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Tony can’t stop thinking about Stephen.
The omega is usually so poised, so self-possessed. Seeing him so bedraggled after his heat had been a shock. It had been more than two weeks before Stephen had shown up at another Avengers meeting, and he’d still looked just a little too thin. Tony was certain that he’d needed every minute of that time to recover.
Is it even possible for him to recover completely from a heat that bad? Wouldn’t the wear and tear accumulate over time? It’s been five months since Titan, which means that that would have only been Stephen’s second heat since viewing all those futures. Had the first one been easier? Harder?
When he finds himself researching heat disorders, Tony knows he has to talk to Pepper.
He brings it up after dinner, when they’re sipping an evening coffee. Or, well, he starts, but all he manages is, “Pep, I’ve been…” Been what? Thinking about another omega? Technically true, but misleading.
“Is this about all the research you’ve been doing on heat disorders?” Pepper asks.
Of course she always simplifies things for him. “Yeah,” Tony says. “I found out recently that someone I know is having really difficult heats, and he swears there’s nothing to be done, and I—” Tony cuts himself off and makes a frustrated noise. “I can’t stop thinking about it and I don’t understand why.”
“It’s normal to worry about a friend,” Pepper begins, but Tony shakes his head.
“I don’t actually know him that well. Not that he’s not a friend, but it’s not that kind of worry. I get that kind of worry.”
Pepper gives him a thoughtful look. “Did you see him? Just after his heat, I mean. Is that how you found out how hard they are?” Tony nods. “It’s probably a compatibility thing, then.”
“Compatibility?” Tony says blankly. He knows the theory, but… “Shouldn’t our bond cancel that out?”
Pepper laughs. “Tony,” she says fondly, “our bond is about as shallow as it’s possible for a bond to get. We don’t even sleep in the same bed regularly. It’s not capable of canceling out much of anything.”
“You can’t blame me for assuming!” Tony protests. “The whole point of us getting mated was to fend off criticism! Doesn’t it need to send out, you know, ‘taken’ signals to do that?”
Pepper shakes her head. “The rings and the paperwork do that. Pheromones are weak enough outside of heat that no one really uses them for signaling. Perfume and cologne generally mask them, anyway.”
“Huh. So because I saw him right after his heat—”
“—his pheromones were strong enough to register with you,” Pepper finishes.
“Not to be crass,” Tony says carefully, “but… he smelled terrible.”
“Tony, that probably means you’re more compatible, not less,” Pepper says, fighting down a smile. “He’d just come out of a heat so traumatic that it had you looking up heat disorders. His pheromones were obviously signaling intense distress. The more compatible you are, the stronger that signal is, and the more unpleasant you’d have found it.”
“Right.” Tony makes a face. “Biology is not my strong point.”
“I promise not to tell,” Pepper teases.
Tony turns the idea over in his head a few times. Compatibility isn’t the be-all and end-all of bonding, he knows, but there are still stories. The intensity of the sex is the stuff of pornos, but the depth of the mating bond… that’s the real fairy tale. Perfectly matched pairs came damn close to sharing emotions. To have something like that…
“If you want to pursue something with him,” Pepper says softly, “you know I’d never stand in your way.”
Tony shakes his head. “He said he wasn’t capable of bonding.”
“Don’t assume it’s that simple,” Pepper says. “Technically, you’re not capable of bonding, because you’re already mated, but mating bonds can be broken. Whatever’s going on with him, it hasn’t stopped him from producing pheromones you can react to. Besides, bonding isn’t all there is to compatibility, or to relationships. Just…” she waved a hand, “keep an open mind.”
This is a side effect of my viewing our possible futures, Stephen had said. And then there was the moment of grief Tony had seen in his eyes.
“I get the feeling that nothing about this is simple,” Tony says slowly.
Pepper gives him a small smile. “Well. You always do find things more interesting the more complicated they are.”