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Tony’s reflection on the mirror smiled at her. He was leaning against her back, his head resting atop hers. His hands were on her shoulders and they gave Pepper a small squeeze.
“You look beautiful. They won’t know what hit ‘em.”
Pepper tore her eyes away from his reflection and put away the liquid eyeliner pen in her hand. Then she turned back, glancing up at Tony.
“You’ll keep Morgan entertained?”
Tony raised a hand up in promise. “I’ve already got a whole schedule for our girl.” He reached out behind Pepper and wiggled the eyeliner. “I’m gonna need this.” He grabbed her lipstick as an afterthought.
Pepper raised a brow. Did she want to know?
No, she decided. It was better left unsaid what he had in store for their one-year old today. What mattered was that she wasn’t going to worry about her (or him) when Power Magazine’s team arrived for the interview.
He had said so last night.
The day was going to be about her. He wasn’t going to show up and steal the show. Neither was Morgan. So, Tony had tasked himself into making sure Morgan wasn’t going to be a distraction.
“As long as you two have some fun,” said Pepper, resting her fingers on Tony’s hips. “But not too much fun because you know, I’ll be jealous.”
“Will do, boss.” Tony leaned down to kiss her on the cheek because she already had lipstick on and he didn’t want to get in trouble. “We’ll be out back if you need us. And you, mama, just focus on your day.”
Pepper let him go, thinking about how they were so lucky to still have each other, to have this.
…
Her assistant Mandy was directing Power Mag’s team on where to put the cameras and lights inside the house.
Pepper went out to welcome the rest of the crew who were still parked in the driveway.
“Mrs. Stark, good morning!” A petite Asian brunette abandoned the opened trunk of the car and approached Pepper. They shook hands. “I’m Sam, we spoke on the phone.”
“Nice to finally meet you!”
“Same here. I can’t—”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAH”
Sam stopped, head turning this way and that for the source of the sudden sound.
“ZABENYAAAA.”
Pepper only smiled, understanding dawning at why Tony needed her eyeliner earlier.
“Who—”
“My husband,” Pepper explained.
Sam waited for the CEO to say more, but the latter only clasped her hands together as if that was a thorough explanation by itself. “You were saying?”
The woman was barely unfazed, Sam saw.
They started walking towards the house and Sam resumed her train of thought. “I was saying that I can’t believe this is happening. I’ve been dreaming of doing an interview with you for years now. You are an inspiration to many women everywhe—”
Sam’s eyes drifted away from Pepper and towards something behind her.
Pepper turned around.
So did the remaining crew following behind them.
“Is that…”
The words were left unsaid because how does one really describe the scene?
Tony was standing on the stump of tree where the firewood was chopped. He had his arms stretched out high above him like he was raising up a sacrifice to some god.
And in his hands was a pleased Morgan.
And she had whiskers drawn in eyeliner ink on her face.
Pepper chuckled.
“What is he doing?” one of the crew members asked, bemused.
“Lion King,” Pepper explained. “It’s been like that for about two days now. Our daughter’s obsessed. I should’ve known what he was planning when he borrowed my eyeliner. Shall we?”
Sam took one last look at the scene and then followed Pepper in the house.
The living room was prepared with the cameramen waiting for the go signal.
“This is Krista,” Sam introduced the blue-haired director. “She’ll be arranging the shoot and will be taking photos as we have our chat.”
Pepper and Krista exchanged pleasantries and then it was off to business.
Krista arranged Pepper and Sam on the couch, arranged the lighting, straightened Pepper's clothes.
Mandy was handing out coffee and snacks.
“So, that scene in the backyard, is that a normal one for you?”
Pepper laughed. “When you’re married to Tony Stark, there’s just no room for normal in your vocabulary.”
Sam agreed with a chuckle of her own. “I don’t know if you’re aware but you’ve been nicknamed the First Lady of Stark Industries.”
“Oh, yes,” Pepper nodded. “That is technically not true. I mean, let’s not disregard all the good that Maria Stark did during her time, running hundreds of charities and keeping Howard and Tony Stark in line?” She let out a breath as if she was exhausted just thinking about it. “She was the original First Lady. I can only try to live up to her legacy.”
“Of course, we’re not putting Maria Stark aside, but this nickname is in context to the fact that you are the first female CEO of Stark Industries.”
“Yes, I am. I mean, there’d only been three CEOs before me. Obadiah was acting CEO when Tony wasn’t 21 yet, but yes, I am the first female CEO of SI and I do hope that I’m not gonna be the last.”
Behind Sam, Krista hovered with the camera in her hands, snapping pictures of Pepper as the interview continued.
“You have a daughter. How old is she?”
“A year old and seven months now.”
“Has she shown any signs of following in your footsteps?”
“Well, you’ve seen what Tony’s doing right now.”
As on cue, there was a faint shrill cry of “Ee-e-e-um-um-a-weh.”
Pepper made a face as if to say that this was what she had to deal with on a daily basis.
Everyone in the room laughed before growing quiet again as they listened more intently.
“IN THE JUNGLE THE MIGHTY JUNGLE, MORGOONA SLEEPS TONIGHT.”
“If my daughter inherited anything from me,” Pepper resumed, “it’s that she is pretty good at getting her father to do whatever she wants him to do. But CEO skills? I don’t know.”
“It’s too soon to tell,” added Sam.
“Yeah, too soon. Let’s not pressure her just yet.”
“Speaking of pressure, do you feel any with this title of First Lady?”
“A little? I don’t, um, how do you say this? I’m not alone. I’m not the only woman in a position of power in the company or in the business world.” Pepper gestured to her assistant who was standing in a corner on standby. “Mandy, my assistant is a wonderful, intelligent woman. Annie Wilson, our newly appointed CFO is a woman. Joan Lee who is our regional head in Asia is a woman. Half our board members are women,” she listed them off one by one.
“My point is I feel like I’m also sharing that title of First Lady with them. If ever I’m in a bit of a stump, I call them. We help each other out a lot and I’m really grateful to have them with me. So, there is pressure, absolutely, but it’s more of a shared pressure to perform well collectively because there’s just a lot of women who look up to us, who rely on us not to screw this up because we’re in a position to show the world just how competent we can be, how powerful women have always been in general.
“And speaking of powerful women,” said Sam, “Wakanda’s being ruled by a woman again and Black Widow’s stepped up to lead the Avengers.”
Pepper grinned at the mention of Natasha. “I know! It’s been a really tremendous year for women all over. Of course, I’m not saying that I’m happy King T’Challa and Princess Shuri vanished or that it had to take the Decimation for Natasha Romanoff to lead. It’s awful that it’s under those circumstances that it happened but it’s really amazing and awe-inspiring that in spite of it all, we’re not giving up, you know. That’s what it means to be powerful.”
Sam gives her a look to explain further and Pepper does. “You have this mad Titan who had all the powers in the universe but chose to snap away half of all living beings and he didn't even stay to deal with the aftermath of his grand plan. Meanwhile, here we are, humans, flawed but resilient and despite what happened, we’re rebuilding. We live. We keep on going and I think that resonates more with what power really is, what it should be—the ability to contribute something meaningful to society, something more out of what we were left with. And that’s what I always try to translate into my work. I mean, we were the ones left behind and we have to use this power for something good.”
Sam nodded. “That’s a big responsibility. I’d imagine sometimes, you’d like to shut off and recharge your batteries. How do you do that?”
“Oh, I don’t.” Pepper smiled sheepishly. “I never shut off, not really. Because we don’t run on batteries, we can’t just turn ourselves off like machines. I get to work and it’s CEO mode and then I get home and I’m on Mom Mode and with Tony I also have to be on Wife Mode. And I’m lucky because I have a partner who is in tune to my needs, who knows when to keep our daughter away from me so that I don’t accidentally blow up on her.”
Pepper winced at a memory. “And it’s awful when I do because she’s one and she wants to play which is understandable, right? It’s not her job to think about how mommy’s feeling and if mommy would be in the mood for games. She’s a toddler! So, no matter how tired I am, I always have to bottle it all up for a minute and push it down because my daughter needs me to be a mom and that’s the full time job of a parent.”
“Wait a minute, so you don’t even have a Me Mode?” Sam asked.
“I do sometimes,” Pepper admits with a chuckle. “I probably have an hour to myself in the evenings when the little girl’s asleep and there’s the weekends. So, that’s the time I can pick up a book, go online shopping, relax.”
“What are you reading right now?”
“Um, I just finished a book on painters from the 16th century. I was an art major,” Pepper explained. “I don’t draw though. I leave that to my daughter.”
Krista cut in at that moment, inviting them to move to the study for the photoshoot.
They took a few pictures of Pepper on her work table and then out in the patio.
They neared the garden when one of the crewmen shouted in surprise.
Morgan had come out from her hiding place and scared the man. The latter had probably been more surprised at the look of Morgan’s face rather than the fact she roared at him; her face was covered in eyeliner and lipstick. The whiskers were gone now and Pepper had no idea what she was supposed to be now.
“Honey, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be with Daddy,” said Pepper, walking over to her daughter and carrying her. “You should say sorry for scaring my friend. Can you say sorry?”
Morgan shyly turned to the crew member. “Sowwy.”
The man waved it off and gushed at how cute she was instead.
Pepper moved to pass Morgan to Mandy but Morgan held on to her mother, refusing to leave.
“There you are!” cried Tony, running over from the backyard, his face quite similar to Morgan’s. “Hi, mom. Sorry, she got away. I told you we shouldn’t have taught her how to walk.”
Everybody who overheard laughed and Pepper shook her head at her husband.
“It’s okay. We’re done with interview. It’s just the photos now.”
Tony moved to take Morgan, saying, “Timon, you left Pumba by himself to fend off the hyenas. Come on. We still got like the rest of Act 3 to finish.”
“No!” Morgan cried. She temporarily left her spot on the crook of her mother’s neck to swat her dad’s hands away and then went back to rest her cheek.
“Oh, somebody’s sleepy,” Tony rubbed Morgan’s back while Pepper sent Sam and Krista a look, mouthing “Mom Mode.”
Sam waved it away, understanding while Krista looked like she just thought of something great.
“We could do the shoot with her in your arms,” said the director, “that is, if you’re okay with it.”
Tony and Pepper exchanged glances.
“We don’t want her face plastered in magazines,” said Tony, his hand ghosting Pepper’s back.
Pepper leaned against him, nodding. “But if you leave her face out, that’s fine.”
Morgan was already close to nodding off, her face almost concealed by its placement on Pepper’s shoulders.
“I can’t even see her face,” stated Krista, readying her camera.
Tony stepped aside and left Pepper and Morgan to their spotlight.
Watching them, he could see why the director wanted to take the shot. Seeing Pepper confidently strike a power pose in a business suit with Morgan in her arms provoked a very powerful image of a successful, dedicated, hardworking woman.
And wasn’t that what they were going for here?