Chapter Text
(If you are reading this on any PAY site this is a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to be here. If you're paying to read it, you're being cheated too because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE.)
"Yes, Pepper, I know you really must have the very latest designer shoes, but we have a meeting to attend." Tony pulled the laptop away from her.
"Tony! They're sparkly!" Pepper protested.
"They'll still be sparkly in the... Pepper, is that a soccer uniform...are those three soccer uniforms?"
Pepper kicked them under the bed. "I'm cutting down. Hey, it's me, what do you expect?"
Tony sighed. "I don't know why, but I still have hope one day I'll wake up and... Pepper! Where are you going?" Tony ran after her, snatching up her jacket and holding it in front of her just before she reached the balcony to wave at the paparazzi clustered below the hotel window.
"Hi fellas," Pepper called cheerfully.
Tony frantically moved to keep the jacket between her and the cameras.
"Don't be such a prude, Tony. I have great boobs, why be ashamed of them!"
"No more Long Island Ice Tea for you, never again." Tony tried to shoo off the paparazzi by flapping the jacket, which he realized belatedly was a bad idea. "Dad is going to have a stroke."
Pepper wandered back into the room. "He'll be fine. Air-headed bimbos are always underestimated. We're working on a hostile takeover and need all the advantage we can get." Pepper put on a silk blouse patterned with Louboutins - a limited license print run- and began brushing her hair. "Anyway I was wearing my bra."
Tony sat down on the bed, then got up and moved over a few inches. "What was I sitting on?"
"Don't know. Don't care," Pepper sang out as she went over to the mirror and began putting on her warpaint. "You worry too much, Tony."
"You're my little sister!" Tony waved his hands, and then remembered he was still holding the jacket. "I'm supposed to look after you." He got up and draped the jacket over her shoulders.
Pepper's expression softened. "And you do, Tony. I'm fine. No one pushed me into this, you remember?"
"Yeah, I know." Tony huffed. "Dad didn't know he'd adopted a top notch negotiator and executive officer material. He just thought he was hitting the trifecta of good deed for publicity, handing Mom a kid who wouldn't embarrass her at social events, and getting a good example companion for me."
"You make it sound like I was the pick of the litter." Pepper ruffled Tony's hair. "I didn't do anything I didn't want to, Tony. You know that." Her voice hardened. "You and dad...the two of you just don't know people. Obadiah was going to destroy you both. I loved you from the first day, because you needed me. You don't know how that made me feel. I could be part of a family again. I wasn't going to let anyone ruin that for me."
"I still don't know how you did it. You were eight."
"I was eight," Pepper said with a smile. "Eight and adorable. Good old 'uncle' Obie locked off everything but the games on his computer. He wasn't expecting me to start up from the repair disk and remove the password."
"Yeah, that was always the security worm in the old Apple. Speaking of apples..."
"I'm not hungry."
"You're too skinny. You can't fight the sharks on an empty stomach." Tony sat down and picked up the hotel phone. "Room service?"
"All right," Pepper stepped into her shoes. "But no omelets!"
"Yeah, yeah, one time, one time I messed up. Prosciutto and cantaloupe, with croissants?"
"Perfect." Pepper twirled. "How do I look?"
"Ready to take on the world. As usual." Tony grinned up at her.