Chapter Text
2012
She can see why Tony likes Steve. His hip to shoulder ratio is, in fact, ridiculous. She's seen a lot of photos of him recently, mostly from the reactivated file on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s server that she has not, officially, seen, but they don't do him any sort of justice. In the pictures from the war, he looked like a movie star, like he'd stepped straight out of her grandmother's tiny old black and white TV set, and in the handful of new photographs S.H.I.E.L.D. has taken he looks like he's, in the words of Tony, built like a brick shithouse. And he is, but what really strikes her about him the first time she sees him in person is how uncomfortable he looks.
Fury has moved all the Avengers save Tony into a building in Manhattan, and today is move-in day. According to Tony, this means that they need to have a house-warming party, and she has to come over from LA to attend it, because if he's left with these people for much longer, he's going to 'set himself on fire'. She doesn't really mind, because truthfully she wants the chance to see Steve up close.
Up close he looks like he wants to hide behind the couch every time the dark-haired S.H.I.E.L.D. agent passes by him.
“The niece of his lost love,” Natasha says, appearing at her elbow with a glass of punch that Pepper is not going let Tony drink in her hand (she saw Natasha and Clint spend an unusually long amount of time loitering by the bowl, and she wouldn't put it past the two of them to perform some kind of hazing ritual on new members).
“What?”
She tilts her glass towards Steve. “That woman that he looks terrified of whenever she passes is the niece of Margaret Carter, the captain's sweetheart in the war. Carter died a few years ago.”
“Poor guy,” Pepper says.
“Yeah, he's been moping around the helicarrier for the last couple of months, we can barely get a smile out of him. He seems to have hit it off with Tony, though.”
“Tony's likeable guy,” she replies.
Natasha keeps her face studiously blank and takes a sip of her punch.
Pepper knows that she's getting at: Tony has been talking about Steve non-stop since he found out that not only was Captain America real, but that he was alive and twenty-seven and blond and gorgeous. Steve, for his part, has apparently talked to Tony more in the three weeks that they've known each other than he's talked everyone else combined in the four months that he's been out of the ice. By Tony's own admission, they've talked to each other everyday since they've met, either on the phone, or in person. This probably isn't making the best impression on the group of Tony's trustworthiness and fidelity.
“So, how are you feeling about living in close quarters with your ex?” Pepper says, well aware that Natasha's hardly likely to miss such an obvious change of subject.
Natasha knows which battles to pick, though, so she turns her gaze from Steve to Clint, who looks like he's seconds away from marking his territory with Thor, and shrugs. “I think it'll be okay. We aren't exactly... exes any more.”
“What? When did this happen?”
“A while ago,” Natasha equivocates. “I thought, if you and Tony have been together for two years without killing each other – and, no offence, but Clint is at least ten times more functional than Tony is – then maybe we could work it out. Love conquerors all and shit.”
“Nicely put,” Pepper says.
At the opposite end of the room, Tony walks in, pursued by Coulson, who's holding a piece of paper and a pen. Tony got collared by Fury and Coulson earlier in the afternoon, leaving his little get-together to start without him, and two hours later it looks like whatever it was still hasn't been settled.
“Steve!” he barks, and Steve's eyes go wide with relief. “Having fun?” Tony asks, loud enough for everyone to hear. Coulson's head dips slightly, and he neatly folds the piece of paper and turns away.
Steve says something quietly in response, and Tony claps him on the shoulder, then wraps his arm around him and hustles him towards Pepper and Natasha. The way that Steve's looking at him... oh, they might be in trouble, Pepper thinks.
“Have you met Captain America?” Tony says, pushing him at her slightly. “This is Captain America.”
She holds out her hand. “Pleased to meet you, Captain,” she says.
Steve looks at her shoes first, then her hand, then takes it carefully. “Ma'am,” he says.
“This is Pepper,” Tony says. He moves around to throw an arm around her shoulders, but keeps his body angled towards Steve. Definite trouble, she thinks.
“Oh, you're... she's...?” Steve stammers, cheeks growing pink.
“She's my dame,” Tony says, which only seems to makes Steve flush even more.
“Tony,” she says.
“Gal?” he tries again, and she shakes her head. “Lady? Equal partner in all things?”
She pats him on the chest. “Stop,” she says.
“Love you,” he sing-songs.
“Love you too,” she replies, and leans in to kiss him on the cheek. Steve stares resolutely at the floor. That is an impressive amount jealousy in such an upright citizen as Captain America.
-
“So, Steve's nice,” she says later, once they're in bed, Tony lying with his head resting on her chest, tapping away at his tablet while she reads a precious few pages of her book.
He puts the tablet down and tilts his head back to look at her. “Yeah, he's a nice guy.”
“He seems to like you.”
“Yeah,” he says, and rolls over to press his face into her collarbone. “I don't think he's very intelligent.”
“And you like him too.”
“He's Captain America, I think it's one's patriotic duty to like him.” He shifts around until he has one arm resting between her breasts and the other under her pillow. “He's pretty easy to get on with. Easy on the eyes, at least.”
“I'm glad you're getting on with team better.”
“Hey, let's not get crazy now.” He squints at her book and starts reading the page she's on.
“I don't think he likes me that much, though,” she comments once Tony has got to the end of the page and is trying to make her turn over to a new one. “He looked a little scandalised by my shoes.”
“Nah, he's not like that. Natasha walks around in that skin tight catsuit half the time and he doesn't mind. I mean, he acts like he's about to choke on his own tongue, but I don't think he's being judgemental about it.”
“Well, maybe it's because he has a crush on you, then.”
Tony's head comes up so fast that he almost cracks her chin. “Huh?”
“Steve has a pretty obvious major crush on you,” she repeats.
He lies back down against her. “Really? I guessed that maybe he was a little attracted to me, but I thought I was mostly just scaring him with my new-fangled ways.”
“From what I saw, he's got it pretty bad.”
“Huh,” he repeats, and then says nothing more. She can feel his breath against her neck as he hooks his chin in the hollow of her collarbone and gets himself good and wrapped around her. She turns over a couple of more pages of her book, hardly taking the words in, waiting for Tony to pull himself together.
“I wouldn't,” he says at last, very quietly. She retrieves her bookmark from where it lies next to her and closes the book. “I flirt with him sometimes, but it's not...”
“We've talked about this,” she says softly. “I know what your flirting is.” It's something as intrinsic to his personality now as the nasty side of him that lashes out blindly when hurt, as every superhero ideal he believes in but doesn't believe he is, as the blank look he gets when Stane is mentioned or the nightmares that leave him in a cold sweat sometimes. She's found that she isn't threatened by it in the slightest, that when he eased off it altogether, she was just left thoroughly weirded out.
“But I just... I would never cheat on you.”
She sighs. She's pretty sure he'll work this thing with Captain Rogers out at some point, but clearly he's going to need some coaching along the way. “Tony. I don't say this a lot, because God knows your ego doesn't need any help, but I have complete faith in you. About everything.”
He nuzzles against her neck, soft laughter coming out as little puffs of air against her skin. “You're crazy.”
“Well, that's hardly news.”