Work Text:
1. Sick
Tony groans softly as he rolls over, trying to get comfortable. His stomach rolls, and he curses it. He's been sick enough times already for one day.
He should have known two days ago when he'd been hit with a persistent headache, nausea, and a runny nose. Pepper's been so busy lately that she hadn't caught on until this morning. He'd woken her up scrambling out of the bed and for the bathroom. Since then, he's been restricted to the bed.
He'd tried to do some work with his phone, but his thoughts are a jumble and his head still throbs. Looking at the screen too long makes him sick and dizzy and forcing himself to concentrate only worsens the throbbing in his skull.
He doesn't bother looking up when he hears the door open. He curls up on his side, hoping Pepper isn’t going to force him to take anymore disgusting medicine. He might complain about it, but she's done nothing but take care of him since they woke up at five.
The mattress shifts with her weight. He turns his head to look at her, but she just smiles and kisses his temple. "Try to get some sleep, okay?" She says while settling against his back. She hooks her arms under his and holds him close to her chest.
She's been up since five, working and taking care of Tony. Working from home is always harder. Not many of the people she deals with are willing to take phone conferences over actual meetings, but that's the least of the issues with not being in her office. Tony's not exactly the most pleasant sick person either, but he's been drifting in and out for the last forty-five minutes. The medication is catching up with him.
The little, soft snores coming from in front of her tells her that he’s finally out. With any luck, he’ll wake up feeling better.
~
Injuries with Tony are common ground. Thanks to the suit, they’re usually cuts and bruises. Some bruises worse than others. He’s had some deep tissue bruises from metal being crushed into his limbs or hitting a building with enough force. There are always bad days. She doesn’t react as poorly as she once did when she sees the suit riddled with bullet holes or scraped clean of the paint that she knows is nearly impossible to remove. So long as he’s okay or talking, she can deal with it.
He comes home, tired and banged up, and wanting nothing more than something hot to drink to sooth his throat and to curl up with Pepper. She’s busy, so he resigns himself to hot chocolate and curling up on the bed for a little while. He just needs some rest before he gets back to work on the modification he has in mind for the finger joint issue.
He has JARVIS find something mindless for the background, nothing he has to pay close attention too, which is likely how he ends up watching Hoarding: Buried Alive.
He’s halfway to sleep when he feels arms snake around his waist. He jumps slightly, but the kisses to the back of his neck put him at ease. The familiar smell of Pepper’s perfume fills his nose, and he smiles a little. He doesn’t say anything, only rests his hand over one of her arms and settles in. Maybe he can just get a small nap in before getting back to work.
~
Pepper wakes when she hears the soft, incoherent mumbling that quickly turns into pleading as Tony turns over and over on the bed. She’s flat on her stomach on the edge of the bed, but he still manages to whack her arm softly.
She sits up and reaches to gently shake his arm. “Tony,” she calls softly, “Tony, it’s Pepper. I’m here.” It’s okay, she thinks, but she doesn’t voice the words. She doesn’t know what nightmare he’s having, but it’s clear things aren’t okay.
“Lights, 30 percent,” she orders JARVIS with her voice just slightly louder. She speaks with an even tone so the AI knows she’s talking to him. Her attention turns back to Tony, and she tries again to gently shake him awake and reassure him that she’s there. When he does finally wake, he bolts upright. She barely manages to keep from getting knocked into, but it doesn’t deter her attempts to calm him.
“Tony,” she calls, reaching to cup his cheek, “You’re okay now. You’re with me.” Some days she wants to curl up in bed and hold him close and never move again. She doesn’t want to let him get back into the suit, but there’s a rational part of her that knows that Tony is just as much Iron Man as he is Tony Stark. She can’t ask him to walk away from that, even if Iron Man is the cause of a good deal of his nightmares, anxiety attacks, and insomnia.
Tony turns to look at her after a moment. His chest is still rising and falling a bit too quickly, but he’s not in any danger of hyperventilation. He seems to be calming. She can see recognition setting in, and he reaches to touch her face with his hands.
She lets him touch until he’s convinced himself that she’s real and safe, and that that means he is too. He sinks back against the mattress and mutters a soft apology.
Pepper pulls him close, wraps her arms tight around him, and tangles their legs together. Maybe she can’t stay here with him forever, but she can hold on tightly until they have to get back to reality. He sinks into the mattress and her grip. He doesn’t go back to sleep, and neither does she, but he does breathe easy as they both lie awake, staring off into the darkness outside.
~
Pepper finishes cleaning the bandages out and pretends she doesn’t spend time in the bathroom pacing the nervous energy out. She doesn’t want him to see and worry. She isn’t the one that got shot out of the sky, comm link fried and coordinates unknown. Two hours. Two hours is how long it took from the moment she caught wind of the situation and the moment the Avengers pulled Tony out and free from his armor. His reactor damaged, but still working enough to keep his heart going.
They’d had to pry the back-up from her fingers. She was too scared they would do it wrong. They could send him into cardiac arrest, and he was already in rough shape. Bruce promised to take care of him, and Tony was home a few hours later with JARVIS monitoring his every output for a hint of the slightest variant in his condition.
He’s fine, or so he keeps insisting. Everything had been exacerbated by the reactor. The five fractured ribs, lung full of blood, concussion, and broken leg say otherwise, but she knows it’s really not as bad as it could have been.
“Pepp,” Tony calls. His voice is a little hoarse as he speaks.
Pepper pops her head out from the bathroom, “Yeah? Do you need something? I can-”
“Come lie down,” Tony pats the empty spot next to himself. When it looks like she won’t budge, he adds a soft, “Please?”
Pepper hesitates for a moment, but there’s really not much wonder why Tony gets away with so many things. She can be a bit of an enabler at times.
She crawls onto the bed carefully. She doesn’t reach out and pull him close like she wants to, but her fingers find their way into his hair.
Tony rolls his eyes and wiggles around, trying to get closer. The pain in his sides makes him gasp and stop. Pepper puts a hand on his arm and leans over him, trying to examine his features.
“You shouldn’t move too much,” Pepper chides softly.
“Good, then you do the work,” Tony says with an edge to his voice that almost sounds like a threat. He’s going to keep moving until he gets what he wants, so she gives in and presses her chest against the line of his back. She’s careful as she drapes an arm around his waist. Her fingers splay against his stomach. He relaxes against her, which helps her to relax.
“Love you,” he says as she kisses the back of his head.
“Love you, too.”
~
Pepper sighs as she finally steps through the elevator onto the floor that she and Tony share. She’s had a long day. It’s nearly twelve in the morning when she walks in. Tony’s already in bed, according to JARVIS, which doesn’t surprise her. JARVIS had him at seventy-three hours with only three micro-naps to substitute the eight hours a night he should be getting.
After pushing himself that hard, he’ll likely be out for the next twelve to sixteen hours, which is fine. He needs the rest. The problem is that she’s not sure how to get into bed without waking him up. He’s a light sleeper. Not quite as bad as some of the Avengers, but it can be difficult to move around their room without waking him up.
She considers crawling into the bed and staying on her side, but she hates being so close without touching him. She doubts she could manage that anyways. He would notice the bed move, and he sleeps better when she’s close. Thanks to New York, Tony has even more trouble sleeping than he did before. He’s been in insomniac for as long as she’s known him. Add in the situation with Killian, and he struggles to sleep without her close. It speaks to how exhausted Tony is that he’s asleep now.
She crawls under the covers after pulling on a t-shirt and panties. She scoots up behind him as he sleeps and wraps her arms around his waist. He stirs with a soft groan before turning his head slightly. She can practically see the gears trying to turn in his head and fills in the blanks for him with a quick kiss to the cheek.
That does the trick. He settles again with a hint of a smile on his lips. His fingers take one of her hands, and he curls them together. She doesn’t fall asleep quiet as easily as he does. She watches the glow of the reactor against the sheets, letting her mind work through the day, processing and filing it all away for later.
~
Pepper wants nothing more than to scream and maybe kick something, but she doesn’t. She goes home, grabs a heating pad, and curls up in bed with one of Tony’s t-shirts pulled on over her head and a pair of his boxers. They’re lose enough that they don’t press into her abdomen, which she’s grateful for. She’s in enough pain from the cramps.
Two major contracts had fallen through. She had a lot riding on one. The loss of the other is more like a kick in the gut, really. She can work around it, but she doesn’t even want to think about the migraine that’s going to come with trying to work around the other one. She had been assured, multiple times, that everything would turn out fine.
The morning had been a mess. She’d woken up late, leaving her with only enough time to grab a quick shower and some pain killers. The coffee machine had apparently broken, and her PA was too busy trying to help her get everything together for the day to go out for he. She hadn’t bothered to ask anyone else. The pain killers hadn’t done much for her pain either, and, to top it off, she had to kiss up to a sexist pig that ended up turning the contract down anyways.
Yes, she is on her ‘cycle’, and no, that doesn’t make her any less competent nor is it anyone’s business, thank you. It had taken all of her will power to keep her thoughts to herself and focus on the topic at hand.
She startles when something brushes against her arm. She looks up to see Tony offer her a little smile. “Sorry,” he says softly and holds out three pills and a water bottle. She swallows the pills and chases them down with water.
“Bad day?” He asks softly. He crawls onto the bed and wraps his arms around her. He rubs her abdomen, knowing it won’t do much for her pain but hopes the touch helps in some other way.
“Something like that,” Pepper answers, melting into the touch a little. Her eyes close, and she tries to relax. Tony doesn’t say anything else. He has JARVIS put on some soft music and dim the lights while they lie curled up together, Tony wrapped around Pepper. Maybe the day isn’t completely horrible.