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Stephen sleeps like the dead. That's supposedly warranted, given he doesn't get much sleep at all, and especially so when he's been pushed to limits the night prior and their activities had wrung his stamina dry. Tony wakes up to the sight of him littered with their love bites, finds himself admiring the blooms of red bruises spanning along the surface of his pale, alabaster skin, tucked in his usual awkward skew between him and Pepper and the sheets tangled in his long, lanky limbs to leave the other two occupants of the bed bare and cold. Not unbearably so, he notes, with the bed sleep-warm and their shared body heat.
All this to say, there's not much risk of potentially waking Stephen up when he's completely knocked out like this, so he and Pepper can safely speak over the top of their guests’ scruffy crown—though softly, and in hushes, still—while cautiously eyeing him for any signs of rousing.
Pepper’s lips part, hesitant. Unsure where to start. The words have been hanging between them for a while now, and so has the growing inevitability stemming from the asleep figure sandwiched by their forms, but regardless it seems difficult to pluck them out of the air and speak them aloud.
“What would you do,” she finally begins, “If I were to say that I had… some sort of inclination—towards someone,” Her eyes flick briefly to Stephen, “but not one that diminishes my feelings for you?”
Tony takes a preparatory breath. “That’s—good,” he breathes out, “And this is maybe going to sound a little asinine, but—” An awkward shuffle. “You should. Because I think this—inclination you have… I— I might have it, too. But not in the way that would detract my feelings for you.” He considers his wife, the way the light slipping through the shutters stripes her form, the shadows cast over every subtle groove of her tentative expression. Lovely. “So I wouldn’t necessarily find it a concern.”
A soft smile, softer crinkles forming at the edges of her eyes. He has to resist the urge to lean forward and plant a kiss over them. “Well, we’ve always been—open, about this sort of thing, anyway. I guess. And he’s been spending nights with us for a while now. So I think it’s time we make it clear to him that this is—what we want is—more.”
“More than a fling,” he fills for her, “That it’s more than just attraction.”
“Yes. Of course.” She nods in agreement. “Something—deeper.”
Tony nods back. He eyes the small, inexplicably endearing divot formed between Stephen’s brows. Dreaming, perhaps. He hopes they’re good dreams. “But how exactly… do we go about telling him that?”
He flicks his eyes back up to meet Pepper’s and finds hers trained on Stephen, admiring. “Wouldn’t it be easier if he were just eavesdropping us right now?”
That surprises a chuckle out of him. “Yeah. Would definitely save us from one hell of a disaster of a conversation over breakfast.”
Pepper only hums, trails it with a soft chuckle of her own. They share a laugh, muffling the sound into their pillows. When it subsides, heads leaning closer until Tony can see the blemishes and aging lines on her face only partially blocked by strands of Stephen’s wild bed hair, Pepper’s face turns tender, though her lips are tight with worry.
“I… Honestly, I don’t know.”
“Hm.”
“I’m only worried that telling him outright might… scare him off, somehow.” She shrugs.
“He’s a piece of work, isn’t he?” Tony mutters, though he says it with no real bitterness. “We sort of have to be… delicate, about this sort of thing, I guess. We’ve been tip-toeing around it for a while now.”
“Do you think he notices?”
“What, that he’s welcome to take down his token stoicism around us? That vulnerability won’t do him harm from us? That we love and adore him so much that even I can’t imagine the three of us not being together, or if there was ever a time he wasn’t here in our lives?” Pepper only stares at him. “I don’t know how we could be more obvious.”
She looks askance. “It’s just—funny. He practically appeared out of nowhere, one day.”
“Through a portal, if I remember correctly. Bringing news about the end of the universe and all that jazz.”
She probably meant to scoff, but it came out as a snort. “Yeah. And I’m just about immediately—”
“Smitten?” Tony finishes for her. “Because I am, too.”
Pepper nods. “I don’t know how I couldn’t be. He’s… charming. And very, very, obnoxiously smart. Even Morgan loves him. He’s practically her third parent.”
“God, yeah. I heard her say I love you five thousand to him the other day. Can you believe that? And she only loves me three thousand.” They laugh. Then Pepper shrugs, looking self-conscious.
Stephen stirs in his sleep, catching both their attention. He mumbles something unintelligible, lips smacking together. The smile that it makes on Tony’s lips is mirrored on Pepper’s. Smitten, indeed.
“But I don’t want to frighten him,” she admits, voice lowered cautiously, “I don’t want to make him leave. Ruin what we already have, between us three.”
Tony gives her a smile in understanding, snakes an arm carefully to tangle their fingers together. He squeezes her hand. She squeezes back.
“Well, I mean, we don’t have to—jump into that sort of conversation… immediately,” he assures, “Like I said. This is delicate—though we’re already too openly affectionate to each other for subtlety to do any good.”
“Then what should we do?”
“Be more—deliberate, maybe?” he suggests, “Make a point of showing him that he’s… welcome, if he wants it. If he’s interested.”
Pepper seems thoughtful for a moment as she considers this, blowing out a soft breath. “Alright,” she says. “Alright, we can do that.”
He rubs a thumb over the back of her hand.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
—
When Stephen wakes up, the bed is still warm under him, and though empty he could blearily make out the shape of Tony and Pepper the pillow still holds. The sheets still smell of them. He lays there for a good few minutes—drifting in and out of consciousness—before the sunlight burns his eyes, vision turning a bright red beneath his eyelids, and the sheets inevitably turn cold. That’s when he decides to properly wake up.
He winces at the ache in his muscles, though pleasant, as he moves to sit up, carefully making his way out of the bed to trudge out of the bedroom. There’s soft pattering in the kitchen. His socked feet softly pads down the hallway and slowly turns to the source of Tony’s quiet humming.
“Morning, dear,” Pepper greets him as soon as she spots him by the doorway, sitting wide awake with a high ponytail and a Stark pad on her hands. Ever the workaholic.
“Hey, doc,” comes Tony’s greeting as he goes about his usual routine of making morning coffee. His eyes rake down Stephen’s bare torso, which pushes a weak chuckle out of him.
“Like what you see?”
“Just admiring my handiwork,” Tony mutters into his mug, taking a sip. His eyes don’t leave Stephen.
“Ours,” Pepper chimes in, eyes trained on the Stark pad.
“Of course.”
Stephen only shakes his head with another laugh, perhaps one that’s too openly comfortable, though he doesn’t think either of them mind with him letting loose a little bit. He claims the seat across Pepper’s, who flashes him a warm—albeit cheeky; that glimmer of mischief in her eyes reserved for only a particular bunch—smile over whatever graphic she’s currently examining. He hisses at the stinging ache that shoots up his spine when he shifts.
“Sore?” Tony’s brow raises as he places a mug of tea in front of him. He nods at it. “Your favourite.”
“Pleasantly so,” Stephen assures, and couldn’t help the sheepishness that rises there. “Thank you.”
Tony hums back satisfiedly, leaning in to softly ruffle his hair, lingering in the dark locks. He unconsciously leans into the touch, but couldn’t bring himself to pull back when he realises. They’ve made it clear that there’s no such thing as being too familiar or too comfortable with them.
But there’s something different here. Stephen hardly notices, however, distracted as he is by Pepper suddenly leaning forward to brush her lips at his temple near where the root of his greys begin, and Tony’s thumb softly brushing the shell of his ear before his hand stops its travel downwards to squeeze his shoulder gently.