A/N: Thank you to all the ones that reviewed my story! You all put me in such a great mood! I can't thank all of you enough!

I want to remind you that I own nothing but Cara. I don't want to get sued, so I had to put that there.

Keep reviewing please!

I woke up to the sound of my growling stomach.

The rising sun shone into my room, filling the space with glorious sunshine.

Uhhhh…was my very first thought, despite the wonderful sunlight. I cannot believe I forgot to eat. Eating is one of the essentials of survival. The last thing I ate was airline food. I'll go down to the kitchen when I'm dressed… What time is it?

I rolled to my left to reach for my iPod. I turned it on and glanced at the time in the corner of the interface: seven twenty-three.

Wow. I thought. That's early.

My stomach growled again, imploring for something to digest.

I decided to do as it pleaded; being this hungry hurts.

I quickly scrubbed my hair and face and got out. I was out of the bathroom in less than thirty minutes, fully-clothed and freshened up. I strode out of my room, my stomach pestering repeatedly. My ballet flats tapped as I paced myself down the open steps with no railing. I stayed close to the wall, running my hand over it for balance.

I walked to the kitchen and checked the fridge. I shook my head in disgust and disappointment; there was only liquor and wine in it. I practically slammed it shut.

He's in his thirty's but acts like a twenty-year-old! I thought angrily. Maybe Pepper can direct me to some food.

I looked around the house for her. She wasn't in the TV room, so I decided to check the workshop.

I was walking toward the living room when I saw a lady with blonde hair; the only things she was wearing was a long sleeved button shirt and some underwear. Her back was to me and her front was facing Pepper. In her hands, she held a couple articles of clothing on hangers.

I froze. Is anyone supposed to know I live here? I pondered, rolling the question around in my head.

"…You must be the famous Pepper Potts." The woman with no pants on was saying.

"Indeed I am." Pepper said.

"So Tony still has you picking up his dry cleaning," the lady stated as she took the clothes and hung them over her shoulder.

"I do anything and everything Mr. Stark requires, even occasionally taking out the trash." Pepper said, giving a sarcastic smile. "Would that be all?"

I was slowly backing up when I saw Pepper quickly glance at me without the other woman noticing, so I froze again.

"Yes," the woman said, walking towards the stairs.

I started to walk toward Pepper once the lady was out of sight, but Pepper held her hand up to stop me while she was looking up the stairs. I stopped, yet again.

After a minute, Pepper put her hand down and said, "Okay. She's gone."

"Who was she?" I asked while I finished walking the distance between us, stopping a couple feet away.

"That"--Pepper stated while glancing at the stairs again--"was Christine Everhart, the woman that Tony brought home after the award ceremony."

"Mm-hmm," was all I said while thinking annoyingly, He slept with her.

"How can a man with the highest IQ this world's seen in decades have the maturity of a twenty-year-old?" I asked Pepper with my arms crossed.

"I don't know," she said with a slight hint of disapproval, looking at her clipboard.

Pepper turned to walk downstairs. "Hey…Miss Potts," I called to her.

She stopped and turned back to me. "Yes?"

"Is there anything to eat around here? All I found was alcohol."

"No." She said with a slight look of apology. "We don't make anything here but coffee." Then her face turned to shock. "Did you eat anything last night?"

I shook my head slowly, looking at my feet.

"Oh no." She walked back toward me, with a face full of guilt. "I am so, very sorry. I'll go get something right now. What would you like?"

"Anything. It doesn't matter to me." I thought for a few seconds and said, "Just get a breakfast platter from McDonald's, please."

"Okay." Pepper looked at me again with apology. "I'm so sorry about this. I can't believe I forgot about your well-being because I know that Tony will. He can't even feed himself without my reminding."

She smiled in amusement, but turned serious again. "But in the mean time, you need to be in your room for when she comes out of Tony's room. I will personally bring you your food. I will be back with that as soon as possible."

Pepper turned around and headed down the steps out of sight.

I did as I was told and waited in my room for the food, my appetite becoming ravenous. I distracted myself by watching some television. I noticed that sound was all around me, like surround sound. But there were no speakers for sound to come out of, so I was left baffled by how the sound was entering the space until Pepper strode in with a wide paper McDonald's bag.

I smiled gratefully while I took the bag of fried food. "Thank you very much. The calories in this will make up for yesterday too."

Pepper smiled at the joke and held out a paper McDonald's cup. "I also got you some orange juice, if that's what you like."

"Yeah. I like orange juice." I said, laughing while taking the cup form her grasp. "I need something healthy to compromise with all this." I indicated the contents of the paper bag.

She only nodded and said, "Well I'll leave you to eat." She backed toward the doorway and added, "Ms. Everhart left so you don't have to be in here the entire time. You can come out if you want to."

"Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it."

Pepper nodded again and walked down the hallway, the door closing silently.

I ate my breakfast on the bed, flattening the bag out to protect the comforter somewhat.

I never thought I would enjoy eating a meal of MSG as much as I did then. I was just happy to be eating something.

Note to self: Ask Pepper for food...Particularly more nutritious food. I placed that thought in the back of my mind to make sure I don't forget.

After I disposed of the trash and washed the grease from the food off my hands, I had an impulse to work on my automotive designs.

I picked up my laptop from the top of the bookcase and turned it on. As soon as it was fully loaded, I opened my CAD program.

I worked on designs for what I hoped to be the next generation of fuel-efficiency: oxygen-powered engines.

When the car is going forward, wind blows against it always. The wind that usually cools down a normal gasoline engine through the grill of a car could be turned into energy.

I thought I would give this idea a shot; it's either a success or a fail.

I was trying to figure out how I could make the engine work when the car was at a halt when I thought, How would I be able to test my prototype?

I smacked myself in the head. There's a workshop in the house! Duh! Jeez, I'm so out of it…But how will I be able to work down there since Tony placed all these restrictions on me?

I mused over the chances of his approval. I guess I'll wing it; I'll never know what'll happen if I don't try.

I smirked. I wonder what he'll think once he sees how much gall I have to actually talk to him. He's never going to make the first move.

By then, I was way off engines and instead just thinking in general. How does he think up the weapons? Is it like me when I think of designs of cars, but for him he imagines weapons instead? At least my designs aren't made for destruction and murder…What are his weapons like anyway?

Then I thought, Maybe they're on a website. It would be good to know what exactly my uncle is creating.

I loaded the Internet browser. In the Google search box, I quickly typed "stark industries".

I clicked on the first result that came up. The home page showed new developments in weapons and defense technologies. I read some of the information on the types of weapons: It downright astonished me the things these weapons could do and how much destruction they could cause…and the prices! One weapon made me think of exactly how far Tony can go when it comes to total annihilation. In one shot, this weapon would split itself up when it's airborne and the missiles would land on the ground, causing shockwaves to spread across an extremely large expanse of land.

I read more about this weapon called the "Jericho" and saw that it was supposed to be demonstrated tomorrow in Afghanistan.

It's tomorrow in Afghanistan right now. I deliberated. That would mean Tony has to leave today, if I'm not mistaken, since Afghanistan's at the opposite side of the globe. I'll ask Pepper if they're leaving today.

I set my laptop aside but then thought, I should bring it to show I'm serious about building a prototype. He'll probably try and find any excuse to make sure I don't work in there at all.

I snatched it from the bed and carried it with me downstairs. I needed to find Pepper first. She's the only one who actually gives me answers.

I checked the TV room first and, luckily, she was sitting on a round seat with no backing; she sat with a nice posture, her clipboard on her lap and her hands folded over it. She was watching the news.

"Hey, Miss Potts?" I called to her from the archway.

She turned her head quickly, but at seeing me, she smiled and asked, "Yes?"

"Are you and Tony going to Afghanistan?" I asked.

"Yes." She answered, nodding. "I was about to go tell you. How did you…?

"Website." I shrugged.

"Right," she said, smiling. "Well, only Tony's going. I'm staying here. He's supposed to already have left. It's"—She checked her watch—"ten after three. I'm going to remind him." She turned off the "TV" and stood up.

"You say that as if you know he hasn't left yet." I said.

"He's still here. I would know if he had gone by now."

She started walking toward the stairs and I followed.

"I'm coming with you," I said. "I have to ask and see if I can work on my prototype for the engine I've designed."

Pepper stopped in her tracks.

"You design engines?" she asked, astonished.

"Yeah," I replied simply. "And the exterior of cars. Here, I'll show you."

I opened my laptop and pulled up my designs within a few seconds. I turned the laptop so the screen faced her.

She looked at them, still astonished. Then looked away and sighed.

"Even with these designs, I don't think Tony will let you us his…lair."

"I'll never know for sure unless I try," I announced. "Besides, if he won't try to talk to me, I'm going to take it into my own hands to do so."

I closed my laptop and held it to my chest professionally.

Pepper looked at me curiously, not proclaiming what was going through her mind, and continued striding towards Tony's "lair". I followed close behind her down the stairs.

I glanced through the glass wall and saw him. He was working on the hot rod engine still. His back was to me and Pepper.

I heard hard rock music from the other room and I recognized the song: "Uninstitutionilized" by a name I can't remember…

Pepper typed in the code and I paid close attention: 5973

The door hissed open and the music stopped.

"Please don't turn down my music." Tony said in an uninterested tone without looking up.

"You" Pepper said while grabbing a pen from under her clipboard, "are supposed to be halfway around the world right now."

All the while, I was silently circling Tony so that he wouldn't catch me being there. They were too absorbed in their conversation to really notice me anyway.

"How'd she take it?" Tony muttered.

I realized "she" was that Christine Everhart woman I saw earlier.

Pepper replied, "Like a champ."

Tony responded very quickly. "Why are you trying to hustle me outta here?"

Pepper, ignoring the question, informed, "Your flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half ago—"

Tony cut her off. "That's funny. I thought with it being my plane and all that it would just wait for me to get there…"

Pepper ignored the comment and said, "Tony, I need to speak to you about a couple of things before I get you out on the—"

"…I mean doesn't it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane if it departs before you arrive?"

He stood up and sat on the right fore tire of the Roadster, wiping off his hands with a red cloth. By then I was behind him; he still had no idea I was here. I smirked.

Pepper, being an expert at ignoring his comments, said, "Larry called. He's got another buyer for the Jackson-Policon wings; do you want it, yes or no?"

"Is it a good representation of a spring period?"

"Um…no. The Springs was actually the neighborhood in East Hampton where he lived and worked…"

"So?" Tony interrupted.

Pepper continued speaking. "…not 'spring' like the season. Um, I think it's a fair example. Um…I think it's incredibly overpriced." She ended in a straightforward tone.

There was a two-second pause. Then Tony said, "I need it."

Pepper smiled as Tony stood up and walked passed her to the end of the room.

"Buy it. Store it."

Pepper followed him to the end of the room. "Okay…MIT commencements—"

"Are in June. Please, don't harangue me about this stuff—"

"Well they're haranguing me so I'm gonna say yes…"

Tony turned around to face Pepper. "Well…"

When he turned I ducked behind one of the tables at the opposite end of the room, avoiding being seen. I placed my back against the counter.

They talked over each other for a second more until Tony finally said clearly, "What are you trying to do, you trying to hustle me outta here? Do you have plans?"

"As a matter of fact, I do."

"I don't like it when you have plans."

"I'm allowed to have plans on my birthday."

He paused. "It's your birthday; I knew that. Already?"

"Yeah, isn't that strange?" Pepper said sarcastically. "It's the same day as last year."

"Get yourself something nice for me."

"I already did."

"And?"

"Oh it was very nice."

"Yeah?"

"Very tasteful. Thank you, Mr. Stark."

I could tell by their voices that they were both smiling, like there was an inside joke.

"You're welcome Miss Potts."

There was a pause and sounds of shuffling feet. This is the moment where I should have stood up and asked him, but something held me back. I'm not sure if it was that I felt I would have been interrupting something, or I wasn't sure how I was going to plead my case, or if I was just…scared. I have to admit: he intimidated me like no other adult of authority has ever done before. The police never even frightened me to the point of mutuality. I could never predict what he was going to say or do. I was so insecure here.

I never felt like this before, at least not as strongly as I do now, I thought. Why is this so hard? I missed my chance. I ruined it. If I'm going to be living here for four years I have to get used to him, and this insecurity isn't going to end if I can't even talk to him!

I sighed pitifully, clutching my laptop tightly to my chest.

What I'm I gonna do?