AN: Ah-ha! I have the next chapter right here. I've just skimmed over the events of IM2 and The Avengers for the sake of brevity. This story will be hitting the end of its "Second Arc" soon and I'll take a brief break when that happens to start on a new project or two.

Tony and a dragon, as well as Tony as an "Aspect of Death" kinda thing and, if enough people want them they'll go up.

I may or may not continue "Let Me See Your Claws". it was supposed to be a one-off fill for a prompt on Avengerkink and I ended it like that on purpose, but some people want me to wrap it nicely. Plus, blocking out the next entry for the Spots!Verse with my Alpha Reader, Maverick14th.

I hope you all like the new chapter.

Tony started to feel sick a few weeks after the "I am Iron Man" announcement. It started slowly, with pain in his stomach and almost constant headaches. He ignored it for the most part, and it was easy when the pain ebbed and he'd taken something for the pounding in his head.

But by the time month three had come and gone, he could deny it no longer. He was vomiting almost like clockwork, bluish-purple lines criss-crossed his gums and his chest around the reactor and he could constantly taste metal, a heavy, pungent flavor at the back of his throat. Tony recognizes the systems of heavy metal toxicity.

Twice he went to a private clinic in Canada for Chelation therapy, something that added another few months to his life before the metal began to build to fatal levels again. He built a scanner for his blood, so he could watch the toxicity levels rise, watch his own death slowly approaching. In normal circumstances, a patient would be removed from the source of the poisoning.

But Tony's sat heavily in his chest, a constant reminder. Without it, he'd die a horrible death in eight minutes and thirty-nine seconds. With it, he'd have six more months of agony before the poison in his blood took his life.

He ran dozens of simulations on every viable element and combination of elements he could think of, but nothing proved a replacement for the palladium core of the Arc Reactor. That night, he destroyed sixteen targets with his Bo staff. It wasn't clean, drunk and angry as he was and in the morning, he found himself laid out amongst the shattered remains of wooden targets, metal struts and cotton-batting flung far and near.

He hides it from Pepper, from Rhodey and Brad and Anatassia. He hides it from the press and from the Order and the public.

Because Tony Stark was dying, a little bit at a time.

A few weeks before the StarkExpo, when the toxicity levels of his blood have begun to reach critical stage again, Tony boarded one of his planes and directed the pilot to the small airstrip in faraway Canada. The cabin where he sits, staring contemplatively into a tumbler of chlorophyll and fighting a raging hangover, is silent. He was the only one on board, save the pilot and his co-pilot/mechanic.

Tony knew he wasn't going to get to see the end of the StarkExpo. At the rate his blood was gathering the toxins given off by the Arc Reactor, he'd be lucky if he had another month and a half left.

The plan had always been for the Order to handle his funeral, as was the tradition. It was written into his will that Brad and Anatassia would be in charge of his funeral arrangements when he passed away, in the event of an accident or illness. If he passed of old age, then a younger person whom he trusted from the Order would be put in charge. As it were, he stood to have a traditional funeral with full honors.

Now he just had to break the news.

Not much later found Tony in an awkward position. In the office that the Aak had worked out of, one of the walls had thirteen pictures. These pictures, of men and women of varying ages and races, were the Order's "Do Not Engage" list. Assassins and spies, unaffiliated with any government. They took the highest paying jobs, were deadly and, if employed by a target, served as effective deterrents for the group of animal-masked assassins.

In the center of the lineup was a woman, with skin the color of porcelain and hair like fire, known only by her moniker, "The Black Widow". This, of course, made Tony cautious of the woman that walked in with Pepper the day he signed over Stark Industries to her, who could have been the twin of the woman in the picture. She looked so eerily familiar that he called her into the ring where he and Happy had been practicing, staring at her for near thirty seconds before he retreated to the couch where Pepper had sat down.

He tapped into the Stark Industries personnel records on the tabletop screen, pulled up a picture and attached it to an email, with the sentence "Look familiar?" as the subject. He sent it to Marcie and then went about signing over his company to Pepper, whom he knew would take great care of the company when he was gone. He joked around with Pepper about "Needing one", as the woman left the workout room, though in his head he was seriously considering it.

A few hours later, entrenched in his workshop, Jarvis pulled up the response from Marcie and Tony cringed as he read it aloud to himself. "Dear Anthony, what in the actual hell are you doing hanging out with Black Widow? Have we taught you nothing?!" The rest of the email went on to berate him for his lack of self-preservation and Tony had to smile. Marcie took her job of taking care of her assassins very seriously, even if they were retired.

Suspicions now confirmed and seeing a chance to "Keep his enemies closer", Tony picked up the phone and dialed the Legal department.

Building a miniature particle accelerator in his basement and recreating a lost element? Easy.

Saving his entire Expo from a horde of rampaging battle droids and a guy with a grudge? Walk in the park.

Apologising to the woman who may as well be a sister to him for not telling her he was dying? A little more complicated, but doable.

Consoling said woman over her breakup with a female spy who'd been stationed to watch Tony while he was dying by a shady government agency and discovering almost everything she'd told them had been a lie? Tony wasn't trained for that.

Which is why, when Pepper showed up at the Malibu mansion, which had been made livable again by a very dedicated and well-payed crew of men fixing the walls, floors and windows, more than a little tipsy and teary-eyed, Tony did the only thing he could think of. He ushered her inside, made her a mug of hot chocolate, topped with ridiculous amounts of whipped cream and chocolate shavings, and sat there while she cried and ranted, arms wrapped around her uselessly.

Finally she exhausted herself and fell asleep against her chest, face illuminated by the dim glow of light blue that came from beneath his threadbare t-shirt. Tony lay there, scrunched against the side of the couch. He pulled the afghan off the back of the couch and draped it over their bodies before laying back the rest of the way. "Jarvis, lights please. Throw up a fire while you're at it." He whispered.

Around him, the room grew dark and the fire came alive, casting the room in long shadows as Tony settled comfortably into sleep.

Pepper finds out his biggest secret three months after the Palladium incident. He had been sitting at the island in the kitchen, laboriously polishing his weapons and caring for his bow and arrows. While he still practiced frequently with wooden versions of his sword and Bo staff, the actual weapons themselves sat on a display in a room he had hidden away and locked to open with his bio-signature only.

So, once a month, Tony took the weapons and his mask out of the display room, gently dusted and polished them, and sharpened them if need be. Pepper was away on Stark Industries business for the next couple of nights in Japan, so Tony took his time. She wasn't supposed to be back until the end of the week.

An Iron Man alarm calls him from the counter where he was working, leaving everything he owned from his "previous life" out in the open. And, since life hated him with a passion, Pepper walked in the front door the minute he was up in the air. He wasn't there to hear her scream.

Sometime Later

When Tony returned sometime later, the first thing he does is have to dodge a vase flying at his head. Training kicked in, his brain and body recognizing only Attack! and not the fact that it's Pepper throwing the face at him. He's strikes fast and soon he's on top of his "assailant", pinning her to the ground. When the defensive veil lifts and he notices it's the CEO of his company he's pounced, he rolls off of her, stumbling out an apology.

Pepper looks equal parts infuriated and terrified and it shows as she stands up and puts her back to the wall. Inside, Tony's cursing a storm in every language he knows. She wasn't supposed to be home yet! Now she knew everything. Well, not everything, but enough to get him the death penalty if she tells the police.

"Pepper...I know it's a lot to handle, but I need you to calm down." He says, hands up in the classic 'I'm unarmed' position. There's a brief moment of stillness before Pepper's body exploded into motion, fury overtaking fear like a raging inferno.

"Alot to take in!?" She screams at him and Tony winces at the volume of it. With a swift motion behind his back, Jarvis engages the sound dampeners. "Tony you're an assassin! A murderer! Is your name even Tony!?" The last question surprises Tony and he takes a minute to but his mind back on the rails. He takes a step back.

"Alright, let's just breath for a minute. Pepper, there's a lot you're not taking into account here. And yes, my name is actually Tony. Why would I lie about that?" To Tony's surprise, she actually seems to relax a bit and Tony takes another step back to give her more of a safety space. "Alright, I know you have a lot of questions. But there are protocols for this."

"Protocols?" She asks and Tony nodded.

"If you were someone I didn't trust with my life, I have orders to kill you, dispose of the body and wipe the name Tony Stark out of existence and assume one of my backup identities. But you're you, and I'd trust you with my life. But now I have to call someone." He takes a deep breath and casts his eyes upward. "Jarvis, call Marcie on the "Fineline"." There's a quiet response of "yes, sir" from the AI and then the sound of a ringing phone.

"Hello?" He's relieved to hear Marcie's voice.

"Aak. It's Sunvaar Fox. Code Orange. Major Code Orange here, like I could use some help right about now." He said. A sharp intake of breath on the other line.

"Are you alright, Fox?" She asked and Pepper blinked at him from across the room.

"I'm fine, Aak. But I've been exposed by my CEO. I trust her."

"Fox...Do you pledge it on your name?" She asked.

"I, Sunvaar Fox, pledge on my name, that Virginia Potts can be trusted." He said with confidence. Pepper, while a little more relaxed, was still tense as she watched the interaction.

"And if she can't be?"

"She can."

"But if she can't..."

"I. Will. Handle it." He hissed and he knows his tone is bordering on insubordination but, as he's retired, he's got a little more leeway with it. There's a moment of silence.

"Very well, Fox. Good luck." And then there's the sound of the call being ended. Tony instructed Jarvis to send out a few pre-arranged emails to Brad and Anatassia, and an encoded message to Robert at the base he's at, as well as another letter to Alexander.

"Why don't we go in the kitchen and talk." He turns and leaves the room first, giving her his back as a show of trust and he can hear the sound of her heels on the hardwood, so he knows she's following him. When they reach the kitchen Tony put everything back in order and lay them gently on the table and the grabbed a few bottles of water from the fridge.

Pepper had already sat down at the table and accepted one. Tony sat and, after a moment of silence, told her his story. He answered questions he could and, after almost three hours Pepper seemed almost satisfied. Businesslike and brusque, she left the house and returned the next day with Brad and Anatassia in tow, having picked them up from the airport with Happy like he'd asked the driver to.

Brad and Anatassia, both of whom Pepper had met before, and, when they give her much of the same story about Tony and his exploits as "Fox", she accepts them, sometimes with a grimace as they describe training mistakes and accidents and sometimes with a smile when she imagines tiny-Tony's joy as he's constantly learning something new. She asks about the night he saved her and Tony tells her the truth. He was on assignment when he saw her being attacked and helped her out of the goodness of his heart.

It takes a while, several weeks and months, before she's comfortable around them again. Tony doesn't know if it's the day she catches Brad, Anatassia and himself in the media room belting out the lyrics of Moulin Rouge while they watch the movie, each with their own part. He doesn't know if it's the day she catches Anatassia and he dancing in the makeshift-ballroom. All he knows is that it's nice to have her in his corner anyway.

In the months following, Tony's life continued on as normal. As Iron Man, he was around the world almost constantly. As a consultant for SHIELD he could be in and out of various headquarters at any point of the week and as the head of the R&D department at Stark Industries he often had to put hours in at the building, looking over the projects that the other scientists were working on. Though he often complained about the latter Pepper, who'd stayed on as CEO after the debacle at the Expo, made sure he was there at least once a week, whether she had to drag him there forcibly or not.

Eventually they began plans for a new building in Manhattan, which would be, by Tony's design both a Stark industries building and his new home. A month after the Expo, Tony and Stark Industries signed off on a plot of land and, armed with several blueprints, construction began. In Malibu, Tony sequestered himself in his lab, muttering something along the lines of "giant reactor" and "clean energy" as he went.

A week later, Pepper, backed up by Rhodey and bearing a massive cup of coffee, stormed his lab, grabbed him by the back of his shirt and marched him upstairs, scolding him along the way for not taking better care of himself. After a shower and breakfast, she sent Tony to bed, much like a scolded toddler and told him that if he came out of that room without sleeping at least nine hours, she'd remove all coffee from the premises. Tony slept for ten hours. When he awoke the following morning, Pepper was immediately bustling him into a suit and out the door, as he had meetings to attend today and work to catch up on at the office.

What followed was one of the weirdest days of Tony's life.

It started in the lab after his board meeting. Tony was bent over an intern's desk examining the finished chemical blueprints for their new Protoskin fabric when suddenly the intern burst into tears. Tony flailed. He had no idea to handle a crying intern. After a few seconds he patted the intern on the shoulder and asked what was wrong. It turned out that the intern's funding had been cut and he was going to have to drop out of the program to get a full-time job so he could pay to finish his PhD. Tony fixed that right away. The intern, named Johnson if he remembered correctly, had received great marks from the supervisors and would be a boon to the company so Tony decided to pay down what Johnson needed.

After receiving a very enthusiastic hug, which he returned stiffly, Tony went to his office, content to squirrel himself away for the rest of the day. When he reached his office he noticed that his assistant, a young woman whom Pepper had recommended highly, was on the phone, teary-eyed. When she put down the phone there was a moment of silence before she burst into tears. Flailing again, but having a better idea on how to handle the situation, Tony asked her what the problem was. Her younger brother, shot to death in a mugging. Tony winced in sympathy, offered her his condolences and two weeks paid vacation, along with the promise of a flower arrangement.

When his assistant had left, and Pepper had sent up a temp, Tony finally made it into the office, where he settled in to do the paperwork he had promised Pepper he would finish. An hour later, there was a knock at his door and Tony looked up. "Come in!" He called and the doors opened.

The temp, a young man with short blonde hair, crept in the room, holding a mug of steaming coffee and a folder. Tony had asked for both about five minutes ago, and Tony was impressed with the speed with which he had obtained them both. The man put both on the desk and then cleared his throat.

"Mr. Stark, there's a woman outside, says her name is Anatassia Abramovich and she'd like to see you." Tony's head shot up. What was Anatassia doing out in california?

"Send her in." He ordered and the man nodded, scurrying out of the room. There was a still moment before the door opened and Anatassia breezed inside. She was almost as tall as he was, standing a five feet and six inches and she was nicely curved with red hair, fern green eyes and lightly tan skin. Even Tony, who tended to lean towards the male persuasion when pursuing a partner, could appreciate her good looks.

She had a silk sling tied around her neck, the bulk of whatever was inside resting in the crook of her left arm while her right clutched a large baby bag. Tony sat up straight as he took in her equally determined and panicked expression and rose from his desk. "What's the matter?" He asked, coming around the desk to stand before her.

"Do you still have your fostering license?" She asked, the barest trace of her accent slipping through. The fact that Tony loved animals was no secret among his friends. When he'd lived at the den, he and Anatassia often ended up nursing abandoned or injured animals back to health, with the help of the resident vet. For his eighteenth birthday, Tony had taken the test to receive a license to foster animals for zoos and wildlife sanctuaries. He renewed his license every five years.

"I do. What's the matter, 'Tassa? You look like you're about to explode." He asked. There was a still moment before Anatassia set the bag down and, with her now-free hand, pulled the edge of the sling down so Tony could peer inside. He gasped.

Inside, nestled amongst what appeared to be several flannel pillowcase, was a tiny, piebald-colored fox kit. The kit was asleep, tiny chest moving in even, measure breaths and Tony looked up at Anatassia in shock. "Where did you get this?" He asked, quietly.

"A patient came into the practice and we diagnosed him with Leptospirosis and he gave us permission to search his house to find and remove to the source. He bought two of those Siberian pet foxes, you know the ones that are meant to be tame? They had a litter but the female caught leptospirosis and died and the male couldn't feed the kits and so all except this one died." She rushed out.

Tony placed both hands on her shoulders. "Breath for me, 'Tassa. Good. Now, tell me why you brought him here." He said gently and steered her to the couch, where she sat down.

"The owner can't have the foxes anymore and no-one was available right away to take care of this guy and he still gets milk. The vets said that if they couldn't find someone to take care of him, he would die. He can't go to a zoo or wildlife sanctuary because he's tame. So I said I knew a guy who could take care of him and now I'm here." Tony bit his lip. If the kit was still getting milk, that means he'd have to be watched twenty-four seven until he was weaned. While Tony could have him in the lab in a playpen or in a sling while in the office, there was still his duties as Iron Man to think about.

"I don't know 'Tassa..." He began and then froze when he noticed the wetness gathering in her eyes. "Oh no please don't cry. I can't handle any more crying people today." He sighed heavily and looked at the sling again, where the kit had come awake and was now staring about himself with wide blue eyes. Tony gently reached in and scooped the kit up, bringing him to rest against his chest.

The little fox wriggled about for a minute and then settled against the warmth of his chest, blue eyes drifting shut. The kit was mostly white, but Tony could see the beginnings of black markings on his face, muzzle, back and paws. Dammit, he was doomed. "Does he have a name yet?' He asked and Anatassia's face brightened considerably.

"Inari."

Time flew after that. Inari bonded with Tony closely as the man took care of him and, even after he was large enough the follow Tony around on his own four paws, Tony liked to carry Inari around in a larger version of the kit-sling, which neither one minded.

A near year after the Expo, Tony and Pepper were called to Manhattan to put the finishing touches on Stark Tower. Tony left Inari with Rhodey, who was on leave, and boarded a plane with Pepper to the city.

Once there, Tony and Pepper were immediately busy, Tony setting up the reactor to power the tower and Pepper to finalize everything else. The night Tony activated the massive reactor, Phil Coulson showed up with information for the Avengers Initiative.

And then the world to hell in a neat handbasket.

Tony's next few days are a blur of pain, anger, near-death experiences and ruined childhood memories. Tony swears he didn't go on that Helicarrier prepared to hate Steve Rogers' guts, but he sure as hell leaves doing just that. He was disappointed, really. His father had told him stories about the man, showed him pictures of he, the man himself, and the Howling Commandos. Many nights Tony had fallen asleep, lulled there by his father's tales of a hero for the ages. The guy on the Helicarrier? A joke.

So, Tony's a little stung, but he keeps on, for the sake of saving the planet, and doesn't argue with Steve and he even talks to him after Coulson dies and finds out where Loki's planning his mass invasion. In the fight that follows, Tony takes quite a few bangs and even flies a nuke into space, which besides the "I'm dead now" factor, is actually pretty cool.

Dinner at the Shawarma restaurant is an exercise in exhaustion as they all struggle to down enough food to keep themselves from falling over. Tony invites them all to spend a few days in the tower, which has plenty of rooms for everyone and they all take him up on his offer. Tony's limping by now, and it catches Natasha's attention, and she calls him on it. He plays it off as landing heavy in the suit and promises to rest it when they get home, and she accepts his deflection, but seems to know he's lying.

People think that, when he's fighting in the suit, the parts that take the most abuse are his head, chest and abdomen. But that's not true. Although Tony's a brilliant engineer, there was no way for him to completely weld the boots of the suit on the inside. Because he can't fit shoes into the boots, he wears Nomex covers on his feet to protect them, but even those can't stand up against a sudden articulation of inner circuitry. Oftentimes his feet, after a long or especially vicious battle come away nicked and bloody. He's singed his hands on the repulsors before he started wearing Nomex gloves and his left knee often takes more hits than the rest of him.

So, in a drawer near the entry into the building from the dearmoring platform, he keeps a change of clothes, several rolls of gauze and Coban and soft brace. After he's directed everyone to their rooms for the night he goes there and brings the supplies with him to the bedroom, where he strips down to nothing and revels in a hot shower that lasts nearly an hour.

When he's done, he dresses in a pair of boxers and a threadbare t-shirt, doctors his feet and pulls on the brace and falls into bed.

He's asleep before his head hits the pillow.

When he wakes up, it's still dark outside, but the barest hint of gray peeks in through the window that he orders Jarvis to uncurtain. When he asks, Jarvis reports that the others are still asleep and that Pepper, Anatassia, Brad and Rhodey are waiting for him in the living room, all of them having just arrived from various places.

Tony threw on a pair of baggy cargo shorts and rolled out of the bed, wincing as his entire body shouted in aching pain. He limped into the elevator and jabbed the button for the main floor, almost falling asleep as he waited until the elevator opened. Pepper was on him first, one hand gripping his ear and starting up a lecture on his "stupidity and lack of self-preservation" and how "if you ever do that again I will string you up by your balls and gut you!".

Tony apologized profusely and then Pepper handed him off to Anatassia, who continued on with the lecture while she checked him over, turning his head so she could see his eyes and the cuts on his face, she peered at the Arc Reactor after making him pull up his shirt. She demanded a full exam later and then handed him off to Rhodey. Rhodey simply held his shoulders and seemed to reassure himself that Tony was indeed there and smiled as he called him an idiot.

And then he was handed to Brad, who enveloped Tony in a hug. Tony tucked his head under Brad's chin and leaned heavily against the other man, eyes drooping shut, just reveling in the warmth of the embrace. Pepper and Anatassia knew that he still held a torch for Brad (because those two knew everything, damn them) and made twin "awwing" sounds as he flipped them the bird behind Brad's back.

"You're falling asleep on your feet." The other man grunted, the scratch of his own stubble rough against the abraded skin of Tony's forehead. There's a conversation going on around him, but Tony lets it slide, not bothering to pay attention. It's been more than a year since his last major physical exertion, let alone fighting an alien invasion and flying a nuclear device into space. Cut him some slack.

He fades for a while after that, and the next time he comes back to himself, he's on the couch, Inari in his lap. His feet have been cleaned and rebandaged and there's a cool circle on his chest, near the Arc Reactor. "His chest sounds clear. But if the reactor went out yesterday when he fell, it would explain the exhaustion. His body's compensating for the heart failure that began. He just needs food and rest, and someone should watch over him for the next fourty-eight hours. Brad and I can take eight hour shifts while we're not at the hospital, but can you fill in that third shift, Dr. Banner?"

A soft response and Tony opened his eyes, Bruce and Natasha are standing alongside the group of four from before, Bruce looking worried and the wound tension in Natasha's shoulders giving away her nerves at the situation. He'd been upset and distrustful of Natasha after the incident a year ago, but he was glad she was fighting on his team. Tony's about to speak up when Inari is lifted from his lap and placed on the couch next to his hip and a steaming bowl of chili is placed in his hands.

He brightens a little because Anatassia's chili is the best and doesn't have a lot of beans, and on the lamp table beside him someone else sets down a glass of chlorophyll, which Tony had ended up liking after having to drink it for month and a mug of what Tony recognizes as catmint tea. Before he settles down to eat, he looks up.

"What about clean-up? Shouldn't we be out helping?" He asks, taking a bite of chili and almost wiggling in pleasure. Everyone seems to know the reaction he's tamping down on because Pepper smiles fondly and runs her fingers through his hair from her spot behind the couch, making sure her nails scratch against the scalp just the way he likes it.

"That's what I came to tell you, Stark. Fury wants us to lay low for a few days, until some of the heat blows over. Besides, safety workers are out controlling fires and gas leaks and SHIELD agents are combing the area for any aliens. They don't think they'll find any, but he won't put out the call for clean-up volunteers for three days or so."

Tony nods and watches as Natasha leaves with a tray of food and two steaming mugs, sustenance for Clint and herself, Tony assumes. He settles heavily into the couch under everyone else's watchful eyes, content for the moment to eat his chili, let Pepper to scratch his head and purr like a contented cat and allow himself to revel in the feeling that he's just helped save the world.