Thanks to Miel14 for the idea for this chapter and thanks to all of you for reading and reviewing! Sorry for the slow updates but I shall blame holidays and being busy. I'll try to update this story as soon as possible and I may start another seperate Iron Man/Pepperony fanfic so keep a look out! Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Marking my territory

Tony had been a tiger cub for nearly three weeks since the events of the New York battle which meant people were starting to wonder where he was. The press slowly started gathering outside Stark Tower, trying to ask anyone who came out of the building or entered if they had seen Tony Stark. Of course no one ever answered any of the questions they were bombarded with at the entrance to the building which led to various rumors and lots of speculation about where the billionaire was. Many thought that he had gone into hiding after the battle, saying he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder or that he had been so badly injured that he was bedridden and couldn't leave. As always there were ridiculous speculations amongst the sensible ones, including speculations that Pepper was holding him hostage or that the aliens had managed to rip him from the suit and throw the suit back through the wormhole.

Unfortunately (and much to Tony's annoyance), one of Pepper's ex-boyfriends, called Shaun, had started sniffing around since no one had seen Tony recently and as Tony walked out of his bedroom yawning he saw this intruder with Pepper, on the couch talking. Tony started growling but neither of them could hear the little growl coming from the tiger that was slowly making its way towards them. As Tony got closer to the two, he could hear everything they were saying and could see everything Shaun was doing.

"I gotta say, Virginia. You look amazing! It's been too long sinc we last saw each other" Shaun said, Tony started growling even more as the man started flitting with his girlfriend.

Shaun and Pepper then frowned as they both heard the growling from Tony and both slowly turned to look at the cub, crouched by the couch, growling specifically at Shaun.

"Is that a tiger? Is it Stark's? I-Is it even legal to have a tiger?!" he said, backing away from Tony as Tony advanced towards him

"Tony! Stop it! Be nice!" Pepper said, trying to pull him back but Tony broke free and pounced on Shaun.

Being a cub made it difficult to do anything other than make the man fall backwards so trying to be threatening was kind of difficult in this situation as Shaun had simply picked him up and dropped him on the floor before standing up and yelling at Pepper that she and Tony were crazy to be keeping a tiger as a pet. Knowing that he could do nothing else as Shaun turned to look back at Tony, the cub turned to face the other way, lifted its little tail then sprayed urine all over the intruder before walking round to Pepper's side. Pepper simply smirked, picked the little cub up and whispered "Well done" to him before looking to her ex-boyfriend and saying with a hint of sarcasm "You know, I don't think he likes you". With another smirk from Pepper and a little growl from the cub who looked rather pleased with himself, Shaun left the tower, being bombarded by the reporters who, having smelt him before seeing him, asked what had happened in the tower and why he smelt of tiger's urine, leaving with what little dignity he had left. Once Shaun had gone, Pepper sat back down on the couch and petted Tony, who was sitting on her lap purring.

"Thank you my little jealous cub" she giggled as Tony started to try and complain only to be interrupted as Pepper scratched behind his ear, sending him into a purring frenzy.