Burning

Part One

A high, loud noise jolted Catherine out of her dreamless sleep, causing her to sit straight up in bed with a gasp. She had never actually heard the noise in real life before, but it was very recognizable from movies she had seen.

The fire alarm! The woman jumped out of bed, grabbing her phone from the nightstand. She put on her bathrobe, fluffing her dark brown hair out and dropping the phone in the pocket as she also shoved her size seven feet into her slippers. What do I need? She grabbed her car keys, a coat and ran. Joining the small crowd of men and woman, she flowed with them down the stairs and out of the building. It wasn't until she was outside that Catherine saw the bright orange flames leaping from several windows in apartments below hers. It was only a two story building, so she didn't expect her own home to survive the rapidly growing flames.

"Has someone called the fire department?" she shouting towards the crowd, looking around until she saw heads nodding and voices affirming. Then all I can do is wait.

Two hours later, the fire had finally gone down to just a simmer, but it had devoured most of the building. Most of Catherine's things had likely gone up in the blaze. Her puppy-dog-brown eyes glistened at the thought of what she had lost, what everyone had lost. No lives were taken, thankfully, but many possessions had been eaten up by the fire, some irreplaceable.

It hadn't been far into the inferno that the woman realized she now had no place to stay, no clothes to wear and no food to eat. She still had her car keys and her phone, but it would take a while to replace everything.

A thought had been nagging her for a while, something she would never have done under normal circumstances. Just find a hotel, she told herself, pulling out her phone to find the nearest one. But instead she stared at the screen, that one thought still bugging her. She realized that with no cash or credit card there was no way she was getting into a hotel. With a groan, she finally dialed a number and waited.

"Catherine?" There was a familiar voice at the other end. She wanted to both cry from relief and hang up. "Hello?"

"Tony..." she said faintly. She hadn't talked to him in years. Every time something about him happened on the TV, she switched it off. It was hard, but she did her best to avoid anything involving him, conversations, new reports, tech with his name on it, she never wanted anything to do with him again. Tony Stark. Her brother.

"Catherine! You called. That's a surprise. Are you pregnant?"

She rolled her eyes. "No. My... apartment just burned down."

Silence on the other end. "That was my second guess," he said. "Need a place to stay?"

"Yes. Please." The tears started to thicken in her eyes. She never wanted to beg from him, it was something she promised herself long ago, but now she had no choice.

"Need a ride?"

"No. I have a car, I'll drive myself."

"You know where to find me." He ended the call, and Catherine slid her phone back into her pocket, still trying not to cry. Her apartment had just burned to the ground and she had broken a promise to herself, plus, she had to go see the most obnoxious man on the planet. This was surely not her night.

Tony was still staying at his egotistical tower, so that's where Catherine drove. He opened the underground garage for her, and even met her at the elevator.

"Your hair is longer," he said as she approached him. He was wearing a loose t-shirt and sweatpants and his hair was rumpled, so he had probably either been sleeping when she called or inventing, not that she looked much better in her pajamas, slippers and bathrobe with her hair in a messy braid.