The Revenge of Devil | Irondad, pepperony

Chapter 15

Pepper sat in the heated car, checking the final version of the wedding guest list on the tablet. It wasn't a long list, but she didn't mind and neither did Tony. Since neither of them had a family anymore, they planned to invite only their closest friends and possibly a few acquaintances. Pepper sighed as she reached the end of the list, where she had a few names with a question mark.

"Tony, I really need your feedback on the guests," she told her future husband, a little stressed. He was sitting in the driver's seat, looking at something on his cell phone. Tony avoided that decision, but they couldn't put it off any longer.

"Pep," he moaned, putting the phone down very reluctantly. "But make it fast."

"Nick and Maria," she began with the lighter names.

"Ha! Can you imagine that grouch at a wedding? It's quite funny," he grinned as he imagined Fury in his black clothes at the wedding ceremony. "I guess we could invite him, I don't think he'll come. But Maria could show up."

"See, it wasn't that hard," she said with a small smile, erasing the question marks next to their names. "It's going to get worse now. Since you've reconciled with Steve, I've put him on the list, but I don't know what about Sam and James. I think we should invite Sam as well. Although I don't know him as well as the others on the team, and since we invited everyone else-"

"Pepper, honey, I don't mind inviting Sam, but you don't think I want to have Barnes at our wedding, do you?" he told her a little grumpily.

"But he's all good, and we still have a few months to go to the wedding," she tried, but she knew very well that it was a losing battle. So she locked the tablet and tossed it in her purse. She doubted James would make any big plans for the future, so they could always invite him later. She looked out of the foggy window, and all the joy of the upcoming wedding was gone when she saw the mourning ceremony slowly end.

"Do you think it was a good idea?" she asked quietly, looking at Tony. He grabbed her hand and sighed slightly.

"I don't know, but at least he'll come up with other thoughts. He would go into his room at home and blame himself for what had happened. In addition, Clint came with Laura and the children - Peter will be happy to see him and be able to meet his family," he replied, hoping that he would calm her down a little. And he seemed to succeed, as a small smile appeared on her face. She was looking forward to meeting Laura and their children. She expected Clint to take them to the wedding and wanted to meet them before that. Clint was a member of a team she didn't know as well as the others, but she knew he was a family for Natasha, so she valued him a lot.

Suddenly the back door opened and cold from outside came into the car. Peter sat down and quickly closed the door behind him. After less than an hour in the cold, he was really happy about the heated car.

"All right, bat?" Tony was the first to speak as he and Pepper turned to examine their son carefully. His eyes were red, and there were still gleams of tears on his face. Peter looked awful, but that was to be expected, and Pepper realized that Tony was right. The house-warming will only benefit him. He will be with the people he loves and will be distracted from his thoughts.

"What do you think, Dad," he muttered softly.

"I admit, it was a bad question," Tony said apologetically.

"Where are Ned and Michelle, baby?" Pepper asked softly.

"Ned has already been picked up by her parents and MJ..." he had to pause for a moment. His voice shook and he was not far from crying. He hoped that the next funeral he would have to go to would be in many years. "MJ wanted to come to us, but I told her we weren't going home. I wanted to wait with her until someone came for her, but she insisted that I go," he explained.

"You know she can come with us," Pepper reminded him. "Should I go for her?"

"Could you?" he whispered hopefully.

"Of course." She got out of the car right away and headed for Michelle, who was standing nearby. She knew that in addition to the people Peter loved, he needed Michelle by his side because she shared his loss. Their classmate died, and although Pepper found it sad and felt sorry, she could not help him, as the brunette could.

In a moment, everyone was in the car, and Tony finally drove toward Pepper's old apartment. No one spoke for most of the ride. But there was no silence, as Tony turned on his selection of the best rock music, which Pepper dimmed to a mere pleasant background.

"Do you want to see what I made for them?" Peter said suddenly when they were almost there.

Michelle just nodded. She wasn't entirely sure she had done well to be persuaded to go with them, but she was still glad she could stay with Peter. She was used to solitude, but today was not the day she wanted to return home and have no one to lean on.

Peter pulled out something that resembled a lamp. Michelle wasn't too impressed, to be honest, but she didn't have the heart to tell him. "Um, nice," she muttered unconvincingly.

Peter had to roll his eyes. "That's not all," he assured her, turning it on. Instead of the classic LED light, a green and red light appeared. "It's supposed to symbolize them, you know? The green is the Hulk and the red is Black Widow," he explained. The bulbs began to move, so the two lights began to intertwine, then dimmed for a moment and glowed again. Michelle wasn't entirely sure if she liked it, but she definitely loved the idea. She loved the effort of trying to think of something personal.

"It's perfect," she breathed with a small smile.

"We are here," Tony told them as he parked. "Clint will be there, and he sometimes behaves worse than a five-year-old, so don't be surprised, Michelle," he warned her.

The brunette had to smirk. "He certainly can't be worse than Peter," she said teasingly.

Just as they were getting out of the car, Steve was coming to the building, trying to look inconspicuous because he was still not pardoned, so he shouldn't show up too much in public.

"Go ahead," he whispered to Pepper, kissing her on the cheek before turning toward Steve and waiting for him to reach him.

"Perfect timing," the blond man said instead of greeting.

"As always," Tony grinned, but only for a second. "Let's talk?"

"I haven't decided yet," he told him directly, for it was clear to him what he wanted to talk about.

"I take it positively because it means you didn't reject it right away."

"But I didn't accept it either. I keep thinking about it, Tony, really, but I'm not convinced we can trust Ross. What if we sign it and he suddenly turns around?" Steve sighed. It was not an easy decision at all. To tell you the truth, he felt pretty good about it after meeting Everett Ross, but he didn't want to be fooled.

"I understand. Listen, you were strictly against it before. You're thinking about it now, so something must have changed. You should think about what it was. Maybe then you'll figure out what to do," Tony advised, which surprised Steve. He couldn't remember him ever speaking so sensibly. "We should go inside. I'm quite looking forward to Legolas, but don't tell him that."

Steve laughed at his remark but said nothing. Instead, he happily followed him inside, the harsh New York winter raging outside.

•••
And we have just followed up on the prologue.