Work Text:
Pepper Potts stood in the elevator leading to the penthouse, exhausted and ready to see her boys after her weekend away at a board meeting in Chicago.
She slipped her aching feet out of her heels and picked them up, shifting her bag up onto her shoulder as the elevator dinged open.
She took one step out of the elevator before she was grabbed by the wrist and pulled into the kitchen, a wide eyed Tony shushing her urgently.
“Tony? What the-”
“Okay, so, first things first,” Tony said frantically, glancing into the living room quickly before turning back to the woman with a nervous smile, “Hi.”
Pepper stared at him. “Hi? Tony, what’s going on? Where’s Peter?”
“Um, okay, uh, everything’s fine. We’re fine, he’s fine,” Tony insisted, more for himself than her. “He’s in the living room, we just, uh, had a little bit of an accident last night.”
Pepper’s eyes widened, “What-“
“He’s fine,” Tony insisted again. “Nothing’s broken, it just looks a lot worse than it is,” he said desperately.
Pepper placed a hand on his arm to stop him. “Tony, calm down, what happened?”
“He, uh, he was just playing in the living room yesterday, and he just, like fell, and bumped his nose on the coffee table,” Tony said with a pained smile.
“Bumped?” she asked doubtingly.
“Crushed?”
“Crushed?”
“It’s not broken!” Tony insisted. “We x-rayed it, it’s just bruised, I swear!”
Pepper sighed exasperatedly. “Tony-“
“One of the worst bruises without a break that Bruce had ever seen-“
“Tony-!”
“He’s fine! I’ve been giving him Tylenol, a-and we’ve been icing it, and Bruce has been coming up to check on him. There’s no concussion he’s just- it just- looks awful.”
Pepper pinched the bridge of her nose. “How bad?”
Tony shifted nervously. “Just- just don’t react. I’m keeping him out of school for the week, we already had a meltdown when he was brushing his teeth this morning and saw himself in the mirror.” He glanced into the living room again, before adding. “Really, just- you can’t react.”
Pepper braced herself as the pair padded into the living room and around to the front of the sofa until the 5 year old came into view.
It took everything in her not to gasp.
“Hi, buddy,” Tony said softly to the boy who lay tiredly on the sofa, blinking up at them with puffy eyes.
Pepper figured that Tony had been exaggerating but if anything, he was playing it down.
Peter lay on the couch with his face swollen as if he was partially through getting his makeup done for a production of the Grinch. Both eyes were black and bruised, heavy lines stretching across his face making him look like he’d never had a moment of sleep in his life. Both nostrils had rings of dried blood around them and the entire centre of his face had taken up a brownish purple color.
“Hi, sweetie,” Pepper hummed, sitting down beside him.
“How are you?” Peter just avoided her gaze with a small whine, burying himself even more into the sofa.
Pepper smiled sympathetically at him before holding out her arms in question.
The boy eyed her for a moment before crawling into her arms, burying his aching face into her chest with a whimper. Pepper hummed comfortingly as she rocked him back and forth, kissing his curls. “It’s gonna be alright, sweetie.”
“‘Urts,” he mumbled, and Pepper’s heart broke as she felt the young boy’s lip tremble.
“I know, sweetie, but it will feel better soon. Nony’s been taking good care of you, huh?” she asked.
Peter just gave a small nod. “Nony g-gave me a-a juice-juice pop,” he said, looking up at the woman.
Pepper gasped. “A juice pop! Well aren’t you lucky,” she marveled.
Peter gave a small smile. “A-An’ he said I could h-have anothew one, a-aftew lunch!”
“Well, Nony is being very nice, isn’t he, Petey? Do you think I could have one too?” she said, winking at Tony.
“No,” Peter laughed. “They- They only foh li-littew kids!”
Pepper huffed, “Well, what about Nony? Does Nony get one?”
Peter squealed, burying his head in her shoulder. “No! Nony i-is a gwoan up!”
“But he’s a little grown up!” she added, smiling at the child’s happy giggles.
“Hey!” Tony began, but couldn’t even pretend to be mad at his little boy’s smiling face. “How about I go get started on lunch so we can have that other juice pop?”
Petey just giggled as Pepper tickled his sides.
Tony smiled at the pair, in awe at how the two fit perfectly into his life.
‘Thank you’ he mouthed to Pepper, who continued to tickle the child.
Pepper just smiled back at him, hugging the boy close, careful not to bump his swollen face as he laughed.