Well...it's been a while! So I finally got around to finishing one of the many half written things on my laptop. It's not what I'd planned to finish first, but it was the only one that felt like playing ball.

The first time Pepper met Tony's parents didn't exactly go to plan. AU. Tony's 30, Pepper's 25. It's set around ten years before Iron Man.

Disclaimer – I don't own a thing :)

Tony often wondered how outsiders perceived his family. The idea everyone seemed to have of 'The Starks' didn't match up with the reality. It didn't even come close.

According to the public, they were the real first family of America because the Starks outlasted every presidential family...and generally they retained more of the public's favour. There was the odd hiccup, like when Tony punched that reporter – he'd been arguing with Pepper and that one pushy reporter had borne the brunt of his anger – or when war broke out...again...but most of the time, the public adored the family. Howard Stark was the war hero, working on the Manhattan project and continuing to design the best weapons to protect the country's freedom. Maria was the perfect society wife, as devoted to her charities as husband was to his business. She didn't shy away from the cameras, but didn't invite them into every aspect of her life. The press respected her, and consequentially took whatever she was willing to share. Mostly. Anyone who broke the covenant of not crossing the line with Maria Stark was automatically blacklisted. She was the power behind the Stark throne, and everyone knew it.

And then there was Tony. Boy genius turned supergenius turned egocentric playboy. The media loved him. As the heir to one of the biggest fortunes in the United States, he'd never have a normal life. And when his budding talent was discovered, he was forced into a limelight his mother had intended to keep at bay until he was at least eighteen. Sixteen if he was a difficult teenager. When he'd turned eighteen he became known for his playboy attitude. When he turned twenty one, the stories of his wild partying were everywhere. But they still loved him.

At eighteen he became the one of the most eligible bachelors in the world. At thirty...little had changed. The world still loved him.

The only difference had been in the last eight months. He knew his parents wondered about the cause for his sudden change in behaviour – although he's pretty sure his dad only noticed because Legal and PR issued collective sighs of relief at the drop in their workloads. The wild parties had calmed down. The steady stream of girls in and out of his mansion had completely stopped. At first the media had speculated he was on a R&D kick because a lack of girls was normally the prelude to an announcement of "Stark Industries' 'Next Big Thing'".

After two months, they stopped waiting for a big announcement. They started following him around.

He started sending out decoy cars and sneaking Pepper into the mansion.

He was a little offended that not one of the gossip rags hadn't realised he was in a relationship. Was the concept really that alien? Pepper didn't mind. She said it meant she had him all to herself for that much longer.

And don't you want to see the reaction when you admit that you've been with me for months? It'll be hilarious to watch them try and explain how they missed it.

Then she'd silenced him with a kiss and proceeded to make it perfectly clear that she didn't give a damn about how the media saw him.

He knew he was thinking in clichés...but Pepper was it for him. She was the one girl who wasn't afraid to take him head on and win. She didn't tell him what he wanted to hear, she didn't fawn all over him...to her, he was just another guy. He liked it that way. She was the one thing in his life that wasn't because of his money or who his dad was. She was the constant. She stormed into his life nine months before to argue with him over a decimal point and he was refusing to let her go.

"Tony, you're thirty years old. I shouldn't have to tell you not to play with your food."

And he missed her like hell.

Tony rolled his eyes at his mother and popped a French fry in his mouth. He raised an eyebrow in answer, earning an exasperated smile as Maria Stark turned her attention back to her salmon. He was in New York having dinner with his parents. He'd flown up from LA to attend the shareholders meeting – it was the one time of year you could guarantee to have all three Starks and Obidiah Stane in the same room at the same time without some kind of scandal or impending announcement of war. He'd always hated having to attend these meetings – playing up to the shareholders so they'd continue to invest, pretending to be the perfect family...it was all an act. In previous years he'd complained to his mother and Stane (never his father) that he'd be better off staying at home in his workshop doing something useful. Those three had kept the company afloat for decades. They'd manage without him.

He knew the lecture that would follow. The one about united fronts and how nothing could be misconstructed because this set the tone for the whole year... It didn't change how he felt. If it was just him and Obie, sure, he could see the point. If he was CEO, he'd have no choice. As it was...he figured he could be allowed at least one year off...

Especially this year. Pepper had been sick when he'd left. It wasn't the first time he'd left her to go on a business trip and she hadn't been coming with him anyway – it wasn't conductive to keeping their relationship a secret – but he felt worse about leaving her while she was throwing her guts up than he would have if she'd been at full health and bribing him with incentives to behave. It was also the first time he'd been away from her for more than a week.

Consequently, he'd spent an inordinate amount of time attached to his phone.

His mother had wondered where he was disappearing off to three times a day and why he constantly checked his phone for messages, but she hadn't said anything so far. He was surprised she'd made it eleven days without asking, but he wasn't entirely convinced she'd make it fifteen without figuring it out.

Tony contemplated excusing himself to the bathroom so he could make a quick phone call but quickly decided against it. Anyone could overhear him in the bathroom. Or his mother might send his father to corner him. That wouldn't be pleasant for either of them.

Howard Stark was many things, but he didn't believe his own press. He knew he was never winning any father of the year awards and that there was this unbridgeable gulf between him and his son. But he couldn't change it. Not when Tony was five and a budding genius, and definitely not now when Tony was a grown man who didn't really need his father. On some level, Tony knew that his father had been a different man before World War Two. He knew that it had changed him and that for every story he told there were at least three he wouldn't mention.

But another part of his brain, the part that still remembered the hurt of the eight year old...the ten year old...the twelve, thirteen and sixteen year old who felt like he'd never be good enough in his father's eyes, whispered that that was just a cop-out. That there were plenty of people who'd been through what his dad had been through. Hell, some people from the Manhattan Project had ended up working for SI when peace broke out. They all had perfectly normal family lives.

Howard Stark was dedicated to his work. That was his life. Not his wife or his son, and everyone knew it.

Except the general public, apparently.

If Maria sent Howard after Tony, what followed would merely be a rerun of a dance they knew so well. Howard would walk into the bathroom with the air of a man being sent to the gallows. In this case, Tony would be standing in the middle of the floor, hastily ending his phone call when he heard the door. He'd skip the 'I love you' and replace it with some kind of business bullshit that his dad would see right through. Howard would lean back against the bench with the sinks, his back to the mirrors, and gaze evenly at his son. Tony would meet his gaze, bored, with his hands stuffed in his pockets. There would be a moment of awkward silence, Howard would look away and tell the wall, "Your mother's worried about you." Tony would nod, or shrug depending on his mood, and exit the bathroom without a word. Translation?

Whatever you're doing, hide it better. Yes sir.

And then he'd order a stiff drink when he got back to the table because he sure as hell didn't know what to do with that.

So a phone call home was off the cards until he was back in the safety of his suite. Pepper would most likely be out on her run right now anyway – he could set his watch by it. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, 6pm, she spent an hour and a half in Runyon Canyon Park. Sometimes he joined her. Sometimes they took her Grandma's dog.

How had they managed to keep their relationship a secret again?

"Tony..." Maria once again pulled Tony out of his reverie. He didn't look up from his contemplation of his salad, but her tone put him on edge. He'd been waiting for this kind of conversation since he'd unpacked his luggage, "your father and I were thinking -"

"Because that always ends so well." Tony cut her off as he speared a piece of asparagus. He frowned as he stared at the vegetable, trying to keep his features disinterested. Pepper. He normally started thinking about Pepper when he knew he had to keep his head. If she was here, she'd have stolen his asparagus the moment his plate had touched the table.

"We were thinking," his mother continued, ignoring his comment as always. The only indication that his attitude was irritating her was in the way her that her tone hardened. You'd only notice it if you were looking for it. Maria Stark preferred to win arguments by refusing to enter them. It infuriated him when he was a teenager and complaining about his father, but now...it was just part of what made his Mom his Mom. "that you might want to think about spending some more time in New York -"

"No." Tony's refusal had left his mouth the instant his brain had made sense of the words. It was out of the question. Before his reasons would have been completely selfish – he was quite happy with the few thousand miles separating him from his father. Now, his reasons were a little more justifiable. Pepper was in LA. He refused to leave his girlfriend. "Not happening."

"This isn't up for discussion Tony." His father cut in, laying down his steak knife and fixing his son with a piercing stare. "One day the company will be yours and it'd do you more good in the long run to learn alongside Obidiah and myself than – are you mocking me?"

Tony rolled his eyes at his father's incredulous tone. Of course he was mocking him. What else could you call mouthing along to the lecture from the word 'company'? For a genius, sometimes his father could be incredibly dense.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Tony sighed, meeting his father's stare head on. "Merely pointing out that I've heard all this at least three times a year since I turned twenty five. And twice a week every time there's a serious threat against your life." Tony pretended not to notice his mother's wince. He knew he'd feel bad for that jab later. He, his father and Obie were used to the threats against their lives, but Maria still took the threats to her boys hard. Charging on regardless, he reached for his drink and added, "That doesn't change the fact that I'm happy as CTO, or that I could learn the job just as well in Malibu. I don't have to be based in Long Island."

Silence met his final statement. It wasn't until he saw his parents exchange a look – one where they had an entire conversation without uttering a single word – that he began to worry. Looking between them, he suddenly felt like he was thirteen again, "What?"

As usual, Maria was the one to break the silence. She turned her gaze back to Tony, and he was a little surprised to see it so guarded. She was confused, but he couldn't figure out why. "There would still be business trips. And you'd still need to spend some time in New York regardless."

As his mother spoke, Tony was running his previous words back again. Okay. He'd somehow managed to agree to his parents' suggestion on the condition he would be based in Los Angeles. It seemed like Pepper's calming influence had extended to his parents as well. If he was being honest, he'd behaved this year. He'd been a good little CTO because he didn't want to disappoint Pepper. And he hadn't argued with his parents because, well, if he was being honest, it was because he was too busy worrying about her. She'd told him to humour them and handle them...

Maybe it had worked a little too well.

Tony popped another French fry in his mouth and shrugged like it was no big deal. "I know that. I'd still rather be based in California. New York's just so..." Close to home. Far away from Pepper. "Not LA."

IRONMANIRONMANIRONMAN

Three weeks later, Tony had almost completely forgotten about his agreement with his parents. He'd told Pepper while they'd been having breakfast the morning after his return, and after the first week of no contact he stopped worrying. He knew they wouldn't sit on the decision forever, but it looked like he had some time before he had to start 'learning'.

Consequently, he'd overlooked his mother's perchance for appearing unannounced whenever she felt like it.

He and Pepper had gone for dinner at her Grandma's. Tony liked the Potts matriarch, and surprisingly the feeling was mutual. Pepper's parents didn't know anything about her boyfriend other than 'his name's Tony', 'we met at work' and 'he's an engineer', whereas Grandma Potts had insisted on a meeting when they'd been together three months. She wasn't starstruck when Pepper had pulled Tony Stark into the living room. She didn't care about what the press said about him, as long as he didn't hurt her favourite granddaughter. And she made one hell of a lasagne.

He'd convinced Pepper to stay the night, despite the fact that they both had early meetings with their respective departments in the morning. When he'd pulled her the through the front door he was barely paying attention to his surroundings, he was more interested in the way her fingers were curled into his hair and the noises she made when he kissed her like that... Getting her to his bedroom as quickly as possible was a little higher on his agenda than noticing that the lights over his kitchen were on.

Well, until Obie spoke up.

"Kid, there are some things that your mother should never see. This is one of them."

Pepper let go of Tony like she'd been electrocuted. Guided by some instinct that had most likely lain dormant since high school, she tried to hide the guilt and mortification while simultaneously putting as much space between herself and Tony as possible. An ingrained defence mechanism.

One that would have worked, if not for the fact Tony's brain worked so much faster than a normal person's. He knew what Pepper was going to do the second the horrified gasp left her lips, so he planted his hands firmly on her waist insuring that she couldn't move too far away from him. He refused to feel like a teenager sneaking his girlfriend up to his bedroom after his parents had gone to sleep. This was his house. They were the intruders.

And like Obie said...there were some things his mother really didn't need to see.

Turning towards the kitchen, Tony felt a sudden urge to bang his head against something. Hard.

It looked like his parents had been busy while they'd been out. His father had obviously overridden JARVIS – a flaw he was going to fix as soon as he got upstairs – to gain access to the house and to stop the AI from alerting him. The island in the centre of the kitchen was covered in stacks of papers between laptops while cartons of take-out (French, his mothers favourite) lay on the counter behind them.

Obie stood off to the side, a glass of water in his hand and a smirk playing across his features. Out of the three, he was probably the most clued up on Tony's antics. On some level, he'd probably already prepared himself for this eventuality. Maria, on the other hand, merely gaped at her son in shock. He'd always taken great precautions to keep the gritty details of his life away from his mother, but she wasn't stupid. She knew about the girls. She knew about the partying. She just didn't want to see it...and now she had.

His father was cold and distant, a disapproving frown on his face. Nothing new there. And Tony really didn't like the way he was eyeing Pepper. Like she was just another one of those girls...another lawsuit waiting to happen.

Tony looked away from his father before he could say something he'd regret, instead locking eyes with his mother. Tony wasn't stupid, he knew that she was the one behind all this. Obie would call. His father would turn up in the office tomorrow – the PAs would deal with the details. This, turning up out of the blue and camping out in his living room so he had no escape, this had Maria Stark Intervention written all over it. "You know, in modern society, it's polite to call first."

Tony tried to keep his tone calm. He failed. The undercurrent of irritation and annoyance made Pepper wince, but he didn't remove his gaze from his mother. He started to move his thumb lightly over her hip, hoping the movement would help calm her without drawing the attention of his parents. Consequently, he was too focused on Maria and the way she was acting as though he was the one at fault that he missed the understanding that flashed across his father's eyes.

"We can discuss this later," Maria said, sounding every bit the exasperated mother. There was a certain finality in her voice. The one that told him that this wasn't over, not in the slightest, but if he valued his continued existence he would shut up until the witnesses were gone. After a pause she added, "You knew we were coming Tony."

It probably would have worked too, if not for the fact that they had broken into his house, hacked JARVIS and terrified his girlfriend. He had no intention of sticking around to finish this argument. They could have it now. "I knew you were coming eventually. I did not know you would be standing in my kitchen when I got home tonight."

Maria narrowed her eyes at that, fixing Tony with the look she normally reserved for his father when he was being 'difficult'. Stepping down from her stool, she drew herself up to her full height and folded her arms across her chest. She made and imposing figure, he could give her that, but it did nothing as far as he was concerned. She was his Mom. He'd start worrying when she started throwing things and really arguing. This was all for show. For the benefit of the random girl Tony had brought home. "You agreed to this Anthony. There was no time limit, no specification. I am your mother. I do not need a reason to visit you. We didn't expect you to –"

"I should go." Pepper eventually spoke up, cutting Maria off mid-flow. She turned towards the door, trying to extract herself from Tony's arms, but found that she couldn't move far. As soon as he felt her move he'd tightened his grip, afraid to let her go.

"No. It's fine. You can stay. They know where the guest rooms are." He knew it was irrational, but he wasn't convinced that if she ran away now she wouldn't come back. This was crazy...this was the kind of crazy that being with him meant. And maybe Pepper could put up with the lifestyle and the press, but she'd never experienced his family before. The past was an indicator of the future, and Pepper wouldn't want a future like the one sitting across from them. Tony couldn't promise her that.

"Oh no. It's fine. You obviously have a lot to talk about. I'll just be in the way. I -" Pepper refused to look him in the eye, keeping her gaze away from anything that wasn't part of the furniture. This time when she tried to move, he let her.

"Your car's still at your apartment." He pointed out as he followed her, matching the two steps she took away from him almost automatically.

"I'll call a cab," she kept her gaze on the fireplace as she made her way over to the couch to grab her purse from where he'd thrown it, acutely aware that Tony was still a step behind her. As soon as the words left her mouth she realised that that wouldn't get her out of the mansion as quickly as she'd like, "or I'll borrow the Audi. It's fine. Honestly. And we have those meetings tomor-"

"Pepper." Tony cut her off as she spun back around to face him, grabbing her elbow so that she couldn't run. He was relieved when she relaxed at his touch, but that didn't stop his stomach from dropping as he saw the panic behind her eyes. It was only there for a moment before she pushed it down again, her way of communicating to him in nothing more than a look, but it told him everything he needed to know, "It's okay. I'll drive you home."

Pepper offered him a small smile at his words, shifting her weight so that she was no longer avoiding his personal space. She leaned into it instead of keeping that telling non-distance that scared him. She glanced over his shoulder, stealing another look at the group in the kitchen before she met Tony's gaze again. There was still fear in there, but she had a handle on it, "Thank you."

For lack of any other reaction, Tony nodded once. She knew exactly what was going on, where this could end up, and she didn't want to get caught in the crossfire. She'd heard all about the infamous Stark showdowns. They weren't pleasant.

He knew that when she'd imagined meeting his parents, this had never crossed her mind. Even when he'd mentioned that they'd be coming to LA. She'd imagined dinner in New York. Or turning up as his date to one of those Galas. She'd even played with the idea of them turning up in LA, but that had always centred around work. They'd been in control...

Turning to throw a glare in the direction of the kitchen, Tony growled, "You know where the guest rooms are."

Without another word, he grabbed Pepper's hand and headed toward the workshop door. He didn't look up as he punched the passcode into the keypad, the one part of the system he was confident that his father couldn't overwrite, or as he held the door open for Pepper to walk in front of them, despite his mother's attempts to catch his eye.

After the tell tale puff that told them the lock had reactivated, Maria sighed and leant back against the island. Running a hand through her hair she half-laughed, "He isn't coming back is he?"

"I wouldn't be."

To her surprise it was Howard who answered her question, not Obie. She'd expected some quip from her husband's best friend, telling her she was a liar she said if she'd never seen this coming, but instead it was Howard...and he seemed to be on their son's side.

Howard was still looking at the door, a pensive look on his face as he studied the clear surface. Maria hadn't seen him look after Tony in that way for longer than she cared to remember. Maria prides herself on knowing her husband better than anyone. She can read him, when others only see the enigma.

The tension in the air was already gone as if the last five minutes hadn't happened. He's looking after Tony like he's some complex equation that he's just solved. There's surprise in there. A lot of it. But there's pride. And pride is something Howard doesn't show often.

"What?" She asked curiously, tilting her head to the side. She wasn't questioning his words, she was questioning what he saw. She sometimes forgot that Howard saw so much more than the regular person. He saw connections and patterns where others saw nothing. It was a side effect of operating on a higher level for so much of his time...he couldn't just turn it off.

"Maybe we should have called first." Howard glanced down at his laptop briefly before he closed it over, a slight chuckle leaving his lips. Turning to Stane, he held out his hand, "Come on. Pay up. I told you my son wasn't the next George Clooney."

Howard isn't a total asshole...

I might continue this, I might not. Going by my current track record, I'm not making any promises! I might add things to this verse eventually, like the next day at work or how they got together, but for now I'm safer marking it as complete.

Nx