A/N: the title is not a spelling mistake, I stole it from the Marina and the Diamonds song 'Shampain', which is where I got the idea for this story from.
Hope you enjoy it :)
1984
"Daddy!" eight-year-old Virginia Potts yelled as she jumped out of the car and ran into the open arms of her father.
"Hey princess" David Potts said as he spun his young daughter off of the ground, his arms encircling her waist, holding her tight against his chest.
They were both laughing and smiling at each other when he finally placed her carefully back on the ground, her dress crinkled. David ran a hand through her strawberry blonde locks careful not to catch his fingers on the many pins that held up her hair.
"Don't you look beautiful." He said crouching down to Ginny's level, his knees clicking with the effort.
It was true though, she really did look beautiful, she'd slept in a sitting position last night as not to ruin the hard work that had gone into her hair the day before just so her father could see how beautifully it had been styled. It had been pulled back into rows, and along each row three flowered pins had been placed, the hair above her ears had been pinned up, allowing her long hair to fall softly down her back.
The stylist had pulled so hard for perfection that for the whole half hour it had taken to style, tears had streamed down her face. It had been worth it, she decided, as her father's smile seemed brighter than it had for a long while.
"You should have seen Mommy; she really did look like a princess, her make-up was done all pretty." Virginia said with a dreamy smile.
"I bet she did." He said as he rubbed his nose against hers, she giggled and took his hand as he led them into the house.
"Richard even let me have a glass of champagne." His daughter said as she sat down to the kitchen table, he looked down at her and smiled; it looked dim compared to his other one.
"Really?" he said raising his eyebrows as he past her glass of juice.
She nodded, "uh-huh."
He sat opposite her and looked out the window, and listened to his daughter as she described her mother's wedding, as best as an eight year old could. He didn't want to hear about his ex-wife's re-marriage but didn't have the heart to put a damper on her enthusiasm, and so instead of saying anything he just smiled in all the right places.
Her young voice drifted over his ears like music.
1993
Knock, knock!
"Come in!" She cut her music off and turned on her bed so she now faced her bedroom door, she watched as it slowly opened and a blonde head poked through the now open space.
"Hey Gin" the girl on the other side of the door smiled and gave Virginia a small wave, before an arm came out and wrapped itself around her waist, a tall brunette boy standing behind her.
"Hey guys" Ginny said, smiling at her two best friends, "What are you doing here?" she asked with a frown on her face, her strawberry bangs framing her porcelain face.
"Well, firstly you weren't at Prom." Jake Cutly, the brunette, said removing his arm from around his girlfriend as he ticked the points off using his fingers, "and secondly, studying is for nerds..."
"So...?" she asked, her 'brows rising slightly, wondering what her friends were up too.
"So, we decided," Julie Hart, the blonde, said "that we'd bring Prom to you." Julie smiled as Jake suddenly pulled out a single glass of champagne out from under his jacket, a big smile now plastered on his face.
Virginia smiled as her friends made their way into her room, taking the glass from Jake as he passed it to her and took a sip; the bubbles slipping down her throat were like little pieces of heaven.
She hadn't gone to Prom, simply because she hadn't been asked to go and thought it pointless to spend God knows how much on a dress that she'd only wear once, and had opted to stay home and study instead, which she believed at that moment had been the right choice, especially now that her friends were there.
Prom, from what her friends had told her, might have been good, but this, to her, was better.
1997
It was the day that she'd received her BA in accounting, hugging her mother and step-father, and wondering what the hell she was going to do with it, now she had the degree.
Would she even use it?
She did already have a job in modelling, and the money wasn't half bad, so why look for a new one?
She pulled away from her mother, and walked around to her father, who stood idly behind them, with a bottle of what she guessed was champagne. She walked up to him and threw her arms around his neck.
"I'm proud of you." He muttered into her hair, there had been many times when she'd called him up and told him that she was on the verge of just dropping the course all together, and he had just listened to all of her complaining before gently encouraging her to keep at it, saying that it was best to have a degree than none at all, it was something she hadn't been able to do with her Mom, who would have just told her to give up. Him being proud of her meant more to her than the degree.
"Thanks dad." She said, feeling her eyes tear up as she pulled away.
David Potts thrust his arms out towards her then holding the green bottle by its neck, smiling as she took it, and looked at the label.
"Dad, this is probably the cheapest bottle of champagne I've ever seen," she said with a smile, she then turned the bottle in her hand and pointed to the name on the label, "It's not even called champagne," she looked back at the bottle and then back up to her father, "Its spelt shampain. I dread to think of what it tastes' like." she chuckled.
Her father chuckled lightly and shrugged, "It's the thought that counts." He said, and it really did.
2000
"Five..."
"Four..."
"Three.."
"Two..."
"One..."
"Happy New Year!"
POP!
Virginia Potts clapped and smiled as the champagne bubbled and fizzed out of the neck of its bottle, the smile still on her face as her mother poured the drink into a flute and past the glasses around, one by one.
Her father was standing close by talking to her step-father, she could make out the odd word of their conversation, happy that everyone was under the same roof.
Her smile bigger and wider as her mother clinked her champagne flute, a blush creeping upon her cheeks and silence came over the room, all eyes now on her, it was strange how everyone seemed to read her mind, "A toast," her mother started, "to my daughter, who just landed the job of Tony Starks personal assistant!" her mother squealed like a child, letting Pepper know that she'd already had one too many, "Congratulations Baby!" the room then suddenly became alive again with clapping and laughter and many more congratulations'.
She sipped her champagne, and wondered what she'd gotten herself into by accepting to be the personal assistant of the playboy billionaire, Tony Stark, until she could feel the buzz of the alcohol rush through her system where she then thought about her new name.
Pepper Potts.
She liked it.
2008
It was the day after her birthday, the call had come sometime this morning, she'd been too buzzed from the alcohol and from the general fear, anger and sadness to completely understand what it had meant, and too scared at what it could mean to sleep.
The buzz had gone now and instead all she felt was numbness. Her friends had left, patting her shoulder sympathetically before walking out the door; her mind was too empty for her to even register their goodbyes, and yet somehow her body refused to give in to the intense lack of nothing she now felt.
Only finally letting everything go the moment the last person left, hiding her face in her hands as she cried, letting herself fall apart from the seams.
He couldn't be gone; he just couldn't!
She wasn't sure how much time had passed before she finally picked herself up, and started to walk around the house picking up the empty glasses and beer bottles.
She remembered the clink of the champagne glasses as they'd wished her a happy birthday last night and how happy she'd felt before they'd started on the heavy stuff, and how now she couldn't understand how she'd felt so happy, it just seemed to impossible to even try to get that feeling back.
Her eyes wondered over to the half full bottle of 'Shampain' that her father had gotten her as a joke, something that was now a running gag between them. She hugged herself and smiled, it was still a smile she thought, even if it is hollow.
She grabbed the bottle by its neck and popped the cork, she didn't bother with a glass, there was no need for one.
She wanted that buzz, that feeling that she'd had last night.
The alternative: too hard to bear.
2011
Pepper smiled, she hadn't been this happy since she was eight, after the torture of having her hair pulled tight, it had been worth it she'd remembered, when she'd walked down the aisle before her mother, flower petals falling from her finger tips and onto the floor. She remembered the camera's flashing, the smiles, she remembered people telling her how beautiful she looked.
She smiled as cameras flashed and as people kissed her cheek or took her hands and commented on how wonderful she looked.
She felt wonderful.
Her father held her, and looked at her the way he had back then, she felt her eyes tear up; she wanted him to lift her up and spin her around. He didn't tell her she looked beautiful, he didn't have too; just to see him smile was more than enough.
She felt arms slip around her waist and she turned around, and there he was smiling at her, those chocolate brown eyes seemed to gaze into her soul, before he kissed her, his hand gently resting against her cheek.
"Tony..."
Before she knew what was happening, she had a champagne flute in her hand and her arm was criss-crossed with his, his smile the one that had always belong to her and only her, he raised his glass and sipped from it, she followed his movements with a smile of her own, their wedding bands glistening in the sun.
Mrs. Tony Stark, she thought, had a very nice ring to it.
Over his shoulder a pale yellow bow caught her eye, it had been placed neatly around the neck of a green bottle, and there on the label it read: Shampain.
She couldn't help but laugh.
Nothing, not even a cheap bottle of champagne from her father, joke or not, could take away this feeling.
She was on cloud nine, and she never wanted to come back down.
Not even for a moment.
FIN
A/N: Shampain is not a real brand of anything lol, it just moulded well for the story...Please review.