Who: Nick & Pepper What: An invitation via phone call When: Now Rating: Green Status: Complete
It was hard to forget sometimes that Fury had friends. He was so many things to so many different people and yet he tended to put those other responsibility to the way side. Case in point: Pepper had been back for how long, and yet he still had not reached out to speak with her.
To be fair, there had been incident after incident (he still couldn't watch any zombie related show without gagging), but now things were quiet. Even if they were too quiet. Debating on actually dropping by, Fury realized that he was actually avoiding Pepper, if he was honest.
His interaction with pregnant woman was woefully low. In fact, he'd never really had to spend much time with one before, and he realized he felt slightly uncomfortable. What did you look at when someone was pregnant? Did they realize they were simply incubators for a human parasite? Was that a sentence you said to pregnant women? What do you even discuss?
Phone call was easier.
Dialing the numbers, he waited for Pepper to pick up while he sat on his couch, and flipped through channels.
It was getting difficult to get up from a sitting position. It was getting difficult to get up out of bed. It was getting difficult to walk very far without having to go to the bathroom. Pepper insisted that Happy was reassigned to her to help her do all of this...except the bathroom part. It was a huge thing that she admitted needing the help, and Happy had been sworn to secrecy to keep how much help she truly needed from Tony. Having him panic would do no one any good, and she trusted Happy. He knew which side his bread was buttered on.
Fortunately, when she finally found a comfortable position on the oversized couch Happy made sure she had everything she needed. When the phone rang (one of three) she answered on the third ring. It would have been the second ring, but she had to mute The Real Housewives of New York. They had already started trying to get her to commit to a season after she and Tony were married. There was no way she would, but it was hilarious to watch.
She smiled when she saw the caller ID. "Nick! Hi!"
"Pepper." Nick would be lying if he didn't say how happy he was she answered, even though he had been prepared to leave a message. "How are you? I was talking with Tony the other day about having you come over for dinner, and he made one of his usual cheeky responses about how your food tastes are too varied for me to even bother." Nick gave a chuckle. There was no way Tony would know that Fury was actually an accomplished cook and baker. Only Nat, Clint and Strange had seen that side of him. "Of course, that sounded like a challenge to me, and one I needed to do something about. Would you be interested?"
Pepper chuckled as she shifted to sit up a bit more. "Yeah, that sounds like Tony. But sure! If you think you can keep up with my ever changing palate Tony and I would love to take you up on that!" And Tony wouldn't have a choice. Not that she thought for one minute he'd let anyone else hover over her.
Oh right -- Pepper was a package deal with Tony. Well. This wouldn't be a bad thing. Besides, he'd like to see the look on Tony's face when he saw Nick pull a perfect meal out, topped with exquisite baking. "As long as you're not asking me to pair red licorice with herring, I'm sure I can make anything work." He paused. "Or is that one of the items that is a potential pairing idea?"
"Ok ew!" Pepper made a face as she put her hand over the bulge that was her stomach. The kid didn't like that thought and gave a good kick in protest. "I'm not that bad. I've been liking spicy, sweet and sour, avocado fajitas. Check with me the day of and I can tell you what the kid wants." She chuckled again. "Any particular reason for this dinner?" Because Nick always had something in mind.
"No, not really." And of course, that wasn't true, and he didn't like telling Pepper half-truths. Tony was one thing but Pepper had always been brutally honest with him, so he always wanted to extend the same courtesy. "I have a feeling," he said suddenly. "That something is going to happen soon. And with everything going back to back to back well ... I think we're owed some quiet downtime with friends, don't you?"
"Uh huh," she said, not believing it for a moment. But there was a smirk of amusement on her face that made it into her voice. "Ah! There it is." It was always something, but what he followed it up with made her smile. "Yeah. I do. And it's about time one of you felt the same way! You should rub off on the others." She popped a chunk of feta cheese into her mouth. "I'm telling you now, though. If anything...and I mean anything...gets brought up at the dinner table that even remotely sounds like work and I'll make sure I have this baby in your car. Deal?"
Nick couldn't stop the disgusted sound that came out of his mouth. "Pepper. I have never been present during the birth of a human being, and I do not intend for that to change in the near future. In fact, please don't be offended when it takes me a month or so to actually see the child's face. I'm sure you'll be surprised to know but I don't really have experience with children."
Pepper laughed. It was the best laugh she'd had in a while. The kid wasn't amused and gave her a good kick about it, but she just put her hand over the baby mound and continued to laugh. "Nick, you run herd on some of the biggest babies I know. You have more experience with children than any of us."
His mouth opened in protest before he stopped himself and laughed as well. "Like always, you provide a unique perspective that helps remind me that yes, I am a glorified babysitter. Remind me to tell you about the time I had to help Thor use a laundromat." Nick shuddered. "Explaining to the Finance Department that yes, I did need to buy an entire building block to fix the potentially electrifying situation was not fun."
Pepper burst out laughing, easily able to imagine the God of Thunder trying to wash his clothes. "Okay I really want to hear that story! But not in front of Tony or he'll never let Thor live it down." Laughter dwindled to chuckles. "Do you want me to bring anything? I can have a single glass of wine, and I can have Happy raid the wine cellar."
"If you'd like. Just let me know the day of what I should be preparing, and we'll make it happen." Nick smiled into the phone and settled back into his couch, a cooking show gracing the screen of his television. "And since you're the busy one, I'll also let you tell me what day works best. As long as it's in the near future, I have no other opinion."
Guy Fieri was doing unspeakable things to potatoes on the screen, and Nick grimaced.
"I'll let you go now, Pepper. It was nice chatting with you, and I look forward to dinner."
"It has to be soon, Nick. I have a wedding and a kid coming up." And she was running out of time with either.
Pepper flapped a hand at Happy to help her get up. All this laughing had made her have to pee. "You too, Nick! I'll talk to Tony and get back to you."