Forevermore

Home or No

"No, absolutely no!" Pepper was pissed, 100%, holding no remorse for the man before her. Tony had come in, holding (M/N) close to his chest hoping to sneak by, only for Pepper to notice him at the last second. It had started out alright, Pepper cooing over (M/N), checking him for injuries, but then she started to question things.

"Oh come on Pepper," Tony whined, his voice a bit higher as he did so. (M/N) was on the couch, still asleep, while Pepper and himself were in the common room kitchen hashing it out.  Pepper looked unimpressed, her eyebrows raised in a mocking way, her hands on her hips. He knew this look well, it was the look of her putting her foot down. Normally he wouldn't fight this, only having around a 1% chance of changing her mind, but this was something he wanted, something he wanted so badly.

"Pepper, he's only 4 at max," Tony started, his voice quiet but desperate, "I couldn't just leave him!" Pepper faltered at that a bit, but Tony knew not to get his hopes up, Pepper played dirty, using everything to her advantage.

"I get that," she started out calmy, "but you are not going to be able to take care of a child and run a business at the same time! One or the other is going to get neglected and everything will go downhill." She was right, but whoever listened to reason?

"Does it look like I care," he questioned in a quiet, serious voice. Pepper looked at him in shock, Tony was a good businessman, but he was rarely serious about anything. "Pepper, I know what I'm getting into," he started softly, but as he went on his voice started to gain volume, "but I don't care how hard it's going to be, because I am not leaving him somewhere where I know he's not going to be taken care of, I won't do that to a kid!"

"Tony?" A soft voice managed to get out, just hardly being heard over Tony's tantrum. Said male looked around Pepper, seeing that (M/N) was standing in the doorway of the kitchen. His eyes were slightly droopy, still a bit fuzzy from sleep. He was adorable, and Tony knew that was gonna be a trump card against Pepper. She'd always had a weakness for cute things.

As expected Peppers cold expression melted away, her eyes going soft at the sight of the (H/C) haired boy. (M/N) looked up at her for a second or two before moving away from her, taking place next to Tony, who had crouched down to his height.

(M/N) tilted his head slightly, reminding Tony of a confused puppy, before motioning him to get closer, as if to tell him a secret. Tony complied, getting closer to the young boy, but he still was hardly able to hear him whisper.

"Do you have any chocolate?" the soft voice said, confusing Tony. Nodding, Tony leaned a bit closer to (M/N), whispering back to him. "Do you want some?" He got a silent nod from the child, confusing him farther. Earlier (M/N) had been just fine with talking, a bit shy, but he had been fine, now he was just silent, non-verbal.

Getting up from where he had been crouched Tony looked through the cupboards, finding the secret stash of candy he had hidden a while ago. Taking out a single chocolate bar he handed it to (M/N), only for it to get snatched out of his hands, Pepper looking at him like he's crazy.

"What are you thinking! He shouldn't eat this, he needs real food, Tony!" (M/N) was looking up at her in this weird mix of passive anger and sadness, and much to Tony's confusion Venom started to ooze out of his shoulder, forming a head high enough up to match Pepper's height.

Pepper's eyes threatened to bulge from her skull as she looked at Venom, the black mass grinning at her with all those teeth. Tony expected some growling, yelling, but all he got was silence, Venom staring Pepper down, the poor woman looking like she was gonna run.

"Phenethylamine," (M/N) said softly, getting Tony's attention. Confused he crouched down to (M/N)'s height. "What about it?" He questioned, Venome slowly starting to retract, but his eyes stayed glued to Pepper.