Chapter Text
‘To being right.’
Tanya frowns, slowing her glass of wine to a stop in mid air.
‘I am not toasting to that,’ she states flatly and Harley frowns as he leans against the counter of the bar.
‘To a resounding success then,’ he tries again only to be met with a shake of her head.
‘That’s not correct, either,’ she says, blatantly ignoring his answering groan as she whips out her phone and scrolls to the article in question in one smooth, practised gesture. ‘We still have straggler viewers who are questioning the validity of our content, as well as critiquing the choice to have the article hosted by Filigree. And then you have the population on Twitter who have started a debate on the freedom of speech which is always a classic-‘
Harley stops her short by pressing her phone face down on the sleek black marble of the bar, one eyebrow half raised in despair.
‘But the response is overwhelmingly positive.’
She pulls a face. ‘Yes but that’s only to be expected. Senator Hall’s negative stance on the Starks isn’t exactly private knowledge. And we got lucky with one of Hall’s classmates leaking the full video instead of the doctored version. Also, we can’t get complacent. Senator Hall is most likely playing it cool since he’s up for re-election soon and he doesn’t want to ruffle any more feathers. Once he’s secured his place, there’s bound to be-‘
At that, Harley physically pushes her glass of wine back into her hand with a pointed look.
‘Less journalising, more wine.’ He says as he sips at his own glass. ‘We’re celebrating! It’s not as if you don’t deserve a break.’ He promptly leaps over the bar and takes a seat at a barstool next to her. ‘How much sleep have you gotten these last few days?’
‘I am not telling you that.’ She sips at her drink and blinks. ‘This tastes too expensive.’
‘Are you surprised?’ Harley cocks an eyebrow at her. ‘This is Pepper’s bar after all. Do you really think she’d half ass her selection?’
‘Fair point.’ Tanya swivels around in her seat to glance at the sheer expense of living space that extends out behind her, at the sunken living room with its plush couches and carefully watered plants, at the floor to ceiling windows that give her a complete view of their cinematic surroundings. The scatterings of life throughout the room is the only sign that the entire floor hasn’t walked straight out a magazine and even they seem to accentuate the overall feng shui of the place. A bundle of books that haven’t been organised, half used tissue boxes and askew arm chairs…
Tanya narrows her eyes. She doesn’t think Pepper Stark could half ass something if she tried.
There’s a part of her that’s still reeling from the fact that she’s drinking wine that most definitely costs more than her ren t in Stark Tower, but she’s trying to play it cool, if only for Harley’s sake. The look on his face when she’d stepped out of the elevator and audibly gasped...well, there’s no question about him bringing it up to spite her in the future.
She shifts in her seat, suddenly all too aware of how out of place she seems here. The sheer amount of upscaled tech embedded into every surface is almost daunting, even if she is simply here to make a simple house call. The household AI, F.R.I.D.A.Y., had even asked her whether she’d prefer to walk on heated floors and she’d been too overwhelmed to even poke fun at Harley’s apparent lack of choice. Tanya sips deeply at her glass and hopes Harley doesn’t notice her nervousness.
‘So what now?’ the man in question says, lolling his head towards her in a languid motion.
‘Well, right now we’re taking some time to evaluate public response.’ Tanya responds slowly, gathering her thoughts as she places her glass down once more. The article isn’t exactly a huge divergence from what they typically do, but the shine and sparkle of it didn’t fool many people from what it really was. It’s an interesting new format, one that exploits the public’s pre-existing opinions of Filigree to ease the way into the discussion of less...vapid topics. Tanya would be lying if she says she wasn’t excited to see what the initial success of the article could mean for subsequent projects, but Harley didn’t need to know that. ‘After that, we’ll send an analytics report to Meredith, and if the overall outlook seems good, we’ll try to cultivate more discussion about-’
She stops mid sentence to gape at Harley’s glazed over expression. ‘Oh, I’m sorry. Am I boring you?’
He startles, eyes widening, and he’s about to respond when another voice cuts him off.
‘I wouldn’t take it personally. I for one am very interested in what you have to say.’
In an instant, Tanya is scrambling to her feet, her heart in her throat, because yes, that is Pepper Stark and yes, she is drinking her wine. And god, Pepper looks as amazing as ever, clad in an ice blue dress that hangs off her shoulders like it was made for it. It takes Tanya a second to find her voice, her brain still short circuiting, but the redheaded woman simply stands in the doorway, clearly pleasantly amused as she patiently awaits a response.
‘Mrs Stark!’ Tanya finally manages, probably far too loud judging by the wince Harley shoots at her. ‘I-I didn’t realise you would be home today. Mr Keener-’
‘He’s a real troublemaker, isn’t he?’ Pepper cocks her head, letting her auburn hair spill down across her shoulder and Tanya nods furiously while Harley raises his eyebrows and wordlessly downs the rest of his wine. ‘I hope this surprise isn’t too confronting, but I simply wanted to thank you for your efforts.’
A second too late, Tanya realises she’s gaping. ‘I-uh. It was-’ she stammers, fighting down a scowl as Harley none too subtly nudges her forward with his foot.
‘In fact -’ Pepper continues, steadfast. ‘I’d love to have a conversation with you about it. My PR manager has informed me that your article’s inspired a lot of more self conscious discussion around my daughter, and we’d all hopefully like to make that more of a common occurrence. Wouldn’t you agree?’
‘Absolutely!’ the younger woman returns instinctively, only to have her heart jump in her throat as her brain realises what she’s just agreed to. ‘I...uh. Now?’
Pepper smiles, and it reaches her eyes.
‘Only if you can spare the time,’ she responds simply and Tanya practically trips over herself to get all her things back into her handbag. At the sight of it, the older woman moves as if to leave, her fingers trailing gracefully at the doorframe as she kindly waits for Tanya to catch up. Only when she’s sure Tanya will follow does Pepper’s gaze shift to the man still lounging at the bar, and her lips turn up into a teasing smirk.
‘Don’t forget to clean up after yourself, Harley,’ she says and Harley’s eyes widen in response. ‘We wouldn’t want a repeat of 2026 now, would we?’
Harley groans into his wine, his exasperated sigh misting up the glass even as he gives a cursory salute.
‘Aye-aye cap’n,’ he grumbles and yes, Tanya absolutely makes a note of this to follow up on later. When she glances back at him with a sly look to convey that, he meets her gaze with a steady look of his own, lifting his glass back up in a mock toast.
‘Good luck,’ he mouths, and it's all she can do to not simply beam at him. There’s no doubt in her mind that he’s orchestrated this whole thing, and the rising wave of gratitude threatens to break the moment she opens her mouth, so she settles for a helpless shake of her head and a smile.
And judging by the way his eyes glitter, she can convince herself that it got the point across just as well as any shitty headline would have done.