Superfamily One Shots

Out Of His Control

**Request for TazJakir. Peter feels replaced, but not by Tony. This one is more Pepper-centric, and as always, its angsty, its sad, it's happy at the end. It was super fun to write, I love some protective Tony... Enjoy!**

Pepper's heels clicked against the hard tile floors in time with the soft scuffs of Peter's sneakers. They were headed for a conference with the board, something Tony never did. Peter liked to tag along with Pepper, especially when Tony was out of town with the team or working on a particularly time intensive project. It had gotten to the point where Peter was splitting his time in the Tower nearly equally between Pepper and Tony.

"Do we have to do a presentation at this one?" Peter asked.

Pepper shook her head. "No, we're just going to take some notes and hear about the board reports. Why, did you have something to pitch?"

"No," Peter said simply, and the two kept walking.

They headed into the room, but there was someone there Peter didn't recognize. A young woman, about the same age as Wanda, sitting where Pepper normally did. Just as Peter was about to tell her to move, Pepper stepped forward and the young woman smiled brightly.

"Hi, Pep!"

Pepper exchanged pleasantries, nearly forgetting Peter was there. When Peter finally worked up the nerve to say hello, it was shy and quiet, and both Pepper and the girl just kept talking, apparently not hearing the teen at all. Peter fell backwards, watching Pepper with hurt eyes. This was his thing. He loved spending the week with Pepper, going to meetings, shooting sideways glances at her when someone began to ramble on, making Pepper laugh into her hand. He loved watching Pepper get going on a report, he loved it even more when he got to be part of her reports.

Pepper greeted the rest of the board, then looked around. There wasn't going to be enough chairs around the table for all the board members, Pepper, the young woman, and Peter. Pepper put a finger to her lips, her eyes barely narrowing as she thought. 

"Could someone go grab a chair from the office?" she asked the general room. "We can put it over here and-"

Peter waited for her to tell the young woman to move, but instead she said Peter could sit there. By the back. In the corner, like a kid you drag along to meetings, but never let participate in the real deal. Peter hastily got up, his face a little pink, and shook his head.

"No, no, it's okay!" The assistant who had gotten up to get a chair looked over at him, then at Pepper. "It's fine, really, don't make a fuss. I'll sit this one out, Ms. Potts, I can go down to the labs and see what's going on with Mr. Stark."

Pepper looked unhappy, but let it slide. Peter liked the lab more, anyways.

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Peter didn't see Pepper for the rest of the week. It wasn't like he was avoiding her or anything, he just never saw her. She didn't invite him to any more meetings, and every time Peter caught a glimpse of her in the halls, she was talking to the same young woman as before. She wasn't an assistant, clearly, she was more of an equal. More like what Peter was to Tony. What he thought he was to Pepper, too.

Tony noticed. He loved having Peter in the lab more often, but he was worried. The first few times Peter missed a budget meeting or a PR presentation, he just assumed Peter was interested in working on Tony's newest project, but even when they finished that and moved on to the more routine, boring stuff, like checking the Avenger's tech, Peter didn't go with Pepper at all.

"Hey, kid," Tony said one day. "Are you alright? You've been skipping out on your meetings with Pepper."

Peter just shrugged, but Tony knew him too well for that. He was stiff, tense and muscular, and his face was lightly pinked. His eyes seemed to swim for a moment, but the teen squeezed his eyes shut and blinked the tears back down.