"Ah, there she is!" Tony yelled excitedly from behind the wet bar on the top floor of the newly dubbed 'Avengers Tower'. "I wasn't sure you'd come."
Hermione rolled her eyes as she continued through the door before sitting down gently on one of the sleek, modern couches overlooking the Manhattan skyline.
"You weren't sure?" She scoffed with a chuckle. "You had Happy wait at my apartment and drag me down here against my will!"
"Hey…" Happy grumbled from the door, feeling slightly offended at her tone.
"Not that I blame you at all, of course. I know you work for a madman that's not used to not getting his way." She assured him with a smile.
"Listen, you're here so that we can get down to business." Tony began dramatically. "...metaphorically, of course." Here, he stopped to waggle his eyebrows suggestively.
"Get on with it, Mr. Stark." Hermione sighed heavily.
"How many times do I have to ask you to call me Tony?" He said with a frown. If Hermione didn't know him better, she would have thought she'd hurt his feelings.
"Sorry - habit."
"Ok. Back to where we were." He began again. "What's it going to take for you to join the Avengers Initiative? Name your price."
Tony had been attempting to convince her to join the Avengers since the day that the Chitauri invaded Manhattan, four months previously. Hermione had left with the group of heroes after they had busted her out of the hospital and had joined them for shawarma at Tony's insistence. Not that it wasn't delicious, but Hermione had found the entire situation completely bizarre. The morning of the attack, she had been hoping to waste her morning and possibly her afternoon away buried in the books that the New York Library had to offer. Then, less than twelve hours later, she was eating middle eastern food with the Avengers in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Brooklyn.
Gathering around a too-small table with the group of superheroes had been surreal, to say the least. Shoveling deliciously spiced lamb into her mouth, she was struck by how incredibly...normal they all seemed. Joking and laughing with one another, you never would have known that they had all just finished fighting in an intergalactic throw down - One in which several of them had almost lost their lives. Looking back on the day, she found it odd that she had never felt that same strong sense of camaraderie with any of her magical peers at any point during the war against Voldemort - not even with Harry or Ron. She supposed it could have been that there had been an extraordinary amount of pain and loss in the war, but still. It was odd.
The morning after the battle in New York found Hermione spluttering in surprise as she woke up to find Tony sitting at her small kitchen table, looking for all the world as if he belonged there. After a cocky attempt at coercing her into, not only joining the Avengers Initiative, but also moving into Stark Tower with the rest of the team, he was quickly thrown out of her apartment with a resounding, "No."
She should have known that putting off the ridiculous billionaire would be so much harder than simply throwing him out of her apartment.
If anything, the eccentric man had become even MORE relentless after she had bounced him off the wall across from her apartment door. Apparently, Tony had no other business that needed his attention, because Hermione felt like his only focus was to find out how to rope her into signing up as a permanent member to the Avengers squad.
Hermione rolled her eyes, knowing that that was the main purpose for Tony bringing her to the tower. "I've already told you countless times - There is no price, because I have no interest in joining your little hero group."
"'Little' hero group?" Tony exclaimed dramatically. "You wound me."
Filling up the crystal tumbler with an amber liquid, Tony continued. "Listen, you're a witch. You have mystical powers, and have fought in an enormous battle. The only logical next step is to become an Avenger." He stated reasonably.
"If that were an actual logical step, then I would have joined the Initiative 13 years ago when I met the requirements the first time." She chuckled ironically.
"Wait, wha-?"
"Never mind." Hemione interrupted before allowing the silly man to continue. "The point is, I don't WANT to be an Avenger, Tony." She said, hoping to gain a bit of traction with him by using his first name. "I like my life, I like being self sufficient and being my own boss, and I like my cramped little apartment."
"I totally get that, and respect that," Tony answered, using a tone Hermione knew to be the exact opposite of understanding and respect. "But I just know that-"
"Tony, Happy just told me that you've dragged that poor girl from down the street up here, AGAIN."
Hermione looked up as a tall strawberry blonde woman breezed into the room. If her commanding presence and sky high heels didn't give her identity away, the frequent press conferences she held on the local news stations would have. She was Pepper Potts, the CEO of Stark Industries.
Her heels clicked against the marble floors in quick succession as she marched right up to Tony. "I've told you to leave her alone. She's already told you and Fury, both, that she didn't want any part of the Initiative, so there shouldn't be anything else to say." She scolded him. "Leave her alone. I mean it." She finished with a jab to Tony's chest.
Tony Stark, a.k.a Iron Man, a.k.a billionaire, a.k.a one of the greatest minds of the generation, surprisingly cowered in the presence of this woman. Throwing his hands up, palms towards Pepper in a placating gesture, he relented. "Ok, ok. I'll leave her be. Promise."
Staring him down for a full 15 seconds, Pepper eventually turned without another word, walking up to Hermione, who stood at her approach.
"Hi, you must be Hermione." She greeted with all of the warmth that was denied to Tony. "I'm-"
"Pepper Potts, of course." Hermione finished, already knowing she was going to like the strong woman.
"I'm sorry that Tony has, once again, dragged you from your home against your will. I assure you, the longer you are around him, the more you come to realize that it's just in his nature to be that way." The taller woman explained with a shake of her head.
"It's his nature to be an overbearing, insensitive, toerag?" Hermione asked, only half joking.
"Oh, you have no idea." Pepper smirked, leveling a gaze at Hermione.
"Hey, I'm still in the room!" Tony shouted petulantly from his perch by the window. Turning back towards the skyline, he continued nursing his drink in a sullen silence.
Turning back towards Hermione, Pepper continued. "Listen, I'm free until later tonight. Why don't we go grab lunch, then Happy can drop you back off at your apartment afterwards? It's the least we can do after all you've had to deal with this morning. It'll be Tony's treat." She added with a wink while shooting a grin towards Tony, who merely rolled his eyes.
Looking between the pair and noticing the obvious affection, Hermione smiled again warmly. "That sounds lovely."
Beginning to make their way back towards the door, Tony turned from the window. "If you aren't even going to invite me to come to the lunch I'M paying for, are you at least going to offer to bring me something back?" He shouted indignantly.
"Nope." Pepper called back, not even bothering to turn around as the two women walked out the door.
Their laughter could be heard echoing down the hall well after the door clicked shut.
"I'm sorry that we haven't had a chance to meet before today." Pepper started after the two settled down into their chairs in a private section of a local hot spot. "It's been unreal how little free time I have since taking over for Tony. I'm still trying to find that balance, I suppose."
"Of course." Hermione demurred. "I know you must have an incredibly demanding career."
"Well, I still feel as though I owe you an apology. I'm usually better at keeping Tony on a leash." She chuckled.
"It hasn't been so bad." Hermione assured her with a smile. "Except the few times he has broken into the apartment…" She trailed off.
"He broke into your apartment?!" She exclaimed loudly. "Actually, I'm not sure that surprises me, now that I think about it."
Hermione's laugh tinkled between the two.
"So, tell me." She began again as she leaned against the table. "What's really keeping you from joining the Initiative?"
Hermione looked at her in surprise, not expecting the woman to go there with her after helping her ditch Tony for the same reason.
"Don't give me that look. I'm not asking because of Tony, or Fury, or anyone else. I just want to know the 'why'." She explained, trying to reason with Hermione.
Hermione thought for a moment, trying to decide how much she was willing to confide in the woman who, although was very nice, was a literal stranger two hours ago.
"I…" Hermione started, staring at her plate in front of her, not actually sure where her sentence was going. "...was thrown into a magical war when I was only 15 years old. I, and countless other witches and wizards, fought a tyrant who was threatening to destroy our entire world. It finally came to an end when I was 18 when we won the final battle."
Looking up, she realized that Pepper was hanging onto every word. Sighing heavily, she continued tentatively.
"It's been a….hard recovery for me in the years after the war. I lost my parents, several friends, and eventually my way. I moved to New York to start over, and I have loved it. Sure, I still have nightmares occasionally, but I've loved being here in Manhattan. It's helped me heal and put some of those bad memories behind me."
Pepper looked over at Hermione sympathetically before grabbing her hand across the table. "The fight with the Chitauri brought all of your bad memories back up…"
"I don't disagree with the Initiative, nor do I dislike who the Avengers are and what they stand for, but I just don't know if I can do it again." Hermione said, conflicted. "I have no regrets about that day. New York needed help, and we answered the call. And yes, I'll always want to fight against the tyrants, villains, zealots, and enemies of the "light", because I've always been someone who felt a very strong sense of duty and justice, but I'm just not sure that I can voluntarily put myself back into that lifestyle full time." Hermione finished before taking a long drink from her water glass. "I just don't know if that's what I want, yet."
"Thank you for sharing some of your past with me." Pepper replied sincerely. "I won't pretend that I understand, because I don't - But what I do know is that Tony seems to think a great deal of you, and after hearing a part of your story, I'd have to agree with him."
After several moments of silence, she continued. "I don't blame you for wanting to stay out of the thick of it, but that doesn't mean that you can't be an asset to the Avengers team. Tony told me that you have already bonded with a lot of the team, and I'll be the first one to tell you that he's not going to stop until he has you involved in the Initiative in one way or another. Why not find a middle ground?"
"A middle ground?" Hermione questioned, not completely sure to what her new friend was alluding.
"A compromise, of sorts." Pepper explained. "Why not offer to work for the Avengers on more of a consultant-type basis?"
Hermione popped a piece of the fish she had ordered into her mouth. She held back a groan of satisfaction as it melted almost immediately, realizing this place certainly lived up to the hype. Swallowing, she continued.
"How would that even work?"
"If it's something you decide you are truly interested in exploring, just tell Tony that you don't want to be a part of the Initiative full time, but you would be willing to be called on occasionally to help with logistics and strategy, at the very least." She said, spouting ideas off the top of her head. "It would allow you to get your feet wet without having to jump into the lake, so to speak. You could see what the Avengers Initiative is all about, but you would be able to control how much or little you actually participate."
"Do you think Tony would go for that?" Hermione asked, thinking hard on what Pepper had proposed.
"Don't worry - I know Tony Stark better than anyone. He's going to be head over heels about it."
"Speaking of which, since we are asking the deep and personal questions today, I'm going to ask you one. Are the two of you, like,...together?"
Pepper laughed as she finished off her glass of white wine. "Tony's and my relationship is complicated to say the least. I've been with him, professionally, since almost the beginning, and I love him more than anything, but he's always been so consumed with his work that he's never really had time for another person in his life." She smiled. "But no matter what insane things are constantly happening to us or around us, we always seem to find our way back to the other."
Hermione smiled brilliantly at the surprisingly sweet story, unable to contain her happiness at the love she saw shining in the other woman's eyes.
"So, I think that's enough of the serious talk." Pepper said, changing the subject. "Let's talk about the team breaking you out of the hospital and Natasha putting a gun to that poor surgeon's head!"
Both women descended into laughter once again.