It's alive! Kinda
Oh god, guys, I'm so sorry for updating so late, but yesterday was my last final exam (maths, lord save my grade pls) and my mind was just so full of school stuff, I could hardly do anything except learn and sleep. Thanks a lot for not giving up on this story, despite my absence.
Since the last entry here I've written some of the things I want this story to go on a sheet in my room, so every time I wake up, it reminds me to finish this. It's gonna be a lot longer than I originally thought, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, at least not to me. I want Pepper kicking ass, answer some loose ends from the Iron Man 3 movie (like that fact that he blew up all his suits. Like, I get it, symbolic meaning and all, but dude, how are you gonna protect the one thing you can't live without?). If this is a new writing a style or anything, apologies, I just write everything that comes to mind and I've caught myself writing some of this in French (dammit, France!).
I hope I won't dissapoint. If I do, y'all get cookies! And contact me if you wanna see anything specific here.
Pepper Potts had never been the cuddly one in a relationship. Sure, the occasional afterglow of sex (spectacular sex) wasn't foreign to her, but that lasted only a few minutes. With Tony, though, everything was different - especially after New York. Now it was her that clung onto him, and him usually being the one to go about his daily business. No matter how much he had changed, he was still just Tony.
Right now, though, Pepper and Tony were holding onto each other as if for dear life, always forgetting to inhale, exhale, inhale. Pepper was glowing and hot, both in the literal and metaphorical term of the word. Neither seemed to mind.
"I think," Tony's voice came through the blurriness of her mind, "maybe we should postpone the whole 'curing you' thing." His fingers drew circles on her exposed stomach, but his eyes were fixated on her heart. Her beating heart, shining through her skeleton with a weird red glow. Almost like an arc reactor. "Just for a little while."
A smile was creeping her way into Pepper's face. "Why, so we can spend every day in bed?" She wasn't sure if he was serious or not, but knowing him he probably was.
"Yep."
"I think I'm outshining you." Somewhere between all the shining, a blue light was almost consumed by hers. "It's a nice change." Despite her dizziness, Pepper noticed the change of emotion on his face, something she knew all too well. This happened almost every time she mentioned the thing in his chest. "You want it out," she said matter-of-factly. He didn't even respond, but his silence was answer enough for Pepper. The arc reactor may have been needed a few years ago, but now it was just a painful reminder of his awful past, and that Pepper could still lose him at any given moment. She didn't exactly know all the details, but what she did know terrified her every time she thought about it. That Tony's body consisted of about 57 % ("56, 7 %, actually, so it's not so bad") of metal. That it was not only to keep the shrapnel out of his heart, but also sort of working as a pace maker. That one time he had passed out after she went a little too rough with him in bed. He'd also confessed to her that he could no longer feel his chest due to all the damage done to the nerves in a clumsy operation (in a cave). How every movement seemed like it was hurting him and how he'd always wave it off when she asked. JARVIS was working his way into every secret data, even SHIELD, but he still came up with nothing. Tony wanted it out, but he just couldn't.
"Dr. Wu called," he murmured and buried his face in her neck, she could feel his breath against her neck. The name startled her at first, until she remember the conversation she'd had with him a few months ago. Something about a Chinese doctor saying he could help get the arc reactor out, and that it was only a matter of time until he would get the right equipment. Tony was waiting patiently until the realization kicked in. "He says that he technically knows how to detach it from my body. But there's been so much damage done to my body that I'd die in a second. Also," he tapped on the device in his chest and faked a half smile to her neck, "the huge hole in my chest would also be a bummer."
"Can't you implant something instead?" She had no idea how operations like that worked, she just wanted to help. And this time, he really did laugh, because he knew exactly what she was doing (and loved her all the more for it).
"Like what? Even if we could implant something, there's no way knowing it would connect with the damaged nerve endings." He looked her in the eyes, looking extremely tired. "I don't want to take any chances."
Pepper felt like saying something but was hushed into silence when the phone started ringing. Tony and Pepper looked at each other like they'd just realized that they were not the only people on the planet. The phone was still ringing. "Shouldn't you answer that?" Pepper teased, willing enough for a new conversation topic.
"I should," his lips were on hers as if, by kissing her enough, he could forget the incoming call and make every sorrow in their lives go away. "But I won't."
Pepper joined, a little unsure about pretty much everything except this. This would always be perfect, it would always be them. She bit on his lower lip a little harder than usual, though. "What if," she could hardly form words in her mind, let alone speak, "it's Dr. Xu?"
Her tactic worked and he stopped dead in his tracks. "Wu." Tony sighed and wrestled his way to the other side of the bed, grabbing the phone without even looking. "What?" She could scold him for his rude manners, but she chose to keep quiet about it after noticing his panicked expression. The person on the other end was talking nonstop and Tony grew more angry by the second. Pepper probably could've made out the conversation as well as the caller just by hearing alone. If her mind wasn't so very full of very, very inappropriate thoughts. Like the fact that he still wasn't dressed, and that pissed Tony was really turning her on, making her glow flicker every now and then. Tony looked at her with a puzzled look and she just shrugged.
"Like hell," was all that came out of his mouth during the whole conversation and he ended the call without even caring if he received a reply. Pepper motioned for him to come back to her, but he was still angry about whatever the caller had said.
A dreadful thought creeped its way into her mind. "Paparazzi?" Pepper Potts wasn't an agressive person, but if a thousand pairs of camera lenses clouded her mind in this state of hers, she could do no promises.
"SHIELD." Now she kinda missed Paparazzi. Tony did his best to look apologetic at her panicked expression. "They want to debrief you. Told them to debrief my ass, first."
"Yeah, I heard."
So, after repeatedly apologizing to Bruce (or trying to, really) and always getting the same response 'Pepper, do you honestly think I don't get being on edge because of your condition?' the three of them sat on the couch and wanted to make a decision about all this. Emphasis on wanted, because neither Tony nor Pepper could bring up the dreaded topic of what it could mean to Pepper if SHIELD was interested in her. Bruce seemed like an expert, but he wasn't really one for conversations.
Fortunately, Tony found his voice again after a few minutes of awkward staring. "We could fix her before they notice ...?" An idea, and an awful one at that.
"Too risky if we just try the first thing we find," Bruce replied and stroked his non-existent beard. It was funny, really, the two of them together, acting exactly alike. Pepper knew in that moment that it was a good thing Bruce joined after all. "And they can take Pepper any time they feel like it, they're freakin' SHIELD. Yet they haven't."
Pepper kinda felt like an accessory to this whole conversation, so she stood up to make herself a really, really strong coffee. Behind her she could hear them still rattling on about something, not even noticing her absence. The coffee tasted disgusting (probably because she also put some drops of alcohol into it) but she drowned it down her throat either way.
Pepper started heading for the living room again and first saw that Bruce's head was in his palms. She could make out a faint of green when his eyes met Tony's again. "We can't just fight the government, Tony, no matter how big of an ego you've got going on." Pepper sat down next to Tony, again unnoticed. She started to get annoyed. "And you blew up all your suits, remember?"
"Well, are we supposed to just hand them Pepper? What are they gonna do with her? With Extremis? I've got a few guesses, and I'm thinking so do you."
"It's irrelevant what we think, or want." Bruce seemed like he was talking to a child rather than an adult. "If they want Pepper, they'll get her. Even if they have to kick our asses in between the process."
"Not if Hulk's on our side!"
"Tony-"
"If you two are going to address me one more time like I'm an object you idiots can toss around, I will smash both of your heads against the wall!" It would've been a lie to say her outburst was just Extremis. But as soon as she said it, her anger disappeared the same way it had emerged. Still, it felt good to be able to actually hold that promise, with both of them full well knowing what she was capable of.
Tony was the first to apologize, hesitantly grabbing her hand. "Sorry, honey. I didn't mean to exclude you." He gave Bruce a death glare, who seemed a little scared himself. 'I just scared the living hell out of the Hulk,' she thought, to her surprise.
"Yeah, apologies. Of course, the decision is yours." Finally, somebody said something logical.
"Exactly," she replied and smiled at him, even though her frozen eyes did not quite live up to it. "Which is exactly what you two seem to have forgotten. It's my body, my decision. I appreciate your concern, I do, but I find it a little redundant."
"What do you mean?"
Even though Tony was the one she was looking at, she was addressing both of them. "I don't think they will be able to make new super soldiers for the same reason we can't get it out of my body. I guess it just sticks with me. SHIELD is monitoring possible threats, of which I am one. There's no need denying it." Her voice lost some of her bossiness when she added: "I'm a product of mass destruction."
Tony, especially, looked crushed by the last sentence and meant to say something when the door bell rang. The same way the phone had, nonstop. Pepper was the first to stand up and head for the door, leaving her coffee on the table, while Tony quickly followed and halfway through threw his arms around her waist and looked at Bruce one more time before saying: "Better green up, Big Guy." Bruce didn't seem too amused by that.
An awful lot of red curls greeted her when she opened the door and no matter how hard she tried, Pepper couldn't control her lips from curling upwards a bit. Being the only female in this arrangement of theirs kinda wore her down.
"Ms Potts," Natasha (formerly Natalie, even though both of them worked that out a while back) said, shaking the other women's hand and completely ignoring the glare Tony was giving her. "I'm here on behalf of SHIELD." Pepper's smile disappeared and she motioned for Natasha to come in.
"Hello, Natasha." Pepper hoped going for the first name wouldn't be an inconvenience, but it didn't seem like it. "Bruce already joined us in our humble home, and you're free to join as well."
Tony looked at her, shocked at her being so open about it. Pepper just winked at him. "Didn't you say you were all in for experiments?"
"I meant other ones," he whispered next to her, his hand still reassuringly on her back. "I'm not so sure I like this one." He eyed Natasha, who was shaking the hand of a very nervous Bruce Banner.
"Oh, come on," She kissed his left cheek. "What's the saying? Four's a crowd?"
He shook his head. "I don't think it goes like that, Pep. But," his eyes were again searching for something alarming in hers and yet again finding nothing but a wide grin, "you're right. Your decision. Just promise me you won't neglect those other experiments we agreed on."
Before they rejoined the other two in the living room Pepper stole a quick kiss and whispered: "Never."
Yey, Natasha, yey! Yey, female friendships, yey!
Natasha giving Pepper fight lessons would be the hottest/most awesome thing, amirite?