Always and Forever | Peter Parker's Little Sister

5. take the moment and taste it

Pepper walks quickly up the staircase and down the hall, stopping every few minutes to wait for Leia and Peter to catch up. She smiles softly as she watches the two kids stare out the large windows of the compound in awe. Leia is grasping at the railing that trails along the open edge of the second floor, trying to get a better look, and her brother is just staring at the window at the grass of one of the training fields. It really isn't much but she's sure to them it must seem amazing.

Eventually Leia gives up trying to look over the railing, which makes Pepper feel relieved. It looked like a recipe for disaster. She turns to look down the hallway and sees Pepper watching them and Pepper swears that for a moment Leia's eyes quite literally sparkled. Then the small redhead turns to pull on the bottom of her brother's hoodie and seconds later they're hurrying to catch up with her.

She continues walking and stops rather abruptly in front of a door which results in the sound of stumbling reaching her ears, likely over their own bags, and it was definitely Peter.

"real smooth." Pepper hears a small voice whisper sarcastically behind her, followed by several giggles.

The blonde quickly puts another sequence of numbers into a hologram pin pad before the door swings open in front of them. She walks at a slightly slower pace into the room, motioning for the two siblings to follow.

"This is your room Peter," she smiles at the teen, lightly gesturing at the somewhat empty room. There's a bed and desk, but overall it still felt kind of empty due to the fact that most of the empty rooms at the compound had some weird futuristic clean aesthetic thing going on.

"You're next to Wanda, I think... There's an ensuite on the right and a walk-in closet to the left."

Pepper pauses for a moment, staring at the rather impersonal room, suddenly wishing she had bothered to call ahead and had it made a little more comfortable before they arrived

"If you want anything to make it feel a bit more personal and comfortable, it's your room. Feel free to ask Jarvis for anything you'd like, on us, of course," she smiles at the teen who is just staring quietly out the window once again.

Peter stares in awe as he walks slowly into the room. It was massive. He stumbles slightly as he places his bags haphazardly on the floor, walking towards the window. The view isn't much but there's a giant pool, a track for training, and a giant field used for god knows what. But it was nothing like he'd ever seen before.

"umm- I, umm, wow..."

Leia stares at her brother, still standing in the doorway, rolling her eyes slightly before she shuffles a bit further into the room and turns to Pepper.

"I think what my brother means to say is thank you. It's nice. really nice..." Leia interjects after her brother trails off, smiling at Pepper as she joins her older brother in front of the window.

"Right, yeah, yes, thank you, Miss Potts- erm, Pepper, I mean. But uh, what about- where's Leia going to be?" Peter stutters, turning around slightly to ask her the question.

Pepper smiles at them again, cute kids, awfully polite. Two weeks with Tony will be sure to rid them of that.

"Leia's going to be right next door." Pepper smiles reassuringly at Leia. She can sense that even though Leia was good at putting on an overconfident front, especially for her brother, she was still nervous.

"There's an adjoining door right there" she says, pointing to a door at the back left of the room. "But I'll show you through the hallway entrance since Jarvis needs to unlock it.

Peter nods, still staring out the window. He can now see what looked like a person, flying through the air, doing their best to capture something that's being thrown to them. Training drill, surely. The man on the ground who's throwing things pauses to take a breath and turns toward the window and waves

"Is that- is that captain rogers- I mean america or you know steve rogers?" Peter stumbles over his word, walking impossibly closer to the glass of the window.

Pepper walks closer to the window to get a better look.

"Yeah, looks like Steve and Sam are running from drills. They normally train from 2 to 5 everyday. There's a training schedule posted in the kitchen. You're welcome to join anyone for training, they're always happy to have new people to train with. And if you're an early morning person or a late night person Nat and Wanda are always looking for new people to spar with."

"I- really?"

Pepper smiles at him, nodding when he temporarily turns to look at her before going back to staring out the windows.

"You should join them!" Leia squeals, jumping up and down, her red hair flying everywhere.

Pepper laughs at Leia's enthusiasm. "You really should. From what I've heard, if I had to put money on who is more likely to be able to catch Steve's shield between you and Sam. I'd choose you."

"You should join them, like right now, that way you'll have a good bedtime story for me," Leia insists, grabbing her brother's hand and shooting him a look that can only really be accomplished with four year old charm.

"Are you sure?" Peter asks nervously, glancing from Leia to Pepper and then back to Leia again "Cause I can stay, at least until you see your room?"

Leia shakes her head. "nope, I'm good. I like Pepper, and I'll know where to find you. Or I can just ask Jarvis. Right?"

You are correct Miss Parker. And an exceptionally fast learner might I add.

"Thank you," Leia smiles, twirling around once again.

Pepper smiles at Leia, a fast learner indeed.

"She'll be okay. We're gonna have fun, right?"

"Yup, bye Pete!" Leia says, running out of the room.

"We'll see you later, Peter. And good luck. I'm sure you'll be great. And I'll let Steve and Sam know you'll be joining them shortly," Pepper says, squeezing his arm comfortingly before going to follow his sister out of the room.