Claire pushed away the curtains covering the windows and snickered at the reporters outside the window. Immediately, they all turned in her direction and began snapping pictures. Claire gave them a smirk before making funny faces at them.
Suddenly the front door opened. In walked her father. Claire had to contain her laughter when she saw that his coat was ripped in several places, his glasses were askew, and his normally controlled and proper reddish hair was flying off in different directions.
"Get back you animals! Get back!" he yelled as several reporters tried to barge into her home while simultaneously trying to take pictures of anything they possibly could. In a desperate attempt to close the door, he grabbed the daily newspaper sitting on the mantel and began beating the reporters over the head with it. Angrily, her father finally managed to slam the door uncaringly, possibly smashing fingers in it.
"Who knew a simple engagement would create so much chaos," he grumbled as he tossed the newspaper back onto the mantel and stomped away to find his wife. Claire shrugged and turned back to the window.
"Oh sweetheart, are you alright?" she heard her mother ask her father from the kitchen. Claire rolled her eyes. The woman was forever trying to cook. Maybe she could talk Pepper into hiring them a personal chef once her and Tony Stark were married.
Claire turned away from the window, bored. She approached the couch and sat down, flipping on the television.
Ring! Ring!
"Mom, the phone is ringing!" she yelled while proping her feet up on the coffee table and reaching for the bag of cheetos to her right.
Ring! Ring!
"Mom! The phone!" Claire yelled again. A new episode of Spongebob Squarepants was on and she couldn't be interrupted with the trivial matter of answering the phone.
Ring! Ring!
With a groan and a sigh, Claire stood up and walked over to where the phone was ringing incessantly.
"Hello?" she asked monotonely and almost mechancially. "This is the Potts residence. May I take a message?"
"Claire, can I talk to mom?"
"Is this Pepper?" Claire asked boredly.
"Yeah. Now can I talk to mom?" the voice on the other line said shakily.
Claire sighed before covering the phone with one hand. "Mom! Pepper is on the phone! She wants to talk to you!"
In bussled her mother, wiping her freshly washed hands on her apron.
"Who is it?" her mom asked distractedly.
Claire rolled her eyes. "It's Pepper. I just said that."
Her mom ignored her attitute and grabbed the phone, smiling. "So how are my two newly engaged cuties?"
The voice on the other end of the phone replied and Theresa's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh Pepper... Of course you can come here! We'll have your room set up and everything! Oh, sweetie, don't cry... We can talk about it when you get here. I'll have some more of your favorite tuna casserole made up for you."
Again, Pepper replied back, but was unheard by Claire. "Okay, goodbye honey. Love you. I'll see you soon."
Claire's mother took the phone from her ear and hung it back up, sighing.
"What's wrong with Pepper, mommy?" Claire asked innocently.
Theresa squatted down by her daughter. "Nothing sweetpea, she's just having a little trouble with her friend."
"Oh you mean Tony?"
"Yeah, Tony. They're in an argument right now. I'm sure your sissy will explain as soon as she gets here."
With that, Theresa stood up again, muttering to herself the list of ingredents she would need for tuna casserole and walked back into the kitchen.
Claire shrugged and walked past the television, up the stairs, and into her room where she began counting the pile of money she had in the little treasure chest in her closet.
"Some things are meant to be told," she said as she reached over and turned on her stereo, bobbing her head to the latest hit song.
A few hours later, Pepper fought her way through the sea of reporters still surrounding her house. With her face matching her hair, she angrily shoved them out of the way as they tried to take pictures of her. Quickly, Pepper knocked on the door and was ushered in by her father as he fought to close the door once again.
For a moment she just looked at her mother. Then the dam broke loose. The tears she had been holding in the entire flight here burst forward and ran down her face.
"Oh Pepper," her mom wrung her hand together worriedly before wrapping her in a soft and comforting hug. "what's wrong sweety?"
"H-he told mom. He promised an.." she trailed of as she began sobbing heavily. Theresa gave her husband a look and he shrugged helplessly. He grabbed Pepper's elbow and gently steered her to the couch where she plopped down gracelessly.
"Shhhh, shhh," Theresa soothed as she rubbed Pepper's back gently. After a while Pepper had calmed down slightly.
"Now why don't you tell mommy and daddy what happened," her mom nudged.
"Tony. He promised he wouldn't tell about our engagement. After Greg, I didn't want to rush into things. I wanted to keep it quiet for a while but then he had to go an-and.." she trailed off as another round of crying took over.
"Oh, sweety, are you sure this isn't a misunderstanding? Why, when your father and I got engage-"
Pepper cut her off. "No mom. I should have known something like this was going to happen."
"But he seemed like such a nice man. Maybe he was a bit.. eccentric, but he seemed to love you a lot. When he looked at you, I saw it in his eyes." Theresa stated honestly.
Her father gave her mother a look. "Well I for one, have never even met this Tony Stark. To hear that you were engaged to him came as quite a shocker."
Pepper looked up at her father. "Don't worry daddy. It was all just a mistake. I should have never agreed to marrying him."
With that, Pepper's face scrunched up and she fled from the room. Her parents watched her leave and sat silently for a few moments before Theresa stood.
"Nice going Bob." Theresa hissed at her husband, slapping his arm while walking by. Bob shrugged helplessly.
"I'm a man. What did you expect? At least I tried!"
Claire peeked around the corner of the hallway with wide eyes and a surprised look on her face as her parents walked back into the kitchen.