"Don't worry, dear, I like you just the way you are, ego and all," Pepper replied, patting his cheek. "What other cool magic did you see?"
"There was a whole shopping district," Doreen explained eagerly. "It was full of the weirdest, coolest stuff. Everything you could imagine – cauldrons and wands; potions and animal bits like snake eyes and spleens of rats and everything to make potions; whole shops full of wizard clothes and magic books and magic jokes and tricks. It was amazing!"
"And a couple of hundred years behind the times," Tony groused. "Not a speck of electricity or technology anywhere. They use gas lights and torches with real fire for goodness sake."
"But the sight of the magic itself," Matt breathed softly. "Sorry, Tony, but the only word for it is: 'magical'."
"I'll give you that one, Murdoch, all things considered," Tony replied.
"I could see the magic," Matt explained. "It was beautiful, so many colours."
There was silence, then, for a minute before it was broken by Peter.
"Never dreamed that goblins were real," he said.
"Goblins?" Pepper asked in disbelief.
Peter nodded. "Yep. And house elves and apparently a whole host more."
"House elves?" Pepper asked, looking at Thor.
"Very different from Dark Elves," Thor explained. "One is a warrior race, the other a symbiotic species that only want to help and serve."
"I assume, Harry, that you introduced this lot to your friends?" Pepper asked.
Harry shrugged. "Yeah, a few."
"We saw Hermione, of course," Clint smirked.
"We're friends," Harry stated flatly. "Nothing romantic there at all."
Tony shrugged. "What about that werewolf girl? She seemed cute."
"Did she, Tony?" Pepper asked, one eyebrow raised.
"In a werewolf, scarred sort of way," Tony backpedalled quickly. "And obviously nowhere as good looking as you."
Seeing the pleading look on Tony's face, Harry decided to take pity on the man by changing the topic.
"If you want to talk about friends, I guess that we should mention that the Tower'll be getting some visitors soon," he said.
"If you are speaking of the Lady Jane and her companions, I expect them to be taking up residence, not simply visiting," Thor stated.
"Oh?" Pepper asked happily. "It'll be nice to have some more females around here to balance up the testosterone levels. Are the 'companions' Erik and Darcy?"
"Got it in one," Peter replied, pointing his fingers like a gun at her to emphasise his point.
"That wasn't the most … interesting of the 'friends' we met," Clint stated darkly.
"Are we …?" Matt began before being cut off by the angered archer.
"Yes! I don't give a damn about what Fury wants," he near-snarled. "To keep that from us like that."
Pepper looked between her dinner companions, taking note that the most intense expressions were on the original Avengers: Tony, Clint and Thor.
"Agent's alive," Tony said quietly.
"Agent? Agent who?" a confused Pepper asked.
"Who do you think? Agent Agent," Tony snapped back.
"Wait! What? You don't mean Phil, do you?" she asked.
"Yeah, we do," Clint replied quietly. "Apparently, he survived being stabbed in the heart by Loki up on the carrier, not that anyone thought that we should be told!"
"I thought that you said that there was no way that he could have survived," Pepper said to Thor.
"Nor should he have," Thor agreed. "Exactly how the Son of Coul survived his wounds is unknown."
"Some sort of medical procedure that we're not cleared to know," Tony stated. "I put Jarvis on it, but even he couldn't find any records of it."
"I don't think Phil knows either," Harry relayed. "From the way he was talking to me, he seemed just as mystified as the rest of us."
"What about Steve and Nat? Do they know?" Pepper asked.
"Not yet," Clint stated, leaving no doubt his intentions for the next time that he saw them.
"Any idea when they're due back?" Matt asked.
"According to Fury, they're on some kind of classified assignment," Clint replied. "They'll turn up when they do."
"Now that you know, is Phil going to visit anytime soon?" Pepper asked.
Tony shrugged. "Your guess is as good as ours. He's got his own super plane and team now and special missions to go along with it."
"I'll invite them over the next time I'm talking to Skye," Harry promised, then, seeing Pepper's expression, elaborated. "One of the members on Phil's team. I've been working with her; there's something … funky … that happens when I use one of my spells near her."
"Well, it definitely sounds as though you guys had a very interesting trip," Pepper said awkwardly into the tension.
"It was amazing!" Doreen grinned. "When can we go again?"
"No!" Pepper replied, beating any of the others to a response.
"What do you mean, 'no'?" Tony asked indignantly.
"I mean 'no'," Pepper repeated, before pointing firstly at Doreen and then at Peter. "No taking these two out of school. They need their education."
"Um?" Peter said, timidly putting one hand up. "I'm already the number one student at Midtown. A little extracurricular education is only going to be a good thing."
Pepper's glare, though, promptly shut him up.
"As much as I agree with you," Matt said, "there are likely to be times when their skills are going to be needed."
"I agree with Matt," Peter stated. "I'm not going to give up my web-slinging for anything."
"They're in the Academy for a reason, Pep," Tony said. "And while we'll try to not interrupt their schooling, I'm not going to make any promises."
Pepper looked around the circle at each of the faces, from the determined to the hopeful before sighing in defeat.
"Fine, but I'm holding you to that. And I'm telling Steve as well. I'm sure that he at least knows the importance of Peter and Doreen's education," she stated.
.
.
.
📖For everyone who wants to read it in full📖
👇🏼It will be available on my Ko-Fi👇🏼
‼️ko-fi.com/skyarc/shop‼️
—————————————————————
✅Subscribe now if you want to get all the PDFs available on my page.✅