STARK GIRL

Claire

"When are you going to stop putting this file aside?"
"Are you my assistant again or...?
"Or what?" Pepper dared him with a look of warning. 
"My girlfriend?" He finished with a grin.
"Ouff," Pepper grunted. "Tony, we've been through this..."
"Wait, you mean us...?" Tony stopped working on his suit, slightly confused.
"No," Pepper said. "The file, Tony." For a smart millionaire, he sure didn't understand relationships just yet. 
"I don't think it's a good idea, Pep," Tony told her as he tested out a new piece of equipment for his Iron Man suit. It had been four years since the Lokie destruction in New York... Tony realized then that his life was far from normal, and during that time, Tony knew that it was just going to get worse. His life as a hero, as Iron Man was dangerous, and it was best to keep himself away from those he loved. Well, he tried, but even though he knew heroes needed love too, he didn't want to just gap his way into his little sister life. She had been on his mind lately. Tony hadn't really thought much of Claire until his twenty-fifth birthday. Claire was one when their parents died and being only twenty-one at the time Tony wasn't right in his mind...heck he wasn't right to take care of her at all. So, it seemed right that he wouldn't be the legal guardian at the time. Tony and everyone around him thought it would be best to find Claire a home. Years later, the thought of her would not leave him. It was then that Tony thought of her when the name Claire popped up on a newspaper after a very heavy drunk night. It was over some twelve-year-old prodigy of a child having the brains of a millionaire scientist in Arabia to an English mother. Tony essentially made sure that Claire received all of her share like it was meant to be. Tony wasn't as greedy as everyone thought him to be.
He never kept tabs on her. Never. She was just going to live her life without him. That was until he started looking for her. After his Forty-second birthday, Tony began keeping taps well, that was until Pepper found out. She was very angry with him. But let it go as she realized he had done it for a reason.
Pep looked at him for a long while before finally answering the phone. "Yeah, hello?" And stepped out.
That evening, after Tony left Pep sleeping and went out to go get some fresh air. He somehow stopped his vehicle across the University of NYU, and he waited. He didn't really know what he was doing or why he was even there...well, he knew why. But why now? Tony felt almost helpless. He let out a sight and closed his eyes. He would be lying to himself if he didn't remind himself how he'd come to check up on Claire. After the fall of Loki, after all the chaos, Tony recalled a moment during the fight, and Claire came to mind.
Before Tony could turn around and get back in his car, his phone went off, startling him in the process of his own thoughts. Tony answered it, but before he could say anything into the phone, he saw her. It was as if this was meant to happen, and Tony shook his head in disbelief with an idiotic look. WTH! He thought.
Right across from him, Claire began to walk straight toward him. Tony freaked out and jumped stupidly into the back of his car and saw as she passed by him not looking over at him, and for a moment, he'd hoped his sister would look back. 
"Tony, where we're you?" Pepper asked him as soon as he walked in.
"I couldn't do it, Pep," he slouched on the sofa and sighted.
"Do what?" she wondered.
"Face her-face Claire," Tony felt like such an idiot. 
Pepper was filled with a bit of shock. "Oh, my goodness, you went to go see her?" She asked, quietly surprised by all this. She made her way over to him and took a seat next to him. 
"No-yes," he shook his head. "I freaked out like a lunatic," he waved his arms in the air. "It was embarrassing. It's a good thing she didn't see me."
Pepper played softly with his hair. "What do you mean?"
Tony clenched his jaw. "She probably hates me..."
"She probably doesn't even know who you are," Pep tried to comfort him.
"I let her down,"
"No, you didn't, listen. Eventually, you two will have to meet, but tonight, let's get some sleep, okay...all in due time." Pep had grown worried. Tony had not been sleeping since the fight a few years ago.
The next day, Pepper lied to Tony and told him she was going out for a spa day.
Something Tony had been wanting her to do for the longest time. "Let's go together," he suggested. He needed a good back massage and not one that caused him pain. Pep, he thought.
Pep shook her head. "Nope, this is my time,"
Tony knew how they felt about ME time, so there really wasn't a way to make his way around it. Pepper left him standing outside the car, and he watched as they drove her off. In her mind, Pepper had a sense of how she was going to introduce herself to...Claire, but as they drove through traffic, Pepper realized just how crazy this plan was. Maybe she could turn back now. Forget she would even try for a split second, try to think the unthinkable. 
Pepper had been waiting outside a small cafe, trying to see if Claire would be arriving anytime soon. She did.
"Finally," Pepper sighted. She spotted Claire near the sidewalk going into the parking lot of a dance studio, but Claire took the auditorium door.
"Okay, Dan, wait for me here," Pep had her own personal driver, Dan, whom she asked to park further back in two buildings. He stepped out behind her. Well, he was her bodyguard, so he wasn't going to stay put. 
Pepper took a deep breath. She was going in.