It's in the middle of thinking how he knows exactly how much Pepper would prefer Tony were home, knows it from his own keen and recent grief, from memories of the woman herself in the aftermath of loss— that Tony's questions land.

Somewhere between the insinuation that he's having sex, the suggestion that he might not be, and understanding that both of these things are now unavoidably Tony Stark's business, metal loop meets buzz wire. Words jumble into a knot so tight that he abandons them altogether. Fixes Tony with the flattest, least cooperative stare he's stared in quite some time and lets that silence be a warning blare.