When Stars Align (Steve Rogers x Alexis Stark)

Alexis Stark

I sat on the counter by the toaster, waiting for my bagel to be done. Footsteps came down the hall. I looked up from my phone and smiled when I saw Pepper. "Good morning."

"Good morning," she nodded, getting a mug out of the cabinet. "Am I supposed to be all 'Why are you on the counter' now?"

"Well, you already asked me that before so it would be weird if you stopped now."

"As long as you don't pull the old 'Mom' trick on me."

"Sadly, that hasn't worked for like 5 years."

"Yeah, it used to be so easy," she laughed.

I took a sip of my coffee as she put her cup in the coffee machine. "You know, I'm not sure I'll ever get used to seeing you in something other than a business casual."

"Well, I-"

"I'd much rather see her in this," Stark, my dad, smirked, walking up and kissing the side of her head before whispering, "Or nothing at all."

She smacked his arm as I rolled my eyes. "Ew," I cringed, hopping off of the counter. "Work on your whispering abilities next."

"Have you worked it out with Chelsea to go visit?"

"Yeah, everything's lined up. The jet's leaving at 9 tomorrow night."

"You should spend the day at the Neuschwanstein Castle," Pepper pointed out. "It's beautiful this time of year."

"We're doing that Sunday. The first day there's some party her dad has to be at so we're going too."

"Do you know when you're getting back?"

"Wednesday." He nodded before JARVIS spoke up.

"Incoming call."

"Who is it, JARVIS?"

"Agent Coulson."

"Tell him I'm not home."

"You can't keep avoiding his calls, you know, " Pepper informed.

"I can avoid them for at least a few more days."

"Why's he still calling?" I asked, washing out my mug and turning it over on the counter. I turned to face him. "I thought they said you were 'unequipped for the Avengers.'"

"You, shut up." He pointed at me before pointing at Pepper. "You, make him stop calling."

"Maybe if you answered his call, he would stop calling."

"That is a great point," Pepper smiled.

"You're grounded.

"I'm 22. How are you going-"

"My house, my rules."

"I really need to move out."

"He's probably calling about the tesseract issue," Pepper added.

"Tesseract issue?" I asked. Stark gave her a look, and I furrowed my brow. "What's a tesseract and why is it an issue? Come on, guys, I'm not a kid."

"No, see, you are a kid because if you aren't a kid that means I'm getting old."

"Stark, seriously," I complained. "I'm a much better asset than you give me credit for."

"I'm giving you a lot of credit and trusting you to take a trip to Germany by yourself. So, tell me the rest of your plans." Just like that, I knew the tesseract talk with him would get me nowhere. Instead, we talked about my trip, some trip my dad was planning, the company, and whatever else came to mind. That's probably the best thing about Pepper. Unlike all the other random one night stands who either got Pepper's sass or my "Are you my new mom" bit, Pepper was so easy to talk to, and she didn't put up with my dad's shit either so he had double the people to put him in his place. Ever since Pepper joined the picture, I'd hoped she'd become something more, and it finally did.

I spent the day packing and tinkering with some stuff in our basement to pass the time. This was my dad's workshop where he stored hundreds of Iron Man suits and let me use zero of them. I'd asked him for months, years even to let me use one. We'd already faced enough villains that I thought he'd let me use it for safety purposes.

"You'll just use it to run into battle when you should be running away."

Says Tony Stark to his daughter. As if I'm not the female version of him.

Since he didn't trust me with anything, I'd done some work of my own. Using an old bracelet I had, I was able to create the necessary coding for a glove that worked just like the hand of his suit. Now came the hard part of getting it into the bracelet. It was nowhere near working, but it was very close to having power.

As I worked on the wiring for the hundredth time, the bracelet finally lit up.

"Yes," I cheered.

"What?" Came a voice behind me. I jumped, quickly standing up and turning around. It was Pepper. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, Pepper, it's just you."

"That's never a good response," she pushed, walking towards me. "What are you working on?"

"Nothing." She raised an eyebrow. I let my shoulders fall, stepping to the side. "It's a very early prototype of a bracelet."

"What will it eventually do?"

"Turn into a glove," I admitted.

"An Iron Man suit glove?" she asked. I nodded.

"But it's an early prototype," I defended. "And if dad would just give me a suit, I wouldn't have to worry about making a stupid bracelet that can only shoot energy from one hand."

"You found a way to store that in a bracelet?"

"Yeah, if I could just get it to actually translate from the computer to this then I'd be all set."

"That's pretty impressive," she admitted, looking more closely at the bracelet. "Tony should let you help more often."

"Well, tell him that. Maybe he'll actually listen to you." I closed my laptop and grabbed the bracelet, taking it over to my desk. I opened the middle drawer and set it inside.

"You know he's just doing it to-"

"Protect me, I know," I interrupted, turning back to look at her. She smiled gently, crossing her arms. "What?"

"It's because he knows you don't know how to say no to a challenge. I wonder where you get that from."

"He can try to protect me all he wants, but one of these days something will come along that puts me or you or both of us in danger. What's he going to do then?

She closed the distance between us, resting her hands on my shoulders. "He'll find a way like he always does." This was why I liked Pepper. Even before her and my dad were official, she was more a mother to me than anyone had ever been. She actually saw me as a person and not just Tony Stark's daughter. She gave my shoulders a squeeze. "He also doesn't want to admit he's getting old." I laughed slightly, shaking my head. "Now, onto the important things. Your trip. Do you need anything?"

We ended up at the mall so I could find a dress for the party we were going to. Luckily, I found the most beautiful green dress.