A/N. Hi everyone! Here's chapter 7, hope you enjoy! :D

Disclaimer - I don't own the Avengers.

CHAPTER VII

The next morning, Tania woke up at promptly five thirty to catch her flight at six. She kissed Steve's forehead but didn't wake him, instead leaving him a note on the nightstand. As soon as she stood up, he wrapped his arms around her pillow and cuddled it. She giggled as quietly as she could and snapped a picture of it with her phone. It seemed that he was so used to sleeping with his arms around her that without her there, he still needed to hug something.

She dressed as fast as she could without making any noise and grabbed her suitcase before lugging it down the hallway to the elevator. It was still dark outside, with it being winter and the days being shorter and all.

When she finally made it to the helicopter pad, there was a Stark private jet waiting for her. The several other Stark employees helped her with her luggage and greeted her politely and they made small talk as they waited for the pilot to double check everything.

About five minutes after her arrival, Pepper arrived with Tony in tow. He looked dead tired and was not dressed at all for a meeting. "Good morning Pepper," she greeted brightly.

"Not really," she said in response. "Tony refuses to come with us because apparently he has to accompany Natasha on a mission as a consultant in a few hours. I'm not sure if I believe him or not."

"Oh well. One day without Tony won't kill you."

"Thank you!" Tony said, waving his arms in her general direction. "Someone sees reason!"

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Fine. At least kiss me good-bye."

"Of course." He pecked her on the lips. "Have a nice trip Ms. Potts."

"Have a nice mission, Mr. Stark."

Tania turned away from the moment that seemed so personal for them. She fiddled with the ring on her finger as the pilot declared the jet ready for take-off. The employees began to board the plane when the balcony doors burst open and Steve ran outside carrying a travel mug of steaming coffee. Being a super soldier, he barely looked out of breath despite obviously rushing to get dressed and come outside to wish her good-bye.

He held up the cup to her as she stood in the ramp. "You forgot something."

She smiled and took the mug from him. "Thanks. You're the best." She kissed his lips softly. "I'll text you when we land, okay?"

He nodded. "Okay. Don't forget to have breakfast."

She laughed. She did tend to forget breakfast when the Avengers weren't home. "I won't. Love you."

"Love you too."

He watched as the door closed and she waved. He waved as well and stepped back as the jet began to emanate puffy clouds of air. The wind picked up and his hair blew back violently as he struggled to watch the jet lift off into the air before zooming forward toward Philadelphia.
He was left with Tony on the helicopter pad, or jet pad apparently. The genius shivered. "Well, I don't know about you Cap, but I'm going back to sleep."

Ever since the whole "Mandarin" incident, Tony had stopped calling Steve, "Capsicle". They had both grown out of it and although the nicknames hadn't stopped, they were no longer insulting.

"Sounds good," he agreed. He followed his friend back into the party deck inside the Tower to see Graham sitting at the counter, twirling a bottle of whisky in his hands.

"Well good morning," Tony said in good-bye as he entered the elevator. He turned when no one joined him. "You coming?"

Steve shook his head. "I think I'll stay here for a little while. Maybe go to the gym after."

Tony shrugged. "Suit yourself. If you need me, wake Bruce." The elevator doors closed and Steve shook his head silently. He turned to Graham who appeared not to have noticed the entire exchange. He shrugged off his jacket and hung it on the back of the chair before settling himself next in front of Tania's brother.

"Hey."

Graham took a swig directly from the bottle. "Hey."

"What's up?"

"Just thinking."

"Did you say good-bye to your sister?"

"Yeah, last night."

"Ah." After a small silence, Steve began tapping his fingers on the counter in place of talking. When he did open his mouth to speak, the fingers stopped tapping. "So, what are you thinking about? If you don't mind my asking."

"Tania."

"Would you mind… elaborating?"

He sighed. "She's turning twenty-five this year."

"Yeah."

"She's… old."

"I don't understand."

"She's graduated university, found a steady job, settled down in the perfect home, has the perfect relationship, a life that could never be boring… All those things are signs of her getting older. I mean, it's not exactly a bad thing but… we're not kids anymore. It just kind of hit me, you know? No more sticking together through everything, having each other's backs because she has all of yours now. Even though I'm the little brother, I've always felt like it was my job to keep her happy and safe. But that's not my job anymore. It's yours.

"This trip… her going away… it just drives home the point that she's totally independent and doesn't need me anymore. I feel like we're drifting apart even if we live in the same… Tower. I just… I miss her, I guess."

Steve nodded. "I think I get it. She's a full-grown woman who can take care of herself and has been living her own life. But that's what you've been working towards your childhood, isn't it? To watch out for each other until you don't need to anymore. You can go your separate ways now."

"But what if I don't want to go my separate way? What if I'm not ready to split off from Tania yet?"

"I'm sure she would be more than happy to stick with you for as long as you need. You two are siblings and although I've never had the honour of being one myself, I had a friend who was like a brother to me. I know what that kind of relationship is like and I know you and Tania. If you tell her this, I'm sure she'll put you first."

"I don't want to take away from her wonderful life…"

"You won't. If anything, I think some brother sister bonding would do you both some good. You guys should do something after she comes back from Philadelphia. Maybe go somewhere special for her birthday?"

"That's a good idea." A smile began to grow on Graham's face. "Yeah, I'll do that. Thanks Steve." After a beat, he held out the bottle to the Avenger. "Want some?"

Steve eyed it apprehensively before remembered that alcohol didn't affect him. He shrugged and gulped down a little. It burned his throat on the way down but there weren't any after effects. He handed it back. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. I should probably stop drinking before someone besides you catches me. Tania would kill me if she found out I was drinking at six in the morning." A small smile graced his features and he hopped off the chair to return the bottle to the fridge.
Steve stood up as well and grabbed his jacket. "Glad I could help," he mimed tipping his hat at him.

"Yeah. Me too."

On the plane, Tania and Pepper spent the majority of the ride working from their phones and occasionally talking to each other about things like work and what not. The other employees were in similar positions. Most of them were workaholics.

After they landed, the pilot stated that he would be spending the day and night visiting his brother and his family across town. He would be back the next morning to take them all home if everything went well.

Pepper checked them all into their hotel. Their rooms took up an entire floor – and that was two people a room. To be fair, it was a rather small building.

After they were all unpacked, the lot of them moved out into the stretch limo they'd stored on the jet as Happy (who'd come with them) piled them all inside. He drove them over to Arrow Inc. HQ with the help of a GPS named JARVIS.

When they pulled up in front of the building, Tania couldn't do anything but gape. The skyscraper was very tall, almost as tall as the Tower. The entire thing was roof to floor tinted windows and a definite modern touch to the architecture and design.

When they all stepped inside, the lobby was just as impressive. The colour scheme was green and black with hints of blue here and there. Flowers decorated the desks around the spherical foyer and the young receptionist was exceptionally cheery. She hugged a clipboard to her chest and had them follow her up the many stairs (too many people for an elevator) and to the meeting room on the tenth floor.

Pepper and Tania were the first to arrive. The entered a massive room with a gigantic round wooden table in the center that was really two demi-circle tables pushed together. There was a three dimensional projector in the center and maybe fifty black leather chairs around the tables with wheels on them. On one wall was a SMART board and on the other was another one. The wall across from the door wasn't actually a wall at all – it was a floor-to ceiling window like in the lounge back at the Tower. There was a jade plant in the corner that looked healthy as ever.

Andrew Green, CEO of Arrow Inc, stood up from his place at the front of the table near the door. He opened his arms wide and grinned. "Ah, Ms. Potts and company. Welcome… to Arrow Incorporated!"

Pepper smiled and walked forward, her heels clicking against the thin green carpet as she went. "Pleasure to meet you in person Mr. Greene," she said as she shook his hand.

"Likewise Ms. Potts. Now, let's all have a seat and take roll call, hm?"

The Stark employees filed in and bustled about, taking their seats at the half of the circle table unoccupied by the Arrow heads. Tania bit her lip to stop herself from laughing at that and took a seat next to Pepper. What was with companies being named after weapons and such anyway? Hammer Industries. SHIELD. Arrow Incorporated. Next thing you know, there'll be a company called Trigger or Gun or something.

She took out her Stark pad to take notes. As the meeting progressed, Mr. Greene droned on about how he had worked very hard to build this company from the ground up and did not want to tell – but he was admitting to considering it, hence the meeting. He had a ten minute speech planned about how much blood, sweat, and tears he'd put into this business and how he didn't want that gone in the blink of an eye to be lost to Stark Industries. That was where Tania came in.

She introduced herself and which department of which she was the head and stood up. She negotiated that if Stark were to buy Arrow that the name and headquarters would remain the same and that very few things would need to change. She talked about changing the advertising posters, billboards, commercials, and all that sorts of thing.

After her, came the head of Arrow's MA department. He was arrogant and prissy and Tania disliked him immediately. If Stark were to buy Arrow, she would have to work with him at least a couple times a month. Oh joy…

Hours passed and they only got through half the departments on each side before it was time to break for lunch. Yup. They were going to be here a while.

After munching on some really good hors d'oeuvres, everyone returned to their seats at exactly one o'clock sharp. They managed to get through the rest of the departments' respective speeches by ten, but still, Mr. Greene had yet to come to a decision.

Not too long after they had been dismissed, the Stark employees called Happy and returned to the hotel, dead tired and extremely hungry for the dinner they never received. There were many grumblings about how the Arrow heads had gotten them such a good lunch but had conveniently neglected their supper.

Once they had all gone off to their separate rooms, Pepper and Tania had offered to order Chinese takeout for all of them – on the house. As Pepper changed into her pyjamas, Tania made the call to a restaurant not too far away.

"Hi, yes, I'd like to place a very large order for Tania Banks and Pepper Potts. That will be ten orders of Pork Sau Mai, another ten orders of duck, twenty-five fortune cookies, five large bowls of chow men, four bowls of rice pudding, ten orders of shrimp dumplings, fifteen orders of fried shrimp, six orders of eggplant, five platters of spring rolls, four orders of Coriander, and … I think that's it." She paused, looking down the list she'd written down of what the people had wanted. She checked off everything and sighed in relief. "Yup. That's all." She waited for the person on the other end of the line to finish speaking. "Yes, that's for delivery. I'm sorry in advance by the way. I feel bad for the person who has to carry it all." Pause. "Oh okay. So when do you think you can get that here? Right. That's reasonable. And how much will that be?" She whistled at the price. "Dang. Okay, hang on. Do you take credit cards? No?" She pressed the phone to her shoulder and spoke directly to Pepper. "Hey Pepper, you wouldn't happen to have a few hundred dollars in cash, would you?"

The red head brandished her wallet with a raised eyebrow. "I'm the girlfriend of Tony Stark. A few hundred in my wallet is nothing. I've got it covered."

Tania nodded. "Great. Thanks." She returned the phone to her ear. "Yup. Cash it is. Okay, see you then. Thank you!" she hung up and fell down onto her bed. She sighed. "I am starving. I cannot wait until it gets here."

"How long did they say it would take?" Pepper asked while tying her hair up into a ponytail.

"About an hour and a half."

"I think I spotted a vending machine down the hall."

"I did too. People have been lining up there since we got here. I don't think we'll get there anytime soon."

"Hm… did you pack any food, by chance?"

"No. Just the coffee Steve gave me before he left."

"That was sweet of him."

A smile crept its way onto her face and she sighed dreamily. "Yeah, it was."

"So you two are pretty serious huh?"

"Yeah. I love him Pepper. I've loved him for a long time now."

"I know. You are two are so adorable together."

"Thanks. You and Tony are obviously made for each other too."

"Why thank you." She began fluffing up her pillow – a habit that developed whenever she caught Tony sleeping in some strange place that wasn't his bed. She would always fluff up a pillow and put it under his head no matter where he was. "We need to get your brother a girlfriend," she suggested.

Tania bolted upright. "What? What makes you say that?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. He seems kind of lonely. Doesn't it bother you that he doesn't have any friends over or go out much besides school?"

"Neither do we."

"But he's still just a kid."

"He's twenty-three. He's graduating next year." She blinked. "Oh my God he's graduating next year."

"They grow up so fast, don't they?"

"Yeah…"

"So about the girlfriend, thing. Jane told me about her poli-sci intern Darcy and I was thinking they would be good together. Maybe you and I could play a little matchmaking." She winked and Tania laughed.

"I don't know about that. Playing cupid isn't really my thing. And I've never heard of Darcy. Who is she?"

"She's a twenty-something year old intern of Jane's who lives in New Mexico. From what I've heard, she's like the female version of Graham." Pepper crawled over from her single bed and made her way over to Tania's and knelt behind her. She began to braid the brunette's hair as she talked. "Apparently, she has a good sense of humour and uses sarcasm frequently – but not in a bad way like Tony sometimes does. I hear she's very pretty and a little unsure what she wants to do in life."

"Hmm… sounds like his type. But don't you think maybe… they're too similar?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean like, opposites attract, no? Look at you and Tony. The two of you work perfectly and you're almost polar opposites. You balance each other nicely."

Pepper laughed. "We don't work perfectly all the time, trust me. I think we fight way more than the average couple but we love each other immensely and I don't think I could ever leave him. And we balance each other out because we're both so far on opposite ends of the spectrum that we needed someone to tip the scale in the other direction. With Graham and Darcy it's different. They're not as far out as we are; they're closer together on the balance than us and therefore don't need to be as different as Tony and I."

"I guess that makes sense. Is there anyone else you can think of besides Darcy? You know, just for options."

"Well, my cousin's daughter just turned twenty-one last August. She's really smart and funny and she's decently good-looking. Then there's also one of our new interns in the Finances department…" she continued on like that for the next hour and a half while they waited for their food.

Eventually, the phone rang and Pepper picked up. "Pepper Potts of Stark International speaking," she greeted while painting her nails and tucking the phone into the crook of her neck. "Okay thank you. Miss Banks will be there momentarily."

She hung up and Tania sighed. The brunette stood up and wiggled her newly painted toes. She slipped on a pair of flip flops Pepper had thought to pack and made her way downstairs.

When she arrived in the lobby, there was a sign on the manager's front desk that said, "be back in teen minutes" and a man carrying a very tall stack of Chinese takeout boxes standing awkwardly in the middle of the floor. Because of the stack, she couldn't see his face.

"Um, Excuse me?"

The man peeked his head around the boxes and grinned at her brightly, his eyes crinkling with crows' feet. "Hi there."

On instinct, she smiled back. "Is this the order for Tania Banks and Pepper Potts?" Who else would it be for, seriously?

"Yes siree."

"Great. I'm Tania."

"I'm Hal."

"Well it's nice to meet you Hal. I'd shake your hand but I see they're rather full. I'll take those for you." He handed her the very tall stack of boxes and she immediately felt the weight of it drag her shoulders down into a slouch as she grunted. It was heavier than she'd expected.

"Thanks. Have a nice ni-"

A hand on her shoulder spun her around and wrapped around her throat, choking her before a knife was placed against the skin there. Her heart was beating so fast she thought it might pop out of her chest.

"Make a sound and you die," he hissed in her ear.

She gulped.

A/N. DON'T KILL ME FOR THE CLIFF-HANGER! And before you ask, yes, I had this planned all along. I'll update ASAP don't worry! :D