REBEL OF THE BALL
CHAPTER FIVE
"Your father's going to be away tonight." Pepper explained. "He'll be attending the Apogee Awards. We didn't know you'd be coming tonight Urania but due to the circumstances…"
"It's fine." Urania replied thickly, her mouth full of scrambled eggs. "I'm used to house-sit."
Her father's secretary gave her an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience Urania —"
"Nia. Call me Nia. Urania's too formal, Ms. Potts."
"Oh. All right." She replied, a little taken aback. "Then call me Pepper. I don't want you to think that I've got a higher authorization than you do. I work for your father after all."
Urania — or rather, Nia, nodded absentmindedly. She was still busy with her food.
The two ladies were at the Stark's grand kitchen, with Pepper making breakfast and Urania eating those.
Three hours had passed after the overwhelming announcement of the blood work results. Both adults — Pepper and Robert — looked purely pleased to have her.
"It's a good thing, you're a girl. Girls are fairly more responsible and I'm pretty much assured you can keep your Dad in a tight line." Urania could remember Robert telling her that before he left. "You do know he's a handful, right? Ask Pepper. She'll tell you everything."
Urania gave him a nod and an impish smile. Although she wanted to speak, some part of her forced herself to remain silent. If Tony is a handful, Urania couldn't really make sure she isn't going to be as well. Back in the orphanage, most of the workers their often gets their head aches from her.
But since she's quite new to this environment, maybe it's time for her to behave even a little too. After all, if the world know she's Tony Stark's daughter, they'll expect her to be a feminine, classy and respectable teenager. But thinking about it makes Urania's insides squirm. Formality is definitely not her thing.
The sound of the plate scraping the marble counter made Nia's mind snap back to the present.
Pepper, now dressed in her usual pencil skirt and a crisp jacket over her white top, slid a plate of neatly stacked pancakes.
Urania grinned and began wolfing it down as she took it from her. "Thanks."
"You're welcome." Pepper replied easily, smiling as she began cleaning up the counter. "So I'm guessing you finally realized you'd starve to death while staying here?"
"Yeah." Nia replied through a mouthful of pancakes. "I really appreciate what you did for me Pepper. I could only do take-outs though."
It was true. After that little reunion back at Tony's lab, Nia had the permission to use the kitchen and look for something to eat. Poor girl, she didn't ate for the last twelve hours. After ransacking the huge kitchen, Nia had found out that the place was actually a place wherein rabbits couldn't even survive. Sure her father had a huge supply of fruits and vegetables, but almost all of them were rotten, yellowing due to decay. And if she did ate one of the good ones, Nia's quite sure everything would taste like fridge anyway.
So Pepper, being the lifesaver she was, had already thought of going home to fix herself and go back at her boss' mansion with a few grocery bags in hand (Nia doesn't even know how she managed to find those at seven AM). What's more — she can cook! Nia had to stop herself from embracing her father's assistant in relief. When she was on the verge of thinking of eating her own hair, Pepper had helped her through frying eggs.
Pepper shook her head ruefully as she removed the white lace apron she was wearing over her job uniform and flung it aside. "Well, eat then. I've brought one of those ready-to-cook meals —they're by that cupboard over there. Help yourself to some of that when you're hungry okay?"
"Sure. No problem."
"Delivery stuff — anything, even food or furniture — can only reach the gate. They can't go inside. It's somewhat for security reasons." Pepper reminded her firmly. "If anything happens, call me or Robert okay? I'd have Jarvis save our numbers just in case."
"Yeah, yeah, okay." Nia replied absent-mindedly, still focused on her food. How on Earth could Pepper get as organized as this? Where did Tony found her? Without a doubt, Nia believed that this blond woman could easily pass the test of becoming the US President's secretary.
But the sound of approaching footsteps interrupted the two ladies' conversation. Tony suddenly appeared on the area, now dressed in jeans and a fresh new sweater.
"Pepper, where's my —?" he began but stopped as his eyes dropped on Nia. "Wait — you made her pancakes?"
"Yeah." Nia replied with a gloating look while giving Tony a thumbs up. "It has blueberries on it."
Tony stared at Pepper, who, in return, looked back at him quizzically.
"But you never make pancakes for me." Tony said flatly.
Pepper shook her head in disbelief. "You're too old for pancakes Mr. Stark."
He huffed but then regained his boss-like stature again. "Never mind. Pepper, I want you to get an application form from Redmond."
"Redmond?" Pepper repeated, as if the name and the idea formed into her head surprised her. "But why?"
Nia was pretty certain she kind of looked over at her. Does this have something to do with her?
"No buts Pep." Tony said flatly, busying himself flicking off imaginary dust on his shirt.
"Pepper said you're going to some party later on." Nia piped up, watching him.
"Yeah. So?"
"Can I come?"
Tony snorted as if the idea seemed funny to him. "No. You'll be staying here."
"So where do I sleep?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. Nia wasn't actually bothered she can't come. It's a stupid party award anyway — filled with businessmen and boring officials.
"In the guest room. Or do you want to crash on the sofa?" He asked pointedly, raising an eyebrow.
Nia scowled and crossed her arms. Hours ago, Tony seemed to be in a mild mood but now, everything was upside down. Maybe he realized he's stuck with her here forever?
Tony adjusted his watch and turned to Pepper. "You good to go? I'll be waiting back at the office alright?"
"Mr. Stark —" She tried to protest but he had already turned around and walked away.
Urania watched the two adults while she wiped her face with a napkin.
"He's…not going to work, is he?" Nia stated flatly.
Pepper gave out a sigh and shook her head. Nope, he wasn't.
After that little scene at the kitchen, Pepper too had left for work.
Nia was extremely thankful for the woman's help but when Tony's secretary had left, she felt all alone in this big, empty mansion full of nothing but machines and computers.
Heaving a sigh as she wiped the last plate she had just washed and headed back to the living room, where she dumped her back pack over there.
Nia trotted up into the stairs and pushed open one of the rooms — where she think is the guest room. It seemed too empty to be Tony's anyway.
She settled her bag on the bed and lay beside it, facing the ceiling.
"Jarvis, you there?" Nia whispered, unsure if the computer would respond or not.
Good thing, the computer did.
"Yes, Ms. Stark."
She can't help it, Nia grinned at how he address her. "Did Tony tell you to address me that way?"
"Well, Mr. Stark did program me to be polite. But no, he did not touch any of my systems today."
"I see…" Then she sat up and heaved a sigh. "This is boring."
She had expected something fun other than sitting here and doing nothing. Sure, her father was away, nobody's at home. There were no toys to play. No books to read. No computers to play —
Wait.
Urania suddenly grinned.
Computers and machines — stuff she could tinker and make fun with.
Nia instantly recalled seeing Tony doing some sort of virtual stuff through Jarvis. At first, she thought he was just shadow boxing or just plain crazy or something but then seeing those structures floating around the place and you could actually touch it…
That is awesome.
Suddenly eager with the new idea, Nia rummaged on her bag and produced a small notebook.
"Jarvis, how about a little real-life war game? You up for it?"