They make their new home in the Stark building suite, shuffling there late one night with Rhodey, carrying suitcases and heavy hearts. Pepper walks ahead of them to the door and unlocks it quietly, heading to the bathroom on tired feet.

There'd been press conferences and statements to make and it was back to work as usual after Tony's surgery. They'd stayed with Rhodey while re-construction on the tower was sped up for them. They only needed one car for their belongings. Most of Tony's things are sitting beneath the water by his old home or blown to smithereens, and what little that did survive the explosion has been moved to a hangar by S.H.I.E.L.D. Pepper has the only key on a chain around her neck. Tony trusts her to keep it safe, so she does.

Rhodey leaves them to it as soon as he's sure they're okay. How much time has passed now; a week? Rhodey won't admit it, but he's wary of her.

She'd catch him staring and raise an eyebrow – "I'm not going to blow you up, James," – amused, sad and comforting all at once. Pepper wants him to feel okay around her, but he doesn't. He thinks that she has a death sentence hanging over her head, no matter how much she tells him that it isn't true. But Rhodey feels better about avoiding her because she has Tony, and Tony assures her that he's not going anywhere, once, twice, a hundred times, because he has to make sure that she knows, completely, with her whole heart just as he does.

On that first night she lies asleep beside him, and his hand, palm flat on her stomach, feels her rise and fall with every shallow breath. Without warning she starts to twitch and murmur. Tony rises up slightly on one elbow. He stays still and tensely waits for it to pass.

Where his hand rests Pepper's skin becomes angry and red and when it spreads from beneath his fingers to her heart and pelvis he snatches his hand away and tries to wake her softly, jerking away when her bare shoulder begins to glow and the red creeps up her cheek. When she whimpers next her throat glows, a ball of red fire sitting in the base of her neck where her collarbones almost meet. He stands quickly and carefully and rushes around the bed to grab the glass bottle of sparkling water sitting on her night stand, unscrews the cap, and hesitantly trickles the water on her face and neck. It pools in her throat and runs down her chest when she violently wakes, sitting up gasping, hands fluttering to the waistband of his pyjama pants while she stares at her bare stomach.

"Tony?" she says, confused and still staring at herself. She looks up at him. "Stand back Tony –"

"It's fine, you're okay, you're fine," he says, sounding calmer than he feels. He sits softly on the bed beside her, taking her hot hands in his own and pressing his forehead gently to hers, murmuring, "I love you, you're with me. You're okay."

"I'm not okay," she whispers.

"You're okay. I'm here."

Her skin cools so gradually that Tony ends up sitting there with her for almost fifteen minutes, checking and rechecking her body for signs of red, brushing the back of his hand over her arms, face, thighs. She stays in silence with her eyes closed and concentrates. "I'll get better at this," she says, when he deems her safe again. "Like Aldrich – I'll learn to control it. Until we can find someone to fix me. "

"It won't be long before we do," he says. He's sure of this. He's been looking for a suitable doctor since the morning after the battle.

She says nothing for a minute while he rubs her back. She's obviously thinking hard about something. He asks, "What's on your mind?"

"What if… what if I don't need to be fixed?" she replies hesitantly. "What if you need me to save you again?"

"You're at risk every time you go to sleep, love. I'd never relax again."

She sighs and shakes her head, pulling her legs up to her chest and resting her chin on her forearm.

"The strength thing is cool," he says, "but if you want to be a superhero… well, get bitten by a spider or become a Viking god. But please don't keep this. Not this thing that could kill you in your sleep."

She scoffs. "I don't want to be a superhero. I want to be able to protect you."

"Pepper, I don't-"

"You do."

"Well, I – yeah. I guess I do, sometimes. Which is why I have gods and super soldiers and science experiments in my corner. This is what the Avengers are for."

"How do you think I feel every time you go off to fight aliens, Tony?"

"Fair point," he says. "But do it, please. For me."

She says, "Okay," and reaches out to touch his chest where his scar is, still healing and slightly pink. She traces it tenderly and when her fingers reach the end they keep going, stroking down to the hair around his navel and the waistband of his shorts, peeking over the top of his slack pyjama pants. "Are you sure?" he murmurs. "Now?"

"If things get too hot," she says, mouth stretching into a grin, "I'll yell fire, and you can run and get the extinguisher."

"That's a safe word we've never used before..." He strokes her hair and gently pulls her face towards him, shuffling around where he sits until he can get on one hand and his knees, still kissing her, and place one leg either side of her hips. She kisses him long and slow and deep, tongue flicking teasingly between his lips. She smiles while she kisses – something he's always loved.

The kiss grows more heated, Pepper's hands now twisting in his hair as she tugs his bottom lip with her teeth. He kisses a line along her jaw and down her neck to her collarbones and he can't help but glance down at his hands where they caress her forearms, looking for bright red streaks beneath the skin. "Tony," she says, pleading. He finds her mouth and kisses her harder, wanting to see if it happens again. The experimental scientist in him needs the confirmation.

But the heat between them continues to be simple body heat, and when Pepper starts to stroke his cock through his pants he forgets about her affliction for a little while. Trust her, Tony. Trust that she knows what she's doing.

He removes her underwear and his pyjamas and kisses her while his cock hardens in anticipation.

They go carefully at first, but when she starts to roll her hips a little more with every thrust he goes with it, pulling out for a moment to scoop her up onto his lap and fuck upwards harder and harder into her until her buttocks sit flush upon the tops of his thighs. He feels the ridged bones of her spine, amazed at the perfect smoothness of her skin and the tautness of her muscles.

He pushes into her until the back of her thighs are trembling and twitching and he feels the muscles of her back tense and relax as she tightens around him, moaning as she presses her face into his neck, finally coming only seconds before him. She cries out and she arches back in his arms, curving into a soft crescent, quivering as her orgasm rolls again and again through her body.

When Pepper relaxes again and Tony's mind clears he can't help himself; he has to check, and it's then that he notices the thin, slow tendrils of red fire pulsing beneath the surface of her lower stomach, and he freezes, holding her hips perhaps too hard. Breathlessly she says, "Tony? What is it?"

But the heat isn't moving like it usually does. It looks languid, feels only slightly warmer when he touches it. She looks down and gasps, "Oh!" and smiles, relaxing as the glowing veins lessen and disappear. She doesn't resist when he lifts her off him, extending the space between them to get a better look.

"I guess it's not all bad," she says softly.

"What was that?"

She gives him three little kisses in quick succession, carding her fingers through his hair. "Pure pleasure," she says. "It felt amazing... so perfect and warm."

"Well..." Tony says, "I guess we can put off finding a doctor for a couple days…"

"I like that idea." She presses her lips to the hard line of his collarbone. "I like it a lot."