aggravating | 8th Command; Voice

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*post: 008

8th Command; Voice

There's this old adage, Bargians. Secrets, secrets are no fun. Unless you are a part of one. I'd kind of like to add onto that for a minute. So, uh, bear with me.

There are a few things that yeah, they're supposed to be kept secret. No one and their aunt Martha care about your latest bowel movement or who you had a crush on in the third grade. Seriously, they don't. Unless you're loud, obnoxious, spray tan like hell every chance you have, and get into cat fights over who gets the last can of soda. Those are fine. As are the family secrets, things like divorces, fights. I'm not saying "Spill your guts, Bargites, 'cause it's just not faaaaaaair~!" Those aren't the types of secrets I'm talking about.

I'm talking about the secrets that have to do with someone else. If someone knows something about your future that, you know, might be good to know for your own peace of mind, your own well-being, then hey. What the hell are you keeping it from them for? Because I pretty much guarantee that when they find out - and they will - things will be even worse than you imagined.

And yeah, for the record? Lies of omission totally count.

[Private to Natasha]
Coulson's dead, huh? Or did Rogers leave that out of his debrief?

[Private to Arkady]
Gorgeous, I needed to be drunk yesterday.

[Private to Charles]
Give me a reason to actually keep giving a shit, Prof. Because apparently even if I work to come back to life now, I just die again later.

[Private to Steve]
So. Rogers.

Coulson's dead.

I flew a nuke into space.

Loki's a fucking supervillain.

Game over.

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[Pepper he could just kiss you - if he wasn't already on his way to Charles' room]

Nothing, it's- really nothing.

Just some jackasses deciding not to tell me a few really important things.

No, because you would never be this worked up about it unless it was something that really bothered you.

What is it?

[Pepper y u no him so well? :C ]

You remember December 2009? [The month Obadiah had broken into his house, ripped the arc reactor right out of his chest, went on to try and kill Pepper] I trusted the wrong people again.

[And really, the fact that he's actually admitting to it, getting so worked up and spilling so much over public filters to the other people responding...

It says wonders for just how much this has been like a knife stabbed repeatedly into his back.]

[Because it's her job, numb-nuts. Also she loves him. And cares. It's a package deal, loving and knowing him okay.

And now she's thinking back two years. Christmas '09, or just before. That had been when the first Arc Reactor had blown up- when he'd revealed himself and. ...And when Obadiah had turned on them. On Tony. Had violated any and all trust he'd had and .. Sometimes Pepper thought he might have had a screw or ten loose.]

You mean Captain America? Natalie or Nicole or whatever her name is. Tony.. Those aren't the wrong people to trust.

[She takes a breath.]

What they did ... They lied to you, right?

[She doesn't know details, but it's not hard to guess. Loki's response was open to the public, and so were a few others. She's a smart woman.]

They shouldn't have lied. But I think- at least in the Captain's mind, he was trying to protect you. Because he cares. Tony, I've seen what happened, heard what happened when I wasn't there. He trusts you. I'm not saying you need to drop everything and trust him, but ... They haven't done what Obadiah did. That won't happen.

[And this? This is the last of Tony's control just shattering. Because this on top of everything else he's been hit with? The feeling about his dad he's been dealing with, not having his protection, almost getting killed by a guy that could wiggle the shrapnel inside of him and rip his arc reactor out with a single thought?

This was not what he needed.]

Captain America and the Black Widow. Natasha Romanoff. Two other Avengers or whatever the fuck we're supposed to be.

Rogers knew as much as I did about the Avengers when we first got here. And then he got to go home, figure things out, and the next time I saw him he was calling himself a friend. Trusting me and expecting me to trust him so I said hey, why not. He knows shit, he's an Avenger, he's Captain America. Everything about him is straightforward. He's the guy my dad practically had a shrine to, let's trust him.

You know Loki? Looks like a rocker stuck in a bad Shakespeare play? He was the one who killed Coulson. Stabbed him through the back. Let him bleed out. And the kicker is Rogers knew. He knew Coulson died, he knew Coulson was a friend, he told Natasha. And somehow it just didn't occur to him to tell me. Because somehow it's a good fucking idea to let me trust the guy who killed someone- [Someone he knew, a friend. Someone who, in a way, was reminding him way too much of Yinsen.]

I gave Steve an arc reactor, Pepper. Went out on a goddamn limb because it seemed like this teammate thing was actually working. Pretty much put him on my "one of two people who can save my life when things go to shit" list. And the other guy's in a wheelchair.

[The fingers of one hand are drumming against the table next to the communicator, the other rubbing down his face, at the back of his head, coming to rest in a gentle push of his middle and index finger against his temple.

Tony Stark signs of stress.]

Weird how the guy who apparently went batshit back home is the only one who's figured it was worth trusting me. In a really screwed up way.

[Besides Pepper, but that should go unsaid.]

Edited 2012-07-13 09:09 (UTC)

[Natasha was her name, then? Pepper files it away for future (possible) use, and she might have continued filing things away, if it weren't for the semi gruesome telling of Phil's death by Loki's hand. Stabbed and bled out... By the look on the woman's face, she obviously hadn't known the details of his death. Just that it had happened.

But things were starting to make sense. It wasn't just because of a broken trust; which really, Tony took enormously in most cases, regardless of however it came off as. Broken trust was practically his murder one. And he'd given Steve a spare arc reactor. Figures that he'd gone and made more. Reasons didn't matter right now though. He'd entrusted a spare to Steve- something he didn't even let Stane touch... And Steve had, intentionally or not, broken that trust. With or without Natasha's help, or blame.]

For starters, you can't get too mad at someone for not wanting to tell you someone you cared about dies in your future. Everyone dies down the line. You'll have a bit of time with him. [But her tone isn't offering the words as a consolation prize, as condolence. Just ... stating a fact.]

Steve would still save your life. I know what he did was wrong, and don't tell me I'm taking his side, because I'm not. Leaving you out of the loop was wrong- on so many levels. But. [She hesitates, searching for the words.] 'Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer'. Maybe that's what they were after with you? Not that I'm any sort of okay with you associating with a lunatic like Loki- but you have to look at both sides of the coin.

[He's still jittery, still just kind of twitching in his chair, fingers drumming against the table, the other hand shifting on his face as he listens, switching positions every few seconds. Unable to stay completely still.]

Besides you, Loki's the only person from back home that's bothered to tell me the truth, Pepper.

Apparently the only people who have an ounce of respect for me are murderers and ... you.

[You know better than to take that as an insult, right? God Pepper if he's ever needed you to understand Stark-ese...]

Loki was the cause of all the problems back home.

[It's spit out- if only slightly. She understands his need for friends, but. She sits herself down on her own end, unable to keep pacing while she talks. And no, she doesn't take it as an insult. She speaks Stark-ese better than anyone on this ship. Even Charles. And he has a major handicap in that area.]

People do respect you. They might have gone about it in a .. really bad way, but they were looking out for you. Maybe not Natasha, but I'm sure she had her reasons. She's a spy, isn't she?

[She rolls out a sigh. What else could she say? There wasn't anything, not really. Not beyond letting him cool down, first.]

[And he has never been more thankful for that skill of hers than he is at this very moment]

Yeah, I get that.

[And he does. That's the problem. He'd legitimately started liking and trusting someone who was a murdering bastard.]

Natasha I get. It's Rogers that- [He's gritting his teeth, grinding them, really] Should have known he'd figure I wasn't worth anything more than bait.

[There's a whole fishing metaphor here, Pepper. But even he's not that bad.]

[To be fair, Loki was... the God of Trickery. It wasn't really all Tony's fault. And by the look on Pepper's face, this is a point she's going to bring up sooner or later.]

He does not think you're bait.

[And this is where Miss Potts actually sounds more than a little stern. The kind of tone you'd never use on your boss without massive cojones. Because for her, it's true. She knows Steve, even just briefly- but she knows enough that that isn't what he'd think. Ever. At all. This was Tony's bitterness and trust issues coming through like a fucking volcano.]

[Most of the time the sternness works. Pepper knows it works. But every now and then Tony gets blinded by his own issues, by the situation. But what he thinks is happening more than what is happening.

And this is just one of those times]

They knew he was a murderous psychopath from the start. They wanted information out of him. I was the one he latched onto. They decided the best way to get information on Loki was to keep me in the dark and see what came of it.

How is that not being bait, Pepper?

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