Work Text:
It's no coincidence that Tony has a bed that could fit six people. No coincidence that lately, when she lightly throws him backwards into it, he's been lying there quiet and still, exhausted, rather than coming up to meet her with a playful smile. As Pepper kicks off her heels and follows him down, leaning over him with a smile, she's acutely aware that he's slower of late, that his hands reaching out to stroke her at the waist are almost too gentle.
It's no coincidence that lately, Tony's been more word than gesture. Quiet verbal instructions to FRIDAY, when with JARVIS he was always movement, always fire. The kiss they meet in is warm but slow, and as Pepper trails her hand up his flannel-clad arm, he lets his hand fall loose, lets her gently click the release on the new gauntlet prototype, steel grey with just a dash of red. The glove falls free, releasing his hand, and he lightly flexes his fingers, then tucks both his arms back around her. There is something fragile about him Pepper's never seen before, or never since he was back from that cave in Afghanistan, those first few days blinking in the sunlight; lately, she feels it in her bones, feels it in his kisses and the way his fingers ghost her hair. Feels that since Ultron, since the new Avengers formally took over from the old - since JARVIS died - something about Tony is drifting quietly away, going somewhere she can't follow.
Having Rhodey around would be great at a time like this.
"You've been working late again," she says, when they break the kiss.
Tony doesn't open his eyes, doesn't move his head from her shoulder.
"Lots to do," he says. "Setup, tune-ups, upgrades. You know every fight things break, new attackers, learn how to break 'em. They just keep comin'. Cap needs new body armor, Hawkeye needs arrows, and that's outside of regular maintenance."
"They don't appreciate you," she says quietly. "The new Avengers. So they can't have you."
"They don't have me," Tony huffs, but he smiles a little. "They just have a piece of me."
"Well, they can't have that. I know you can't send them to SHIELD any more, but there's got to be another way, Tony."
"Not right now. Not if we want them to be safe."
Pepper questions it, sometimes - whether that's what they want. Sometimes she thinks that maybe if Tony stopped providing for them for a while, they'd appreciate him more. Let them earn their keep, she thinks, and then sighs, knowing that parts of SHIELD would sooner kill them all than equip them right.
"Rhodey's got his own room at the mansion," Tony says, bringing her back from her thoughts. "Think he'll still come over to see us?"
There's a quiet whirring sound over them, as close as it gets to an AI clearing its throat.
"Colonel Rhodes is here, boss," FRIDAY announces, and Tony snorts softly and asks her to show him up.
Rhodey is not in the War Machine armor, having shed it and showered on the way up the tower. Instead he's in a pair of Tony's jeans and one of his sweaters, carrying a blanket, and he's careful when he gets into bed between them, like he, too, is aware of this new fragility, this tenuous hold.
"It's good to see you, Rhodey," Pepper says as he settles down between them, bringing the blanket with him to cover them all. Tony reaches over him to rest a hand on her side, kisses him softly while stroking her skin, and suddenly all is as it should be, as much as it can be in the world they live in now. "Tony was just wondering if you'd still find time to come see us."
"Hey, honeybear," Tony whispers. "It's been a while, huh?"
"Hey, Avenging is hard. Especially in a post-Hydra world, where the team doesn't exactly love each other."
"They sure don't. You've got us for that."
Rhodey laughs, and Pepper reaches over to fluff some pillows for them all. It's just easier, some days, to have all three of them around; it takes them both to look after Tony now, takes some of the weight off her after long days at work. And Rhodey always bears new gossip, new confirmation that the world is saved, new confirmation the team is working fine, even though there's infighting, squabbling, tears.
"They don't appreciate me, so they can't have me?"
"Nah," Tony says. "They can't have you 'cause you were ours first."
"That's true enough." He was Tony's first, or Tony was his - first when they were young and stupid in college, then older and somehow stupider in 2008. And then they were Pepper's, or Pepper was theirs, right after the great trash fire of 2010, when Rhodey carried Tony when she couldn't. And now it's nearly 2016, and there's an alien army out there and threats upon human threats at home, and even when they have everything, all they have is each other.
She kisses Rhodey's shoulder through the sweater he's wearing, and he reaches back for her hand and holds it, and Tony smiles.
"Hey," Rhodey says. "We should take a vacation, the three of us. I'll carry the suit in case anything happens, so you don't have to, Tony."
"Sounds great," Tony says. "Only suit I'll worry about is the three-piece kind."
"I'm sure the paparazzi will love that."
"Oh, they will, Colonel Cleans-Up-Real-Nice," Pepper says, and Tony grins.
"You'll have to wear a bikini, Pep. Really get on their good side."
"How about I wear a tux to dinner, and a bikini under?"
"Oh, you know what I like," Tony says, as Rhodey reaches over his head for the repulsor gauntlet Pepper left there, looks at it knowingly, and sets it aside. Then he reaches for Tony's hand and starts to gently massage his wrist, and Tony's breath catches hard with relief.
"We both know what you like," Rhodey says, as Tony lets them look after him. "And we know what's good for you, too."