#pepperhony

[sreppub]

heh heh heh

TSB - “James Rhodes / War Machine”

N/s/f/w d/s pepperhony art under the cut ❤️

Fits conveniently in my TSB square for James Rhodes / War Machine ❤️ it’s rhodey night in the penthouse

[xx-stark-xx]

⎊ xx-stark-xx — tag directory ⎊

my post — self explanatory

krissy speaks — whenever I say some shit on someone else’s post; in a reblog or whatever or I’m specifically speaking/giving an opinion

_

writing••• — posts that have any writing in them but not fics or imagines or comic panels

thoughts — short text post stuff

ima+fi — imagines, x readers, or fics

fic recs — fanfiction recommendations

analysis — posts that infer greater insight into Tony’s (& co.’) character or other comic/MCU phenomenon

meta — exactly what it sounds like, posts that dive into Tony (& co.) from an self-aware outsider perspective; just self-aware analysis idk

comics — comic stuff and also posts that directly apply comic concepts to the adaptations

panels••• — anything that’s a comic panel alone

comic recs — comic recommendations

hc — headcanons; unofficial Tony (& co.) shit that I like

dive — deep dives into characterizations

tiny tony stark — Tony at 18 and under; young Tony

competent!tony — Tony being competent and his skills being taken seriously and/or highlighted

actual dad tony stark — tony being a dad fr; whether that be his mentor/mentee relationships, dealing with the bots, or him being an actual father (I may occasionally use an “iron dad” tag as well)

anti team cap — any post with negativity for the members of team cap (+ natasha probably) bcs I’m a petty bitch

✨ — instances of Tony (& co.) either being very pretty or very cute

⎊ — I really loved something. i’m highlighting a post if you will

relationship tags: #pepperhony #iron husbands #pepperony #iron bros #rhodeytony #tony stark and riri williams #tony stark and harley keener #tony stark and morgan stark #tony stark and howard stark #tony stark and maria stark #whitony #tony stark and whitney frost #whitney x tony #tony stark and rumiko fujikawa #tonyru #james rhodes and lila rhodes #james rhodes and riri williams #tony stark and lila rhodes

other tags: #the bots™️ #parallels #au #howard stark is a bad dad #uncle jim & #uncle tony (usually in relation to lila) #tony stark is lila rhodes’ godfather pass it on #the rhodes family™️ #iron kids #iron lad harley keener #war machine lila rhodes #iron family #tony stark is harley keener’s mentor™️ #mcu cast #fic ideas #co pilot j.a.r.v.I.s #tony stark’s snark #mcu + locations #vulnerable tony

specifiers: #comics #616 tony stark #616 iron man #616 james rhodes #616 war machine #marvel cinematic universe #mcu tony stark #mcu iron man #mcu james rhodes #mcu war machine #mcu pepper potts #mcu riri williams #mcu ironheart #mcu howard stark #earth’s mightiest heroes #emh tony stark #emh james rhodes #emh pepper potts #avengers assemble #aa tony stark #anime tony stark

character tags: #tony stark #iron man #james rhodey rhodes #war machine #iron patriot #pepper potts #rescue #riri williams #ironheart #rumiko fujikawa #whitney frost #morgan stark #mcu morgan stark #bethany cabe #happy hogan #j.a.r.v.i.s #f.r.I.d.a.y

(marvel’s avengers - video game)

CURRENTLY READING (pls note that I bounce timelines when I read): Tony Stark: Iron Man Vol. 1 - Self-Made Man & Tales of Suspense #39

[dakt37]

Finally rewatched EMH and I’ve made the executive decision to stan Pepper Potts

[ironhusband]

Pepper & Rhodey + Tony’s bedside 

[graveltotempomp3]

rhodey, introducing pepper: This is my better half.

rhodey, introducing tony: This is my bitter half.

[theoreticalconstruct]

Treats (MCU, Tony/Pepper/Rhodey, SFW)

Title: Treats Fandom: MCU Characters: Tony/Pepper/Rhodey, Morgan Summary: Rhodey comes to visit Tony and Pepper when he can. Set during the Blip.

Written for @polyamships, prompt for November is Treats.

Rhodey always brings treats for Morgan when he finds the time to come by.

They don't talk about work anymore; he knows that Tony's done, finally burnt out from trying to save the world. He should've seen it coming; he'd succeeded at almost everything he'd ever tried, he should've known what would happen when he inevitably failed. It feels strange, still, and he can see it in Pepper's face that she feels it too, after all those years of constant work.

He gets it, though, and in a way he's grateful. There's a lot left to do, an entire world to watch over, and even if half the people are gone the job never gets easier. It's nice to be able to spend some time away from it all.

Sometimes he's tempted to stay there. He admits it, it'd be nice to live that quiet life with them, waking up beside them every morning and cooking breakfast for their little family, sitting on the couch with Pepper and playing with Morgan until Tony finished in the workshop, maybe sometimes dancing with the two of them to the sounds of the old CDs they'd managed to grab from the tower... he missed the old days so much, the days he could just show up at their place when he was on leave and spend days there, when he didn't have anything as important as the fate of the world on his shoulders.

But he always leaves, after a few hours. He always goes back to the old offices, and he works as hard as he can manage, until his eyes are crossing with exhaustion. He gets why Tony needs to stop fighting for now, and why Pepper needs to stay with him. If he has to work twice as hard to protect the people he loves, he'll do it. It's worth it, especially when he looks at little Morgan and how she smiles whenever he comes by, and asks what he’s brought for her today.

[confused-cryptids]

I want to write an Avengers mafia au with mob boss!Tony, but:

Do I write him with his competent partners Rhodey and Pepper who are just as badass as him?

or

Do I write him with his partners/bodyguards Steve and Bucky who are just utter useless simps?

Send help

[salty-ironstrange-shipper]

I found a pepperhony fic on ao3 and it’s rly rly good it’s mostly angst with a happy ending and a really good plot and it’s kinda scary and it’s not Wanda friendly and the end is super duper satisfying. it’s called “The Way It Ends” just search “the way it ends ladyjay” on safari and the results will be ao3 go back to chapter one once you click on the results.

found it!

[dailyironfamily]

If you’re still taking prompts, can you write Pepper and Rhodey competing at a carnival for who can win Tony the most prizes? Thank you!

thanks for the prompt! I’m never not taking prompts, technically, though it does depend on my free time and how much I vibe with it. feel free to send requests in anytime though and I’ll try my best!

“Well, I’d say the Iron Man meet and greet was a rousing success,” Pepper announces as they’re ushered away from the crowd gathered on the Coney Island boardwalk. There’s an element of surprise in her voice that Tony doesn’t quite appreciate.

“Of course it was,” he protests, voice overlapping Rhodey’s as he says,

“I was there too!”

Tony takes off his helmet and grins at Rhodey. “Yeah, but the Iron Man and War Machine meet and greet doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way, does it?”

Rhodey flips his faceplate up to scowl at Tony, but Pepper interrupts before they can get into one of their bickering matches.

“Sorry, Jim. The Iron Man and War Machine meet and greet was a great success. Now, we’ve got about an hour before we have to get back so we can--”

“Skee-ball,” Tony says as if transfixed, stepping out of his armor which then closes back up behind him and flies off, keyed to return to the base.

He crosses the way and stops in front of a row of Skee-Ball machines, all blinking and beeping noisily to attract customers. He pats his empty pockets, then turns back around to look at Rhodey and Pepper. He hasn’t carried cash since….1993 probably.

Rhodey exits his armor similarly to how Tony had, stepping out of the way as it takes off to follow the Iron Man armor back home. Then he walks over to Tony and pulls out his wallet, giving him two quarters for the Skee-Ball machine.

“Thanks,” Tony says, dropping the coins into the slot.

“I’ll put it on your tab,” Rhodey says wryly, then tucks his hands into his pockets and watches Tony fail miserably at Skee-Ball.

“It’s all rigged,” Tony complains afterwards, pouting.

Rhodey shrugs. “It’s just Skee-Ball.”

“It’s easy enough when you get the hang of it,” Pepper agrees.

Tony stares expectantly at both of them, until Pepper sighs and looks around for a machine to break a dollar into quarters. She hands two quarters to Rhodey, then the two of them play their own round of Skee-Ball.

Pepper beats Rhodey by 50 points, and they eye each other warily as their scores flash on the digital scoreboard.

“That was a fluke,” Rhodey says with zero inflection.

“Whac-A-Mole?” Pepper suggests calmly.

Which is how Tony ends up following Pepper and Rhodey down the boardwalk as they take turns at every game. Rhodey wins at Whac-A-Mole and the water gun race, while Pepper clinches two different ring toss games. Whenever a win nets one of them a prize they hand it off to Tony and continue to the next game, until eventually Tony is trailing after them with his arms full of cheap prizes.

“Guys?” he says cautiously, balancing a stuffed cat in a banana costume on top of the pile of prizes he’s carrying. “This wasn’t what I had in mind.”

Rhodey and Pepper turn back to him before they can pay the attendant at the milk bottle toss booth. It seems to break them out of whatever competitive trance they had both fallen into, and Pepper looks down at the money in her hand like it’s a wild animal about to bite her.

“Jeez, Tones,” Rhodey says in surprise at the amount of stuff Tony’s carrying.

“Yeah, jeez,” Tony repeats with a laugh. “I think you’ve proven yourselves, you can stop now.”

“Okay, but who got the most prizes?” Rhodey asks, which makes Pepper roll her eyes.

“Me, obviously. Weren’t you counting?”

They both look expectantly at Tony, who stares back at them and says, “Uhh…”

Pepper sighs and shakes her head. “This is silly. We’ll call it a tie.”

Rhodey glances back at her. “This time.”

Pepper gives him one of her ‘are you really challenging me?’ smiles she normally reserves for business meetings, and Tony just sighs. Why did he get stuck with not one but two surprisingly competitive partners?

“What should we do with these?” he asks, trying to distract them from what he assumes will become a lifelong quest to agonize him specifically.

“You don’t want to keep them?” Rhodey teases. He spots a family with two kids walking by and he grabs two of the stuffed animals from the top of the pile. “Hey-- Want a toy from Iron Man?”

They pass out the prizes to kids on the boardwalk until there’s only one left, a keychain hamburger with big cartoon eyes. Rhodey grins and holds it back out to Tony.

“Here, this one’s for you,” he says.

Tony snorts and takes the keychain. “I’ll attach it to the keys to the suit.”

“That’s a good idea,” Rhodey says seriously, managing to keep a completely straight face. “Don’t want to lose those.”

Pepper swears under her breath and the two of them turn around to find her looking at her phone.

“We’re going to be late now,” she says with a huff. “How could we get so distracted?”

Tony laughs and loops his arm around her elbow, giving her a squeeze. “Don’t act like you’re blameless. I was the innocent party here.”

“And don’t you complain, you got a hamburger keychain out of it,” Rhodey reminds him.

“Do I sound like I’m complaining?”

Tony reaches out and loops his other arm around Rhodey’s, linking them all as they walk down the boardwalk like the Wizard of Oz gang. Neither Pepper nor Rhodey disentangle themselves from him, and Tony beams at the both of them. There’s never a dull moment with either of them around, that’s for sure. And Tony wouldn’t change a thing about it.

[yesmooshoe]

Tony: I am a Rhodes Scholar.

Pepper: You never went to Oxford.

Tony: No, but I could write an entire dissertation on how to make Rhodey cum, so I think that counts.

[crypt-glitch]

I need some inspo so send me a word/phrase from below + a Marvel ship

Check the tags for ship ideas || No stony, starker, or stucky (sorry!)

Summer showers

Sea salt

Ocean breeze

Flowers

Sun rays

Heat wave

Southern gothic

Sailing

Suspicious seagulls

Beach sand

Fruit

Margarita

Night sky

Campfire

Muggy

City skyline

Shark

Pier

Thunderstorm

Picnic

Tan line

Coast

Bermuda Triangle

Sweating like a sinner in church

Western ghost town

BBQ/Cook out

Festival

Golden

Area 51?

Fling

Things aren’t the way they seem

That doesn’t look right

Vampires can’t come out in the summer

You smell like....

Desert

Dusk

[sreppub]

morgan is smart. pepper/tony/rhodey ot3 🥰🥰🥰

[xx-stark-xx]

war pepperony | pepperhony

0t3

(made with picrew couples)

[juuls]

Does anyone have any A/B/O recs where Tony hides that he’s an Omega? I know I’ve read quite a few, of varying lengths and ratings and filthiness, but that was a couple years ago and I’m not having much luck finding them again since the fandom exploded in size haha (yay though!). Any Tony ship, really, but I’m big on the Stuckony, Stony, WinterIron, IronStrange ships. Het or slash or femslash. Anything, really, I don’t care as long as it has Tony hiding being an Omega! Thank you, loves.💋

[ironhusband]

AM I RIGHT OR AM I RIGHT? 

[areiton]

protecting what’s hers - pepperhony

I really love this post and wanted to explore the breakdown of Pepper's trust in the Avengers.

~*~

Read on AO3

~*~ 

The Rouges--what’s left of them--limp into the Compound, and she’s there. 

She doesn’t look at them, not Steve looking older than he ever has, or Natasha, pale and trembling or even Bruce because he wasn’t there, he didn’t hurt them, but she will never forgive Bruce for running . 

Heroes don’t run.

She burrows into Rhodey’s arms and they wrap around her, wrap her in the scent of sweat and metal and coconut oil and for the first time since the dust--she doesn’t feel like she’s coming apart. 

~*~ 

They aren’t together. 

She loves him. 

She loves them.  

And she leaves, packs her shit and takes Happy to the West coast, because it’s too much. 

They are too much, loving them hurts and she--

She isn’t a hero. 

She’s never been a hero. 

She’s just a girl trying to keep up with a world that’s been bigger than her since before she stumbled into it on fake Louboutins. 

She isn’t stumbling now, and her shoes aren’t fake, and the eyes of the world are on her and she leaves. 

And then a building in Switzerland blows up and the world--her world--blows up with it. 

~*~

She fucks Rhodey first. 

It’s one night when they’re waiting on Tony, while he’s busy with a pair of twins or the headliner from the band they just left, or something--she forgets what because with Tony the details don’t really matter, there’s only an endless parade of expensive and beautiful and the only thing that’s constant is Rhodey, patient and steady, never wavering even when he’s called away by duty. 

He’s patient and steady to Tony’s wild chaos, and it’s only after she’s been Tony’s PA for almost a year that she has to bail them out of jail because the pair of idiots strapped rockets to their goddamn cars and raced.

She fucks Rhodey first, while Tony is busy and his cock is big and thick inside her, stretching and filling her in ways she never imagined, his fingers nimble where they’re rubbing her clit, his voice steady and patient in her ear, filth and adoration and it’s that--the hot hungry thrusts and wicked pinch on her clit and his familiar steady voice pouring x-rated fantasies out--that makes her come. 

~*~ 

She finds the cabin in the endless weeks of waiting. 

There are a million things she could be doing--SI is reeling, the world is reeling, the dust hasn’t even settled, the Rouges are back and larger than life, Steve keeps trying to talk to her--and she sits in his bed, for days, hours ticking by as she looks at houses. She used to do this, when she was a little girl in her uncle’s cramped apartment, dream of a life she couldn’t reach, not then. 

Then it was just a dream, as sweet and temporary as the butterscotch dissolving on her tongue. 

Now--

Now she buys a house on a lake without blinking and the dream is that she’ll have her family there. 

~*~ 

She gets pregnant a year after the Decimation, almost to the day. Tony holds her after she throws up, when she’s crying and his tears drip silent down on her hair.

“Rhodey should be here,” she whispers, and his arms tighten around her. 

~*~ 

The first time she hears about the Avenger Initiative, there is still soot in her hair and she’s just fucked Tony for the first time. She’s still sore from it, her thighs red from his stubble, and they haven’t figured out what this is and how it’s going to work--but she’s waiting when he comes out of the warehouse, and his face is pale and wanting . 

He only ever looks like that, when he looks at her and sometimes at Rhodey. 

“What happened?” she asks, and he falls into her.

“They don’t want me,” he whispers. 

Her grip on him tightens, protective and possessive. 

“What did they say?” 

He tells her-- Ironman yes, Tony Stark no-- and her heart soars and sinks. 

They don’t want him , don’t want to take him from her, and she loves them for that. 

She holds him when he shakes, and hides her relief in his hair. 

~*~ 

She reaches the Compound and Rhodey is already in surgery, and Tony is standing where she stood, where she and Rhodey stood, after the Mandarin and Extremis, when Tony went under the knife and she thought for a second--for a brief beautiful moment--that Tony would be done, that her days of fear were over. 

She shoves that thought aside and comes to a stop next to him, and his hand finds hers. 

“Tell me,” she says, forcing steel into her voice because his hand is trembling in hers. 

He does. 

He tells her about the Accords and the bombing, about the kid and the fight and Rhodey falling . 

He tells her he’s broken, that he’s paralyzed, that Rogers and Barnes got away. 

He tells her he’s going to fix it. 

“Boss,” FRIDAY says and she looks at him. 

“Go,” she says, "End this. I'll stay with him." 

He looks at her, gratitude bright in his eyes and she squeezes his hand and slips away as Natasha approaches. 

~*~ 

Tony is different than Rhodey. He’s a force of nature, a chaotic storm. She thinks that will translate into bed, into a wild rough fuck that makes her ache. She’s hungry for it, if she’s honest with herself, a desperate hunger that fills her up and leaves her gasping. 

It isn't like that, though. Rhodey is rough with her, treats her like an equal , all heavy hands and bruising mouth and thick cock. 

Tony--Tony watches her with wide wide eyes, mouth open and hands reverent, and worships her. 

Tony is different from Rhodey and she loves it. 

~*~

"Can I talk to you, for a second?" 

She looks up, brushes strawberry blonde hair out of her eyes and stares. 

Steve looks beaten. 

Steve looks whole. 

"No," she says, soft. "No, I don't think so."

She turns, leaves, can hear Rhodey making excuses behind her. She's done making excuses. 

~*~ 

Steve doesn't come to the hospital when Tony has surgery. She hears later that he's in Spain, chasing the Ghost. 

Tony shrugs it off, but she sees it--the way hurt flashes in his eyes, sharp and stinging before he tucks it away and smiles. 

She hates him, in that moment. Hates all of the team Tony has chosen to love, because they refuse to love him back. 

~*~ 

She loves them, is the thing. Rhodey and Tony. 

And they love her. It isn't really talked about. She's known Tony long enough to know that he and Rhodey fuck. So she isn't surprised, really, when she comes home and finds them together, Rhodey's hands in Tony's hair, his pretty cock in Tony's mouth. 

Rhodey grins at her and nods at the strap-on. "Opened him up for you, pretty girl," he says and she smiles. 

It's not the first time she's fucked Tony, but it's the first time Rhodey has played with her tits while she did, the first time Tony hung between them, shaking and begging, a beautiful mess. 

After he swallows Rhodey's come, and she's fucked him to one orgasm, after Rhodey's hot mouth coaxed him to a second erection, she climbs on him, and Rhodey's tongue traces over her clit as she sinks down, brushes where Tony is filling her and it makes them moan, both, and she flips her hair back and rides him, Rhodey's hands on her clit and Tony's throat, Tony's cock filling her cunt and his pretty noises swallowed by down by Rhodey. 

She falls asleep with Tony's cum slick on her thighs and Rhodey's fingers in her ass and both their arms around her. 

~*~ 

"You're going with them," Tony says. Rhodey is holding him and Tony is--his voice is slurred, his hands are shaking, he is so weak it terrifies her because she's never seen him like this, not even right after Afghanistan. 

She can still feel the icy fear that clutched her, when he threw the armor casing at Steve and collapsed at his feet, when she thought he'd made it home only to die, heart giving out from rage and grief. 

"We have to try this," Rhodey says and Tony nods. 

She doesn't look at him. She can't look at him. 

She loves Rhodey, more than words can say--but she hates him for this. 

She hates him for choosing the Avengers. 

~*~ 

She protects Tony. That's been her job for so long she can't really remember what life was like before she protected Tony.  

But she can't protect him from the people he invites into his life, can't protect him from the people who hurt him, careless with his heart. 

He jokes about his heart condition, but she knows the truth--it is fragile and precious and easily hurt and she wants to protect it, protect him, from the whole goddamn world. 

~*~ 

After Ultron and JARVIS, the Avengers leave. They were already broken, but Ultron shattered them, shattered the fragile trust between them. 

She doesn't care. She reads the expense reports, the millions of dollars in relief SI diverts to the Maria Stark foundation, the millions they use to build and fund the compound. She goes home to Tony, a wreck of grief in the wake of JARVIS' death. She waits for them to reach out--Bruce or Steve or Fury. 

Two weeks later, her phone rings and Steve's voice fills the line and she hopes. 

He's calling about a quinjet for the team. All polite and patriotic and earnest and she realizes when she hangs up, that he never once asked about Tony. 

She realizes them, definitively, that no one will. 

~*~ 

"Ms Potts. Colonel Rhodes."

The AI is unfamiliar still, even after all this time. She supposes that leaving six months after JARVIS died didn't help accustom her to it. 

She straightens and squeezes Rhodey's hand. It's been two days, since she arrived, since Tony left. 

"What is it?" she asks. 

"Boss, ma'am. His suit sent out a distress signal." 

She stares at Rhodey for a heartbeat, torn between the men she loves, and a small voice says, "I can stay with Mr. Colonel Rhodes, ma'am."

She looks at the boy, bruises on his face and eyes wide and Rhodey says, "Tony trusts him."

She nods and kisses Rhodey quick and fierce. 

She slips out of her heels in the hall, and runs. 

~*~ 

Rhodey isn't with them, when Tony breaks down. When he sobs into her chest and tells her about Peter's last moments. They're alone in medical in a Compound that doesn't feel like home. 

Rhodey, the steady patient one, the one who never faltered and never left, the only one she ever trusted with Tony's heart, isn't there. 

She holds him and lets her own tears fall into his hair and she doesn't tell him that it's ok or that the fucking Avengers will undo it or anything at all. She just holds him, while he sobs and she hates Rhodey a little bit, for leaving them. 

~*~ 

She loves Peter. 

She thinks maybe it's impossible to not love Peter. Tony does, is helpless not to, even though she watches him try to keep distance between them. 

She thinks he’s scared, scared to trust again after the Accords and the War and Siberia. 

But Peter--Peter is sweet innocence and steely determination, and a goodness that she thinks Steve should have been but never was. 

He stays by Rhodey while she retrieves Tony from Siberia, stays by her while Tony is put back together by Helen and Extremis, stays by Tony while he heals and even when he’s sent away--she and Rhodey frown at Tony for it, and he avoids them for days--he’s there , persistent and loyal and waiting, until Tony brings him home, and he stays , his grin shadowed by what they do, that thing she hates , but still sweet, still steady, still innocent. 

~*~ 

“FRIDAY,” she says, when she finds him. 

For a moment, she thinks he’s dead. He isn’t moving, a still cold form on the ground. She can’t move closer, can’t breath through her fear, and FRIDAY says, “He’s alive, ma’am.” 

The suit keeps her on her feet, but the relief is so strong she’s dizzy with it, and she kneels at his side, wrapped in red and gold an Ironman, and he blinks up at her, his eyes unfocused. 

“Did you come to my rescue?” he asks.

She did. She does. She thinks, fierce and protective, she always will. 

~*~ 

She shows him the cabin, once he’s taken off his IV and can actually stand. She watches as he stares at it, patient. 

“I won’t stay here, with them,” she says, and she doesn’t have to say who.

The world has ended, and she doesn’t care because her world came crashing down in a field in Germany, in a Siberian bunker, and this--this is just the wreckage of everyone else catching up. She’s done. She’s done. 

“I won’t,” she says, and she doesn’t say--

She doesn’t say she’ll leave, even if he doesn’t. 

She doesn’t say she’ll leave, even if it means leaving Tony and Rhodey. 

She doesn’t say she thinks Rhodey is already gone. 

Tony touches the screen with gentle, reverent fingers. “When can we leave?” 

She smiles, and he grins, and for a moment, the world isn’t dusty and empty, and she can breath through the fury that lives in her heart. “The bots can be packed by morning,” she says. “And I don’t want to take anything else.” 

His hand finds her, and he kisses it. 

~*~ 

“You chose them,” she says, once. She’s pregnant, and Rhodey is in her bed again, but Tony is between them, asleep, the lines on his face deeper than ever, but like this, he is almost at peace. She wants so badly for him to be at peace. 

“I chose the world, Pep,” he says, gently and she knows. 

She does. 

But. 

“You left him,” she says carefully, “to follow Captain America. ” 

Rhodey’s expression flickers, and she thinks he’ll try to explain it, the greater good, the immeasurable loss, the reason.

He doesn’t. 

He’s quiet and she says, softly, “I love you, Rhodey. But I don’t know how to forgive that.” 

~*~ 

Steve calls. 

After Siberia, he calls. She answers, once, listens to him babble, excuses and shitty apologies, and finally, finally, begging her to talk to Tony. 

She doesn’t say anything. She hangs up. 

“FRIDAY,” she says, and her voice doesn’t shake and she is so damn proud her voice doesn’t shake. “Release the footage from Siberia. Make sure Tony never knows.” 

The AI isn’t JARVIS--she’s young and viciously protective and very very much like Pepper herself. 

She does what JARVIS would never do. She obeys Pepper’s order. 

~*~ 

The first anniversary of the Decimation, she dresses in mourning black and heels, and stands next to Rhodey and Tony on a platform. 

The rest of the Avengers--the ones who survived--are there, and Steve’s eyes find Tony, over and over, and her lips tighten. 

She hasn’t spoken to him, since that morning right after, and not for years before that, but she can see the determination in his gaze, the way he’s gathering himself, and she thinks of that day, in Siberia, about Tony asking if she was there to rescue him, and of all the times she’s protected him before. 

She thinks about the backlash of public fury the footage of Siberia caused, how they stripped Steve of his title, for a time. 

Rhodey’s hand tightens on hers, and she squeezes it, before slipping away and calmly, easily, intercepting Captain America on his way to speak to Iron-man. 

She smiles, pleasant and her eyes are icy and when she turns away, turns back to Tony, Steve doesn’t move to follow, or argue.

~*~ 

Rhodey stands between them and their cabin, the little world they’ve carved from the wreckage, and the Avengers. 

She doesn’t realize it, not until she sees him sleeping on their couch, and his tablet blinking still, messages he’s answering, pleas for Tony’s tech and Ironman’s suit, and Tony --

She stares at it, for a long time. 

The next night, when Morgan is sleeping, and Tony is waiting patiently for her, she leads him back to their bed and for the first time in three years, she sleeps between the men she loves. 

~*~ 

The pundits, the talking heads, they call it immeasurable grief and loss.

She can, though. She can measure it. 

It is Tony’s nightmares and Rhodey’s absence and the grief of Peter, a hole that can not be filled, not even with the laughing child they bring into the world. 

It has a name and a measure and she knows the whole universe is aching, but wrapped around Tony, she doesn’t care . She wants to protect them, what is left of her world, always. 

~*~ 

She hates it. The suits. Ironman and War Machine. 

She hates it, and she understands it, because she wants to stand between them and the world, wants to wrap armor around her world and keep them safe. 

She can’t. She can’t do that anymore than she can expect them to hang up the suits and live at her side.

~*~ 

Steve Rogers and Natasha and Scott Lang talk to Tony and she watches through the window as Tony pours them drinks and argues, watches Scott grow angry and loud. 

“Who is that, Mama?” Morgan asks, all innocence and sweet and she smiles. 

“They’re people who hurt Daddy,” she says.

Morgan frowns, and looks out the door, distress clear on her little features. She takes a breath, “Do you want to rescue him?” 

~*~ 

She believed in it, once. 

In the Avengers and SHIELD, in Captain fucking America. 

That belief died, in the tears of a man left alone to his grief, and an empty waiting room and a broken lover and a shatter arc reactor and pale, bloodless lips. 

She doesn’t believe anymore. 

She only believes that they love her and she loves them, and she’ll do anything to keep them safe. 

~*~ 

When the distress signals go out--she expects it. Just like she expected it, when Rogers and Romanov left empty handed, and Tony came to her, bright eyed and manic. 

She knows them, knows him and she might hate the Avengers, might not ever be able to trust them--but Tony is better than her. 

He always has been. It’s what she loves most about him. 

It happens almost simultaneously, War Machine and Ironman and she looks down at their daughter, and smiles. It’s weak and she blinks back tears, but this--this is her only job. Protect her world. 

She steps into Rescue and goes.