Inheritance of ash

hypothetically

"The what now?" Tony asked.

"You know, the room you dragged five women into like a paranoid game of Clue." She gave him a pointed look. "We all thought you'd finally lost it."

"I was under pressure," Tony muttered. "There was a test. A positive one. In the trash. I was running on instinct!"

"Trash instinct," Vicky teased. "Nice."

Pepper gave Tony a look. "You really interrogated Wanda?"

"She has powers," Tony said defensively.

"She's also a virgin."

"...Oh."

Vicky laughed so hard she nearly doubled over. Then she looked up at them again, her expression softening.

"I'm really happy it's you," she said quietly. "The baby. The parents. I couldn't think of anyone better."

Tony blinked. His throat was suddenly dry.

Pepper, ever more composed, simply smiled and reached to tuck a piece of Vicky's hair behind her ear.

"And they're lucky to have you in their life, too," she said. "You know that, right?"

Vicky's cheeks turned pink, and she looked down. "Yeah, well. I'll try not to emotionally corrupt them before they can walk."

"No promises," Tony said. "Especially if you're anything like me."

Vicky gave him a long, mischievous look.

"Yeah, okay, maybe I'll wait till they're at least five."

Pepper laughed again, and Tony couldn't help it — he smiled. A real one.

The kind that only happened when he wasn't thinking about the end of the world. Just the beginning of something better.

⸻

Pepper had returned to her desk, gracefully brushing off Vicky's offer to stay and "file her meetings for the rest of time." She promised there'd be time for a celebration—just not before handling the twelve unread emails she'd been avoiding for the past hour.

So Tony and Vicky walked back down the stairs.

Tony didn't say anything at first.

And neither did Vicky.

Three floors passed before he finally muttered, "I still can't believe you figured it out before me."

Vicky smirked. "Yeah, well. Maybe if you spent less time with trash cans and more time watching people."

He narrowed his eyes sideways. "Okay, ouch."

She laughed.

It was quiet, warm laughter. The kind that came from being around someone you trusted not to push back too hard.

Tony let out a long breath as they reached the landing.

"I was thinking," he said suddenly, "I don't want to do a whole... big Stark-level announcement. Just something simple. Small dinner. A toast. Then maybe you say something funny and charming and everyone claps and cries and throws me a parade, I don't know."

Vicky blinked. "Wait. You? Simple?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't look at me like that." He rubbed his face. "I just—there's so much I don't know how to do. This whole thing, Pep being pregnant, me being—whatever the hell this is going to turn me into. I don't know how to be that."

They reached the common room doors.

Tony didn't open them yet.

Vicky stood beside him, shoulder brushing his arm lightly.