1

The Avengers are out for the day. Steve calls it team bonding. Clint calls it a waste of time. They’re headed to the Shawarma place that the team usually orders out from. Steve thought it would be good to go out for lunch, instead of locking themselves in the tower.

Clint disagreed vehemently but was outvoted.

They’re almost there when a voice calls out. “Anthony!”

The team turns around to see a woman in a beautiful green sundress with a bodice that laces up at the sides. “Lucy!” Tony rushes over to her and pulls her up in his arms with a strength they did not know he possessed. He twirls her around before depositing her back on the ground. 

Clint takes note of the way Tony’s hands rest on her waist and the way they lean in close to talk. Tony says something that makes her laugh. They embrace once more before she waves a taxi down. She kisses Tony on the cheek and then gets into the car.

Tony wanders back to the team and smiles at their confused faces. “What?”

“Who is that?” Clint asks immediately.

Tony looks almost surprised at the question like he hadn’t expected Clint to ask. He rubs the back of his neck, thinking. “Lucy, my… friend. She was out of town, didn’t know she was back.”

They all clock his hesitation at the word friend. Last Clint had checked, Tony and Pepper were going better than ever. In his younger days, CLint might have been suspicious, but he felt he could give Tony the benefit of the doubt. He’s fought for Pepper.

Clint shrugs, and the team continues on towards the shawarma place. But the incident stays in his mind.

2 

“Tony’s late.”

“Again.”

“Be patient, JARVIS said he’s coming.”

Clint rolled his eyes at Steve's words. He’s just about to say something else when Natasha elbows him in the side. The tell-tale ding of the elevator brings her attention to the sound of Tony’s footsteps, and the conversation he seems to be having on the phone.

“- see you tonight. Alright, I gotta go, darling. Love you.” He’s slipping the phone into his pocket as he rounds the corner. “Pasta? Nice.” He sits next to Bruce and immediately digs in.

“Who was that Tony?” Nat asks

“Pepper.”

The spy had taken a look at Pepper’s schedule, not to be snoopy, just to know where she was going to be, and the CEO is in meetings from sunrise to sunset, and Pepper never has her phone on in meetings.

“Hm, right.” Natasha digs into her dinner but keeps an eye on Tony for the rest of the night.

3

Bruce heads down to the lab, to tell Tony that dinner is ready.

After a while, they realized that simply asking JARVIS to inform him of dinner only works 35% of the time, so they have to send someone down to get him.

Bruce ended up with the short end of the stick this time and was sent to get him.

The door to the lab wooshes open and he spots his fellow scientist hunched over his computer. “Tony. Hey Tony!” he walks over, realizing Tony is likely in the zone and won’t be brought out without a nudge.

As he gets closer he spots what Tony is working on. It looks like a website where you custom-make your own bouquet. Tony looks about halfway done with his design, the bouquet of lilies tied together with a bold green and gold ribbon. He taps the other man on the shoulder, “Hey, it’s dinner.” 

Tony nearly jumps out of his skin, he turns, clutching his chest. “Jesus Bruce, I have a heart condition, you can’t sneak up on me like that!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Bruce holds his hands up in surrender, “you weren’t responding, and it’s dinner.”

“Oh,” Tony nods and shuts the computer off before he and Bruce head to the elevator.

“So, flowers for Pepper?” Bruce asks after asking JARVIS to take them up.

“What?”

“The flowers,” he clarifies, “the bouquet you were working on. For Pepper.”

“Oh, yes.” Tony rubs the back of his neck. “For Pepper.”

“Right.” Bruce nods and they sit down for dinner with the rest of the team. As they eat something nags at him in the back of his head, like there is something important he needs to remember.

Later that night the question comes to him as he, Natasha, and Clint sit in the common area, watching a movie.

He leans over after it hits him, to ask without Clint hearing. “Hey, Nat?”

“Yeah?” She whispers back.

“Is Pepper allergic to anything?”

“Yes, lilies and hydrangeas. Why?”

“Um. Nothing.”

4

The Avengers sit around the kitchen table for lunch. Much like breakfast and dinner, Steve often insists on it. Lunch is much more casual, they bring their own food, and you have the decision to opt out, but Steve tries to gently discourage it. Tony walks into the room, wearing a nice pair of pants and one of his less-worn band t-shirts. He has his red sunglasses settled on his face and is checking his phone.

“Tony, are you joining us for lunch?” Steve asks immediately.

“Hmm?” He looks up and notices the eyes on his. “Uh, no, going out to lunch.”

“With whom?” Natasha asks.

Steve notices the way she says it, with thinly veiled suspicion.

“Lucy and Pepper.”

At that Bruce and Clint also perk up, both with wariness written on their faces.

The elevator dings as the clack of heels is followed by Pepper entering the room and smiling brightly at Tony. She waves at the collected Avengers and stands next to Tony to see his phone. “Is she coming? Or are we meeting her there?” She asks.

Once again, Bruce, Natasha, and Clint all narrow their eyes as Tony says, “She should be here in just a minute then we’ll go together.”

As he finishes speaking, the elevator dings one more and Steve hears another set of heels. He vaguely remembers the woman who had exited the elevator from a few weeks before, when they had gone out for Shawarma, and Tony had run into her. Her thick black hair falls over her shoulders, framing her face delicately. She wears a long skirt that brushes just above the ground and a flowy blouse. Her dark red lips curl into a smile when her eyes land on Pepper and Tony. 

“Pep!” Her accent is vaguely English, but Steve couldn’t place it for the life of him. She sweeps Pepper into her arms and leans down slightly to place a kiss on Pepper's cheek.

“You two are always so much happier to see each other than you are to see me.” Tony pouts.

If it’s possible for Natasha to look more pissed off, she does at Tony’s pouting.

Lucy links arms with both Pepper and Tony, “Oh stop complaining, Anthony, we like you just fine.”

Pepper giggles, “Oh yes, and your money.”

“I knew it! I knew you only loved me for my money!” Tony continues dramatically as Pepper and Lucy drag him off to the elevator.

“Have fun at lunch,” Steve calls before the doors close. Tony waves at him and they are gone.

After a second, he turns to his team and asks, “What was that? You guys seemed so mad.”

The three of them glance at each other, and a realization dawns on them, looks of realizing they are not the only ones who noticed something strange. They beckon him closer and Natasha begins with what she had noticed.

5

“I just can’t believe Tony would do that!” Steve complains.

“We know, Steve.” Clint almost thinks it was a mistake to tell Steve what they had managed to notice. He’s got old-fashioned sensibilities, and the idea that Tony is cheating on ‘a stand-up gal like Pepper’, in Steve’s words, was unacceptable.

“And that’s why we need to tell her.” Bruce taps the button that will take them to the floor of the tower Pepper’s office is located on. Tony is in his lab, in the middle of a science binge. So the team gathered, confirmed Pepper had no meetings, and filed into the elevator. Bruce is terrified to give the news to Pepper. She puts up with so much from Tony already, he is moody, acts like a child, and can often neglect his relationships, but Pepper still stays with him.

And what’s worse is that Pepper and Lucy seem to be good friends, which will make it all the more devastating.

After they had told Steve and they had realized they were not the only ones to notice something there was a long discussion about whether or not to tell Pepper. Eventually, they came to the conclusion they shouldn’t meddle, but it would also be immoral to keep the fact that her husband is cheating on her. They would tell Pepper, then they would stay the hell out of it.

They walked from the elevator to the door of Pepper’s office, and Natasha knocked.

“Come in.”

They file into Pepper’s office and Natasha and Steve sit in the comfortable chairs that are facing Pepper, Bruce, and Clint behind them. She finished checking some papers and then looked up at them. “Hi guys, is something wrong?”

“Pepper,” Steve starts, “we hate to be the ones to tell you this, and we are so sorry, but we think Tony is cheating with Lucy.”

As he spoke she had raised a cup of coffee to her lips. It pauses before she sets it down. “Why do you think that?”

“Just friends don’t look at each other like that,” Clint starts.

“He called her ‘darling’, over the phone, and said he loved her,” Natasha continues.

“He bought flowers, and when I asked him about it, he said they were for you, but you’re allergic to lilies.” Bruce finishes.

She is staring at them, and Steve recognizes the shock she must be feeling. “Right, I think I need some time to think about this.” 

“Of course.”

They leave, and Steve feels his heart break a little when the door closes and he thinks he can hear the beginning of tears.

Pepper cackles, and tells JARVIS to call Tony.

+1

“We need to have a talk.”

Clint glances up from his phone to find Tony standing in the middle of the living room. He looks mildly pissed off, and Clint assumes that after they left, Pepper had called Tony to tell him it's over. He doesn’t really feel bad, Tony is his friend, but cheating on someone as wonderful as Pepper should be illegal.

“About?” Natasha asks, her legs over Bruce, and her feet in Clint’s lap. Steve sits in one of the armchairs, with his sketchbook.

“About you guys not minding your own business.” Clint looks up again and sees both Pepper and Lucy in casual clothing standing behind Tony.

Pepper and Lucy both look amused and it confuses Clint enough for him to give Tony his full attention.

“I mean,” Tony sighs, and sits on one of the ottomans, “it might be our fault for not just telling you chuckle fucks. But I figured you are all adults who should know to mind your own business.”

“We don’t mind our business when it comes to affairs,” Steve says.

“Okay,” Pepper puts up a hand to halt any other discussion, “let’s be clear here, no one is cheating on anyone.”

“Oh come on, it’s clear that Tony and Lucy are together!” Clint complains.

“Yes, they are, but so are Lucy and I,” Peppers explains.

“Pardon,” Bruce coughs, “What?”

“The three of us are a couple.” Lucy clarifies.

“But the two of you are married,” Steve states.

“Yeah, Stevie,” Tony says, “but that’s just because Lucy’s technically not a US citizen. Or a citizen of earth.”

“What?”

“She’s an alien, like Thor,” Peppers says.

“Your government doesn't recognize polygamy, but in the tradition of my people having more than one spouse is very common,” Lucy explains.

“Since people expected Pep and I to get married, we did. Officially Lucy is our ‘friend’, but in our hearts and in the eyes of Lucy’s people, we’re married.” 

“That's actually kind of romantic, I didn’t know you had it in you,” Pepper teases.

“Why didn’t you tell us in the first place?”

The three of them glance at each other before Lucy starts to giggle. However the giggles soon turn to full-blown cackles, and she vanishes in a flash of green sparks only to reappear in a new form.

“Holy shit! It’s Loki!” Instantly the sound of fighting fills the tower.

Pepper wraps her arms around Tony as he groans, “Why did we have to marry the most dramatic person in the galaxy?”

“Because we love him, dummy.” Pepper chides.

“I guess. Plus we both like his ass.”

“That is true.”