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If five years ago, anyone had told Maria Hill that she would be neighbors with Tony Stark, she probably wouldn't have believed them. Now that she was neighbors with the inimitable Stark, she merely sighed and got on with her life as best as she could while ignoring his friendly jibes in Steve's direction. The only reason she put up with it though was Pepper.
"Please tell me you have coffee and not the old-fashioned, thrice-ground brew Steve swears is saving us money."
Pepper laughed and invited her into her suite, where the kitchen hummed with all manner of ghastly robotic humming. "Caffeine is necessary to survival here, isn't it?"
Maria eyed the robot rolling toward her with no small amount of suspicion, mollified only by Pepper matter-of-factly plucking the two filled mugs from its tray and handing one to Maria.
"I have intake for three new students and a student altercation to arbitrate," Maria griped and sipped the coffee. Stark could only be trusted to be Stark—that is unreliable, too smart for his own good, and a show-off—but he could certainly program a perfect cup of coffee and she sighed in deep happiness before draining the mug while Pepper looked amused. "Remind me why I took this job?"
"Because you care about the greater good of humanity," Pepper replied promptly, "and rescuing its superpowered members from their own tendency to ignore or abuse their gifts. It's why I do it."
"And here I thought it was to keep Tony out of trouble," Maria commented wryly.
Pepper sipped her own coffee and ordered a refill for Maria before leaning back comfortably against the counter. "I think it was more that you were advertising for responsible superpowered individuals to help mold the next generation and I had just inconveniently acquired some superpowers of my own."
Extremis. Maria nodded. "Of course."
"And Tony agreed," Pepper went on reasonably, "so we came. You could use his technology and understanding of artificially enhanced individuals, and I could help students with more explosive capabilities."
The robot came back with a second mug.
"Remind me to give you a raise," Maria said gratefully and downed it too. "I better get back and get ready."
"Let me know if you need anything."
"Just keep Tony from destroying my kitchen or making it sentient when he fixes the garbage disposal and we'll call it even."
Pepper gave her that charming smile she had ruled board rooms and Stark with. "I'll do that."
After the third time Steve forcibly decommissioned kitchen appliances—that is, the personable coffee maker, the health-conscious oven, and the bossy little toaster—and Stark complained of murder, Maria had banned future AI technology from the school. He just sometimes conveniently forgot.
That night, Pepper showed up at the door of Maria's suite wrapped up in a thick robe with a blanket in her arms.
"Can I borrow your couch? He's at it again."
"Kick him out," Maria suggested bluntly. "He has a workshop or three."
Pepper just sighed heavily. "If I kick Tony out of the suite now, there will still be a mess of parts I don't want to deal with. I'm playing student counselor tomorrow to Skye, remember?"
Maria grimaced. Skye wasn't fun to attempt to counsel on a good day, and now that her proactive powers training was getting ready to replace suppression and recovery, she was more sarcastic and uncooperative than ever. "Come in, but not the couch. Steve put in a proper pullout bed in the study for you."
"You trained him well," Pepper said with a smile.
She greeted Steve on the way in when he looked up blearily from a mountain of training evaluations bleeding from the red pen in his hand.
Pepper shot an amused glance at Maria. "You should put him to bed," she mouthed.
"He's a big boy," Maria said. "If he wants to self-sabotage, he can be my guest."
"I heard that," he said dryly.
"Pepper's staying over tonight," Maria informed him. "I may need to send you over later to get Tony to turn his music down."
Pepper shook her head sadly. "He probably won't even notice I abandoned him."
"Serves him right," Maria answered.
Steve prudently abstained from commenting.
Wanda stopped by in the morning to beg for non-sentient kitchen supplies that could just bud out of telling her healthier or better alternatives to her grandmother's old Sokovian breakfast recipes.
"Stark does not know when to restrain himself," she told Maria, eyes snapping with displeasure.
Steve handed her the small appliances she needed and agreed solemnly. "Maybe sometime we can exchange recipes."
Wanda smiled softly. "I'd like that."
They were a gossipy little school for those with gifts and powers, everyone up in each other's business, if primarily because ninety percent of what went wrong was due to someone else's powers gone awry. But it was nice, Maria thought to herself, to have a neighbor like Pepper to commiserate with.
She held up a bottle of vodka. "Natasha's gift for those with super speedsters underfoot."
"What did he do this time?" Pepper asked as she dumped her purse and papers on the table inside her door.
Maria followed her in and kicked her shoes off under it. "He set the carpet on fire."
"How did I miss this?"
"Wanda handled him, and May handled the insurance company." Maria sighed and sank into the couch that was admittedly more comfortable than hers and Steve's. Stark was a handful, but he had excellent taste in furniture. "You were busy."
Pepper brought in the bottle opener and two tumblers. "To girl time."
Maria smiled tiredly. "I'll drink to that."