wasn't cut out for fatherhood.
"I wanted to tell you," Bruce said, and he felt his chest tighten when he examined the pain and betrayal etched into Tony's face. "But I'm not going to speak for Pepper, so… if you want answers, I would talk to her."
"Yeah," Tony sighed, taking his free hand to rub it over his face. He wanted to get this over with sooner than later, but he wasn't sure if Pepper even wanted to see his face. "Think those hormones have calmed down yet?"
Bruce shrugged. "I guess you could go see," he said, hoping that Tony would. He hated being caught in the middle of conflicts like this, but more than anything he hated seeing Tony and Pepper take a step backward after how hard it had been to get to where they were now. Arguments and conflicts were inevitable, but he just hadn't expected one—a rather serious one, at least—to happen to soon.
"I guess," Tony agreed almost grudgingly. This part always sucked, the initial talking after a fight. He stood up after giving Bruce's hand a squeeze, but before he could walk away Bruce had stood up and wrapped his arms around him.
"I'm sorry," Bruce murmured against Tony's ear, "I didn't mean to hurt you. Neither of us did." He pulled back slightly, meeting Tony's eyes and giving him the best smile he could manage. Tony didn't respond with anything but a brief kiss, and for Bruce that was enough.
Tony patted Bruce's shoulder before silently leaving the room. The walk to the bedroom wasn't very far, so he didn't have a whole lot of time to gather his thoughts or words before he was standing in front of the closed door. Maybe it was better that way. Pepper probably didn't want to hear a speech, but if either of them was going to do most of the talking, Tony thought it should be her.
He gave a few quick raps on the door, but when there wasn't a reply Tony figured it would be more productive to just open it. "Pep?" he said carefully, just to be sure he wouldn't get anything thrown at him. "Can I come in?"
There was a pause, and then Pepper's quiet answer of "sure."
The room was dim when Tony entered, and most of it was due to how Pepper must have told Jarvis to tint the expansive wall of windows that overlooked the city skyline. Privacy was often a rare luxury for those who lived in such an ostentatious home, and though Tony often took advantage of the bedroom's tinted windows for other purposes, he could understand why Pepper didn't want the world looking in. She was sitting in the center of the bed with her head turned towards the window, and the way she was curled up to herself just made her look so small. Despite how many years they'd spent by each other's sides and how many times he'd seen her nearly at her worst, Tony was still always struck by how strange it was to see her when she wavered.
"So," Tony started, forcing the word out because it just felt strange to walk towards her in silence. "We've already had the discussion about how I've been an ass, I haven't cared enough, blah, blah, blah. So how about you tell me everything that's going on so I don't make an ass out of myself again?"
Pepper would have cracked a smile at the self-depreciating comment, but she wasn't really feeling it at the moment. "It's not about you being an ass," she said, toying with the corner of the pillow she'd pulled over her stomach. Covering up like that seemed to be a habit of hers lately, and both Tony and Bruce had noticed.
"Then what is it about?" Tony asked. "I mean, after everything that happened I really, for the life of me, don't know why you would keep something like this from me." After all the things Pepper had said about wanting him to be involved, he was suddenly questioning how and what she meant.
"I wasn't trying to shut you out by not telling you," Pepper said, keeping her gaze trained on the bed sheets even as Tony shifted closer beside her. "I was trying to keep you. It just took so long to get to where we are, and I thought that if I told you about the complications that it would just… push you away, or you'd be… relieved, or something." She said the words as steadily as she could, and for the most part she was successful. Not looking directly at Tony seemed to help.
Tony blinked in astonishment. Well, she was just full of surprises today. "What?" He could feel about a million other questions scratching at the edge of his mind, but he told himself to keep it simple for now so she would talk. "Relieved? About complications? God, Pep, I know my brain works differently than a lot of people, but that's…"
"Awful." Pepper finished the sentence for him. She almost cracked a humorless smile, just so the remark didn't seem so cynical, but it didn't feel like the right time. "I know. I hate that I even thought that about you. It's just… it was so hard in the beginning, and I guess I thought that if something happened because of the complications… that you'd be relieved that you wouldn't have to deal with it anymore."
It definitely sounded a lot worse when she said it out loud, Pepper thought. She was beginning to question her decision to tell him all of this, even though it certainly felt like the words were coming out on their own without her consent.
Tony was just doing his best to control his facial expression, because his thoughts were a whole other issue, and he really didn't want it to show. Pepper had actually thought that about him? It made him almost sick to his stomach—not her, but the notion that he had acted that terribly, that cold.
"Okay, well… first of all," Tony began, figuring it was better to talk than to let her words fester and make them both feel worse. "There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't care. I mean… that's our kid. Which was terrifying, and still is terrifying now. And, God, I know I can be a douche, but I can't be that bad." That remark actually earned him a glance and a small smile from Pepper, and he reached out to touch her cheek. "It's you, Pep. It's always you. I can't not care about you."
Pepper felt her cheek warm under Tony's hand, and the same gentle heat curled through the rest of her body and resulted in a few tiny flutters in her stomach. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner," she said softly, leaning her head against Tony's palm.
"Apology accepted. I suppose." Tony smiled a little bit; the admission had come a lot easier than he expected. Maybe he hadn't forgiven her complete for shutting him out for so long, but he could at least accept it like the adult that he was. "At least you had Bruce. That makes me feel a little better."
"Even though we made out behind your back?" Pepper's smile turned just the slightest bit smug.
"Well, I guess if that's what it took…" Tony joked in return. "Can't say I mind now."
They both smiled and laughed quietly, and Pepper was a little amazed at just how quickly the mood had changed. Usually it took hours of painful silence or yelling or sarcastic defense mechanisms before her and Tony ever figured anything out—she didn't see how this situation was too different, but she decided not to question it and accept that maybe imminent parenthood had softened both of them.
Tony had scooted closer on the bed after they'd fallen quiet, his gaze and hand having dropped to Pepper's stomach as he mulled over everything that had just happened. "So are you gonna tell me what these complications actually are?" he asked, fingers tracing absent, gentle patterns over the curve of her stomach. "Or do I have to guess?"
The comfort and calm that Pepper had previously been feeling quickly moved over to make room for some tension, but she actually tried to fight it this time instead of letting it take over completely. He wasn't accusing her, she assured herself, he was just asking, and he deserved the respect of being given an answer. "Um… honestly, I don't really know a whole lot of medical specifics or anything," she said with a small sigh, and it really was the truth. "All I know I that it hurts, and it's not normal."
That explanation wasn't entirely satisfying for Tony, but he didn't pry or protest. This wasn't a project or a mystery that he could pull apart, decipher, and put back together again; this was Pepper, and he couldn't tinker with her. "And the baby?" So he just asked that, figuring it was the logical next step in a conversation like this one.
"Like I said… she's fine, as far as I know," Pepper said again, but clearly Tony wanted or needed to hear it. "She's small," she added, trying to give him any kind of information, "but the doctor said not to worry about that right now."
Tony looked up at Pepper's eyes, considering the information before he looked back down at her middle. Well, that made sense, at least. Everyone was different, obviously, but Pepper really hadn't grown a whole lot during her pregnancy and he'd been wondering why. A small—maybe too small—baby was one explanation, but he really had no idea. Biology had never been his area. "When are you going to the doctor again?"
"In about a week."
"I'm going with you this time."
"Okay." Pepper felt herself deflate with relief at just how easy that was. She was sure that tensions would tighten again after that appointment, just because she had an idea of what to expect, but if Tony's current demeanor was anything to go by maybe things would turn out better than she thought.
There wasn't much left to say after that if the almost-awkward silence was any indication, but for the moment Tony was fine with the information he'd gotten. More questions would come later, he was sure, but he could tell that it was an exhausting topic for Pepper and he didn't want to make it worse than it already was. "Just, uh… keep me in the loop from now on, okay?" He needed to confirm that for some kind of conclusion, at least. "I kinda love you, you know."
"Yeah?" Pepper said the word with a smile in her voice and on her lips, and she extended a hand to tuck away a few strands of Tony's flyaway hair. "Well, I guess I kinda love you, too."
"I guess I can live with that." Before Pepper had a chance to respond to Tony's snark, he had crawled closer on the bed and pressed his lips firmly against hers. The motion wasn't completely unexpected, but Pepper still had to give herself a second to absorb what was happening before she completely gave in to the kiss. For the first time in a long while, there wasn't anything that felt remotely wrong about this—well, maybe "wrong" wasn't the right term, but as much as she was on board with the whole polyamory thing there had been a tiny, barely conceivable part of her that felt like she was betraying Bruce whenever she kissed Tony, or vice versa. Not this time, though. This time finally felt like she knew it should, and there wasn't an ounce of protest in her when Tony took her by the shoulders and rolled them down against the bed.
They'd ended up somewhere in the middle of the mound of pillows and blankets, Tony basically on top of Pepper with one of his legs between both of hers. His lips had migrated to the delicate skin of Pepper's neck in the process, and he earned what sounded like a gentle whimper out of her as he grazed her skin with his teeth and shifted his leg to create some friction where she definitely wanted it.
"Tease," Pepper scolded lightly, almost breathlessly, as she slid her hands under Tony's shirt and up his back.
"Some things never change," Tony murmured in return, his lips purposefully brushing against that sensitive spot at the corner of Pepper's jaw just below her ear, and he could feel the shiver that went through her as a result. Her nails dug into his back in retaliation, and it didn't take much thought for both of them to realize that removing Tony's shirt was the logical next step.
Tony took his sweet time with tossing his shirt aside, kneeling above Pepper for a few extra seconds to give her time to appreciate the view. He could tell she was trying to look indifferent with that typical "quit your vain antics and get on with it" look, but even Pepper's poker face wasn't skilled enough to hide the way her eyes wandered from his face down to his broad chest, across his tight and defined stomach, and finally traced the deep V of muscle that disappeared below the waist of his jeans.
"Oh." Tony had just bent down over Pepper again when he heard the single syllable, and he stifled a chuckle under his breath as he looked over his shoulder to find Bruce standing in the doorway. He couldn't quite hold back the grin though, not when he took in Bruce's wide eyes and slightly flushed skin (whether that was from embarrassment or arousal, Tony didn't know, but he certainly hoped it was the latter).
"Took you long enough, Banner," Tony chastised, rolling off of Pepper for the moment to give his boyfriend some equal exposure. "I was starting to think we might have to go on without you."
"Well, you've been in here for a while, and I was getting a little lonely out there, so…" Bruce shrugged, and a tiny smile began to twitch at the corners of his mouth. "I wanted to come in and make sure you two are okay."
"We worked it out." Pepper pulled herself up to lean back on her elbows, locking eyes with Bruce.
"I see that." Bruce licked his lips, shifting on his feet as he looked between the two of them. Yeah, it definitely seemed like they'd worked it out, especially when he looked at the hardness clearly straining against Tony's pants. The way the man was seated offered the impression that he wanted Bruce to notice it, and that was confirmed with the next question.
"So are you just gonna stand there and watch?" Tony asked, and Pepper turned her head and rolled her eyes. "Cause this'll be way more fun with a third interest factor."
Bruce thought about commenting on Tony's use of the term "interest factor," but quickly decided against it in favor of considering the more pressing topic. The fact that he even had to think about it actually felt silly, somehow—this was an opportunity anyone (read: Tony or Pepper) would have jumped on immediately, but even after how much the three of them had fooled around in the past few weeks, he still found himself worrying about how the Other Guy would react. However, there hadn't been any problems on that end yet, and the way Tony and Pepper were looking at him sparked so much heat under his skin that Bruce really couldn't find a good reason to not be a part of whatever was about to unfold.