Faultlines

The Scottish Starks

The Scottish Starks

"Are you sure this is okay?", Pepper asked for what Tony was sure was the 2000th time.

"No.", Tony told her this time, "They are sure to kick you out."

Pepper did not seem to find that joke particularly funny. Tony on the other hand grinned charmingly. Pepper knew it was just a joke, but it did not make her feel any better. She was technically still working for Stark Industries, making Harry very much her boss.

She had been fretting about this for weeks now, ever since Tony asked her, if she'd spend Christmas with him. She had happily agreed, not realizing in that instance that Christmas with Tony meant Christmas with the whole (albeit small) Stark family. It wasn't that Pepper didn't like Harry, she did, she just did not really know what to make of him. Or his wife, for that matter. Tony's brother had been a foreign entity for the longest time for her, although she had met him a couple of times when she was Tony's assistant. She had never quite figured out what exactly it was he was even doing. But then again, she had to admit, maybe he wasn't really doing anything at that point. As Howard Stark's younger son he sure had no need to work.

To his credit though, when Tony had been kidnapped last year, Harry had spent weeks looking for him and after the whole Obie-debacle and Tony deciding to switch from weapons to energy, Harry had agreed to become CEO instead of his brother, so he could focus on his invention. And Harry Stark was a good CEO, a good boss. But still she couldn't figure him out. Tony was easy to peck once you really got to spend time with him, but Harry? He was always meticulously dressed, calm and composed. He was on time, never forgot a meeting. He remembered all the names of the people around him, their birthdays and if someone's spouse or child was sick , he always remembered to ask after their health as well. But Pepper always got the feeling that he wasn't really there. And it weirded her out how different Tony and Harry seemed to be.

The attended opened the Jet's door and Tony stepped outside onto the small private airstrip outside Inverness. Dutifully he offered his arm in assistant to his girlfriend until she was safely on the tarmac. The plane's personnel was meanwhile unloading their luggage for the two weeks trip.

Pepper looked up, expecting to see a limousine and a driver, instead she found a (judging by the smudges of dirt) well used range rover and a tall man leaning on its hood.

Only when Tony almost sprinted forward to hug the driver, did Pepper realized that she was staring at Harry Stark himself. If his goal had been to stay hidden, he was definitely succeeding. Instead of one of his trademark expensive suits he was wearing simple jeans and a woolen coat. His hair was hidden under an equally woolen bonnet and his distinctive hexagonal classes had been exchanged for round one's. All these changes would already have made him hard to recognized, but what really threw Pepper off was the bright, uninhibited smile the man was spotting, as he hugged Tony.

"It is so good to see you!", Harry laughed, as he refused to let go of his big brother, instead pulling him even closer.

"It has not been that long, has it?", Tony joked, but Pepper was pretty sure he was just trying to look cool, before he gave up as well and hugged his brother back with a happy sigh.

Officially SI might be based in the US, but Harry had been mostly working out of London to reduce his travel time without forcing his family to move and SI's headquarters were slowly but steadily moved to accommodate their new CEO.

Finally Harry let go of Tony and turned towards Pepper, his wide smile still in place.

"Pepper! It is so good to see you again. I hope you had a nice trip."

Pepper managed to hide her surprise fairly well at being addressed thus. He had never called her anything but Miss Potts and she had always called him Mr. Stark, but then again she was here as his brother's girlfriend, not as his employee.