Chapter 5

"Tony?!" Pepper's voice swam around in his head as he opened his eyes.

She walked into the main room where he was asleep on the couch.

She was carrying various shopping bags, a box, and her black leather purse.

"Natalie- Natasha, she called me and told me you were hurt, are you okay?" she asked, dropping her bags and box and throwing her purse onto the chair next to the couch Tony was on.

"I'm fine," Tony said, standing up and grabbing a soda out of the fridge in the kitchen.

"What- what happened to your head?" Pepper asked, grabbing his arm and feeling the bandage around his cut.

"Accident in the lab," she still seemed frantic, "Pep, I'm fine."

He grabbed her wrists and leaned toward her.

A very loud stampede of people came from the hall and then in popped Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Thor who were sweaty from training.

Bruce was in his lab.

Pepper leaned back and threw her head in annoyance, "Hi, I'll be in the office, good to see you again, Natalie."

Pepper said, then left the main room of the tower and winked at Natasha.

"She does know your real name, right?" Clint asked, grabbing a water out of the fridge.

"She distrusts me," Natasha said flatly, then turned to see the annoyed look Tony was giving her.

"What?" Natasha asked, grabbing Clint's water bottle and taking a sip.

"Hey!" Clint whined, then backed off as soon as she glared playfully back.

"Nothing. Just that it'd be nice to have a few minutes alone with Pepper sometimes." Tony muttered softly enough that only Natasha heard.

"Sorry," Natasha said with big puppy eyes, "But if you want privacy, get a floor."

Tony seemed annoyed, but backed off and went to try and open the door to his workshop.

"Jarvis! Open the dang door!" Tony yelled in complaint after slamming himself into multiple times.

"I've been ordered not to let you over exert yourself until the cut on your head has healed." The robotic voice replied, with a clean, brisk way of delivering information.

"I'm me, over exert is second-freaking-nature!" Tony bellowed angrily, then slammed his fist into the wall in rage.

Thoughts were bussing through his head, try reprogramming Jarvis? No, that won't work. Try to convince Natasha to open the doors? Nope, she would never. Blow open the doors? I like the idea... But it's probably a bad one-...

As he was thinking, he turned a corner and ran into Bruce, who was typing things into his stark phone briskly.

"Oh, sorry," he apologized, backing away from Tony.

"s' fine," Tony said, mind occupied by other things.

"What have you been doing?" Bruce asked, noticing the rapid breathing of an angry Tony.

"I- Natasha- She locked me out of my workshop! I need to get back in! I have to build the suit! I have to-," Tony tried to list all the things he needed to do, but came up short and couldn't focus on anything or anyone except finishing the suit.

"I need t-," he complained again.

Bruce interrupted him, "Okay, A, you don't need to, you want to. And, B, you shouldn't be worrying about it, it'll only make that," Bruce made a circle indication with his finger around the bandage on Tony's head, "take longer to heal."

"I don't care! I've worked with worse injuries!" Tony said, wondering if saying this would make things worse.

"What kind of worse?" Bruce said, catching the falter in his words.

"Ask Natasha, she seems to know everything about that!" Tony spat, remembering how angry he was to find out that she was spying on him while he was trying to fix his arc reactor's core.

Tony stormed down the hall past Bruce, and then into the main room where Clint, Natasha, and Steve were sitting on the couches talking while they drank out of water bottles and soda cans.

"Open my workshop's doors, now." Tony said to Natasha with an angry wrinkle between his eyebrows.

What will Natasha say to the angry billionaire? Will he get back into his lab? Or will she keep the doors locked? Will Jarvis open them for Tony?

These are all questions that will be answered soon!

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-MarvelLuver