Chapter 5: The Funeral

A/N: Pepper and Tony attend a funeral.

-x-X-x-

Obadiah Stane was dead. And Pepper really didn’t know how she was supposed to feel about that fact. They were friends, right? Rather, they were Tony’s friends. Tony Stark was the kind of man who had his own gravity, so even an older man like Obadiah wound up orbiting Tony’s blazing star until the very end.

… But Pepper would be lying if she said she’d particularly liked the man. Not that Obadiah Stane was an evil person or anything like that, but she’d always felt like he came from an older generation of businessmen. He couldn’t help himself. Tony was a bit of a philanderer, but not much of a womanizer despite what the media would want people to believe. Obadiah Stane on the other hand, had never met a woman he wasn’t willing to look down upon and infantilize.

It had taken months as Tony’s assistant for instance before Obadiah would call her Pepper. Before that, it was doll face or darling or dear. He’d apologized once it became clear she was sticking around, that Tony wasn’t going to bed her and drop her like his previous ten assistants. But it didn’t change the fact that she’d pretty much always just been ‘Tony’s secretary’ in Obadiah’s eyes.

Still, the man was dead and Pepper was attending his funeral, so she probably shouldn’t be thinking such things about him. Especially given what he was to Tony. After the death of Howard Stark, Tony’s father, Pepper was well aware that Obadiah had stepped in. The older man had basically been like a mentor to Tony. He might have been able to break away from Stark Industries and make his own company even, but instead he’d stuck around and helped Tony build the company to even greater heights then it reached in his father’s time.

For this to happen so soon after Tony’s three month long captivity, it was just too much. It wasn’t fair, not in the slightest. And yet… Tony had yet to shed a single tear. All throughout the service, throughout every part of the funeral, Tony had been like a statue. Silent and still, he’d watched the proceedings with flint-like eyes. Pepper didn’t know what to make of it. She would have expected at least a few tears… but maybe he was all out of those after Afghanistan. Maybe this was just who Tony Stark was now.

As for Pepper herself, she didn’t really know who or what she was these days. She was still carrying out her duties as Tony’s PA after all, but she was also now warming his bed… and he was treating her more like his girlfriend then his employee. She liked that, admittedly. More than she should ever be willing to say out loud.

Nobody really knew yet though. Otherwise, she might have been hooking her arm in one of his, giving Tony her body heat to help him through his grief. Instead, Pepper stands at his side, her hands in front of her holding a black purse as they watch the casket be lowered into the hole in the ground and dirty be tossed atop it.

As soon as the last bits of the ceremony are over, Tony turns and begins to walk back to the car. Pepper follows him of course, and she’s glad she does… because they’re ambushed on their way.

“Mr. Stark, my condolences for your loss.”

Pepper’s eyes widen as the man from the Press Conference… an Agent Phil Coulson if she recalled correctly, steps out in front of them. Tony stops and so does Pepper, even as outrage fills every fiber of her being.

“Agent Coulson! I’ve told you multiple times now that we’ll pencil you in when it works for our schedule. The day of a funeral is NOT that day.”

The smile on the Agent’s face is entirely placid, but also a little bit apologetic at least. Still, he doesn’t back down.

“And I do apologize for that Ms. Potts, but it’s very important that we debrief Mr. Stark on the events surrounding his escape from Afghanistan.”

Pepper, knowing that Tony must be on the verge of shutting down here, rallies and prepares to tell Agent Coulson off again… only to be stopped, much to her surprise, by Tony himself.

“Sure. Let’s do a debrief, right here, right now.”

Even Coulson, despite his smile never dropping, looks just a little taken aback by that.

“I’d be happy to move things somewhere slightly more comfortable if you…”

“No. No need. Why bother with comfort, Agent? I’ve always worked better in trials by fire anyways. Besides, you’ve been trying so hard to meet with me… I would hope you already have your questions memorized. Fire away, because this might just be your only chance.”

Tony sounds cold. But Pepper can’t blame him. The Agent from… what even was it? God, the agency name had been such a mouthful that she’d forgotten it entirely. Strategic something? Still, the Agent had it coming. Perhaps he realizes it, because he just bows his head and begins.

“How exactly did you escape captivity, Mr. Stark? You were found after you managed to get away from the Ten Rings. Walking in the desert with your injuries… how did you ever get away?”

Pepper won’t lie. She’s a little curious herself about that one. Doesn’t mean anyone, including her, is entitled to an answer. But Tony still gives it… in typical Tony Stark fashion.

“I made a magical set of armor, enchanted it with the ability of flight, and flew away Agent.”

After a beat of letting that ridiculous statement hold in the air, Tony rolls his eyes.

“How do you think I got away? I blew everything up. Surely you spooks already knew that much.”

Pepper winces at the caustic tone Tony is taking with the mild-mannered government agent. And yet, again… she can’t blame him. They’ve already answered questions from every other agency except for this one. One would think they would share the information with one another.

“We found where you were held, yes. There wasn’t much left to do forensics on, as I’m sure you were aware.”

Tony just snorts at that.

“Yeah. I figured. Pretty simple, Agent. There was a man who saved my life not once, but twice. Ho Yinsen. He performed the surgery that kept me alive long enough for the Ten Rings to demand I create weapons for them. And then, when I decided I was going to blow them all to kingdom come instead, he’s the reason I lived. He got me out and blew the place to hell behind me. And so I walked and I walked until Rhodey found me.”

Pepper… hadn’t heard this part before. Surely… surely Tony is lying, right? He’s never been suicidal for as long as she’s known him. And yet, at the same time… he’s also never been kidnapped and tortured by terrorists for months on end either. It’s entirely possible that Tony had reached the point of no return in those caves. He’d thought he had no way out, and so he’d decided to take as many of his captors with him as possible.

It still makes her heart clench, that she almost lost him to his own bombs. Only this man, this Yinsen, brought him back to her. As Pepper is silently sending a prayer of thanks to Ho Yinsen, Agent Coulson is slowly nodding.

“Is that your official statement, Mr. Stark?”

Was the man calling Tony a liar? Pepper’s eyes narrow at that. Sure, she’d just been thinking that Tony might be deceiving the Agent a few seconds ago, but it was one thing for her to call her boss slash boyfriend a liar in her own head and another entirely for Agent Coulson to question his word. She half-expects Tony to rake him over the coals for it and verbally tear him a new one, but instead he just gives the Agent a cold smile.

“It is.”

Another nod and then Agent Coulson looks like he’s about to turn away. Only, he stops at the last second and looks back at them… at Tony.

“I wonder Mr. Stark… have you heard the latest out of Afghanistan?”

Tony just raises an eyebrow at that, prompting the Agent to continue.

“Over the last two weeks, every last bit of known Ten Rings activity in the region has gone dark. Every weapons depot, every camp, every outpost. The caves have been found leveled and buried under thousands of tons of rock. The weapons have been burnt to husks and left unsalvageable. And the Ten Rings themselves are said to be on the run… those who have survived this long anyways.”

Pepper feels a shiver run down her spine and before she can second guess herself, she leans forward.

“Was there a question in all of that, Agent Coulson?”

The look that the Agent gives her is… it’s like he holds up a mirror to her face. Only after he looks her in the eyes does Pepper realize she’s stepping in to defend Tony from… from what exactly? The assertion that he’d had anything to do with whatever had destroyed an entire terrorist organization in under a week? It was ridiculous. And yet…

“Good.”

Tony’s one-word answer, delivered into the stillness caused by Pepper’s realization, causes them both to look his way. His cold smile remains on his face, not reaching his eyes.

“It sounds to me like they got what they deserved, Agent Coulson. My hat off to whoever dealt with the scum. Let me know if they come forward… so long as they aren’t just more terrorists, I might go so far as to shake their hands and give them a million dollars.”

His words are carefree, but his tone is anything but. Pepper watches as Coulson slowly nods before delivering a somewhat chilling final line.

“We’ll be in touch, Mr. Stark.”

As he leaves, Tony huffs and mutters an ‘I’m sure you will’ under his breath. Pepper finds herself at a loss for words. The whole interaction had left her… uncertain, to say the least. But when Tony looks at her, there’s a sudden warmth in his smile that was absent before. And before Pepper knows it, she’s swept up in his tempo once again as he slides an arm around her waist and starts walking them to the car. She shouldn’t let him perform such a public display of affection… but she can’t help herself, in the end.

-x-X-x-

“F-Fuck… Tony! Please… h-harder!”

Tony grunts, even as he grips Pepper by her hips and fucks her from behind. He’s already going pretty hard… he doesn’t want to hurt her. But damn if she doesn’t seem to want it. Of course, she probably thinks he needs it rough or something. Probably worried about him and his reaction to Stane’s death.

Truthfully, Tony hasn’t spared the dead man more than a single thought since he keeled over, outside of keeping up appearances. Obadiah had died at a certain Charity Event that Tony had attended in a show of defiance in his last life. The same event where in the previous timeline, Obadiah had gone ahead and told Tony he was trying to get him removed from his own company, ‘for his own good’.

It felt fitting, even if Tony did feel a little bad to ruin the event by having Stane suffer from a massive heart attack in the middle of the entire Gala. He’d assuaged his own guilt by doubling the donation he’d given from last time, making sure they were flush with cash if nothing else. Hopefully by the next year’s gala, everyone would have forgotten that someone died at the previous one.

No, Tony barely had any thoughts for Obadiah Stane at this point. The man was dead, his terrorist connections were dead, and the other traitors in Tony’s company were already slowly but surely being unknowingly squeezed for all they were worth.

Tony was more focused on Agent Coulson and SHIELD at this point. He knows he probably should have acted differently back at the funeral. But seeing Phil after all this time was… rough. Especially when Tony knew for a fact that the man had survived Loki’s assassination attempt on the carrier. Oh, he’d never actually made a fuss about the knowledge. It clearly wasn’t the sort of thing he was supposed to know.

He’d just let it simmer. Fester, if you will. And apparently, that had resulted in him behaving rather coldly to the SHIELD Agent here in the past.

Dumb of him, Tony knew it. But… he would have to deal with SHIELD sooner or later. And… even his ill-advised attitude today could be turned to his advantage. SHIELD almost certainly thought he was behind the destruction of the Ten Rings in Afghanistan. But Tony was confident they had no idea how he’d done it… yet.

They’d be cautious moving forward, and that meant Tony had the time he needed to make his next moves. Obadiah Stane’s death, the destruction of Raza’s sect of the Ten Rings, and the complete eradication of his illegally sold weapons and the first Iron Man Armor… it all meant Tony was ready to move on to Step Two in earnest now.

Beneath him, Pepper lets out a rather lewd cry, her inner walls clenching down hard along Tony’s cock. Letting out a lustful growl, Tony tightens his grip on her red hair, having formed it into a makeshift ponytail and wrapped it around his fist. God she looks good with her hair back in a ponytail.

Pulling her head backwards, forcing her spine to arch, Tony leans forward so he can breathe in Pepper’s scent. At the same time, he murmurs to her.

“Pep. You listening?”

“I… I… y-yeah… l-listening…”

He slows down for the moment, still delivering deep and full thrusts to her body, but no longer jackhammering in and out of her at quite a breakneck speed.

“You’re bisexual, aren’t you?”

As he asks the question, a hundred instances both from the future that never was and the past flit through his mind. He’d noticed. Oh yes he’d noticed. His sexy, red haired PA who had gone on to become his girlfriend and then the CEO of his company and then his wife… he’d noticed. He just never dared confront her about it.

After all, there was no harm in looking, right? Even when it was ‘Natalie Rushman’. No harm in looking. Hell, Tony had surely looked, especially when the infamous Black Widow had exchanged her business attire for that painted on black catsuit.

Pepper swung both ways. She had a thing for both men and women. Tony hadn’t dared broach the subject in the other timeline. They’d had enough relationship troubles as it was without him trying to convince Pepper to bring another woman into their bed.

But that was then and this was now. Tony had set aside his insecurities, hesitation, and worries from the previous timeline. And while he wouldn’t say that he and Pepper were in a hardcore Dom-Sub relationship, there was no denying that Tony had taken charge and Pepper had let him.

Still driving into her slowly but deeply, Tony waits for Pepper’s answer. Until finally, quietly whispered, she whimpers out a single one.

“… y-yes…”

Tony smiles and leans in close, kissing and nibbling along one of her ears for a moment until he gets an involuntary moan from her. Then, he speaks.

“I love you with all my heart, Pepper. Please believe that. But… I don’t think either of us will be fully satisfied with just each other. At least… not physically.”

Did he have to go this route to get the things he wanted done? Perhaps not, but it did seem the most… expedient way of doing things. Only, there was only one way forward as far as Tony was concerned. If he was going to use sex and seduction to help him get his way with some very intelligent women who could help turn Tony and his loved ones into superhumans… then he only wanted to do so with Pepper at his side, acting as his right-hand woman.

“I don’t… I d-don’t understand…”

Tony hums into Pepper’s hair at that… and then just lays it out, plain and simple.

“I want you to help me bring another woman into our bed, Pep. Not just any woman either, but a very important woman. I want to seduce her with you, draw her to us… and drain her dry of every ounce of usefulness she has both in the bedroom and elsewhere. I want us to change the world together, Pepper… and have some spectacular threesomes at the same time.”

Even to his own ears, Tony sounds crazy. Maybe he should have thought this through a bit more before he broached the subject. But talking to SHIELD had left him… on edge. Still buried inside of Pepper, he prepares for her to finally have enough of him and the things he’s saying. He prepares for her to buck him off, ready to pull out of her immediately if she demands it of him. He prepares for Pepper to reject his idea and break up with him on the spot.

“… okay…”

… He prepares for failure so much that he doesn’t actually register success at first. Tony blinks after a moment, finally processing what Pepper just said. Then, a wide grin spreads across his face. Letting go of her hair, he instead wraps his arms around her, hugging her from behind as he leans over her.

“Yeah? You like the thought of that, Pep?”

The keening whine she gives him in response to his light teasing just has Tony chuckling as her insides clench and squeeze down around his cock. He begins to pick up speed again, fucking the beautiful red head even harder… all the while, planning their first conquest in his head.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Obadiah Stane is dead. SHIELD is getting suspicious. Tony is too busy seducing Pepper into agreeing to threesomes to care though.

I know some people have said that Tony needs to bring Rhodey into things asap. But I wonder if you guys still have that feeling after this chapter. Tony isn't going to stop doing murky/dark/villainous things by the way. Stane isn't the last person who's going to die to pave Tony's brighter future. And James Rhodes, while he's Tony's best friend, is also a patriotic soldier of upstanding moral fiber.

Still probably going to make him War Machine down the road, but bringing him in on everything Tony has planned (especially the illegal parts) just seems like a bad idea...

See you all tomorrow!