Patchwork Road
By Rey
Chapter summary: Pepper Potts used to be not just Pepper Potts, at least to a certain person.
52. Ladybug
A long, long time ago, a poor but ambitious and feisty ten-year-old girl named Virginia "Nia" Potts was dragged to a "winter camp" by her concerned uncle. This was done after the disastrous abandonment of her father and the even more disastrous winter that had followed it. There, she was somehow enticed to fall in love with wintertime… and also the person who seemed to rule it, who was the main instructor in the camp, in a familial sort of way. And there, "Pepper Potts" was born, amidst the camaraderie of a lively winter wonderland, as well as "Ladybug" to the fatherly-and-motherly instructor.
"You are warm and bright, like the colour of that little insect," the aforementioned instructor said when she asked why they had chosen the nickname for her. "Ladybugs are easily visible in a tree. They show off without intentionally showing off. You show off like that, too."
It was a conversation splashed with laughter, but also with the bittersweet knowledge of their eminent parting, with little to no chance of reunion.
And now, after so long, Pepper Potts, who is also the Ladybug, is going to seek her old friend and mentor the winter-camp instructor from long ago, who was also the parent figure she desperately needed. A creepy predator is not going to ruin this for her, nor her unfamiliarity with the land and terrain, nor the chill of the air even through her antarctic outfit, nor what is apparently a contingent of blue-skinned giants armed with various ice-based weapons ready to "welcome" her from afar.
So, when the creepy predator gains too much on her, the terrain seems to like to confuse her, the chill is apparently eager to freeze her marrows, and the fearsome group of giants seem more focused on her than her pursuer, she turns round and brandishes her own weapons, ready to fight instead of surrendering or futilely flee.
She is the Ladybug, and others should be wary of how bright she is.
