Chapter One:
Virginia 'Pepper' Potts reached for the cup on the table in her apartment. She drank the water with ease and sighed when it was gone. She slowly walked over to her cell phone and dialed her mother's number.
"Hello?" an old and tired voice answered.
"Hi, Mom," Pepper replied softly.
"Amy?" the voice answered.
"No, it's Pepper," she said reluctantly.
"Oh. I was excepting a call from your sister. She is going home soon you know," she said slowly.
"Yes Mom I know. That's what I'm calling you about."
"What is it?"
"Does she have come visit me??" Pepper sounded like a 5 year old complaining about a doctor's appointment, but she didn't care. She'd rather get twelve shots than see her sister.
"Sweetie, she hasn't seen you in a couple years," her mom answered, after letting out an exasperated sigh.
"Actually it's been four. And, it's been so wonderful!"
"Is she that bad? Really?"
"Well, no. But she always brags to me about her amazing life. It annoys me to the point where I can't take it anymore!" Pepper growled into the phone.
"Pepper, you know she doesn't mean to. She just has a lot of adventures, so therefore, she has a lot to talk about!" her mom defended.
"Can't she tell someone else about it then?"
"No. She has been dying to see you!"
"Fine, fine, fine. I got to go," Pepper said, hurried.
"Where are you going?" her mom asked.
"She'll be here in like a half-hour. I have to get ready."
"Oh okay. Bye Pepper. Love you," she said before hanging up.
Sighing, Pepper put down her cell phone. Why did her stupid sister have to come? Well, the fact of the matter was that her sister wasn't stupid. She was extremely smart. Pepper sat back down and turned on her TV. No, Pepper didn't have to get ready; she just used that as an excuse to stop talking to her mother.
Why did she even call her mom? She was no help. But what was done was done and Pepper would just have to get through it. She wasn't that annoyed by her sister. She loved her. But Pepper had this nasty habit of, 'protecting' her. After all, Amy was her little sister. Only by a year, but to Pepper, it was more like eight.
And when she thought of her sister's good looks, intelligence, and being close to Pepper, she thought about Amy meeting Tony Stark. Surely, Pepper would have to introduce her to her boss, but she also knew that Tony would make a move on Amy. And Pepper didn't want to see her little sister get hurt.
She jumped when she heard her phone ring. She picked it up and saw, 'Amy' on the caller I.D.
"Hello?" Pepper answered nonchalantly.
"Hey Pep! Guess what! My flight was fifteen minutes early! Are you here yet?" Amy practically screamed in Pepper's ear.
"I can hear you perfectly, there's no need to yell," Pepper groaned. "And I'm not there yet, but it'll take like ten minutes to get there, so I'll leave now."
"Okay, thanks Pep!" Amy exclaimed. She still sounded like a ten year old girl, but she sure as Hell didn't look like one.
"Kay, I'll see you soon. Bye," Pepper said, hanging up. She grabbed her purse and left the complex rather quickly. This was a time where her 'motherly instincts' kicked in. She didn't want to leave her little sister alone at the crowded airport for long.
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"Amy?" Amy turned around to see Pepper waiting for her by the airport exit. She looked great, for Pepper. Her strawberry blonde hair hung loosely at her sides and her usually pale skin seemed to finally get a slight tan.
"Pep!" Amy exclaimed embracing her sister into a large hug.
"You look… Fantastic," Pepper murmured.
"Thanks, you too!" Amy smiled and stepped back to look at her sister again. Wow, she really had changed. She looked fantastic. Amy sighed and pulled her long blonde hair into a ponytail.
"It's hot here," Amy remarked, fanning herself with her manicured hand.
"I thought you'd be used to the heat, seeing how you were in South Africa for four years," Pepper smirked, grabbing the handle of Amy's suitcase and starting to drag it to her car.
"Yeah well, I spent most of my time in the water and the water isn't a hot tub you know," Amy replied.
"Did you get a lot of good pictures?" Pepper asked, putting Amy's luggage into the back of her car.
"Oh yes! 1,863 to be exact!" Amy bragged.
"1,863?" Pepper gasped.
"Well some of them are bad; I need to go through them. Plus we got a lot of footage too!"
"Oh yeah, so how were the great whites?" she asked, starting the car and pulling out of the airport's parking lot.
"Fantastic! We got so much information on them! We documented the whole life of a newborn!" Amy exclaimed, clapping her hands together and smiling, her perfect and white teeth shimmering.
"That's great," Pepper replied, trying her best to act happy for her.
"Yeah. So how about you? How's your job?" Pepper thought she heard a faint bit of disgust when Amy mentioned Pepper's job, but she let it pass.
"Fine."
"Good." Amy was quiet most of the way home, and so was Pepper. They looked out the windows and didn't look at each other, until finally Amy spoke up.
"So, who do you work for again?" she asked, even though she knew perfectly well who her boss was.
"Tony Stark," she replied, squeezing harder on the steering wheel.
"Hmm. Is he… nice?" Amy asked.
"Um, yes, I mean, he's interesting. I guess you could say," Pepper shrugged.
"Interesting?"
"Well I mean, like everyone, he has his flaws…"
"Flaws? Like what?"
"Like, he gambles, drinks, and sleeps with women a lot," Pepper replied quickly. She wanted to turn her sister off of her boss as much as possible.
"Really? Hm. Is he… Cute?"
Shoot. How was she supposed to answer that? 'No he's ugly'? No she couldn't do that, because her sister might blurt something about it to him when she met him.
"Well I mean, he's my boss so I don't really think of him much more than that," Pepper smiled. She was happy with her answer. "Besides, haven't you seen him on TV or whatever?"
"Not really. I was kind of limited on my entertainment choices in South Africa…" She trailed off, staring out the window.
"Oh right," Pepper said, pulling up into the parking lot of her apartment complex.
"Well, once we get inside, I can tell you all about my trip!" Amy exclaimed happily, jumping out of Pepper's car.
"Oh boy," Pepper murmured. This is going to be a long night.