Chapter 1
Tony was more than familiar with all the tales and stories of when you met your ‘perfect’ match and you’d love each other and go to kinky heaven. When Tony met his match he was more interested in kicking the shit out of Bucky Barnes, which later became Tony's top priority, and he hasn’t really spoken to the guy since then. Joy. T’Challa did get electrocuted by Natasha like six times and still kept trying to kill Bucky though, so points for being able to handle pain with little to no trouble. Not that it mattered much to Tony but it was still impressive.
He would have liked to connect with T’Challa but now it was beyond too late given that he damn well knew he was harboring Steve and his merry band of misfits. God even knows what they told him about Tony, fucking Lang thought he was the authority on Tony’s conscience and the guy worked with Hank Pym- like he got the right to talk about anyone’s conscious working with that asshole. Not that Tony knew who the hell Scott Lang was until he looked him up, it wasn’t like he paid attention to everyone with a gimmick these days, everyone could do something now. Besides that he had a hard time keeping up with the small team of people he was supposed to have a gimmick with and after the whole thing with the RAFT well, he was done with them for the time being. Probably the rest of time beings for the rest of forever actually- he had better things to do than play Avenger these days.
The American public- not to mention the rest of the world- was one of those things. The world was generally pretty pissed that superheroes could break out of supermax but honestly what did they expect? Sure, the RAFT was meant to house villains but Ross clearly wasn’t keeping up with the times- these days things tried to break in from all directions. Including from the outside, which was honestly a very stupid oversight on his part. Of course he could count on Steve to come back for his team, it was only Tony he ever had a desire to leave behind but thankfully Viz was awesome and he came to get Tony from Siberia. But the world wasn’t impressed and the public was now currently crucifying Tony, who had stupidly gone on record saying there would be consequences. But he had been as stupid as Ross and he didn’t think that Steve would break into the fucking RAFT to get his buddies out.
And that damn phone was a joke, who even used flip phones these days? Goddamn drug dealers, that’s who, and somehow he couldn’t imagine Cap selling dime bags. The media didn’t care about any of that crap though; they wanted someone’s blood and Tony was a convenient target. Too be fair he deserved at least a little of that given that he did break the Accords himself to help Steve but no one even knew about that and he was content to leave that be. The last thing he needed was yet another very public mistake of his on record for the vultures to pick apart.
The one saving grace to this whole thing was Pepper, who has always been fantastic but after their breakup… something changed and not in a bad way. When they were together he was pretty sure there was too much pressure to make it work, too much pressure to fit when they so obviously didn’t. Thankfully they both agreed that they never really did fit together in a romantic way. That would have been very awkward if they hadn’t because he was the one who had brought it up and he wouldn’t have been able to walk of shame out of his own damn house. Things were calmer between them now, more conducive in building a half decent relationship. He missed the days when things with Pepper were relaxed enough to sit around watching cheesy movies with snacks and it was nice to have it back.
*
Natasha shows up unexpectedly and in the dark, scaring the hell out of Pepper as usual. She nearly drops her SI files but Natasha has fast reflexes and she catches them quickly, “sorry,” she says without really meaning it. Pepper knows she doesn’t mean it because she keeps showing up out of nowhere and scaring her half to death.
“I thought you were currently in exile,” she says somewhat stiffly, annoyed with her sub. Of course she would run off sometime after zapping the king of Wakanda a few times in the process of interfering with Tony’s plans to peacefully take Steve and Bucky back into government custody. Pepper had expected nothing less from her really, she had run off when she figured out that they were soul mates too but to be fair Pepper had been with Tony at the time and she had even been somewhat happy with him too. Obviously things weren’t exactly right and the longer she was with him and not Natasha the worse their relationship got until it imploded and Natasha appeared in her office in the dark, scaring her enough that she damn near alerted Happy not that it would have mattered.
Against all odds Natasha had said she wanted a relationship, admitting so somewhat sheepishly and uncomfortably, which absolutely did not inspire confidence in Pepper. So she had refused, not interested in another relationship after Tony anyways and certainly not with another goddamn super hero. She had more than learned her lesson from the first time and she had no desire to repeat the experience no matter how much it hurt to turn Natasha down. But Natasha… she had looked so dejected and lost in that moment and Pepper didn’t know what to do so she had asked if Natasha was okay. She hadn’t expected a watery smile and a single nod while Natasha turned to leave the room and she swore she could feel Natasha’s pain. She couldn’t obviously, soul bonds were reported to create all kinds of links but that wasn’t one of them. If that were true masochists would be shit out of luck because their partner could feel everything, but it hurt her to see Natasha upset regardless.
So she had asked Natasha to stay for dinner just to see how things went. Natasha… she had been sharp, witty, a little goofy and certainly guarded- nothing like Natalie Rushman. Pepper hadn’t even met her as Natalie until her first day of work- someone else hired her- but the first thing she had done was give Pepper a half sly smile while she assured Pepper that the bond wouldn’t influence her work. Pepper got the feeling that was more Natasha than Natalie but she had had a job to do and lying the whole time to her soul mate had been necessary apparently.
She wasn’t even a Dom like her resume said she was- she was literally the opposite of that. Not that it would have mattered to Pepper given that she had the most versatile orientation being a switch but still, it was the principal of the thing as Tony would say. But their dinner had gone well, well enough for Pepper to consider Natasha on a trial basis only her damn sub ran off in the middle of that trial to god knew where. Tony had ideas but he refused to say anything for some reason. But then he didn’t really know about Natasha given that she never got around to telling him… And in her defense by the time it had become a problem Natasha’s cat was out of the bag and then there was all that baggage for both her and Tony and she had stupidly hid the information from him. Ultimately it ended their relationship; at least that was a big part of it for her. That and worrying Tony would die more often than knowing he was alive and well. It took a toll on a person to have that kind of stress in daily life.
“Are you?” Pepper asks Natasha after making her wait a sufficient amount of time to respond, drawing out the silence.
Natasha looks down for a moment, “of course. Things… things got a little out of hand and-”
“I’ll say, Tony almost died and I figured this would be the least dangerous thing he’s ever done considering he was only working with his team,” Pepper snaps. “Well it turns out Steve has gotten the closest to killing him out of all the enemies Tony has made, and trust me that is no small amount of people,” Pepper assures her. Between the weapons, climate change deniers, crazy fans, villains, politicians, Ross, and a few world leaders Tony had a rather large amount of people who wanted him dead. Who would have thought it would be Captain America to nearly take him out? Certainly not Pepper, and she certainly hadn’t expected her sub to help him out. Not killing Tony seemed to be a given in their relationship but apparently she was going to have to make that an explicitly stated hard limit.
“That wasn’t really planned, Pepper, you don’t understand-” Natasha starts but Pepper cuts her off.
“No, you don’t understand Natasha. Now I know no one woke up that morning and decided ‘let’s try and kill Tony tonight’ aside from that coconut-headed ass that planned this whole thing but I’m still a little upset about it. Tony explained what happened and I know you like Steve better, some days I don’t hold that against you either, so I know you thought you had to help him. That’s fine. Mostly. I’m not going to get involved in that mess too much but let me make things clear for you. One, this mess is exactly why I ended things with Tony. Soul mate and perfect sub or whatever or not I am not looking to repeat that experience with you. Two, if Tony dies and you are in any way involved I will never speak to you again. Ever.” She and Tony had their differences, their many, many differences but she loved him and she always would. They’ve been together a long time and she had no desire to ever have him out of her life until he was forcibly removed. These days that seemed more inevitable than not.
“I… things were never meant to end this way. We don’t want things to end this way either,” Natasha says, taking a small step closer to Pepper.
“We?” Pepper asks, honing in on the details like she always did. She notes Natasha’s body language too, keeping track of her movements because she damn well knew they were intentional. Natasha had a goal here- she could feel it. Maybe it was the bond, maybe it was the fact that Pepper was more than a little used to talking to people who only spoke to her to achieve some sort of goal but she knew.
Natasha takes another small step closer, like she was approaching a skittish animal, “Steve and the rest of the Avengers. Things went too far, we know that, but we need Tony. We need someone on our side here or we’re kind of stranded where we are,” Natasha says, taking another small step forward.
Pepper walks around the island to her kitchen, depositing her files on it and sighing. “Then you should have thought of that before alienating him from the team,” Pepper says honestly. It has long annoyed her and she sort of understood, even Natasha seemed to completely misunderstand him and she’s a master spy. Yes, Tony was undoubtedly a giant asshole most of the time but he was a good man, you just had to know how to read his signals and pretty much no one figured out his code.
“I told you Pepper, we didn’t plan for this to happen, that’s hardly alienation,” she says, approaching the island.
“Did you know that proximity to your soul mate usually results in the release of chemicals in the brain associated with human bonding? With your soul mate you get more of these hormones, and when you scene together you get the endorphin rush from that too. Combined the two chemical experiences create a special bond of euphoria for the bonded pair, solidifying a soul mate bond. So what I’m saying is stop trying to get close to me in an attempt to give me a chemical high that makes me easier for you to manipulate,” Pepper says bluntly. She had known the movement was intentional and she can see Natasha hesitating now, frowning a little at being found out.
“As for the alienation, give me a break,” Pepper says, rolling her eyes. “I’m not talking about this recent pile of bad media headlines and ridiculous piles of paperwork, I mean from the beginning. The only one of you to even remotely like him is Bruce and he’s run off to wherever doing god knows what. But the rest of you? None of you ever looked past what Tony wanted you to see, no one ever does, it’s why he acts like such a jackass. It’s easier for him to push people away than risk being hurt, which becomes ironic because then his pushing people away lands him hurt and they cycle repeats but whatever. The point is that none of you ever had an interest in him outside of what he could do for you. Don’t pretend you have an interest now. It’s insulting,” Pepper tells her.
Natasha winces at the mention of Bruce and Pepper clenches her jaw, forgetting their very brief relationship. Obviously that had run a little deeper than she thought it had, something she would have known if she had ever had a real conversation with Natasha. She wondered if Bruce knew her any better, if any of the Avengers did or if Tony was right and Natasha was unable to shake her spy past. Pepper wasn’t sure what to believe, if anything.
“Pepper,” Natasha says, stepping forward but quickly stepping back when she realizes what she had done. And that right there was how she knew the difference between Natasha acting and her faking it- she was far better at faking it. At least that’s what Pepper has determined so far, though she wondered how accurate that information was.
“I’m not interested in whatever it is you need to me to wheedle out of Tony, Natasha. You all made your beds with him; it’s your job to lie in them. I’m not changing the damn sheets for you because you went and screwed them up,” Pepper says, turning away before briefly turning back. “Oh, and contrary to popular belief Tony is an evidence based thinker- even if you can’t necessarily see the evidence. What you called arrogance and ego he called not trusting information from a man who can barely remember his own name who just left an extreme dissociative state. He assumed not trusting clearly unreliable information would be obvious to a spy as world renowned as you but apparently he was wrong. Note how he changed his mind when he got real evidence,” Pepper says harshly.
With that she leaves the room, certain that Natasha knew her way out. “Pepper!” Natasha calls after her and Pepper sighs.
“That was a clear dismissal, Natasha. If you have any remaining interest in being my sub I suggest you learn how to take an order,” she calls over her shoulder, heels clicking as she continued down the hallway.
*
Tony hardly expects to run into T’Challa dealing with Ross, or anywhere given he’s from an entirely different continent, but he does. Literally. “Sorry,” Tony mumbles, uninterested in essentially being turned down again, plus he had his own crap to deal with regarding Ross.
“Tony,” T’Challa says and Tony stops, sighing quietly but he turns, waiting for T’Challa to go on. “I think he should talk,” he says after a few beats.
“Probably,” Tony agrees, not that he had a strong desire to talk to the man. He got the feeling that he already knew exactly what the sub thought of him given how guarded he looked but he gestures for T’Challa to lead the way, deciding Ross could wait. He has put the man on hold several times to watch the light blink. It was kind of calming and when Rhodey and Pepper were around it was fun to laugh when them.
T’Challa leads them away from the fuss of people, prompting Tony to wonder how he could possibly know the place to well. He decides he’d rather not know. They enter a room that looked like pretty much every conference room ever- boring with a table and chairs surrounding it, and they stand there for a solid thirty seconds silent before Tony finally decides that was enough. “Are you planning to sit?” he asks, surprised when the king’s nose tips up a little in defiance.
“No,” he says. It takes a moment for Tony to realize that T’Challa must have taken the request as demand of submission to him. Tony resists the urge to roll his eyes as he drops into the nearest chair, wondering what the hell he’s been told about Tony. Even before he ended things with weapons he was never known as a pushy Dom so he didn’t get the suspicion from the king.
“Fine, stand. It makes no difference anyways given that there is nothing between us,” Tony points out.
This earns an eyebrow raise in response, “you classify a soul bond as nothing? Odd,” he says, head tilted to the side.
At this Tony does roll his eyes, “look, if you want to cherry pick meanings from my words than just leave. I don’t have time for this and neither do you. If you want to have an actual conversation about what we’re going to do or not do about this bond then I’m here to listen. Can’t really do much about it without you anyways,” Tony points out. No agreement from your sub no negotiations, if T’Challa wasn’t on board there was nothing for him to do here except suffer with Ross.
“I am not giving up my country,” T’Challa says and Tony snorts.
“Who the hell would expect you to give that up? Obviously you aren’t giving up your country, the fuck?” he asks, almost laughing at the absurdity of the statement. In what world would that have even been an expectation of his or anyone else’s?
“I was told that you preferred your subs close,” T’Challa says, clearly confused now.
“Don’t know what idiot told you that but they have no knowledge of me. Pepper and I both travel a lot for business and I have my side gig as Iron Man- there’s been plenty of times where we spent more time apart than together. And even if I did prefer my subs close expecting you to just give up your country is way too much to ask of anyone,” he says. As if he ever would have expected T’Challa to just kiss his country goodbye, that was flat out cruel.
“I would assume that your team mates of several years would know you well,” T’Challa says slowly, confusion growing.
“Oh, well there’s your problem. They don’t know me at all, never made the effort to and to be fair I don’t know them all that well either,” Tony says honestly.
“On any given day what does Steve Rogers eat for breakfast?” T’Challa asks.
Tony doesn’t know how this is at all relevant but he figures he’d humor T’Challa. “Oatmeal, usually with strawberries, mango if he’s feeling adventurous, and brown sugar if he’s having a bad day,” Tony says.
“What about Natasha? Clint?” T’Challa asks.
“I’ve never seen Natasha eat or drink anything ever. I’ve seen her pretend to eat or drink but never actually do it, that’s probably purposeful. Clint’ll eat anything, including literal trash. Seriously, we’ve had to take actual food that’s been thrown out out of his hands. Hope his kids don’t pick up on that bad habit,” Tony mumbles, wrinkling his nose.
“Knowing a person’s eating habits displays extreme familiarity with them. I do not know what you classify as knowing a person well but you would not know the eating habits of a virtual stranger,” T’Challa says.
“Fine, semantics. They eat in patterns mostly; I’m wired to pick patterns up. Doesn’t mean I know anything about them and they know nothing at all about me,” he says right as his phone starts buzzing in his pocket. “Next time you want information on what I would or wouldn’t expect out of you as my sub, I’d suggest asking me because the Avengers don’t know anything at all about my Dom habits given that it’s something I went out of my way to hide from them. No one needs to know about what I do with my subs except my subs, thanks. But Ross is calling and unfortunately I can’t just put him on hold while I play Scrabble so I have to go. If you have any desire to talk to me ask FRIDAY for my details,” he says, picking himself up out of his chair and leaving.
“Wait, who is Friday and how do I find them?” T’Challa asks but Tony is out the door already, answering his phone to tell Ross to hold onto his britches, he’d be right there.