Pepper walked into her living room the next morning to see Amy standing in the kitchen while her father cooked lunch—Pepper had realized she'd slept past noon.

"Oh. I thought you went home last night?" Pepper asked. Her dad gave her a glare that said 'Pepper, that's rude!' but Pepper gave him a stare that said 'so? She deserves it.'

"Oh, we realized it was raining pretty hard and the wind had picked up and it was late, so your father sat on the couch while I slept in his bed." She explained. Pepper mumbled an 'oh' and cracked an egg and threw it in a frying pan.

"Say, Pepper honey, why don't you two spend the day together while I go to work? I think you two would have fun!" Virgil suggested. Pepper fake-smiled.

"That sounds great…" Pepper said with fake enthusiasm.

"Sure! I'll take her to the mall!"

She'll take me? Pepper thought.

"Sure, I kinda know my way around the mall…" Pepper agreed, the misery already blowing up in her mind. I'd rather be sticking needles in my eyes…

They made the plans for the day, and Virgil went to work. They planned to go in an hour or so, as soon as it took for Pepper to be ready.

Right as Pepper was finished cooking and Virgil had kissed Amy goodbye and left for work, (which caused Pepper to cringe in disgust,) Amy turned to Pepper and said,

"Oh, what fun we will have." She said sketchily. They shared a glare for a moment and then Pepper broke it when she got a text from Tony asking if she was doing something with her dad's girlfriend for the day and went to eat her brunch in peace.

~…~

One shower later, Pepper and Amy found their way to the mall and were about to get out of Amy's car when Pepper realized the doors were locked.

"Uh, are we just going to sit outside the mall and stare at it?" Pepper tried to joke. Amy glared at Pepper angrily for a moment then smiled.

"Oh, silly me! Brain fart…" She lied, sliding something Pepper couldn't see back into her pocket. She checked it off as mysterious.

"So, where do you wanna start? I know a few stores that have some cool stuff, but I'm not really all that big on shopping. I really only go when my boyfriend wants to hang out with our friends." Pepper explained.

"Oh, who's your boyfriend? I meant to ask last night." She asked as they walked through the mall.

"Oh, no one believes me when I tell them." In truth, Pepper didn't really want her to know.

"No, I'm sure it's not that unbelievable." Damn…

"Tony."

"Stark?"

"Yup."

"No way."

"Yup."

"Serious?"

"Yup."

"How did you meet him?"

"Well when his dad died, he was enrolled at my school and we kinda met there."

"Kinda?"

"I looked up his file that morning and the first thing I said to him was everything about his life…" Pepper admitted with a blush on her cheeks.

"Aw, that's so cute…" Amy sneered, looking into one of the stores.

Pepper could tell by the way Amy treated her that she didn't want to be here just as much as she didn't. So why did they even bother trying?

They went into a store for young adults and Pepper looked around a little bit.

"Do you think this would look good on me?" Pepper asked, holding up a pink long sleeve, V-neck sweater.

"Nah, too much pink." Amy sneered. Pepper grunted.

"I guess you're right…" Pepper lied and put it back.

After an hour or two of shopping around and dealing with Amy's angry attitude, Pepper was starting to have had enough.

"Do you like this for Tony for Christmas?" Pepper asked, turning to Amy to see she wasn't paying attention. Pepper grunted.

"What? Oh, sure." She muttered, turning back to her own business.

"Okay, look Amy, you can't just come barging into our life and expect everything to be okay the way it is, because if you think I actually like you here you're wrong. The least you can do is pay attention to me." Pepper ranted. Amy turned to her, anger showing in her face.

"Oh, I don't think me liking you is going to be an issue here. You better hope to god that your dad breaks up with me before I become permanent, because the day I do I'm going to ship you off to boarding school and you won't see your dad or your stupid boyfriend for a very long time." Amy threatened. A long silenced loomed over the two of them as they glared at each other for a few minutes and decided to call it a day.

~…~

Pepper walked into the Rhodes residence and plopped herself next to Tony on the couch tiredly.

"So how was the mall?" He asked with a smirk.

"Ugh, horrible. She literally hates me. She said that if she stays for good, she's gonna send me to boarding school. We hate each other." She explained.

"That bad, huh?"

"Yeah. Oh, and she called you stupid." Pepper added.

"Psh. Obviously she has no sense of awesomeness." Pepper plopped her head onto Tony's shoulder.

"As if that wasn't bad enough, she spent the night last night. My dad slept on the couch, and he had to go to work today. If you're about to work all day, you sleep on your bed. She has my dad wrapped around her little finger." Pepper complained more.

"Doesn't sound like your dad."

"No, it's not. I'm worried."

"Well, if it'll assure you a little, I am Iron Man, and I'm sure that whatever it is if it's really necessary, I'll be there for you however you need me." Tony explained, wrapping his arm around her.

"Then why do I get the feeling I'm going to need you a lot?"

I got bored. Without like ten million stories to update I don't know what to do with myself…anyways, review and Happy Thanksgiving! (Unless you don't live in America and you don't really celebrate Thanksgiving….-.-)