penistower | let's perform my favorite little scene ⋆

Tony had gone through a rough patch following Ultron, but Pepper had been there with him for all of it like always. She was always so good to him, and he's trying to be more engaged and take cues; and not give her any more reason to worry. So when she comes to him in the lab, he whirls around immediately, focused entirely on her. Usually he would at least take a moment to finish up whatever he was working on, but he can't let things continue to degrade. He needs to be a part of their solution.

And when he catches the look on her face he's glad he got his head out of his ass in record time. "Pepper, what is it?" A second later it sinks in that something is wrong. He's popping up out of his seat and going to her without being asked, but what comes next is the last thing he could have possibly expected. Pregnant? It doesn't make sense. He floats away for a second before forcing himself back into the moment.

"Are you sure?" he asks, then grimaces, realizing it was dumb. He shakes his head as if he could etch-a-sketch what he just said. Of course she is or she wouldn't come to him with this. He reaches out for her arms, uncertain but knowing they should be close for this. He can't be a father, he's going to let her down. She already takes care of him, won't this just be twice as much on her plate? Breathing in shallowly through his nose, he rubs his thumbs against her elbows and tries not to look absolutely terrified.

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"By all means," he insists, knowing she was teasing him anyway. Tony steps forward and tries to put the steps in order in his head, worrying his lip as he doubtlessly overthinks it. Once she frees up the pan, he puts two more eggs into the mixing bowl and starts whisking them gently with a frown on his face. "Did you put milk in here once or did I imagine that?"

"Sometimes," Pepper confirms with a slight nod as she takes a seat. "You can put some in if you want. I usually add milk if I'm making an omelet, but skip it with scrambled. No reason, really, it's just a... thing."

She thinks that probably didn't clarify the matter any for him as she takes a bite of eggs, chewing happily. She really was peckish.

It didn't. Cooking baffles him so much because there are no set rules. Not that he ever follows rules to begin with, but you know. "Okay," he says with a frown, looking to her for guidance as he goes to dump the eggs into the still hot pan.

She gives him an encouraging smile, though it twitches a little in fond amusement; she can see how flummoxed he is by this. It's still so funny to her that someone so brilliant can have no clue when it comes to cooking.

Nibbling on her own eggs, she reminds him before he can toss the eggs into the pan, "Add a bit of butter in the pan first. When it's melted, pour in the eggs and then just stir the eggs with the wooden spoon in slow circles until they start to take the right shape."

"Butter, right." He moves to comply, setting the bowl down while he melts some butter then tries again. Here goes nothing, right? He lets out a breath, feeling strangely nervous all of the sudden. What if he screws it up? It never filters down that they're just eggs -- it's okay if they're not perfect. He remembers a full second later to pick up the wooden spoon as he forces a smile over his shoulder at her. "Can I put some cheese in mine?" It's not permission so much as help me please, but yeah it comes out funny and he knows it.

Luckily she's fluent in Tony Stark after all these years, interpreting him with ease. She knows he's nervous; but she also knows that deep down this isn't really about the eggs. She has to wonder if Tony himself realizes that, though.

"Sure," she says easily, polishing off the last of her scramble. Slipping out of her seat, she gets out the bag of grated cheese for him, coming to stand next to him. "Though in that case you might want to make this into an omelet. Otherwise the cheese melts all over the pan and makes a bit of a mess." Quirking a smile, she runs one hand down his back affectionately. "Or you can take that risk and deal with washing the pan after."

"You know me," he's saying as he takes the bag. "I like to live on the edge." He dumps some cheese into the pan after the eggs, frowning at the mixture. This is the moment of truth.

"That's certainly so." Welp. The eggs aren't yet entirely set thanks to the low heat, so at least the cheese melts nicely into it. Stirring it further might be a little challenging with the melty cheese, but the result doesn't look too bad. Thankfully. Pepper's not sure what parallels Tony might have drawn from that.

"Give it a little stir if you can," she says, motioning with a finger. "It smells good," she realizes after a moment, which takes her aback a little because cheese and eggs don't really smell like much, normally. Odd.

He gives her a strange look, but doesn't comment on it, doing his best to move the eggs around the pan. They seem to be firming up and generally looking better than he expected them to. "What do you think?" He carefully tips the pan a little so she can see into it better, lifting one eyebrow.

"I think that you could get the hang of this cooking thing yet," she smiles, leaning in to peck his cheek lightly. "Give them just a little longer and they're done. You can turn off the heat already."

Tony smiles at the kiss, switching the stove off before moving around her to grab some bread. He wants toast now. "Thanks for the lesson," he says while he slots some gluten-free nonsense into the toaster. "If you teach me now I'll be primed and ready for all your whims." That came out a little racier than he'd meant it but he's not sweating it.

"You're very welcome." She chuckles and raises a brow at the (unintentional) double-entendre, getting out some juice and yogurt from the fridge. "Careful. I'll be awash in pregnancy hormones soon enough; I might take that offer very literally one of these days."

Some pregnant women had a spike in their libido, right? She's pretty sure that could be a thing.

He gets down a plate and leans back against the counter, unable to keep his smile from growing into something more mischievous. "I live on the edge, remember? Careful isn't in my vocabulary."

"You just remember that, later," she counters with a smirk, fond and playful in equal measures as she takes out glasses for them before seating herself again. "Your eggs are probably done."

let's perform my favorite little scene ⋆

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