Summary: Taking that Morgan and Tony "Shit!" scene from Endgame and extending it because Pepper was present off camera, sitting on the couch, reading her book, and hearing everything go down.

Rating: T


Pepper was curled up on the couch, enjoying the quiet night. Tony had offered to do the dishes after dinner and she had went up ahead to get their daughter ready for bed and for her to get ready for her quiet night.

Pepper loved quiet nights.

It was the only kind of night that she could put down the pen and the paperwork, and pick up a book to read or watch a show.

It wasn't literally quiet, of course. Nothing was ever literally and truly quiet out here.

For one thing, there were the crickets. For another, the ducks and Gerald would sometimes choose the most random times to fight.

And—

"Shit!"

There was also her husband.

Pepper didn't bother looking up from her book or sitting up to reveal to Tony that she was actually there on the sofa. The science of composting just got interesting! Besides, whatever it was that surprised him, he'd tell her eventually. Tony could never keep things to himself (except for that one time he kept the fact that he was dying from her).

Tony was never quiet. Silence just wasn't in his vocabulary.

"Shit."

Pepper paused in her reading.

Now that didn't sound like Tony.

That small, unabashed voice no doubt came from her daughter who supposed to be in bed and not saying bad words at her age.

Tony saved her from having to uncurl herself from her spot in the couch.

"What are you doing up, little miss?"

"Shit," Morgan repeated, this time sounding a little bit sly, daring her daddy to scold her knowing he would never (Tony was good cop, Pepper was bad). It wasn't the right answer, but it was an answer. Maybe she was trying to say that she woke up simply to tell her father "shit." Pepper wouldn't put it past her.

Pepper smiled to herself, waiting to hear how Tony was going to deal with this.

"Nope. We don't say that. Only mommy says that word. She coined it. It belongs to her."

Pepper's jaw dropped. Really? Only Tony could make it sound less like he's passing off blame to her and more like he's granting her special privileges. He was such a coward. She fought the urge to reveal herself—clearly Tony forgot she was right there on the couch, within earshot—and bided her time.

Good things come to those who wait, right?

"Why you up?" Morgan countered, sending Tony's question back to him.

Oh, this was great!

"'Cause I got some important shit going on here!" Tony exclaimed like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Why do you think?"

Pepper didn't miss his use of 'shit' and was a second away from throwing a pillow at him for encouraging such awful language when Tony corrected himself.

"No, I got something on my mind. I got something on my mind," he repeated.

"Was it juice pops?" Morgan asked suggestively.

Juice pops were her favorite. She couldn't have more than one a day but clearly since dad said 'shit' despite it being mommy's word, she could have another juice pop before the day ended.

"Sure was. That's extortion. That's a word. What kind you want? Great minds think alike. Juice pops exactly was on my mind."

Their voices grew faint as they walked in the kitchen.

Pepper finally straightened up on the couch, making sure her head could be spotted. Nothing would make her night more than Tony finding her there with juice pop in Morgan's mouth. It would serve him right.

Hearing them return, Pepper closed her book, leaving a finger on her page.

She turned to look at them as they walked in the living room, making sure she didn't look mad but not too pleased either. The Face would scare Tony, at least.

"Ah shit," said Tony, coming to a halt.

Pepper raised a brow.

Morgan giggled. If there was one thing more enjoyable than sneaking around, it was watching mommy give daddy The Face.

"Mooom," Morgan said, "Daddy's using your word."

Tony gaped at his daughter, a betrayed look on his face. Then he sent Pepper a traitorous expression of his own. "Mooom, Morgan's eating a juice pop!"

God, it was like raising two children.

"Show me your hands. Both of you."

Both father and daughter complied.

"One juice pop each, huh? You two will have to share." She held out her free hand and Tony gave her his juice pop. "I'll keep this one. It's a royalty fee for using my word."

Morgan rose on her toes to audibly whisper to her father, "What's a royalty fee?"

"It's what we pay the Queen so that she doesn't throw us in the dungeon." Tony winked at Pepper and then ushered Morgan up the stairs. "Come on. Up to bed. And don't finish all of that! Leave some for me."

...

Pepper's quiet nights rarely ended quietly.

Sure enough Tony came back down, teasing her about how Morgan loved him more than she does Pepper (which Pepper can wholeheartedly agree with because she loved Tony more than she loved herself too), and then dropping that bomb of a discovery—time travel.

Neither one of them spoke. Not even the crickets made a sound. Everything was truly and literally quiet and yet it was deafening.

They both knew what it meant, the consequences should he fail (but Tony never fails; he always succeeds in everything he does even at the expense of his own life which was honestly what scared Pepper the most).

"Something tells me I should put it in a lockbox and drop to the bottom of the lake and go to bed."

Pepper knew Tony too well. A lockbox in the bottom of a lake wouldn't stop him.

Tony didn't do quiet; that was more Pepper's forte. It's why they drove each other crazy half the time but always found their way back to one another. Because he was sound and she was silence; he was chaos and she was calm.

"But would you be able to rest?" she asked him.

Pepper could see him thinking about it, the love he had for his family and for the people they lost reflected in his eyes, and she saw the exact moment he decided.

He didn't need to tell her. She knew him just like he knew her.

"It's okay," Pepper told him, and she meant it, because she was scared to lose him more under the weight of the lake's current than through time travel. At least this one will be on their terms.

Then all of a sudden, Tony scooped her up and she squeaked in surprise. Her book was left on the sofa cushions.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to show you something."

"If you wanted me to look if you had an eyelash stuck in your eye, you didn't need to carry me."

Tony only hummed in reply and carried her all the way to the garage.

Pepper tried again. "Tony, what are you—"

"Just go with it."

Finally in the garage, Tony sat her on the ground and instructed her to close her eyes.

"Tony," Pepper groaned halfheartedly. Tony always loved surprises while Pepper hated them. That was all because Tony was unpredictable; she never really knew what she was going to get in one of his surprises. Was it a large bunny? News that he was dying? A necklace made of the shrapnel from his heart? A whole lake house? The possibilities were endless.

Pepper ended up with her eyes shut anyway because she loved him and trusted him and if she didn't like the surprise—well, it can't be as bad as the bunny, can it?

She heard him move around and mumbling to himself. Even now Tony wasn't quiet. Couldn't be quiet.

Pepper itched to open her eyes, just a peek so she could prepare her reaction just in case it was as bad as the bunny and—

"Okay. Open."

Pepper did.

Tony stood in front of her, holding out an open jewelry box. There was a silver chained necklace with a pendant that looked exactly like an arc reactor, not the circular or triangular versions but the heart shaped one that Tony had taken to using in all his latest suits. But the gemstone wasn't any kind Pepper was familiar with. It certainly didn't look like a topaz or an aquamarine. Come to think of it, it was glowing, not unlike a—

Pepper gasped. It was an arc reactor albeit small and designed to look like a gem.

She looked at Tony who was smiling softly at her.

"Happy anniversary," he said lovingly.

Pepper was momentarily struck with panic because she almost thought she forgot their anniversary which would be unforgivable.

"Our anniversary isn't until the sixteenth," she told him.

"Yeah, but Morgan found the armor this morning and it was either you find out about it through our little tattletale or I beat her to the punch."

"This is a suit?" It was rhetorical, of course, because Pepper knew as soon as she realized it was an arc reactor that it couldn't be anything but a suit of armor. She cast Tony a questioning look. "Why?"

"Because you should have a suit in your closet." He was referencing a conversation they had so many years earlier. "Because you deserve the best things I can offer and frankly, you should've had a suit years ago. You should be able to protect yourself in case I'm stuck in traffic or something. And also because I think we'd look great in a matching couple outfit."

Pepper laughed.

There weren't that much global or national crises anymore that necessitated Iron Man coming to the rescue. But Tony wouldn't be Tony if he didn't give her what he thought was the best things in life—and if he had a suit, she should have one too because what's his is hers and all that married stuff.

"Don't make me wait any longer," he whined, "Try it on?"

Pepper nodded, still a little speechless.

Tony lifted the necklace from the box and put it around Pepper's neck.

"Okay, press the arc twice."

Pepper did and the arc grew three times its size, and then the nanites enveloped her body, forming a suit of armor around her.

"How do I look?" she asked Tony.

"Hot," Tony said, but his eyes were anything but lustful. They had taken on a glazed look, like he was seeing something extraordinary. "Here, take a look."

He took her armored hand and brought her over to one of the monitors in his workshop where she saw live footage of herself, care of the garage's cameras.

One might mistake her for Iron Man. It had the same design and exterior of Tony's armors but instead of the staple colors of red and gold or red and silver, this one was silver and royal blue. She wouldn't call it feminine but it was sleeker, more slender, and every bit as powerful as Tony's suits.

"I call it the RESCUE Armor, named after the woman who saved me," Tony said with unmistakable gratitude, love, and worship in his voice. "Time and time again you saved me,"

Pepper didn't know what to say. She had saved him from his enemies twice. She killed Stane and Killian. She hadn't even worn his suit doing those. In fact, she had worn his suit only once and the circumstances surrounding the event was just awful. She had no idea how to operate it despite JARVIS calmly instructing her in her ear. And shortly after that, Tony and the rest of their house came tumbling down the ocean. She thought he was dead.

"I don't… I don't know how to use it," Pepper said lamely. And then she realized that she now had the responsibility to use it. To help.

And she didn't think she was ready for that. What if she hurt people?

Her throat felt a little too tight all of a sudden and she wanted out of the suit.

As soon as she thought it, the suit retracted and all the nanites went back inside its housing unit.

She took a deep gulp of air.

This was supposed to be a quiet night. Not one that made all the blood rush to her head, her heartbeat to hammer in her ears like that, making her woozy and anxious.

Tony was beside her in seconds, taking her hand and comforting her. "Hey, hey, easy, focus on my voice. I'm here." He led her to a nearby chair and knelt in front of her while she caught her breath.

"I don't think I can do this," Pepper said, her voice all choked up. "I'm a businesswoman, a mom, a wife. I mean, saving you from Stane and Killian, those were isolated incidents. I'm not qualified to be an Avenger—"

Tony grasped her hands gently took her chin so that she had nowhere else to look at but him. "Hey, you are the most capable, qualified, trustworthy, badass person I know." He cocked his head, his tongue felt a little funny. "Why do I have a feeling of déjà vu, like I've said that before. Does that sound familiar to you?"

"A little bit," Pepper mumbled.

"But that's not important right now," he said, shaking the distracting thought away. "Honey, I didn't make you this suit because I want you to enter war zones and save the world. Because if anything, war zones are the last place I want you in. I'd rather have you and Happy and Morgan in a bunker underneath a bunker, far from life threatening situations that I always seem to put you guys in. But I meant what I said earlier about making this suit because I want you to be able to protect yourself if ever I'm not around."

Pepper frowned. "Why wouldn't you be around? And don't say it's because of traffic."

"I can't be in two places at once. I may have done that when trying to rescue you from Killian but I'm old. Can barely bend over without my knees creaking."

Pepper couldn't help but chuckle.

"I don't want you to use it," Tony stated and he meant it. That was the last thing he wanted. "But just in case…"

"In case there's a monster in the closet?" Pepper finished.

"See, I knew there was something really déjà vu-ey about this."

She laughed again and it helped to lessen the pressure she felt. Laughing helped. Tony always helped.

"I'll use it," Pepper said, glancing down at the necklace. "But only as a last resort."

"That's what it's meant for. And you don't have to worry about the technical stuff. I put in a friendly user interface, which you'll have to christen with a name. He'll teach you the ropes."

"He?" She wasn't getting FRIDAY?

"You can call him the Other Tony."

Why was she not surprised that Tony made a user interface after himself?

"Tony," she said, her tone griping.

"What?" He was grinning shamelessly now. "You really didn't think I made you a suit that didn't have a user interface with my voice, did you? I mean, I want you to hear me whenever you go out and save the world. Wouldn't want you to forget about the husband you have to go home to in one piece."

Pepper shook her head at him, smiling. Of course, Tony would ensure that saving the world would be as noisy and chaotic as possible. But she had to admit, having Tony's voice in her ear, coaching her through it all was a very comforting thought.

This was his weird, eccentric way of protecting her, loving her.

And she loved him too. Very much.

"You do know that tonight is my quiet night, right?" she told him, clasping her hands on the back of his neck. "It wasn't supposed to get this exciting."

Her fingers played with the hair on the nape of his neck. She was pleased to feel him shiver.

"It was supposed to be boring," she whispered and then teased him with a soft, languid kiss.

"Composting is boring," Tony said before returning the kiss but with more vigor. She could taste the juice pop in his tongue.

His hands slipped around her hips as he lifted her up from her seat.

"It was supposed to be a quiet night," Pepper added, locking her legs around his waist, and then planting kisses down his jaw.

"So? We can be quiet."

She scoffed. "You cannot be quiet."

"Sshh. Morgan's sleeping."

Tony deposited her on his worktable, his hands deftly pulling at her sweater.

While Pepper complained about the two layers of shirts he had on, something fell off the table with a crash.

They both jumped apart in surprise.

"Shit!" Pepper said.

Tony laughed and looked like he was about to say something about her favorite curse word.

She pointed a finger at him. "Don't start."

"I'm not."

"I heard what you said to Morgan, by the way."

"I didn't say anything!" He lied and then changed his mind because he was clearly not going to win this argument. "I'm gonna pay for that comment about 'shit' being your word, aren't I?"

"Well, you did make me a suit. I think that's enough of a royalty fee," Pepper said, not breaking Tony's gaze.

He had a hungry look in his eyes that had nothing to do with juice pops.

Pepper's quiet nights rarely ended quietly. This one was no different.


A/N: Just a reminder that all new fics will be posted on my AO3 account. This is the only fic I update on FFN. Which means, you guessed it, all Pepperony Week 2021 fics will be on AO3.