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Everyone was acting… weird.
He couldn’t put his finger on what was so weird, but it was just… well… weird.
It started with Rhodey.
It was Tony’s fifty-fifth birthday the upcoming Saturday, and he wanted to get together with Rhodey and see a show, but Rhodey declined, saying that he had a charity event upstate. Tony asked what it was for and missed the stutter in his response as he responded “pediatric cancer.”
Weird.
Then there was Peter. It was their usual lab day, working on the suit and whatever passion project Peter was up to that week, but he was distracted. He couldn’t look Tony in the eyes and was uncharacteristically quiet. Tony knew for a fact that he had a big presentation in AP Spanish that he had been practicing for weeks, and he had a lab in AP Chemistry that he had been talking nonstop about ever since they had the pre-lab packet, and spring break was in just a week and their Fab Five (Happy, May, Tony, Pepper, and Peter) had a trip to the beach. He knew that he had plenty to talk about, so why wasn’t he?
Tony was about to try and pry a conversation out of Peter, but the teen stood up suddenly. “I have to go.”
“You have to… go?” Tony questioned.
“Yup, uh, sorry, Mr. Stark, but I’ve got uh, I’ve got uhm plans! Yes. I have plans with Ned because we were gonna uh we were gonna try to build the uh Sandcrawler. So uhm I gotta go do that. I’ll see you this weekend. I mean I won’t see you this weekend. Because why would I see you this weekend? We don’t have plans.” He gave a rushed thumbs up. “Bye, Mr. Stark.”
Weird.
Then there was Happy. He needed to confirm a shipment of tech that was coming into town, and was hoping that Happy could swing by, but the GPS showed that he wasn’t at the office or at the site or even in his or the Parker apartment, but half an hour out of the way.
“What are you doing in Staten Island?” Tony asked.
“Just shopping for some beach clothes for the trip next week.”
“You don’t have any?”
“Don’t have much time to go to the beach working for you,” he replied blankly.
“Why Staten Island, though? There’s gotta be closer shops in Manhattan or Queens.”
“Look, I’m holding up the line right now. Could we talk about my fashion choices some other time?”
Tony pursed his lips. “O… kay. I was just hoping you could make sure today’s shipment for 1-TA has arrived smoothly.”
“Will do.”
“By…” The beep indicated that Happy hung up.
Happy hung up on him.
Weird.
Then, there was Pepper. The rational side of his brain reassured him that it was nothing, but the incessant insecure voice that pried at his certainty insisted that there was something more.
She was checking her phone a lot. More than she usually does, especially considering that she was the type of person who goes on digital detoxes outside of work. She left the room a lot to answer the phone, and even then, they were in hushed whispers.
It’s nothing . That’s what Tony kept trying to tell himself but what if it wasn’t?
Was it the company? Was it him? Was it the company and him?
Pepper entered again, sitting on the couch and kissing him on the cheek. “Sorry, honey. It’s just work.”
Just work. So it’s the company.
“Do you need to talk about it?” he asked softly.
“Nothing to talk about.”
Weird weird weird.
He texted Peter asking if he wanted to come up for the weekend, something Peter would jump the chance to say yes to, but instead replied with a “sorry!! may and happy and i have weekend plans.”
Vague. Vague and weird.
He asked Happy about it and he said the same thing. “Yeah, we have plans.” But what plans?
His actual birthday came along and things seemed to be fine. Pepper made him french toast, they went to see Frozen on Broadway with Morgan, they got fish and chips and smoothies, and then Pepper left Morgan with the babysitter as they went to his birthday dinner.
It was a lovely restaurant. Typical fancy American cuisine. Good steaks, good burgers, good wine. But Pepper was distracted again. Checking her phone, checking the time.
Was whatever she was waiting for so important that she couldn’t even enjoy his birthday dinner with her?
And that made him feel guilty. He felt horrible for thinking that! He made her CEO, and that means that she had responsibility. He had no right to feel so jealous of her divided attention, but was it so much to wish that she be present?
When the waiter asked if they wanted dessert, Pepper interjected before Tony could open his mouth to say yes, saying that they had dessert at home to get to. She’s checking her phone again. They rushed out of the restaurant, as if they were in some sort of rush, but on their walk back home, Pepper took the chance to window shop in every single little shop they passed. That was until she checked her phone ( again ) and told him that they had to get home. Any other day he wouldn’t have noticed the panicked edge in her tone, but tonight he did.
When they arrived at the penthouse, he was impatient. “Pep, what’s going on?”
She smiled, but not with her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve been off all night. No, all day. Maybe even all week. What’s going on?”
“Let’s talk about this inside, okay? After you.” She motioned to the door.
He frowned, but opened the door. “I just don’t know why you…”
The lights raised, gold confetti flying everywhere. “Surprise!”
His eyes went wide, mouth dropping. “W-what?”
Morgan ran up to Tony, a tiara with the words “Birthday Princess” in bedazzled letters on the front. “Happy Birthday, daddy!”
He felt his eyes prickle with tears. “Thank you, sweetpea.” He looked around. Happy, May, and Peter. Rhodey and the other Avengers. Everyone looking to him with anticipation. “Wow. Uh, thank you everyone. Thank you so much. I really don’t know what to say.” He looked over at the dining room table. Creampuffs and cupcakes (from his favorite bakery in Staten Island - that's why Happy was there) and a big lopsided three-tiered cake.
“Don’t worry. It’s not the gross fondant. It’s the good marshmallow kind,” Peter said.
“Did you… did you make this?” Tony asked.
Peter scratched the back of his neck. “Yeah, I did. It’s just the boxed stuff, but I read this article on how to elevate the taste of a boxed cake, so I replaced the water with milk and the oil with butter and I added mayonnaise which like yeah, it sounds super gross, but actually makes it super moist. Or, at least, that’s what the article said. When I leveled the cakes, I got a taste, and I think it was moist, but that was before I added the simple syrup. Oh! That’s like sugar water that soaks into the cake to make it moist. Ugh, I hate saying moist so much, but that’s a good thing in cake world.”
“Wow. Thank you, kid.” Tony turned to Pepper. “Did you set this up?”
“It was Peter’s idea. He did most of the planning, but I had to do all of the logistics and the financial stuff.”
“There’s only so much I can do when I’m seventeen years old and have fourteen dollars in my bank account.”
“I… thank you, Peter. Really. This is amazing.”
“C’mon. I’ll get you a slice.”
The cake was overcooked and over-doused with simple syrup, but it was still the best cake he had ever had.