Tony, Peter and Rhodey were all sitting in the lounge, devouring an enormous tub of KFC. Ever since the bomb incident, they had made it a tradition to eat KFC every Saturday night, in honor of them not dying. As the men tore through chicken wings, Natasha sat by, smirking at all the funny faces they made while inhaling their food. She herself has a plate with mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and two biscuits.

"I never want to eat anything else again. This is extraordinary," Tony moaned as he finished his fifth chicken wing.

"Eat too many and you might become a chicken wing," Peter exclaimed.

Every stared at him for a second, confused by the teenager's odd remark. Realizing that it probably didn't make that much sense and wasn't as funny as he presumed, Peter swallowed a mouthful of biscuit, and smiled faintly.

"Where's Vision, Natasha?" Rhodey asked, tapping Natasha on the knee.

Vision seldom joined the group when they were eating, and Tony assumed that was because it brought back memories of Wanda. Everyone knew Vision was feeling something for Wanda when the whole Civil War went down, but no one knew how to console the heartbroken android. He mostly spent his time in his room, reading or occasionally cooking some Sokovian dish. Rhodey told the other Avengers to let him be, which Tony had a little trouble with at first. Pepper dumped him, and he never hid away in his room for days at a time reading sappy love stories (although the idea may have entered his mind once or twice.)

"Probably in his room reading Jane Eyre or listening to Lionel Richie," Tony quipped, making Rhodey roll his eyes.

"I can see it in your eyes, I can see it in you smile!" Natasha sang, nudging Tony with her foot.

She was the only person that knew how many times Tony had put that song on repeat when Pepper first left. Tony glared at her, which caught the attention of Rhodey. Peter continued eating, completely oblivious to what was going on.

"So," Tony said, desperate to change the subject before Natasha said anything else about his sad love song phase "Do any of you guys watch football?"

Rhodey looked bewildered, and Peter shook his head.

Suddenly, Peter perked up, and a loony smile spread across his face.

"What are you smile about?" Tony snapped, setting his plate down "God, you're all insane! I need to find someone to make you all act like normal people!"

"Is that me you're looking for?" a voice behind him called out.

Tony jumped, the sound too familiar to his ears. He stared down at his hands, not wanting to turn around lest this was some strange dream. His hands started shaking, and he gulped loudly. Rhodey and Natasha glanced at each other as Peter continued gawking.

"Um . . . Pepper?"

"The one and only."

Tony turned around to see the most beautiful woman in the world standing in front of him. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into her trademark tight ponytail. Her bright blue eyes sparkled in that special way that never failed to leave him completely entranced. Once again, Tony remembered why he fell in love with her, and then he fell in love with her again. His heart pounded like a drum as he stood to his feet, trying to look calm and cool.

"That's Pepper Potts," Peter said non-chalantly, reaching out for another chicken wing.

"Pepps—uh—Pepper. What are you doing here?" Tony said softly, reaching out to take her hand.

She took his offered hand and shook it soundly. Tony's heart skipped a beat. Although it had been for only less than a second, his heart skipped a beat.

"I came to talk to you about Stark Industries," she replied quickly.

"Oh."

"You see, as the owner, you have a couple of obligations that you need to take care of and I'm not sure if—"

A phone rang.

"Uh, sorry. Don't mind me," Peter exclaimed, standing up to take the call.\

Rhodey groaned under his breath.

"You were saying?" Tony questioned.

"TONY!"

Tony sighed, and turned towards Peter. He was obviously upset about something, and Tony didn't want to deal with it at the moment.

God, Peter has the most perfect timing!

"It's Aunt May! She wants to visit. Gwen told her that she should come, and she's already on the way here. She—she said she wanted to surprise me. She'll be here in, like, three minutes. She wants to meet Spiderman. What're we gonna do?"

"CALM DOWN!" Tony yelled.

"I take it this is Spiderman?" Pepper asked, arching her eyebrow curiously.

"Yep," Rhodey managed, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"SO, what will you do Tony?" Pepper commented.

"Uh, well . . . We'll just say that he—uh—isn't here or something."

"That's not gonna work! I just told her I was hanging out with Spiderman right now!"

"Now why would you do that?"

"I was nervous!"

"Excuse me, sir. A visitor is here," a voice echoed from above.

"Thanks Happy," Tony muttered, hoping he could just sink into the ground.

"You could just tell her the truth," Pepper pointed out, walking over to Peter.

She gave the upset boy a hug, which he gladly accepted. A twang of jealousy resounded through Tony.

"She'll be so mad that I lied," Peter sighed "I specifically told her I wasn't Spiderman."

Tony threw his hands up into the air. He was completely exasperated with the disgruntled youth.

"How about you, Pepper?" Natasha said, finally speaking up.

She had been quietly watching Tony and Pepper interact, and in her heart of hearts, she hoped they would resolve their differences and get back together. As much as she didn't want to admit it, Tony was one of her closest friends and she wanted him to be happy.

"What?" Pepper said hesitantly.

"You could be Spiderman."

Rhodey started laughing, shaking his head at the thought of Pepper climbing into Peter's right spandex.

"Um, there's just one problem," Tony called out, raising a hand in the air "Last time I've checked, and believe me, I've been able to check—"

Peter blushed bright red, and Natasha snickered. Pepper glared at Tony, which made him quickly regret throwing out such a dirty joke. He smiled faintly, hoping that she'd forget he ever said that.

"Well—uh—she's a girl—Err, a woman, I mean and well—yeah—never mind."

"That's not that big of a deal, Tony. Peter hasn't done a whole lot of work for the Avengers yet, and all the pictures and videos of him out there are rather blurry. Someone could easily mistake a girl for a boy, those videos are so grainy. You wouldn't mind, Pepper? I doubt Peter's dear, sweet Aunt May has no one to tell any secret identities to."

"That's actually a good idea, considering the fact that Peter doesn't want Aunt May to know about him being Spiderman. What do you say Miss. Potts?" Rhodey added.

Pepper opened her mouth and then closed it.

"Come on, Pepper," Rhodey said softly "For old time's sake."

Pepper sighed, and nodded reluctantly.

"I suppose that could work."

Several minutes later, Peter led Aunt May through the Avengers facility. Aunt May's eyes roamed the spacious facility, completely astounded that her precious nephew was living with such high and mighty people. She smiled brightly at Tony, who offered her a handshake. After Peter introduced her to Rhodey, Natasha and Vision, she asked:

"Peter, you told me Spiderman was here!"

"That would be me, actually," Pepper said slowly.

Pepper looked like she could barely choked out the words.

"You—you're Spiderman?"

"Spiderwoman, actually. I guess the public hasn't caught on about the fact I am most certainly female yet."

"She doesn't mind going by Spiderman for secret identity purposes. After all, she is the CEO of Stark industries!" Peter exclaimed, his arm linked with his Aunt's.

"How lovely," his Aunt said graciously. Her heart sank a little bit because, for some strange and unexplainable reason, she had hoped her nephew was the unknown hero swinging around and saving people.

"I want to show you the lab now," Peter rattled on "It has some really cool, top-notch technology that I use to help update Spiderman's suit."

He dragged Aunt May out of the room, who waved quickly as she left. Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, and Natasha all sighed with relief as Vision stood by, unsure of what was going on. He decided it was probably for Peter's protection, so he shrugged, a gesture Wanda had taught him, and phased through the wall. Rhodey, who was in a wheel chair, started wheeling for the door, beckoning Natasha to come with him. It took Natasha bit to catch on, but she then realized what Rhodey wanted . . . he wanted to give Pepper and Tony some space.

'Well, um—we're going to go—um—do something cool- but not cool enough for you to come with us," Natasha said, grabbing the handles of Rhodey's wheel chair.

"I got it! I got it!" Rhodey complained.

Pepper chuckled, remembering Rhodey's trademark stubbornness. As Natasha and Rhodey left the room, Tony fidgeted uneasily. He hadn't talked to pepper in a couple months, and now that she was suddenly here again, he didn't know what to say.

"Well, um. What were you saying about Stark Industries?" he asked hesitantly.

"There are just a few things I need you to sign, and there are a few appearances I need you to make. You know, for publicity. Rattling around in an iron Suit isn't your only job, you know."

Pepper's words stung, and his face fell, but he quickly constructed it again.

"Oh okay. Yeah. You can just—uh—email me the documents and schedules and all that jazz. So, why are you here? You—you wanted to grab dinner?"

"By the looks of it, you already had dinner."

"Oh yeah. I—I forgot."

Pepper laughed, and a small smiled spread across her face. It had always been Tony who had been able to make her laugh. She missed his quirky sense of humor, something that had always made her happy.

"I actually have some hard copies of some documents you need to sign."

She handed him a tan folder, which he flipped through.

"It's about—"

"I trust you."

Pepper nodded.

"What happened to us, Pepps?"

"Now Tony-"

"I know, I know. I was kind of hoping you showed up to talk, but apparently not."

He pulled a pen out of his back pocket and scribbled his signature at the bottom of the document.

"I guess this if for you?"

"Yeah, it is. Thank you, Tony."

"I wish—"

"I know. Some things just aren't meant to be."

And with that, she was gone. Tony's heart sank, and tears started to pile up in his eyes again. She was gone . . . again.

I guess that wasn't me she was looking for.

He slumped back down on the couch, and propped his feet up on the table. An empty chicken bucket fell to the floor. Picking up his iPad, she scrolled through his emails, hoping for one that would distract him from thoughts of Pepper. One from Everett K. Ross popped up, which Tony clicked enthusiastically. His eyes scanned the small text, and, after a few minutes, he smiled brightly.

Finally! Finally we can do something!

"Assemble the Avengers, Happy. We've got a mission!"

Hey Guys! Thank you so much for following my little story. it is so humbling to see that so many of you are enjoying my fanfiction!

This chapter was somewhat inspired by the song "Hello" by Lionel Richie. I'm a big Pepperony fan, so I had to through some of this awesome ship in. If you want to see Pepper again, please let me know. If you have any other prompts in general or any ideas, please leave them in a review and I will try to get to them.

Next chapter: Peter's first mission after Civil War (this might not be published for a little bit because I am super picky and I want the fight scenes to be perfect.)