Story: There are many ways to define a hero. Though, Pepper's way appears to be the most logical.

Author's note: Steve's comment in the first Avengers movie has me fuming – each and every time I watch it… If there is one person who is heroically putting his life at risk even though he is only a man in a suit, it's Tony Stark.

Disclaimer: I don't make money with any of the Avengers

Define: Hero

Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?

Thank god his mouth was fast. Fast enough to disguise the fact that he was hurt. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.

I know guys with none of that worth ten of you.

Thank god the super soldier kept elaborating on why he was just selfish and not able to self-sacrifice, because this time he needed longer to come up with an answer. It was a lame retort, but still…

You better stop pretending to be a hero.

He snapped back this time, calling Steve a lab rat. They nearly got into a fight before Bruce hulked out and Loki took off.

And suddenly they needed the man in the suit again.

In mythology, a hero was described as a being of godlike prowess and beneficence who often came to be honored as a divinity.

Thor matched that image a 120%.

Next description: a warrior-chieftain of special strength, courage, or ability.

Now, while their super-soldier was no chieftain, he was of special strength and powers. And Miss Romanov certainly also had special abilities.

Next description: an immortal being.

Huh, that was a tough one. Bruce maybe? He said he'd tried to off himself…

Sir, we are losing altitude!

Oh, yah, he still had the nuke on his back! Somehow his multitasking did obviously not work when he was faced with impending death.

At least Jarvis was only connected to the suit, and safely stored on his home server.

Should he ask his AI to contact Pepper again…?

A last description flickered over the screen of his mask before he had used up all of the energy.

A man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds.

"Tony!"

He woke with a start, sweaty, his heart racing, Pepper hugging him close as his mind tried to escape from that portal in the sky, the space ship threatening earth, had he ever been in agony like this before?

Maybe he really only was pretending to be a hero – obviously you needed stronger repression mechanisms than his to cope with the aftermath of such an earth shattering incident. The other guys just shrugged it off, and he was building one suit after the other while suffering one panic attack after the other.

"New York?" was all she asked, kissing his forehead as he buried his head against her shoulder.

"I've never been this afraid before, not even in Afghanistan", he silently admitted, while her hand was stroking through his hair.

"Who wouldn't have been?" she asked and he scoffed.

"All the other guys in this Muppet show of superheroes who chose to let the expendable guy in the iron suit do the dirty work."

She laughed at that.

"Come on, you're one of them, Tony."

"Well, there's people who don't think so."

Pepper narrowed her eyes. Who was that, and were was her self-confident I don't care what other people think Tony?

"Steve is a dumbass", she then said, eliciting a small "Huh?" from him.

"For Thor you are the Man of Iron. He does not distinguish between you and the suit. For Bruce you are this incredibly smart scientist who melts man and machine into one being. Clint and Natasha don't care much about who is backing them up, but I guess they'd rather have you in that suit than my grandmother who knows how to knit, but nothing about flying an armored suit. Only Steve was having a problem with you."

"For Steve, I'm a spoiled, selfish brat who pretends to be a hero out of boredom."

"You are a spoiled brat", Pepper laughed, and he could not help but laugh along.

"And I've never really seen you actually bored, you are always tinkering around with something. You are as much of a hero as they are. Every time you climb into your suit, you are putting your life at risk. This is something maybe Clint and Natasha can also say, but they've got special training that you don't have. Steve, Thor, and Bruce don't have this problem."

"Steve can die. And I think there's also methods to off an asgardian god."

"Still, their risk is lower. They also don't have shrapnel in their chest. And who the hell is calling you selfish? Nobody made you carry that nuke into the portal!"

"Well, that's pretty much the only altruistic thing I ever did."

"Next to stopping to build weapons and wanting to give mankind a clean and gratuitous energy source, you wanted to say, right?"

"Umm…"

That actually was her doing – in her hands Stark Industries was flourishing even though they were not building weapons anymore. The energy source was just his inability to stay away from tinkering around.

"Sweetheart, if Batman can call himself a hero, then you can, too! Except for the color of your disguise, and that he didn't tell the entire planet that he was a superhero, Bruce Wayne and you are pretty much the same. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

He had to chuckle at that logic. And he didn't even have this many gadgets as the bat had…

When he didn't say anything for the next couple of minutes, Pepper sighed.

"You're thinking about building an Iron Man Mobile now, and if you want a cavern for headquarters, or if we should paint the Stark Tower in red and gold", Pepper stated, making him laugh again.

"I don't need a car. Or, to be more precise, any more cars, I have a garage full of them. But if I'm like Batman, then you would be like… Catwoman?"

"Oh, great, now you are thinking of me in her leather outfit?" Well, at least he was not thinking about New York anymore.

"Hmm…"

"Tony!"

J.A.R.V.I.S - New entrance to database: Definition of hero: If you can relate to Batman, then you are a hero.

End