~Iron Family~

3rd Wheeling It

The day after Harley's game was the same as the one before it, aside from the Spider-Man chase. They helped Peter get comfortable by overwhelming him with information and choices.

Tony could tell Pepper was getting worn down from taking care of three kids and running a company on her own, so he pulled a few strings and sent her to a park all by herself aside from Happy. She'd think she was going for an outdoor meeting or something (Tony wasn't the one to come up with the details for the fake meeting), but Tony would actually be showing up with some flowers and his usual smug grin, with the news that Pepper would be getting the rest of the week off for some well-deserved rest.

He'd driven around for what felt like hours, searching for a store that sold flowers. He pulled up to the curb next to the first flower shop he saw. He didn't bother looking at the name, he just locked his car and dashed inside.

It was a cozy little shop, with all sorts of colorful bouquets, friendly greeting cards lining one shelf, a section of the store reserved for cacti, and another shelf with chocolate and candy. Tony even spotted toy Captain America shields.

He grabbed a smaller bouquet with pink cyclamens, Pepper's favorite flower. There were a few irises, colored daisies, and various little green fronds tucked inside as well.

He brought it up to the counter and slapped a bill down, sighing impatiently as the man at the counter began to count up his change penny-by-penny.

"Think you could hurry it up a little?" Tony snapped. The man slowly looked up from his work, presumably giving Tony a glare behind his dark sunglasses. His hair was tucked under a navy blue baseball cap.

He resumed counting the change as slowly as possible, and now Tony was convinced he was doing it on purpose.

"Come on, man. I've got a deadline. You know what, just keep the change."

The man whipped off his sunglasses and Tony's mouth dropped open.

"Steve?" he gasped in shock. "What are you doing here?!"

"I own the place!"

Steve gestured to the giant neon sign over the door that read Steve's Flowers. Tony pursed his lips, feeling very stupid indeed.

"But--but--when did you--"

"Last week," Steve sniffed. "Business is boomin'."

"Good to know," Tony grumbled. "I'm always curious to see how the flower market is faring."

"Thank you!" Steve threw out his arms, apparently not catching on to the sarcasm. "Right? Like flowers are so interesting! And no one ever wants to hear about how the business side of things is going."

"Sure, buddy."

He rang up the flowers for four hundred dollars.

"Steve!" Tony protested. "That tag says twenty bucks! How much for me?"

"Four hundred."

"But I'm your friend!"

Steve shrugged. "Six hundred."

***

Tony had had just about enough of Steve's crap. They would seriously have to start spanking him and sending him to the corner.

He hadn't wanted to leave Peter home alone just yet, so Clint, Sam, and Bucky were babysitting. Tony hadn't breathed the 'b' word out loud, but Harley seemed to get what was going on. He wasn't happy about it.

When he arrived at the park, clenching the bouquet tightly in his fist, his eyes quickly scanned the landscape for the strawberry-blonde head of hair.

He snuck over as ninja-like as he possibly could, darting from tree to tree as Happy distracted her.

"Oh, look!" he heard Happy shout as he got closer. "Look at that! Looklooklooklook! Before it goes away!!!"

"What am I looking at?" Tony could imagine Pepper squinting her eyes in confusion as she stared off into the distance.

"Oh, ha. You missed it. It was--it was a duck. Driving a boat."

"Uh-huh."

Tony crouched behind the bush, tensing as he prepared to pounce up and shout "Surprise!"

"Tony, what are you doing?" Pepper leaned down and pulled him from the shrubbery with a shake of her head. "Are you spying on me?"

"Uh," Tony rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, no. I was hoping to surprise you with these. Fresh from Steve's new flower place."

He handed her the bouquet, now a bit disgruntled thanks to his ninja-ing. Pepper laughed and kissed him, making him feel lighter than the clouds above.

"Thanks, Tony. I love it."

"I'll--I'll just be chilling in my golf cart," Happy announced, backing away. "No big deal."

"We'll be right over, Happy," Tony called, waving his arm. "Just go have your happy time."

"Okie."

"When did you plan all this?" Pepper asked with a lazy, fantasizing smile as Tony brushed the hair from her eyes.

"Well, I had the idea to last night, but most of the planning was done this morning. It was all thanks to Happy, this never would've worked without him. And guess what? You get the week off! Officially! From now on, I will be pulling my own weight around here."

They strolled over to a bench and sat down with content sighs, watching the ducks swim by, who were in fact not operating speedboats.

"So, tell me," Tony started. "How are you feeling now that you get a break away from all that chaos?"

"Uh..." Pepper gave a laughing chuckle. "Relieved that I don't have to deal with upset, jealous, and emo kids, but I feel like I need to be there watching them. Help them up." A look of confusion followed by alarm crossed her face. "Wait, if you're here, who's watching the kids?"

"Oh, don't worry about it. Clint and Bucky have this all under control."

Pepper groaned and rubbed her eyes. "I knew something felt off."

"Hey, relax." Tony massaged her shoulders. "This is the break you deserve. After this, you're going to go back to that heck-hole and you're going to wish you were here, relaxing at a park with your attractive husband and smelling the roses."

"I didn't--"

"Honey, take a deep breath in and a deep breath out. This quick little break away from reality is just what you need. What we both need."

As he sat back down, Pepper rested her head on his shoulder. "True there."

***

When they had had their fill of periods of silence to laughter, they decided it was time to go home and make sure the house hadn't burnt down. Who knows what would happen when Clint was in charge.