Power & Legacy || Steve Rogers

28 || ceo

"Um, no...", I give him a confused look.

"Then don't side with her over whatever this is. She's infectious.", he warns; I just roll my eyes.

"Did you just donate-", she starts.

"Keep your business."

She follows him around the room and I follow her.

"-our entire modern art collection to the-"

"Boy Scouts of America.", he finishes for her.

"-Boy Scouts of America?", she glares at him.

"Yes. It is a worthwhile organization.", he says.

"What are the Boy Scouts of America going to do with modern art?", I ask.

"I don't know, sell it, hang it up in a tent, use it as campfire fuel.", he shrugs.

"You don't know what the Boy Scouts of America do, do you?", I cross my arms over my chest.

"Sell cookies?", he tries, his voice rising significantly in pitch, "What if Lia wants to join the Boy Scouts? I'm investing in your future."

"Huh? One, I'm twenty years old, I can't join the Boy Scouts. Two, I'm a girl, hint's in the name, I can't join the Boy Scouts. Three, you seriously donated our art collection to the Boy Scouts of America?"

"I didn't physically check the crates but, basically, yes. And it's not 'our' collection, it's my collection. No offense."

"No, you know what? I think we're actually entitled to say 'our' collection considering the time that I put in, over ten years, curating that.", Pepper argues.

"It was a tax write-off. I needed that.", he says.

"You know, there's only about eight-thousand and eleven things that I really need to talk to you about.", she continues.

Dad walks over to the robots, "Dum-E. Hey, stop spacing out. The Bridgeport's already machining that part."

"The Expo is a gigantic waste of time.", she tells him.

"I like the Expo.", I mumble.

He places his hands on her shoulders, "I need you to wear a surgical mask until you're feeling better. Is that okay?"

"That's rude."

"There's nothing more important to me than the Expo. It's my primary point of concern. I don't know why you're-"

I cut him off, "Can I just point out that you have a daughter, so maybe that should be your primary point of concern."

"Well, as you frequently point out, you're twenty. Plus, you're always disappearing to god knows where to do god knows what, so...", he argues.

"Oh, we're going there now. I have more than a few issues to bring up with you. First off-"

Pepper cuts me off before things can escalate, "Back to what we were talking about. The Expo is your ego gone crazy."

Dad picks up a painting of Iron Man, "Wow. Look at that. That's modern art. That's going up."

"You've got to be kidding.", she says.

"Now that is just a bit self-glorifying.", I add.

He starts walking to the counter, "I'm gonna put this up right now. This is vital."

"Why do you even have that?", I ask.

Pepper continues trying to do her job, "Stark is in complete disarray. You understand that?"