A/N: You guys? All the Disney content that just got announced this week! We are truly spoiled. I'm so excited for Phase Four of the MCU, as well as all the Star Wars and Disney stuff. It's going to be a nice change.
There is some underage drinking in this chapter - I do not condone this! But let's be real, Tony probably started drinking when he went to college at 14. And Maggie's cut from the same cloth.
Ever since Maggie was well enough, Rhodey began taking her on roadtrips to his Air Force base in Southern California. He'd been making leaps and bounds as an Air Force officer, and a few days after Maggie's twelfth birthday he was hired officially as the Stark Industries military liaison.
Mostly Rhodey just showed Maggie around the hangars and pointed out the different kinds of planes, but once she was well enough and old enough, he started to take her up in the air.
The first time was her eighth birthday. He took her up in one of the 'boring' planes, a small turboprop, but Maggie would later remember it as one of the best days of her life. They'd taken off at dawn and risen up, up, into the pastel blue and yellow sky. Maggie had flown before, but never like this: just her and Rhodey and the loud engine, the sky all around them and the ground far below. She pressed herself against the passenger window until it fogged up, then whooped as Rhodey pulled up into the misty clouds. She'd been torn between staring out the cockpit window, and staring at Rhodey as he easily manned the controls.
The first time Rhodey let her take over the controls was on her twelfth birthday, in a little training monoplane. It was in no way legal or allowed, but Rhodey had long since learned that if you restricted the Stark siblings to age-appropriate activities they'd lose their minds.
The moment Maggie's hands landed on the controls as Rhodey let her take over midair, a strange feeling washed over her. She felt the power of the plane around her, the rush of air over the cockpit, felt the wings shifting under her fingers. An electric thrill ran through her body and the hair on her arms stood on end.
"No feeling like it, is there?" Rhodey murmured, watching her with a smile.
Maggie breathed out shakily, then banked the plane into a tight turn. Rhodey freaked out and tried to take the controls away, but they made it back down to the ground in one piece.
Rhodey became her impromptu trainer. He figured it was better that he try to teach her, rather than Maggie going off to learn how to fly through more dubious means. Because it had been clear since she was small that there would be no steering her away from the sky. And much like her brother (though he was less interested in the whole piloting thing), she was a natural. She quickly figured out the training plane, and Rhodey started her on the flight simulator and more advanced aircraft. When Tony took her on an impromptu trip to the south of France, she sat in the private jet's cockpit with the pilots the whole time, talking their ears off about ailerons and yaw and the latest developments in flight systems controls.
One evening, as Maggie sat in the pilot's seat of a Cessna with her helmet strapped tightly over her head, Rhodey glanced over at her.
"You know, you need a callsign if you want to be a pilot, Maggie. What do you think? How about…" he racked his brain. Little devil came to mind, since she seemed determined to give him a heart attack half the time.
"Um… dragon?" Maggie said quietly.
Rhodey cocked an eyebrow at her. "Dragon?"
Maggie nodded. They'd been reading stories about old medieval heroes in class, about how the heroes killed dragons and wyverns and hydras. But privately, even though they'd been talking about bravery and chivalry and all that in class, Maggie had admired the illustrations of the monsters in their book. One of them had stuck out to her: a dark, scaly creature, all rage and fire, sharp and strong.
Both of Rhodey's eyebrows were raised now, but he just shrugged. "Dragon it is, then."
June, 1999
Tony had been intending to get into Artificial Intelligence ever since they moved to California. And he'd been looking into it, both in weapons design and while building the mansion, but it wasn't until a lull hit the Stark Industries R&D department that Tony took a few weeks leave, boarded himself up in his workshop, and really put his mind to it.
Maggie, now thirteen and in a punk music phase, happened to be in his workshop at the time. He described to her the idea he'd been turning over in his mind for years, just a seedling really.
"I don't know how applicable it would be for SI," he told her, his feet kicked up on his workshop table and his fingers folded over his stomach. Maggie sat on the edge of the worktable, her knees poking out from the rips in her dark jeans, and her feet (both prosthetic and flesh) stuffed into heavy boots. "More of a user interface, it might work with the computer systems but-"
"You know," Maggie said, "Not everything you build has to be for the company." She smiled, surprised that she had to remind Tony that he could be selfish. She'd built plenty of things for herself - prosthetics, computer programs. Sure, most of them had ended up at SI anyway, but she'd made them for herself.
Tony unlaced his fingers and peered at her. "Y'know what, you're right." He nodded to himself. "You're right. It might turn out to be a disaster, but screw it." He pushed his chair over to his computer station, then glanced back at Maggie. "You're going to help, right?"
Maggie cocked her head. She had a lot of homework. "What's the project name?" Tony always had good names.
He glanced back at the computers as he started booting up his coding programs. "I was thinking of calling it Just A Rather Very Intelligent System."
Her brow furrowed for a moment, but then she realized. "J.A.R.V.I.S.," she murmured.
Tony stilled, but did not glance back at her.
Maggie swallowed. "Yeah, I'll help."
It took months.
Tony and Maggie built J.A.R.V.I.S. around themselves like a pillow fort, like a castle, a friend and protector and child. A shield against the world. A support.
It - he - was really Tony's brainchild, but Maggie read over every single line of code, learning from his work and (occasionally) suggesting revisions and additions. It was in those days that Maggie finally realized that what everyone had been saying was true: Tony was the smartest person on Earth. She hoped she could be half as smart as him one day.
(Unbeknownst to her, Tony watched Maggie reading, understanding, and improving his work, and wondered if he'd have been able to do the same at thirteen. Maybe, he thought. Either way, he was excited to see what she'd come up with when she was his age.)
The closer they got to building a complete interface, the longer they spent working on it. Happy gave up waiting at the front door when Tony needed to be somewhere, and learned that it was just easiest to go down to the workshop where he would no doubt be, squinting at lines of code on his screen. More often than not, Maggie was there reading over his shoulder, or fast asleep propped against Dum-E. Rhodey despaired of them both.
After many long nights of failures, Tony and Maggie sat on the workshop floor together, surrounded by clipped wires and computer screens, dark shadows under their eyes as they ran yet another set of code. This was their sixteenth try of running the interface they'd built, and ironing out the minute errors and inconsistencies in the code was proving a Herculean task. Maggie didn't know what day it was, or when the last time she'd slept was.
But then.
"Good evening sir. Good evening Ms Stark. How can I help you this evening?"
Maggie dropped her soldering iron with a clatter, and Tony flinched so violently he nearly knocked over the whole computer array.
"You're working!" Tony exclaimed.
"I am," came the even voice. Maggie and Tony had given the natural language UI a British accent without really discussing the decision. Maggie had heard the voice before in samples, but never had she heard it speak independently. She wondered if this was how Doctor Frankenstein felt. "I am J.A.R.V.I.S."
Maggie laughed, more out of a manic tiredness than anything, and Tony's eyes shone. Dum-E chirped, his claw opening and closing by Maggie's ear.
"All systems appear to be operational," J.A.R.V.I.S. said, his voice emanating from the discreet speakers they had set up across the workshop. "Hello, Mr and Ms Stark."
Maggie and Tony grinned at each other.
"Hello, J.A.R.V.I.S.," they said in unison.
"Shall I commence upload to the whole-house interface, sir?"
Tony nodded, then laughed at himself and scratched his head. "Uh, yes, J.A.R.V.I.S.," he told the UI. "Commence the Welcome Home procedure."
"Very well, sir."
Maggie held up a hand. Tony hi-fived it.
"And this is just Phase One!" he exclaimed, already dragging a computer toward himself to run an eye over the code. "Just wait until I equip him with a camera system, and automate the house-"
Maggie laughed, shaking her head at Tony, because of course this was only the beginning. Then her laugh turned into a jaw-cracking yawn, and Tony looked around as if seeing his surroundings for the first time. The far windows showed nothing but darkness.
"Hey," he said. "I think it's your bedtime. J.A.R.V.I.S., make sure Maggie goes to bed."
"Oh no, you are not using this nice UI to spy on me. Is that understood, J.A.R.V.I.S.?" They'd programmed the UI to learn in response to commands, but she wasn't sure how well that would work.
"Yes, Ms Stark. In any case, I have set your bedroom lights to low, and your climate control system to your preferred settings."
Maggie grinned at Tony. "He's making social inferences, like you said!"
Tony had that gleam in his eyes again. She could see the ideas swirling in his mind. "Next phase, I'm going to start working on the personality mimic we talked about - but first I'm going to watch like all the robot destruction movies to make sure I don't create a HAL 9000 or anything."
Maggie used Tony's shoulder as a handhold on her way up to her feet. "I won't let you." She yawned again. "Goodnight, Tony. Don't stay up too late." She started trudging toward the stairs. "Goodnight, J.A.R.V.I.S.," she said tentatively. She thought Tony would make fun of her for saying it, but when she glanced over her shoulder he was smiling.
It took a few seconds for the newly born UI to respond. Maggie couldn't remember if they'd ever programed him for an endearment like that.
"Good night, Ms Stark," J.A.R.V.I.S. told her, a little softer in volume than earlier.
Maggie smiled the whole way up to her bedroom, which was just the right temperature and dimly lit, and smiled until she fell asleep.
March, 2000
"J.A.R.V.I.S., where's Maggie?" Tony glanced around the living area, where he would normally be able to find his little sister, but as she'd gotten older she'd developed a habit of wandering off. She was almost fourteen, and growing at a terrifying rate. She'd be taller than him by her next birthday. His fingers clenched on the folder in his hand.
"Ms Stark was recently on her trampoline, but has since relocated to the roof."
"Does she know about this?" Tony waved the folder at the nearest camera as he made for the stairs.
J.A.R.V.I.S., of course, knew what he was referring to: not only did he catalogue the paper mail that came to the house, but a copy had also come through Tony's email, which J.A.R.V.I.S. monitored. "I don't believe so, sir. But it will hardly come as a surprise."
Jaw clenched, Tony climbed upstairs, pushed through the door onto the roof, and looked around. He'd designed the mansion so that you could walk around on most of the roof, or sunbathe, and sure enough he spotted Maggie at the far end, lying on her front with her chin propped on her folded hands, looking out to sea. The sun filtered down onto the roof, surprisingly warm for the season, making her metal prosthetic glint.
Tony marched over and dropped the folder in front of her face. Maggie didn't flinch - she must've heard him coming. The folder fell open before her nose, revealing the school report inside. Maggie reached out and flicked through a few pages. Her dark eyes didn't show any sign of surprise as she read.
English - D
Social Sciences - D
Math - C-
Seeing the grades again made Tony's teeth grind. "What's this about?" he asked.
She flipped the folder closed and shrugged. "Boring classes."
His lips pressed together. He considered yelling, but eventually sighed. "Look," he said. "I don't give a shit if you fail your classes."
Maggie's head jerked up and she stared at him.
He shrugged. "You and I both know that you're going to get into any college or job you want. You've sure as shit got a job at Stark Industries." Her eyebrows rose. "But I do care about why you're failing your classes." He crouched, then took a seat on the roof beside her. "Because you can obviously pass them," he continued. Sure, he'd struggled with the humanities side of things in school, but grading was a system, and he'd always understood systems. He met Maggie's eyes. "And you are never bored of learning."
Maggie's eyes widened, and then she looked away. Tony reached for the report again and flipped through it. Maggie's teachers seemed just as baffled as he felt. Maggie pays attention and engages well in class, her science teacher had written, but seems to be struggling with her assessment this year. Two assignments were never handed in, and the other two showed a marked decrease in quality from last year.
Tony shook his head.
Finally, Maggie spoke. Her voice was so soft as she looked away from him that Tony had to strain to hear her. "Do you ever feel like… like being the way that you are, is what makes other people keep their distance?"
Tony set down the report, stunned. He'd gotten used to being more or less alone. To people knowing who and what he was before they even met him. He'd thought that was just the way things were. He frowned. "Yes."
Maggie's head tilted and he saw a sliver of her face through her tousle of dark hair: she was frowning.
"All my life," Tony began, "I've been different because of what I can do. People treat me - us - differently." He let that sink in. "And I get wanting to be normal. I've had days when I wished people didn't know my face, when I wished that my brain wasn't some kind of… commodity." He shifted uncomfortably. "But Maggie… this isn't about other people. This is about you, and how you treat yourself. About what you want to prove to yourself. If you want to push down who you are to make friends more easily, then that's your prerogative. But just… promise me you'll think about why you're doing this."
He slid the closed report back across to her, then got to his feet and walked away. As he reached the door, he glanced back over at his sister. She'd picked up the report again and was reading through it. Sighing, Tony strode inside.
The next semester, Maggie's report came back all A's, and she'd even picked up some AP classes and other college credits. Her teacher's notes read like worship. And Maggie didn't look exactly happy about it when Tony waved the report excitedly at her, but she looked as if she inhabited her own skin again.
July, 2001
It was a Tuesday evening, and Tony and Maggie had ordered Chinese. Maggie sometimes wondered if people ever guessed that this was how Tony lived when he wasn't at the parties or the work events or the glamorous outings: hunched over on his living room floor, scarfing down egg rolls. Maggie mostly lived the expected life of a fifteen year old: school, extracurriculars, friends, occasionally sneaking out (not that she'd figured out how to avoid J.A.R.V.I.S.'s watchful eye, but either he never told Tony or Tony was letting her have her freedom). She didn't have many friends to sneak out with, she just liked walking along the beach at night.
"Got a new PA today," Tony said through a mouthful of fried rice. Behind him, Maggie could just see the moon glowing on the surface of the dark ocean.
"Anne-Louise quit, then," she said.
"Yeah, last week." He looked up. "I thought I told you."
Maggie shrugged. "She stopped calling you and you missed two days of work last week, so I figured."
"Anyway, new PA."
"Are you awful to her, too?" she asked, reaching for the egg rolls before Tony devoured them all.
"Probably." He made a face. "I can't really help it."
"You could, you just don't like your job."
"I don't like some parts of the job."
Maggie fought to control her chopsticks. "So how long will the new one last?"
Tony scratched the back of his neck and didn't answer. He looked absorbed by his food, but his thoughts were clearly elsewhere. Finally, he said: "She's a redhead. Real spiky personality."
Her nose scrunched. "I don't want to hear it." Bad enough that half the girls in her school couldn't get enough of staring at her brother's pictures in magazines.
"SI didn't hire her this time," Tony continued as if he hadn't heard her. "I did."
Maggie finally looked up, frowning. She'd caught a note in his voice that she didn't recognise. "Why?"
"Well technically she's been working for us a few months, in the finance department. But today she, uh, apparently found an error - turns out some stiff in Legal has been embezzling, but that's beside the point - and she came up to tell me about it in person. And Happy's off today visiting his sister, so it was one of the jumpy SI Security guys outside my office, and they apparently decided that this finance lady looked like a threat."
Maggie stared. "And?"
"And they pepper sprayed her."
She didn't stop staring. "Is she okay?"
"What?" Tony had been fiddling with the buttons on the end of his sleeves. "Oh yeah, she's fine. Told me about the embezzling with a cold rag over her eyes." He frowned and rolled up his sleeve, smearing sweet and sour sauce over it.
"And?" Maggie prompted.
"And… I hired her. I told her I had an opening, since Anne-Lousie quit."
Maggie shook her head. "What's her name?"
"Who?"
"Your new PA."
"Oh, I don't know." He shot her a sideways look. "I've been calling her Pepper."
Maggie fought back her instinctive laugh, and frowned at him. "Because of the-"
"Yes, because of the pepper spray! And her last name is Potts. Come on, Magnesia, it's funny."
"Does she think it's funny?"
"She… I don't know. Hard to say, really. You'll understand when you meet her."
Maggie stared at Tony for a moment longer. She'd long since given up trying to interfere with how he acted at work. Sure she technically had a stake in the company and might even end up running it one day - wasn't that a weird thought - but she wasn't Tony's boss. He'd given her more than enough freedom, given her age, and it only felt right to return the favour.
Though she did feel bad for the people he worked with. The PAs, especially. But after Happy had been hired, she'd begun to hope that Tony wasn't impossible to work with. Turned out it just required a very specific, very patient sort of person.
And yet. "Bet you a hundred bucks she quits before eight months are up," Maggie said.
Tony looked at her fully, and there was a glint in his eyes she didn't quite understand. "You're on, cybertron."
It took another week for Maggie to meet the infamous Pepper.
Maggie had caught the bus to the SI complex, as she did about twice a month to see what Tony was working on and occasionally to meet the board of investors (since she was technically a part owner, or would be when she turned 21). Today, though, she was there to check out the latest computer targeting system Tony and his team had been building for the Navy.
She walked past the arc reactor building, catching a glimpse of the glowing circular reactor itself through the windows, and nodded to a couple of engineers she recognised. She felt a bit out of place here in her green school uniform and backpack, while everyone else was in suits or lab coats. The only other fifteen year olds on the complex were the occasional high schoolers here on the summer internship program.
A security officer checked her ID (she wondered if this was the one who'd pepper-sprayed Tony's new PA) and let her up to the Research and Development wing. This was Maggie's second favourite place in SI, after the demolitions lab. The wide, light-filled space was part office, part workshop, part computer hub. Rows of desks manned by SI's best and brightest stretched the length of the massive room, engineers bent over drafting tables, and teams put together experimental models in the workshop bay. The murmur of dozens of conversations hummed in the air, accompanied by the tapping of computer keys and the click and slide of metal parts. At the center of the room a soft-glowing blue hologram rotated, the prototype for the SI holo-tech coming out this year. Tony had already set up his home workshop with the technology. Maggie spotted a team of engineers at the far end of the room demonstrating an array of circuit boards to a man in a charcoal suit.
Maggie strode down the rows of desks, unabashedly staring at the dozens of different projects coming to life, and then turned when she heard Tony's voice.
Tony stood silhouetted by the wall-to-wall windows looking out over the sleek complex, wearing an ash-grey suit and waving his hands about as he spoke to… a composed, straight-backed woman with ginger hair and a coffee-coloured power suit. Maggie hung back a little, half-hidden behind a computer bank, watching them.
The woman's hair was pulled back in a neat ponytail and her white blouse was perfectly pressed, perfectly poised in sensible heels. She looked utterly professional. Maggie frowned. She wasn't sure what the difference was with this woman, but she was different. The other PAs had looked like they either wanted to murder Tony or run from him. This one looked… like she was in control. Tony gestured wildly, clearly attempting to be awful, but the woman just smiled placidly and made a note on her clipboard.
Tony turned away, still talking, then spotted Maggie. He waved, and she trudged over.
"Took you long enough to get here," Tony said by way of greeting. "Maggot, this is Pepper, Pepper, this is Maggot." He flicked a hand between them.
Maggie eyed the woman. She was about the same height as Tony, but she seemed taller. Maggie herself had gained an inch on Tony within the last year, making her taller than both of them.
"Hello Maggie, I've heard a lot about you," Pepper said with a smile, and Maggie instantly realised that this was a woman who knew how to make friends. "You're the only thing he talks about more than machines."
"Well I am part machine," Maggie replied, and with a subtle move of her fingers the mechanism in her latest prosthetic whirred and her whole foot turned 360 degrees. She'd really only designed it that way to make people uncomfortable, but Pepper just smiled.
Maggie eyed Pepper for a few more moments. She'd never bothered that much with Tony's PAs before. The most interaction she usually had with them was when they organised for her to attend SI events.
Finally she turned to Tony. "Show me the new system?"
"Oh, right," Tony said, then flapped a hand at her to guide her to his usual desk.
Pepper watched them go with a shrewd look on her face.
The next time, Pepper was at the house.
Maggie rolled out of bed on a Saturday morning, put on her leg, and made her way to the kitchen.
"Good morning, Ms Stark," J.A.R.V.I.S. greeted her. "It's eight AM, the the weather in Malibu is sixty eight degrees, the day is predicted to be overcast." Maggie trudged into the kitchen and stopped dead at the sight of Pepper Potts, in another suit (taupe this time), sitting at the kitchen island with her heeled feet crossed and her hands resting on a laptop. J.A.R.V.I.S. continued: "And there is a visitor."
"Hello," Pepper said brightly.
For a moment Maggie thought that she and Tony - that they had… but then Tony strode into the kitchen from his hallway and shot Pepper a scowl.
"How did you get in?"
"Happy brought me here," Pepper said pleasantly. "And J.A.R.V.I.S. let me stay. Since you left yesterday without reviewing the board resolutions I thought we could get them done this morning." Her hand rested on the folder beside her laptop.
"It's a Saturday," Tony grumbled. He was wearing the embroidered pajamas Maggie had gotten him for his birthday.
"And the PR team wants to put these out first thing on Monday morning," Pepper said. "I could come back tomorrow, if it's more convenient?"
For a moment Tony just stared at her. "You're persistent, I'll give you that," he eventually said. He sighed and strode to pick up the folder beside Pepper, flicking it open. "I'm not paying you for working on a Saturday."
"Yes you are," Pepper replied in that same pleasant tone. Tony did not reply. Pepper looked back over at Maggie, and Maggie turned to leave the room.
Half an hour later, Maggie returned to the kitchen to find Tony scrawling his signature on the last page of the document.
"Tony," she said, "can I show you this new move I learned on the trampoline?"
"Yes, absolutely, thank you," Tony blurted out. He dropped the pen on the folder and hurried after Maggie as if the papers (or Pepper) would run after him. Maggie turned to go, but glanced back to see Pepper sigh, gather up the paper to look over it, and then stand to leave.
A month later Maggie was back at SI, jogging up the stairs to the testing lab where the armor engineering team were trialling their latest body armor line. When she burst through the stairwell doors onto the right floor, she nearly ran into Pepper.
"Hello," Pepper greeted her, waving a small notepad. "I'm just doing the coffee run, would you like a coffee? Or tea, or hot chocolate…?"
"No," Maggie said shortly, out of breath, and hurried past her.
She didn't see Pepper glance after her, her face even.
When Pepper came back, Maggie was perched on the edge of a desk, watching wide-eyed as a technician slashed a kevlar blend chest plate with a bowie knife. Tony leaned on the other side of the desk, watching closely. The testing lab was a sturdy room with reinforced gunmetal-grey walls, making it appear much grimmer than the rest of the SI complex. Maggie had just leaned over to read the project's brief sheet when she saw Pepper slide through the door balancing a tray of coffees. Pepper strode through the room to hand them out, and finally handed Tony his cup a few feet away from Maggie.
"Where are you going to be next Saturday?" Pepper asked, her eyes on the knife testing as Tony sculled his coffee.
"I thought you were supposed to be in control of his schedule," Maggie said. Not accusingly, just neutral.
Pepper and Tony both glanced over at the sound of her voice, and Maggie noticed a small furrow in Tony's brow.
"I've since learned it's not something you can really control," Pepper said with a hint of charm. "But I do my best." She arched an eyebrow at Tony.
He shrugged. "Maggie's got a physio appointment that Saturday."
"That's on there," Pepper acknowledged, and Maggie turned away to hide her scowl. The lab technician picked up a machete.
"Thought i might hit the bar scene with Rhodey," Tony added. The lab tech started slashing at the chest plate, letting off a spray of glinting sparks.
"Sounds fine," Pepper said. "Maybe you'd both consider making an appearance at the Endangered Species nonprofit fundraiser on the way."
"You're not slick," Tony said, but there was a smile in his voice. "But Rhodey hasn't figured out how to say no to you yet, so… fine. So what's the deal, we dress up as endangered animals?"
"Cocktail attire will be fine."
Maggie dropped her chin on her fist and wondered when they'd start shooting the chest plate.
Pepper started coming around the house more often to organise things. Tony had never let any of the other PAs in the house before, but Maggie supposed that since he was taking on more responsibility with SI, and Maggie didn't need so many nannies these days, he needed more help.
Pepper worked in tandem with J.A.R.V.I.S., collecting mail, getting suits dry cleaned, ushering Tony's conquests away (Maggie pretended to know nothing about any of that), and handling Tony's personal and professional calendar. She was the architect behind a Stark Industries mixer held at the mansion itself, much to Maggie's consternation. Tony had parties at the house all the time, but this was a business event, and so Maggie had to be there. Normally she avoided Tony's parties or crept around the edges stealing drinks, so being front and center was alarming.
So she sat uncomfortably on her own couch in a dark blue business-y dress more like something Pepper would wear, watching people she barely knew laugh and traipse through her home. Tony was doing his best to devolve the event into a full-blown party, popping champagne bottles in the kitchen surrounded by a crowd of laughing men and women in suits. Pepper had already made him give a speech about warm company relationships and celebrating innovation and thank you for your hard work, so now he was dedicating himself to enjoyment. Obie was at the other end of the room, shaking hands. Maggie had hoped she'd at least be able to stick by his side, but he was busy working even in the middle of a party.
A three piece band Pepper had hired played mild instrumental music in the foyer, cutting through the babble of conversation and clinking glasses.
Maggie was just wishing Rhodey had been able to come so she'd have someone to talk to, when one of the SI board members dropped down on the couch beside her.
"Hi Elliot," Maggie said with an attempt at a smile.
Elliot, one of the newer board members, had whitened teeth and always wore a midnight-blue suit. "Maggie, thanks for inviting us into your home! And what a nice home it is."
Maggie looked around. "You're welcome."
"So, can we expect to see you at the annual shareholder mixer this year?" he asked. "We've been talking about it and we'd love to have the younger Stark heir there this year, it'd be such a boost for the investors."
Maggie reached for her drink (lemonade, but she'd managed to slip some rum in it). "I don't really know if-"
"Oh you'll be fine," Elliot smiled at her, teeth too white and skin too tanned. "You're a big girl now, and I know the investors would love to pick your brains. Maybe once they've met you properly we could start bringing you in officially on some ground level projects. You can't keep those smarts in high school forever! And it's really just a party at the end of the day."
Maggie smiled uncertainly. She liked a party just as much as the next person, but she knew that Elliot wasn't talking about the fun kind of party with good music and good food. This was a business meeting disguised as a party, where everyone would be at least a decade older than her. Like tonight. She glanced away, trying to convey her disinterest, and spotted Pepper making the rounds with a Blackberry in one hand and a champagne glass in the other.
She glanced back down at her drink. "Well, I don't-"
"There's no need to be nervous," Elliot cut her off again, leaning a little closer. "You're the boss, after all. Maybe we could even get you to give us a speech, huh?"
"What's this about?" Maggie and Elliot both looked up to see Pepper standing behind the couch. Her voice was pleasant, but Maggie could see her eyes flicking cuttingly between them. Maggie folded her arms over her chest.
"The upcoming shareholder mixer," Elliot smiled easily at Pepper. "Just talking about how the young Ms Stark here is going to steal the show!"
"Oh I'm afraid that's not possible," Pepper said without hesitation, sounding disappointed. "I've just been working on Ms Stark's schedule for the next month and she has a school book club meeting on the same evening as the mixer."
Maggie did not let her eyes widen, though it was hard to resist. Pepper was lying.
Elliot laid a hand on the back of the couch, as if reaching out to Pepper. "Surely we can reschedule? This is a family business, after all," he coaxed. "And it's about time-"
"Well we'll have to see what we can work out for next time," Pepper said tightly. "By the way, Mr Drummond, you're part of the military satellite project, right? I just heard Mr Wallace discussing the upcoming changes to the program, it sounded just fascinating-"
"Changes?" Elliot said abruptly, and jerked upright. He sped-walked away, head turning as he searched for Mr Wallace, without a single glance back.
Maggie half expected Pepper to sit beside her and raise an eyebrow as if to say well, what do you say? But Pepper just watched Elliot walk off with a glint in her eye, then glanced down at her Blackberry and turned to go.
"Wait," Maggie said. Pepper stopped and looked down at her, her face softer than Maggie was used to seeing it. "Thanks," she whispered.
"Don't mention it," Pepper smiled.
"No, I just…" Maggie frowned. "I thought your job was to make us go to stuff."
A small furrow appeared in Pepper's brow. She looked at Maggie for a few moments, as if evaluating her, then strode around the couch and sat down beside her. "My job is to make Tony go to stuff, because it's his job," she said softly. "Though every now and then I do give him an excuse to get out of meetings I know he'll really be no use in. But Maggie, you're fifteen. It's not your responsibility to go to anything you don't want to go to. Aside from school," she added with a smile.
Maggie thought about that, twisting her fingers in her dress. "Huh." She looked back up at Pepper. "Do you… want to come to the shooting range with me tomorrow? Rhodey's been teaching me."
Pepper smiled. "Sure. I'll take the day off." She stood, smoothed down her skirt, then arched an eyebrow at Maggie's drink. "Next time, you might consider using a clear liquor."
As Pepper strode off again, Maggie eyed her faintly brown-tinted drink. Hm.
The next day, Pepper and Maggie stood in adjacent booths at the indoor firing range, orange headphones covering their ears and dismantled pistols on the counter in front of them. Flourescent lights illuminated the close, soundproofed space. Rhodey sat on the bench behind them, texting. He'd been having lady troubles.
Maggie reached for her pistol and methodically slid the components together as Rhodey had shown her over the past few months. If she was honest with herself, she had partly invited Pepper as a way of asserting some kind of dominance. "So you start by-" she glanced sideways, only to see that Pepper had already assembled her weapon and was checking the magazine. Maggie stared. "You've done this before."
Pepper smiled as she raised her weapon, her legs apart and her arms straight. She flicked off the safety, aimed, and fired. Maggie blinked at the crack. Pepper's shot didn't hit the center of her target, but it did it hit. The paper shivered.
Pepper disarmed the gun, set it down, and faced Maggie. "I've never been to a firing range before, but I did grow up on a farm."
Maggie eyed her. Even at the shooting range Pepper was wearing heels. "You."
"Yes, me," Pepper arched her brow and turned back to the gun. "I know what I like and where I want to be, but…" she took aim and fired again. The silhouette man on the target paper gained a hole in his shoulder. "I don't forget what I've learned."
Maggie was still staring at Pepper, and after a few moments she realized she was smiling. Maggie wished she knew where she wanted to be, but it was nice to see… she wasn't sure, really. She supposed she hadn't really known a lot of women, growing up.
Pepper caught her staring. "What?"
Maggie cocked her head. "You're not mad he calls you Pepper?"
Pepper smiled as she fired two more shots. "Do you know my real name?"
Maggie shook her head.
"Virginia," she said, and Maggie couldn't help the face she made. Harold, and now Virginia? What is happening? Pepper laughed at Maggie's expression. "Exactly. I've been pretty desperate for a nickname ever since I was a little girl. Turns out it only took being pepper sprayed in front of my boss to get one. So to answer your question, no. I'm not mad."
"Good," Maggie said, casting a glance back at Rhodey. He had one eye on them to make sure they didn't hurt themselves, but wasn't really paying much attention. "Because… Tony doesn't do it to be mean, you know. He calls me Maggot."
Pepper's smile softened. "I think I'm starting to figure that out." She eyed Maggie. "But you don't have to worry about explaining him to me, Maggie. I'll work him out in the end."
Maggie found herself struck dumb again. Rhodey genuinely enjoyed hanging out with Tony even when he was being irritating, and Happy didn't seem to get offended by anything and enjoyed Tony's streaks of wild fancy, but Pepper Potts... she looked as if the idea of figuring Tony out was a genuine pleasure.
"Well… good luck," Maggie said as she turned back to her own weapon. "And… thanks." She lifted her gun, checked her aim, and then fired twice. She set down the gun and realised she'd hit the target both times. A grin crossed her face.
"Good shot," Pepper told her.
Maggie swallowed her pride and turned to face Pepper again. She knew they weren't friends, not really, and Pepper was probably just here to make her job easier, but Maggie reckoned she was pretty good at figuring people out, and Pepper's smile just now was genuine. And that was enough for Maggie.
"You know," she sighed, "I bet Tony a hundred bucks that you wouldn't last eight months on the job." Pepper seemed more amused than annoyed by that. Maggie shrugged and turned back to reload. "I could stand to lose a hundred bucks."
She felt Pepper watching her for a few more moments, evaluating, before she too turned to reload. And then they both started firing.
Rhodey finally glanced up. "Doing a great job, ladies," he called.
The next day, Pepper marched into the mansion as if she owned it, spotted Tony at the kitchen island and set a paper file in front of him. Maggie, sitting by the couch with her computer on her lap, watched with a raised eyebrow.
Tony slid back in his chair. "Sorry, Pepper, I have to go help Maggie with her homework. Science, y'know?"
"No, I'm okay," Maggie called from the living area. Both Pepper and Tony paused and looked over at her. She smiled innocently at Tony. "I'm quite good at science, you know. I think I can handle it myself. You can stay and help Pepper."
Pepper's eyes glinted, and Tony stared at Maggie as if she'd shot him. "Traitor," he said.
"Yes," Maggie replied seriously. Then she stood up, holding her laptop, smiled at them both, and left the room.
Tony turned to Pepper. "You did this. Somehow."
Pepper shrugged. "I was a teenage girl once. I know what they need." Someone to listen to them, and a way to let off some steam. Pepper had picked Maggie as a fighter a mile off, so when she'd offered to go shooting together Pepper had jumped at the chance.
"I bet you had the mind of a middle aged accountant back then, too," Tony grumbled. But he sat down and fidgeted, and when Pepper set a pen beside his hand he took it.
"Where do you need me to sign," he sighed.
The thing about Pepper's nickname is, apparently, canon!
And you guys know I like my 'prequel' chapters, hopefully I'm not boring you to death! I promise we're getting to some ~spicy~ stuff soon :)
Reviews
DBZfan45: She is indeed growing up! I'm so glad you're enjoying reading about Maggie figuring her life out and taking on new hobbies :) Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
MyCelestial Fury: Good spotting with the Captain Marvel reference! And thank you, I'm glad she doesn't seem like a Mary Sue :) I try my best!