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Pepper looked down at the mis-shapen monstrosity of so-called knitwork in her lap and couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry or scream. All the videos she’d watched had made it look so easy. She was supposed to be alternating knit and purl stitches, except she kept losing track of which one she was doing, and apparently dropping stitches left and right as a result.
It was all so stupid - she was the CEO of Stark Industries, for god’s sake! She could read the most complex financial reports with ease, charm government officials with one hand tied behind her back, and even manage to keep her husband more or less on track with his paperwork. Why was looping yarn together with two pointy sticks - something humans had been doing for over fifteen hundred years - so goddamned difficult?
“Honey - I’m home!” Tony sang out as he came through the door. Pepper scrambled to hide the evidence of her failed project, but she was too late. “Huh - what’s all this?”
“It’s s-supposed to be a b-blanket for the b-baby,” Pepper stammered as tears welled up in her eyes. Okay - so apparently she was going to cry. “But instead,” she threw the whole mess to the floor, “it’s a disaster!”
“Aw Pep,” Tony pulled her into his arms, “it’s okay.”
“No it’s not!” she shot back with a sob. “I feel so dumb!”
Tony took her face between his hands. “Hey now. Don’t talk that way about the woman I love.” He kissed her gently, then sat them both back down on the sofa. “You’re trying to acquire a new skill, and sometimes that takes longer than you think it should. Did I ever tell you about when Rhodey took me bowling for the first time?”
“No,” Pepper sniffled. She knew he was trying to distract her, but she appreciated the effort. “What happened?”
“I failed spectacularly. Gutter balls galore.” Tony grinned at the memory. “He kept trying to coach me, explaining how I had to hold my hand, about the follow through and all the other little details of a successful throw.”
“I could see how it was supposed to work,” Tony continued. “Basic physics and all that - but I just couldn’t get the ball to cooperate.” He gave her a sympathetic smile. “It sucks to find something you’re not immediately good at, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, it does.” Pepper realized that was the problem; she wasn’t used to having to learn something new from scratch. And it probably didn’t help that she was growing an entirely new person in her belly at the same time - ‘baby brain’ was definitely a thing.
“Sounds like you have a choice, then. Decide whether or not you want to put in the effort, knowing that you’re going to do it badly for a little while. Or,” he pondered for a moment, “I could try to teach Dum-E and U how to knit.”
“Now that would be a disaster,” Pepper chuckled, and pressed a kiss to her husband’s lips. “Thanks for talking me down.”
Tony gave her a soft smile. “Anytime, sweetheart.”